Category: Photos

Fall Decor

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I’ve got autumn fever! As soon as September hits I’m ready for the fall decorations and festivals. This morning I hauled my butt out of bed after enduring three crazy-ass dreams, each more progressively bizarre and scary than the last, to do some shopping. In two and a half hours I hit these stores, in this order:

Hobby Lobby
Michael’s
Jo-Ann Fabrics
Home Goods
Five Below
Dollar Tree
Target

And this was the end result of my “haul”:

Fall Decor

Hobby Lobby had the best fall selection by far, but they were also the most expensive. And just because they had the most doesn’t mean it was the best. I was rather unimpressed, but check out the quantity of just one aisle (I believe they had three total, although that was between both fall and Halloween).

20150904_143913990_iOS

Michael’s is where I dropped the bulk of my money, which isn’t saying much because – spoiler alert – I only spent $20.05 total on my shopping “spree”. Anyway, I got the wall clings, which were 50% off, for $2.50 and each orange mum bunch was $4.14 before my 20% off coupon. I also spotted a cute Harvest sign at Michael’s that I was tempted to get but it was $12 which would be $7.20 with my 40% off coupon, but I wasn’t sure what else I might find so I took a picture so I can go back if I don’t find a cute sign elsewhere.

Jo-Ann Fabric’s selection was pathetic so I left empty-handed, and I only went inside Home Goods to score 150 walk-in points from my Shopkick app. They did have some cute Halloween metal houses at Home Goods but there was no way I was dropping $30 on one! Five Below had absolutely no holiday decor at all. I guess it’s too early for them.

I spent almost all of the rest of my money at Dollar Tree – basically all the stuff on the left of the photo except the two Halloween pumpkin tins which were $1 each at Target in their One Spot section. I hadn’t planned on getting any Halloween stuff today because I really don’t need any (but I sure do love it) and I’d like to focus on fall decor first, but I figured I’d better grab them now before the selection was picked over. Target doesn’t seem to sell any fall decor, at least not in their seasonal section, although they are already stocking Halloween candy and treats. I’m sure at some point they will add Halloween decor where the current back to school stuff resides, but I have a feeling it will be pretty disappointing like most years. They used to do whole themes which I loved. In 2008 it was Domo and in 2009 it was Skelanimals, but they haven’t done anything exciting in years.

I still want to check Old Time Pottery to see what they have but that will be on Monday when we *gasp* go test-driving cars. I’m not quite ready to buy yet, but I want to see what my options are since I’m not 100% sold on getting the Ford Focus 5-door, which was the car I liked the most out of my extensive test-driving back in 2012. This time around I’m looking at Mazda and Subaru. They’re a little pricier than the Ford but there’s a good chance I’ll have my next car at least ten years, if not fifteen like my Jetta, so I might as well get something I love.

Nature Weekend

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Our weekend centered around nature activities which is always right up my alley.

Saturday we visited the Chicago Botanic Garden and saw the famous Corpse Flower that’s been in the news lately. It wasn’t our reason for visiting, actually, but still pretty cool to see. Our favorite sighting, however, was a ruby-throated hummingbird hanging out in the gardens when you first enter. There were two hanging out when we first arrived and we spotted another one two hours later when we were leaving. I wish I had remembered my 250mm lens but the picture I got wasn’t too bad considering I only had the 135mm.

Some of my favorite photos from our visit:

Butterfly

Windswept

Sunlit

Saturday evening we visited my parents and played our newest game – Exploding Kittens. It was quite fun! We also played Cards Against Humanity with Joe’s homemade cards. Brother # 1 ended up staying up until the wee hours of the morning coming up with more ideas for all the blank cards we still have. I got an email at 3:18 am with a huge list. He’s funny.

Sunday we did some grocery shopping in the morning since it was overcast and rainy. That cleared up around noon so we headed to Morton Arboretum and drove around. I remembered my 250mm lens this time and captured what I believe is a white-breasted nuthatch.

White-Breasted Nuthatch

Monday I met up with a friend at Cosley Zoo so I could give her some LEGOs and playdoh stuff for her kids. I figured why not give it to someone who will make use of it. It’s not like we’re going to play with it anymore. I held onto the playdoh too long as it was and the majority of it dried up but there were a few cans that were still good, plus a ton of accessories to shape the playdoh. It was hard parting with it because I have such fond playdoh memories but we haven’t played with it for over five years so there was no sense in letting it continue to take up space in the closet. Plus it freed up a plastic storage tote that I can re-purpose.

Anyway, I met her two children who are super adorable and pretty well-behaved for being a year and a half and four years old. The four year old, C, was NOT happy when we were ready to leave, however. He cried all the way back to the car. Poor guy. It was nice to catch up with her and meet her kids. I wish we could hang out more often but she’s so busy with family stuff, plus she lives about an hour away so the timing never seems to line up. I’m hoping she and her husband can make another game night. I’d like to have one sometime in October I think. Gotta unleash Exploding Kittens on more people!

Oak Park Conservatory

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Purple Flower

Saturday we decided to visit the Oak Park Conservatory because we were too lazy to get up early and go somewhere further from home. When we arrived they were working outside on the building – it turns out they are adding landscaping plus a new outside garden. From what I’ve read the project was supposed to be done in May but it looks like it just began so I’m guessing we’ll see the end result next year.

The conservatory is pretty small so we were there under an hour but it was fun to use my SLR again. Plus I love the parrots, turtles, and koi that call the building home.

While driving around Oak Park for a bit I spotted a building that looked suspiciously like the Marshall Fields in the Loop until changing to Macy’s. After a quick Google search I learned it was in fact a Fields for many years before going out of business. I have a good architectural eye I guess; Joe was impressed, anyway.

After we drove around Oak Park for a bit we had lunch at Penny’s Noodle Shop. I first fell in love with Pad Se Ew at their Chicago location on Diversey about twenty years ago (although I didn’t know what it was called at the time). Unfortunately it isn’t as good as I remembered. I’m not sure if that’s because I had an inexperienced Asian palate at the time or the food has changed. In any case, their Pad Thai, which Joe ordered, was quite good, so I’d probably get that if we ever dined there again (although I doubt we’d bother).

Too Much Death

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An aunt passed away this week and her wake/funeral was on Friday. In case anyone is keeping track, that’s four deaths in less than a year – uncle, aunt, friend, aunt. Is this what I have to look forward to as I grow older – more and more people I know shuffling off this mortal coil? It’s depressing.

The wake was held at a funeral home in Frankfort and my aunt was buried in Chicago, so that made for an hour long funeral procession. I’ve never been in such a time-consuming procession before and it made me nervous, especially since some of the public weren’t paying attention and almost hit a few cars that were continuing through the red lights as one typically does in a funeral procession.

There were more than few bizarre things that happened during this event:

1) The more I reflect on the pastor’s eulogy, the more I dislike the guy. He spoke about how everyone is going to die some day (thanks, bud, I already have a massive fear of dying and do not need any further reminders) but that our spirits will live on in heaven. He also made a big to do about how we shouldn’t forget about my uncle since he has many lonely nights ahead of him, which is true, but insensitive. In addition, the pastor said he just couldn’t imagine losing his wife of 45 years. Uh, rubbing it in much?!?! Nothing this man said was any solace to me, but maybe it helped others. I just don’t buy the whole concept that our spirits live on forever, and I was raised Catholic! All of it rings false to me. Trust me, I would love it if I could get on board with the idea because it would certainly ease my mind about not existing one day. Unfortunately, I think once you die that’s it; you go back to nothing, spiritually and physically. It will be great if it turns out I’m wrong and God doesn’t hold a grudge against me for not believing, though.

2) At the grave site, while the pastor was saying some final words, my uncle was casually leaning against my aunt’s casket with one hand.

3) After the service, as we were leaving the cemetery, I saw my uncle standing by his limo drinking a beer.

4) The place where the luncheon was held had a dove aviary in the front of the building. It was so odd. But what was funny is that I was one of the few, if not only, people who even noticed it immediately as we walked toward the banquet room. Most people didn’t notice it until leaving the restaurant.

Dove Aviary

I don’t know what any of my uncle’s behavior means, or if it even means anything; people grieve in strange ways. He was married to my aunt for 35+ years (his third marriage) but I have no idea what their relationship was like. I rarely spoke to her because we usually saw my uncle at my grandparents’ or parents’ house and he never brought her along. Her heart belonged to animals, not people, from what I knew of her – she worked at a humane society and they had the equivalent of a zoo in their homes. It only grew larger once they moved to their most recent home which had a ton of acreage and a barn. I’ve heard stories about the number of animals living on their property but the last time we were invited over was literally a decade ago, so I don’t know much other than what my cousin has mentioned. Maybe my uncle is one of those people who has a hard time expressing his true feelings. He has always been known as the one who cracks jokes so who knows.

Anyway, it was just a weird day. It was nice to see certain family members but I wish it was under better circumstances.

Staycation Days 1-6

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Staycation Day 1 (Friday July 17)
Cleaned the house, basically, while Joe was at work.

Staycation Day 2 (Saturday July 18)
Joe and I hit the local theater in our mall to see a matinee of Trainwreck starring Amy Schumer & Bill Hader. While it was a bit long for a comedy (2 hours), I thought it was pretty good. Afterwards we headed to a different mall so I could check JCPenney for jeans and swimwear, but first we stopped at a place called Moochies for lunch. It wasn’t all that, although their greek fries, covered in feta, were very good. Our mall shopping trip was a complete bust and we left empty-handed. UPS delivered my new camera while we were out so I charged the battery and set up wifi & ability to transfer photos from the camera to my iPhone which will make posting to social media on our vacation possible. Technically you can post from the camera directly to Facebook and YouTube but it’s cumbersome trying to type out a caption.

Staycation Day 3 (Sunday July 19)
We visited Cosley zoo in the morning to test my new camera.

Fox

It’s pretty decent. It’s really hard not to compare it to the results I could get from my SLR which isn’t fair to a point and shoot model. Pros: zoom is magnificent, shutter speed is impressive, and you can shoot HD video in any camera mode which is a plus. Cons: battery life is crap, there are limited aperture settings so you don’t get that lovely blurred background, and the camera kept changing the exposure on me (although I’ve since learned by reading the manual how to lock that moving forward).

After the zoo we went to Walmart for a few things and bought this cute beach bag for $5.

Beach Bag

It will come in handy on our day trip to Indiana Beach.

We also decided to grab Chipotle for lunch. Normally we eat there but it was rather busy so we decided to take it home. That turned out to be a good thing since five minutes after getting home E was dropped off by his mom (he’s supposed to text Joe when he’s on his way, but he didn’t do that until he was more than halfway to the house and we had zero idea what time she was planning on dropping him off). Since he hadn’t eaten lunch, he made himself a sandwich and we had grilled hamburgers for dinner.

Staycation Day 4 (Monday July 20)
We headed to the mall to see Inside Out. Was I the only one who balled their eyes out during this movie? Damn Pixar really pulls at one’s heartstrings! It was a great movie, as most Pixar films are. After the movie we went to Round1 to play ping-pong for an hour. It was only $5.25 which was even less than the pricing on their website. I’m so out of shape because my calves were sore the next day. We had Portillo’s for lunch and I made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner.

Staycation Day 5 (Tuesday July 21)
The boys wanted to see a Milwaukee Brewers game so I purchased tickets on Stubhub Monday evening for a Tuesday night game. We decided to head up to Milwaukee at noon (arriving at 2 pm) to visit their zoo first.

I was originally going to bring my SLR but didn’t relish the idea of carrying my camera and lenses into Miller Park, or leaving them in the car, so I decided to bring my new camera instead. It performed pretty well, although, like always, it was a disappointment compared to my SLR (do I sound like a broken record or what). That being said, one cool feature is that you can change the aspect ratio of the photos. I’ve gotten so used to my SLR 3:2 ratio that I was thrilled to learn I can do the same on the new camera, even though I do give up two megapixels to do so, effectively changing my 16mp camera to a 14mp one.

I also tested the new crossbody bag I purchased from ebags earlier in the week. I do like it, although I find it a bit uncomforable to wear across my chest due to how thick and unpadded the strap is. I swear, I cannot find the perfect bag. This one gets so close other than the strap. It is a good size, although a bit heavy even when empty.

Getting to the zoo at 2 pm was quite odd. We’re used to getting there when they first open and leaving around noon. The parking lot was full, but not overflowing, and most of the exhibits were not that busy so it was nice. The only downside to arriving so late is the ridiculous amount of fingerprints on all the exhibit glass. I couldn’t find a smudge-free spot in order to get a shot of the lions. By the time we made it to the Great Apes most of them were nowhere to be found. The exhibit buildings close at 4:45 pm but it seems like they take the animals off exhibit closer to 4:30 unless there was some other reason all the gorillas were MIA.

Giraffe

My camera’s battery died just before we were done seeing everything so I’m definitely going to need to buy a spare battery for our trip to Disney. I hope two batteries will be sufficient for a full day of fun. I don’t plan on hiding behind the camera the entire trip but it would be pretty fun to put together a nice video montage of the parks.

Staycation Day 6 (Wednesday July 22)
We originally planned to visit the arboretum to check out the new LEGO exhibit and then get lunch from our favorite BBQ place, Smoque, but E was not feeling well. His sinuses have been bothering him since Sunday and today his throat was hurting too, so Joe took him to immediate care. He tested negative for strep throat but was diagnosed with a sinus infection. He’s allergic to all but the strongest antibiotics which they didn’t think he should use for just a sinus infection, so he basically has to treat the symptoms and let the infection run its course. He’s taking Pseudoephedrine and Flonase and resting. We suggested pushing back our Indiana Beach trip to Friday but he really wants to still go tomorrow so we’ll see if that ends up working out.