Category: Food

National Night Out

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Last night we went to our neighboring town’s National Night Out event because I saw Pasatiempo BBQ was providing free pulled pork sandwiches at the event. I was super excited because we had them a couple of years back when they gave out the same sandwiches at a local business open house. They were amazing then, and amazing last night too.

National Night Out is an annual community-building campaign held on the first Tuesday in August (or the first Tuesday in October in some southern regions like Texas). It enhances the relationship between neighbors and law enforcement while promoting a true sense of community and local crime prevention awareness

We were shocked upon arriving at 5:30ish how packed it was. Even more so than the summer concerts held there which we’ve been attending on some Thursday nights. We had never been to this particular event so we were confused about where to get the food, so we had to ask the woman handing it out and she directed us to the police station’s tent where they give you a ticket.

After grabbing our food tickets we walked around the grounds to see what else was going on. There were booths from several local businesses including a rescue I’m familiar with. One of the women was holding the cutest little Yorkie whose name was Charlie. He immediately licked my hand when I approached. She explained how their fostering worked and that you could foster to adopt which is something I’m really interested in doing; I’m just not sure when.

They had four huge inflatable obstacle courses and bounce houses set up for the kids and a band playing music which switched to a DJ temporarily while the band members got something to eat. The weather, while hot, wasn’t bad, especially in the shade.

In addition to the pulled pork, they were giving out free hot dogs, pizza slices, water, and soda (I saw Signature Select cola and root beer). We grabbed a root beer, pulled pork sandwiches, and Cape Cod potato chips, then made our way over to a park bench in the shade to enjoy our meal. I had thought about bringing plates but decided they would probably provide those. Wrong! Technically there were some in the back of the car, but neither of us felt like walking back to get them so we balanced the foil-wrapped sandwiches on our laps. There wasn’t any sauce on the sandwiches, so Joe set out to find some. Apparently we had completely missed the condiment station! They didn’t have containers, so he got a slice of pizza since it came with a plate and then poured sauce on the plate for us to dip our sandwiches in.

This photo of the sandwich (prior to adding BBQ sauce) does not do it justice.

It was so incredibly flavorful, I wish I could share that taste with everyone.

A view from the less crowded area of the park we chose to sit down and enjoy our food.

As were were eating we started discussing the times the other towns around us were doing the same event. The one we were attending was from 5-9, our actual town’s was only 6-8, and another close by town was 5-8 at a park we’ve visited often.

So we came up with a funny idea – next year act like influencers and do a National Night Out challenge and hit up as many towns as possible to get free stuff (in addition to the free food and drinks they were also giving out little tchotchkes like chip clips, bracelets, keyrings, etc).

Oh, and for some reason they had someone flying an actual helicopter pass over the event twice rather low and turn on police sirens. Who knew the helicopters even had sirens? That was quite the sight, ahem, sound.

July 2026 Recap

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07/03-07/06 – 4th of July extended weekend recap

07/08 (Wed)
Our new neighbors to the east moved in. They were confused by the placement of the water hose. This happens every time someone moves in because the placement of the faucets is dumb and ours is right next to the neighbor’s patio door. They texted the property manager who in turn texted me for clarification. I answered quickly and also told the property manager they could feel free to share my number with the new neighbors in case they had any further questions. I’m perturbed by the fact that she never acknowledged my reply. Did she pass along my number? Who knows. She could have at least said thank you or even sent a thumbs up. Every day I am just amazed by how self-involved everyone is.

I also was thinking about the cartoon, O’Grady, we watched years ago and how much I miss it.

I’ve been searching online for a copy for years since it’s not available on DVD (which I’d happily pay for). I came across a Reddit post and learned it’s now on the Internet Archive for all. I promptly downloaded it. It’s making me so happy to be able to watch it again! It was really funny and deserved a longer run. H. Jon Benjamin (Bob of Bob’s Burgers) voices Kevin, one of the main characters.

07/11-07/12 – Weekend recap

07/15 (Wed)
I was watering our plants in the early morning when a mourning dove kept flying in, walking toward the water dish I keep out for the wildlife, and getting too spooked by my presence to take a drink. It even circled the nearby bush thinking surely she won’t be on both sides! At one point it got super close to me but changed its mind at the last second even though I was standing very still. The SECOND I went inside, it swooped in to get a drink. I could hear the familiar whistling of its wings before the door was even closed.

07/17 (Fri)
Sofi Tukker had a live stream on Twitch to celebrate the release of their latest single, Barthelona, which I am loving so much. The high energy nature of this song makes me happy every time I hear it.

My only complaint? It isn’t long enough. I need an extended remix, stat!

In the middle of preparing dinner our rice cooker decided to stop working so I had to finish cooking the rice on the stove. I was pretty perturbed until I realized we bought it in 2009, which makes it 17 years old. So the question now is do we replace it, and if so, with another rice cooker or one that doubles as a slow cooker? I can prepare the rice on the stove in the meantime so that we don’t rush into a decision. Plus if we can wait until the holidays they’ll likely be good deals on one.

07/18 (Sat)
Decided to go to Burlington and TJ Maxx in search of some new cookware. Well, the former didn’t even have a section for it anymore, and the latter didn’t have anything we liked. We also stopped by Barn Owl to look for something I could use as a bee watering station and struck out once more.

07/21 (Tue)
I did a little shopping on my own after getting some blood drawn. I browsed a cute store called Daiso and ended up picking up some Christmas gifts for the kids and making a mental note of some things I could get Joe as well. I liked a lot of the things I saw but didn’t really feel compelled to buy anything.

07/22 (Wed)
Spent a little time relaxing on the patio which I love to do when the weather permits. I saw baby bunny, as I like to call him. I also had a hummingbird come over and hover in front of my face twice within a short time. I always always assumed when they do that that they are either inspecting me or saying thank you for keeping the feeder filled. I googled it just now and that’s actually the consensus.

In the evening I kept hearing loud peeping noises when we were watching TV. I went over to the dining room to look outside and two newly fledged robins were standing by the patio door looking inside. Then one hopped closer to the edge of the patio and the other to the neighbor’s patio. They both were looking around and chirping. I assume waiting for mom to bring food.

07/23 (Thu)
The two Robin fledglings were back this morning, hopping behind mom while chirping at her incessantly while she hunted for food. They followed her all over the courtyard until disappearing out of earshot.

They came back later to take a bath and get a drink.

I made what is becoming one of my favorite dinners – Harvest Grain bowls.

It’s wild rice topped with sweet potatos and zucchini seasoned with garlic powder, smoked paprika, salt, and pepper (cooked in the air fryer) with some dried cranberries and feta cheese crumbles added at the end.

We attended a concert in the park and enjoyed it much better than last time now that we know a better place to sit.

07/24 (Fri)
We decided to take advantage of the cooler weather and visit the arboretum in the evening. We grabbed dinner from Jimmy Johns and ate it on the arboretum’s veranda. Joe fed a sparrow a bit of his bread. I brought my Canon point and shoot camera and got a few photos around the gardens by the visitor center.

Before leaving the Visitor Center, I went inside to claim my free chip clip and listened to the lady at the member desk explain membership perks to someone who was joining. She mentioned how busy it had been that day with people asking for the chip clip almost in a manner like she thought it was ridiculous. Then the lady joining asked if she could have one and she told her no because you had to receive the text the day prior to claiming one. Wow, talk about strict.

After that conversion I was next in line and said “well, I’m here for the chip clip” and the girl behind me said “me too!” LOL

This is what it looks like.

We have the same style of chip clips from when Joe used to work for Xfinity. In fact, we still use them and not a single one has broken because they are a better quality than the long plastic ones. They also have a magnet on the other side so they can live on the side of the refrigerator when not in use.

I got this quick shot of the trail by turtle pond before running back to the car to get away from the mosquitos.

They are the only thing I can’t stand about summer. Well, them and ticks, but the mosquitos are a bigger menace.

07/25 (Sat)
Two mourning dove fledglings decided to take up residence by the water hose so I was not able to water my flowers before we went out.

We visited K and her friend J came by too so we could all chat and have lunch together. We stopped at McDonald’s first to get some warm chocolate chip cookies which we do almost every time we visit.

Before J came by I gave K an early Christmas present so she could use it during Halloween season:

You can never have too many towels with dogs on them!

07/26 (Sun)
We hit up Dairy Queen to redeem a T-Mobile Tuesday offer. I got a Dilly Bar (still as good as I remember, albeit smaller) and a mini Biscoff Cookie Blizzard. The latter was good, but not quite as good as I remember.

07/27 (Mon)
I set up an insect watering station on the patio using a ceramic sunflower plate I remembered I had in the garage.

I’ve also been trying all the different Bubbl’r sparkling water flavors to see if any of them are as good as the Twisted Elix’r and finally hit the jackpot.

The Orange Dream Freez’r tastes like a bubbly melted orange creamsicle which kinda sounds gross but isn’t. I definitely plan to get more of that flavor in the future.

Later that morning we had one of the strongest, scariest storms in recent history. Between the high winds and golf ball sized hail, I was pretty scared. I hid in the downstairs bathroom with my bike helmet on when the tornado sirens started going off. When the hail was coming down it was so loud I messaged Joe (who was at work) that it sounded like it was putting holes in the roof. For a short time it sounded to me like the roof was going to cave in.

A panel of siding on the front of our unit was pulled up and there were roof shingles and tree branches littering the streets afterwards. We only lost power briefly during the storm (just long enough to reset the microwave clock), which was much better than others in our area. Some homes in our subdivision just mere blocks away ended up losing power for days.

Our internet did go down the following day for a good part of the day, but that was the worst of it for us. Even the patio umbrella and bee water station stayed put which was amazing to me because I peeked outside at different times and the trees were practically bending over from the wind. In the building perpendicular to ours someone’s very large grill was knocked over, as was someone’s patio furniture.

I later learned there was a tornado in a nearby town, but our town got something called straight line winds which can be just as powerful as a small tornado.

Our patio area after the storm:

07/30 (Thu)
Joe took off from work early to accompany me to my breast ultrasound. No issues, just a precaution. Afterwards we got Burger King for dinner but it wasn’t as good as last time. If I had to guess, I don’t think our local restaurant followed the “off the broiler” directions we selected because the burgers didn’t feel as hot as last time. We then attended another concert in the park.

07/31 (Fri)
Watched several acts at Lollapalooza via Hulu. Yungblud sounded good but The Smashing Pumpkins sounded distorted much of the time.

Notable media this month:

Over Your Dead Body – After watching and enjoying the film I went on IMDb to read the trivia like I enjoy doing only to learn it was a remake. Even worse, we watched the original, The Trip, less than five years ago and yet this premise didn’t ring a bell to me while watching. Is that normal to not remember such things?

Michael
I watched this while Joe was at work and I was eating a yummy Trader Joe’s Beef and Queso bowel.

I admit, I had my doubts about Michael Jackson’s intentions when he was hanging out with all those kids back in Neverland. But between Instagram Reels re-educating me, and this movie, which focuses on his life from childhood until he separated from his father musically, I feel we were all duped by the media who sought to paint him in such a horrible light. He was truly a kind, innocent soul who never fully grew up. Between showing how he was treated to just listening to the great music he wrote, I was brought to tears multiple times by this movie. I just feel so awful for him and what he went through and how his father ultimately is the reason he’s no longer with us. I’m sorry for thinking ill of him for so long. This is a lesson not to believe everything we’re told, especially by an industry who only cares about someone until they stop being profitable.

Running Point
This series completely flew under the radar until recently and luckily we found it, and binged it, before cancelling our Netflix subscription (more on that next month). Once again, something Mindy Kaling has touched has turned to gold. At this point I’m just going to stalk her IMDb profile and watch whatever she’s involved in since I always love it.

Scream 7 – Even though I thought “ANOTHER Scream movie, really?” I still put myself on the hold list at the library. This was one of the better ones, IMHO, and somehow Neve Campbell was a little less Neve Campbell (IYKYK) than usual. It didn’t hurt that the focus was more on her daughter and friends too.

June 2026 Recap

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06/02 (Tue)
Went for my first dental cleaning since October 2024. I was dragging my heels on my next cleaning in early 2025 and then I started having health issues so I wasn’t in a position to go. When I started feeling better this year I didn’t want to go until after getting a COVID booster, which I finally did in May. In any case, I love my hygienist and dentist; they’re both so kind, caring, and easy to talk to. I got the once every five years mega x-rays and despite the time elapsed, my teeth look great. I did keep up with flossing and brushing even when I was in the worst time of my life, so I’m sure that helped.

06/05 (Fri)
Joe had a colonoscopy and upper endoscopy. Afterwards we came home and I made us breakfast. Then in the afternoon we picked up Culver’s. Usually we just get kids meals, but this time we also added pretzel bites and a baked potato soup. The bites were soooo good, even better than I remembered; they have a hint of sweetness to them. The soup was awful, though. I was shocked since their broccoli cheddar and stuffed pepper soups are really good (or were, it’s been awhile since I last got them).

06/07 (Sun)
Took a walk around East Branch in the morning and then decided to check out 7-11’s breakfast options. Got a vanilla latte and a waffle breakfast sandwich. First off, why did the guy attempt to charge us full price for the sandwich even after we confirmed we could get the free latte with a reward and still qualify for the discounted price for those with the 7-11 app? If you ask me, I think they try to see what they can get away with. He managed to fix it when we pointed out the discrepancy. How many people don’t notice? I won’t be going back there because I think they are shady. As for the actual drink and food, I was not impressed with the flavor of either. For the price I’d rather give in and get McDonald’s.

Lou Malnati’s was running a BOGO special on their medium pizzas so for a late lunch we got a deep dish cheese and Mike’s Hot Honey thin crust.

Both were delicious, as always. They ended up feeding us for dinner on Mon and Tue too so that’s a great value for $25.

06/12 (Fri)
Ran to Aldi and Costco by myself. Right before I left I realize I don’t carry a debit card (to pay at Costco), only Joe does. Luckily I remembered I could pay cash, but couldn’t use the self-checkout. I ended up grabbing a variety pack of chips in addition to the rotisserie chicken I went there for so I had both hands full when I arrived at the Costco check-out area. There were three lines and everyone seemed to be in the closest one, so I went to the furthest one that only had two people. A guy with the big pallet of items in front of me let me go ahead of him after he confirmed, twice, that I only had two, as if he thought someone else would creep up with a cart out of nowhere. Maybe someone did that to him before.

06/13-06/14 – Weekend recap

06/15 (Mon)
When Joe got off work we grabbed a healthy (lol) dinner from Burger King* and took it to Cantigny where they have a plethora of picnic tables. There were many people also taking advantage of the nice weather and grilling/picnicking at the park. And there were no leaf blowers for once!

In addition to the beautiful scenery, we got to see dogs! It just so happened to be Paws in the Park day which is every Monday from March through October. Talk about a wonderful evening!

* We haven’t had BK in a hot minute and I enjoyed their double cheeseburger and fries way more than I expected. It might have had something to do with the ability to select “off the broiler” in the app so the burger was guaranteed fresh.

06/18 (Thu)
We spotted a tiny cute bunny hanging around the patio recently and today we noticed all the zinnias have been eaten, but not fully, so hopefully they will recover. I put more fencing around the area to keep Mr. Cottontail from a repeat feast.

He needs to go next door and eat the neighbor’s large plot of mint instead (which he did, in fact, do a few days later).

06/19-06/21 – Extended weekend recap

06/23 (Tue)
I went to Great Clips for a haircut as soon as they opened and had the least friendly hairdresser I’ve ever encountered. He was very curt, bordering on mean, and didn’t make any conversation with me whatsoever. He didn’t even ask me to move my head, he just pushed it around like I wasn’t a person. It literally made me feel like crying.

When I came home I went on a walk to try and relax and a guy’s two unleashed black labs came running out of his garage (that he had opened after I had already walked past) and were jumping all over me. I’m glad they were friendly, but this is why there are leash laws! What if I was a small child?

Needless to say my nervous system remained on high alert after these encounters. Joe jokingly suggested that I need to avoid Asian men because the guy with the dog was Asian, as was the hair dresser, and the creepy guy at the library last week. What are the odds?

06/24 (Wed)
I had to run some errands and ended up walking around Target for an hour just browsing which is something I don’t do much these days. But it was nice and empty customer-wise. There were a lot of employees, however, and all of them were so friendly – many of them asked if they could help me. I found some awesome gifts for the kids that just so happened to be on clearance and cost 70% less than usual so that was cool since I planned on buying them regardless.

06/25 (Thu)
We had Popeyes chicken sandwiches for dinner before going to Carol Stream’s concert in the park. I’m glad we did that because it seemed like 2 of the 3 food trucks they said were be there didn’t show up.

We purposely got there late so we could sit in the back and off to the side.

We thought this was a safe place to be. We were wrong. Unfortunately that is where all these boys were running amuck and throwing a football which sailed over our heads and near us multiple times. I was legitimately worried I was going to get hit in the head, and it’s not like it was a soft Nerf football either.

We kept moving to different areas but it seemed like there was no getting away from them since they were taking up so much space with their football game. A couple with their baby angrily left due to their shenanigans, and it irked me that none of the police standing right there witnessing this said a word. Even if they just made the kids stay further back away from where people were sitting that would have been good enough. Shame on all their parents. They were probably way up front enjoying the concert while their brats disturbed other people instead of them. We never behaved like that when we were kids.

It wasn’t until about 3/4 of the way through the concert we discovered a quiet area more off to the side of the stage were no one else was sitting.

This will be our spot at the next concert. Even though it’s closer to the stage than I wanted to be, they don’t play overly loud so I don’t have to worry about my ears.

06/27 (Sat)
We stopped at Jewel to get some Bubblr since they sell them individually and I wanted to try some of their flavors. I had no idea they had 13 of them!

I picked up Wild Cherry Chill’r & Peach Raspberry Dazzl’r (spoiler alert: they sucked). There are plenty more to try in time, though. So far I only like Twisted Elix’r.

We also stopped at a local coffee shop to get a latte before heading to the Swedish Days festival in Geneva.

We usually go around 11 or so, but decided to get there early (around 8:30 am) so we could partake in the Lutheran Church pancake breakfast since it’s usually sold out by the time we arrive. It comes with two swedish pancakes (plain, lingonberry, or cinnamon sugar), two sausages, and your choice of coffee or apple juice. I got two cinnamon sugar pancakes which was a mistake since they were way too sweet. I have to remember to get plain in the future and put a little syrup on it (I hate lingonberry).

We ended up sharing a table with a young woman, her baby, and either her brothers or her brother and his partner. It wasn’t clear based on some of the info they shared with us, but they were all very nice. I love friendly people! At one point the woman picked a daddy longlegs off my back haha.

The downside to getting there so early was there wasn’t much to do since everyone sets up closer to 10 am. It was blowing our minds that many of the shops wouldn’t open early for that particular weekend to take advantage of the increased traffic. There was a coffee shop that wasn’t even open!

We did a lot of walking while it got increasingly warm and saw this cool mural:

We eventually left and went to Kiss The Sky (record shop) and then the Batavia Farmer’s Market. Apparently they pack things up at noon, though, and we arrived shortly before that so that was a quick and unproductive visit. We then went to Ollie’s where I got a rainbow pinwheel to replace the one that disappeared last year (I suspect it was stolen). Then we grabbed food from Just Kabobs and went home.

Around 8ish we were watching TV and a firecracker blew off right near our window. It was so loud it made me jump. I ran outside to see who could have done it but it must have been around the corner and traveled over a building to get by us.

06/29 (Mon)
I got an email from Disney+ that says “We noticed that you have more than one subscription associated with this email address. If you take no action, you may continue to be charged for all subscriptions.” As far as I can tell this is not true. We have Hulu free via T-Mobile and pay Disney+ $1 to add it to the free Hulu.

I wonder if T-Mobile is messing around with something because on the same day Joe got a text from T-Mobile saying they are removing the $10 kickback given to anyone who stayed below 2 GB every month.

Lately I’m the only one who was getting it, but now I won’t so our already expensive T-Mobile bill will be going up to $178 per month because they also raised our portion of Netflix from $11 to $13. Just last year we were closer to $150 monthly. I am done with them. I did an analysis and even if we pay Netflix $19.99 and Hulu $12.99 directly we’d save $75+ every month by moving our lines to Tello so we are probably going to do that next month.

Notable media this month:

Hoppers – Pixar movies are always full of laughter and tears. This was no exception. I love animals so I especially loved it.

Project Hail Mary – Was the book better? Absolutely. Was the movie adaptation better than I expected? Yes, especially because I don’t love Ryan Gosling for a reason I cannot explain.

As a side note, we finally watched La La Land this month and my instincts were accurate – we hated it. So much so about 1/3 of the way through I read how it ended and then fast forwarded so we could see the last few scenes. I don’t get the hype.

The Sex Lives of College Girls

I discovered this series this month and promptly binge-watched it all. I can’t believe Reneé Rapp left the show to pursue music. Good for her, but bad for us as she is such a good actress! Her departure might even be why the series didn’t get picked up for a fourth season since it felt a little flat after she left.

Extended Weekend Recap (06/19-06/21)

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Friday (06/19) Joe took a half day from work so we ran some errands, including a stop at Costco. We tried the new strawberry shortcake sundae to tide us over for a few hours before going out for a late lunch.

It has been years since we’ve eaten at Village Tavern Bar & Grill because I think their prices are rather high, plus I don’t like how dark it is inside. Joe wanted to have the fish fry and I realized they have a patio, so I said lets do it. I had a coupon for a free appetizer so we got the cheese quesadilla and I got the BLT which was not the best because of the mayo they use. I should have gotten a photo of the quesadilla because I would order that as my meal next time, that’s how good it was. They put pico de gallo inside and also give you a very generous helping of sour cream and guacamole.

The weather was perfect and we really enjoyed ourselves. I even had a little alcohol which is unusual for me. We split this flavored vodka.

Saturday (06/20) morning we hit up a community yard sale and headed to downtown Glen Ellyn to look for some food. We drove around a bit but couldn’t find anything appealing. I took to Yelp and found a place in a different area called Paris Baguette and decided to check it out. Upon entering I was thinking the case of pastries looked really familiar. I even remarked to Joe, “these look like those pastry cases we saw at H Mart” (spoiler alert, that’s because they were). We got a few pastries and a Korean Milk Iced Coffee which we took to Panfish Park.

They were so good! Definitely will be back especially because they open early and are on the way to the arboretum.

After eating, we took a walk around the park. A guy passing us in the opposite direction said “hi hi hi”. We both said hi back and he replied, “assholes, you’re assholes” or something like that. Joe called over his shoulder, “Huh? We said hi back”, as we walked away.

I’m not sure what the deal was with that guy, but if I had to guess based on his behavior, he might have Tourette Syndrome. I noticed he was wearing headphones, so I guess it’s possible he just couldn’t hear us, but either way I think something was going on with him. As we were leaving the park we could see him near the same section of the path as if he was simply walking back and forth looking for more people to call assholes. After the initial shock of being called an asshole for no reason, it was pretty funny.

In the afternoon I visited my neighbor and her adorable dog briefly before watching The Cure’s livestream at the PinkPop festival in The Netherlands.

They played so many good songs for two hours, including A Forest followed by From The Edge of the Deep Green Sea.

I’m so thankful they chose to air it live. The only thing that would have made it better was if they aired Sofi Tukker’s earlier performance at the same festival. Yeah, that’s right, Sofi Tukker and The Cure were at the same festival on the same day. Talk about a dream event!

The next door neighbor’s daughter had friends over in the evening and they were blasting music and carrying on. Her parents were working which is the only time she does stuff like that I’ve noticed. Apparently at some point they were on the roof running past our front windows at like 2 am. Joe was so pissed off and yelled at one of the guys to get off the roof immediately, which he did. Can’t believe people in their twenties act like that!

Sunday (06/21) was a pretty low key day. We left the house to get groceries from Aldi in the morning and KFC in the afternoon because we had a T-Mobile deal.

I learned why we never go to KFC even though they have a location extremely close to us.

Their food is only good IF you get a fresh batch like Joe did. I got the bottom of the barrel. It’s wild to me they’d see two orders come in with the same last name and still give completely different chicken nuggets and wedges, as if we couldn’t see the obvious difference between them.

They also gave us sauces based on what I had selected in my mobile order instead of giving Joe the sauces he actually ordered (which were completely different from mine).

And something is wrong with their app – it cuts whole sentences off. Whomever they hired forgot to add code for word wrapping to accommodate different sized screens. So dumb.

What a bummer, especially because I love their wedges (when they aren’t hours old) and Wendy’s stopped offering breakfast around here so they don’t have the delicious potato wedges anymore.

Weekend Recap (06/13-06/14)

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Saturday (06/13) we hit up the Wheaton French Market before 8 am so we could get in line for the Cooperage coffee booth right away. We tried their vanilla iced latte and now it makes sense why they have a mile-long line within a few minutes of opening – it’s delicious!

We grabbed some pastries and people-watched for a long while before walking around a bit of the downtown area. We discovered they have an entire block cordoned off with a row of tents with seating for all the restaurants on that block. I found out they keep it up all summer and into early October, so I added that to my list of things I want to do this summer on a nice day – breakfast one weekend and dinner on another.

Once we got home I prepped lunch (chicken salad) in preparation for Joe’s son and girlfriend who were arriving within an hour. We don’t get to see them often enough because he works long hours which really sucks because they’re both such a pleasure to be around.

We exchanged our long overdue Christmas gifts. We gave E money and a little 3D printed Pokémon (Charmander) who looks like he’s made of yarn. I felt bad we didn’t get anything specifically for his girlfriend so that will be changing this year. And hopefully we can see them closer to the holiday too since it’s been years since that has happened.

In any case, these are the thoughtful gifts he gave us:

E has been adding to my Cure vinyl collection for years now. The latest is The Top picture disc. And he’s also our personal UNO game dealer; I’m excited to try the Uno Flip Attack. They couldn’t stay long enough to play any games, unfortunately.

Sunday (06/14) we rested from all the people-ing on Saturday. If you’re an introvert then you understand.