Pool Party of 3

Our friend D invited us over to swim in her pool yesterday since she had the day off work, so of course it was the coolest day we’ve had in a long time. Luckily the sun did come out shortly after we arrived (3:30) and the water was very warm thanks to her heater, so we were able to get some swimming in before dinner. It’s been over two years since I last went swimming and I missed it so much! I wish we had our own pool.

I really don’t like going to our community pool, however, for a few reasons:

1) Covid

2) We have many more kids in the neighborhood now than we did two years ago

3) The heater has been broken pretty much since the pool opened Memorial Day weekend and they don’t seem to be in a hurry to fix it, despite them collecting fees for the pool last year and paying the pool company even though it never opened due to the pandemic.

At this point I would be ok with them closing it and reducing our association fees. They could turn that area into a small dog park or community garden.

Anyway, I enjoyed a cheeseburger, Joe had a brat, and we shared corn on the cob and a pork skewer. We brought watermelon and homemade Doubletree cookies* and fixings to make the Key Lime Pie Drink I wrote about on Father’s Day.

We stayed until almost 9:30 just relaxing and chatting. The nice thing is she lives very close so we were home in five minutes.

Wookie was not happy with us – she was yipping like crazy. I felt like she was scolding us for being gone so long. I think she has a touch of separation anxiety because unlike when we were gone for work (back when we had jobs), she doesn’t sleep while we’re away from the house. Every time I checked the cameras she was lying down, but in observation mode.

Once she calmed down I fed her and then she went to sleep. I took a shower to get the chlorine and firepit smell out of my skin and hair (later in the evening my friend’s daughter had friends over and they lit the fire) and then spent the next three hours decompressing before being able to go to sleep. Taking it easy today since I have an introvert hangover.

* When I first tried that recipe I wasn’t fully convinced I liked it, but unlike my famous oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, the cookie dough freezes quite nicely so we can bake a few cookies at a time. I whipped up a new batch on Tuesday and ended up with 34 cookie dough balls, 12 of which I baked yesterday morning, so we have 22 left in the freezer for when a craving strikes.

May Wrap-Up

Happy Memorial Day? I dunno, does that sound weird considering what it represents?

Abandoned Golf Course

In any case, we started our day with a bike ride at an abandoned golf course and I once again was reminded that I’m not in that great of shape even though I walk on my treadmill multiple times a week (more days than not lately). I always think biking is going to be fun until I hit that first incline and then I’m guessing whose bright idea that was. Needless to say, we made it around one lap (approximately 15 minutes) and came back home. Definitely need to stick to flatter terrain like the park we sometimes take Wookie to for walks.

Memorial Day Lunch

I wish it was just a little warmer out today. It’s overcast (but not rainy) and in the 60’s which would be fine if we had some sunshine. But it wasn’t meant to be. We made some hot dogs for lunch and watched Sofi Tukker on their last scheduled live DJ set. They won’t be able to commit to a schedule now that they’re vaccinated and doing shows in real life. I’m sad that I won’t be able to count on seeing them weekly, or in person since they play either clubs (too loud indoors for my ears) or festivals (very expensive and unappealing). Oh well. I am looking forward to their new album which I suspect is being released very soon. Plus I’ve discovered a lot of other DJs on Twitch to listen to, some of which seem to have similar tastes to SF.

Oh, speaking of DJs, Moby did a live set right after Sofi Tukker the other night and I was so excited, but then let down. It was rather boring. Plus I’ve read some not so nice things about Moby so while I like some of his music he isn’t as appealing as he used to be.

In other music news, I don’t think I wrote about the Cure t-shirt I bought (online) back in March!

New Cure T-Shirt

A fan made it to commemorate the weekly Cure watch parties we’ve gathered to watch on Twitch. It’s my official 2020 concert t-shirt and not only is the design awesome (anything Wish-inspired always is), but it’s very soft and fits nicely, unlike pretty much all of my Cure shirts. Most of them were made with thick stiff cotton shirts that do not fit well (either too small or too large). I’m wearing the shirt today, in fact, since the colors seem fitting. I painted my nails red, white, blue (with a glitter overlay) too. I’m so fashionable!

Excursions & Food Stuff

Earlier this month we went to Lilacia Park in Lombard to check out the lilacs and tulips. I’m not going to bother posting any photos from that little trip because we missed peak bloom thanks to the rainy weather the week before so nothing was looking it’s best. It was nice walking around outside, however. Plus afterwards we stopped at the new The Original Rainbow Cone location for a treat.

Rainbow Cone

(This is what was left of my cone by the time I realized I should get a picture)

I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about five flavors (orange sherbet, pistachio, palmer house, strawberry, and chocolate) of ice cream in one cone but I was pleasantly surprised – it was delicious! One thing I would change, though, is the size of the cone I got. I tried the baby one but for just $1.12 more you get a lot more ice cream in the small size. I’d definitely skip the baby size and go straight to the small. Or even better, I’d be tempted to buy a quart (currently priced at $12.49) and get some cones from the grocery store.

After earning TWO free drink coupons from Dunkin, I decided to try their new peach lemonade refresher yesterday and I won’t be getting that again.

DD Peach Lemonade

It smelled weird, like a tomato plant. I later realized that was the green tea which I forgot was in it. I’m bummed; I wanted to find a more affordable replacement for Starbucks’ shaken tea lemonade but unfortunately that was not it. So far other than the regular iced coffee, I do not like Dunkin’s drinks. Probably for the best since there is 320 calories in the large lemonade (32 oz). Interestingly enough, Starbuck’s trenta (large) is only 170 calories. I might have to treat myself to one at least once this summer. I have yet to try the peach.

Since Culver’s was across the street from Dunkin I snagged an order of their pretzel bites (a now permanent addition to their menu) and then we headed to the food truck near Walmart to snag a couple of corn dogs. We brought everything home and ate out on the patio. Those pretzel bites are sooo good! I’m glad they are $4.19 because otherwise I’d be ordering them far more often than I should.

I’m back up to 138 lbs btw. Shocking with all the eating I’ve been doing, right? I think I tend to top off at 140 lbs, or at least I hope so! I’ve actually been cutting back a bit. For instance, after all that food at lunch I had a very light dinner several hours later.

Retail Therapy & Shopping

We recently went to At Home to look for new folding patio chairs but didn’t have any luck. We also stopped at Bath & Body Works since I have a $5 gift card to spend but I didn’t see anything I wanted. Then a few days ago we went to Target for a few groceries and I had zero desire to even look at their Bullseye Playground section. I think this pandemic has soured me on shopping for the fun of it. It’s completely lost it’s appeal. I’ve moved into get what you need and get out territory.

That being said, we did go to Savers last Monday so I could look for a plain black t-shirt. I didn’t find one, but I did find two tank tops that cost under $4 total. Luckily they fit perfectly since the dressing rooms are still closed and they don’t offer refunds, only exchanges. The next day at Walmart I found a pair of capri leggings that would go perfectly with a grey tank top I had gotten at Savers a year or two ago. I love when that happens! I also snagged a vibrant pair of bike shorts that will be perfect for when I walk on the treadmill.

New Clothes

As I was photographing my new finds I realized the bike shorts have a pocket in them that is actually large enough for my iPhone. Not that I need it, but I’m sure it would come in handy for a lot of people. Oh, and when I was trying on my Savers tank tops at home Joe pointed out the black one still had the original Old Navy tag on it. Sweet! I got a brand new tank for $2.25.

So I guess you could say while I’m not about shopping much, I am not going to pass up getting a few new clothing pieces occasionally.

Misc Stuff

The other day my computer started installing updates and then stopped because I had ran out of space. You see, my computer has a solid state drive with a small capacity (250 GB). I have all my actual files on a regular hard drive, but unfortunately Apple is a bitch about installing iTunes anywhere but the main drive. While the actual MP3s are on that secondary drive, when iTunes backs up my phone it puts the backup on the main drive. My phone has a 256 GB capacity, and while it’s not full, it’s just a little under half full. You see where this is going, right? If I could just easily direct the backup elsewhere I would be ok, but it doesn’t seem to be that easy. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it requires messing with settings I’m not comfortable with. Plus these days my brain just doesn’t seem to be at the level it was pre-2019 sickness. Seriously, I have trouble with words sometimes and in general I feel like my processor is slow. Oh well. So Joe installed a new SSD today with twice the amount of space. All is right again with the world.

Food Stuff

Dunkin Butter Pecan
I like to try the new flavor swirls Dunkin comes out with periodically, and the most recent was butter pecan.

Dunkin Butter Pecan

It was ok, but my favorite is still french vanilla. An interesting thing I noticed, however, is that the ratio of coffee to swirls seems off for the small and medium sizes. Unless I know for certain I like the flavor, I prefer to get the smallest size possible in case I don’t like the drink, but they make that impossible. I got a small once when trying the irish creme and it didn’t taste like anything at all! I complained to corporate and they threw enough points on my account to get a free drink, so I got a large and it was great! I got a medium yesterday to try the butter pecan, and while I could taste the flavor, it was pretty weak. Now, maybe the flavor itself is just weaker than the french vanilla, but I’m starting to think there’s no point in getting the smaller sizes unless you request an extra pump of the swirl to compensate for this discrepancy. I never have to do that for the large size because the flavor is perfect with the standard number of flavor swirls.

Rao’s Marinara
Everyone and their brother raves about this marinara sauce but we never bought it because it’s $8 per jar. We found a sauce we liked at our local grocery store, Caputo’s, but lately it’s been completely out of stock (it’s their house brand so my guess is they’re not producing it lately).

Raos

We were at Costco last month and they had a double-pack of the Rao’s on sale ($11 for two) so we said screw it, let’s give it a shot. Tried it the other day, and while it’s good, it’s not $5.50 good. I wouldn’t want to use it on spaghetti in the future anyway because it seems to be missing something, but I could see it being really nice for lasagna.

We also picked up a jar of Meijer brand marinara (less than $1 after coupon) that we’re excited to try. I hope we like it since I’m not sure whether Caputo’s is ever going to restock their sauce or not and we don’t care for Classico, Prago, or Ragu. Maybe I should start making my own sauce…

DoubleTree Cookies
Another everyone likes it but to us it’s just MEH is DoubleTree’s signature cookies. They revealed the recipe a year ago so people could make them at home during the pandemic. I was going through my old Food Network magazines and found it in there. I happened to be craving cookies so I decided to give them a shot. I mean, they aren’t bad by any means; they just aren’t as good as my oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. My cookies don’t require walnuts, which you cannot really taste anyway, either. So I think I’ll stick to my cookies. The only thing they have over mine is you can freeze the cookie dough balls and make just a handful at a time. I don’t think that would turn out as well with all the oatmeal in my cookies, but admittedly I haven’t tried it. I did refrigerate them once to bake the following day and didn’t like how they came out, though, so that’s what makes me think the freezer option would be a no go.

Lay’s Chips
Back in March I snagged a bag of Lay’s Crispy Taco chips out of pure curiosity.

Lay's Crispy Taco Chips
This is what I had to say about them on Facebook:

These are some of the strangest chips I’ve ever tried. They really do taste like tacos, down to the individual flavors of ground beef, lettuce, and sour cream specifically. They remind me of the hard-shell tacos your parents made growing up. So on one hand they’re kinda blah, yet for some reason I couldn’t stop shoveling them in my mouth anyway even though I’d never buy them again. I think they’re laced with crack or something.

I just so happened to open the bag the last day of the contest they were running, and won a free bag!

Winner

I got my coupon the other day and got the biggest bag I could find of the Salt & Vinegar flavor from Walmart.

Key Lime Pie
Speaking of Facebook, someone in a local group asked where the best place to get key lime pie was, and someone else suggested making it from scratch using Nellie & Joe’s Key Lime Juice, so I decided to give it a shot. Not only was it easy, but it was definitely better than some of the key lime pie we’ve had at restaurants.

I’m putting a screenshot of the recipe here for safe keeping.

Key Lime Pie Recipe

Taco Bell
When Taco Bell took potatoes off their menu I was done with them. The only thing, besides nachos, that I ever ordered there was the spicy potato soft taco. As many people know, they recently brought back the potatoes so I was quick to go there for my fix. And then we found ourselves there three days later so I could try the beefy potato-rito (which was awesome).

Taco Bell Beefy Potato-Rito

We took a break from TB for a bit, but we were back there a few weeks later so I could try a chalupa with potatoes. Yum! Now I actually LIKE Taco Bell whereas before I just tolerated it. We’ve eaten there more in the past two months than all of last year and the year before that. I still can’t wrap my head around people eating there multiple times a week, though. I am, after all, trying not to blow up too quickly. It’s not working, but I have to make a little effort…

Belated Easter Saturday

Yesterday (4/10) morning we grabbed two gift bags from Party City to put the kids’ Easter gifts in. I had them in two very old plastic baskets from when they were kids but had a feeling they wouldn’t want to deal with those. I plan on donating them, in fact.

We headed to K’s apartment, arriving at noon when we ran into her grandparents who were getting ready to go get their covid vaccinations. Her grandma asked me how I was doing since K must have mentioned some of the health issues I was going through. I was touched that she cared enough to ask. Kinda sad, though, that my husband’s ex-wife’s mother cares more than my own parents or siblings (and even some friends) when they know in even greater detail the hell I went through in 2019 and early 2020. But I digress…

E was at K’s place helping her put together some new IKEA furniture. She’s loving living alone (she broke up with her longtime boyfriend ES back in November and to make a long story short he wasn’t nearly as nice of a person he made himself out to look).

We visited inside for about an hour and a half (everyone wearing masks and the windows open for fresh air) and caught up with the kids (E ended up leaving a bit before we did since he had to work).

Luckily the kids liked all their gifts.

Easter Gifts - E

Easter Gifts - K

K remarked I must know her well in response to me warning her she was going to have a duplicate since I spotted one of the same items on her shelf when I came in (the reversible cat plush). E really liked the t-shirt we got him.

After leaving we headed over to the Chinese restaurant Brother #2 introduced us to (which incidentally is the last restaurant we ate inside before COVID). It was closed, but there was a sign on the door stating they moved to their sister restaurant which just so happened to be on the way home anyway, so I ordered a few dishes that we took home for lunch. They were just as good as I remember too!

I also updated the old location on Yelp. Someone marked it as permanently closed, but I changed it to moved so people can still find it.

Easter Weekend

Spring Flower Show @ Wilder Park Conservatory

Saturday (4/3) we decided to pay a short visit to Wilder Park Conservatory for their one-week spring flower show which consisted mostly of white lilies and daffodils.

White Lily

It smelled really nice inside and we had the entire place (ahem, room) to ourselves. The building is actually quite large but the front room is for guests and the rest of the building is a greenhouse for staff only. I also learned that the Lizzardo Museum we visited many years ago moved to Oak Brook.

In any case, just being out and about made me wistful for the good old days. At least with the weather getting warmer we will have more things to do.

Since we rarely even leave the house on weekends, we maximized our trip by stopping at a few places:

» Mariano’s in Lombard to check for cherry lime IZZE – fail

» Dollar Tree in Villa Park to check for more metal carrots for the front – fail

» Sonic for an early morning soft pretzel (it tasted like half pretzel, half deep fried donut!) – success

» Speedway for a $15 Taco Bell gift card purchased with speedy points – success, and card depleted within a few days (damn you spicy potato soft taco!)

» Library to pick up holds – success – and we ended up with a huge pile now that they’ve lifted the 5 item hold limit

I also made my once a year carrot cake which came out a bit dry. I swear no matter how closely I babysit it that always happens. It always seems to take forever to make too since I make the frosting from scratch and powdered sugar got flung everywhere by the mixer despite me draping a towel over it. I may just buy a boxed mix and premade frosting next year. I like carrot cake, but not enough to go through the effort.

We had Culver’s for dinner since we were feeling lazy and didn’t want to make anything that would leave us with leftovers (as most dinners do when there’s only two people).

Sunday (4/4) morning we took Wookie to Northside Park in Wheaton for a lovely walk. Then I put her in the pet stroller and we sat in the driveway while Joe cleaned the inside of our vehicles and straightened up the garage a bit. We grabbed lunch from Taco Bell and opened all the windows to enjoy the fresh air. I noticed a lot of people in the neighborhood have company for the holiday. We opted not to do that since no one is vaccinated yet. We also opted out of a traditional Easter dinner (ham and sides) and decided to have steak instead. I grabbed some mushroom risotto from Target as well. It wasn’t great, and the steak took longer to cook than we anticipated, but overall it was still a very nice holiday.