Category: Food

Anniversary Weekend Shenanigans

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Saturday early afternoon we headed to a craft fair at a local high school and found some cute Christmas gifts for my brothers and the kids. I wanted to find a new keychain for my new car key since my old keychain has seen better days but I didn’t come across anything I liked. There was an admission fee of $3 per person which normally annoys me but the money goes towards scholarships for the kids so I didn’t mind. There was also a little band there called Wombat Carnival playing tunes, including Just Live Heaven by The Cure. It was like they played it just for me! ;)

Saturday evening we took the Gallery of Ghoulish Homes tour in St. Charles and ended up going through not one, but two walk-through haunts. I’m not a fan of haunted houses but these were tolerable, just barely. After the tour we stopped at McDonald’s for some food and Joe ended up breaking up a fight between two eighth grade boys. At first we thought they were just messing around until they started pounding each other pretty hard. The manager called the police while one of the boys went outside. One of the other staff gave us a coupon for a free buttermilk tenders meal as a thank-you for stepping in. Oh, and a by-stander was showing Joe this large pocket knife that one of the kids must have had on him because he said it fell to the floor. SMH

Sunday it was rainy so we went to IKEA for breakfast and to look for home stuff. We found a bath mat that seemed promising until we got it home and I realized it’s not that comfy. So that will be going back next time we’re in the area. We also purchased a gift for my brother at Bed Bath & Beyond and the cutest little Christmas pajamas for Wookie. Unfortunately I might have to take those back to because she gets weirdly aggressive when wearing it. I can’t figure out if she hates it or is possessive over it like she can get with new stuffed toys. She willingly comes over to me and lets me put it on her but once it was on and I tried to adjust one of the feet she viciously bit me! She didn’t break skin but it really hurt. After that you couldn’t go near her or she’d bare her teeth and they try to attack. I had to distract her with treats while Joe took it off and then she immediately went back to her normal self. It was very odd and scary. Now I’m questioning whether I should put her in the light-up Halloween shirt my mom got her.

Monday was our anniversary so Joe took the day off work. We originally planned to take my car to the arboretum but it was raining so we took his car to the grocery store to get the ingredients to make homemade crepes. After breakfast we went to Savers and then to Home Goods where I got some sleeping socks and a new toy for Wookie. We also stopped at Target where I got a new pair of fuzzy boots and four long-sleeved shirts. We skipped lunch and had an early dinner at Claim Jumper. It’s been awhile since we’ve been there and I don’t think the filet was as good as I remember it being. Luckily thanks to a gift card we only paid $15 out of pocket.

Today Joe was back at work so I cleaned the house and ordered some stuff from Amazon. Now I’m getting ready to take Wookie to the groomer because she has too many mats in her fur for me to remove. I got lazy when I was sick so it’s just easier to have her shaved. I like her hot mess look but it’s difficult to maintain.

Weekend Bullet Journal 8/18-8/20

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Weekend Purchases:
Gel pens at Five Below $2
Suitcase at Home Goods $70
Halloween themed puzzle toy for Wookie at Home Goods $7
Anker Bluetooth speaker at Amazon $27
Earbuds for Joe at Amazon $7
Replacement case for Samsung tablet at Amazon $11 (original was scratched and being returned)
Training treats for Wookie at Amazon $10
Katy Perry album Witness on CD at Amazon $6 (for mom’s birthday)

Places We Visited:
Target Friday for dinner – PF Chang’s Sesame Chicken not great
McDonald’s Saturday for breakfast – CC reader not working so they gave us the food for free ($9 worth after app deal)
Quest Diagnostics Saturday for Lyme Disease blood test
Meijer Saturday for groceries
Willowbrook Wildlife Center to drop off donations (puppy food samples and half a bag of rat food that expires in November)
Herrick Lake – Walk with Wookie
Raising Canes in Naperville – Chicken is good but seriously overpriced

Indiana Beach 2017

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This year we decided to visit Indiana Beach on a Sunday. Since the car rental places aren’t open on Sundays we opted not to rent a van and planned to take two cars. Brother # 2 contemplated coming along and would have driven me and Brother # 1 while Joe would have the kids and ES, but then my brother bailed because he found out he has Lyme disease, started medication over the weekend, and (understandably) wanted to take it easy.

The revised plan was for me to drive my other brother and myself but then Joe’s son, E, bailed as well. So that’s how we all ended up crammed into Joe’s Escape. ES sat up front since he’s the biggest of everyone and I sat between K and my brother. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it might be although I’m sure the Xanax I took that morning helped. We were mostly right on schedule other than the extra wait at K’s place while ES tried to locate his missing annual pass.

Indiana Beach Sign

Even so we arrived at the park right before they opened at 11 am which is not easy when they are an hour ahead of us. We opted to park in the free lot since we didn’t bring food but just a cooler with drinks. We managed to sneak some water bottles inside and made the Taco Shoppe our first stop. Everyone had two tacos except K who got a walking taco.

Tacos

Rides I ended up going on: Den of Lost Thieves, bumper cars (twice), Growler, train, carousel, Music Express. The first ride would have been better had the “guns” worked. No fun when you can’t shoot any of the targets to animate them. The Growler would have also been more fun if our car was able to spin. I didn’t want to spin too much, but it wouldn’t spin AT ALL.

Rides I wanted to go on but didn’t because a) I was worried about my balance issues or b) I didn’t want to get wet: Scrambler, Flume, Bumper Boats.

Lame, I know. Know what else is lame? Finding out the old game tickets and Cool Cash cards from previous years were not accepted. Even lamer? The new Cool Cash card we purchased was only good for the season so we ended up blowing $11 playing Skee-Ball just to ensure there wasn’t any money left on it. Even lamer still? The dumb puzzle game I got just to use up our “tickets” (electronically stored on the card).

In between rides we noshed on some Pronto Pups (aka corn dogs) and everyone except me got ice cream as well. On the way out of the park (around 4 pm) we stopped at the Taco Shoppe and grabbed tacos to go which we ate back at the car so we could wash them down with water/pop from our cooler.

The weather was warm but comfortable the entire afternoon and for the most part I didn’t feel too sweaty. Didn’t get burned either since we slathered on the sunscreen when we arrived.

While the visit was more enjoyable than I anticipated, I doubt we’ll be going back next year. I’m kinda over that park. It definitely looked even nicer than last year because just about everything was freshly painted (lot of orange was used in particular), but the rides still weren’t operating properly and most were either too intense or too childish for my tastes. Perhaps Disney has spoiled me but the only really appealing thing about Indiana Beach for Joe and me nowadays are the tacos. Since they are now open on the weekends through the end of October we MAY go back one more time just to walk around and get tacos but for a 2+ hour drive I don’t think that it’s worth the effort. Hopefully the kids and my brother won’t pester us to go next year. The main reason we felt obligated to go this year was because we had last year’s season passes that were also good for 2017.

» All Indiana Beach photos

Interesting notes/observations:
This one kid promptly fell flat on his face after getting out of his bumper car. I felt bad for him but it was also funny.
We had to get off the expressway in Indiana and take the side streets through Gary (ew) since traffic was so bad.
After dropping Brother # 1 off we had dinner at Culvers. Apparently all that theme park food wasn’t enough for us?!?!
Total out of pocket for food: $100 (since Joe paid for most of it other than Brother # 1’s Pronto Pup, nachos, and Dippin Dots).

Joe’s Birthday Weekend

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Thursday was Joe’s birthday so we had dinner at Red Lobster. Neither one of us was terribly impressed since the prices seem to keep going up while the quality goes down. I ordered the Sweet Chili Shrimp appetizer as my meal and it was way spicier than I remember. Even the strawberry lemonade that I loved so much last time wasn’t quite as good. WTH?

Friday we ate out again, this time at Red Robin so he could get his free birthday burger.

Saturday we ate out AGAIN! Sensing a theme here? This time we treated the family (my two brothers, my dad, and my brother’s g/f (my mom didn’t go)) to dinner at Warsaw Inn which is a Polish buffet that my family has been celebrating special occasions at for years. Last time we ate there with my cousin and her husband I wasn’t too impressed with the food but this time around everything was delicious. I wish my stomach could have handled even more food but at a certain point I was too stuffed to keep eating. The BBQ ribs were moist and saucy and even the stuffed cabbage was pretty decent. It had flavor at least, unlike what was served at Pierogi Fest last weekend. The pierogis were delicious too. The only thing I wasn’t too keen on where the blintzes so I’ll avoid them next time since they were dry. My only complaint was the tap water they serve – it tastes like someone bled in it. Must be well water or something.

Sunday we went to HOBO to buy transition pieces for the floor in the living/dining area and also a bag of grout since Joe is going to have to redo it in our master bathroom. It keeps cracking and pieces are coming out. We also took Wookie to the dog park where she had the place to herself for an hour which was nice. Also, she didn’t get stung which is a plus!

Monday I had lunch with a dear friend and then we did a little shopping at Half Price Books and Five Below. I got Wookie the cutest little emoji dog bed at the latter, as well as some gel pens and markers for my coloring books.

Milwaukee Brewfest 2017

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Saturday my brother came over to watch Wookie so we could attend the Milwaukee Brewfest in Wisconsin with our friends KM and EN. We drove up together in Joe’s car and our friends were kind enough to treat us to lunch at Oscar’s Bar and Grill (which we first discovered back in February 2016). I was feeling off thanks to lack of sleep courtesy of a severe panic attack episode the night before so I ordered a grilled chicken sandwich and ended up eating it sans bun. They have awesome fries but I went easy on them since I didn’t want to trigger any issues. I felt weird enough having to urinate so often including making a pitstop on the ride up even though it only takes about an hour and a half. It was a little longer, however, since we ran into traffic jams like three times. Luckily we left plenty early enough and still arrived at the fest before it began.

The on-site parking was only $5 which is awesome. Even though KM and I had designated driver wristbands ($15) and mostly sat around chatting and people-watching, I still had a pretty good time. Joe and EN certainly enjoyed themselves and even though there were 100 different vendors there only managed to sample about twenty beers. They had food trucks there which was cool since KM and I weren’t keen on the hot dog meal that came with our admission and gave ours to the boys. I got a personal pizza from the Palermos truck and KM got some cheese curds. Both were good.

This is the souvenir glass they gave to everyone at the entrance

We ended up leaving around 6:15 since I still wasn’t feeling so hot and KM agreed to drive Joe’s Escape (I was supposed to). We stopped for even MORE food (LOL) at the Brat Stop since neither of our friends had ever been there before. I didn’t actually get anything to eat since I wasn’t hungry. I believe by the time we got home it was around 10 pm and Wookie had been by herself about 5 hours by that point since B took off just before 5 pm. I’m so glad he and his girlfriend are ok with watching her occasionally since I don’t like the idea of leaving her with a stranger or in a boarding facility. Not sure what we’ll do when we want to go on an actual multi-day vacation, though. I hope by then they have a house (they are currently looking) and their dog gets along with Wookie so she can stay with them. Fingers crossed.

One of the cool things about the fest is they included a free ticket to Germanfest which was going on just 2 miles down the road. We didn’t get to take advantage of that, but if the two fests coincide next year, the plan is for KM and I to have Joe and EN pass those tickets to us through the festival fence and take an Uber over there. We’ll come back to pick up the boys when their festival is over.