Category: Recaps

September 2026 Recap

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09/05 (Sat)
Did a little shopping at Michael’s and got these cute fall and Halloween floral picks for the small vase I keep on the table by the front door.

Also stopped at Half Price Books and finally found a copy of Seaquest for the Atari. They were having a 20% off everything sale for the holiday weekend so it was only $8.

09/06 (Sun)
We headed to Schaumburg’s Septemberfest. Instead of trying to find parking nearby we parked at James B. Conant High School and took the frequently running shuttlebus to the grounds. It was a bit of an adventure not having ridden on a bus since we toured NASA in 2015 but we enjoyed it and would do it again since it takes away the stress of looking for parking.

The festival is one of our favorites due to the extensive craft tents booths and their food tent and ample seating nearby. We tried a Korean BBQ Rice Bowl w/ Bulgogi Beef from K Grill and potstickers and Pad Se Ew from Thai Buri. The former was delicious and we’d get again but the latter, while not bad, was nothing special and we’d try a different booth next year.

After a couple of hours at the fest we grew bored and wanted a sweet treat so we left and hit up Rainbow Cone on the way home.

09/07 (Mon)
We went early morning grocery shopping, and when we left there was a huge line at the 7 Brew across the street just a few minutes after opening. As we drove past Joe counted over 70 cars. We were like “WTH is going on over there?!?” and guessed they were giving away free coffee. It was actually worse than that…

I cannot fathom waiting in that long of a line over a toy. One which looked like something I used to get in exchange for Skeeball tickets when I was a kid, no less. Have people collectively lost their minds?!?

We didn’t do a traditional cookout for Labor Day this year, but we went to Jewel and grabbed some fried chicken and what they call Tator Babies, which are basically potato wedges that are way better than KFC.

09/08 (Tue)
We were killing time while Costco was installing my new tires this morning when we saw they have mums! I heard they can sell out fast, so we grabbed this ginormous purple one even though I hadn’t planned on buying any just yet.

We were chuckling at the size while Joe was unwrapping it. I gave it a good soaking per instructions since it was really dry.

I hope they’re as good quality as I’ve heard. Time will only tell whether or not it was an $18 mistake. They have smaller ones in a four pack for $18 too. I saw purple, yellow, and orange. I’m not sure if they carry maroon. They only seemed to have the big ones in purple right now.

Afterwards we decided to hit up a place called Egg-lectic Café for lunch. We intended to sit outside but the wasps had another idea so we ended up eating inside which wasn’t as anxiety-producing as I worried about since we were the only ones there (we got there around 1:20 or so and they close at 2:30). I tried their Waldorf chicken melt with what they call onion petals (like onion rings but in a petal shape). Both were so good I want to go back there soon.

09/10 (Thu)
We attended a Radio Gaga concert (imagine Queen performing with Lady Gaga) at Wheaton’s Memorial Park. It was $12 each to get in. They had a couple of food trucks and a concession stand. While I wasn’t thrilled with the selection, I was pleasantly surprised by the reasonable prices at the concession window.

We brought our own snacks and water just in case, but always like to see what’s on offer.

We opted to sit in the back which would have been better if not for this guy who was so distracting walking around almost as much as his kids who couldn’t sit still.

I will never understand parents who let their children run rampant at these events. It’s like they have no concern about whether they are disturbing others. And of course the kids had a ball. I think those should be banned at events like these but that won’t happen until someone gets seriously injured.

I was initially worried about the small bathroom attached to the back of the stage area that only had three stalls, but they had an entire area on the west side of the park with porta-potties, which is where I took this photo.

As for the music, it was a bit of a letdown, especially the Lady Gaga impersonator and her backup singers who didn’t seem to know all the words to some of the songs.

We had parked in a nearby garage and left a few songs before the end so we wouldn’t have to deal with the crowd getting out of the park since they had all but one entrance/exit blocked. We ended up pulling into a parking spot outside the park to listen to the end of the concert.

Even with some of the annoyances I’d still attend a concert there if the act sounded interesting enough because it was a cheap night out and the drive home was a breeze.

09/12 (Sat)
We picked up some breakfast from Paris Baguette and brought it to the arboretum to eat on the veranda.

They were giving away free branded packable bags to members starting at 9 am. I saw them unlock the doors a couple of minutes early so I went inside and got mine. As I was walking away they must have just opened the main doors because a line of people came streaming in to get their bag. I inadvertently cut the line just by entering the door off the veranda area.

09/13 (Sun)
We were back at the arboretum for the second day in a row for their semi-annual dog event. The booths were kinda boring because there were only 3 with dogs available for adoption – pitbulls, grey hounds, and some type of large breed puppies. One of the booths was cleverly named however. It was CRA (Chicago Rescue Authority) and all the colors were like the CTA L. We camped out on a bench by the visitor center so we could see all the people walking past with their dogs. They kept approaching Joe more than me though. How dare they! I did get a few quick hand licks at least.

09/18 (Fri)
Joe’s daughter and SO came over for dinner and games. We got food from Steamboat BBQ which everyone really enjoyed and played a new game called Something Wild that I had gotten Joe for his birthday.

It was… interesting. I didn’t love it. We eventually played a few games of Aggravation too.

09/25-09/27 – Extended weekend recap

Notable media this month:

Overcompensating (Prime) – Benny, a football player, struggles to accept his sexuality in college, finding himself overcompensating as he tries to appear as something he is not. We got hooked on this show quickly and blew through both seasons because we couldn’t get enough. I hope they end up making at least two more seasons before cancelling it!

They Will Kill You – I thought this was going to be another Ready or Not type movie but there’s more to it than initially meets the eye. While it got more and more strange it definitely kept our attention!

Scary Movie – Was it dumb? Yes. Was it funny? Also yes. It was good to see the original cast back and I do not regret borrowing this one from the library.

Passenger – Holy crap, this had some of the best jump scares of any movie I’ve seen in recent memory. Even when you KNEW it was coming it still made you jump!

August 2026 Recap

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08/02 (Sun)
We attended the annual charity dog show in Carol Stream. I like seeing all the dogs but it does make me a little sad since we are currently dog-less and might be until next year the way things are going right now.

08/04 (Tue)
We attended National Night Out.

08/07 (Fri)
Joe’s daughter and her partner came over for dinner and games. I made a cheeseburger casserole I hadn’t made in years and completely forgot about until K suggested it after I asked if she had any requests. Wow, it was better than I remember! Or maybe I’m just a better cook now, I don’t know.

We played the new UNO K gifted us, UNO POP.

We also played Mantis since we all love that game.

08/08 (Sat)
We decided to visit the Schaumburg library for the first time in many years. It’s massive and laid out so nicely. It has a huge snack area, the kids section has a playroom, the DVD and CD area look like a store, and their selection of magazines is awesome. There were so many cars in the parking lot but it didn’t feel crowded inside at all because of the size and how spread out everyone was. I wish it was our library! They have a huge magazine section with multiple titles I’d like to read.

We decided we’ll hang out there one of the days soon, probably when it’s cold outside with not much else to do.

08/11 (Tue)
More intense storms in the area. It’s been really scary this summer. Illinois is leading the country with the most tornados but luckily we weren’t hit with any on this day.

We hit up Costco when Joe got home from work and I picked up this Bousin cheese.

I had no idea what Boursin really was until last month when it came on a sandwich I ordered while at my friend’s house. It’s very yummy!

08/18 (Tue)
Know what’s a great way to be woken up at 3 am? By a tornado siren! Thought I was hearing things since they faded out just as I became more clear-headed. Luckily it was activated in error which is why it wasn’t going for long.

This Reddit thread about the incident made me laugh with The Simpsons reference.

08/19 (Wed)
I went with Joe to his eye exam in the evening since he was getting his eyes dilated and I would need to drive us home. What is with rude people? We’re sitting there in the little waiting area and his lady was watching TikToks with the sound full on. Then she was walking around while dragging her feet. Both she and her husband had their phone notifications turned up to full tilt. No one wants to listen to that shit!

08/21 (Fri)
I decided to experiment and created a homemade pasta sauce with multi-colored cherry tomatoes.

I’ve also grown to really love zucchini with my pasta, as well as in other dishes.

It came out delicious!

08/22 (Sat)
We ran so many errands, I wrote a separate entry about it.

08/23 (Sun)
We attended the Festival of the Arts at Lake Ellyn. We parked by high school which was nice walk compared to finding street parking. There were many art booths, no real food trucks, but four food booths (popcorn, hot dogs, Mexican food, and gelato). Nothing really floated our boat so afterwards we went home and made sandwiches for lunch.

08/24 (Mon)
I’m so out of touch I didn’t realize that Marc Maron ceased his podcast last year. I listened to the final episode which was none other than Barack Obama.

Have I ever talked about how much I love Barack Obama? His wife too. They’re both so kind, intelligent, funny, and poised. I never get tired of listening to either of them speak. What a contrast to the clown currently in office.

08/27 (Thu)
Spent some time lounging on the patio since the weather was so pleasant and heard an unusual bird chirping. According to Merlin it was a Cape May Warbler!

Too bad I didn’t see it because I haven’t added one to my life list yet.

That made my want to do some birding so we went to Churchill Park when Joe got home from work.

I was reminded why we don’t do too many nature outings this time of the year, though, because the second we got on the wooded trail we ran out of there quickly because of all the mosquitos. We didn’t have bug spray on, but even with it I swear it doesn’t work as well as I’d like. We didn’t even see any birds, just insects.

We stopped at McDonald’s after to grab dinner. I don’t crave their food often and I was reminded why by the chewy bun on my double cheeseburger. Their fries are only good the second you get them too. Wait until you get home and they are already cold and hard. Yuck. And for the price I’d rather get a kid’s meal at Culver’s where you get a burger, fries, drink, and a frozen custard for less than $8.

There was a lunar eclipse and this was my contribution to the massive amount of photos people took.

08/28 (Fri)
Just a few days ago I was bragging to my Facebook friends about how much I love our bee watering station and how I’m not afraid of them anymore. Today it dawned on me that the recent uptick in visits weren’t even from bees but yellowjacket wasps!

Needless to say I took down the watering station. It’s bad enough those wasps won’t leave the hummingbird feeder alone.

08/29 (Sat)
Joe had to work in the early morning but came home shortly after 9 am. I made us breakfast which we ate on the patio. After cleaning up we headed to College of DuPage to check out the Russell R Kirt Prairie nature area.

Once again, the birds were nonexistent (it’s been really quiet the last few weeks), but there were plenty of insects to be seen, mostly dragonflies. If you looked at the sky long enough you’d notice many of them zipping about.

I also explored the dining area in their student services area when I needed to use the restroom. I learned they have cafes with coffee during the week which might be useful in the future when Joe has a day off. We can grab a coffee on the way to the arboretum or nature area nearby.

08/30 (Sun)
We went to the arboretum to attend the Honeybee Festival. It was a little underwhelming, but I enjoyed just chilling on the visitor center veranda while people and animal watching. There are sparrows all over hoping for some food, as well as chipmunks. I could sit there all day.

We stopped at Bath & Body Works on the way home so I could look at the new Nightmare Before Christmas line. Well, what little was left of it. I had no desire to get anything but the hand sanitizer but neither scent (Jack or Sally) smelled good.

Notable media this month:

Mercy – I really didn’t want to enjoy this Chris Pratt movie this much, but it was done quite well and was not a Minority Report remake like the trailer seemed to indicate.

The Running Man – This was way better than the original and kept my attention throughout the entire film.

The Sheep Detectives – When my brother mentioned this movie to me awhile back I pictured the claymation style of Shaun the Sheep which is not my thing, but after hearing people talking about it I looked it up and realized I was completely wrong. It was a very unique and entertaining Who Done It.

The Institute (MGM+) – An MGM+ original series we discovered when looking for something, anything, to watch on this lame streaming service. The first season was good but left us with questions. I would re-subscribe to MGM+ just to watch another season; they better make another one!

How to Make a Killing – This is the second Glen Powell movie we saw this month and I’m not mad about it – he’s fun to watch. The premise was pretty unique – a man starts murdering his relatives to ensure he inherits the family fortune. Sure, it’s short-sighted of a character to think they could get away with such a thing, but that’s part of what made this fun to watch.

Don’t Let Go – A unique time travel / alternate dimensions murder mystery.

The Night Of– A series from ten years ago that I found while browsing HBO Max. It started off a bit boring and the ending left a bit to be desired, but overall it was an interesting tale of how prison changes a person, and their family.

Marc Maron: Panicked – I’ve always found Marc Maron funny but this special in particular knocked it out of the park! Seriously, most standup has been lucky to make me chuckle even once, but this one had me laughing multiple times. Kudos, Marc!

Awkward – This show made me cringe more times than I can count, plus hate Jenna much of the time, but it was a fun re-watch.

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.

Weekend Recap (07/11-07/12)

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Saturday (07/11) we ate homemade breakfast burritos I had prepped on Friday before heading to the arboretum.

We arrived just after they opened at 7 am. The plan was to take advantage of the relatively cool weather and get a few hours of bird watching in before we had to get home to prepare to drive out to my parents house. Well, the mosquitos had other ideas so we mostly drove around the grounds, although we did stop by the visitor center to look at the flowers.

We made a quick stop at Walmart before heading home where I spent two hours on the patio reading a book before it got too hot and humid for comfort.

We left the house around 1 pm so we could get to my parents around 2 pm. We had some good food, helped my mom and brother with a few things, and left around 8:30 so we could be home by 9:30. I had a hard time sleeping which is typical anytime I socialize.

Sunday (07/12) we stopped at Old Time Pottery before heading out to the Bath & Body Works in Geneva to pick up an online order I had made on Thursday for this adorable light-up spooky kitty hand sanitizer holder.

It was sold out nearly everywhere else so I feel lucky I was able to grab one. I hate buying Halloween stuff in mid-summer though. Why can’t we live in the moment a little more? Call me crazy but didn’t stores wait until kids were back in school to start putting out the Halloween stuff back when I was growing up in the 80s and 90s? Now it’s out in early July. It’s very annoying. By the time any holiday arrives these days I’m burnt out on it because of this nonsense. But I digress…

After B&BW we went to the Barnes & Noble store in the same shopping center.

I love the smell of a bookstore; there is nothing like it.

I looked at their e-readers but they seem overpriced for what they do and seemed to operate slower than my very old Kindle.

I was also amazed by all the cool educational toys they had from stuff about bugs to things about our solar system. I would have loved so many of them if they had been available when I was a child.

We browsed the magazines last and this caught my eye…

Hmmm… that seems familiar. A little closer look…

Aha, I knew it was Robert Smith!

I was shocked to see that 2600 magazine is still being printed.

I used to think I was so cool reading that even though I never hacked a damn thing.

We were getting hungry so we headed home to eat the stromboli sandwiches and potato salad my mom sent home with us on Saturday. Then Joe washed both our cars while I attempted to install garden edging around the tree out front before giving up.

I got it because my next door neighbor put some around her tree and it looked really nice, but the soil was too hard and the plastic edging too flimsy. It just felt like more effort than I was willing to put in. Back to Walmart it goes!

And yes, I know that makes me a hypocrite after I said I was boycotting Walmart. I do admittedly buy things from there once in a blue moon if I can’t get in anywhere else, like the bike shorts I’ve been living in since my skin went all sensitive on me.

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.