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!
