BBQ Scarecrows

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I think we finally found our go-to BBQ place! Finally, after 17 years! I mean, Smoque in the city is amazing, but it’s just too far when the craving hits. I recently read about a place called Route 38 BBQ which is less than twenty minutes away, so we decided to give it a try on Saturday (10/08). Not only is it cheaper than Smoque (we got a meal of double meat plus mac & cheese, coleslaw, cornbread, and mashed potatos for $25 whereas a comparable meal at Smoque would run closer to $50), but dare I say their beef brisket tastes better. It’s so good you don’t have to drown it in sauce. Winner, winner, brisket dinner! (No photos were taken because we greedily ate everything up).

Sunday (10/09) we visited St. Charles for their annaul Scarecrow Fest. This may be the last time. Not only were the number of scarecrows shockingly low, but everything was just blah. I have lost my enthusiasm for the craft booths too, and the food vendors are ridiculous. The corn dog booth had a sign that read “Corn Dogs w/ free fries” but when we asked how much they were the girl goes “$5 for the corn dog and $10 for a corn dog with fries”. Ummm… I don’t think they know what free means! Needless to say, after a disappointing half hour of walking around we went to Atlas Chicken Shack in nearby Geneva to grab some rice balls that we took home to eat.

River Trail Nature Center

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We passed River Trail Nature Center on our way to ABT on Sunday (09/25), so after ordering our refrigerator we decided to explore it before heading home.

(Not my photo above)

They have an apiary on site, which is basically a bunch of bee hives. In addition, they have lots of bird feeders around the property where we saw chipmunks and nuthatches, none of which my phone was able to capture well. There were some cool exhibits inside too.

We are planning to go back in the summer to explore the nature trails, and I’ll bring my camera to get some bird shots. Hopefully by then I’ll have a new mirrorless Canon.

Refrigerator Saga

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Sunday (09/18) Joe said he thought there might be something wrong with the refrigerator and I might want to start looking at new ones in case it died and sure enough, it died the next day (Monday 09/19). We ordered a few replacement parts off Amazon, but the more research Joe did, the more he was worried there could be too many possible culprits. Not only that, but the fridge is original to the home so it was 31 years old. Reluctantly, we agreed it was time to replace it.

In the meantime we were able to store some food in our friends’ spare fridge in her garage. That saved us from losing a lot of expensive meats in the freezer. Our fridge was quite large (25 cubit feet) and we kept it well stocked. Even with our friend’s help we had to throw out some food, although we did our best to eat whatever we could.

After dropping our food off, we went to Menards, Home Depot, and Lowes looking at refrigerators. We settled on a Frigidaire side-by-side in white ($1200) from Lowes and were able to secure a delivery date for that Wednesday.

Tuesday (09/20) night we got an automated call letting us know our delivery window was 3-7 the following day.

Wednesday (09/21) morning I got a call from a person saying they’d actually be by between 2 and 2:30. I relayed this info to Joe as he planned on working until noon and then coming home so we could move furniture around and he could disconnect the water line from the old fridge and take the front door off the hinges (the fridges are too large to fit through the back door even though that’s closer to the kitchen).

Well, at 9:30 am I got a call from the delivery guy saying he’d be there in an hour. Joe had to leave work immediately and scramble to prepare for the delivery. The water shut-off to our sink and fridge would not actually shut off and water was getting all over the floor. Joe ended up having to shut off the main water to the house. Also, the delivery guys didn’t actually show up until 45 minutes past the time they said they would.

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Labor Day

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Not sure what most people did for the holiday weekend, but we didn’t do much – got some pizza, finished a few series, watched a couple of movies, listened to some music, and visited a nearby park.

I was bummed that I decided to leave my camera at home because I spotted some juvenile wood ducks! They were too far to capture with my phone’s camera, and if I hadn’t viewed them with binoculars, I would have assumed they were mallards. Joe didn’t believe that they were wood ducks but I’m 99% sure they were based on the extra feathers on the back of their heads, the white markings on their cheeks, and their distinctive red eyes.

They looked a lot like this (NOT my photo):

We had hot dogs, pasta salad, and corn on the cob yesterday.

We didn’t feel like firing up the grill or boiling anything, so we used the microwave for the corn and the air fryer for the hot dogs; everything came out great.

Gorillas & Monkeys on TV

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We don’t go shopping just to look for stuff very often anymore, but we were bored recently so on Saturday (08/20) we went to Half Price Books and actually found a few things.

I had no idea Donkey Kong for the Atari 2600 even existed so it was a cool find. Unfortunately, we were unable to test it out when we got home because my Atari (from my childhood in the mid 80’s) decided to stop working. But no worries – Joe did some research, ordered an Atari repair kit, and was able to bring it back to life!

This game is so lame haha!

DK looks more like Oogie Boogie than a gorilla, but I still think it’s cool to have the game. I added it to my collection. I still want to get SeaQuest and a few other games that I think my brother still has in the depths of my parents’ house, but no one can seem to find (Jungle Hunt, Keystone Kapers, and Pitfall).

We also saw Code Monkeys on DVD but I was leery about getting it as they wanted $8 and it said made in Mexico on the back. I checked Amazon and they were selling a new copy for $11 so I ordered that instead.

I hope they end up releasing the second season on DVD too. It’s so funny! You can stream it on Peacock if you want to check it out.

Saturday (08/27) we stopped at Kiss The Sky record store. I love that place! We didn’t end up buying anything, though. Saw some interesting things, though, including a Cure record which was really songs of side projects which I ended up listening to on Spotify. So glad I didn’t get it! I’m not against collecting stuff, but I’ve grown more intentional about what we bring into the house. I don’t want to end up with a ton of stuff that never gets touched.