Not Content to Crawl

Hummingbirds

Posted onAugust 14, 2021

I am positively obsessed with the hummingbirds that have decided to visit our patio this year.

Once our zinnias bloomed they started appearing occasionally. Then yesterday we had multiple visits. At that point I decided it was imperative we get out the old feeder.

But first we needed an ant moat. Amazon had one for $7 but then I thought to check Menards and they only wanted $2.50 so we picked one up this morning. The last time we had the feeder out it was positively covered with ants, inside and out, and I was so grossed out. Hopefully the moat will prevent that from happening. I only put a small amount of food (1/4 cup sugar & 1 cup water) in the feeder since it’s supposed to be changed every other day to prevent mold.

It wasn’t even a half hour after I put the feeder out that a bird came to check it out. I was sitting at the patio table eating pancakes when I caught its shadow on the ground. Confused at first, I finally realized it was coming from the feeder. After that a bird was coming by every ten minutes or so. Interestingly enough, none came by when Joe was outside, but appeared almost immediately once he went inside. His chair is closer to the feeder, though, so it might not be personal. Later on I was dead-heading some flowers when one came by even though I was pretty close to the feeder. A couple of times the bird came closer toward me like it was checking me out.

I mistakenly thought we only had a single bird visiting until two came by together!

So of course I had to tell my friend!

So far I think we’re only getting female visitors, or possibly juveniles, since they are lacking the tell-tale red throat indicative of a male ruby throated hummingbird, the most common species of hummingbird in Illinois.

Chicago Botanic Garden

Posted onAugust 7, 2021August 9, 2021

On Wednesday (8/4/21) we went to the Chicago Botanic Garden where the most beautiful sunflowers greeted us outside the entrance.

Apparently it’s been 6 years since we lasted visited. Color me surprised – I could have sworn we visited at least once since then, but based on my blog and Flickr photos I guess that’s not the case. And that explains why there was a whole new section there that we didn’t remember – the Plant Science Center which has an outdoor roof garden.

We snagged a pass from the library so we’d get in for half price, which would be $12.50, but the woman at the gate said it was going to be $10, but had a hard time getting her computer to access the right screen and ended up letting us in for free. Joe joked it was because he’s so cute.

We arrived not too long after they opened at 8 am so the weather was very pleasant and it wasn’t at crowded at all. The same can’t be said for when we left at 10:30 am – it was very hot and crowded.

As always, the hummingbirds were hanging out in the purple flowers near the entrance, but I couldn’t get a photo quickly enough, not just because they never stay in the same spot for more than a few seconds, but also because I opted not to bring a camera and only had my phone with me. It takes pretty decent photos but doesn’t handle mixed lighting well.

It was really nice walking around all the gardens and stopping to pick up Thai food on the way home.

Chick-Fil-a

Posted onJuly 22, 2021

It’s become a running joke that the manager of our local Chick-fil-a must be secretly in love with me because he’s dropping free rewards in my app on a monthly basis even though we rarely eat there. In fact, we only go there when he does this.

In the past Joe and I would get the same reward. For whatever reason, Joe has been cut off from the free gifts which makes no sense to me since he’s the one they should be enticing to come back instead of me. I didn’t even take advantage of the free nuggets I was offered a week ago, and then today I got this:

Not one, but two free items! I guess they would pair nicely with my homemade Chick-fil-a nuggets I make in the air fryer:

People say they do not compare. I agree – they’re better! They are hands down the best chicken nuggets I’ve ever tried and if Costco ever stops carrying then I will be devastated.

We also recently caught onto the Aldi Copycat Chick-fil-a sandwich trend. My only mistake was trying Aldi’s version of the Polynesian sauce. It was so bad I threw it away. Could I have taken it back to Aldi for a refund? Yes. But it’s not their fault I didn’t care for it, so I didn’t feel right doing that.

Speaking of copycat sauces, we also tried Walmart’s chicken dipping sauce and while it’s very similar to the real thing, it’s not quite there. So unfortunately I will have to keep buying the Chick-fil-a sauces for the time being.

Pool Party of 3

Posted onJuly 22, 2021

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.

Father’s Day

Posted onJune 21, 2021

A couple of weeks ago K reached out to me about coming over for Father’s Day. I thought it was a great idea, and we decided I would handle the food and she could make a dessert for Joe. She and E arrived around 1 (side note: I LOVED that she texted me when they left the house and also when they were five minutes away) and stayed until just after 6.

We ordered pizza, boneless, wings, and stuffed mushrooms and I made some toasted ravioli (side note: why did Aldi stop selling toasted ravioli? It was so much better than the stuff we got from Walmart). The kids brought some alcoholic drinks for Joe (Crown Royal Washington Apple Whisky Cocktail & Not Your Father’s Root Beer) and we made a new mixed drink that K and I had – Simply Limeade mixed with whipped cream vodka which tastes like key lime pie.

So good I had two drinks yesterday and a small glass of it this morning… don’t judge!

We had cupcakes K made – yellow cake with chocolate frosting and sprinkles – all of Joe’s favorite things.

After eating we played 5 games of Aggravation before moving on to video games where we played Mario Kart and Bomberman. I wanted to play Penguin Wars too but the game wouldn’t load. It’s a digitally downloaded one so I’m not sure how to fix that.

The kids were so generous – not only did they get Joe a $50 Starbucks gift card, but they bought Wookie two toys.

E surprised me with a picture disc of Faith by The Cure from Record Store Day and a magazine with Robert Smith on the cover and a bonus CD cover version of Why Can’t I Be You. I was so touched!

I don’t actually own Faith on vinyl so it’s a great addition to my collection (and such a great album).

The evening ended with us attempting to go to bed early but the weather had other ideas. A little after 11 pm it started storming. The rain was coming down so hard it was deafening and unsettling. Then I heard an eerie whistling noise which scared the crap out of me because I couldn’t identify what it was. I later figured out it was a tornado siren a town over which is why it was so faint. Luckily we weren’t hit by any tornados but other towns in the area weren’t so fortunate.