It’s a sad state of (geek) affairs when you discover that your friend, who’s in the bedroom just over there, is up because she posts to Twitter… And thus our day began.

judiang, elsaf and I went to the Little Branch Cafe for “a not as expensive as supper” breakfast. I had a breakfast croissant which had egg, cheese, and bacon. It came with a few hashbrowns and some fruit, of which half was melon. I let Judi eat the melon.

After breakfast, I decided to head off on a half hour walk, whereupon I discovered that Judi lives closer to Lake Michigan than I do to the Stillwater River. (Well, I should have figured that since I can see the Lake from her balcony.) It was a pleasant walk (breezy & cloudy) and they’ve really made Museum Campus a lovely place to walk.

Elsa and I then headed off to Whole Paycheck, er, Whole Foods to pick up necessary items for our day in. See, it was supposed to get up to 98F with a heat index of 105F today. I bet the Chicago weathermen are embarrassed! But we didn’t know they’d be so far off the mark and planned lunch & dinner at Judi’s place.

Poor Elsa experienced sticker shock after she picked out 2 racks of baby back ribs for grilling for supper. First time I’d seen her do a double-take. As nice as it would be to have a Whole Foods near where I live, I doubt if I’d be able to afford to shop there much.

Once we returned, Elsa got the baby back ribs in the crock pot, then broiled the chicken boobies and I made the salads upon which to place said chicken boobies. Lunch was tasty. Then we had a relaxing afternoon of reading, computing, and more reading. I took a walk to the park where Judi walks her dog, Patty, and sat reading for awhile. Then, sure enough, Judi walked Patty and the three of us returned to the apartment.

And then we got to the title of today’s post. See, Judi hasn’t had a chance to use her grill yet this summer. So she cleaned it and tried to light it for finishing off the ribs. Only it wouldn’t light. If only we had a long match, she said. “You got any spaghetti?” I asked her. She showed me to the spaghetti, which I couldn’t keep lit long enough to light the propane, so I asked for tape and then taped a match to spaghetti.

After a few attempts (which kept getting blown out by the wind), I finally heard a whoosh! Yes, we have whoosh! But then it went out. By then, the grill’s lighter started working again, so Judi got it going again. Where the fire lasted longer… and then went out. But the fourth castle stayed up! I mean, huge tracts of land! Grrrr, I’ve been hijacked by a Monty Python movie!

Anyhoo, the grill eventually burned strongly and we got the asparagus and the baby back ribs grilled. Along with baked potatoes and pineapple upside-down cake (that Elsa had made this afternoon), we had a fabulous supper! And after supper, Elsa and I got another episode of Game of Thrones watched. (Alas, we won’t get all 10 watched before we leave on Monday.)

Tomorrow, our Saturday tradition of Dim Sum for brunch will continue. And we have tickets to a show at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. And I’m hoping we’ll get to see fireworks at Navy Pier, too!