Category: LiveJournal

Last day in Minneapolis *sniff*

Well, best laid plans & all that. Yesterday (Tuesday) I had written up my final Minneapolis LJ post with every intention of posting it when I had a free Internet connection. And then never got a Round Tuit… So below I present my post from yesterday.

Yesterday [Monday], as my title indicates, was my last (full) day in Minneapolis with the girls. After some discussion & discovering that the first restaurant choice was closed on Mondays, we decided to walk to Maria’s Cafe for breakfast. It was a little over a two mile walk, so we were grateful to arrive.

The girls ordered corn pancakes (which they let me try – very sweet & tasty, with or without cheese) while I ordered Pablo’s omelet. This was a 3-egg omelet with rice, refried beans, cheese, and grilled tomatoes & onions in it. Very tasty. I had a hot chocolate with it, too.

As it was a fairly long walk and starting to warm up, plus we all were feeling adventurous, we decided to hire Nice Ride bikes to ride toward home which would cut the trip in half. This was a first for me & Rachel. It was a bit expensive, but the bikes were pretty nice to ride for the distance we did. And the rest of the walk home was improved by being cut in half.

Along the walk home, Amy showed us her favorite garden along the route. It put my Secret Garden to shame. And the funny thing was, we passed by several gardens wherein we asked “Is this the one?” The girls are fortunate to have such a lovely neighborhood to walk & bike in.

Once we were back home, it was naptime. I spent the time finishing my book (Ben Aaronovitch’s latest Peter Grant book: Whispers Under Ground). Then around 2pm, Rachel had an appointment at N2Living, a strength training place that she had a free trial to check out. She invited us to join her and it was quite fascinating to see the various machines (designed by the Nautilus dude) designed to work on a specific muscle group.

The young people who walked Rachel through the routine were very friendly. The lady who owned the joint, OTOH, was late to the meeting. Still, the neck “stretching” machine was nifty as it connected to a PC (with a VERY old DOS system, it looked like!) and showed the angle of movement etc.

After the meeting, we headed off in search of lupper at a new pub the girls hadn’t been around to try yet. Only to discover upon arriving that they were closed that day for an employee event. *sad face*

Still in the mood for pub grub/beer food, we had one destination in mind, when suddently both girls were inspired to pop into another for their Happy Hour. We arrived at Blackbird with 10 minutes to spare and had a lovely lupper of slider burgers, fries with rosemary aoli, and walleye/crawfish potstickers. I had a pear cider from Ace which Rachel rightly described as “a pear Jolly Rancher.” Not one of the better ciders I tried this weekend, but it was drinkable.

Once we were back home, it was time for CHORES. I worked on getting Rachel’s laptop de-Nortoned and Comodo Internet Security installed instead. Then I helped Amy (she did the hard stuff. I handed her the tools) install a new mirror (purchased back in November) at the top of their stairs. Finally we retired to the basement to try out a few video formats and uploading a trial video to YouTube. And then it was time for Olympics & snacks.

I drank the last of the ciders which I bought from the Four Firkins and had some sesame sticks. (There’s enough left for Amy to have atop a salad some evening.) And then succumbed to the lure of cookies & cream ice cream (Alden, did you know you had an organic ice cream for sale in Minnesota?)

This morning, since we never did get to try out Butter, a bakery/coffee shop/eatery on my trip, we all got up super early in order to partake of their goods. Sadly, they don’t have the breakfast grill open until after 8am, but they had quiches for warming and plenty of baked goods. So I had a ham, broccoli, and swiss quiche, blueberry scone, and vanilla steamer for breakfast. All were very yummy.

Rachel then rode her bike on toward her work and Amy drove me to the airport. Gonna miss those girls! Was lovely for them to host me for the long weekend!

Now I am seated at O’Hare (though I refuse to pay for Wi-Fi so I won’t be publishing this until later) having just had a nice salad with walnuts, raisins, apple slices, bleu cheese, and raspberry vinaigrette. Tasty and not any more expensive than I’d probably get at a hoity toity place. Next flight in less than an hour and then I’m home again. Woo!

When I arrived in Dayton, the folks were there to pick me up. Then mom talked me into swimming (didn’t take much of an effort). After pool time, I headed home, with two stops – groceries and Chinese Fud. (Shamefully, after my nice & healthy lunch, I had to ruin it with General Tso’s and crab rangoon.)

The kitties were glad to see me. In particular, Lucy braved the fan of the den to hang out with me most of the evening. Apparently, I am fascinating to watch when I’m playing World of Warcrack. Who knew? 🙂

Biking to Sea Salt

Yesterday was the nicest weather day of my trip. We started the morning with a quick drive to pick up donuts from A Baker’s Wife and then had breakfast on the girls’ back porch (Amy also made scrambled eggs).

Our main goal for the day was to ride bikes to Sea Salt, a restaurant near Minnehaha Falls. My butt was still sore from yesterday, but I took Advil an hour or so before we departed and I think that it helped.

The girls had contacted another friend of theirs to see if she’d meet us at Sea Salt and she was game. So when Rachel had returned from checking in on Winter (the needy kitty), we biked on towards the restaurant. Their friend was saving us a place in the LONG line and we joined her.

I bought a Crispin’s hard cider (with maple syrup flavoring too) which turned out to be a huge bottle (so I shared some of it). I ordered fried calamari as an appetizer and a crab cake sandwich for lunch. Then Rachel got me a salted cashew ice cream (recommended by their friend) to eat while we waited for the food. Everything that I had there was excellent – probably the best calamari I’d ever had.

We wandered a little bit around the falls whereupon my sister bumped into the fellow she just hired (and his family) – fun coincidence. We had decided to ride over to the Riverview theater to see Snow White and the Huntsman and their friend joined us.

Although I wouldn’t say it was the best movie ever, I enjoyed seeing Ian McShane, Bob Hoskins, and Toby Jones playing dwarves. And for $2, I felt I had gotten my money’s worth.

We parted company with their friend and then headed home on the bikes. And since we’d been too full to partake of Riverview’s real buttered popcorn, the girls decided to pop & butter some at home. So we sat on the porch eating popcorn and peanuts in the shell. I had a cider. Then for the second round, we had sesame sticks (which Amy bought specifically for my visit) and chocolate chips (and I had a second cider).

We finished the evening watching Olympics in their basement (after Amy showed me a short film she had worked on and is going to put online soon). Another fun day with the girls!

Trina & her sore bum

Yesterday, we started off the morning with leftover pizza. Turns out there were 3 slices of the Pizza Athena left, one without olives (mine!) so it worked out perfectly.

Eventually, we made our way to the Midtown Farmer’s Market. Now I often go to the two farmer’s markets in Troy and they’re awfully small affairs. Midtown was much bigger & livelier. We wandered around looking for produce and lunch. We got some nifty striated eggplants to grill and some brats (including wild rice brats) as well.

Lunch was at the Hola Arepa truck and I tried my first arepa. I had the slow roasted pork arepa with guacamole. Very tasty. I drank their strawberry ginger lemonade along with it.

Next, we went out to the house where Amy & Rachel’s coop co-op is housed. It was Rachel’s day to clean the coop and check on the chickens. They have 11 chickens at the moment and they all seemed eager to see Rachel. Amy and I sat & read while Rachel worked.

We returned home for a short break (and to drop off the food we’d gotten at the market) and then we headed off to check on Winter, the cat that Rachel is cat-sitting. Winter was pleased for the company. She is a very loving kitty.

Next was the trip to Microcenter to get a new battery for Rachel’s laptop. The last time I was at Microcenter, I exclaimed to Amy that I was in Nerdvana. 🙂 Across the street was The Four Firkins, a beer store that was small but loaded with beers, ciders, meads, etc. I picked out 4 hard ciders to try and the girls got several beers to check out.

After we came home, we headed off on a bike ride around Lake Nokomis. We got most of the way around the lake before my bum told me it was just too sore. So we paused a bit, then headed on to the Grand Ole Creamery for some ice cream. I had pistachio ice cream and vanilla malt custard. The frozen custard was particularly fine. I survived the ride back and then we got the place ready for guests.

A couple of friends of Amy (the folks who own the house where the chicken coop resides) were joining us for grilled brats. While Amy got the veggies & other things ready, Rachel and I cleaned the kitchen and then made a blueberry galette. Rachel made the pie crust and I did the innards.

Amy had grilled some corn on the cob, zucchini, summer squash, striated eggplant, onion, and brats. She also made salt potatoes. It was all very yummy, and I really liked the wild rice brats. We sat out on their back porch and ate, then retired inside for dessert. The galette was very tasty. And once again, I met friends of the girls who are very nice people.

Today will be another biking adventure. The weather is perfect (mid 70s F predicted for the high) and my bum is still sore, but I shall see if some Advil will help out today.

I am a Horrible Person

It’s official, I am a Horrible Person. As you shall read in this post, if you dare!

But before I had this fact confirmed, I had a lovely day with Amy & Rachel. Breakfast was cereal and 1/3 of the 3 types of cupcakes from the night before. Then Rachel had a couple of appointments and Amy had to work. So I watched Olympic events on my phone and worked on Rachel’s laptop.

For lunch, Amy made us Caprese sandwiches (fresh mozarella, tomatoes, basil, olive oil on a baguette) and we sat outside on their back porch eating lunch. It was a little warm, but pleasant nonetheless.

When Amy was done with work, the two of us took a walk to her library and around the neighboring area. Then we three rode bikes to Pizza Lucé where we met up with two friends of the girls. We had artichoke dip (very tangy and yummy with a little bit of heat) and bread followed by two pizzas – the Ruby Rae and the Pizza Athena. I also had two Angry Orchard hard ciders while the girls shared two pitchers of Summit Oktoberfest (hey, it’s August already!)

Before I left on this trip, dad had given me some Bad Girl money, so I thought our Pizza Lucé “beer & pizza” night was a perfect Bad Girl time. So thanks dad for last night’s wonderful supper (and today’s breakfast).

We then rode to Crema, a coffee and ice cream shop just a few blocks away. I tasted their sweet corn ice cream (yup, tasted of sweet corn!) and mint truffle ice cream (wrong type of mint for me) and then settled on their ultimate chocolate ice cream and their homemade caramel ice cream. Very yummy.

It was dark when we left, so I stuck close to Amy on the bike ride back, with a red flashing light attached to my backside. A&R’s friends were waiting for us when we got there (they had driven) and we chatted while we waited for Rachel to return from checking on the kitty she’s looking in on this weekend for a friend.

Once Rachel had returned, we start playing the game that I bought A&R for their anniversary (which is still almost 2 weeks away): Cards Against Humanity (a party game for horrible people). This game had been recommended on Twitter and I loved the premise. I figured the girls would love it, so I sent it to them before my arrival so I could play too.

So the five of us played the game and laughed throughout the whole process. It was so funny and so horrible. And when the game was done, I had won – I was the most horrible person in the room! 🙂 So now you know!

Vacationing in Minneapolis

Although I am a small town girl at heart, it is lovely having friends and relatives who live in Big Cities so that I can visit. And this weekend, I’m visiting my sister and her partner (and their cat, Curtis).

I flew in yesterday (via O’Hare) and Amy picked me up. It was lunch time, so she took us to a Pupusaria near her place. I’d never had pupusas before, so I loved getting to try something new. In the simplest description, they’re like stuffed corn tortillas. I had one stuffed with pork & cheese and the other beans & cheese. These were served with a pickled cabbage known as curtido along with their own salsa. They were very yummy!

Poor Amy still had to work that day, so when we returned, she worked from home for awhile and I goofed off, watching Olympics on my phone, for the most part. (Currently watching Britain’s women volleyball team battling Dominican Republic. Go Britain!)

When it was nearing 5pm, we walked to the Midtown Global Market to meet up with Rachel. She was trying on a shirt at Global Mama’s and wound up buying it. It looked great on her. Then we wandered around the Market looking for where we wanted to eat. We all settled on The Left-Handed Cook.

It’s a newer place at the Market and the girls hadn’t tried it yet. So we started with their appetizer “Truffle Truffle Parm Parm” which is really fun to say. It was French fries with Parmesan cheese and truffle oil. They were tasty. I ordered the spare rib rice bowl with poached egg & kimchee. Amy got a soft crab & avocado sandwich and Rachel the porky cake (a polenta & pork dish). Everything we tried was lovely. I also had a Minnesotan cream soda (forget the brand) as my beverage.

We finished at the Market at Salty Tart where we picked up a baguette and some cupcakes. Then we returned home. We watched Olympics (NBC’s rather poor coverage), the girls folded laundry, and then we had cupcakes. Peach & vanilla with buttercream, Surly Furious chocolate (Surly Furious is a beer), and flourless chocolate and almond. All were very tasty – and since we got 2 of each, we had some for breakfast too!

Today I’ve been watching/listening to Olympics (see above) on my phone and working on Rachel’s laptop computer. She has a nice external drive, but the backup software kept failing. So I think I’ve found something else that works – the drive has no issues with accepting files and Winders saw no faults with it.

Rachel is back, so it’s time for lunch! Amy has made us sandwiches even though she’s “at work.”

More on ‘Droids

Ask anyone who’s talked with me lately and they’ll tell you this – Trina loves her new phone!

I loved my AT&T Tilt – it did what I needed it to do until only recently when it couldn’t keep up with the Joneses. But my Galaxy S III has been able to do what I wanted and then some.

And I understand why people get so excited about “apps.” I’ve had far too much fun at Google Play finding and trying out apps for my phone.

In addition to the software I mentioned in my previous entry, I have installed the following wonderful apps:

  • RealCalc A scientific calculator, like you do.

  • ColorDict It’s nice having a dictionary on one’s phone. Also got the thesaurus and spelling app.

  • Lightning Bug As recommended by a friend – I think I’m going to try sleeping with this ambient/white noise maker. First night with it a success.

  • Alarm Clock Extreme I’m going to try and use my phone as my daily alarm and this program looks like it will fit the bill. Will probably buy it.

  • Book Catalogue I really wish there was an app that synced with LibraryThing, but this at least can pull info from Goodreads. (So now I have to keep that database up to date too. I prefer LT, however.)

  • SoundHound Recommended by the friend who recommended Lightning Bug. That I can catch songs when I’m offline is fab. Now I just have to remember that I have this program when I hear a song that I want to ID.

  • Smart Tools THIS is why they made Smartphones! I love all of the tools from this program: compass, flashlight, decibel meter, etc. Brilliant.

  • Cocktail Flow Dad had this ad-supported app on his MP3 player and it looked fun. And best of all, the ads don’t show up when you’re offline.

  • iBird Pro Many’s the time I wondered what that birdsong was. Perhaps this program will help…

  • The Night Sky Many’s the time I wondered what that celestial object was. Perhaps this program will help…

  • Periodic Table Well, duh, I’m a chemistry teacher!

  • OI Shopping List Going to see if I can switch from paper lists to using my phone. So far, so good!

  • Alchemy Not the Popcap game of the same name – this interesting thing has you mix “elements” together to make new stuff. More interesting than it sounds. I made a whale!

  • Angry Birds Like you do… (They only have the ad-supported version, but once again, offline = no ads.)

  • Glow Hockey 2 Pro With Bejeweled 2 not yet available for my version of Android, I think this will be my “go to game.” Quite fun.

This isn’t all of the apps I’ve got on my phone, but they are some of the niftiest ones. I’ve got a couple of Text-To-Speech programs/voices that I’m trying out as well. CoPilot needs a decent voice. If any of you have nifty Android apps that you love, share the love – I’m always looking for more ideas.

Androids FTW!

Over four years ago, I bought my first Smartphone, an AT&T Tilt (AKA HTC TytnII). It was a wonderful addition to my World of Geek, but like all things, it got old. And in the World of Geek, a 4-year old Smartphone is ancient.

With my PC upgrade to Ubuntu 12.04, I lost out on my way to sync my phone & PC. No more contacts or calendar syncs for the treen! That was not good. So I started researching my options. I discovered that Android phones sync to Google and my e-mail program (Evolution still) can access Google calendars. So next up, who made a nice Android phone that also has built-in GPS and can work on AT&T’s system?

Although I am not AT&T’s biggest fan, I do like their Pay As You Go feature and I have over $170 worth of calls & texts on it. (Only costs $100 a year to top off the baby, and I’ve yet to use $100 worth of calls in one year.) My only drawback to switching to Android is the loss of DVD Profiler. There is a rumor, however, that there IS an Android version coming. Some day. Maybe. So I’ll have to be careful buying DVDs when I’m oot & aboot until they get it updated.

OK, so AT&T, GPS, Android, up to date (or as up to date as can be). These were my criteria. And I settled on the Samsung Galaxy S II. But as I was researching this phone, I read about the NEXT version of the Galaxy S. And when I started reading the specs on it, I realized THAT’s what I needed to get.

So I had picked my Phone of Choice – the Samsung Galaxy S III. It wasn’t out yet when I first chose it, but I figured I could last awhile without backing up my calendar & contacts. I already had everything copied over to GMail for the eventual switch to Android, however.

As I researched more, I discovered a drawback to my planned upgrade. The newer Smartphones require a MicroSIM card, rather than the regular SIM card. I read up on people trimming their cards to fit, and buying a $25+ trimmer. But I went to my local AT&T store and a very perky and helpful lady (I think she was bored with no one to talk to) said that they could transfer my info onto a new MicroSIM for a $25 fee. Heck, that worked for me!

In order to use my Pay As You Go account on the phone, I needed to buy the phone outright. And turns out Amazon.com was selling the phone for $549. I hemmed & hawed for quite awhile until I broke down last Thursday and ordered it. And then got into my usual geeky OMG there’s a package coming today!!!!!! mode yesterday while I waited for UPS to arrive with my new phone.

I ordered the pebble blue phone, which only looks blue under the right lighting. It’s very pretty. Bigger length & width, but much thinner than my old phone. After installing the battery, I plugged it in to charge, then connected it to my Wi-Fi. After syncing my calendar and contacts, I played around with Google Play looking for apps to download. And my sister surprised me by finding me through Google Talk. My phone wasn’t a phone yet and I was already receiving “texts.” Heh.

Once it was sufficiently charged, I took it to the AT&T store to switch SIM cards. The gentlemen there were very nice and I didn’t even have to take the old SIM out for the process. I called the folks as soon as the SIM was in place and everything worked just as it should. The folks said that I sounded clear to them (and they to me). So yay – it even works as a phone!

Later in the evening, I purchased and installed CoPilot Live. This was the GPS software I’d been using on my Tilt – inexpensive (much moreso than Garmin or TomTom) and reliable. After discovering that Samsung’s Find My Phone software doesn’t work in the US (an aggravating half hour of installs & checks & still nothing), I also bought Cerberus Anti-Theft for my phone. And once installed, it found my phone. (After judiang‘s recent “lost iPhone” scare, I thought I should get that pronto.)

Today, I’m still working on getting the phone how I want it. Alas, Bejeweled 2, my go-to game on the old phone, isn’t available yet for this version of Android (Ice Cream Sandwich). I haven’t found a euchre game yet for it, either, which was my other go-to game. There are several to choose from there, however. I’m also going to set up the SD card (currently an 8GB card, though I have a 32GB card now on order) to be my music drive.

Turns out the earbuds that came with the phone are pretty dire – the music was tinny, like it was being played by a cell phone (heh). But with my nice headphones, the music sounds proper. And the little pause button on the headphones works (although the volume buttons don’t seem to – which, considering the cable is designed for iPods, is OK – perk with the pause working!)

Anyhoo, some more tweaking (the best part of any new tech, IMO) and it’ll be PERFECT! Or at least as perfect as it can be. Woohoo! New Smartphone!

What has Trina been up to?

My summer has been a nice and lazy one. I find myself in my library reading, sometimes with a cat, sometimes without (like right now – come on Lucy, get in here!) and that’s been lovely. I must remember how nice that is when things get crazy during the school year. 🙂

In between the reading (and the gaming), I have done some other things too. Like last Monday when mom and I went to a cooking class to learn some summer fruit desserts. Best $5 I’ve spent in a long time, I told mom. We learned how to make galettes (which are very easy with prefab pie dough), peach ice cream, chocolate mousse (made with ricotta cheese), and crepes (filled with lemon curd) with blueberry sauce. Everything was easy and delicious.

The next day, mom and I ventured out again, this time to watch my young cousin Sydney perform in a juvenile production of Annie. She was playing Miss Hannigan (alternating with another girl – the bigger parts were played by multiple people). It was a cute production – the kids did a nice job, though it was often hard to hear them, speaking or singing. Syd did a very nice job, IMHO.

Then on Wednesday, I had surprise guests – the parental units! They had popped in since mom had just had her hair done (her stylist is in my town, not hers) and wanted to see my ceiling fans. I gave them a tour and they liked ’em. They were going off to Trophy Nuts in Tipp to buy nuts (fancy that!) and I finagled my way to the Grand Adventure.

I bought a nice assortment of nuts from Trophy Nuts and my favorite preserves, too (hot pepper & peach preserves, if you want to know). Then we went to Harrison’s for lunch (and $.99 margaritas). I had finagled my way by offering my services as the DD. Heh. So I drove the folks home (to my place) and we chatted awhile until dad felt he was able to drive them home.

Friday evening was a meeting of our “Supper Club” at mom & dad’s. Normally, we go out with some friends (all now retired, except me) once or twice a month to a local restaurant. This time, however, mom suggested their hosting it. Dad has perfected pork chops with their new grill, so mom wanted to have that, cooler corn, and dad’s world famous slaw. The day of, 1 of the couples called to cancel – she had bronchitis, alas, and he was going to stay home & look after her. But the other two showed. Mom and I made a peach galette (since the missing couple was going to bring dessert) which turned out very yummy.

The evening was a success. The pork chops were perfect. The corn was wonderfully sweet. The slaw, popular. And the galette was also a hit. And the evening culminated with searches through annuals looking at photos of other former co-workers from way back when. (One of our guests couldn’t remember when she had started working at Newton, so we searched through the 80s to find her.) Those were a lot of fun for reminiscing.

Then, on Saturday morning, mom and I tried out our crepe-making skills for breakfast. Well, mom made the crepes, and I made the blueberry sauce. We also used lemon curd (mom got it from Trophy Nut) as the filling. We did a fab job, IMO. Dad agreed – it was a good second breakfast for him. (He gets up earlier than we do on Saturdays!)

Anyhoo, this week will be another lazy one, I suspect. I’m going to enjoy the hell out of these lazy days while I’m allowed them!

A Grand Adventure (in Cheese)

My family has a tradition of going on a Grand Adventure from time to time. Basically, we have a vague goal in mind and a vague destination, and there ya go: A Grand Adventure! So yesterday, the folks and I went on a Grand Adventure to Bellefontaine.

It all started with a Groupon coupon that my mother had bought for Blue Jacket Dairy (BJD). BJD shows up regularly at one of the Farmer’s Markets we frequent, so we were familiar with their cheese. The Groupon, OTOH, is only valid at their store, which is in Bellefontaine. The Groupon was going to expire soon, so we finally planned our Grand Adventure.

We packed a cooler w/ ice pack and headed north and east. We found the Dairy with only one turn-around (we do tend to travel by limits – think calculus) and entered the tiny storefront. It had to be the noisiest room I’d ever been in. Poor dad couldn’t hear a word that anyone was saying. Turns out they had sold out of a lot of their cheese just the day before, but they had my favorite (houtz – a hard goat cheese) and quite a few things that I wanted to try. The folks found some stuff they wanted as well.

Our next stage of the Grand Adventure was lunch. We drove around Bellefontaine looking for a nice lunch place and were disappointed. Their downtown was lacking shops and restaurants. We then looked for the ice cream shop associated with BJD, but there was no place to park and only outdoor seating. So we headed south to West Liberty.

There were some nifty shops to peruse here in the downtown area and one of the shopkeepers recommended Liberty Gathering Place for lunch. (West Liberty > Bellefontaine, even though it’s much smaller.) So we ate lunch there (I had a nice turkey club with fries & slaw, followed by a very yummy peach crumble pie a la mode) and then backtracked a little to Marie’s Candies for some chocolate.

As soon as we entered the store, they gave us all a sample. Then when we were perusing their various choices, the attendant asked what sorts of candies we liked, so she gave us samples of their equivalent. (Well, I’d started off by saying that we were from Winans country and here for the first time and I think she wanted to show us Marie’s was just as good, if not better, than Winans.) So I got $9 worth of chocolate candies (most with nuts but a couple of mints too).

The cooler, it turned out, was great for holding not only the cheese, but also the chocolate. Our Grand Adventure now over, we headed back south & west to home where mom & I went out to be Swimmin’ Wimmin. 🙂

Fun without the Taste

Usually when elsaf and I come to visit judiang over the 4th of July holiday, we visit the Taste of Chicago. But turns out, Chicago has moved the dates of Taste until the 11th of July. So we’ve not been going there for variety victuals.

Elsa arrived late on Sunday, and it wasn’t long before we were all abed. Monday morning, Judi went off to work, so Elsa and I hung out for awhile until she returned. Then we went off to Three Happiness for dim sum (ooooh, two days in a row). During the week, you order off the menu. And turned out when we got done, the three of us ate about the same amount of food as the two of us had the day before. Heh.

We also popped over to Target after dim sum, like the day before, because Judi had tried out a personal float in the pool that worked well with her. And Target sells ’em, so she got one.

Judi lives near all these lovely museums, and so we headed off to the Adler Planetarium. With a suggestion from the lady selling us our tickets, we bought tickets for the Undiscovered Planets movie as well as the general admission. It was a dome movie and was quite nifty (though we were all tired and it was difficult to stay awake). I enjoyed the museum, but I think the girls were too tired to get much enjoyment from it.

So we returned to the apartment and Judi and I headed off to go swimming. (Elsa was feeling a little under the weather.) And after that, we grilled hot dogs & had dogs & beans for supper. Followed by ice cream – woo!

Our evening entertainment was watching The Artist. However, we discovered that Judi’s den DVD player is dying. And then discovered that her living room DVD player is dead. So we wound up sitting on her bed & watching the movie on her bedroom DVD player. Heh. Excellent movie, BTW. (Anyone else seen the DVD version and/or the theatrical version? If so, we’ve got a question for you…)

This morning, Judi returned to work again, so Elsa and I went to Little Branch Cafe for breakfast. I had an egg, bacon & cheese bagel sammich, has browns, and fruit. Oh, and a hot cocoa. Tasty. Then I walked to the grocery to return the video (RedBox FTW) and then on to Field Museum to see the Extreme Mammals exhibit.

Today was under a Heat Advisory from 11am on. So my goal was to spend only about 2 hours and head back to Judi’s by 11am. And it took nearly 2 hours to see the exhibit. The girls and I then went to Little Branch for lunch. After my walk in the heat, I decided I wanted cool, so I had a smoothie (mango, blueberry, vanilla, apple juice) and salad (with blueberries, strawberries, almonds, and yogurt dressing). Very yummy and cool.

We bought tickets to see the matinée of Crowns, a gospel musical. I knew nothing about the musical other than that. And learned it was about Sunday church hats and the ladies who wear them. It was a fabulous musical. I laughed, I cried, I wanted to dance. 🙂

Next was swimming time! All three of us were able to swim and we had a very nice time. Then Elsa made us gazpacho soup and I grilled corn on the cob and flank steak. Supper was lovely. And we followed it with ice cream. And Judi gets leftovers.

Now Elsa and I are watching Game of Thrones season 2 episodes. I won’t get the season done before I go, but I’ll be getting the Blu-Rays when they eventually come out. Alas, tomorrow I must leave here (but hooray, I return to my kitties).