This is my skinny Charlie Brown Christmas tree, which I bought at a garage sale for $8. Loaded with all my ornaments, it looks pretty good. And the yellow room likes Christmas. It is glowing!
Last Spring I posted pictures of my view from the porch. Just thought it would be nice to post the same view in autumn:
Magnificent, no?
Of course now it is quite bare and gray, and it's been raining nonstop. Would prefer a little snow at this point.
Well, on to news. I recently wrapped up another trip to the Midwest, first stopping in Lafayette, where I met my friends Betty and Linda for lunch at Jane's Deli.
This is the Library School Carpool Alumni group. We have been meeting for lunch since the early nineties, when we all finished our library degrees at IU. None of us are librarians any more, but we've all done some time in the stacks.
I also had great visits with my friend Deb, and my friends at my old office at Purdue.
Then it was on to Chicago! First on the agenda was Morgan's second birthday party.
Here he is posing with all his packages beforehand -- not yet dressed, and without a clue about what was to happen! Oh, and don't be alarmed about the busted lip. He took a running fall a few nights before his party and visited the ER. But it looked worse than it was!
He soon caught on to what birthdays are all about! Notice the nifty two-handed toy-playing technique.
Mommy made the house so pretty!
Link enjoyed the decorations, too.
Naturally, there was birthday cake -- this one shaped like a cow to go with the farm theme. Morgan blew his candles out twice -- once was not enough! It was a great day, for Morgan and everyone.
The best part of this trip was having time with BOTH sons in the same city! Here are Brian and Kristen at Portillo's Hot Dogs -- where the parking costs more than lunch!
Later in the week I was treated to lunch at Brian's place of business, Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab. Yes, that's really the name, but the sign just says:
Here is Brian in his fancy uniform, on his way to work:
And here are the three of us enjoying dessert after an elegant lunch at Joe's.
The food was great! And Johnny, if you're reading this, I want you to know we DID take away a doggy bag, but ended up giving it to a guy who introduced himself as a "homeless dude." I hope he enjoyed it as much as we did.
Other activities included a cold trip to the park with Andrew and Morgan:
A cold visit to Michigan Avenue for the Festival of Lights:
A cold ride on the el:
Did I mention it was cold?
One evening we all got together at Brian's apartment for pizza, and I took the opportunity to get a group picture. We drew the curtains for a real "studio" shot:
But Morgan wasn't in the mood.
"Okay, I'll smile a little bit."
"That's it, I'm outta here!"
I finished up my trip with Thanksgiving in Holland. I didn't get many pictures -- I was having too much fun. Between the eating, the card games and the thrift-store shopping, it was a blast. And for some reason, Brian was wearing earrings?
Oh yeah, goofing around for Gretel and Bridget. I promised him this would end up on the blog!
If anyone is still reading, thanks for sticking with this long post! Trust me, there was SO much more I could have added, so consider yourself lucky!
Many of you know I lost my longtime friend and companion, my dog Kodi, this past Thanksgiving Day. After many months of progressive stiffness and painful walking, he was finally unable to get up that day. A visit to the emergency vet confirmed that his hip was displaced and there was nothing to be done but to put him down.
Kodi never took a good picture. He almost always barked at the camera, and his eyes always glowed like a wolf's in the flash. So pictures don't do him justice. He was a mutt, probably with some husky/shepherd background -- but people used to stop me on the street to tell me how beautiful he was and ask about his breed.
Ah, why do dogs have such short lives? I'll never know, but I know it has been a privilege to be his "mommy" for fourteen years, and he'll live in my heart as long as I do.
