Strawberry Festival

Joe and I went to the Strawberry Festival in quaint Long Grove yesterday. We enjoyed visiting the cute shops, people-watching, listening to live music and indulging in some good but not-so-good-for-you foods. For Joe, that meant a strawberry donut, bratwurst and a deep-fried Twinkie. I had chocolate covered strawberries, crab rangoon and strawberry lemonade. (Ecclectic palates, huh?) Very cute little town. I'm sure we'll be back again for one of their many festivals.

After the storm

This is pretty much what my yard looks like today. We had a storm last night with tornado sirens off and on. Joe and I, along with the dogs, spent part of our evening huddled in our tiny, basement bathroom...glad to say that all is well except for our lovely yard debris. Considering we have to bundle and pay for any yard waste that gets set out for collection we will likely have to hire someone to just haul all these tree limbs away.

Kate

I got to meet my sweet friend, Kate, her boys and family at Navy Pier today. We rode the famous Navy Pier ferris wheel and had such a fun time watching the boys play; Kate even got me to ride on the carousel with them!

NKOTBSB

I am home after a night of boy-band heaven with New Kids on the Block and Backstreet Boys. My friend, Amber came up from Missouri to go to the show with me. The last time the two of us were at a NKOTB concert together was a little over 20 years ago...yes, 20 years. Wow. Back then my parents had to drive us to the show! The concert was so much fun and, sadly, I am not likely to have a voice for awhile - way too much screaming...hope we are still doing stuff like this 20 years from now. Long live the boy bands.   

Minneapolis

This week I took a 48-hour mini-vacation to visit my friend, Kim in Minneapolis. It's hard to believe but I haven't seen her since her wedding more than two and a half years ago. And not only did I get to see Kim and her husband, Chris but I got to meet their year-old daughter, Hannah! We had fun hanging out, went to the Mall of America for a bit, had a great dinner one night in the Nicollet Mall district and visited the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.

Kim, Hannah and I standing in front of Spoonbridge and Cherry at the Sculpture Garden.

The famous Mary Tyler Moore statue. And, yes, I tried to do a reenactment of the hat toss.

Gleeks

We are big Glee fans so I was very excited that we were able to get tickets and go to Glee Live this afternoon. It was so much fun and we got to see performances by both "New Directions" and the "Dalton Academy Warblers." Seeing the actors and actresses perform live really made the show come to life. I think I'm going to be on a Glee high the rest of the night.

Summer lovin'

Today marked Joe's first Friday off of the summer. (He will have every Friday off for the next couple months in exchange for working ten-hour days, Monday - Friday.) Today's Friday off meant a morning walk to Starbucks and then to the hardware store, yard work, a movie (X-Men: First Class) and going out for pizza. Can't wait to see what else our Fridays will entail.

African Violet Yumminess

I'm obsessed with this cake from Williams-Sonoma. I can't imagine spending $100 on a tiny (albeit, beautiful) cake but if anyone buys it, let me know if it's this lovely in person.

Facelift

My blog needed a mini-facelift after several years of looking exactly the same. Thanks, Nichole for the new header for the blog!