new decade

I turned the big six-oh....

Feels so weird saying I'm sixty. Sounds officially old. I guess it's a good thing I don't feel old. Well, some days. Ask me today and I'd tell you I feel 90 with the back pain I've been having.

I couldn't have asked for a better day to celebrate my birthday. It was filled with some of my favorite things. The sun was shining and it was warm, but not too warm. We started out the day hanging out by Lake Michigan, in our favorite park. What we call our Happy Place. We picked up our favorite baked goodies from Hewn (independent; women-owned; baked goods made from organic, stone milled grains and naturally fermented ~ you must make a trip if you're in the Chicago area!) and I got my favorite morning summer drink: an iced coffee. 

Then into Chicago for...

Amazing tacos and a handcrafted blueberry basil margarita from Antique Taco.

 Book browsing (and buying a few books) at Myopic Books.

 Furniture shopping (but no buying!) at District Chicago, where they have the coolest mid-century modern and Scandinavian furniture and decor. I was enamored with quite a few things in this store, including the pictured shelving unit with the built-in glass bowl on top.

Lots of walking around the Andersonville neighborhood of Chicago, where we went in and out of stores and eventually found our way to the Galleria. I fell in love with a certain artist's jewelry, particularly the earrings. I wish I could remember the artist's name and what the earrings are made out of, but...there goes the old lady mind. 😉 Brian bought them for me.

We picked up Indian food on the way home, and ended the night with a glass of wine on the porch, being serenaded by the crickets and mesmerized by the supermoon.

The celebrating still continues with flowers, gifts, and meals out with family and friends. I am blessed! 
 

when the going gets tough

Sometimes a little escapism is just what one needs.

As I mentioned in my last post, we were hoping for an easy fix on our central air conditioner. After some excuses (some valid, some seemingly not so), the HVAC guy, Rocky finally showed up. Turns out, our AC was fried. I wasn't surprised - it's 30 years old. The "good" news was that our furnace, despite being the same age, still has another 7-10 years to go. After agreeing about installing a new air conditioner, it's been one excuse after another why Rocky couldn't show up. Yesterday - Saturday - was the last straw. I got up extra early to get ready, expecting Rocky and his partner to be here. Rocky texted me at the last minute, claiming his truck broke down. He sent me photos of his truck being towed away and said the service department couldn't even look at his truck until Monday. So now he was hoping for Tuesday to install our AC. Oh, it gets even better....but first, my escapism story.

I was disappointed and frankly, pissed off due to Rocky's excuses, but because it was a beautiful day, I decided to get out of here and take a little day trip. I went to my happy place: Evanston.

I always start out by visiting Hewn for one of their homemade scones or muffins. I sat outside on the benches they have set up in the nice weather, enjoying my treat and people-watching.

Next, I walked up the street to Secret Treasures, my all-time favorite vintage shop. I did indeed find some treasures...this set of aqua (or is it turquoise? Either way, it's my favorite color) Buffalo China (USA) diner dishes and creamer.

And this aqua and white striped McCoy pitcher. I love vintage pottery, but especially McCoy. I walked by this piece twice. I picked it up and held it and looked it over and put it down. Walked around the shop and thought about it. Would I regret not getting it if I didn't buy it? Probably. I'm glad I bought it. It's a beauty.

Evanston has a ton of gorgeous houses. I've featured some on my blog in the past. I was driving around and found a street I don't remember being on before. It was lined with beautiful homes, so I pulled over, parked the car, and went for a walk.

This home was having work done on it. I love the architecture.

This home is almost fairytale like, but elegant.

I then went to the farmer's market where I bought baby greens, romaine and breakfast radishes. I accidentally deleted the photos from the farmer's market, so I had to steal this one from my IG page. The way this vendor displays their vegetables is always beautiful. There's another vendor at this farmer's market that sells their authentic tamales and tacos. We get something to eat from them every time we're at this farmer's market. Since it was lunchtime, I got a chicken red mole tamale, and headed for a shady picnic table. It ended up that I sat across from a lady from Chicago and we had a lovely conversation while we were eating. ("A stranger is a friend you haven't met".)

A trip to Evanston wouldn't be complete to me, until I've visited the lakefront (Lake Michigan). All the shades of blue never fail to amaze me. 

 I sit on the boulder and just gaze out at the water. It's so peaceful.

 Looking the other way into the park. This place is never crowded, even on a weekend. You might see some dog walkers, joggers, a family having a picnic, some teens playing Frisbee, or lovers walking hand-in-hand, but never many at one time. I took my blanket and laid in the shade under a big oak tree. That's when I decided to take a closer look at the photos that Rocky sent me of his truck being towed away. I zoomed in on them and it hit me: There were no leaves on the trees in the background!! Not by his house, nor in the background of the house across the street. These were obviously old pictures! Busted! I called Brian at work to tell him. Brian then called the tow truck company and talked to the guy that had been on call since 4:00 a.m. He hadn't had any tows all day! I immediately texted Rocky and called him out on all this. Told him if he was going to be a liar, at least be a good one. Do you know what he replied? He said, "Whatever. Trees are dead do (sic) to the wetlands." Riight. It got even uglier from there with him saying he was going to send us a bill for a service call (he had waived his service call fee when he finally showed up, since he was a day late) and that if we didn't pay it, his brother was a "lean (sic) lawyer." What a horrible, dishonest businessman.

In the late afternoon, I finally headed for home, but stopped at Gigio's Pizzeria to get slices of pizza for Brian and his work partner. I made a special delivery on my way home. Gigio's is a place that has special meaning to me and Brian. We ate there all the time when we were dating. And when he was working nights as security in the local hospital, I'd pick up pizza after I got off work, and bring it to him for dinner at the hospital. Thirty-six years later, and I'm still delivering Gigio's pizza to him at work. 😉

Back to Rocky and his HVAC business, I did warn locals on my FB page and my town's FB page about him. I was going to write a review on Yelp, but I did my research first and found that you can be sued for slander for posting negative reviews on businesses. Of course, there's loopholes - you have to word your review just so - but I didn't want to take any chances. I also chose not to report him to the BBB - at least, not just yet. I'm still thinking about it. Again, I read about filing a complaint against a business, and it involves communication with that business. I don't know if I want to go there. I've already blocked his number on my phone so I can't receive any more texts or calls. I'd rather just forget this whole thing and put it behind me. Though to cover my behind, I took a drive out to his house today and took photos of the trees and wetlands surrounding his property. No surprise that everything was very green and lush - no bare trees.

We have found a new HVAC company - one that was recommended by several people and has an A+ rating on BBB. We'll be calling them first thing tomorrow morning. Here's hoping we can get a new AC unit installed ASAP...after this week of cool temps, it's heating up again. It's already 82 degrees in the house today and will only get worse as the week goes on. To be continued!

spring weekends

 Spring weekends can't be all yard work, right? Time for another day trip! At first, we considered going to an antique and garden show in Wisconsin, but good thing I looked on Facebook beforehand: There were many posts about how crowded the place was. The police even shut down the main intersection near the farm and were turning people away. So, we chose to go to Evanston - one of our favorite day trip towns. 

We started out with a stop at Hewn. I got a strawberry muffin and Brian got a walnut scone. We sat outside in the sunshine and enjoyed our goodies while people-watching. We also bought a loaf of their homemade bread to bring home. I think it's a good thing we don't live close to this place. We could really get into trouble! 

From their web site..."Everything at Hewn is made in-house, from scratch daily. We source local and seasonal ingredients from small, local farmers when their flavors are at their peak. All of our breads are hand-mixed, hand-shaped and naturally fermented without commercial yeast. Allowing bread to ferment with wild yeast allows a richer, more complex flavor to develop. It also allows the gluten proteins to slowly and naturally break down over time. The starter (levain/sourdough) was initially created by Ellen (owner) several years ago. Our bakers all work to feed and maintain the starter every day.

Each day our bakers mix the dough by hand, turning it every 30 minutes over a four hour period. The dough is then shaped and placed into bannetons, where it rests overnight to rise naturally. In the morning, the bakers fire up the oven and bake the bread. From the start of the mix to the bake, the bread is fermented approximately 20 hours."

We walked around the neighborhood, popping into different shops and stopping to listen to a street band. I loved this planter I saw in front of one of the stores.

Cool street art...

We also visited a farmer's market. Not much going on just yet at farmer's markets here...mostly a lot of plants and spring veggies such as rhubarb and kale. At one booth, I pointed to the rhubarb and mentioned to Brian that "my rhubarb isn't this big and beautiful." The lady in the booth overheard me and remarked, "That's because you don't know what you're doing, my dear." Quite presumptuous, don't you think? Needless to say, I didn't buy anything from Rude Rhubarb Lady. ;-) I did buy a pound of fingerling potatoes from another vendor, which I roasted with olive oil, salt and pepper last night. Then I tossed them with some of my fresh herbs. We agreed that they were the best potatoes we'd ever had. Garden-fresh makes all the difference. I also bought beef bones from another organic farmer so that I can make bone broth. 

We saw this sign on the side of the library and loved it. We talked about how kids merely go through Google and click on links to do research nowadays. And how we used to have to go to the library, use the card catalog (remember those?) to look for appropriate books and periodicals, then look through and read said material. This banner is part of a project from Libraries Transform if you're interested in reading more about the Libraries Transform campaign.

I've mentioned before about Evanston that one of the many things I love about this town is the gorgeous houses. This one is the Oscar Mayer mansion - currently undergoing renovation.

Our last stop of the day was the lakefront. This has always been one of my favorite views looking toward Chicago. See the tiny building on the far right? That's the John Hancock Center. 

We spread out a blanket in the grass area of the park in front of the lake. We brought our books with us, too ~ after all, our intention was to relax and read. Well, intentions are just that. I think my body wanted to nap off the Indian cuisine we had for lunch. ;-)

It was back to the yard work and gardening on Sunday and most of the day today, too. We've been blessed with beautiful weather, but looks like rain is moving in for the rest of the week. Catch you later with some garden updates!