Sorry for my silence the last few days, but I have sort of a good excuse: the Rosary Ladies are all together again! Anna Banana II came to town Thursday, and that evening I met her, Jilly Moose, and Richard Bonomo at a place in Hilldale called Forage that makes very healthy salads and rice bowls. They had a "Date Night" special of two entrees, one appetizer, and two adult drinks for $40, so Anna Banana II and I had a "date," although we are both married to other people. Then we all went swimming in the warm pool at our health club.
Friday was very slow at work, so I took the afternoon off and gardened. In the evening Travalon and I went to a birthday party for the married B-Boy, and I mostly entertained his daughter, who is seven. We played a game she made up that I suppose you would call "I Love You More" where we tried to top each other with things like "I love you more than infinity!" and "I love you more than the sun, the moon, and the rainbow!" When I said, "I love you more than all the bubbles in champagne!" then she said, "I love you more than all the beer, the wine, and the brandy!" and her mom said, "Okay, that's enough talking about adult drinks!"
Saturday my band played for two hours at the Farmers' Market at Elver Park, and to my surprise they paid us $20 each. I thought it was a free gig! Our leader didn't bring a tip can, but people started dropping money on the ground in front of us, so I put my hat down (since we were in the shade), and they filled it up so we each got over $4 in tips! Then Travalon and I met Anna Banana II, Jilly Moose, Rich, Prairie Man, and OK Cap at Pasqual's for lunch. OK Cap had fallen on the way over, and she said her foot really hurt. It turns out she broke a bone in it! Yikes! It was so hot that Travalon and I hid in the house until we met Hockey Girl to take a pontoon boat ride to see the fireworks. I was a bit scared of taking a three-hour boat ride with no bathroom available, but I was fine. The people sitting beside us were friendly, the sunset was spectacular and so were the fireworks, and then the lights of the city and all the boats around us were so beautiful. The fireworks go off over the Monona Terrace, with the Capitol in the background. One of the coolest things was that tons of people were in kayaks, and they decorated them with Christmas lights so they would be visible in the dark. We all tried to take pictures and then bemoaned that our phones do not take such great nighttime photos, and we had all left our good cameras at home.
Sunday after Mass, Travalon and I went to School Grounds, the coffeehouse in the old schoolhouse, and we sat outside until I could tell a storm was about to hit. We got into the car just before it started and had to drive through quite a thunderstorm. When it cleared up, we ventured out to my garden plot and to the Allen Centennial Gardens, where we saw the bald cardinal from a distance just before another storm blew up. In the evening we went to Rich's house for dinner with Kathbert.
Monday I took off of work and went to Marytown with Anna Banana II, Jilly Moose, and Luxuli. We got there just after we thought Mass was supposed to start, but it was actually an hour later, so we went to the gift shop. I bought a rosary that makes me think of the words to the third verse of "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence," with its faceted beads that shine teal and purple in a sort of celestial sheen, and the Our Father beads that are cherubim. (With sleepless eye?) At Mass the organist played that tune, Picardy, during Communion, and then he ended on a major chord - a Picardy third! When I mentioned it afterwards, he said, "Thanks for noticing!" so he clearly did it on purpose. Ha! Music nerd inside jokes! We went to lunch at an Indian restaurant and then took a three-something mile walk around the lake at Mundelein Seminary. On the way home we went right past Tiffy's town, so I called to see if she wanted to meet us for dinner, but she was way up north.
Yesterday I had to go into work for half a day just for the credit card reconciliation, and then Anna Banana II and Jilly Moose picked me up and we went back to Hilldale for lunch. Forage was very busy, so we went to a place called Bartaco with all kinds of tacos, and that was delicious too. Luxuli joined us to go swimming at Salmo Pond, and it was such a hot day that the cold water felt wonderful. Jilly Moose had brought a big inflatable donut thing decorated with Skittles or something, so we inflated it and tried it out. We picked OK Cap up from work on the way to my church so I could do my usual Tuesday evening Holy Hour, then Travalon and Rich joined us for dinner at the Globe. The owner said a bunch of reviews on Yelp disappeared, including mine! I guess the algorithms think I am a fake reviewer...?
Who knows what adventures await us today? We talked about going paddle boating. So far this morning I have gone to my garden plot and weeded, and I've eaten breakfast: coffee, a banana, lettuce from the garden, radishes from the garden, and kale from the garden. I am starting to feel peckish and think I may have to dig into my leftovers from the Globe soon.
Here are some photos from our recent adventures. First are two shots of the sunset and one of downtown after dark from our boat ride.
My other strawberry plant finally bloomed, and it has pink flowers too! I thought this one was a regular white-flowering variety. So far from the other plant I have eaten two berries and lost two (to humans or other creatures, who knows?), and it has some more ripening. One has a bite out of it!
This is the house in the Allen Centennial Gardens. I believe it used to be the Chancellor's residence once upon a time. Now I'm not sure what happens inside.
Does anyone know what kind of bush this is? I see them all over the place. They have pretty purple leaves and get these fuzzy red pompoms this time of year.
Here are a couple of shots of the inside of the chapel at Marytown. I like the five-foot monstrance and the baldacchino over it that almost looks steampunk to me, the way it is painted to look like an old-fashioned hot air balloon.
The animals were not afraid of us as we hiked around the lake at Mundelein. Here are a deer and a rabbit that we got really close to.
There were some cool monuments on the Mundelein campus. This one is out in the water! We didn't see what it was, because just when we got close to it, a campus security guy told us the place had closed at five, so we headed back to the car.
This is a monument to aborted babies, I think. It has a hand holding the cutout of a baby, to show that the baby is missing.
And finally, a brief movie of the start of the fireworks display we saw from the boat.
Famous Hat
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