Cafe Ba Ba Reeba

Mike and I went into the city to celebrate Mary's birthday.

On the way in we stopped at a red light and there was a bar on the corner that said Tapas and bar. We both commented on what it might be. We had no idea what it meant until we got to Cafe Baba Reeba. It too said Tapas bar. Tapas bars are place that serve Spanish appetizers - no entries' and everybody gets a taste of all the foods. Interesting!

I wanted to go there cause one, I love Mexican food and two, I knew it was one of Ozzie's favorite restaurants.

Bryan brings out his phone and starts typing. I'm like really - you can't leave that thing off for a couple of hours - at least until we finish with dinner. Come to think of it I noticed, as we walked in, there was a bunch of  people checking their phone. Turns out their is a website Foursquare (I thought that was a bar around the corner from his old apartment- silly me, that is Four Shadows) that if you log in where you are, you can score free stuff. Bryan shows his phone to our waiter and wellllla we get a free appetizer platter. OK, all forgiven.

The food was really good and I liked that you can fill up on different things and you're not committed to one big dinner. You don't feel so guilty taking a tiny bite of 4 desserts instead of chowing down on one big one.

The peach sangria was awesome too.

Is that SNOW???

Come On - I know it was supposed to be cooler today, but can that really be snow?

I'm a fool - It's just blossoms from my gorgeous crab tree.

Mystery Solved

Today was the day we finally got to see all the quilts from the "Mystery Quilt" group.

There was 11 quilts total.
Sharen did not know which one was mine, but I didn't have too hard a time picking hers out.

It was an awesome experience and Sharen and I both signed up for the next one.

 We all had the same instructions, but just like they promised, the quilts were sooooo different. Here they are all layed out in the living room. For a close up look of all the quilt - I posted them on my shutterfly account. One of the quilts was the same material I used for Mary's apron.

141 Sweetbriar

Mike grew up in the house.
His family built the house. His Mother lived there for 52 years.

When your childhood home is sold  you always wonder  if the next family will love it and care for it like you did.

Mike's family has no worries.
Amanda and Gene love Sweetbriar. They are slowly making changes. They are expecting their first child in October and planning on raising a whole bunch of kids there.

Here are some pictures I took today.
They removed all the outdated evergreens out front and the old, ugly, aluminum awning over the front door.

   They tore out all the paneling in each room of the house.



And installed wood flooring in all the rooms, except the kitchen Amanda couldn't find a tile that she likes for that yet.
 
 

They both love the screen porch. They added new wains coating and Gene is putting the new screens in this weekend.

They removed the closet in the dining room and added it to their bedroom for a huge organized closet.

 

The basement took the biggest transformation.

 They liked the bar, but it was too big, so they cut 3 feet off the end and moved the black frig down from the kitchen.

 The doorway into the closet was closed off and Amanda uses that space for making her quilts.

 The kitchen soffet was removed and Amanda painted the cabinets white.

So no worries Millikan's - Sweetbriar is in very, very good hands.

There are more pictures on my shutterfly.

Math Problem

I love Math.
It was my favorite subject in school. I preferred Geometry over Trig, but I loved both classes.

I do the KenKen in the SunTimes every morning.
I have KenKen books that I will do while watching TV.
Last weekend I offered Mary my book so she could see what I was doing and try her hand at KenKen. She politely turned me down. She confessed the only thing she like about Math was story problems and only because they told a story. Her, the lover of the written word!

Bryan wasn't joining in on my fun either. He was good in math and always got good grades but it wasn't something that he enjoyed enough to use in puzzles.

Mike will do the occasional Sudoko, but the KenKens he leaves for me.

Maybe that is why I enjoy quilting so much. There is math in measuring blocks and certainly in deciding how much fabric to buy. (There are books and instructions that tell you exactly how much to buy).

The last few quilt project I have done I redesigned the patterns.  So, I always take a measuring tape and calculator to the fabric store.

 Problem:
This Math problem happened in the garden section of the Menards down the street. As I was standing there staring at the bags of top soil I couldn't help but think of Mary and smile.

When Mike builds Karen a raised garden 8 ft X 5 ft - 6 inches high how many 40 lb bags of topsoil will she  need to fill the space?
I know lots - It didn't say how much cubic ft in each bag so  I bought 10 thinking I would see how far that would go and I would go back and get more. That didn't even put a dent in it so I added a bag of peat and all the contents of my compost pit.
I needed so much more dirt so we did what we have done before and go back in the lots behind us and steal it. They had such beautiful gardens back there with really rich dirt.

Mike made two trips on the tractor pulling the cart filled with garbage cans of soil and I now have a full raised garden. Problem solved.

My Oprah Visit

In the Sun Times this morning there was an article on a lady who has a history with the Oprah show and her celebrity guest Tom Cruise. Article

It brought back the time that Sharen and I saw Oprah.
It was in 86' before she was "OPRAH" or syndicated for that matter. She was AM Chicago back then.
We took an early train out of Elgin and of course it was running late. We grabbed a taxi and told him we would pay him a huge tip if he got us to the studio for the show before they closed the doors.
OMG - I will never forget that taxi ride.

They hustled us all into a room (I'm sure now they call it the green room)- checked our wardrobe and makeup and then single file we headed into the studio. It was folding chairs sitting in front of a raised platform.
The show was on sibling rivalry and they must of seen that Sharen and I were twins, because they seated us on the aisle - I had the outside seat. We were instructed to stand when and if Oprah came down the aisle and tapped our shoulder.
Back then she didn't sit on a chair on stage she wandered around the audience, up and down the 2 aisles.
I remember the guests were a family of 3 sisters that did not get along - one wouldn't even sit on the stage with the other two. SO sad. She sat in the audience with their Mother.

We didn't have any question for them, so Oprah left us alone. At the end of the show Oprah must has seen the dismay on our faces, because she tapped me on the shoulder. My mouth went dry - you want me to talk on TV?????
I stood up and mumbled something about how they needed to work things out because being a sister is one of the greatest joys. Oh Yeah, I was totally embarrassed.

So - I got to be on the Oprah show! I got to speak on TV! I got her autograph! And I got proof, because we taped the show and I still have the VHS tape and this picture.

After the show we went downtown and met up with Sharen's brother-in-law for lunch and one of the ladies at the lunch counter recognized us from the show. More embarrassment, but really great memories!

Mom's Present

Since I am a Mom too, and we are having company on Sunday, Mike and I decided to give my Mother her present today.

While Sharen was planting Mom's planter with fresh flowers (her Mother's Day present), Mike and I got to work on recovering her kitchen chairs. Linda mentioned it a while back that they need new seat covers and I remembered.
Removing the material was challenging to say the least. There must be a shortage of staples somewhere, because they were hundreds in  the bottom of those chairs.

Me showing Linda the material I chose, while Mike continues to remove more staples.

Screwing the newly covered seat back on.

Mom's new chairs!!!

Skinny Girl

Mike has been asking what do I want to do for Mother's Day.
I don't really have any big plans.

I just want to sit on the back deck with my kids and have a few cocktails, that won't sabotage my weight loss, and find out what's been going on in their lives.

Being such a huge fan of the Real Housewives I have been wanting to try Bethenny Frankels Skinny Girl Margaritas drink mix. I was very disappointed when she left Housewives of New York, but equally excited when she started her own show. I still watch both!

So today I went out and bought me a bottle of Skinny Girl Margarita to drink on Sunday without guilt.