Both Birthdays

We started out our September birthdays with a trip to Galena to play some golf. Mike has always wanted to play the General. Wish granted. The course was challenging and so much fun. You had to be a mountain goat to play some of the holes. See - they have goats to "mow" the grass where the grounds crew can't reach.

We had the place practically to ourselves. Breakfast was included in our package. The whole dining room and buffet and just 3 couples. Pretty sad.

The weather was perfect and the golf surprisingly was good too.

I already filled you in on Mike's birthday, and mine was pretty much the same. Celebrations with family and a special friend.
Sharen and I played some golf with our husbands and then we visited with our old childhood best buddy.
Barb lived just a few miles from the course, so we went to her house after golf.
She took us for a boat ride around her beautiful lake - Lake Candlewick - a hidden gem in Belvidere.

It was so nostalgic seeing her again. We had some great times getting into and outa trouble when we were little. We spent every waking minute together over our summers.
 She asked if we wanted to drive the boat.
Sharen jumped into the drivers seat.
Barb turns to me and said "I thought for sure you would be the one to want to drive, being the daredevil and all."
"No, I want to be the one to water ski!"

It wasn't that I was the dare devil. It turned out that they always talked me into going first at everything. I had to lead the way - Everytime.

We had to cut our visit a little short, because Dylan had a football game. Homecoming - can't miss that.
But Barb, We know where you live now and we are going to bring our fishing poles, our swimsuits and towels and load of liquor and spend a whole weekend. So watch out.

Surprise!!

Mike turned 60 on the 11th and Steve came out from NY to surprise him.

Mike has lunch with his friend Dave every week, so I thought it would be a perfect time for "Surprise!"
Their lunch was on Friday so I picked up Steve from his brothers house. His brother has 3 LARGE dogs - 2 St. Bernard and a Mastiff, and Steve spent the night there Thursday. Needless to say, he was very happy to see me pull into the driveway on Friday morning and escape from dog hair and slopper.

We surprised Mike at the restaurant.
Mike is not one for surprises. He is a man of very few words and would rather the attention be on someone else, but he was happy to see Steve and we had a great lunch.

Well Steve was staying for a week so we put him to work.
First they installed my new front door. Brian had a huge hand in helping also.

While Mike was at work Steve offered to help me paint the Adirondack chairs Mike had made me. I already had the paint so we spent the afternoon together in the garage, listening to music and painting the chairs - "claret wine". They were in badly in need of a paint job and my front porch needed color. 2 coats of paint and 2 sore backs they were done.
Yes, I know the deck needs paint too, but look past that at the beautiful chairs and door.

Steve is heading back to NY tomorrow and I am going to miss him.
We don't have to have big plans when he comes to visit. I like that about him. We usually eat out a few nights and Mike and him always take in a movie. He gets to take as many naps as he wants and sleep as late as he wants, without his dogs to bother him. (though he really misses his babies).
Friends like him are hard to find and I am proud to call him MY friend too.

And for all you readers who are also on Facebook - Steve made Mike a carrot cake (he used chopped apples instead of raisins) with a cheesecake filling. AND they taste as good as they look.

Power Washing

2 neighbors were walking down the street as I was power washing our front deck. They wave.
N:"What are you doing?"
Having to turn off the washer to talk.
Me: "Ahhh, I'm power washing our deck." Which seems to me to be pretty obvious.
N: Why?
Me: Cause it's dirty - And I just might do the house next."
N: "Where's your husband?"
Now, I am getting really confused why she asked, or she is just getting stupid, but I answer nicely.
Me: "He's working, and I need to get back to work."

It blows my mine how little women in our neighborhood are not outside doing stuff. NOT a one! It's all men. Not one female (besides my sister, Sharen) does work outside. It's all men mowing, weed whacking, blowing driveways, trimming hedges: anything that takes a power tool and a little hard work they seem to shy away from. I want to pull them all outside and show them that it's great exercise. Yes, some is pretty hard work, but it's not a race do a little at a time, get some fresh air, and get something done.

So, being the great neighbor that I am -  I am going to continue to set a good example and power wash the whole damn house.

Done!
Yes, it was not easy and it took me 2 days to get it done, but boy did it need it and now it looks amazing.  I am so glad that it was hot, like really hot, out, because I got soaking wet.
I am sore, but guess what female neighbors I enjoyed doing it and my house is clean both inside and out, all because of me  - So There.