The Poison Ivy is worse! (by Mary)

Rob decided to stop by Convenient Care today, because his poison ivy blisters grew overnight. He received steroid shots and some new cream to make him more comfortable. So far, no progress. Since I have to live with the nastiness, I thought it was only fair to share the latest photos with you:

My husband is gross! (obviously, by Mary)

My apologies for leaving you with posts by Rob for the past few weeks. I was busy...with work...and...planning my mom's surprise retirement party! Rob has been busy, too, putting several coats of red paint on our new shutters, but...he doesn't require as much sleep as me :) Well, enough with the excuses. Here are some updates:

The outside of our house had a complete makeover! Next time you come visit, you'll probably drive right past it (especially since we haven't hung our house number back up)! We owe a huge THANK YOU to Ryan and Billy for trimming our trees. Now, our front "lawn" receives more sunlight, and more importantly, we don't have to worry about large branches falling on our roof during a thunderstorm.

We'd post pictures, but as Rob explained in an earlier post, I had this genious idea of using my 35 mm camera again. Now that we have finished the roll, we keep forgetting to bring our film with us to Walgreens to get developed. Soon. Maybe this weekend we'll remember!

My mother, Marti, aka Muvey, retired after 41 years with United Airlines. My sister, Sarah, and I had a surprise party for her at my parents' house, and it went very well! The food was great and plenty of people drove out to Rockton to wish Muvey congratulations. I'll have pictures of the beautiful (and soooo delicious!) cake Sarah made once we get those photos developed ;)

Between coats on the shutters, Rob is also preparing our yard for the landscapers to install trench tiles (or whatever it is called) around the outside of our house. While moving some of our existing pipes from outside of the fence, Rob must have grazed the oils of poison ivy plants. After Rob started itching earlier this week, we did find some of the three-leaved suckers hidden on the outside of our fence. The one picture I have for you today is the huge blister on his arm from grazing the poison ivy, taken from his camera phone. Should he pop the blisters?



Tonight we're having a classic date night- dinner and a movie. I gave Rob three restaurant choices: Cafe Luna, Timpones, or Escobars, and two movie choices: Wall-e and Sisterhood 2. I have a feeling it is going to be Wall-e :)

Plus, there is so much to be excited about! I'm looking forward to sleeping in, then Dot & Brian are coming for Saturday night. We're going to see a Billy Joel cover band, called Silly Joel, at Canopy Club. And hot tub, of course. And develop pictures, too!

Happy Friday!

Pasha (at Windsor & Duncan) by Rob

What we love about Pasha: Babaganush, humus, lamb, and
SAGANAKI (fried cheese):



What we don't: belly dancers "shaking it" in our faces while we try to converse and eat.
You guilt us into tipping you, ladies!


Pasha is our new favorite "take you there" place. Next time you come to visit, we'll go out for mediterranean food. It's delicious and fun - even if there is "junk in the trunk" in your face.

Where are MN Pics? (by Rob)

You have no idea how great digital cameras are until you go old-school. On our trip to Minnesota, Mary brought her old 35mm camera.
It was cool, but:
a) It's frustrating taking pictures and not knowing how they're going to turn out!
b) You have to drive somewhere, drop off the film, and pay for someone to develop the pictures (only to find out half of them are crap).
c) You can't drop off the film until all the pictures are taken.

We still need to take about 8 shots until the roll is full. So, coming soon, we're going to feature a timeline of my toenail growth, with pitcures in chronological order.

First Golf of the Year (by Rob)

I went golfing with Steve the other day - first time out all season. When I opened my bag, I found out I only had one ball... which I lost on the first hole. Luckily, the first hole runs along the driving range, so I stole a range ball and played with it...for three holes - it got wet on hole 4. Steve lent me a ball I immediately sent into the same pond as the last. The next loner got wet on hole 5. The third loner lasted the rest of the round.

9 holes - 4 balls lost. Thank God I wasn't keeping score :)

The Weekend That Was Taken Advantage Of (by Mary)

As you can see from Rob's posts yesterday, we had a fun-filled weekend! In addition to seeing The Dark Knight on Friday, and going to The Champaign County Fair on Sunday, we also went to the Showcase of Homes and saw Candy Foster at Alto Vineyards. After the tasting, I have decided my favorite Alto wine is the Weiner Dog White.

What more could you ask for from a weekend? I wasn't exactly willing to get out of bed this morning, but I feel like I took full advantage of the weekend. I even got some laundry done, and we went to 5:00pm mass on Saturday.

Champaign County Fair (by Rob)

Some winners were going to drive Mini-Monster Trucks at the fair today and I needed them to sign a release form. 92 degree heat. Humidity. It's no wonder two people didn't show up.

Mary came along. I was going to win her an awkwarly large suffed animal, but spent the money on lemon shake-ups, corn dogs, and fries instead. The heat balanced any weight gain from the food; I think we sweat off three pounds just standing around.

We did learn a lesson (for our own future reference): At noon on Sunday, the fair is mostly empty. It's probably the best time to take kids.