Saturday: Windmill Fest and a surprise party
I'd thought about posting at least some of this last night, but my lord, the internet connection was horrible. What normally took seconds took minutes.
Anyway, Saturday was a busy day for me. It was Windmill Fest time, and mom and I left the house around 9:30 so we'd have plenty of time to make the pet parade at 10. We briefly stopped at the farmers market before finding a seat for the parade. There were virtually all dogs this year, with a hamster and a hermit crab as the lone non-canines. My faves included the 8-week-old puppy who slept his way through the line and the small dog dressed as a pig. Next to us on the bench was this dad and his two little girls and their chihuahua. The girls had registered the one dog separately, probably so both could get a number to put on their backs. The older girl kept getting out of line because she'd go over and talk to the dad and whine that the dog didn't do any tricks. I just wanted the dad to get off his butt and stand in line like the other parents were doing. It was bad enough the one girl had cut in line, but then she didn't go in front of the judges. Twice the organizer had to call to the little girl, it's your turn, and then she didn't go. They finally went last. Ugh.
Mom and I did a lot of walking, something like four miles all told. They rearranged the arts and crafts booths so that they're now along the Riverwalk path and not along the street by the carnival, which honestly annoyed me because I'd rather not be accosted by the sellers when I just want to walk. Plus, mom wants to stop and look at everything. At one point I walked ahead of her and ignored her when she called out my name; she can pick up the pace if she wants to walk with me. Of course, that ended up backfiring when her back really hurt her yesterday, to the point where I wondered if perhaps it was actually kidney stones. She did go to work today so I guess it's not that bad after resting.
I had a party to go to that afternoon, so we didn't stay super long. Mom did grab some food and we watched the Irish dancers while we sat. The food booths were different; normally they're actual booths set up in a semicircle outside of the beer tent. This year, they were inside the tent. That was kind of nice, actually, because the sun was pretty hot on Saturday. We did some more walking around before ending up at Walgreens so she could pick up a prescription. That worked out because the party invite said BYOB, so I picked up a gallon of raspberry iced tea.
I didn't know what to expect from the party. It was for one of my high school friends, Zach, and thrown by his fiancee, whom I've never met. I had no idea they were engaged. When I mentioned that to someone at the party, he said, neither did we. Okay, glad I'm not so far out of the loop. There really weren't that many people there, and I'll be honest, I was surprised that I was invited. It turns out that the fiancee asked Nick and Heather, Nick being one of Zach's closest friends, for a guest list; Nick modified his wedding guest list and that's how I got included. Ah. Heh. It also helped to explain why both his and Heather's parents were there. Heather's mom was funny, asking me who I was and asking Blake, another high school friend, if he was the fiancee's brother. Nope; we all went to high school together in some form. It was pretty interesting, and Zach definitely was surprised, but the ruse was that they were going to Game Works in Schaumburg and he'd really wanted to do that. Oh, well; maybe next time. Also, there was some other party going on that evening and in figuring out where exactly it was, we determined that guys use strip clubs as landmarks. Remember: Route 31 through Elgin goes by the riverboat casino; Route 25 goes by Blackjack's. Aha. Now that was an entertaining conversation.
Today: I have to spend time cleaning the walls in my room. Dad did some patching, and Kirby has relocated to the bathroom, but now I have to wipe down the first patches and do another round of patching. I really hope to get the painting done this week.
Anyway, Saturday was a busy day for me. It was Windmill Fest time, and mom and I left the house around 9:30 so we'd have plenty of time to make the pet parade at 10. We briefly stopped at the farmers market before finding a seat for the parade. There were virtually all dogs this year, with a hamster and a hermit crab as the lone non-canines. My faves included the 8-week-old puppy who slept his way through the line and the small dog dressed as a pig. Next to us on the bench was this dad and his two little girls and their chihuahua. The girls had registered the one dog separately, probably so both could get a number to put on their backs. The older girl kept getting out of line because she'd go over and talk to the dad and whine that the dog didn't do any tricks. I just wanted the dad to get off his butt and stand in line like the other parents were doing. It was bad enough the one girl had cut in line, but then she didn't go in front of the judges. Twice the organizer had to call to the little girl, it's your turn, and then she didn't go. They finally went last. Ugh.
Mom and I did a lot of walking, something like four miles all told. They rearranged the arts and crafts booths so that they're now along the Riverwalk path and not along the street by the carnival, which honestly annoyed me because I'd rather not be accosted by the sellers when I just want to walk. Plus, mom wants to stop and look at everything. At one point I walked ahead of her and ignored her when she called out my name; she can pick up the pace if she wants to walk with me. Of course, that ended up backfiring when her back really hurt her yesterday, to the point where I wondered if perhaps it was actually kidney stones. She did go to work today so I guess it's not that bad after resting.
I had a party to go to that afternoon, so we didn't stay super long. Mom did grab some food and we watched the Irish dancers while we sat. The food booths were different; normally they're actual booths set up in a semicircle outside of the beer tent. This year, they were inside the tent. That was kind of nice, actually, because the sun was pretty hot on Saturday. We did some more walking around before ending up at Walgreens so she could pick up a prescription. That worked out because the party invite said BYOB, so I picked up a gallon of raspberry iced tea.
I didn't know what to expect from the party. It was for one of my high school friends, Zach, and thrown by his fiancee, whom I've never met. I had no idea they were engaged. When I mentioned that to someone at the party, he said, neither did we. Okay, glad I'm not so far out of the loop. There really weren't that many people there, and I'll be honest, I was surprised that I was invited. It turns out that the fiancee asked Nick and Heather, Nick being one of Zach's closest friends, for a guest list; Nick modified his wedding guest list and that's how I got included. Ah. Heh. It also helped to explain why both his and Heather's parents were there. Heather's mom was funny, asking me who I was and asking Blake, another high school friend, if he was the fiancee's brother. Nope; we all went to high school together in some form. It was pretty interesting, and Zach definitely was surprised, but the ruse was that they were going to Game Works in Schaumburg and he'd really wanted to do that. Oh, well; maybe next time. Also, there was some other party going on that evening and in figuring out where exactly it was, we determined that guys use strip clubs as landmarks. Remember: Route 31 through Elgin goes by the riverboat casino; Route 25 goes by Blackjack's. Aha. Now that was an entertaining conversation.
Today: I have to spend time cleaning the walls in my room. Dad did some patching, and Kirby has relocated to the bathroom, but now I have to wipe down the first patches and do another round of patching. I really hope to get the painting done this week.