Out and About This Weekend ~ 12/18/14 - 12/21/14

Being out sick since Friday night, and just back to work last Wednesday, I felt the need to get out of the house on Thursday to go thither and yon and just be out among the land of the living.

After picking out a birthday gift for a friend at the exquisite but ever so slow Design 2, I stopped at Flowerland just to see some greenery. I wanted to take home some plants to replenish my porch where everything had frozen during the last power outage but I had other stops to make. It was lovely to see green and also to run into the hilarious Click & Clack :-)

It was apparently a day for cops to be out and about and I found two along my short travels, one giving a ticket and one lying in wait at a bank.

A stop at the local clothing consignment shop was a success but not before seeing some ugly sweater contestants,

along with these used Harley Davidson leather pants, size 6, here available for $285.00 - crikey! Although as one of my friends pointed out, isn't all leather used? :-)

Friday found me back at work with new art, an awesome black Santa, and having my picture taken with Wood Shop Artist in Residence, Mike.

I also had a fabulous lunch with my son, Matt, at a newly discovered Taco dive on South Division.

Restaurant Review 

Friday night we were bound for the annual Heartside Staff and Board Christmas Party. The table and company were great, especially the special guest star, the almost 2 year old Ramona!

Saturday brought no plans and it was time to take a walk and test my recently repaired camera. Here's that sorry story:

"The camera saga finally ends. A few of you know that my Olympus camera blew up last May. Olympus in their infinite wisdom stopped supporting local camera shops so my camera had to go to Texas for repairs. It returned completely rebuilt in September. Excited to take it out, I did some shooting and discovered that the camera would not focus. I kid you not. This was verified by my camera shop who sent it back down to Texas. It came back in December and my test run yesterday says I might be ok this time. To its credit, Mark's Camera & Video gave me a free Olympus camera rental for the duration, a model older than mine, which is old enough, but still a nice alternative to the point and shoot, which is a fine camera as well I might say. The lesson here? I don't know - patience?" 

Camera testing was positive and I enjoyed being able to walk down Grand River Drive again without coughing, stark though the landscape was. Smokey was up to her usual antics.

When we lived on the south side of Chicago many years ago, we had a neighbor that kept a couch and a refrigerator in his backyard during the summer. This brought me instantly back :-)

We had no plans for dinner and decided to check out the newly opened Ada Pour House, about a mile and a half from our house. We liked it already.

We had met the owner and chef at the earlier Chili Cook-Off  and tonight we had the chance to visit with them again. Service was superb as was the food and the craft beer. We found out they were open on Sundays and when I saw the Sunday brunch menu posted on Facebook Sunday morning, we gathered our friends and enjoyed some more great food.

So cheers y'all to not being sick, being able to walk and enjoy what nature has to offer, and appreciating good food, great beer, your friends and family, and all the richness they bring to your life.