Elise's birthday

Elise came to town Tuesday night in time for us to catch the 7:00 session at the temple and then she stayed with us through Thursday so we could celebrate her 46th birthday on Wednesday. She wanted to visit St. Charles to see what it was like when it was not the Christmas season. It is a charming place year round and we enjoyed strolling the cobblestone street and popping into an occasional shop or two.

(notice we are all wearing our Colorado reunion t-shirts. We got a few nice comments about them)

 Of course, Elise needed to visit the British Shop to get her fancy Twinings herbal tea. And, we had lunch at a new place that featured sandwiches and crepes. They even offered gluten-free buckwheat crepes so that is what I had. You will notice that it looks very "dessert-y" and it was. A strawberry crepe brulee. It was delicious!

For Elise's birthday dinner, we grilled hamburgers and also had corn on the cob, watermelon, and she requested lemon icebox pie for her "cake". It was very yummy.

The Afghanistan women's outing this past week was to the Magic House. I drove to Kirkwood to pick up a family to attend, ran a couple of errands while in Kirkwood (Hobby Lobby, Walmart), drove up past Forest Park to pick up Maliha from her English class at noon and took her home (she lives by us) and drove back out to Kirkwood to pick up the family and take them home. Then, to Costco to fill the car up. I should have kept track of my mileage because it was a lot. My poor buttocks were sore after all that driving!

Sally got groomed on Thursday. I had them give her a straight buzz cut because it is so hot. She looks terrific. 

On Friday, Steve took Fred to his colonoscopy appointment in the morning. I took aluminum cans to metal recycling. That afternoon, I got a free slurpee from 7/11 because it was July 11th. Pina colada. 

A nice neighbor who lives along the way to Morgan Ford Street intercepted me Monday morning to give me a bag of about 10 cucumbers from her garden. She wanted to thank me for our efforts to pick up trash every morning on our walk. My cucumbers are also starting to produce so I made a batch of dill pickles yesterday afternoon. I haven't done that in years. I used a pickling mix. I will sample a jar later today to see how they turned out. 

Just a few more random things: Steve and I have delved into season 2 of Andor and we finished episode 4 last night. We got this in the mail last week. Look carefully at the name - Kael.  Kirsten's initials happen to spell the same word (Kirsten Anne-Elizabeth Lambson). How does this even happen??? It is so wrong on so many levels! 

And, finally, a cut photo of Sarah's critters all snuggled up together on her bed. I love it!