Market Day

Saturdays the Oak Park Farmers Market takes place on Lake Street. Lori and I got up there for the first time last weekend--we rode our bikes, and bought cherries, berries, kale and beef brisket.

There are almost always at least two different groups of people jamming, at least when the weather is good. Two of the videos show you those groups. The third video shows one of Lori's greatest assets, if you know what I mean.

I've also put up a shot of our house in all its summer finery.

Summer Sundays...

...are for vegging, and for barbecuing.

We like to set up our shelter late Saturday afternoon, along with Lori's hammock and the TV.

Then Sunday morning Lori gets to read the papers outside, and I get to sleep in.

When I get up at around 10 or 11, I shower and then we bicycle down to Wishbone for brunch.

When we get back, Lori returns to her hammock, and I get something ready to smoke--ribs or chops or brisket or pork butts or chickens, etc.

We like to watch a Sox game or a golf match in the afternoon. Or the replay of Meet the Press at four o'clock on MSNBC.

Harley thinks it's his hammock, as you can see.

The video is my explanation of just how little it takes to barbecue really good.

It's always a little melancholy after supper on Sunday, when we take it all down and get ready for the week.

Big Saturday Night

Shelley and Bob and Lori put Emil on a plane to see Bob's folks on CA at about 3:00 on Saturday, whilst I put out the lawn furniture.

We sat out for a few hours, then headed down to Wishbone for dinner.

After that, we walked next door to Fitzgerald's to hear a couple of groups--the latter of which was an Irish duo called Guggenheim Grotto that Lori fell in love with.

She now has all of their records (and thinks about them incessantly, I suspect).

Video of GG is included.

Shelley, Bob and Emily...

...came in Friday evening after spending the week with friends up in northern Wisconsin.

We ordered a pizza, then sat out on the front porch waiting for a predicted huge thunderstorm that never quite materialized.

After we ate, Lori, Emily and Shelley played games, then Lori and Shelley danced.

Enjoy the video of our dancing girls.

Buddy and his Three Girls

Well, that's how we saw it.

We went up to Ravinia up in Highland Park last Sunday to see Buddy Miller, Emmylou Harris, Kathy Griffin and Shown Colvin play in a show billed as "Three Girls and their Buddy."

It was chilly--so much so that Lori wore sox with her sandals, and we had to buy a blanket to huddle under during the show. A nice blanket, though--one of the new, sweatshirt-material ones that are really nice, and washable.

We ate a light supper there, and had a couple of beers before the show, then went into the pavilion.

There are a couple of short videos from the show below.

New Grill

Yes, it's yet another new face in "Greg's World O' Grills."

This one is a hibachi-style, small unit with some great features for controlling the heat, and it's portable, which is important.

This is the first meal cooked on it--brats and corn.

Lori and Lawn Ornaments

We got our final (?) potted plants in on a rare good weekend day a couple of weeks ago, Lori doing most of the work, as usual.

She also put some hostas in beside the garage, with Harley's help, as you can see.

We also added two new trashy ornaments to the yard, along with our existing two.

Can you guess which ones are new and which are old?

And excuse me, is that a big green booger sliding out of Woodman's nose?!? Eeuuww!

Summer Saturday Night

We actually had a warm night tonight, so porch-sitting with Glenn and Marlis was a go a their house. We had dinner, then played some Quiddler.

Aren't the girls colorful?

By the way, this is the only warm weekend evening we have had this summer--to this day.

Memorial Day

And then on Monday we rested. We grilled steaks and corn, and baked veggies, and Lori cooked some mushrooms to put on the steaks, and we had a great meal.

Tuesday was relatively uneventful, and Wednesday we headed back to Chicago.

We're hoping to go back up over Columbus Day in October.

May Flowers

On Sunday Lori and I skipped church, as they were having a fairly serious business meeting after the service, and Lori had her customary Sunday Bloody Mary on the deck.

Then we walked on to the ferry and met Mom and Dad for a ride north to see the blooming Trillium. They were spectacular, as you can see. Nearly as spectacular was the field of Dandelions across the highway.

Fish Sandwich Saturday

Our first full day on the island, we got busy with Dad's To-Do list, which meant, among other things, checking out the trail up to Black Rock Road and clearing it of any new obstacles. Sure enough, there were two trees down across the upper part, and the rope up the hill was broken. So we got busy.

We put up a new rope, then cut our way through to the road. Videos are below.

We also discovered a tiny white flower that Lori took a picture of--Dad says that when you take macro pictures of flowers, you should place a common object next to it to give the picture scale. Lori used a pocket knife and some dog poop.

Exhausted after a hard morning of work, we headed out to Chuck's Place for our required fish sandwich.