Sad End of the Year

 December 31, 2021

Wendy called me this morning with the sad news that Maureen died through the night.  At our last lunch on December 16th, she was in such high spirits and looked so good.  It's hard to believe she is no longer with us.

I made reservations for a New Year's Eve dinner at SRS.  It would cost $35 per person for a four-course dinner with wine pairings.  I cancelled when Laura invited Peter and me to spend the evening with them and Bob and Barbara Farriday and Barbara's sister Marilyn.  There were filet mignon sliders, barbeque meat balls, vegetable pizza, plus other noshes.  We had a fine time munching and talking until about 9:00 p.m. 

 Peter and I watched TV in my apartment until it was time to call it a night.

I made a ham-cherry tomato-mushroom-spinach frittata for breakfast; Peter could take some home for his breakfast tomorrow. We listened to Christmas music, watched TV, watched part of You've Got Mail until I paused the DVD and couldn't get it to continue where it left off.  We watched Chicago instead.  I love the pulse of that movie.

In the meantime, Rosemary dropped off a container of czarnina that she made.

At 3:00 p.m. we went to Marlene and Dwight's open house for a short while.  We were one of the first to arrive and had a glass of wine with cheese, crackers, herring and cookies.  As more people were arriving, some in wheel chairs and walkers, it was time for us to leave to allow more to come in.

We watched Bowl games, especially the Rose Bowl where Ohio State beat Utah State in a surprising finish.

Peter left at about 9:00 p.m. as a light dusting of snow was falling.

2021 Christmas

 Christmas Day

Yesterday I had dinner in the dining room with a small group, but more joined us.  I put a piece of oplatek at everyone's place and we shared the tradition of breaking pieces off each other's oplatek and wishing Merry Christmas.

Today was the first Christmas mass celebrated at St. Rita; I feel like I'm part of history.  I shared oplatek with Joe, which made him very happy.

Peter picked me up at 2:30 p.m. to go to Jay and Laura's.  Annika's friend Jacory was not vaccinated, so he was eliminated from the group.  Consequently, Annika wanted to be with him so she was absent.  But Aleksei brought his girlfriend Suzy.  I don't know when we'll be with Anton and Aleksei again, because Anton is moving to California to be with Aleksei and work in his hotel.  Aleksei has been promoted to General Manager.

We had plentiful appetizers and beverages to satisfy us while we visited and waited for dinner.

Janice is now in charge of making pierogi.  I think she appreciates the effort that goes into making them.  But she has different methods and even modified the recipe to exclude eggs, milk and butter.

Dinner was superb with beef tenderloin, baby carrots, hasselback potatoes, pierogi, 7-layer salad and another salad.  All this was topped off with assorted cookies and coffee.

Afterwards, Peter drove through neighborhoods to view the holiday decorations.

My Decorations

 Saturday, December 18, 20201

So far, all I have decorating my area are the carved Nativity scene on my shelf

 and a Santa outside my door.  I have the sparkling Nativity lantern on my table.  Some balconies have very nice lights, so I thought I'd add some lights to mine.  

I bought a set of 135 icicle lights, a silver garland and a dusk to dawn timer.  The lights and garland went only half way around my railing.  The lights kept going on and off at intervals.  I thought they were defective.  Then I realized that it isn't dark enough for the timer.  Once I turned the timer manually to On, they twinkled nicely.

Today was my day to complete my shopping after my hair appointment.  Jocelyn urged me put lights on my Ficus tree if I'm not getting a Christmas tree.

After my hair I stopped at Verizon to have my SIM card removed from my old phone and set it to factory restore before returning it.

Next I went to Stein's to exchange my timer and buy more icicle lights, another garland and lights for my Ficus tree.

Target did not have replacement bands for my Fitbit; I bought some hearing aid batteries.

The traffic was bumper to bumper on 76th St. as I was planning on going to Best Buy for a refund on my charging cables for my car.  I changed my mind, deciding to go when it's less crowded.

Once I got home, I finished the balcony and put lights on my Ficus. I also found a few ornaments. As I was wondering how I could prop it up from tilting, I came upon a solution.  I anchored it to the bracket that holds the blinds cord.  Perfect!

Celebrating Christmas at SRS

 Friday, December 17, 2021

Our celebration began with lunch in the Tratoria: pork or beef tenderloin sliders, fruit salad, house made chips, and assorted cookies.  I joined a table with Dan, Jackie, Jim, Maryanne, Beverly, Sandy and Bob.  A cellist provided holiday music while we ate.

This was Mark Pietila's last day at SRS; he'll be moving on in his career.  As SRS becomes almost filled to capacity, he has less to do.

Following our lunch, we exchanged gifts with those that participated. We drew numbers to determine the order we would select one of the gifts on the table. Once one opened a gift it was up for grabs by anyone who wanted it and the loser would have to pick another gift, either from the table or someone else.  It seemed everyone liked the gift they chose.  My gift was a Milwaukee mug from Marilyn Minor.

We concluded our party with Marilyn leading us in singing ten Christmas carols.

Family Dinner

 Saturday, December 18, 2021

Our plans to spend the family weekend did not materialize due to a snowy forecast.  Alternate plans for a family dinner did not happen because Jay was nursing a cold and Annika wasn't feeling well.  It happened for the best since Bonobo overbooked the private room Jay had arranged.

As I'm leaving my apartment, a box was outside my door from Masako.  In it were a small bowl, a container of ginger snaps and a small box of chocolates.

We were able to gather tonight at Bonobo: Jay, Laura, Anton, Claude, Brad, Janice and I.  We were led to the private room which had little kids at two of the tables.  It was brightly lit with chalkboards to amuse the kids.  Soon, another family with kids arrived.  We were not amused. All that was missing was a cage with balls for the kids to jump in.  We were offered seating in the bar area at tall tables, which I refused.  The manager apologized and after a short wait, situated us in the regular dining room.  Probably the manager assumed there were children when Jay made reservations for nine.  When we were seated, Jay complained that there were too many adults in the room. 

We were very satisfied once we were seated in the dining room.  Laura and I shared a bottle of red wine, the others had various beers.  My braised short ribs were delicious; everyone else seemed to enjoy whatever they ordered.  Janice was especially pleased with the vegan selections.  Brad and I completed our meals with creme broulee.  It was a very relaxing, satisfying evening.

On the way to their house, Jay drove through some neighborhoods to view the holiday decorations.

Deck the Halls

 Monday, December 13, 2021

Our bus took four of us to Candy Cane Lane.  Many cancelled thinking we wouldn't see enough lights at 4:00 p.m. when we left.  But it was dark enough when we got there for us to appreciate all the effort these people did for this project.

We also drove on Lake Drive to view some of the lighting there.      St. Rita Square is also in the holiday spirit with lanterns on tables,

a Christmas tree that is growing with ornaments from residents,

and Frank's Nativity arrangement

Lending An Ear

 Sunday, December 12, 2021

The stollen with coffee for after mass went over well; I'm glad that I bought two.  Next week I'll bring the second one.  At least that way I won't be eating it all.

Sue Evans called asking me if I knew more details about Rockne Koch's death.  I didn't know more than she did, but we didn't seem to agree on when he died.  She is very heartsick with his passing because they became quite close.  At dinner recently he gave her a bottle of German wine because she shares her wine with him quite often.  I left some slices of stollen on his shelf when I knew he liked German things.  He promised me some of his maple syrup.  We also missed him at dominoes on Thursday; I know he really liked playing Screw Your Neighbor.  Sue and I had quite a lengthy talk.

Marilyn Minor called saying that she had a little thank you gift for me for including her on my membership to the Domes.  She came at 7:15 p.m. with a little jar of home made cranberry sauce/jam.  I had planned on watching the Packers/Bears game, but I invited her to sit down.  We started talking about various subjects when I mentioned that I watched TCM, which she was not familiar with.  I turned it on and "Finian's Rainbow" was playing.  We watched it to the end. I made tea in the meantime and we continued our conversation about SRS, her family and travels.  I didn't interject any of my travels for fear of prolonging the evening longer than it was going.  I did check the Packers' score on my phone, and was relieved that they won 43 - 30.  She looked at my digital clock and could not believe it was 12:44 a.m.  But we had a very comfortable evening in conversation and getting to know one another.

Domes and More

Thursday, December 9, 2021

Just Jack and I showed up for the 10:00 a.m. sheepshead, so we played gin instead. He won big, just as expected.

Our bus took us to the Domes for the Holiday Show.  I could use my membership to include Marilyn (in the red jacket) with me.

The Show Dome was lovely, as usual.

We went through the Arid Dome.

                                                  Aloe

I love the imaginative use of containers.

And the Tropical Dome.

                                        Pitcher Plant

                                          Cocoa Tree

We were back at SRS by about 1:00 p.m., just enough time to have a bite and get ready for dominoes.

I won one game, but Jack won three.

We had a nice group at the Brass Key for our WAUC dinner.  We had a separate room, nicely decorated tables and a menu with a choice of four entrees.  Peter and I had sirloin tips over noodles, very tasty.  We sang some Christmas carols and played BINGO.

December Book Club

 Tuesday, December 7, 2021

We discussed The First Mistake with mixed reviews, generally favorable.

I don't usually join the Book Club group for lunch afterwards; it would interfere with sheepshead at SRS.  But because sheepshead is canceled, because of the COVID pandemic, I agreed to go to lunch at Ruby Tuesday Restaurant at Southridge.  Both Terry and Kathy had specials on their phones: Kathy had a buy one get one free; Terry for a $5 Cheeseburger.  Kathy could use if for just one other person; this Ruby Tuesday does not recognize Terry's.  Soon the manager came to our table explaining that the fine print on the offer applies to participating Ruby Tuesdays.  Terry was having a good-natured banter why his restaurant didn't participate and it should.  It went on for a while, but mostly in fun.

We enjoyed our meals with no other mention of the offers.  When it was time to get our bill the waitress said that the manager paid for our SIX lunches, including beverages.  We left good tips for our waitress.  The manager came to our table and we chatted about all kinds of crazy things and thanked him for his generosity.  We promised to be back next with with more complaints.

Terry and I got together afterward, examining our new phones and transferring data.

covid Booster

 Monday, December 8, 2021

I was up way too early and couldn't fall back to sleep.  I got on my computer searching for locations to get a COVID Booster.  Walgreen's site offered boosters; I just had to fill out a form and pick a store and time that was convenient.  The first to pop up was the Walgreen's on 84th and Greenfield at 8:55 a.m. today.  Since I'm up, why not?  I skipped breakfast deciding to have breakfast after the shot.  I got there in plenty of time with a light dusting of snow on the ground and a very cold wind.  I walked very carefully.  

I  got the shot by a very personable pharmacist.

I drove to Pegasus Restaurant on 77th and Greenfield and had French toast and coffee.  That should satisfy me until suppertime.

I spent most of the day watching TV: Acorn and Midsomer Murders.

Terry called to say her phone was delivered; she had to sign for it.  Mine was in the mail room.

Visit with Laura

Sunday, December 5, 2021

We are still on lock-down with advice to avoid gatherings.  We are free to be out of our rooms and carry on our private business, but no group activities.  I decided to skip mass because that is a pretty crowded and there is no spacing.

Laura came shortly after noon with packages of turkey noodle soup and a package of frozen  rolls.  Lucky there was someone entering the building with her to let her in, because I was pressing 8 instead of 9 on my phone to answer her call.  She wasn't too thrilled.  We visited with a glass of wine.

The soup hit the spot with the hot crusty rolls.  Just enough for a Sunday supper.

December

 Thursday. December 2. 2021

Usually, Thursdays are pretty busy.  We are playing sheepshead at 10:00 a.m. because Herman likes playing, but he hasn't been coming.  Jack, Jon, John Peter and I were playing.  We got news that all activities are cancelled because three people in IL tested positive for COVID.  That meant no dominoes, Happy Hour or dinner.  

I took advantage of my free time to get the Low Tire Pressure light remedied at Boucher.  I also needed a tire valve.  Then I picked up a couple stollens at Aldi.  I don't know what I'll do with two, but they will be nice to pass around.

I called QNails to see if they could take me for a dipping powder and they could.  It has been well over a year since I had my nails done; they really looked shabby.  I have a nice bright red for the holidays.

I picked up a blanket to donate to a family SRS is helping and did some grocery shopping at P & S next to Kohl's on Hwy 100.

That pretty well filled my day.