On Saturday, we split into 2 groups and my mom and I headed to Central Park in the subway and Debbie, Jeff and Maddie took an uber to the Met. It was a drizzly day so fortunately we had done a lot more running around the day before! We had booked a pedicab tour that started near Columbus Circle. Our driver introduced himself as MJ for Michael Jackson, from Tajikistan. Ok! He was very charming and told us a lot about Central Park. We stopped at this spot for a great view first. The view and pace was really nice…

I’m writing this from O’Hare, where John and I are eating very lovely, small desserts in the lounge, waiting for our flight to Dublin then London. It’s almost sunset and the reflective surfaces of airport buildings out the window are glowing. But this post is about my last trip – to NYC with the Mathews and Hooper group to see Maddie sing at Carnegie Hall! We flew in during the afternoon and got settled in our hotel, and I set out to find a dry cleaner (toothpaste on black silk shirt – disaster). All over Chelsea people were watching the…

Following up Dublin‘s Bloomsday celebrations last year wasn’t going to be easy, but I found that Chief O’Neil’s Pub here in Chicago was hosting an event, so Jeanne, Sarah and I decided to go. Our book club is considering reading an episode of Ulysses, so this was a great tasting menu of the book, in Jeanne’s words. The program was really wonderful. Josephine Craven hosted the evening and gave background on Joyce, Ulysses, and the pieces being performed. There were 8 performers who sang and read, alone and in groups. Really amazing talent! Craven performed a very joyous last excerpt…

Last year, most of our work on the house in Sawyer was really about fixing basic things like the heating system and the chimney.But this year we got to work on some more fun things; jazzing up the look of the kitchen and getting some comfortable furniture for the living room (the previous owner, had used the house for Airbnb rentals, and so while the furniture was very durable, you would definitely get uncomfortable after a while, sitting in it!). The kitchen itself was really pretty minimal, just replacing the old dark green formica countertop with a white quartz one,…

A big highlight of the year was Isabelle‘s visit. She got a weekend off from work and we were so delighted she was able to visit! Obviously Isabelle had already been to Chicago a couple of times both with the whole Brennan group and with Katie, but it was really nice to be able to have some solo time with her and show her some of the sites that she may not have seen last time! One of our big regrets was, we didn’t take a photo when we met up with the Groves; Jeanne, Geoff, Ellen and Leslie, at…

We have some blog catching up to do! Here we go, starting in January of this year. It was a snowy winter, both in Chicago and Sawyer. As we experienced last winter, the woods and lake in Sawyer have a very different beauty in winter! Here’s John by the river trail.

On Tuesday evening (Dec 23) we had tickets to see the film It’s a Wonderful Life at the music box. We’ve done this Chicago tradition many times and it is a pure delight every time! We had empanadas at nearby Tango Sur after and chatted about the movie. We dropped Liam off at his place after and dropped Miles on Western where he was meeting Dylan – and we caught her to say hi on her way in too! On Christmas Eve, I baked chocolate cookies (no photos but they were very nice, with some big salt flakes and chocolate…

The time between Thanksgiving and Miles arriving for Christmas went very quickly! Miles had a week to spend here before heading to Austin, Texas, so we decided to go straight from picking him up at the airport to Sawyer. Coffee and breakfast sandwiches packed, it all went to plan and we were in Michigan around 8:30am! As you all are very aware, there are a couple of crowd favorites in Sawyer. First, the hot tub! Miles took it up a notch by setting up a table for coffee and a book. And we enjoyed another crowd favorite, the lake! Some…