September roundup, with a dash of October

Then second half of September also did not disappoint, and October is off to a great start! First, in mid-September, we had some friends who John used to work with over for dinner in our back yard. Great seeing everyone!

Right after the autumnal equinox, which was on Sept 22 this year, I celebrated my birthday with a day off work, a swim (at the gym, there was a beach hazard warning on from winds the previous day) then went to a tour of Glessner House with Barbara from my history book club. Glessner House is a historic house in Chicago that has both a pretty interesting architectural and social story. The house is very fortress-like, which kept the cold winter wind out (of interest to this visitor who is embarking on a home insulation project!) It also was built to have a living and servants’ quarters (4 residents and 8 full-time live-in servants, with 2 more on day shifts) but instead of an upstairs / downstairs dynamic, they have an east side / west side setup, with the servants quarters in the west side (note the brick chimney for the servants and the stone chimney for the family).

Then I had a very lovely bike ride back along the lake front, past this mural at Armitage and Racine, and along the 606.

For dinner, we went to Schwa, which was a really amazing experience. 3 chefs do everything – all cooking and serving in a 20-ish seat storefront, and they serve up a 10 course dinner that is just super delightful.

This weekend, on Saturday we walked over to Humboldt Park, planning to do our usual very pleasant loop, when we came across a World Music Festival, with Sonos de Mexico playing. We’ve long been fans of Sonos de Mexico, so this was quite a treat!

Then later on Saturday, our friends Jennifer and Lynwood drove in from Michigan to watch their daughter play soccer – she goes to school in Ohio and their team were playing here in Chicago this weekend. We had a great time catching up with them and went out for pizza last night, then hung around here this morning. Lynwood’s comment about this photo was that it would be a great one for the cover of AARP magazine, lol! For our readers outside the US, that stands for American Association of Retired Persons, a group that somehow finds out everyone’s birthdates and starts hitting people up with a lot of advertising mail around the time you turn 50.

After Jennifer and Lynwood left to go watch Marlee’s game, we took another routine walk to the park and this time there was a circus on! This programming is all pretty amazing, and also we aren’t sure if we have lost touch, need to sign up for a schedule somewhere, or what is going on. But anyway this event was Midnight Circus, which is an acrobatic circus (no lions, but there were 2 very well trained dogs!) with amazingly talented young people that performs in different Chicago parks. We’d been to see them when Liam and Miles were young and it was really nice to see them again. Even without kids, haha, thank you to everyone who didn’t comment on us being there without children!

We have a lot going on in October, so stay tuned for news of more guests, events and the house insulation project!