Recap/pictures

Last Thursday, my friend E and I went to Redmoon Theatre's Boneyard Prayer, and though the play itself (I felt) had some imperfections, the art, the music (composed by a friend of mine and played by another), the puppets, and most of all, the stage and production stuff was fabulous. After the performance they let the audience wander around the set, and I took a couple of pictures.


Then on Friday, I worked (though it was sposed to be a day off) and at night, I babysat for my young friends Jimmy and Tommy. We had a fun night, but when Tommy, who's 6 1/2, had a difficult time at bedtime, the only solution was to bring his, and his brother's, mattresses into the master bedroom for a surprise when the parents got home. A family slumber party, if you will...


On Saturday, I overslept and didn't run, but I picked up my bike from the shop, where I paid $140 to fix it up and find out, after the 14-mile ride to and from my brother's place in the South Loop, that the bike just doesn't fit me well, and I'll probably need a different bike for the triathlon.


The barbecue at my brother's place was great, and there were lots of kids and lots of food there. I mostly hung with my awesome cousin who lives in Chicago but I don't see enough of and some of my brother's friends.
Here are the kids and one parent jamming out on drums in front of one of my paintings, which my brother has purchased and hung all over his house, which I think is super cool.

...and the kids piled up with my brother and sister-in-law:

Sunday morning came, and I taught my classes, and then I walked with Lois to pick up my other bike from the bike shop (where it was parked outside), and I saw this crazy graffiti on a building along Lincoln Avenue:
(What IS it?!)

On Memorial Day, I did all the garden and porch stuff I'd been putting off. The flower boxes are all done (and my gnome is guarding them),


and I planted the rest of the baby sunflowers in the rocky, sandy soil over by the garbage cans,


Lois hung out on the porch,


and the crazy neighbor lady N was out reading and making comments.


The nice next-door neighbor couple even put together a new picnic table they bought for the yard!


Then I went to R's Memorial Day barbecue, and it was lovely and the food was amazing (R can rub pork, lemme tell you!), and the company was even better.



BUT: Lois bit Tommy on the thumb (when he bugged her as he likes to do) and drew blood! I felt terrible. He was understandably very upset. Luckily, his parents are great about it and he's a tough cookie. Here he is with his Dad and his bandaid after the incident:


Lois, the biter, is now banned from all kid-attending events, which makes me sad. (Although she's probably relieved.)

Overall a great weekend! And I can barely bring myself to get back into working, if you can't tell already.