Sabby Ann

My goal is to renovate the kitchen next summer, and I think I’ve finally convinced Eric that it makes sense to go ahead with it instead of postponing for a few more years.  I hate the cabinets we have now (in fact, they are identical to the cabinets we had in our apartment.

Every winter I battle it out with the mice, who have decided that they like living in a particular kitchen cabinet. Just when I think the last of the holes is plugged, they chew a new hole! The dog and cat spend hours pacing and sniffing at the cabinet, providing solid confirmation that the mice have returned.

Then comes the inevitable war - I empty out everything that had been stored in that cabinet, throwing away food-stuffs and thoroughly bleaching everything else. We bait the cabinet with peanut butter and sunflower seeds and whatever else we can find, and place several live traps… and then we wait. For days, weeks, months. Whatever it takes. And all the meanwhile, the contents of that cabinet are living on the kitchen table, the countertops, on the fridge - wherever I can find an empty space!

I can barely fit everything when the mice are away! The fine china resides permanently in the living room. We have several small kitchen appliances and cooking stuff that are stashed in boxes in the bedroom closets, and rarely get used, because we simply don’t have the space in the kitchen. I desperately need more storage space, especially in the kitchen!

Plus, it’s rather annoying to spend hours cleaning and disinfecting everything, a few times a year, whenever the mice return.

On Friday I rode the MegaBus down to Chicago, to meet up with Natalie & Nicole for a girls’ weekend in the city. The bus was quite full, and I think the train would have been more fun to ride, but it was great not having to drive my car and worry about parking downtown. I love public/mass transit! 

We caught the City of Chicago’s fireworks display on Friday evening, and then Saturday we headed down to the Taste of Chicago Festival for some delicious food!

We stayed for Grant Park’s 4th of July concert (well, we stayed for part of the concert - we only had one umbrella for the 3 of us, so we were sort of rained out!). The Grant Park Orchestra played several patriotic-themed pieces, and there was a tap dancer during a portion of the concert. 

Later, we visited the Zoo at Lincoln Park, walked through a portion of the Magnificent Mile, and grabbed a bite to eat. We went swimming in the evening, and relaxed in the hot tub at Natalie’s apartment, and then watched more fireworks from the balcony. Oh yeah, and we stayed up late talking about boys…  :)