Happy Halloween

Boo! Saturday night was filled with costume parties. I attended Mama's party and the Museum's annual Halloween party.

I got dressed up around 7 and headed out to the festivities. I wore my standard hippie costume, but it was spiced up this year. Thanks to Judy for loaning me some of her 70s clothes! The totally 70s shoes were a huge hit.

Let me start by saying that Mama's party was not at Mama's house. Five minutes upon my arrival at the neighbor's house, Mama and I witnessed a sight I wish on no one. The house was filled with children, hitting a pinata and scavenging on the floor for the candy! In the midst of this scene picture a cute little Jack Russell terrier-type dog pooping right in the middle of the living room. Enough said, Mama and I exited stage left...

Outside, there was a heated tent and cool bales of hay for sitting. After a beer, I headed out to the Museum party. Many attended the Museum's annual Halloween party and they put an extraordinary amount of effort into their costumes.

On Halloween night, Jules, Mike and I passed out candy and watched Halloween 2. Here's a picture of the me in my hippie costume and the pumpkin I carved!

Update on 1-800-Contacts

Apparently this is a scam the doctors run to get their patients into the office for a visit. I called my Doctor's office and convinced them to release my order. They were trying to make me come in for an exam. Eventually they released the order, but they told me that before I can order more contacts, I must come in for a visit. She acted like she was doing me this big favor by releasing my order, but Ohio is a 2-year state for prescriptions-so technically my current prescription is good until May.

Contacts should arrive in mail today!

Screw 1-800-Contacts

So I realize on Sunday that I'm putting my last pair of contacts in my eyes. I got online Monday to order another supply. Today, I come home from work to a message from 1-800-Contacts saying they could not fill my order because my eye doctor told them my prescription was incorrect. I've been wearing the same prescription for the last 10 years. Apparently my eye doctor told them my BC (Base Curve) on my eye is 8.7, not the 8.3 that I was ordering. But wait, you'd think that 1-800-Contacts would tell my eye doctor that I've been ordering 8.3 for the last eight years. No, they assume I'm ordering it wrong. Apparently when the doctor calls, they don't bother checking their records. So I have another 5 days left on my contacts and no resolution in sight (no pun intended).

Thanks Brian for telling me about 1-800-Contacts.

Polish Festival

Today, my Mom and I went to the Polish Festival at St. Stanislaus Parish. The church is located in the Cleveland neighborhood of Warszawa, aka Slavic Village. The inside of the church is beatifully ornate. (see picture below) And it was visited by Pope John Paul II in 1969, at that time he was known as Cardinal Woytyla. After lighting a few candles in the church, we headed over to the hall for the festivities.

The line for food was super long but well worth the wait. We had golabki (stuffed cabbage), potato pancakes and perogies. After eating, we set out to find the games of chance. My Mom quickly found them and within 5 minutes won $200! Shortly thereafter, I won a basket of goodies. We then sat in the hall and listened to the polka band play great music and shared a bottle of Okocim.

It was a great festival. I look forward to going back next year.

Days 13, 14 & 15-Chicago

What can I say. It's Chicago. We love it here and never miss an opportunity to swing our flights through this town! On Friday morning, we feasted on a dozen dried out cake donuts and then went out shopping. In the evening, we headed downtown in search of a Serb restaurant. The place I had found online was defunct. Nowhere to be found. But the restaurant in its place had Cevapa on their menu so after much going back and forth, we decided to give it a try. It was delicious. We had yummy salads and huge servings of Cevapa. Jules tried a Czech beer, Brian had an unusual German beer, Luis ordered a Beck's Light (hello?).

On Saturday, we got up and headed downtown for lunch at Fado. I love Strongbow cider and Fado is the only place I know that has it on tap. We drank & ate much and then went to the lake shore to walk and take pictures. After a day of mucho walking, we made our way home, stopping at Oberweiss along the way for ice cream!

On Sunday, we had a bloggers reunion at Walker Bros Pancake house w/Mary (from Ain't No Thing But a Chicken Wing). We nearly got jumped at Walker Bros because we moved to the front of the line for having a party of 5 when no one else in front of us did. It was scary because Mary wasn't there yet and people were throwing us nasty looks. Mary finally showed up and had to enter the restaurant through the exit for fear of her life. Aside from this fiasco, we all enjoyed a good breakfast. Afterwards, we went to Ikea for a 30-minute run through. I bought a pack of napkins...Woo Hoo.

We spent the rest of our time lounging, watching Tivo and chatting. Jules and Luis watched Episodes 3, 4 & 5 of Star Wars. Luis couldn't hang or they would have made it through 6. Thanks guys for a fun weekend. Looking forward to your visit to Cleveland. When will that be???

Day 12-Travel Day

We got up early today to begin a full day of travel. We stopped at Bread for coffee and pastries before our journey to Albuquerque. Our flight left ABQ in the afternoon. We arrived in Chicago in time for dinner. Luis baked up about 8 lbs of chicken breasts and handed me a box of Stove Top to cook up! It was delicious, but 2 lbs of chicken per person was a gross over-estimation.

Days 10 & 11-Colorado

We did a lot of relaxing these two days. Went shopping, ate at Gazpachos again and tried a new place called Kennebec Cafe. Juliano helped our friends Bev & Bob install a new Macintosh at their house. It was nice to rest and sit around talking!