Monday, January 13, 2025

Monday, February 3, 2025

Good morning y’all. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO CINDY!!!

This is a long one…sorry

We said goodbye to Maria and Pete yesterday after a fun 24 hours filled with birthday celebrations, shopping, and cozy fireside chats. Pete even helped change the light bulb at the top of the stairs, which had been burned out for two years (!?!?). He managed to get the two old TVs, that we parked in the loft over the holiday, out of the house. One to our neighbors and one to Minocqua (thank you, Mr. Peachy!).

Pete and Maria have two weeks left of their leave up north in Minocqua, where they plan to relax and enjoy doing nothing before heading back to Bucharest for Pete and Kyiv for Maria. Unfortunately, that means dealing with nightly air raid sirens and the constant threat of inbound rockets from Russia (Maria only). Stay safe!!!!

They came with armfuls of chocolate, snacks, coffee, and a bottle of Veuve Clicquot, which we didn’t get a chance to open. We’ll find an occasion to celebrate and pop that bottle—maybe tonight! We can’t thank them enough for traveling out of their way, however short the visit lasted.

Just before they left the house, Pete personally checked his body, saying, “Testicles, spectacles, watch, and wallet. Check.” I had never heard that phrase before. Pete picked it up from his Dad, and he’s using it for whatever reason. It’s funny how we become our parents.

Because of Geoff and Kristen’s nudge on Saturday, I started researching voice banking. There were a few choices, but in the end, the easiest and quickest option was to record my voice on the iPhone. I found a quiet spot in the house and recorded 150 phrases that are supposed to pick up on tone, inflection, and pronunciation (probably even more than that). From there, the iPhone takes over and works to recreate my voice, so then I’m able to type anything out and have the audio come out sounding like me. It takes hours for this to happen…so I haven’t heard the results. I really wonder how this will sound…I had to work hard at making sure I wasn’t slurring too much. Maybe I’ll have something tomorrow as an example.

Then, it was off to another birthday dinner with high school friends at a very old restaurant/saloon/supper club located in Burlington, IL, called Art and Almas, specializing in various beef cuts. The building dates back to 1908…just a little older than Nicole and Zack’s Sears home. Our table of seven took full advantage of the menu and ordered filets, ribeyes, and prime rib that weighed in from 6oz to 32oz. Everything was cooked to perfection, and only one person was able to finish their meal. Leftovers for the week!!! Then the dessert menu came out, and some couldn’t resist…I’m not sure where they put it.

We drove to the restaurant with Barb (nickname BK). When we got there, BK started patting her body while reciting, “Testicles, spectacles, watch, and wallet. Check.” It was so funny to hear this a second time in one day. When we asked BK where she picked it up, she replied, “My dad.” Wow, we really do become our parents. I guess that explains why I can’t get through a toast!!

Thanks for a great weekend!!! Everybody, have a great Monday kickoff to the week.

Love you guys!❤️