Amyblog

THE NUTHOUSE CAFE

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We took a brief but fun trip to Chicago and Detroit for Thanksgiving this year. I always love spending the holidays in a big city and Chicago did not disappoint. We again lucked out with beautiful weather, blue skies with highs in the low fifties in Chicago. The kids got to ice skate at Millenium Park and then feast on Chicago dogs by the ribbon rink. We also visited The Museum of Ice Cream. More on our Chicago trip later. Then we spent Thanksgiving at my In Laws in Michigan this year.

Alhtough we all caught the flu over Thanksgiving, we are thankful that the flu was mild and we all recovered pretty well after three days. I was also thankful that all of our flights were on time and uneventful! One never knows what adventures one gets flying into and out of O'Hare Airport, possibly the worst airport in the world!

In other news, I wanted to share with you something Ahgoo created back in Spring 2022, after her Uncle showed her Mark Rober's squirrel videos. At the time, we had two resident squirrels which Ahgoo named Zippy and Zella. We do know that they are indeed a boy and a girl. It is most likely that Zip and Zel (as we affectionately call them) have had babies in the past. Besides the traditional way to tell them apart, Zippy also has a "broken" finger that sticks out on one hand and Zella has a white bump on her nose. After being inspired by Mark Rober, Aghoo decided to make a coffee shop for Zippy and Zella back in February 2022. As you can see from the first two pictures below, The Nuthouse Cafe has real charm! It was beautifully decorated with writings on the wall and even had a menu on the wall and a plant in the corner. We first opened The Nuthouse Cafe back in March 2022...to no customers! We put out Walnut Lattes (walnuts) on the table everyday and no squirrels came...for the entire Spring and Summer! Turns out that these guys where too busy...well, getting busy, if you know what I mean. It wasn't until Fall of 2022 that the squirrels started to come to the cafe regularly. Now, we get about three or four squirrels everyday getting their Walnut Lattes. Sometimes they would come right up to our glass door and look into our house! It's like they were asking...when does the cafe open?? After a whole year, we are even getting the next generation of squirrels coming to the cafe. Happy Holidays!

Posted on November 27, 2023

EXPLORING YOUR UNIVERSE AND OTHER RAMBLINGS

I can't believe it's November!! Halloween was fun this year, Buzz was on the verge of not wanting to go trick or treating but in the end he had enough friends who still wanted to go to sway him. Mr. BAW and I split up and he went with Buzz while I went with Ahgoo and her friends. We both had fun since we get along well with the parents of all the kids' friends. Buzz went as "Pop Culture Man"...he had on a huge Pop Figure mask. Ahgoo dressed up as Luz from the show Owl House. I actually dressed up as the Starbucks' double tail mermaid, which was an easy costume to make out of felt and cardboard! Mr. BAW was Forbush Man, which some kids actually recognized while he was out walking! We were very lucky to have had really perfect weather on Halloween night. The kids both came home with at least five pounds of candy! We are still digging through the two bags daily.

Although we all had a good time this year, I'm still lamenting about the unicorn of Halloweens, the Saturday Halloween in 2020. Sadly, due to COVID, we didn't even get to trick or treat that year!!! It won't be until 2026 will we have another Saturday Halloween! My mother and I are not alone in thinking that we should just make Halloween the last Saturday in October...there are tons of websites devoted to that. But alas, we are stuck with October 31. As the kids grow, I suspect they'll be going to more Halloween parties as opposed to trick or treating anyway...sigh.

We started out in November by attending the Exploring Your Universe event at UCLA. Although many of the booths were geared towards younger kids, there were a few booths we enjoyed. Aghoo got to extract strawberry DNA, which I now believe is still in a test tube in her purse! She also held up Europa (one of Jupiter's moon) over her head! Buzz talked to some folks about particle accelerators. Kepler also had a wonderful time on campus, he always does! This time, he got to meet the real live Joe Bruin who gave Kepler tons of ear scratches. Besides the event, the kids also had their skateboard and scooter so they enjoyed the various hills around campus. Mr. BAW and I both enjoyed a coffee drink from Kerckhoff Coffeehouse, my old hangout on campus. Overall, it was a nice day on campus.

Lastly, nothing makes changing of the seasons more apparent than time change! We rolled back the clock and suddenly, it gets so gloomy and dark at 3 in the afternoon. I'm feeling sad and happy at the same time, not really sure what to feel at times. I think I need to break out my candles and my warm sweaters already. How do you feel about winter and the holidays? I also need to kick off another holiday tradition...stressing out about Christmas presents!! Yay, nothing like holiday stress to ring in the season. I do like to use Pinterest for inspirations, my friends are of no help, you know who I'm talking to...share a list!!! :-) Happy winter.