Successful trip

Well, I'm back from the windy city after an overnight delay. Fortunately, I got back in time to vote. Sunday, I had an "uryurp" for dim sum. K and her friends had discovered a new place in Evanston called Lulu's dim sum. It's a pan Asian place with a twist on dim sum. They had a special where you could pretty much order as much as you wanted of anything on the menu (with the exception of 4 seafood dimsums). Some of the items were pretty traditional (pot stickers), spring rolls, and some of the items were very original. Here's a link to their menu: http://www.lulusdimsum.com/02-menu-food.html. It was very tasty. After dim sum, we walked around Evanston and checked out furniture stores and checked out many of the huge changes in Evanston. How that city has grown! We drove back via the Vogue fabric store. This store has been in Evanston for decades. It is a magnet for designers and sewers of all skills and levels. Here's a link to their website: http://www.voguefabricsstore.com/store/catalog/index.html If you're any kind of sewer, you would love this store. We looked around for silver/grey silk weight fabric for eventual curtains for K's bedroom. There were SO many choices that when she gets ready to buy fabric, there should be no lack of choices. We intended to look for yarn for me to make an afghan for her new white chair but the traffic heading toward the yarn store was mighty heavy - and imagine it was a Sunday. So we returned to her condo and hung up a number of wall decorations.

For a real treat, K prepared a very nice dinner of stuffed roughy, pasta and an insalata caprese. It was quite a treat to have her cook for me. It was the first time! We talked and watched a dvd before retiring.

Monday we made the most of the time we had together. We first went to the bank to add me to a savings account. Nowadays in order to have a joint account all parties have to be present. We've always had a joint account but our current one is in Connecticut and with neither of us living there we are opening one at the BOA which is in both IL and CA and closing the one in CT. The bank business took over an hour! Can't say I was impressed with the customer service, only in that they didn't have enough staff. We then went in search of a couple of fedoras and knives. Chicago being one of those place where it's cold and windy in the winter requires wearing winter hats. She found a couple she liked. We then went to a Marshall's and found a few good kitchen knives to replace the dull steak knives she was using to prepare her meals.

K drove me to a blue line L station which was only 4 stops from the airport. Instead of her driving out to the airport, I was at the airport in much less time than it would have taken her to drive me. My flight to Phoenix was smooth and arrived early. Then the fun began. The flight to SLO was a full one and the weather in SLO was calling for heavy rain. The plane was one of the larger planes they have recently put on. This is fine unless the weather is questionable. Then the weight becomes an issue for landing at the small/short runway. So they bumped 40 of the passengers, yours truly being one. They gave us a choice of taking a flight to Santa Barbara and being bussed up to SLO or to stay over and take the 11 AM flight today. I first tried to get on the flight to Santa Barbara. I made it and made my way on board only to find there were no more seats available. I think I was really not intended to take that flight - who knows why, but perhaps one day I will find out why. Anyway, I got a free ticket to anywhere in the US and a free night at the Sheraton with complimentary continental breakfast and a safe on time flight this morning.

T met me at the airport and we returned and immediately went to vote before coming home. The polling place is in the development. There was no line and we were done in minutes.