7 Crazy Quick Takes

1.

If you ever get one of these in your house, say under a couch or something, you can call my good friend Cheryl for her harrowing tale, as well as some expert advice.  One skunk accessible ramp up and out a window, one bucket of ammonia soaked rags, and one flour covered path later, and I'm praying that her problem has walked away.

Phew!

2.  Yesterday was Discount Day at the Field Museum.  Discount Day is the secret word for "free to all Illinois residents."  My friend, Sara, had a horrible experience with Discount Day at the Shedd Aquarium.  Two hour or more wait to get in, so they scrapped that plan and did something else. 

This is the Willis Tower (formerly known as the Sirius Tower in this house).  This is the closest my kids have ever been.

I vowed to get to the Field early to avoid the crowds.  Sara and I packed picnic lunches for our broods, including the ever-popular muffuletta sandwich (much more on that later). We left straight after 8am mass.  Feast of Assumption and Holy Day of Obligation and all that.  

This is the Adler Planetarium.  This is the closest I've ever been to it.

We pretty much had the place to ourselves for the first hour.  The Field is huge and never got crowded, not like I've seen on Sunday afternoons in the winter.  

We ate our delicious lunches outside and saw ridiculous lines for the Shedd Aquarium!  

What?!?  Did those people not know that they could go to the Field for free?  Pity the fools.

3.  

Some of us are not morning people.

But give us time, we warm up.

4.  We saw:

World's Cutest Barnacle

The Honey Badger looks suspiciously like a skunk.

Perhaps the number one reason to choose the Field over the Shedd.

I call this, "Breeders at the Field."

5.  Remember last year, when I did the The Great Lunch Makeover and The Great Lunch Makeover Part 2?

I have confirmed evidence of it's success.

Susan recently told me that last year, she and her friends did this Lunch Swap at school because her lunches were better than everyone else's!  Her friends came up with the Swap, just so they could eat her lunch!

Thank you wise and wonderful readers, for your inspiring comments that brought me to this podium of  the Awesome Lunch-Making Mom Awards.  

I'd also like to thank That Pickle Guy, the maker of muffuletta spread that has upgraded my sandwich making skills.

Lastly, I'd like to thank Christopher Kimball (whom I may have called a pathological liar) and the people behind the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook and my mom who gave it to me.  Love you guys.

6. More pictures from yesterday.

This post wins the award for the most uses of the word, "muffuletta."

Muffuletta makes us less sullen.

7.

Kudos to the Field Museum for putting little QR codes for us to find to make the whole experience very cool.  This video was Jill's favorite. Forty four seconds of incredibly cute.

I'll see you bright and early Monday morning with my Mystery Ingredient Monday post.  This week the link-up party is at Tasha's place, and the Queen of Busytown, my sister Anne, will be announcing an ingredient for the next challenge.

If you'd like to play along, here is the current Mystery Ingredient reveal post.

Joining Jen and her minions for 7QT Friday.