We're almost ready for the anniversary. The last person to arrive is my mom's old piano teacher who is 77 years old and flying in from Boston tomorrow. Last time we saw her she played all of Chopin's etudes for us, she'd play them in 3's and 2's resting in between, it was incredible seeing an elderly person do that. She hasn't visited us in 5 years, my parents are so happy. My job will be to manage the drinks cart lol. The piano teacher likes Pink Ladies and I've been making those since I was 14, Pink Lady/Caesar Salad... my specialties at age 14!!!. We have a new drinks cart thanks to the fact we've had to cut down 3 Ash trees within the last 12 months. A handyman from Hinsdale was able to fashion a nice drinks cart out of the Ash, we are very frugal and didn't want to waste all of the wood, tree people said it was ok to use, so we did. The cabinet-maker/woodworker made it for free, we just supplied the wood and the hardware, people are very kind. Granddad calls the drinks cart 'the booze wagon' lol, mom thinks he's lived down in Texas too long.

Anyway, everything is almost ready. My mom has been going over the house again and again. When the piano teacher gets here tomorrow we'll sit down and she'll have a pink lady. My mom and dad's room is the only room with a full view of the lake and that tends to be what visitors from out-of-town like to see, so everyone will crowd into the masterbedroom for drinks and a view of the lake, for some reason it's like they're seeing the Pacific for the first time or something, for us it's the lake, whatever. Afterwards we'll chow down and I might play my cello or my grandmother might tell us about her overseas trips. Then, we will probably walk along the lake and come back for more drinks. Usually we like to go to the barn to see my sister's horses but we're not sure a 77 year old will be up to that, although the 74 year old around the corner has started jumping again. Or we might go out to a farm near Aurora where the lady has double-yolked eggs, that's always something that intrigues visitors, they tell us its like the old days.

Chicagoland is wonderful and you don't realize what you have here until you host visitors from out-of-town! We were hurt when people considered Chicago 'flyover country'.