The Best of Times

So this has been a busy week here at Chez Jano (that would be the name of the Bed & Breakfast I am currently running out of my home) A day after Sarah and Daisy left to return to Mississippi, I did a quick load of sheets and towels and ran through the house with a vacuum before I welcomed Liv and Andrea for the weekend. They were in town for the wedding of my dear friends Allison and Abe.

Allison has been in my church small group for the past three years, and she is a fellow crazy Cards fan. She has such great faith and has been such a great influence on me in that regard, and well anyone who can carry on an intelligent conversation about God and Jim Edmonds pretty much rocks in my world. Allison married Abe on Saturday and their wedding was just wonderful... they are just a perfect example of (as Allison's Dad, Chuck said in his toast) "Love Conquers All". Abe is a Cubs fan who lives in Evanston, Allison is a Cards fan that lived in Champaign. Abe is Chinese, and until very recently Allison never much cared for Asian cuisine. I don't know how or why but Abe and Allison just work... they fit together amazingly well. I just love when things work out that well.

My house guests included Allison's bridesmaid, Andrea, from St. Louis, and Liv, the girlfriend of Allison's brother, Bart. Andrea, Liv and I had a great time... none of us had met until they showed up on my doorstep Friday evening (although Allison did some nice introductions via email), and I just had a blast. We stayed up until 12:30 on Friday night, after getting sucked into an episode of "What Not to Wear". We sat talking in my living room over breakfast on Saturday morning so long the girls were almost late getting to hair appointments. Seriously, I think I may just start having total strangers stay at Chez Jano every weekend... it was just a lot of fun.

As if that wasn't enough excitement for one weekend, Sunday afternoon/evening I went to the Decatur Celebration with Nikki. Like every year it was a highlight of my summer... the people watching is like no other... it rivals San Fran, which is saying a lot. And the free entertainment is amazingly diverse. Today we saw "The Black Diamond", a black man that sings Neil Diamond hits and sounds exactly like him. nwe heard a few songs from "War", including "Low Rider" and "Why Can't We Be Friends". I am saving the best for last which was Dennis DeYoung and Songs of Styx. He rocked and sang some of my favs including "Lady", "You Babe", "Show Me the Way", "Best of Times" (hence the title of this post), "Mr. Roboto", and the ever popular "Sail Away". This concert in particular provided some prime people watching opportunities. The best was this lady in her late 50's, upper/middle class, very nicely dressed in pressed white capris and cute black sandals and top, who was so rocking out and actually playing air guitar and singing into her fist like it was a microphone. The concert was great. The only bad thing about the Decatur Celebration was that I was denied a deep fried candy bay... they weren't there this year. Very sad, very, very sad.

But despite that setback, it was just a really great weekend. I'd say more, but I am beat and need to hit the hay.

Oh, and kudos today to Nik's Mom & Dad for giving me some tomatoes out of their garden... Yummy!

Editor's Note: The pics include one of Allison and Abe the lovely couple, and me with my houseguests Andrea & Liv.