well that went by fast...

 seems like just last week we came home from DC.  LOL - of course it has been more than a month at this point.... Jeez. October has always been a fast month.  Years ago we always went to someplace in Europe for Phil's birthday. And then later we would get all our Chicago doctor appointments finished before heading south for the winter to Sarasota, but that's over now.  This October we have been about half home bodies and half social. We have been working diligently on the paperwork for our NLV (non lucrative visa) for Spain.  Our appointment at the consulate is next Tuesday.  We are still missing one document from our government. We sent off the paperwork to the State Department facilitators on August 26th and they filed it with the State Department on September 6th. Since there was a Labor Day weekend in there it seemed timely.  The facilitator told us 5-6 weeks for the turn around to us. 

and...... here we sit at coming up to EIGHT weeks and no paperwork..... big sighs all around.  

But in the meantime.... we got fun... Phil went to a folk music conference with his buddies and I worked on scanning documents we needed for the NLV process and for tax season next winter while we are away in Europe.Then we met Ron & Mary for dinner at Alcove the following Monday.  It was just as good as the first time we went there so we were happy we chose it to return to. 

The following night it was warm enough to eat outside- and despite the deck being cleared for winter we had steaks on the grill with baked potatoes and a salad. 

The next few nights were scheduled with dinner at Le Bouchon, a play at the Raven Theater, and dinner with Todd & Evie at El Ideas.

The play we saw- not so great- 

then dinner out- 

Phil went to a concert with his music friends on Saturday night and I finished the preparations for the submissions to the Consulate on Tuesday.  We each have @20 documents to submit and everything is in good shape except the one we needed from our own government and the same one we started on in plenty of time.... ridiculous but what can you do- it isn't like they work for us LOL- we only pay them.

next up- tomorrow Steve & Suzanne come for four nights. three nights out- including Kasama! The darling of the food media these days - and hot hot hot.  We just lucked into getting this reservation and asked S&S if they wanted to come visit and go... so- yes we are headed there.  Also one night S&S are cooking for us and Lee & Nick. I am sure we will have fun catching up - we have all been busy. Then next week we are off for three weeks on the road - heading south.  So more later. Of course.