Peaches Prattlings











{September 27, 2017}   Pie’s the Limit…YUM!

Oh happy vegan!

One of the things I like about traveling for work is finding new places to eat and one of the places I like to order food from in Springfield is Pie’s the Limit.

This is a local chain, local to the Springfield area. It’s a ‘regular ‘ pizza place, each pie made to order and can feed two people, I guess if I was really hungry I could have eaten the whole thing. I have lunch for tomorrow!

I had a pizza with olive oil and garlic on the crust, layered with vegan cheese, roasted garlic, spinach, artichokes and pineapple. I know that last one might seem odd, but I have to say, yum! The salty with the sweet, it works!

The cheese stayed melted and it was creamy and tasty and just yum!

Looking forward to lunch tomorrow! Come join me, plenty left!



{September 26, 2017}   It’s not October…

Please stop with the Halloween decorating!!

I get that it’s fall, officially. Halloween is in October, I don’t know if you know this interesting fact. I know once fall comes, it’s time for pumpkin spice and fall decorating, I’m good with that.

If you know me, you know I la,la,la love Halloween and used to have the biggest, most fabulously decorated house. I loved decorating, setting up for trick-or-treating, seeing the kids faces when they walked the path to come to the door for candy.

What’s hard is seeing all the decorations for Halloween is that my birthday is in September and I always refused to decorate for Halloween before October!

I know the decorations are in the stores in July, I’m just never ready to put it out until October 1st!

I’m not ready, so please stop! You only have to wait six days! Then, go for it, I cannot wait to see what you do!!!



{September 22, 2017}   Wow, status really helps!

United pulled one out for me tonight!

Flying to Boston on Delta tonight, flight goes from 630pm departure to 748 pm departure. Well…that doesn’t bode well for my 9pm connection in Detroit. Hmm..

Call the travel company, there is a 730pm on United going to Boston, great, I’ll take it! Less stress because of the traffic I am now sitting in with my Uber driver.

I get to the airport, drop the bag, go through security and pass gate C20 with a flight leaving for Boston at 715pm. Hmmm, I wonder. Just about that time I get a notification that my 730pm flight is now delayed to 847pm due to air traffic control. Ok…

I overhear the gate agent tell someone there are still seats on the 715, ooh! I book it over, get in line, with everyone else… doesn’t look good for me. First, there is a $75 charge for the standby seat, if I get it. Ok, I just want to get there. Then, the next sentence is, with your status, there’s no charge! Score one for United.

I look at the board with all the standby names and I’m thinking no way. Then, they start calling standby names and mine is the second or third called! Exit row ok? Yes! New ticket issued, I am on my way to Boston!

The flight should have left at 715pm, but… weather, air traffic, whatever. We don’t leave until almost 9pm.

The most important thing…I made it to Boston, I get to see my family and United came thru. Go United!

The pictures have nothing to do with flying, they were just there, on the street in Chicago and they made me happy! I hope they make you happy!



What are the odds, two fabulous nights in a row?! Well, with my folks, 10000000%! Tuesday I got a text from ST that he was going to be in Chicago last minute for work, great! Tuesday night we met up to grab some dinner and DLP joined us! I’ve told you that ST and I used to work together and he’s my work husband. So… work wife met work husband! All we needed was WIS, work girlfriend and PSM and we would have had the full enchilada! Could you imagine! We met at the bar at my hotel for a drink, then on to dinner at Rosebuds,a great Italian restaurant about two blocks from the hotel, recommendation from the hotel staff. Sorry I don’t have pics of everyone’s food, I had a treat happem, I got to talk to GES for a bit. That was the way to start the new year, dad in the morning, sister in the evening! So excited to see them this weekend! We had a great time at dinner, DLP and ST hit it off like gangbusters, it was as if they’d known each other for years. I love how my friends can do that! Tonight, ST and I met for dinner again and he said he wanted to go to Lou Malnati’s for deep dish pizza. We put our names on the list, I don’t think there’s a night the famous places for deep dish aren’t crowded! ST went to the bar to get a beer and get me a water, comes back out ahs tells me he has a seat at the bar and he’s made friends. With two Patriots fans! Seriously!? I had seen the one guy walk by, I noticed his shirt, the old Pats logo, which I like. We started talking and found out they were from Maine and… get this… in town for the same conference as ST! What are the odds!! After a bit we were enjoying ourselves so much we decided to change our individual two top tables to a four person table, awesome! We had such a good time chatting, getting to know each other, sharing pizza and beer. Well, pasta, salad and water for me! We talked through a few pitchers, laughed, told jokes, swapped travel and business stories and passed the time until it was time to head out. We walked back to my hotel, the guys promised to find each other tomorrow at the conference and we all went on our merry way. Now I’m talking to you, avoiding thinking about packing tomorrow morning and hoping to get a good night’s sleep! I almost forgot! For lunch, I got to go to one of my favorite places, Eleven City Diner! Look at that egg salad sandwich, on challah! Oh my!!! Two stellar evenings, go me! Night!



{September 21, 2017}   L’Shana Tova

Happy New Year.

It’s Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of the new year, the High Holy Days, the most holy of holy days of the year.

This is a joyous time, celebrating life, health and happiness.

All I will say to you is what I wish for you this coming year. A happy, healthy, joyous and sweet new year.

L’ Shana Tova.



{September 20, 2017}   True Food Chicago…yum!

I really like this place! It’s Monday in Chicago. I taught a great class of Managers, I was back in the hotel, I needed to run some errands including Walgreens, TMobile and food! Well, there was also some window shopping, The Disney store and that included a…yup, you guessed a costume! One grandbaby costume, check! Four grandbaby and three niece costumes to go! By now, I’m very hungry and the first two places couldn’t accommodate me, then I saw a True Food, Wahoo! Do you remember me telling you about our fabulous breakfast in Denver with PSM’s cousins at True Food? I knew they could feed me, so I went to the bar, copped a squat and set in to order. I had…yum! An inside out quinoa burger, as they called it and it was fabulous! It’s two hard packed quinoa patties where the buns would be, layered between the patties were cucumbers, avocado, tomato and hummus. I skipped the tzatziki sauce since its made with yogurt and added their almond ricotta cheese and butter lettuce. As a side, I had their charred cauliflower instead of the kale salad or sweet potato hash. Oh my word, but this was good! My server said she likes it with the lake salad because she will break it all up and mix it with the kale to have a giant salad. It was such a nice contrast of flavors. The heat, temperature, of the quinoa against the cold of all the other ingredients, so nice! I could definitely eat that again! Come with me next time!



{September 18, 2017}   What a weekend!!!

I had a very quick trip to Atlanta andI want to tell you all about it!

I arrived late on Friday night, crashed with ST and got to met his temporary roommate. First thing was to go to Waffle House! It was good to catch up, we haven’t seen each other in a few months. We talked work, travel, relationships, kids, I think we covered it all!

The next morning I went to my house to see it after the interior was painted, ran a vacuum, it’s definitely not my house anymore, that’s an interesting feeling.

Then, return the vacuum and head to see my kids, TYL and my newest grandbaby, CDL, her brother, CH and his wife, AH at the restaurant they all work at. Oh, what a doll baby my newest grandson, CDL, is! Smart, curious, sweet, happy, smells good and what a giggle! I’m so glad I get to be a part of his life and be in my kids lives again. What amazing human beings they are!

Get this…CH even cooked for me!!! He made me artichoke hearts with garlic and olive oil and let me tell you, wow and yum! He can cook for me anytime! Do I seem biased? You bet your sweet bippy! Every day and twice on Sunday!

When I left the kids, I headed to met SDL, MissA and DJL at our favorite Mexican restaurant. Last time we were there was the day before we left for Mexico!

Live music, good music at that, MissA was rocking out to a lot of the songs, she can get down! Good food, friends, conversation, laughs, silliness, Halloween costumes, the only thing missing, CKM! Unfortunately, she had plans last night, bummer!

Back to SDL’s house for a little more catch up and then… crash. Zzzzz Up today, grab the groceries and head out to see the rest of the grandbabies.

Unfortunately, LB and Baby L weren’t able to come, so it was just KLB, CS and the kiddies, BabyA and his sister ELB. I was in heaven, as you can imagine! We played, caught up, giggled, laughed, chased, BabyA crawled in my lap to show me his video game controler, I learned about Sonic the Hedgehog, Minecraft and MarioKart, all in a very short period of time! Then ELB was in my lap, then both of them, oh yes! Happy JJ! They both wanted to play with my watch and the rest of my jewelry.

Now, let’s go cook! KLB made pancakes while the kids played hide and seek in the cabinets, love it! Then BabyA and I cracked, scrambled and cooked eggs for everyone. How fabulous was that!

More chatting, laughing, giggling, rubbing. Let’s just say, thanks BabyA for giving me a lot of steps today! Oh, and the discussion of Halloween costumes! Then it was time to go with promises of a next visit.

Now, for my last visit, the Atlanta Botanical Gardens with TS. The Curious Garden. Wonderful! We walked the canopy in the trees, saw the lady in the water and smelled some fabulous smells.

Through the grounds, into the Chinese meditation garden. Through the archway to the orchid greenhouse.

What amazing creators orchids are!! Some even look like people. Different species and creations.

Then through the edible garden and a field of my favorite flower, sunflowers, sigh.

Then it was time to part company, I had to get gas in the retal car, return it, then catch my flight back to Chicago, teaching class in the morning.

Staying at a new hotel, I’ll tell you about it! Have a great night!



{September 17, 2017}   Go ahead, ride my bumper…

Tonight, coming back from dinner, someone made that mistake…

First, she flew up the street behind me, we were on a 35, she had to be going 50…I say she because I saw her eventually. I could barely see the headlights.

Then she was riding my bumper. Big mistake.

One thing I got from the wasband was when someone follows you that closely, sllllloooooowwwww down. So I did. And she was miserable! I drive slow and stayed on my tail, then backed off, tried to figure out how to get around me, no dice.

I kept that up for a while! Until she turned off. Tickled me all the way!

Go ahead, want to get to know me or my car?



{September 14, 2017}   A small victory!

They delivered to the room! Go me!

Ok, let me explain, since I know you’re thinking, huh? As you know, I live in hotels and eat out just about every meal. Well, some nights, I just don’t want to go out, I want to go back to the hotel, put on my jammies and ahhhh… just like we all do at home sometimes.

Well, tonight was one of those nights, it was a full day of teaching, energy level high, just wiped me out! It happens every once in a while and tonight was one of those nights! I got back to the room, had a little work to do then I realized I was hungry, butI just didn’t feel like going anywhere.

So, to grubhub.com I went and ordered food to be delivered. I also requested that the food be delivered directly to my room. I also called the restaurant and asked them to ask the driver to bring it right to the room.

Usually, at some hotels, they won’t let the delivery person come all the way to the room, its kind of annoying actually when they tell you its a security risk to let them up. Why is it more of a security risk for a delivery driver than any other person coming into the hotel?

I understand if the elevator requires a key card to access, then by all means, I will come and get the food, but if there isn’t a key card, why can’t they come directly to the room?

Well, it worked! I was in my jammies watching tv and all of a sudden…a knock on the door and ta da! My food delivery!

Small victory! Let’s see if I can do it again!



{September 12, 2017}   Mmmm…Majani…yum!

Such good food!

Tonight, DLP and I had date night and it was at Majani, the vegan place near her house we went to a while back.

We were going to hop yesterday, but we were both tired, it worked out perfectly so I could talk to CWB.

We got there and they were so excited that they had printed menus, instead of just the chalkboard on the wall, but… unfortunately they didn’t have everything on the menu, so poor DLP was turned down for every choice she made! She did eventually find something, not get first choice, but she enjoyed it.

We started with fried cheese grits, they were great! I’m a sugar in my grits girl, but this worked! It was on a bed of fresh tomato sauce and on top. I asked for it on the side in case it was spicy, you know no one thinks anything is spicy…uh huh…but in between the sauce, yum!

Then I had their lentil and veggie soup with a piece of gluten free corn bread. The corn bread was good, but the soup, wow! The bowl was huge!

By the time the gyro cane, I was done! Well, before the gyro came! Guess what I have for lunch tomorrow!!

We ordered dessert to go, DLP got carrot cake and I got pineapple upside down cake. I tasted it after I got to the hotel tonight, wow!

So looking forward to lunch tomorrow!



et cetera