High Five for Friday (7.17.20)

One
Today this guy celebrates another trip around the sun.

Because we usually spend July in Wisconsin, and because he always flies home before the rest of us so he can return to work, we haven't celebrated his birthday all together (on the actual day) in almost 10 years. So for us, today is a wonderful silver lining to all this Coronavirus nonsense. Happy birthday, babe - we love you!

Two
"May your coffee kick in before reality."

This quote plus this picture of my and Tom's coffee mugs pretty much sums our lives up these days.

Thank goodness for coffee, AMIRIGHT? A friendly reminder to those in the BCS area - if you're not getting your coffee (whole bean, ground, and/or cold brew) from Dos Road Dogs Coffee, you're missing out.

Three
Last week I ordered and received a dress in the mail from Target. It did NOT look good on me, so I returned to the Target website and went through the process to send the dress back. When I finally clicked "complete my return", a shipping label and a receipt to include in the box didn't pop up like they usually do...instead, I received a message that read, "your return is complete and your credit card will be refunded within 1-3 business days. You may keep, donate, or recycle the item you returned."

WHAT?!

I read the message multiple times to make sure I had understood it correctly, but in the end I had it right - Target was essentially letting me keep the item I'd just returned. The action felt kind and generous in multiple ways, and it made my day.

I'm sending the dress to my sister, and if it doesn't work for her, she'll donate it.

Four
We bought Tom an electric fryer for Father's Day. He loves to fry tofu, but when he does so in the our my kitchen, his passion translates to a rather substantial mess throughout the entire space. (Picture, for example, greasy footprints all over the floor.) So admittedly, the electric fryer - which can be used outside, on the back porch - was as much a gift for me as it was for Tom...kind of like the hot tub Tom bought me a few years ago for Christmas.

Anyway...Tom's first attempt was kind of disastrous, but he NAILED his second attempt. These were made-from-scratch, fried-to-perfection, delicious sides:

Five
Per our tradition, on the first day the temperature reached triple digits we went out for ice cream. (In case you remember reaching about temperatures and ice cream here on the blog already this year, yes, we go out for ice cream on the first day the temperature reaches 90 degrees as well. I have trouble with summer and need lots of rewards to survive the season.)

Feels like 115° 😭😫

Happy weekend, friends!