For Ryan

Also, here is a unique illustration of passover...with peeps.

Spring is in the Air!

Well, sort of. It's actually supposed to snow this week, but I won't let that stop me from buying tulips, as evidenced by my refrigerator-magnet vase from Lyla.

Plus, it's time for another contest! In keeping with Easter, this round's potholder prize is reminiscent of jelly beans.


And to win it, you must send me a digital photo of your freshly dyed Easter eggs. Entries will be judged on photo composition, creativity and colors. If there's a tie, then whoever sent theirs first gets the extra point. Are you up to the challenge?

Under other business, the three-day editor’s conference I went to in Chicago was OK – not entirely relevant, but I wasn’t expecting it to be. Mostly, I just wanted to get out of the office and do something different for a few days. While events like this are usually refreshing, and it’s fun to meet new people, I usually come away feeling wistful because everyone else’s job seems so much cooler and more fulfilling than mine. Also, my mind wanders too easily to things like people’s odd choice of attire, how many *&%#! cell phones have to ring before people think to put theirs on vibrate, and whether there’ll be good snacks during the break. Snacks were so-so, but the Marriott did have very good coffee, and their tea selection included these cute little jars of honey, several of which I pilfered. It’s the gypsy in my soul.



Also, the beds were to die for. I am in the process of researching these fantastic mattress toppers to see if I can buy one. ‘Course, if I do, I may never get out of bed again…

I do need to comment on the elevators, because there is something seriously wrong with the whole elevator concept in Chicago high rises. Holy crap, I can’t believe how much time we wasted standing around waiting for elevators. It was even more irksome than suburbia’s stop lights. Normally I’d just take the stairs, but not 34 floors, and, ya know, the knee thing is still an issue.

Does anyone know why the military is banning big tattoos?


More houndstooth potholders and some colorful ones I forgot to post last week. Maybe these will be runner-up prizes, you just never know.

Whooo II

My digital pictures turned out better than the 35 mm, so I thought I'd post a couple more. The adult owl shot is taken through the spotting scope, so it looks a little funky, but I love the expression on the owl's face. I'm just going to replace the baby owl shot below, and then I couldn't resist including the severed leg. It's the circle of life, people! Scroll down to the prior post to see the new images.

Whoooo?

Lenore and I took a road trip south to lovely Geneva, IL because we heard some great horned owls were nesting at the courthouse again. Geneva is also home to the unique and somewhat she-she shop, The Little Traveler, where we dropped a few bucks, and a great German bakery, which we visited not once, but twice during our expotition.



Here are the two babies



Two people from the Audubon Society also had their spotting scopes set up and were letting people take a peek, which was very neat.

The Audubon lady thought the adult owl near the roof was probably the male parent -- both mom and dad owl get involved in the rearing thing. We're told mom was likely somewhere else on the roof keeping watch as well. We know they're hunting for the kids, because we found a freshly severed rabbit leg under the tree. Ahh nature.



Here are a couple of pictures from the mystery roll of film that was in my camera.

Where's a Potholder When You Need One?!

This is what happens when people think they can transport hot things
without a Perky Potholder! You drop a hot dish and the next thing you
know, poof, half the town is on fire. OK, it wasn't half the town, but this
lumber yard fire was the biggest in East Dundee's history -- and that's
including all the times I set off my smoke detector making toast.

Sadly, this historic lumberyard provided a charming, albeit rickety, visual
terminus to River Street in East Dundee...but now it's just a pile of
charred rubble. Below are a few pictures that Lenore took the next day.
I heard propane tanks exploding that night, but somehow slept through
all the sirens... though I do remember the power going off. Now we have
a boil order, because so much of our water supply was used to fight the
fire. At one point, the firefighters had to pump water out of the river.

An excerpt from the local paper:

The lumber company’s century-old timbers raised flames more than 200 feet
high, East Dundee and Countryside Fire Chief MarkRakow said, its glow clearly visible as far away as Randall Road and South Elgin.

“We’re down in the valley, too,” Rakow said. “So there wasn’t a point where you could not see this.”

In all, 27 departments answered the five-alarm fire call to the four-story building at 311 Barrington Ave., some from Des Plaines and Roselle.

“We had 15 fire engines, five ladder trucks, two squads and two ambulances,
plus change-of-quarters companies to man our towns,”Rakow said.

“The lumber company itself covered approximately 150 feet wide and 200 feet
deep. The whole property is about an acre total, a combination of sheds and structures,” he said.

The fire was called in at 11 p.m. and put out by 2:30 a.m., he said.

The little corner business to the right is where Lenore gets her hair cut (the commemorative plaque is on order).

This Just In...

Be sure to check out Laurie's Hip Knitting blog for documentation of my long lost relative, Seamus Lauer (I call him "Sea"), and his rare potholder artifact! Also, help me figure out what movie this is from, so I can be a frontrunner in Laurie's movie line contest:

"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!"

I Love a Parade!

We had fun showing off our wind-up Minis in the St. Patrick's Day parade. Lenore's new neighbors Seleena and John have a red Mini, so they joined our convoy. It was fun to hear people laugh and comment about the "wind up toys" as we went by.

Here of course is a Mini wannabe. It's so cute witness the earnestness of these car owners who just want to fit in. Bless their hearts.





Shortly after this shot of the parade in progress, we reached the end point and veered off to head back home. The car club behind us must have thought the parade was continuing, because they followed us all the way to Lenore's house. I'm not sure if they were as amused as we were, but it was fun having our own little private parade.

Here's one more fun car picture...



Speaking of faces, Cora won the "most chocolate on your face" contest at Roland and Amy's party. I'm not sure what possessed me to suggest it, other than it sounded like a good idea at the time.



After the parade, Lenore and I went to the Mini dealership to check out the fundraiser they were having to raise $$ for kids' Cancer research. Our Mini Midwife, John, and others raised over $17,000 in pledges. They in turn had their heads shaved that day. Unfortunately, I didn't get John's picture because I was too entranced by this pimped out Mini. There was a somewhat more subdued blue one outside -- note the cute wheels (upper left of the photo). We drove the new 2007, which was SWEET. John said the whole car is different (and so is the price, yikes!) I'm not sure I like it better, but it was fun to test drive. I should have taken a picture of the new dashboard and do dads inside. You'll just have to go drive one yourself!