A new life; same as the old life?

Many of my American friends have never heard of, far less pulled a Christmas cracker, and those who have, have usually experienced the non snap version sold in the US, because although guns are OK, heaven forbid we put a little gun powder in a cracker! For those who are interested, and for the UK folks who may or may not know this (I just learned it today from a Christmas cracker!!), here is the history of the cracker. If you would like to see a few pictures from Christmas Day, click here . Tom Smith, a baker of wedding from Clerkenwell, London, invented the Christmas cracker in 1847. The events that led to these wonderful creations were quite a story. In 1940, Smith went to Paris and came across 'Bon bon', an almond sweet wrapped in paper that was twisted. He liked the taste so much that he began selling the 'new' sweets in London and they became very popular. Tom, who was always on a lookout for new promotion opportuniti...

Check out this article on the subject , but all over Chicago we see these signs. They vary in message and I think this particular one is one of the best/worst. The general intent is to avoid being sued, oops sorry I mean to avoid people being hit and injured by falling ice from buildings. Instead of simply warning you to stay away from the edge of the building, apparently 5 feet is about the best distance, this sign advises you to "watch". When I see that, to me, it implies that I should look up to see if ice is falling, upon which of course, I may get an icicle in the eye. The article is worth a look though because it talks about the general thinking around the topic.

So we are into the second week and things are progressing. Last week was of course all demolition, and this week starts off that way, but moving quickly to actual construction as you can see with some new walls getting framed in. There have been no major surprises yet, although some small issues like the bad header on the old door, poor plumbing work and extremely bad duct work. By the end of the week we are hoping for rough inspections, they new pocket door installed and the basic plumbing work done. The best thing here is that the contractor really seems to know what he is doing, unlike previous ones that have worked on this house, that much is obvious! We should be ready for tile in about 3 weeks, cabinets the week after. Check out the pictures to see the choices so far, door fronts, handles, dishwasher, oven, fridge, cooktop hood, under cabinet lights and floor tiles. Oh and don't forget to check out my photo 365 efforts by clicking on the links over to the right with the rota...

All of the really cool winter things are just starting to kick in, Christmas lights, winter wonderlands, train sets and holiday festivals. Today was the Highland Park holiday festival, where they switched on the holiday lights, without an actual Christmas tree of course. There was ice sculpting first thing, some cider, chestnuts, and then Father Christmas arrived on a fire truck to switch on the lights. I took a bunch of really cool pictures of the ice carving, check em out .

As regular readers will know, we bought our house, the one we have been living in for almost 3 years, in December of last year. Of course, besides the normal maintenance and cosmetic items that I have been doing for a while now, since we own it, there are bigger more fundamental issues to deal with like the windows we installed in December, the completely unbalanced heating/cooling installation and the tiny crappy kitchen. I started planning the new space, with some walls to be knocked through, bathroom shrinking to a powder room (toilet for my British readers), smaller laundry room, etc. Reasonably complex but nothing horrendous, no supporting walls, etc. However, as these things always do, (especially if there is a wife involved :-) the project potentially had become significantly more complex, possibly tearing out most of an original supporting brick exterior wall, the one that now forms the wall between the dining/kitchen area and the family room. Whilst I saw the logic of the cho...

Update - As we approach the upcoming holiday season, and I excitedly wait for the "Holiday Lite" to come on, I actually got a comment from his other daughter, who's name unfortunately I do not know. She corrected a couple of my errors in writing this post, which I have done below. She also told me sadly that her father had died of cancer, three months after recording this, and as a result was unable to see it's success or receive the award he so richly deserved. Here's what she said: "Thank you for posting this :) ! Actually, my dad, Father Ted Berndt, lost his battle with cancer three months after recording this reading. My sister, Ellen Stout, was a radio personality at WLTQ at the time of the recording. She produced this and accepted the ARI award in Dad's behalf. To be correct, Ellen and Dad recorded this for ALL service people and their families around the world. As always, "Merry Christmas to all, and may God bless you this night" :) ...

Not sure this is working so well with firefox, but seems to be fine with Internet Explorer. If you cannot view it, search on youtube for Rodney Atkins - Cleaning This Gun.

The brakes on my truck have been squealing for the past several weeks, and I have been meaning to get around to fixing them. However, I remember how tricky they were on my MGB; so I was kinda procrastinating. I enlisted the help of a friend and we were off; and it was actually very simple. I wanted to get the discs(rotors) reground as well, but they turned out to be too far gone for that, so I bought new ones, at a mere $40 a piece, a snip I thought. I got two sets of middle range pads, and two front discs for $160 all in. Plus, the pads are lifetime, so if they EVER wear down whilst I own the truck, they will replace them. 2.5 hours later, including the trip to the store to buy the parts, no more squeaking, yay!

This it the tourist slogan for Illinois , a play on the name of the main shopping street in Chicago. IE there are more miles worth seeing in Illinois than just the Magnificent Mile; or at least that's how I interpret it. So this weekend, we decided to see if it was true. As you may have noticed, I have been doing a lot more photography wise, and one of those guys I have been working with runs his own business doing "Photo Safaris". Well on Sunday Gary was running an aerial safari from Rockford "International" Airport. Gary actually runs some really cool safaris, both locally and around the world. Click here or on the logo for more info. I could have gone myself for the two hour flight in a Cessna, over Rockford, Galena and the Mississippi river, but we decided it was a good way to start to prove/disprove the Illinois tourist board, and take the whole family; with a view of seeing what we came across on the journey worth doing. We left home around 10:30 on Satu...

As you no doubt saw below, Addison went of to school this month. That's about as much excitement as we have had, although we did finish the plans for the kitchen upgrade (more on that in a separate post) We just got back from the UK, and I have been working to upload all the photos we took there and since we returned..here they are. Browse at your leisure, but here are a couple of my recent favourites. Random pictures of the kids from September 2010 A weekend trip to Center Parcs A day out at Longleat Safari Park Fall festival at the local nature center A day out with some colleagues down in Chicago Fright Fest 2010 - Six Flags Great America

Addison's first day of ( pre ) school was on Tuesday, about a month late due to our travels, but we pay by the month, and only for those that she attends, so it was all good. It's strange, it wasn't as poignant as I thought it would be. In my head, I had this whole image of tearful mother, tearful child wistfully looking back at mum as she went into school; returning hours later to regale us in great detail, with tales of the exciting new things she did whilst there. I don't know what it was or wasn't. - It is only pre- school, so it is more playing than actual learning - She wore similar clothes to those which she wears on a daily basis - The whole morning was rushed as we ended up being late - We both went into the classroom with her, and settled her in - When I left it was pretty much, "see ya!" - Lorraine stayed for about 40 minutes and actually ended up participating All in all, I guess I feel cheated. It bodes well for later schooling that she was ab...

Photo 365 projects are becoming very popular with amateur photographers trying to hone their craft. As some of you may know, I have been working on my skills for the last year or so, including joining a camera club, taking a few on-line lessons in the technical skills and even been on a few photo safari’s under instruction by a local guy. So I decided to try it. Basically you have to take a picture every day and post it to your photo 365 blog. Obviously, the intent is to look for different subjects, use different techniques, and force yourself to look for original and unusual ideas. I am not sure how much time I will have for this, or even if I am inventive enough, so I guess we will see, but I fully intend to see it through, even if some days are a little late. My first four efforts are below. Please, please, please let me know what you think, as I would love the feedback of what you thought went well or did not. For my part I will try really hard not just take pictures of my kids ev...

Someone sent me this, it is a genuine interview, although for those of you who are familiar, it could just as easily be a Monty Python sketch.

A WW2 female British Spy dies unknown to all around her in Torquay earlier this month. Moments away from a paupers grave, police looked through her possessions, including a Croix de Guerre medal awarded to her by the French government after the war, the obscurity Ms. Nearne had cultivated for decades began to slip away. It reminds me of a story I heard years ago whilst visiting Bletchley Park pertaining to the work undertaken in breaking WW2 codes for the German U Boats. The story goes, that the site, the work undertaken, and the workers themselves were so secret and so discreet, that years later when older couples were sitting home watching a documentary on the place, they were both heard to say. " Hey I used to work there during the war. Really? So did I! " These people, married to each other, both set off for work each day for years, made their way to the same location, by different routes, methods of transport, etc and worked in different huts and NEVER spoke about it, c...

into this, then this, this, and finally this, This is what the side of the hot tub looked like before,

We went on this trip as an alternative to standing on a baking hot beach to watch the air and water show. I was hoping to get some great pictures, as i hadn't been to the show for years and was excited by their claim on the web site "will give you one of the best seats for the Annual Chicago Air & Water Show." After getting over the sticker shock, the $49.90 base price actually comes out at $65 including taxes and "fees" and the additional $49 to guarantee a window table, we were excited. We arrived and got on board easy enough, only to notice that it was pretty empty and we would have had a window table anyway, and secondly, even the non window tables were pretty friggin close! Ripoff number 1! The food was limited and average at best. We were amongst the first to board and it was already mostly cold. A selection of chicken something, beef something and some sides, and that was about it. Brunch at the Hancock is about $50 without the rip "fees" a...

This video was sent to me from a buddy. It is done by a group called Church On The Move, but this particular video is not religious. Check it out, all of you dads will think it is excellent I am sure. DAD LIFE VIDEO

When I lived in the UK, many's a day Charlie and I would find ourselves rumminating over a DIY problem, often with a beer in hand and some Tiger Woods golf on the Playstation or Xbox in obeyance until we were done. Everything from building summer houses for my then MIL, to erecting fences in his garden to simple painting and decorating, although we tended to do the simple stuff in our separate ways. As I have been working on this house, I have often wished for his assistance or support, if nothing else, a fresh pair of eyes. I miss the spare hand, the common sense approach but most of all I miss the camaraderie. So when I was working on these new doors, replacing the horrible old, brown stained, flat, hollow cores, with some nice 6 panel, foam core versions, with brushed nickel hardware, I thought of Charlie. Particularly when I left the door standing in the opening for a minute to get a tool, and it fell through into the room, landing on Addison's new fan, and her toy chest, a...

May was a pretty quiet month for us generally, the weather was unseasonably cold, I went to a few Cubs games, and generally we did homely stuff. We did go to Sarbina & Bob's twins first birthday and had a garage sale at the end of the month, where we made some decent cash. Also we went to that iconic American insituttion, the drive in movie, but that's a post for a different day. For anyone interested, here are some general pictures of the kids from May.

I remember as a child living in South Africa, going to the drive in movies with our parents in an old beat up Volkswagen Beetle. They would lay down the back seat and we would curl up under a blanket "asleep" to be able to into 18/R rated movies, so they could see them without having to hire a babysitter. I guess I must have been around 9 or 10 because the movies I remember came out in the late 70s. We saw a terrible B movie, The Car and what I thought at the time as hilarious, although now who knows, The Last Remake Of Beau Geste , but I remember it as a very cool experience. Care all around, windows rolled down a bit, speaker on a cable, hung on the side window. At the time, of course, I didn't know it was really an American institution. It was much later through the magic of television and my exposure to American TV shows, that I learned just how much of an icon the drive in was. Of course with the advent of modern cinema, surround sound, air conditioning, etc, they ...

The debate will never be resolved of course, but it is an interesting thought process. Theoretically we have done nothing different with Cooper than we did with Addison, yet the differences in his behaviour are marked from Addison's. I say theoretically because, of course things are different. Our values have not changed, but likely our approach has. He is child number two, so of course lessons have been learned, attitudes are different, and Addison is here being very involved in everything going on. He is way more grizzly than Addison ever was, doesn't sleep as well, and seems to need to burp every minute of EVERY DAY. Appearancewise, he could be her twin at that age. There are often time when I look at pictures, on the computer or the digital frame, with some hand me down outfit from Addison, and I cannot tell for sure which one of them it is. All of this to say that he has been a nightmare to feed, to the point where I don't even try any more and Lorraine spends hours w...

In this ever increasing world of convenience, things in my mind have gone too far. I guess it started out in the service industry all these years ago, when instead of fixing you own car, doing your own plumbing, etc, you hired someone. Now that same mind set is applied to pretty much everything across the board, especially here in the US. A friend of mine who shall remain nameless, for fear he might feel I am picking on him, grated cheese by hand for the FIRST TIME EVER at the ripe old age of 36. His response was that "why wouldn't you just buy pre-grated cheese?" It set me thinking. I would never even have thought to buy pre-grated cheese, the price not withstanding at 3-4 times the price of a brick, it just seems alien; but like I mentioned earlier, it is everywhere, pre-sliced burger buns, gogurt , ready meals, although I have purchased those. I guess as we go through life, this trend will continue, but I will certainly try my best to remain as inconvenient as I can.

the water is lovely

So I have been working on improving my photography, reading the manual, taking on line courses, checking out local photo safaris that I might want to try and thinking about joining a camera club. I went to one before I left for the UK, which was pretty local, just the next town over. When I arrived, at the old people's home, sorry assisted care living facility, (I didn't know before I left home) I walked into the big man's waiting room! Now I have no problem with old, I will be one myself one of these days, and certainly in the MG club we had our share, but I was the youngest in the entire room by about 20-25 years. When I thought of joining a club, it was with the hope of meeting some people, reasonably close to me in age and interest, to attend meetings, maybe some excursions and have fun. So with the age of this group, it really wasn't for me. Last night I tried the only other local group that I could find, still 30 minutes away, but relatively local. This club seeme...

Like many of you I suffer from junk mail. Everything from "pre-approved" credit cards to catalogs and magazine offers. Whilst I am sure some of this is my fault for not ticking the right boxes on forms or websites, or inviting one company to mail me, who then sell it to others, they sure don't make it easy. Hiding the text in small print, or intentially badly wording opt out questions to catch you unawares. Of course we all know the dangers of simply throwing this stuff away, so we end up opening it, shredding parts, recycling others, etc. The good thing is that there are some ways, unfortunately some of them tedious, but we shall see if any of them are effective as I just used a bunch of them. Have a go if this is a problem for you. These links are for the US only, although I am sure similar sites exist in the UK too. Telemarketers - www.donotcall.gov or call 888-382-1222 "Preapproved" - www.optoutprescreen.com or call 888-567-8688 (you will need SSN) Catalo...

We just got back from good old blighty. Lorraine had been there for 3 weeks before I got there, and I joined her for the last 10 days; but let me go back a little, because I can't believe it is March already. Jan (Lorraine's mum) came over in December, with the plan of arriving a couple of days before the new arrival. She was to stay two months, then travel to the UK with Lorraine, and then five weeks later I would bring them back. As it turned out, Lorraine went into labour the day of Jan's arrival and so the wonderful and talented Amy stepped up, picked her up from the airport and whisked her directly to the hospital, do not pass go, do not collect $200! The two months flew by, and Jan was very helpful around the house, baby wrangling, etc In fact Lorraine had to tell her off several times for making Cooper too comfortable and not being able to wake him for feeding time. From my perspective, I discovered clothing that I had forgotten, and my wardrobes and drawers became s...

I cannot remember the last time when I had a seriously bad lower back. My upper back and shoulders are always bad and I get regular massage and chiropractory to keep them loose and mobile. However this past Friday, and I still have no idea how, I threw out my lower back to the point where I could not walk, sit or stand. I went to the local massage place and after 90 minutes of therapy I still had to crawl out of the room. They put on something call Kinesio tape which enabled me to at least get upright again, long enough to walk (ish) to the truck. I have spent most of the last 48 hours in bed and I can just about walk again, but not without pain. According to the massage lady something inocuous, which I cannot remember caused my muscles to go into protective mode and lock up in the general area of my lower left back/butt. I really hope this is a temporary thing as I have a lot planned this spring. Installing a kitchen, knee surgery the week after next and of course most importantly Cu...