A new life; same as the old life?

I cannot believe it is the end of August already and officially the end of summer here in the US next weekend. It has been a strange summer, lots of storms, oppressive heat and mosquitoes! As is always the case at this time of year everything is being squeezed into the last few weekends. Last weekend I went to the only golf outing truly worth it's salt. The Timothy O'Tooles 14th annual outing. It was our first time, but the pictures of previous outings convinced us. They promised an all in experience with all the food and liquor you could drink, free samples on every hole, etc. Well they came up a little short of every hole, but probably at least 14 or so out of the 18 had free liquor and some nice sights too. Click here for a few shots from the day. This weekend we have already seen Tony Bennett, last night, at Ravinia Festival. Always a good time, the picnic, the lawn, camping out on the station platform waiting for the train. This afternoon, we are off to an "ope...

...and when they say heat wave here they REALLY mean it. We are running into our 4th day of temperatures in the 90s with a heat index in triple digits, and the forecast is for more of the same until the weekend. Today is the hottest of the week with a current Highland Park temp of 98F and a heat index of 107F, although the heat index in other areas is expected to reach 120F. Fortunately, the folks that lost power last week have all been restored. The final count was 868,000, a record number of households affected. There were crews from several different states here to help, and not just Wisconsin/Indiana, but from as far afield as Georgia and Florida! In all the comed repair bill was in excess of $80m. We have had a quiet week, mostly hiding from the oppresive heat, although we did hang out with our friends Amy & Kevin last weekend, where we played a new game call Kubb . First time I played I was pretty good, but it went down hill quick. I might have to build a set of my own to pra...

no post; I know Charlie, very disappointed, but really there is not much going on. Also, I only have about 18 visits per week and about three comments a year, so I am not sure anybody even cares! Winter was long and pretty hard with some fabulous snow falls. The snow blower got a great work out and even earned me a few bottles of wine from the neighbours. The kitchen is done from a contractor perspective, although touch ups, painting and backsplash tiling needs to be completed. I have started the clean up, with the family room back to "normal" I started the backsplash tiling as well, with the back semi-hidden area, to make sure I could do a good enough job, without professional help. It looks good and photographs will follow as I near completion. The whole house still needs to be cleaned. Mot of the upstairs is done, we (Lorraine mostly) have been washing all of the carpeting, walls, etc as everything was just covered in dust. We are up against the wall as my sister, her ba...

I have so much work to do on the house, tidying up after the builders have finished. The kitchen needs the backsplash, the laundry room needs a little more paint, the ceilings and walls need refinishing where drywall has been done, and the place needs cleaning. However this weekend it has been all fun, all the way! I went on my first outing with the camera club yesterday to the Chicago Flower Show. I have to say that it wasn't nearly as grand as I thought it would be, and I am sure not a patch on the Chelsea Show. It was kinda cool though, as we were able to get access to the show 2 hours before the general public, and therefore able to shoot lots of pictures without being jostled or worrying about the tripods, etc. I am not much of a floral person in terms of knowing the names, but I think this is a lily variety, maybe even an Arum Lily. Here are some more pictures of the day trip. The theme of the event was "The Sport Of Gardening" The folks I was driving wanted to le...

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.

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...

We hadn't really been in the city for a long time as a family. So we decided that this past weekend, with 60-70f weather, that it would be the perfect weekend for a lakefront bike ride. Plus with another baby on the way , it wouldn't be long before it becomes too tiring for Lorraine to go on long days out. So we packed up the bikes on the back of the truck, including the baby trailer, and off we went. We parked at the Hancock Center. We had planned to park in Lakepoint Towers by Navy Pier, but they are now more expensive the John Hancock, WTF! We did find out though, for future reference, that if we get into the city before 10:30, the early bird rate is as low as $12 on the weekend, an absolute steal compared to the $29 for arrival at 10:45! How and ever, after getting everyone set up, belted in, etc, what a rigmarole, we headed off Southwards first to North Avenue Beach. We know that area pretty well, as that is where they hold the air and water show. It was lunchtime by now, ...