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...

I know I have been missing from this blog for a while, and largely because life really is just the "same as it ever was" to quote Talking Heads. I don't know that I even have any readers any more that care, or if the 30 or so people that drop by every week are finding me on some random google search. I have been continuing to work on my photography and maybe when I am done with the Photo 365 project, I will move back over to here and post the photography work over here. In the meantime here is a quick update of what I have been doing. Family : all well and getting ready for summer Phrase of the week (Addison) : "I totally can't do this!" Cooper's favourite word : Car! Cubs : suck Golf : mediocre, with some flashes of brilliance Kitchen : done, looks awesome Weather : getting hot Photography : having fun with it Work : busy as heck This weekend is 4th July weekend, and I reposted an item I did from way back in 2005. Addison's school have a group in o...

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...