A new life; same as the old life?

As I mentioned last week, we planned to go to Fright Fest on Friday night. The weather was perfect, the tickets cheap thanks to season pass holders Steve & Kristi, and the promise of American Halloween alluring. Every time you drive by Six Flags on the Interstate, you can see the spiders climbing on the old wooden rollercoaster. As Brits you generally have the impression that Halloween in the US is a big deal, and it is. People decorate their houses, more than some Brits would for Christmas, with lights, skeletons, ghosts, etc; and Six Flags was no exception. Every ride, every corner of the park had been converted for Fright Fest. We had a great time, the queues were not too bad, although we missed out on one of the best rides, because the queue for that was about 90 minutes. Steve and I went on most things, but the girls were a little more conservative. They had a parade at the end of the night, and of course I took a bunch of pictures.. check them out .

I know there is a lot worse to come, but today was the first time I had to scrape the frost from my windows, winter is definitely on it's way. I have been wearing a coat for the last few weeks, and those who know me well will know how rare that is. This morning as I scraped the windows with my credit card (not yet prepared) I was glad of it. Next week, I might even need gloves! I am off to Six Flags Great America tonight for their Fright Fest, so I had best take some layers. Lorraine doesn't much care for the rides, but she does like the haunted houses and such. Some friends of ours have season passes and cheap tickets, so it should be a fun time. Tomorrow, I will be back at Habitat For Humanity , where the weather promises to be kind to me, at around the mid 60s.

The Chicago White Sox vs The Houston Astros in the World Series. You will have seen that I was quite excited watching the ALCS when we were up in Door County . I decided that we would host the weekend games last weekend, and also attend all the games following in a local bar or two, until this weekend's games, when I might host again, assuming it went that far. I said to several people on Saturday and earlier this week that the Sox would win it in 4 straight games. I said it again when they were 2-0 up and again before last night's again when they were 3-0 up. I am not sure I ever really believed it..but by gosh they only went and proved me right . We watched both of the weekend games at home, and decided to go to watch the mid week games in champs and Cubby Bear North. Game 3 was incredible. We went down 4-0 in the first 4 innings, and entered the 5th in some trouble. However we scored 5 runs in that one inning. The Astros came back in the 8th to level the game. What happens ...

Lorraine and I took our first US road trip this weekend. I wanted to see fall colours and someone at work suggested Door County . I also wanted to do the RV thing, but found out that firstly, it's very expensive, and secondly, trying to book in Door County for the fall, with only a couple of months notice is damned near impossible. We ended up in a Best Western in Sturgeon Bay , driving up in the truck. For a full selection of pictures, click here . We left early(ish) on Friday morning, about 10am :-) and headed up North. The weather was beautiful and we were excited about our first trip out. Lorraine packed a box lunch with crackers, port wine cheese dip and my homemade smoothie. We had a pretty good run up, stopping only for gas, and arrived in Sturgeon Bay at about 2pm. We had arranged to meet Mark , a fellow blogger, so I called and arranged a meeting that night in a nearby bar. The weather was still great , so we decided to get the bikes out of the back and headed off downtow...

I don't know how many of you will have heard of this , but it is a world wide thing that everyone can get involved in. Basically it involves building houses for people who need them but can't afford them. The recipients have to put significant time (about 150 man hours I think) into someone else's house to qualify, then I think about 250 man hours into their own. When it is done, they still pay mortgage payments, albeit reduced, which helps to buy land for future projects. Many of the home owners continue to give their time to the project going forward. Hewitt gives me two days of "Hewitt Time For Hewitt Concerns" to do charitable work, and so I chose to spend mine helping this project and learning new skills all at the same time, everyone's a winner! Last Thursday, I went along with a group from our DTS or PC Support operation, and fellow manager Mike Vega, he is the handsome devil in the pic on the right! We spent the day putting up vinyl siding, finishing o...

We went to Door County this weekend and had a fabulous weekend (more on this later when I sort the pictures out), but we took the opportunity to catch up with a fellow blogger Mark, of Mark's Musings . To quote a well known Harry Enfield character, what a thoroughly nice bloke. Of course initially conversation was a little stilted as with any two people meeting can be for the first time, however we had some beers, some food, and ended up having a great time. Lorraine was pleased to note that he was not a mad axe murderer. (she will post about this later, when our bloody computer link is up again!)

Vegas was a blast! I arrived on Friday at about 11:30, and we were teeing off at 14:00. I called Mike, the CEO and organiser of the weekend to arrange to dump some stuff before heading out for the first round. The first round at the Bali Hai course was a pretty good 101, despite 5 lost balls. My driver was on form with 8 out of the possible 14 fairways hit (the others being par 3). The greens were a little fluffy though, which contributed to my above average 39 putts (I generally shoot around 30-32) We had caddies (one per group), to advise us on the line, club selection, distances, fill our divots, repair our pitchmarks, clean our clubs and balls, read the putts, and generally pick up after us..I felt like a tour pro! Friday night started with a Mexican buffet at the clubhouse, and a few frozen margaritas. The rest of the evening was a relatively quiet affair by Vegas standards. I gambled a little at the Blackjack tables in the Tropicana, and ended the evening $40 ahead! Saturday was ...

I haven't been to Vegas since Lorraine and I were first dating (literally about 6 weeks). I went first and played golf for a few days, Lorraine joined me later for a few days of shopping and R&R. In three days, we spent a fortune, saw Pavarotti and 'O' at the Bellagio. This weekend is a very short trip with the Golfserv Handicap Chairs for a golftastic weekend . For those of you who remember Crackerjack..In true Stu Francis style...ooooo, I am so excited, I could crush a grape! I am a little worried though, because checking out their handicaps, there is only one person higher than my 26.4, one other a couple below me, then the rest are in the 7-16 range..I hope I don't show myself up. Although I don't know if anyone has been watching the Big Break IV - USA vs Europe on the golf channel, where so far the Europeans have been kicking butt, unlike our professionals this year who have lost the Walker and Solheim cups. Tuesday's challenge was Ryder cup style, and ...

So Sid (my Indian colleague) has been in town for about a week, which is perfect timing as I have not had time to miss Lorraine as much as I feared I would, being so busy. Although on Sunday, I had a pretty quiet day and it really hit me. Simple stuff like watching the telly, sitting by the pool, etc..I kept noticing the space, I can't wait for her to get back..although it is two more whole weeks. However with Sid here, there is lots to tell. We started the week out at a local watering hole called Champps , a sports bar, where I really tanned Steve's hide at Golden Tee, finishing one round at 12 under (although my second attempt was less successful, losing by 4 shots at 8 over) Tuesday saw me on the golf course proper, at Cranes Landing , our local Marriott. Playing badly as usual. Although my driver seemed to have found the ability to hit straight again, my short game was on vacation! On Wednesday, we had planned to take Sid to a Cubs game (fortunately not Thursday, given th...

Especially for all those people who wanted to know more about my hometown and country, I interlaced it with a bit of my life story; sorry it just sorta happened. I was born in 1968, in a little town called Kilmarnock , 15 or so miles south of Glasgow and about 12 miles in from the west coast. I learned all sorts whilst I was writing this post. Apparently we have Lords & Barons . Kilmarnock is over 400 years old . I found this site with Stuff only locals know, and particularly this list of places to "hook up", although being a bit of a dork growing up, I know these places, but was never in the "hooking up" crowd! I grew up in area called New Farm Loch, a little street call Brodie place (can't remember the number though). We had great neighbours for the most part, although picturing them again now, they all smoked about a hundred fags a day and were mostly alchies (alcoholics for my American readers). I had a pretty good life to that point, dad was fairly no...

For those of you who don't read my blogging buddies on the blog roll to the left, do yourself a favour and at least check this one out. Girls will laugh, cry and cringe all at the same time. Guys..will just be thankful to be guys at this point.

I have been golfing twice already this week, thrice if you include the holiday Monday, but seem to be getting worse instead of better, starting the week with a 96, then 100 and 101 all on the same course! I am playing in two outings this weekend, although they are scramble format, so unfortunately I don't get to post a score. They should be fun though. Tomorrow's is only nine holes, with a bigger emphasis on fun and drinking than golf, if I know the people! Sunday is a little more hardcore with competitions for putting, nearest the pin, etc..although undoubtedly there will still be alcohol involved. Watched my first whole football game of the season last night. For a while there, I thought the LA (sorry Oakland) Raiders might pull off a surprise, but of course the Patriots came through in the end as expected. I do think there are altogether too many breaks, stoppages, etc. We have a game of 4 quarters, 15 minutes each quarter, that seemed to last up to three hours..do you guys...

I just waved Lorraine off for her 4 week trip home. This will be the longest time we have been apart since we met, the previous record being about 5 days! I am going to miss her like mad. Of course I have a full schedule, golf, Monday Night Football on Thursday, more golf, a visitor from India for a couple of weeks, more golf, maybe a ball game, some more golf and before you know it (I hope) she will be back. Lorraine will be meeting up with all of our friends and her family, catching up on all the gossip, etc, she will be exhausted with all the talking! She was lamenting the fact that the summer will have completely gone whilst she is away. She will have to wear long trousers, for the first time since about May, pretty much the whole time she will be in the UK and then when she comes back too. We have a trip to Door County when she gets back to see the fall colours, assuming those wacky INS guys let her back in the country. Look after her for me guys, and send her back safe and sound....

If I remember my Topgun correctly, this was the plane they used, or at least one very similar, although I am sure Todd will correct me. Most of you will know that we went to see the annual Chicago Air & Water show last weekend. I won't write chapter and verse on the subject, cos Lorraine already did that . Suffice to say that it was an excellent day out, we topped up our tan, and the stunts were awesome. I don't suppose we will go every year, unless there is some astounding new reason to go, every couple of years will do. If for any reason you live in the Chicagoland and you have not yet seen this event, you really must do it next year. I of course took a gazillion pictures. I won't subject you to all of them, but a choice few are posted , you can view them as a slideshow if you like, but then you miss out on my smartass picture titles!

For those of you who are lost at this point, check it out here . I got one wrong though, but at least that's still 95%. Soooo looking forward to the end of September. Vegas Baby..yeah!

I know that some of my anti Bush readers will be hoping this is an anti Bush rant, but I don't know enough about politics to take on some of his more vocal detractors. No, this observation is about something much simpler, but to me, infinitely more annoying. As a stranger to your fair land, I often have to stick to major routes to find my way around, and only venture onto some of the lesser travelled routes when I absolutely have to, or at least have used them a few times before. In addition, when I am going somewhere, I often have to rely on signs, either temporary (eg for a Park & Ride) or permanent (eg to the All State Arena). You guys have this incredibly annoying habit of stopping signs part way through the journey, ie not directing people all the way to the actual destination. Two fine examples being those above in the brackets. The latter being the trigger for this rant. A month or so ago, Vernon Hills had a festival of sorts, Black Hawk helicopter, fairground rides, etc...

In about 5 minutes, any of my golf buddies reading this are gonna be saying "You jammy git!" That was Charlie's reaction when I told him, but I best set the scene first. A month or two ago, I decided that I wanted to join a golf club, primarily to play more often for less money and to gain an official handicap certificate, but also to try to expand my playing group here, as they are not as readily available as I would like, for the amount of golf I like to play. So I started out with the USGA to try to get a list of clubs that took members in my area, there are surprisingly few, and all of those damned expensive! They did, however, have a link to a virtual club called Golfserve Advantage who have an online score tracker, handicap calculator, etc, the kind of toy I like to play with AND they will issue official USGA handicap certificates; so I paid my $29.95 and signed right up. I put my scoring record this year on file from my other tool that I use to track the scores,...

Thanks Tacit1 for asking about this. When I was a kid, my maternal grandad or papa as I called him, was a giant among men. He was employed as a train driver, and in his spare time was a keen gardener of both vegetables and flowers, and committed significant periods of time to the support and development of cycling in the UK. When we moved back from South Africa in 1978/1979, we moved in with them in their 3 bedroom house at 38 Cessnock Place, Bellfield, Kilmarnock. I was 10 at the time and very into this new life back in my own country. I spent a significant amount of time with my papa, in the greenhouse, in the garden, in the shed in the winter and having bonfires. At the same time, I remember always having visitors from our local cycling club, the Wallacehill CC, where he was a member for some 60 odd years, and marvelling at the guys who were always really fit, had bikes that weighed about the same as a bag of sugar, and always looked up to my papa. Of course, as I grew up he was th...

Lorraine has been an excellent researcher since we got here and dug up all sorts of great things for us to do. It is a relatively short summer, May 30th (Memorial Day) to September 5th (Labor Day), at least for Americans officially, although for us, the temperatures probably mean it will feel like summer from March when we arrived through until about the end of October. So a lot of the events we want to do are crammed into a fairly short time frame, and when you combine them with golf, the schedule becomes almost impossible. Last week it was Monday - gym (yes Charlie I am still fat, but still trying!) Tuesday - Leadership dinner (undid anything I managed on Monday) Wednesday - Sinatra Tribute at the Cuneo Museum & Gardens (Great music, fantastic setting) Thursday - Cubs Game, on the rooftops at Wrigleyville Friday - Lindenfest, a local town festival (I had to cry off, I was knackered!) Lorraine went to see The Wizard Of Oz on the lawn at Ravinia Saturday - Golf at Steeple Chase , ...

The Walker Cup is kinda like the Amateur version of the Ryder Cup . It runs in the odd years, where the Ryder Cup is in the even years. It has been on the go since 1922, missing a few years for the war, and has actually been competed for more than the Ryder Cup, this year being the 40th compared the 35 times for the pros. It has an amazing history . This year saw a very diverse team with some as young as Oliver Fisher (16), and some substantially older like Nigel Edwards (37), who's dad we met, a jolly nice chap too! I joined the USGA earlier this year and as a result I can buy tickets to these events earlier than the general public. Lorraine and I decided to go on the Sunday to cheer our boys on. We got up really early for a Sunday at 7:30am and were at the course by 9:30. Team GBI had lost the first day by one point, but on past performance we felt confident that we could bring that back and finish the day on top. We watched the morning foursome playing alternate shots with ...