Thanksgiving/Christmas Illinois 2006 photo op.

First trip to No. 2's apartment this past week revealed that it has SEVEN doors. Once inside, I felt like I was in one of those Science Fiction movies where the escape from the maze is through THIS door...or maybe THAT door. Pick the wrong door and you go down the rabbit-hole. I had a good time there; despite the small size, the place has great warmth and character (like its residents). We had brunch and dinner there on Thanksgiving Day. Silly-O (pictured) brought deviled eggs, which were scrum! Saturday after Thanksgiving, No. 2 and I checked out some downtown Chicago activities like Christkindlmarket (a German Christmas tradition). She bought a cashmere scarf from this particular vendor. We also checked out the ice-skating in Millenium Park. I was VERY glad we hadn't planned on engaging in that particular activity. Inbetween visits with No. 2 et al, I spent some quality time with my oldest friends in the Chicago area. Always great to see them! Got a call from the mysterious unidentified uncle while there; how great is THAT? He's doin' fine. Here, we'd taken a little trip to see B'Hai temple. Last (final) stop was back to see the tree at No. 2's. As they say, "From our house(s) to yours!"

Wow...it's been WEEKS since a new thread. Busy time of year. What are your Thanksgiving Plans? Open thread.

I can't even remember all the things we've done since the Halloween thread. Perhaps the most disappointing thing that DIDN'T get done was the holiday cookie baking. That will need to wait until I get back from Chicago. I'll be spending Thanksgiving week in Illinois with No. 2, Thyungin, and my oldest friends, Bob and Judy. I'd had such high hopes of showing up on doorsteps bearing cookies; where does the time go? I just finished creating a document for Em and No. 1 regarding how to find stuff to eat for a week while I'm gone, along with sample menus. I've known about this trip for a while, so purchased a few more "easy to prepare" items, so it was just to point them to where things are. Kroger sent Em a coupon for a free turkey, so they need to eat some of the frozen "easy to prepare" stuff that I've moved to the kitchen freezer to make room for the stuff they need to move from the garage freezer to free up space for a turkey in the garage freezer. They'll both spend Thanksgiving Day at the homes of family/friends here in Texas. I'll be spending Thanksgiving Day at the apartment of No. 2 (in a very intimate setting). Other than that, how about that election? Wowser! Happy Days Are Here Again in MY camp while those in other camps hyperventilate into paper bags. I'm getting a few tomatoes in the backyard, and just picked several collard leaves. MOST exciting is that the elephant garlic has decided it would like to stay and make nice. You might/or not recall how the elephant garlic had died off and how I'd separated the cloves just in case it decided to grow again. Did I mention how Em was working again at the Race Track? It's a Wednesday thru Saturday gig that'll end December 3. The schedule plays havoc with meal planning because he needs to leave by 4:15 and doesn't get home until late (between 9:30 and 11pm). So, I make breakfast, brunch, early supper and late supper. We're waiting until after the Race Track gig is done to start at the city health club just because it's a drive beyond the Race Track north to get there and our cars aren't running so well lately to take on more than required trips. What else? I dunno. We did major grocery shopping this week just because some sales only happen once/year at this time. I've inventoried it all, but still need to update my price file. That's the file I keep which lets me know whether or not a sale price is actually a sale price (and keeps a history of prices on individual items). Happy Thanksgiving, Y'all! I may even call that unidentified uncle of mine who lives in Illinois.

Happy Halloween!!!

Only a few days left until the "spookiest" night of the year. Looking to hear what kooky costumes anyone is coming up with. I'm going to be a devil. Pretty typical, but wanted to find a costume that I would be comfortable while working at the bar. We're having a raffle, a costume contest, and a few bands. Should be a really good night at the bar. We've had some fun around the apartment with the costumes. For some reason my roommate has an obsession with buying wigs. We've had some fun trying them on and wearing them around the apartment. I must say I could not have found a more fun roommate. We're both weird and we never seem to cross the line with each other. We both get it. Anyways, not too much to report here except that my car recently decided to stop starting. I still have to get that fixed, but since it is right before the weekend I have so much work lately that the car may have to sit until Tuesday. Luckily, my dad seems to be a collector of cars and usually has one to spare. I'm also going to see if I can get a pic of my latest pumpkin carving and send it to Mom. Hopefully she'll be able to put it up on the blog. Hope you all have a Happy and Ever-so Spooky Halloween!!!!

Ballooning in Albuquerque.

We arrived home on Friday night from our trip to Albuquerque. The drive was L O N G ...both going and coming back. We agreed that if we decide to go to another Balloon Fiesta, we'll FLY and rent a car. Never even got a chance to spend any quality time with CousinJIM. What happened was: We got to the field on Wednesday morning (early, like we thought we should). We'd parked in spectator parking and walked in to find L3 (where Jim and Graham were to take off). It was dark, and I lost one of my gloves on the way to L3. That majorly sucked, because those were my only gloves and a pair that my dad and Lucky had bought me one year. :-( I threw away the other one a few days into the Albuquerque trip, because one glove isn't any good without the other. CousinJIM had gloves, so I took a pair from his trailer. Time moved along and the crew got to work getting CousinJim's balloon ready for the air. Em went off to the concession area to have a smoke, because smoking isn't allowed on the field (due to the propane considerations). One thing led to another and Em got to talking to people, so when someone said, "You and your boyfriend can go with Robert on the chase", I had to say, "I don't know where Em IS!". So, we missed the whole CousinJIM experience and were assigned to Graham. Graham's "turn" was later, and I suppose that had something to do with how he only took ONE ride before we met him and put the balloon away. My previous experience at ballooning had Graham landing, taking on fresh passengers, going back up, landing again, taking on fresh passengers, etc. This time, Graham just did the up/down thing ONCE. Em was back by Graham's "turn", so he was able to help him get off and back. The basket and balloon are unloaded (from either a trailer like CousinJIM's or a van like Graham's) and the basket is "readied". There are all sorts of things that go in and on the basket. CousinJIM could give ya the details on that. The balloon is then laid out on the field and hooked up to the basket. Balloons are HUGE. Then, a fan is used to blow air into the balloon opening while it's laid out on the ground. Here's Em holding one side of the balloon opening while the fan does its work. You can see how it starts to expand. At the appropriate time (known only to the pilot), some fire is shot into the balloon from the basket propane tank and the balloon starts to want to stand upright. At that point, folks take the basket from a laying down position to a standing up position, more fire is shot into the balloon until it's pretty full of hot air, passengers load, more fire is shot into the balloon and woof...thereyago! Here's a shot of another balloon getting that shot of fire. The fire shots scare me when I'm in the balloon or on fan duty; I want to check my head to see if my hair is still there. :-) At dinner on Wednesday, Carlos suggested that Graham needed crew for Thursday's special shape ascension and Em and I volunteered before we learned that the special shape balloon couldn't take even one passenger. So, Em didn't get a balloon ride. He got to experience the "getting it up" and the "taking it down", though, so he has a little feel for what crewing a balloon is like. Here we are with Graham and Dingbat (the balloon) on Thursday: Crew not in the balloon "chase" the balloon. Graham didn't fly far, and landed in a parking lot somewhere near Fiesta Park. Nancy (of the Clutch Crew) drove the chase vehicle to where Graham landed. Here's a shot of him above us (a photo taken while driving in the van): He was fortunate enough to land in a fairly empty parking lot. After the rides are over, the balloon must be packed up and returned to the trailer or van. As Em said, "Takes a LONG time to get the balloon prepared for flight and a long time to get the balloon put away again." Time actually spent flying is sometimes minimal comparatively speaking. Can't say this was a GOOD vacation for us; it was an UNUSUAL vacation for us. We need to work out what went wrong before we attempt something like this again.

Warm watermelon, new digs, more trip news, and OPEN THREAD...how are y'all doin'?

Picked the first watermelon from my garden this past week. Cut it open and gave both Em and No. 1 a taste. No. 1 said, "It's WARM!" Gave Em a taste, mentioning how No. 1 said, "It's WARM!" He said, "It's WARM!" I said, "Does that seem unnatural to you?" He said, "Yes." So, we have a watermelon grown in Texas that's been sitting for months in a garden through a drought, picked during maybe the heat of the day, REALLY tasty, but it needs to be chilled before it's honored. I don't even know what to say about that. No. 2 moved into new digs this past week. Her dad took pictures of the apartment and surrounding area. Here are the pics I felt comfortable to post on the internet: I thought you'd like that second one, Diane, because hot water heaters and gas shutoff valves are in your immediate future, as well. Em (and his grandson) left this evening for Chicago. They went to attend a football game... Notre Dame, I think. They'll be back Monday and we leave Tuesday early for Albuquerque and the Balloon Fest. I'm the proud owner of a new LCD monitor now, so I can actually see photos again. I also bought a storage card for my digital camera so I can take more than 20 pics in Albuquerque. Bought the spices (finally) and even got new printer cartridges for the PC. It's looking like it may be to my advantage financially to go with a broadband server over the dialup which sucks majorly. I'm gonna wait until we return from Albuquerque to make a decision on that, but between the dedicated phone line and the dial-up cost, it MIGHT be cheaper. Just don't know if it'll be as reliable (as well as about 100 other questions I have about it). I'm feeling REALLY extravagant having purchased a bit more than I can afford in one month without cutting back on the grocery bill. Tell me how you do it, No. 2! Got "Handmaid's Tale" from the library today. It's a dead-tree book that I've heard about for a while now and it trumped the stuff Silly-O mentioned. I'm ALSO now into Sudoku puzzles. [Why DO I torture myself?]

Tribute to a great woman ("aunt" Helen).

No. 1 left today on a flight to Colorado to visit her dad's "Aunt" Helen. I think she's 92 years old now (Aunt Helen...not No. 1), but nobody thinks of her as "Aunt". She's the only mom he's had since his died when he was 19. Th3ungin is there, as well, but he's informed me that if I post another picture of him on the internet... he'll... Anyway, Helen is/was a great woman. I say this from the standpoint of having spent almost 20 years as her "daughter-in-law". Who has anything good to say about mothers-in-law? [again...this is the only mother "figure" in the picture, and she stepped up to the plate] Mothers-in-law are as reviled in popular culture as stepmoms, but with fewer songs made about them. Helen lived her life one step above the grade. I haven't had the opportunity to see her in recent years, but I've sent my kids to her with the same message of, "you're a great woman", to which she's replied, "What did *I* do that was special?" #*$^ What did you do that was NOT? We're not gonna have Helen much longer (just looking at longevity statistics), so I want to dedicate this thread to Helen and all the other Helens out there who make our lives special without them even noticing.

Open Thread - What have y'all been up to lately?

This is my second attempt today, so I'm less than cheerful that I lost my first attempt by closing out a window that closed out EVERYTHING after a final review of HTML, but I'm gonna just bite my lip and forge forward and attempt a repeat. [sigh] No. 2 sent me more pictures of the Chicago vacation from her phone, so those of you unfamiliar with Hostels, here's a photo of maybe 1/3 of the hostel kitchen in Chicago's HI downtown:

That's me in the back making a cup of tea. I brought tea (and those little sugar bags offered by fast-food places) and No. 2 provided me with some raspberry tea, as well. Got so "into" tea, though (particularly in the evenings after long days) that I needed to spend $1.62 on a store-bought tea-bag my last day downtown. Lots of folks cooked lots of meals for lots of people in that hostel kitchen during the 5 days I was there. I was one of those folks. No. 2 sent TWO photos that I want to present here from Cloud Gate. Cloud Gate is basically a giant stainless steel "bean seed" sculpture set down in the AT&T Plaza. Here's the official propaganda: "Inspired by liquid mercury, the sculpture is among the largest of its kind in the world, measuring 66-feet long by 33 feet high. It sits on the AT&T Plaza..." The author has this to say about his goal: "What I wanted to do...is make something that would engage the Chicago skyline so that one will see the clouds kind of floating in, with those very tall buildings reflected in the work. And then, since it is in the form of a gate, the participant, the viewer, will be able to enter into this very deep chamber that does, in a way, the same thing to one's reflection as the exterior of the piece is doing to the reflection of the city around." - Anish Kapoor.

It's kindof like a Salvador Dali painting at first, dontcha think? If you're unfamiliar with Dali's surrealistic paintings (some of which we saw during a tour of the Art Institute), Virtual Dali is a start.

Here we are, to the right of the green shirt; see No. 2 with the camera to her eyes? See me in the same clothes I wore in the Hostel Kitchen photo above? No. 2 was on a frog quest during our trip; [maybe too much Sesame Street as a young child], so she wanted to attend a frog exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry (which she read about as our luggage thumped into the terminal at Midway). Did I mention that our flight was 45 minutes late in leaving DFW because the plane needed to "take a test run" first? LOL. Guy next to me on the flight was ALREADY afraid of flying without hearing THAT! So, No. 2 ended up parking at Midway because driving around and around got to be more expensive with gas prices as high as they are and then moved into the terminal to survey the propaganda on Chicago (one of which included a frog exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry). Long story short, we went to the Museum of Science and Industry (because there wasn't a bus coming to take us where we'd really wanted to go), but it was about an hour from closing, the free days in every museum in Chicago had been cancelled during August, 2006 (in an attempt to make everyone money during tourist season, I guess), the cost to enter was something like $18.00 each with the frog exhibit $5.00 on top of that, and I was just too damn cheap to spend something like $1.00/minute. But, we went to the acquarium the next day and No. 2 paid $46.00 for the two of us to see everything they offered. We got there as soon as they opened. She was so afraid that the cost would be too high for me that she had her money whipped out and in someone's hands before I even knew we'd reached the counter of entry. LOL. (I love you, Sweetie!). Anyway, she took many frog pictures at the Acquarium, including:

In other news, Em had a great vacation in Chicago, as well, golfing with his son three days, attending the PGA one day, talking to his grand-daughters (now aged 9 and 12) 4 days or nights, and visiting with old friends 1 day. Back to our weekly habits, our Monday cinema choice this week was "Snakes on a Plane". It shoulda been a "made for the SFC movie, because those snakes growled and everything just like the stuff we usually watch on Saturday evenings." I kept wondering about where I'd seen the young woman with the dog on TV, but neither Em nor #1 could offer any help even though I'd said, "She plays a cop in uniform, doesn't play a big role in the series...". A little research this morning shows Rachel Blanchard as Kevin's partner on Seventh Heaven. Neither Em nor #1 watch that show. Just goes to show I'm not as crazy as I look, though. :-) I don't play golf and I don't WANT to play golf, but retired people need more "move around" stuff, so Em and I are considering the thought of tennis again as something we could do together that benefits us physically in the exercise department. I've gone so far as to find a place where we could play, but I haven't gone so far as to buy tennis balls. [I'm CHEAP; I need a SALE on tennis balls before I can buy some!]. Gonna get into some more "dead-tree" reading after discussing some things Silly-O has read lately. Gonna try and manage my time in ways to incorporate more "little bit of this and little bit of that" each day versus the "slide down the rabbit-hole" time management technique I use currently. The problem with this is that I really think that Marie Montessorri had the right idea. Her Philosophy for children. "Montessori believed that children learn what they are ready to learn, and that there may be considerable differences among children in what phase they might be going through and to what materials they might be receptive at any given time. Therefore, Montessori individualized her educational method. Children were free to work at their own pace and to choose what they would like to do and where they would like to do it without competition with others." <-- that's been my retirement goal, but I'm gonna expand it to include other activities that may/may not take me down rabbit-holes. That's it for me this week, I think; what's up with YOU?

Chicago Photos and a VERY VERY Happy Birthday to No. 2!

25 years and lookin' cuter every day...

This was taken at the Art Institute. I've been having some problems getting photos sized correctly AGAIN...so it will take a while to get what I'd hoped to include in this thread and some things I'd hoped to include just can't be included. [sigh!]

I'm pretty sure No. 2 took this photo from the balcony of the Aquarium. She took them with her cellphone; not bad, IMO. Speaking of the Aquarium, here's a photo of a Leafy Seadragon. These were SO Kewl! They swim vertically, and if you didn't KNOW they were sea creatures, you'd think they were plants.

Here's another one from the Art Institute. No. 2 was trying her hand at photographing my head inside some Native American headgear. I thought it came out pretty good.

Spent one evening down at Navy Pier; that was fun. No. 2 caught the sunset behind the flags there:

We had a lovely evening for a sail on Wednesday evening last week; didn't go sailing with son and Silly-O over the weekend; had other plans. J caught a nice photo of No. 2 captaining the sailboat:

Lastly, we ALL spent quite a bit of time in Millenium Park the past week. No. 2 took some pictures of us through the Cloud Gate, but she hasn't sent them to me. The Crown Fountain was a hit with us, though. It's fun because you're dressed when you run into it, IMO.

Hope your B-Day was fun, No. 2! You sure provided ME with some laughs. Feel free to blog more photos from your phone. We're missing a whole lot of frog pictures, I think.

Hospitality at Davidson's Bar and Eatery.

No. 2 picked us up at the airport yesterday, dropped Em at his son's house, and took me back to where she lives. With all the delays, it got to be Noon and I was hungry (hadn't eaten anything yet all day). Cheapest place for us to eat out would be at Davidson's (because No. 2 gets a discount). We spent most of the afternoon at Davidson's meeting her friends and co-workers. After HOURS of talking, eating, and (of course) beer drinking, we took a little historical tour nearby. It was a great afternoon for a walk. Dinner plans were for (You guessed it)...Davidson's, where family and more friends would gather. Didn't make it much past 10pm, and had a full Davidson's day. Great people, great hospitality...sure made me feel welcome. They also comped almost all our expenses, so here's a BIG smooch for all those wonderful people...from the owners to the beautiful servers. SMOOOCH.......... This morning we're off to drop No. 2's car at Em's son's house to take the Elevated downtown. At least *I*'m shooting for this morning. No. 2 is a slow mover. Gonna get a big breakfast at McDonald's before we go, so we have energy until later in the afternoon. Once there, we'll drop off our bags (too early to check in) and check out any/all of the following activities: farmer's market, art institute, planetarium, Head of Femur concert. Head of Femur is an American rock band based in Chicago. They'll be performing at the Jay Pritzker Pavillion in Millenium Park. After dinner, we'll walk over to Butler Field in Grant Park for the 7th Annual Chicago Outdoor Film Festival. Bedtime will probably come pretty early again after such a long day with so many activities outdoors. This is SO exciting! Looks like she might be close to ready to leave, too!

Open Thread; Whatcha'll been doin'?

You may have noticed that I turned off anonymous posting. Only takes one rotten apple (as someone once said) and someone came in anonymously recently who posted a hot link to (can't really remember) maybe an internet gambling site. Thing is, this blog doesn't exist so that folks can get free advertising and even maybe infect innocent people who click on their offerings. So, not wanting to be responsible for inspecting every anonymous post, I turned off the option. Bottom-line is that I'm short on time; even thought about just deleting the blog for lack of time. Been trip-planning and know what I'll be doing MOST days. I'll be spending some time the next few days making plans for the days I'd intentionally left open for various family members who just never got back to me. Got a funny Email from one uncle of mine who said the equivalent of "I'm happy to communicate with you via the internet, but I'm not so keen on you stopping by to see how we look these days." :-) Got an Email from someone I met in San Francisco who finally checked out the blog and considered herself one of the characters I'd mentioned. Heh. If the shoe fits, I suppose... My backyard garden has suffered tremendously from the extreme heat/drought that's been affecting the US, not to mention insect damage. I'd take a few pictures of the plight, but my monitor has again (after two years or so of being fine) moved into magnetized mode, so I can't see pictures without massive distortion. This malady is unexplainable and disappears as quickly as it appears...when it's good and ready. Last time it lasted about 6 months. Still trying out new recipes. My experiment of the week is corning brisket. Did you know that corned beef was corned brisket? Who Knew? I'm not gonna smoke this piece of brisket after I corn it, but I will the point piece, and THAT will be pastrami. Looks like OTHER cuts of beef can be corned and corned/smoked, but brisket is the one I fell across first. MY recipe only requires 5-7 days of laying around in the salted spice mixture before slow cooking, so that's what's going on this week in my refrigerator. I don't even think I LIKE corned beef or pastrami, but Em does and I've really branched out in food experiments the past few years to include things I'd never thought I'd enjoy. #2 is the picky eater I was in my 20's...no onions, no peppers, no garlic; whatdya think I'm NUTS? Went to see Miami Vice at the cinema yesterday. Don't know the names of the actors, but the white guy, IMO, is a whole lot sexier than Don Johnson ever was, and the black guy isn't nearly as sexy as the guy with the three first names was. I thought it was a good-enough movie, though; what could go wrong with sex and violence? Gonna try and finish reading Angels and Demons before the weekend so I can return it to the library before we leave next Monday. It was due back today, but Em was able to renew it (only because no one else had put it on reserve). For some reason, I can spend HOURS in the AM reading about Hizbollah and other world news online, but sitting down with a dead-tree book puts me to sleep after only about one hour. So, what's new with y'all? How did you cope with the heat-waves that hit the world this year; what have you done for entertainment lately; what's up with you that's not up with ME? Spill!