Art's Blog

Panoramas

2011-02-21T06:19:00.001-06:00

I am fascinated by panoramic photos and produce a lot of them. I’m writing this post to demystify the process and to show you a simple way to get great panoramas on your own.

This pano is of Dana Point Harbor in California. I created it from these three images

Now if you’ve read anything about making panos you’re under the impression that it’s difficult. Advice abounds about using tripods, setting manual exposure, making sure that your overlap xx% for each image and so on and so on. Well all of that used to be true. Panoramic stitching software just wasn’t very good (and most of it still isn’t). Well, forget everything you’ve heard/read about panos. I’ll tell you the easy way. First set your zoom lens to about 30mm if you have anything but a full frame DSLR (in that case go for about 45-50mm). Now, shoot a picture to the left, turn a bit so that you overlap about 1/3 of the picture you just shot and shoot another. Keep doing this until you have included all of the scene.

Now, the magic part. Download and install the free Image Composite Editor from Microsoft Research. http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/groups/ivm/ice/

Select your images, drag them into the tool and wait a few seconds for a near perfect panorama. Click on Automatic Crop, then Export to save your new file and you’re done.

Here’s a another example:

Notice that I haven’t even done a very good job of having the same amount of overlap each time. The ICE program comes up looking like this:

And the final result like this:

If you tried to do panoramas before and had trouble, forget all that. I’ve tried many, many programs that claim to do this panoramic stitching and they all fall short. Just get this one program and try it; you’ll be glad you did. The program is not perfect. There is a visible seam in the one above. In several of the ones below there is nothing noticeable at all.

So, that’s it, sweet and simple just as I promised. Get out there and try it. And one more thing – you don’t have to do big expansive scenes like these from on high. Below are some other examples of things you can do.

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2011-01-17T06:47:00.001-06:00

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Virus problem solved

2010-09-17T07:42:00.001-05:00

Yesterday afternoon I got infected with one of those awful fake virus things. I kept getting popups waning me that my computer was infected and suggesting I buy Antivirus JS for $69. This was a particularly bad one that prevented most things from running on my computer. I couldn’t even bring up TaskManager to kill it. Could not run McAfee virus scan or much of anything else. I rebooted in Safe Mode and ran the virus scanner which took all night (0ver 1 million files). This morning I rebooted with my fingers crossed and – nada – the infection was still there.

A friend had sent me links to a couple of programs that might remove the infection but I tried those and the virus prevented them from running. My last hope was to take advantage of a virus removal service that McAfee offers remotely. But.. I had to get to there web site to order it. Internet Explorer as compromised by the virus so it would only go to the fake antivirus page. Google Chrome would not even run. In desperation I clicked on Firefox and voila I got to the McAfee site. I had planned to purchase the remote virus removal service via chat but couldn’t find the page that gave that choice so I just clicked on Purchase. That gave me a phone number to call. I hooked up with a man named Thomas Abraham, probably in India. The first few things he asked me to try did not work. Although we got to the remote access software that he needed to use, my virus would not let that program run. He had me reboot in Safe Mode with networking and we got him connected. He took over my computer and, for the next 45 minutes or so, went through dozens and dozens of steps to find and eliminate my infection. It was fascinating to watch although he was working very fast. We had terminated our phone conversation; he said we could use chat. The moment of truth came when he said he was going to reboot the machine in normal mode and I should watch for error messages. Thankfully I did not see any and waited, holding my breath, to see if the virus would reappear. It did not! Hoooooray! He performed another bunch of tasks and then informed me in the chat window that everything was fixed. I felt like jumping up and clicking my heels. I am still amazed that they can do that.

39th anniversary

2009-08-19T07:35:00.001-05:00

Our 39th anniversary was July 25th. For my birthday Jill had given me two tickets for a dinner cruise on the Tall Ship Windy for that night. The kids gave me a gift certificate for a room at the Hyatt for that night. We headed downtown and checked into the Hyatt; they upgraded us to a suite facing the river.

We headed down Michigan Avenue hoping to have lunch at the Oak Street Beachstro but the wait was too long. Tried the Cheesecake Factory in the John Hancock but same story so we ended up at the Mighty Nice Grill in Water Tower Place

We walked around, went over to Rush Street then headed back towards the river.

Went back to our hotel and got ready for dinner

Took the water taxi over to Navy Pier

and headed down to the dock for the Tall Ship Windy.

The cruise was very nice, the food was not so great. We thoroughly enjoyed being out on the lake for the fireworks

Next morning we walked along the river walk but found that none of those restaurants were open for breakfast so we had a nice breakfast at the Great Room in the Renaissance Hotel

Friday July 17th

2009-08-14T13:59:00.001-05:00

We had left Friday open to see what people wanted to do. We had decided to go to the Wild Animal Park. Unfortunately it was getting pretty hot. We had breakfast at the Cottage nearby

and one of the guys there warned that it would be really hot out by the Wild Animal Park. He suggested we take in the Scripps Aquarium so we decided to start there and see where the day took us.

It was a pretty nice place.

Next stop was the Torrey Pines Glider Port. Alas, the wind was blowing the wrong way so we didn’t get to see anybody take off

Next stop was Meditation Gardens, again, so that Dave and Jeanne could see it.

After a quick stop at VG Donuts we headed back to the hotel for “free time”.

We wrapped up a wonderful week with dinner at George’s outdoors high above the cove. That made 3 of the Ten Best Restaurants with a View in San Diego

Next morning we saw Dave and Jeanne off and then drove the other four to the airport. We went down to Seaport Village for lunch, dropped off our van and flew home.

Thursday July 16th Seaport Village

2009-08-14T11:52:00.001-05:00

Had a nice breakfast at Cody’s overlooking La Jolla Cove Park then drove everybody up to the top of Mt. Soledad

We then headed down to Seaport village for the girls and the USS Midway aircraft carrier for the guys

Had dinner at an Italian restaurant a few blocks from the hotel

Wednesday July 15th around San Diego

2009-08-14T11:23:00.001-05:00

We started out with a great breakfast at the Brockton Villa overlooking La Jolla Cove.

After breakfast we took a walk around the cove area and by the Children’s Beach.

The car rental company promised they had an 8 passenger van so we piled everybody into the 7 passenger van and headed for Freeway Rental and did the switch. It was very close to Old Town San Diego which was our next destination. Had a great lunch at El Fandango

We went back to La Jolla for a while then drove over the Coronado Bridge to see the Hotel Del Coronado.

Had a nice dinner at Piohe’s overlooking the San Diego skyline.

Tuesday – On to La Jolla

2009-08-14T10:56:00.001-05:00

Tuesday morning we packed up and the six of us headed down to La Jolla to meet Dave and Jean. We planned a leisurely drive donw the coast highway to show Mickey and Paul and Carol and Anthony a few of our favorite haunts. We came through Oceanside and Carlsbad and made our first stop at the Pannikin.

We drove by my Mom’s house and then stopped for a bit at Moonlight Beach.

Back in the car for a quick ride through downtown Encinitas and then a stop at the Self Realization Fellowship’s Meditation Gardens. This was a big hit.

On down the coast highway through Solana Beach and then to Del Mar where we had lunch up at the top of the shopping center where we always go.

After lunch we continued down the scenic route arriving at the Grand Colonial in La Jolla. We got upgraded to an ocean view room which was very nice. Dave and Anthony already had ocean view rooms but the funny thing was that Paul and Mickey’s “partial” ocean view room was the biggest and had just as much ocean view as any of the other rooms. We all met in Dave and Jeanne’s room for a great reunion with wonderful wine that Dave had brought.

We ended a great day by walking down to the Crab Catcher for dinner.

Monday, Balboa and Pageant of the Masters

2009-08-14T06:44:00.001-05:00

Monday morning we headed up to Balboa Island, did a little shopping then took the ferry over to the peninsula

We met Pam and Darrell there, took a nice Newport Bay Cruise

and had lunch at this place

Then we all headed back down to Laguna to get ready for the pageant.

We strolled around the Festival of the Arts, had a nice dinner at the Tivoli Terrace and then went in to see the show. We had pretty good seats and everybody said they enjoyed it. It was a little cool towards the end.

Laguna Beach July 11-12th

2009-07-19T15:51:00.000-05:00

After a delay with the whole car rental thing we headed out from San Diego towards Laguna Beach. Stopped for a quick lunch at the Pannikin in Encinitas first. So we hooked up with Paul, Mickey, Anthony and Carol around 4:00. They seemed pretty happy with the Inn at Laguna Beach.

A bit later we walked up to Las Brisas for dinner. Had a great table right by the window

We met the next morning for breakfast on the terrace and then headed out for the Mission at San Juan Capistrano

After a nice lunch by the Dana Point Harbor we headed back to Laguna Beach. We had planned to leave for the Queen Mary early and take a leisurely drive along the coast highway with stops at Seal Beach and Huntington Beach. Traffic was so bad that we made no stops and arrived at the Queen Mary with little time to spare before our dinner reservations. Thus we didn’t sign up for the actual tour – not enough time. Because we had dinner reservations we were able to go right on the ship. Since we had been there before we took everybody on an unofficial tour

Had a nice dinner on the ship overlooking the Long Beach skyline

Friday in Lake Geneva

2009-05-29T22:01:00.001-05:00

We had high hopes for the weather – the forecast was for sun and temps in the 70’s and it looked pretty nice early. We had breakfast in the hotel overlooking the pool. The workers were putting up umbrellas and cutting lemons for the ice water and the sun was shining.

After breakfast we took the trolley for a tour of the 1300 acre property. It was pretty interesting – we saw the ski slopes with snow making machines, the stables, Timber Ridge and of course golf courses. It was getting cloudy as we finished the tour but it didn’t look too bad. We decided to take the hiking trail which runs through the woods. Sure enough while we’re out in the woods it starts to rain. We ran back to the car. By now it was raining pretty hard so we drove over to Burlington to a food store that a fellow diner had recommended to us. It was a great place. We picked up some wine, cheese, honey, tomatoes, bananas and peanut butter. Would have loved to picked up meat and other things but we had no way to keep it cold. By the time we finished that the rain had gone away so we headed back to Lake Geneva. We had heard that there is a public path that runs around the lake, even crossing private estates so we decided to investigate that. We just walked a little ways because it was already after 1:00 but we saw some spectacular homes.

The yard on this one was enormous

This is the pier

This one was my favorite

This one is called Stone Manor, it was originally an 18,000 sq ft house but was recently converted into 6 condominiums.

After the walk we had lunch at Popeye’s and headed for home. The sun had finally come out fully. This was our view from Popeye’s

Lake Geneva trip

2009-05-28T22:36:00.001-05:00

We left Tuesday morning a little after 10. It was 72 and humid when we left. By the time we got to Lake Geneva is was 55 and raining. We stopped at the Geneva Inn and made a reservation for Thursday night dinner. Then we drove through Lake Geneva and on to Williams Bay. We were thinking that we would have lunch at an Italian place there that Judy Thomas had recommended but we found it was only open for dinner. We decided to try Millie’s a place that Don Matheny and Roger Hahn had recommended for breakfast. it was pretty nice – large restaurant and a few shops. I had pancakes and Jill had the country breakfast. She also found some cool sandals in, of all places, the kitchen connection. The had a lot of cool signs. My favorites were

“Sometimes I wake up Grumpy
Sometime I just let him sleep”

I didn’t ask to be a princess
But if the crown fits……

After lunch we drove into Delavan but did not stop. It was still raining and cold. We headed back to Lake Geneva and went into our favorite food place on Main Street. There was almost nobody in the place. And it was still raining. We headed for the Lodge at Grand Geneva. We have a nice room in building 6. It seems that a lot of the buildings are under renovation so we had to walk to the ground level and back up to get to the lobby.

We’re facing the parking lot; wish we had a view of the golf course. A couple of rooms that we saw facing the course when we took a walk were suites so maybe they didn’t have any regular rooms left.

Went to Ristoranté Brissago and had a great dinner. Mussels, gorgonzola salad with walnuts. Jill had Sea Bass and I had a crab captalelli dish. The food was really really good.

Thursday morning we headed into town for breakfast and had Swedish pancakes at Scuttlebuts (next to Popeye’s)

We walked around a hit some shops. No rain but cloudy and cool 55 degrees. Then we drove to Yerkes Observatory over in Williams Bay but found that it is only open to the public on Saturdays. We headed for Fontana to check out the Abbey. Had a bowl of soup there and headed back around the lake back to Lake Geneva. We hit quite a few stores and then headed back to our hotel. We drove to the Geneva Inn and had a great dinner. Jill had braised short ribs and I had an apple glazed pork chop.

Came back to town and got some coffee and ice cream walked down by the lake. The sun had come out around 3 PM and it had warmed up to 67 (woo, woo)

Galena Trip

2009-05-02T08:48:00.001-05:00

Tuesday morning (April 28) we left for our 3 day getaway to Galena. The drive is a little less than 3 hours from here; Galena is only a few miles from the Mississippi River. By the time we got there we were hungry so decided to go right into town for some lunch. Our B&B, Bernadine’s Stillman Inn was on the way so we drove by. It looked really nice.

We parked right at the beginning of the main street and walked a little bit to decide where to have lunch. We discovered that a lot of the restaurants were only open for dinner. We ended up eating at the the Green Street Tavern at the Desoto House. This amazing old hotel was built in 1855. Abraham Lincoln spoke from the balcony in 1856. It was originally a 5 story hotel but at some point the top two stories were removed. We had lunch at the Green Street Tavern in the corner. Neat place a must see in Galena.

We had walked by the trolley place so decided to go back there and see if they had any more tours. We ended up taking the 2:30 one hour tour. It was a good tour that took us all around downtown and the other side of the river.


Our trolley	Belevedere Inn, wasnt’ open yet	Annie Wiggins House

Elihu B. Washburne House constructed in 1843 in the popular Greek Revival style. Elihu Washburne, congressman, advisor to Presidents Lincoln and Grant and then Ambassador to France lived in the house until 1882.	1858 Post Office said to be the second longest running PO in the US	House where Grant lived before the Civil War while he worked in a Galena leather shop.

Former Galena High School, 167 steps above the main street. Now luxury lofts.

We had noticed as we walked around that all of the shops closed at 5:00 so we decided to walk around town until 5 and then check into the inn. By this time it was pretty obvious that mid-week in April was a pretty slow time for Galena. We didn’t see very many people and the shops certainly weren’t busy. At 5 we headed to the Stillman Inn and were greeted warmly by Dave Anderson, the Innkeeper. He was very friendly and outgoing and gave us a complete “briefing” on our stay. Our room was quite the place. Our living room was the original parlor and our bedroom was the original dining room. We had our own porch

We had some wine on the porch and then headed back to town for dinner at 111 Main Street. It happened that there were no other people eating there that night. That was strange but the restaurant was excellent. They served a sweet chilli yam soup that was very good. Jill had a stuffed pork loin with gorgonzola and Door County cherries. I had a “farm to table” pork tenderloin. Both were excellent.

Wednesday morning we had breakfast with the only other couple staying at the inn. They were from a nearby small town in Wisconsin – celebrating their anniversary. Dave sat at the table with us and “facilitated” conversation :-). Breakfast was an omelet and two slices of French toast.

It was a cold, gray morning. Looked like rain but they said it should be dry all day. We walked across the street to the Ulysses S. Grant home and went on the tour. The house was built in 1860 but the owner had gone away and never lived in it. A group of Galena citizens purchased the house and gave it to Grant in 1865 appreciation for his Civil War leadership. Shortly thereafter he was elected president and moved to Washington so the family did not live in the house very much. They would stay in it for short periods while he was president and they did live in it for a short time after he left the presidency. The house is well preserved and filled with items from the period.

We went back to the main street and hit a few shops we had missed the day before and then toured the Dowling House, Galena’s oldest, built in 1926. The tour was actually very good; we were the only ones on it and the woman told us a lot of history and showed us many items in the downstairs “store”.

We had seen some interesting appetizers on the 111 Main Street menu the night before but didn’t order any. So we went back there for lunch and had more soup, pork sliders and a wonderful smoked trout spread. There were quite a few tables filled this time.

After we hit a few more shops we decided to drive over to Dubuque, Iowa on the Mississippi River. We had a map from Dave that showed a river walk. The trip was pretty much a bust. The river walk was just that, a sidewalk along the river, no stores, coffee shops, etc. It was till cold and gray so no good pictures and too windy to walk along the river. We headed back to our inn and relaxed until it was time for dinner.

We had 6:30 reservations at the Perry Street Brasserie. Dave had highly recommended this place, describing it as the best restaurant in Galena. He had made a reservation for us, saying that the place only seats 30 people. We were amazed to once again be the only people in the restaurant. It was a marvelous place and we had a great dinner. Chatted extensively with our waiter who turned out to be the chef’s son. After a while the chef came out and talked to us for a long while and even showed us how he makes part of one of the desserts. We had crab cakes, a veal wild mushroom soup and for the main dish, veal with crab stuffed scallops and garlic mashed potato croquettes. It was all very very good. We declined dessert but then after some coffee and a description of the desserts I caved in and order the chocolate cup for us.

A bowl of solid Swiss chocolate, filled with creamy dark and milk chocolate ganaches.
Topped with fresh whipped cream and drizzled with more chocolate. He makes the cup by dipping a balloon in warm chocolate, letting it cool in the refrigerator, popping the balloon. The whole evening was a wonderful and unique experience. The moment we left they put up the Closed sign on the front door.

Rain was supposed to start Wednesday night and go all day Thursday. It rained quite a bit overnight but by morning it had stopped and turned into a pretty nice day. Cloudy but warmer than the first two days. We had breakfast with a different couple just traveling through on their way home to Kansas City. We had quiche and a couple of pancakes which Dave calls love cakes as they are heart shaped. After breakfast I showed Dave a little bit about smugmug.com; he had asked me to the day before. Then we packed up our stuff and headed back to town for a last look. We had lunch at Fritz and Fritz another place recommended by Dave. Nice place, great reviews on Trip Advisor. Once again we were the only customers in the place. Our waiter kept telling us that they were expecting at party of 12 at 1:00. By 1:20 when we left he was still hoping they would show. After lunch we headed for home.

Spring finally arrived

2009-04-26T07:34:00.001-05:00

We had rain Monday so the pond people cancelled on us. The came Wednesday though and got the pond in tip top shape. Jill went to the Art Institute with her friend Cindy and I stayed home for the pond people.

Thursday Muellermist came to start up the sprinkler system but the guy ran into problems and could not finish in the time allowed so he has to come back May 1st.

We had lunch at Amy’s and then we dropped the kids off at Spring Camp. We picked them up at 3:00 and went to Brookfield Zoo. It closed at 5:00 but we had a nice visit. It was such a beautiful day.

We finished up a great day by taking the kids to Antonino’s for dinner. Kyle continues to wow us with his reading skills. He seems to be able to read most signs even as we drive by them.

Friday I drove out to Naperville to have lunch with Mark at Heaven on Seven. It was in the mid 80’s almost all day. Ro is finished with chemo therapy. She will have a scan next Thursday to see if it has been effective.

Saturday it rained off an on all day sometimes raining very hard. We did managed to get some dirt and a little piece of edging put in by the patio and spread some enriched soil over by the fence. We went to the pet store and bought for more fairly large fish for the pond so now we have 14.

Touring Old Route 66

2009-04-22T10:21:00.001-05:00

Friday was the first nice weather day in quite some time so we were looking to take a drive. We decided to explore some of Old Route 66. We actually drive first down 171 to Lockport and had breakfast at a place called George’s. Then we crossed the river and got on Route 53 just North of Joliet. Since Route 66 is no longer an official highway there aren’t official markers. Highway 53 seems to cover much of the old route, at least for a while. First stop was Route 66 Park and the Rich and Creamy.

From there we headed for downtown Joliet and Joliet Area Historical Museum. It was more about Joliet than Route 66 but was interesting and did have some Route 66 memorabilia.

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Next stop was Wilmington at the Launching Pad Drive-in, a 1960 place sporting the Gemini Giant

Then it was on to Braidwood and the Polk-a-Dot Drive-In. In 1956, Chester "Chet" Fife began taking fast food orders in his school bus painted in rainbow Polk-a-Dots. In 1962, he moved the business into the current building.

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We had planned to have lunch at the Riviera in Gardner but when we got there it was closed and didn’t look like anyone had been around for a while. Out in the back we checked out the Street Car Drive-in which was also unattended.

Constructed in 1928 out of a church from Gardner and a mining office from South Wilmington, the Riviera has hosted many famous customers, including Gene Kelly, Tom Mix, Al Capone, and his brother Ralph. A freezer in the basement with a heavy iron door was supposedly built to hide gambling machines and booze during Prohibition in case of a raid. The unique bar in the basement provided comfort before air conditioning and is decorated like a cave. In its heyday, this classic Route 66 roadhouse featured a zoo, picnic area, swimming hole, and gas station.

A historic Kankakee streetcar from the early 20th century was moved to Gardner in 1932 to serve as a diner along Route 66. In 1937, the street car became a cottage and playhouse. It was moved to a location behind the Riviera in 1955, and is still there today. It was restored by the Illinois Route 66 Association and inducted into the Routee 66 Hall of Fame in 2001.

In Dwight we stopped at the Ambler-Becker Texaco Gas Station, an historic 1933 filling station identified as the longest operating gas station along Route 66. It dispensed fuel for 66 continuous years until 1999.

A short ride later we stopped at the Standard-Sinclair/Odell Gas Station. It was built in 1932 and operated until 1975. It has been nicely restored but has no attendant so you can’t go inside.

Near Cayuga we stopped just long enough to take a picture of Meramec Caverns Barn. It’s one of two remaining examples of barn ads along Illinois Route 66.

By now we were pretty hungry so we headed for Pontiac and planned to eat at the Old Log Cabin Restaurant. We had an address from the web article we were following and punched that into the Garmin. The address was wrong so we turned off the highway too soon and found ourselves in downtown Pontiac. We found a nice restaurant right across from the County Building and had a couple of rib-eye steak sandwiches for lunch.

We then drove a few blocks to the Route 66 Hall of Fame. It was a fascinating place housed in an old fire station.

They have lots of interesting memorabilia including the first Steak and Shake booth and the wishing well from the recently torn down Wishing Well Motel in Countryside. Very nice lady showed us around and we stayed a while.

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Last day in Key Largo

2009-02-27T20:28:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow we’ll be back in the frozen North. :-) Today we had another wonderful day. Had breakfast at Gus’ right here at the hotel. Headed North to Florida City on the way to Everglades National Park. We drove to the Royal Palm Visitor Center as we heard that the best trail in the park was right there. We didn’t really have high expectations. You know how that goes – you walk a trail in some park and you really don’t see much. Well I’m glad to say it was fabulous. We walked a one mile trail and saw herons, egrets, wood storks, turtles and lots of anhingas, a bird that goes underwater to fish. If you go there, go to the Royal Palm Visitor Center and take the Anhinga Trail.

More pictures at http://arthill.smugmug.com/gallery/7470124_kN2R8#481951232_WwNES

Spent the rest of the day at the pool then had a fish dinner at Ballyhoo’s.

Relaxing - Thursday

2009-02-26T20:23:00.000-06:00

We deliberately didn’t plan too much for today. Had breakfast at Bogey’s Cafe next to where the African Queen is docked. Then we took a glass bottom boat tour out to the reef. It’s seven miles from shore and 240 miles long. Second longest in the world after the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

Stopped at a place which claims to be where the Humphrey Bogart movie Key Largo was filmed.

Came back to the hotel and spent the rest of the day at the pool and beach.

Had another fish dinner at Sundower’s almost next door to the Marriott. Jill had yellowtail snapper (again) and I had grouper this time. The sunset was incredible.

Grabbed a couple of night shots of the bridge leading to Gus’, the restaurant where we ate last night.

Another nice day in the Keys

2009-02-25T22:36:00.000-06:00

We headed for a place called Theatre of the Sea 20 miles south of our hotel. It’s sort of a scaled down version of Sea World with a dolphin show, parrot show, sea lion show, bottomless boat ride and some nature walks. Small, not fancy but very well done. All of the groups are small so you always get a good seat. Shows all run back to back so in 2 1/2 hours you can see it all. We really enjoyed it.

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On the way back we stopped at a wild bird sanctuary. They have a lot of birds that have been injured or are sick that they are nursing back to health or at least taking care of. As luck would have it we got there just before they feed wild pelicans. It was something to see; hundreds of pelicans. Jill and I both took a turn at feeding them fish.

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Had a great fish dinner here at the hotel at a restaurant called Gus’. After we saw the sunset from our balcony of course.

More Florida pictures here http://arthill.smugmug.com/Vacation/723052

Tuesday trip to Key West

2009-02-24T12:34:00.000-06:00

We left Key Largo around 8:30 for the 100 mile drive to Key West. It was interesting to drive across all of the bridge including the 7 mile bridge. We stopped for breakfast so got to Key West about 11:30.

Took the 90 minute Conch Train Tour http://www.conchtourtrain.com/ and thought it was very well done. It seemed like we went all over Key West and saw a lot of things that we missed the last time we were there.

After the tour we walked down Duval Street and had lunch at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville.

Next stop was the Hemingway House with 44 cats roaming around. We took a guided tour there too.

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By the time that was over it was after 4:00 so we started back down Duval Street. Had a piece of Key Lime pie at the Blonde Giraffe. Got back in the car and hit the road around 5:30. It was really slow getting out of town but once we got on the highway it moved along okay. Saw another great sunset but this time in the rearview mirror.

Stopped for dinner 10 miles South of our hotel and then headed back.

More pictures of Key West in my Key West Smugmug Gallery

Ahhh, Florida

2009-02-23T12:31:00.000-06:00

Left O’Hare around 7:45 for our flight to Miami. Picked up a rental car and headed toward the Keys. We took a detour off of Highway 1 on Card Sound Road to have lunch at a place called Alabama Jack’s. It was a busy place right on the water with a band. Fun place but we had the worst waitress we’ve ever had. Took forever to get our food. We had conch fritters and crab cakes; they were just okay. The place was especially popular with bikers.

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Go to Key Largo and checked into the Marriott. It’s a nice place right on the bay; our room is on the third floor.

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We drove around a bit and found the African Queen. It’s hoisted up out of the water and doesn’t look like it’s ready to

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take passengers in spite of what the sign and guidebooks say. Watched some fishing boat operators bring in their fish. The pelicans and an egret were pretty interested as well.

Today, Tuesday we had breakfast at Harriet’s and drove a little further south, did some shopping and then spend the afternoon at the pool. Watched another great sunset and had a fabulous dinner at the Fish House.

Just testing

2008-12-03T22:01:00.001-06:00

Wanted to see if the insane picture handling issue had been resolved.

and it has so maybe I’ll start using this again.

Giving up on Blogger

2008-03-09T16:09:00.001-05:00

I just figured out that blogger accounts, by Google’s design, don’t allow proper uploading of images with Windows Live Writer. The small versions show up in your main blog page but when someone clicks on one to see the larger version they don’t get a URL that can be displayed in a browser. Instead you get a popup window asking if you want to open the image. If you use the regular blogger interface it works okay but I use Windows Live Writer and the people at Google apparently don’t want that to work so the hell with it. I’ll try wordpress for a while. I've put the last few entries from blooger down below but if you want to go back any further than a couple of weeks ago you'll have to come back here. Otherwise go to http://arthill.wordpress.com/

Don't know where the week has gone

2008-03-06T21:50:00.001-06:00

Pretty busy at work. Had lunch with the kids today so that automatically makes it a good day. No snow since we got back from California so that's good.

Have posted a few more California pictures to Flickr.

Vacation continues

2008-03-03T10:13:00.002-06:00

Thursday morning we had a nice buffet breakfast at the Laguna Cliffs and then checked out and headed for La Jolla. We drove out Encinitas Boulevard to look for a camera store. I needed to buy a blower to get some dust off of the camera sensor and was hoping to buy a new eye cup as I had lost mine somehow. We found a Ritz Camera that didn't have a blower for sale but the manager was nice enough to clean my sensor and even printed a picture to make sure it was okay. Next stop was the Pannikin in Encinitas. We were surprised to see that they had torn out the bushes, moved the outdoor tables and were making a concrete patio. It will probably be very nice when it's finished but we were a bit disappointed.We drove by Mom's house and found they have made more changes. Some kind of free standing doorway in the front yard. One thing hasn't changed - that mailbox that Ron and I put in about 35 years ago is still there.

We stopped by Moonlight Beach for a little while as we always do. That place sure has memories for us.

Checked the camera store in the Lumberyard and got lucky. They had a new eye cup for my camera.

Next stop was Meditation Gardens in Encinitas.

We decided to try Las Olas for fish tacos. We had never been there before even though we drove by a thousand times. They were good but not great.

After lunch we headed down to the Grande Colonial in La Jolla to check-in.

To our delight we had been upgraded to a full ocean view room.

We walked around La Jolla a bit

I was even able to get some sunset shots from the room.

After the sunset we went down to the Crab Catcher lounge to take advantage of the great food they offer at 1/2 price for happy hour. We had fish tacos, oyster shooters, clams and stuffed mushrooms.

Friday morning we grabbed breakfast at Cody's and headed for Balboa Park. It was interesting but we were disappointed in the gardens. From there we headed back down to Seaport Village for lunch at the Harbor House.

We then headed over to the USS Midway aircraft carrier and took the self guided tour. It was pretty interesting and we just hadn't allowed enough time.

We went back to our hotel for a bit and then headed for Coronado Island and a nice dinner at Peohe's.

Saturday was cloudy and windy so we ended up just kicking around La Jolla, Del Mar and Encinitas.

Sunday began sunny and warm so we headed over to Brockton Villa for breakfast outside before heading for the airport.

A week in California

2008-03-03T06:45:00.001-06:00

We flew out to California a week ago Sunday. It sure was good to get away from the snow and cold for a while. It was raining when we arrived not very hard. We went over to Seaport Village to get something to eat. We ate outside! That is the ultimate luxury for those of us escaping winter. We walked around Seaport village for a while and the sun came out. Had a cup of coffee at the Upstart Crow Coffee House and then, after a while, headed on up to Dana Point to check in to the Laguna Cliffs Marriott. As many times as we had been to Dana Point we never saw the Marriott - it overlooks Dana Point Harbor but it's high up on it's own cliff and tucked back so it's not that noticeable. We grabbed a pizza in the hotel lounge and watched the Oscars on a big screen TV.

Monday was our free day before my conference started so we were up and ready to head out pretty early. Just before we headed down to the car it started raining pretty hard so we grabbed some umbrellas and shrugged our shoulders. By the time we had gone a couple of miles up the coast the rain and stopped and the sun had come out. We had breakfast at the Ruby's Diner in Laguna Beach - it had some cool old cars parked out front.

After breakfast we walked around Laguna Beach for a while and then headed North. We drove right through Balboa Island to the ferry and took that across. Our next stop was Huntington Beach. They had a long pier that we walked out on and we watched some synchronized kite flyers.

Our next stop was Seal Beach. We had a great lunch at Walt's Wharf. Jill had salmon tacos and I had a calamari steak sandwich. We walked around the town a bit, went out on the pier and watched some surfers.

Next stop was the Queen Mary in Long Beach. We hadn't been for a very very long time. The ship has been moored there for 40 years! We took the self-guided tour and really enjoyed it.

We didn't get back to Dana Point until after 6. Went to dinner at the Beach House right out on the harbor.

The next two days I had to go to meetings all day. Tuesday we worked through dinner but Wednesday night Jill and I went back up to Laguna Beach for dinner. We stopped for a drink in an old hotel right there in downtown Laguna Beach. It's been there forever but we had never gone in. Saw a sign on the wall advertising room rates in 1950 - $10 per night for an ocean view.

I can't believe it's Wednesday

2008-02-20T22:06:00.001-06:00

Sunday was well, blah. Rained early and it was warm. Never got the snow they predicted. Jill picked up Kyle Monday morning and he stayed with us until this morning. What a treat that is. He is just so much fun. He's even more into music now. Alicia Keys and Natasha Bedington :-) And he loves the Disney movie Cinderella. And books. I don't think we had a toy out the whole time. He and Jill sure do have something special going.

We went to his favorite restaurant last night, Antonio's. It took an unusually long time for our food to arrive. When our waitress finally brought it, Kyle asked her "What took so long?"

We've been wanting to put some pictures up in the hallway on the second floor but just have never gotten around to it. I finally ordered some big prints in canvas wrap style. They arrived today and we hung them. We're both quite pleased with the way they came out.

Went outside a couple of time to see the lunar eclipse. There were a few clouds but we could see it pretty well.

Museum of Modern Ice

2008-02-17T06:56:00.001-06:00

Went down to Millennium Park yesterday to see the Museum of Modern Ice. It's sort of an ice wall with Canadian artist Gordon Halloran’s work, Paintings Below Zero. It was interesting but not spectacular.

It was cold be we were dressed for it so no problem. Had lunch at the Park Grill. Great table overlooking the ice rink. Food was good; waiter seemed to have an attitude problem.

It's up to 43 degrees and raining. Rain may be heavy all morning, turning colder this afternoon and rain changing to snow. Maybe a couple of inches here - more up North.

Had a great Valentine's Day

2008-02-15T18:02:00.001-06:00

The electronic card was a big hit with Jill and the girls liked it too. Lunch at Lori's house and then Kyle and Lindsey got to make Valentine cookies with the kit that Jill had picked up.

Jill and I went to dinner at Yao's Place in downtown La Grange and then picked up Lindsey and brought her home to stay overnight. Keir and Lori were due at Loyola Hospital at 6 AM for Scarlett's tear duct surgery so we figured Lindsey should stay at our place. We dropped her off at preschool this morning. The surgery went quite well and Scarlett was cool with everything except coming out of recovery. So we're glad that's behind us. Now she won't constantly have tears overflowing out of her eye and running down her face.

Tonight we're going to the Claim Jumper at Yorktown to have dinner with Rich and Debbie and Ron and Carol.

Happy Valentine's Day

2008-02-13T22:02:00.001-06:00

This is the electronic Valentine I sent to Jill

Winter at night

2008-02-13T08:05:00.001-06:00

Did some time exposures last night.

Our backyard

Neighbor's house

Our house

Make it stop!

2008-02-12T21:58:00.001-06:00

Cleared out the driveway three times today. That's too much. I cleared it when it first stopped but by 5:00 it was all covered again. I had to clear it so we could get out. I left for a haircut at 5:45. By the time Jill left for book club it was covered again. I cleared it around 8:30 so hopefully no more snow.

Jill maid some of those incredible Valentine cookies that she makes every year.

I took some more shots of the snow :-)

Bitter cold and more snow on the way

2008-02-11T07:01:00.001-06:00

Well it never got much above zero yesterday. It was sunny but we stayed in all day. This morning it is two below zero - dropped to five below last night. There's a winter storm advisory from 3 PM today until 1 PM tomorrow so it looks like we're going to get another 4-6 inches of the white stuff.

Yikes, it's cold

2008-02-10T07:54:00.001-06:00

Yesterday seemed fine but the temperatures dropped overnight. They're talking about a high of three degrees today. Should be -2 tomorrow morning when we have to put the trash out at the curb.

Went up to Best Buy yesterday and picked up a new phone/answering machine and a larger external hard drive. Shot this out the windshield with my camera phone.

Met Mark and Ro at a restaurant on Butterfield near 355 and had a nice time. We hadn't seen Ro for a while so we were delighted that she felt up to going out. The restaurant was Carlucci. Italian food, pretty good.

Just going to stay in the house today. It's too cold to go anywhere.

Cold weekend ahead

2008-02-09T09:30:00.001-06:00

We got a little break from the snow, thankfully. Now the temperatures will start dropping. The high for tomorrow is forecast for 3 degrees Fahrenheit. Windchills will be minus 25 to minus 35. Whew!

Our house	Our street
My constant companion	Sidewalk leading South from our place.

Winter has gone on too long

2008-02-07T22:11:00.001-06:00

Worked from home yesterday and watched it snow all day. Finally stopped around 5:00 so I went out and cleaned the driveway and walks. This morning the driveway was all full of snow again.

Went back to the pain management place today for a follow up on the sciatica. Everything was cool. Talked to him about the pain in my neck and ended up getting an injection for that. Didn't hurt much, hopefully it will relieve that.

More snow on the way.

This is getting ridiculous

2008-02-04T21:59:00.001-06:00

Another driveway full of snow this morning. We had driven home from Lori's in near white out conditions during the Super Bowl. Pretty foggy all day today.

Big snow storm

2008-02-01T17:08:00.001-06:00

We got ten inches. It snowed most of yesterday and all through the night. I went to my last physical therapy session yesterday at 5:00 and, although, it's only 10 minutes away, traffic was a nightmare.

Got it all cleared out though.

More winter

2008-01-31T07:27:00.001-06:00

Well today is starting off better than yesterday

Wind Chill: 16°F
So Far Today
High: 17°F
Low: 11°F

but they say a winter storm in on the way for this evening with 3-6" of snow. I used the snow blower yesterday to clear out the whole driveway - first time since I hurt my back. Seems like it all went okay.

Back to very cold

2008-01-30T06:53:00.001-06:00

Wind Chill: -18°F

So Far Today
High: -0°F
Low: -2°F

Just pasted this out of a weather page. It was 43 and rainy yesterday. Was only down to 32 by 6 PM. Now we have snow on the ground again and the temperature is below zero. This cold snap isn't supposed to last.

Went to the doctor yesterday for follow-up on my sciatica. I told him the leg pain is gone. He said I'm pretty lucky; only 20% of patients get the relief I've gotten from the injection. Said it's important to keep doing the exercises. Went to physical therapy in the afternoon. The therapist said I have responded much better to treatment than most; it usually takes much longer to recover. She also said she has patients that have had multiple shots and no relief. So, almost all good news. I've got some "new" pain in my back and hip now. Probably unrelated and hopefully will go away in a couple of days.

Finally, a little warmup

2008-01-27T07:15:00.001-06:00

Yesterday the temperature reached freezing. That's a big improvement over sub-zero temperatures. We went to Oak Brook and ran a few other errands. I picked up a nice new winter jacket at Macy's. It was just what I was looking for and there was only one. Jill said it was just waiting there for me.

We noticed as we drove around that there were a lot of geese at several places just sitting in the snow. Can't imagine how they can do that.

On the spur of the moment we asked Keir and Lori if they wanted to meet us for dinner at Papadeaux for dinner. They came and of course brought the girls. We got there at 5:30 and there was already a wait. The kids were both great though. Even little Scarlett managed to hang in there for the wait and through dinner. There were strolling musicians. They came to the table and played an Elmo song and Itsy Bitsy Spider. The girls thought it was great fun. We all had a wonderful meal and a great time.

Came home and watched the movie "Lucky You"; it was pretty good.

Busy week (and bitter cold)

2008-01-26T07:11:00.001-06:00

I had to attend a four day management training class. It was held at the Doubletree hotel and conference center in Downers Grove. I could actually have stayed at home but they urged everyone to stay at the hotel since the activities would last until fairly late at night. It was good advice since we didn't finish until late every night and had to be in class at 8:00 AM.

The first day they asked everyone to line up in order of how long ago they got their first management job. I was at the head of the line with 37 years. The guy next to me had 26 and it fell off pretty rapidly from there. The first day was mostly typical classroom style training with a few exercises thrown in. That night we were divided up into project teams. Most of the projects involved dealing with abstract management concepts. On project though was called "Big Art" and involved coming up with an art project to illustrate some of the concepts we were learning about. Thankfully I got on that team. After we kicked around some ideas I suggested that we doing something with blowups of digital photographs. The team jumped right on it so I was the "main man" with my digital camera and thousands of existing pictures to choose from.

I had a blast. We created a piece of art using 6 16X20 photos. Of course I provided most of the pictures and did all of the digital image manipulation. The final product looked like this.

All week we had snow and bitter cold. I started my car a couple of times and cleared off all the snow. Our wonderful neighbor across the street cleared out the driveway again for Jill. She baked him a cake and took it over there. Got home Thursday afternoon and back to work on Friday. All in all it was a pretty good week.

This weekend we're getting quite a warmup. The high Monday will be 42; I think the high Thursday was 8.

COLD!

2008-01-20T09:24:00.001-06:00

Just too cold. -2 yesterday morning and -5 this morning. Windchills -15 to -25. The high today will be 10, yesterday when we went out in the afternoon the car thermometer read 2 degrees. We drove out to Elmhurst and had lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings and saw the movie, The Bucket List. It was pretty good.

Kyle stayed overnight Thursday and Friday nights so that was a real treat. Saw Lindsey Thursday morning and saw Scarlett and Lindsey on Friday.

I was planning to stay in today but now have to go over to church to take pictures of the choir for our directory. Will probably watch most of the two football games today and stay inside.

Don't know where the week went

2008-01-13T10:47:00.001-06:00

Not much happening this past week. Work, physical therapy on Tuesday and Thursday. Leg is much better although it still hurts some first thing in the morning.

Booked a trip to Disneyworld early May. Keir and Lori are taking the kids down there so we'll get to see Lindsey's reaction to the Magic Kingdom. (We went to Disneyland with Kyle and Braden in November). Rates are incredibly cheap at a nearby place called Windsor Hills. Keir and Lori got a three bedroom house; we got a two bedroom condo for less than we ever pay for a hotel room.

Met Jill and the kids for lunch on Thursday at a new Moondance Diner out on County Line Road south of I-55.

Found out that one of the guys I got to know on Flickr had passed away suddenly. He was only 70 - such a shame. Real nice guy who always had a nice comment and loved flowers.

Met Keir and Lori at the La Grange Park District yesterday just for a few minutes to book a room for Scarlett's birthday party. The kids played for a while in the playground.

Watched the Packers destroy Seattle in the snow yesterday. Played bridge last night at the Hursh's. We had the worst cards I can ever remember having. Today Jill goes to my niece Christy's baby shower. She's picking up Lori so they can ride together.

Kind of a gray day.

Record temperatures

2008-01-07T22:33:00.001-06:00

It hit 64 or 65 here today breaking a record set in 1907. A dreary day but hey, we went out to lunch without jackets. For January it doesn't get any better than that. Lots of rain now and not so warm but not very cold either. I'll take it.

Dreary but warm

2008-01-06T10:46:00.001-06:00

All the snow has melted and it's in the 50's. Took down all the Christmas decorations yesterday. Going out to my brother's house in a few minutes.

What a difference a day makes

2008-01-05T06:50:00.001-06:00

Thursday at 10:00 I went to the doctors office for a follow up visit on my acute sciatica. My leg had not improved so I was just getting along with pain pills every six hours. He told me that the MRI showed two damaged disks. The next thing I know I am on my way next door to a pain clinic to have an injection of steroids into the spine. I met with a nice doctor over there who told me that it was impossible to tell which disk was giving me trouble. He said he would treat the one that looked worse but if that did not work he would have to treat the other one in a month. Before noon I was on my way to the the room where they do the procedure using "live" x-rays. It was not painful and only took a few minutes. They said not to expect instant relief but perhaps it would be better by Monday. The nurse told me not to be disappointed if it took as long as a week or ten days. So I left with the expectation that I would still be taking pain pills for at least a few days.

To my great surprise I have hardly needed any. I took one Friday morning early and never needed another. This is pretty amazing after two weeks of constant pain. When I went to bed last night I had no leg pain. This morning I have a little but it's not very bad. I may wait a while to see if it works it way out.

Anyway - very encouraging progress in a short time.

We're in for a big warmup this weekend. 41 today and fifty something by tomorrow and even warmer on Monday.

Snowy

2008-01-01T21:29:00.001-06:00

Looking north from our driveway

The backyard

Happy New Year

2008-01-01T14:27:00.001-06:00

Well, not quite yet. Last night we stayed home because of my back. Around dinner time we both started feeling bad. Lori had called and said that Lindsey got the stomach flu. Lori and Scarlett had already been throwing up. As the evening wore on Jill kept feeling worse until she started throwing up after midnight. I felt lousy but by morning I was feeling okay. So, we had to cancel going down to Amy's. We certainly don't want to give them the flu.

We got snow and didn't know how we would deal with that. Our neighbor across the street came over with his snowblower and cleaned out our whole driveway. I went out to get Jill some ginger ale and soup. Otherwise it's a pretty quite day.

As the year ends

2007-12-31T09:59:00.001-06:00

It's hard to pick out just a few pictures to represent the whole year but here we go.

Braden's Christening	Florida	San Diego
Dan's Birthday party	Granite countertops	Kyle turns three
Scarlett Sophia Wilson	Williamsburg, Va	Amy's birthday party on our deck
La Grange Pet Parade	Cicadas	Central Park, New York
37th Anniversary at Geja's	Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee	Braden turns one
Scarlett's Christening	Saugatuck, Michigan	White Sox game
Chicago Botanical Garden	Lindsey turns three	Lori and Keir buy a new house
Another trip to New York	Jill's surprise birthday party	Disneyland
Thanksgiving at Lori's	Hill Christmas Party

Let it snow

2007-12-29T18:12:00.000-06:00

It started Friday morning and snowed most of the day.

We ran out to the grocery store early and then stayed in for the rest of the day.

I called for the MRI results and they said I have a herniated disk and a bulging disk. They recommended physical therapy so I started at 7:00 on Saturday. A variety of different exercises.

At noon we went over to Lori's for lunch. We're watching Scarlett and Lindsey overnight.

Winter Wonderfest

2007-12-27T09:47:00.000-06:00

There's a winter festival at Navy Pier. We took Kyle and Lindsey on Thursday. I have acute sciatica and my leg was really hurting but I decided to go ahead so as not to disappoint the kids (and miss seeing them). After I was walking around a while it got better. The "fest" is in Festival Hall up on the second floor so we parked indoors and left our coats in the car. Lots of attractions and "rides" for kids.

We had lunch at Riva Cafe downstairs and then walked down to the the other end of Navy Pier and went into the Atrium.

It was really a fun day. Kyle and Lindsey enjoy each other so much.

It's a wonderful life

2007-12-26T12:25:00.001-06:00

We just had a great Christmas. Christmas Eve went went over to Lori's for dinner. She put on a great spread. and we had a lot of fun with Lindsey and Scarlett. After Christmas cookies and candy can pie for dessert we headed over to Hinsdale where Dan and Amy were attending a family party. We were picking up Kyle Braden to take them to our house to go to bed.

We left out some stuff for Santa and his reindeer and then settled in for a long winter's nap. Dan and Amy came about 10:20 or so and helped carry all the gifts up to put around the tree.

On Christmas morning we all got up and watched Kyle and Braden open their gifts from Santa and their parents.

When Keir and Lori arrived another round of present opening began in earnest.

It was a wonderful day and everybody had a great time. Had a wonderful Christmas breakfast with the traditional coffee cake, egg casserole and chicken and apple sausages. By the time we got that all cleaned up and all the gifts opened it was time for the little ones to take naps.

Later that afternoon Jill put on a scrumptious beef Wellington dinner.

All ready for Christmas

2007-12-23T07:34:00.000-06:00

I can't believe it has been a week since I last wrote something. We've been busy getting ready for Christmas. I finished the last of my shopping for Jill at Von Maur on Thursday when I met my buddy Mark for lunch at Yorktown Mall. Friday I ran over to Keir and Lori's at 8:30 to watch the girls while Keir and Lori went to the doctor for Keir's follow-up visit after the sledding accident. (A Wild Day) I had a blast - we stayed up in the playroom for the whole hour.

After I came home we wrapped gifts for about four hours. (And we aren't that slow at wrapping). After that we ran to Trader Joe's for some wine and a few other things. When I got up in the morning my left leg hurt a bit but I didn't think too much about it. By Saturday morning it was hurting a lot and I had a fluttery sensation in my thigh. I went to the doctor and he said it was acute sciatica - this is inflammation of the sciatic nerve which runs all the way down your leg. He ordered x-rays of my back and tried to get me in for an MRI. Unfortunately all of the nearby MRI places are already closed until December 26th. I've got some pills which I've been taking since yesterday afternoon but I'm pretty disappointed with them. Lots of pain and not much improvement - hoping things get a little better today.

We ordered a lot of gifts on line this year, maybe even more than last year. Ironically the last gift to arrive (yesterday) didn't make it in good shape.

It was very warm yesterday with a lot of fog. Last night our friends Jack and Jeanie (from Houston) came over. We had a nice lasagna dinner and a great visit. They were here from 5:00 until about 12:30. This morning it is cold and it is snowing out.

Snow, snow and more snow

2007-12-16T11:19:00.001-06:00

Saturday morning we woke up to maybe three inches of snow. I cleared out the driveway so we could head out to the Hill Christmas Party. There are so many of us now that it's too big for somebody's house so we held it at the Romeoville Recreation Center where both Debbie and Marissa work. We had a great time and it was good to see everybody. It was the first time anybody had met Scarlett and my niece's new baby, Gabriel.

Santa came and of course that was lots of fun for all the little kids

We had pizza and a Christmas cake.

Debbie arranged everything and it all worked out great.

We came home and I cleared the driveway again before Carol and Jerry picked us up for dinner. We went to the Sunflower Bistro in La Grange and had a wonderful dinner and a nice visit. We came back to our house for desert and coffee.

This morning we had another 5 or 6 inches of snow so I cleared that out so we could go for our Sunday School Class brunch this morning. I took the annual class picture in the sanctuary.

A wild day

2007-12-10T20:37:00.001-06:00

It started off normal enough. We went to Sunday School and came home to wait for Dan and Amy to drop off the boys for the afternoon. They were having an open house. They came and brought lunch then they left to do some shopping. Both boys took naps. Dan and Amy came back and we visited a while. They were getting ready to leave when the phone rang. It was Lori, pretty rattled, saying something about Keir was on his way to the hospital and she needed help going over to the sledding hill next to the La Grange Park library to get Lindsey. Dan and I jumped in the car and raced over there. Dan spotted the ambulance down at the bottom of the hill so I drove down there and parked right next to it. Dan jumped out and ran towards the paramedics who were coming down the hill with a stretcher. As I headed toward the group (slowly because it was so slippery) Dan headed off into the big baseball field. The 4 paramedics came to where I was with Keir on the stretcher. I could see blood all over him but didn't get a chance to talk to him - they headed for the ambulance and I stopped one of them and said I was his father-in-law. He told me that Lori was looking for me and wanted me to take the kids so she could go to the hospital. He pointed toward the field and I saw Lori and Dan carrying the kids towards the Jewel parking lot. He told me that Keir seemed all right and was conscious and talking so I ran to catch up with Dan and Lori.

We put the kids in Lori's car so Dan could take them back to our house while I followed the ambulance to the hospital with Lori. When we got back to the ambulance they told us Lori could ride with them so I drove home. They took Keir to La Grange Hospital, stitched him up and ran a cat scan and x-rayed his neck. Those tests didn't show any problems but he had suffered a concussion and they wanted to have a neurologist look at him so they transferred him to Hinsdale hospital. Keir's parents were heading in from Crystal Lake. When they arrived I picked up Lori so she could go home and pick up some stuff for the girls and some stuff for herself to stay overnight at Hinsdale Hospital. They got Keir over there and put him in the Neuro ICU so they could monitor him overnight. He was talking okay last night and beginning to remember things and said he was feeling better. He has a big gash on his forehead that took 11 stitches to close. The only thing we know is what the cop told me - Lindsey's sled started going crooked and was heading for a tree so Keir started running after her, slipped and fell. Another father that was there called the paramedics. Keir doesn't remember any of this so we don't know much more than that.

The neurologist saw him this morning. They ran another cat scan and gave him a clean bill of health. Lori brought him home this afternoon and then picked up the girls from our house when they woke up from their naps.

It's too cold here

2007-12-08T17:29:00.001-06:00

Average high temperature for this time of year is 38 and we're working with high's in the 20's. Got some more snow Thursday night. Kyle and Lindsey seem to love snow - the advantage of being three years old.

Kyle and Braden stayed overnight with us Thursday night so Dan and Amy could go to Dan's Christmas party at the Sofitel. Kyle wanted to play in the snow but that's a little tough with Braden not walking so Jill figured she would go over to Lori's so Lindsey and Kyle could go out. They had a ball and never did seem to get cold.

Today we did some shopping at Costco - it was pretty crowded. Tonight we're going to our annual bridge group Christmas dinner. We're taking this with us. Amy, Lori and Jill made all of these.

The season is upon us.

Winter finally arrived

2007-12-05T16:22:00.001-06:00

It started snowing last night and snowed off and on till about 2:00 today.

We've ordered a ton of stuff online as we do every year so don't have a lot of shopping left to do. Jill has been making lots of cookies too.

And you know those $50 poinsettias that you wish you could have but just hate the price? Well, they have 'em for 15 bucks at Costco.

We just love the Christmas season.

Christmas decorations

2007-12-02T21:43:00.001-06:00

We got the outside stuff up last weekend so today was the day to put up the tree and all the other decorations. Lori and Lindsey came over to help us. It was a great time. Lindsey loved going through all of our ornaments and helping us hang lots of them. After Lori and Lindsey left we spend most of the rest of the day putting up all the other decorations. The house looks great and we're in the holiday mood.

Jill's Birthday

2007-12-01T17:02:00.001-06:00

We had a heck of a good time. I took the day off (Friday) and we headed downtown to the Fairmont Hotel. We had a suite with a lake view on the 27th floor.

After we checked in a little after noon we headed up Michigan Avenue for some lunch and shopping.

It was pretty darn cold and windy. Bought a bottle of wine at Trader Joe's and headed back to the Fairmont. After a while we headed for Macy's for dinner under the Christmas Tree in the Walnut Room. The Walnut Room opened in 1907. We've been eating under the tree since the early 70's.

It was a lot of fun. We had a great meal, sang Happy Birthday to Jill and I know she loved being with the whole family.

Went back to the Fairmont and ordered a milk bath from the bath sommelier.

In the morning we ordered breakfast in the room.

After a while we headed back over to Macy's to see the decorations and the windows.

Had lunch at a sushi place in our hotel and decided we'd better get going with the winter storm starting up. We should have left earlier - it took us over an hour and half to get home. The roads were awful. We only live 18 miles from downtown so that averages out to about 12 miles an hour.

All in all it was a great little get away birthday for Jill.

After Thanksgiving

2007-11-27T22:07:00.001-06:00

I find it hard to keep up with my blog when it seems to me that nothing very interesting is going on. Friday after Thanksgiving we stayed home to avoid all the shopping madness. Late in the day we drove downtown to meet Bill and Susie at Catch 35. Hadn't been there is a while and hadn't seen them for a while so it was a good evening. Their house is Florida is still not finished - now the builder says March instead of January - whew.

Saturday we did get out to do a little shopping at Oak Brook and Kohl's. Bought a new fancy vacuum cleaner and a cordless vac at Sears. Didn't seem like the crowds were too bad. Saturday night we went to Donna and Tony's house in Western Springs to celebrate Tony's and Jill's birthdays.

Sunday we got the outdoor wreath up and put up the reindeer. The grazing one had so many lights out that we just put it out by the curb. It was gone within 30 minutes.

Watched an amazing Bears' game. They were behind 14 points with less than 5 minutes to go. They had only picked up 8 yards in the the third quarter or something like that. They scored two touchdowns - the last with 30 seconds on the clock on 4th down and goal to go. Then they kicked a field goal in overtime to win it. Amazing finish. My brother Ron was at the game.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving

2007-11-23T07:29:00.001-06:00

It was just a marvelous day. We all arrived at Lori's before noon and began with lots of nice hors d'oeuvres. We had football on but nobody was very interested and the games were al one-sided. I think this is the first Thanksgiving ever that I didn't watch any football - none. And that's a good thing :-)

We did watch Jill's birthday video and a video of Grandma Wilson.

Soon enough the bird was ready and Keir's Dad supervised Keir as he carved his first turkey.

Lori had set a beautiful table

so we soon sat down to a wonderful Thanksgiving meal.

Just a great day with family. Lots to be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving

2007-11-22T07:21:00.001-06:00

Haven't had anything to say since we got back from California or at least haven't taken the time. We're back to the cold miserable weather - even got a little bit of snow last night. First of all I'm thankful for a three day work week.

Today Lori is having her first Thanksgiving in her new house. Keir's parents, brother and grandmother will be there along with Dan, Amy, Kyle and Braden. I'm really looking forward to it.

We have so much to be thankful for. Good health and family top the list for sure.

I am truly blessed.

Last day of vacation

2007-11-17T20:30:00.001-06:00

We decided to drive back down to our old haunts around La Jolla and Encinitas. Stopped for coffee at the Pannikin.

Braden was napping so we decided to head on down to La Jolla. The day was a little overcast but we kept promising Kyle that it would be sunny later. Before long the sun came out and it was just a beautiful day.

We walked around La Jolla and went in a few stores. Then we headed down to the Cove. Had a nice lunch at the Brockton Villa.

We walked around the Cove a bit.

Dan and Amy decided to let the boys get their feet wet.

After that we headed down a few blocks to the seal beach.

It was time to head back up to Encinitas where we stopped in a surfing store and went across the street to the Java Hut for some smoothies. After a mandatory stop at Moonlight Beach we headed back to the villas. It was just a delightful day and a perfect way to end a great vacation.

Back to the Coastal Villas

2007-11-15T23:39:00.001-06:00

Darrell and Pam and Jill and I walked across the street this morning to the Cottage to meet Dan and Amy and the boys for breakfast. We checked out of the hotel but left our stuff in the car and walked around Laguna Beach.

After we pretty well covered the main shopping street we headed back to the villa. Jill and Pam opened their birthday presents. Went down to the pool and sat around while Amy and Dan took Kyle and Braden into the pool. It was another gorgeous day.

Later on we went to Tommy Bahama's for dinner and celebrated Jill's and Pam's birthdays, again.

Another gorgeous day in Southern California

2007-11-15T09:59:00.001-06:00

Yesterday we had breakfast on our balcony at the Inn at Laguna

The kids stopped by for a minute on their way to Sea World. After breakfast we walked around Laguna for a while and then went to Dana Point. Had a great lunch there right by all the boats. I had calamari steak and it was very good.

We hit some of the shops before heading back to Laguna. Pam and Darrell arrived from Arizona just in time to see the sun set behind Catalina. We had wine up on the roof of the inn. After that we went to Las Brisas for dinner

In a little while we will walk across the street to the Cottage to meet Dan and Amy and the boys for breakfast

Off to Inn at Laguna Beach

2007-11-15T00:02:00.001-06:00

Tuesday morning we had breakfast with Dan, Amy and the boys and then packed our stuff for a couple of days in Laguna Beach. We drove down to La Jolla but of course took the coast route from Carslbad on down. Stopped at the Pannikin in Encinitas for coffee.

and then spent a little while at Moonlight Beach.

We had a nice crab cake sandwich lunch overlooking La Jolla cove at Brockton Villa.

Drove back up to Laguna Beach and checked in around 4:15

Magic lives on

2007-11-13T08:16:00.001-06:00

In 1955 Disneyland opened and I went there to be caught up in the magic. The Jungle Cruise was my favorite ride. In the 70's and 80's I took my kids and they fell in love with Disneyland. Yesterday we took my grandsons, continuing this grand tradition. Although the park has changed a lot in 52 years the magic lives on. Kyle announced that his favorite ride was the Jungle Cruise. He had an absolutely fantastic time.

It seemed like Braden's favorite ride was Small, Small World. He hung in there amazingly for a 17 month old.

It was a wonderful day in every way. The weather was perfect, the park was not too crowded and the boys lasted a lot longer than we would have ever expected. They lasted from a little after 9 until 4:00 o'clock. Days don't get much better than yesterday.

California Vacation

2007-11-11T23:37:00.001-06:00

Day 2. Yesterday we spend most of the day getting here. Kyle and Braden were both great on the plane. Braden napped for a long time and Kyle played games with us. We got separated at the car rental place so arrived separately here at Newport Coast Villas.

We have a two bedroom villa with a large living room/dining room and well equipped kitchen. We're near Crystal Cove State Park between Newport Beach and Laguna Beach.

The boys woke up at 4:30 and 5:00. So we got a pretty early start. Went to breakfast at the Greeter's Restaurant which is right at the light in downtown Laguna Beach.

Then we walked around Laguna Beach. After that we drove to Balboa Island, walked through some stores and came back to the villa for lunch. We all crashed for naps until about 4:00. Took the boys to an Italian restaurant for dinner while Dan and Amy went to a place in Laguna Beach. It was cool today and we actually got light rain as we headed out for dinner.

Happy Birthday Lori

2007-11-09T07:21:00.001-06:00

Yesterday was Lori's birthday.

Keir and Lori

Jill watched the kids in the afternoon while Lori went downtown. I went over there at 5:00 to help with the kids. Lori and Keir went to Roy's and then to a benefit wine tasting downtown.

After I dropped Jill off in the afternoon I came back home and spotted these guys.

Windows Live

2007-11-07T06:40:00.001-06:00

Go here http://www.windowslive.com/freshstart.html to get a new Windows Live ID. If you already have an MSN or Hotmail account you should still get a new Live ID. You can link the accounts if you want.

Then, go to http://www.windowslive.com/overview.html and get the Windows Live tools that you want. I highly recommend Windows Live Writer if you do blogs, Windows Live Photogallery and Windows Live Mail.

Dan and Amy got their house

2007-11-06T09:52:00.001-06:00

Amy called this morning and said they got the house they have been hoping for. It's in Clarendon Hills They don't close till the end of February but they're on their way to the Western suburbs - Yea!

It was a cold start this morning - in the twenties. Supposed to only get to 43 today. Pretty chilly but it is the first week of November - we really can't complain.

A lot of leaves still on the trees
but a lot have fallen.

Saturday and Sunday

2007-11-04T08:24:00.001-06:00

Pictures from around the neighborhood

Yesterday we just finished up yard work, pulled out the impatiens, got rid of the mums and hibiscus and stuff like that. It was a nice day but we didn't go anywhere. Watched a couple of movies and set the clocks back.

Today we're heading off to Sunday School then we go to the wake for Grandma Wilson. After that we have a wedding reception to go to.

Jill's surprise birthday party

2007-11-03T10:21:00.001-05:00

The kids and I planned a surprise birthday party for Jill for last night. It went off fabulously. Jill thought we were going to Rich and Debbie's for dinner so when we got in the car I suggested that we stop at Hillgrove Wine Cellars to pick up a bottle of wine. Of course that's where we were having the party. Jill was completely surprised when we walked in.

Lots of friends and family, great food, an absolutely unbelievable cake, flowers, balloons and party favors. Not to mention great wine. We had a large screen TV to show a video that Mark Gallagher had done covering Jill's whole life. It was fanatastic!

The rest of the pictures are at http://arthill.smugmug.com/gallery/3763995#216654160

and here's a quick video

Video: Jill Birthday

And here's the video that Mark did for the party

Birthday Video

Halloween

2007-11-01T07:07:00.001-05:00

It was a gorgeous day for the kids to go trick-or-treating - 62 degrees and sunny. The plan was to go trick-or-treating around Lori's new house so I went over there to get a few pictures while Jill stayed at home to give out candy at our house.

I just stayed for a few minutes and then came back to our house so Jill could go over to Lori's. It was pretty slow at our place. Our neighbor had a big display so quite a few kids passed us up when they saw his place.

At 5:30 I went back over to Lori's as we were having dinner there and celebrating Lori's birthday.

People really decorated a lot and they were lots of kids out collecting treats.

Halloween

2007-10-31T06:26:00.001-05:00

It's going to be a decent day for the little kids to go out. Seems like it's usually cold or rainy on Halloween. We have Braden so that Amy can go to Kyle's pre-school and help out with the party there. She will come out here afterwards and then everybody will go to Lori's new house to trick-or-treat around there. We figured it was a good way for Lori to see some of her new neighbors.

I was downtown yesterday for the whole day. Grabbed a few street shots on the way to the train.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Lori when I got off the train at Stone Avenue. When Lindsey woke up from her nap she said she wanted to go see Nana so Lori drove to our house. Jill told her I was coming in on the train so she picked me up. She and the kids just stayed a little while and then left to pick Keir up at the La Grange Road train station.

Some sad news

2007-10-30T06:27:00.001-05:00

Lori called to say that Keir's Grandma Wilson passed away. We had just seen her a couple of weeks ago and she seemed to be doing fine. She was 90 but you'd never know it. She took the whole tour of Lori's new house - all the way up the the third floor. We didn't see her a lot but we really liked her - great sense of humor and wonderful to talk to. One of those people that's just a lot of fun to be around. We will miss seeing her at Thanksgiving.

Jill with Grandma Vogel (l) and Grandma Wilson (r).

Whirlwind Weekend

2007-10-28T18:50:00.001-05:00

Dan and Amy dropped the boys off at 8:15 AM so they could head down to Champaign for the football game. La Grange was having the annual Halloween walk so we headed over there with Kyle and Braden around 11:00. Kyle went as a chef and Braden was Elmo.

They both made quite a haul. Most stores had somebody out in front passing out candy.

After lunch and naps we headed over to Oak Brook Shopping Center - it was such a nice day.

Went to Antonio's, a small Italian restaurant near our house.

This morning I ran over to church to take new member pictures and then we headed to Clarendon Hills to see a house that Dan and Amy are thinking about (and to drop off our charges).

Got home in time for Jill to get ready for a baby shower she was going to at 12:30. I watched the Bears lose to Detroit and then we got everything back on the deck and covered it for the winter. Blew all the leaves out of the front yard and driveway and called it a day.

Pumpkin Tiramisu

2007-10-28T16:23:00.001-05:00

If you're interested

Pumpkin Tiramisu

1 1/2 cups chilled whipping cream
3/4 cup sugar
1 (8-ounce) container mascarpone cheese*
1 (15-ounce) can pure pumpkin
3/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (or 1/4 teaspoon each cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg)
2 (3-ounce) packages halved ladyfingers
1/4 cup rum
2 ounces crushed amaretti cookies*

Beat whipping cream and sugar until peaks form. Add mascarpone cheese, pumpkin, and pumpkin pie spice; beat just until filling is smooth.
Line bottom of 9-inch-diameter springform pan with 2 3/4-inch-high sides with 1 package ladyfingers, overlapping and crowding to fit. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons rum. Spread half of filling over ladyfingers.
Repeat with second package ladyfingers, remaining 2 tablespoons rum, and remaining filling. Smooth. Wrap tightly in plastic, then foil. Chill overnight.
To unmold, run knife around inside edge of pan. Release pan sides; sprinkle with amaretti cookies.

Bridge night

2007-10-27T07:46:00.001-05:00

We had our bridge group over last night. Everybody loved the appetizers that we got from Trader Joe's - raspberry and brie in a philo dough. Jill also found a new desert recipe that went over big - pumpkin tiramisu.

TGIF

2007-10-26T19:17:00.001-05:00

Don't know where the week went. Wednesday when we got a phone call in the morning there was a loud buzzing sound so we had to call AT&T to come back out. They were out quickly and got the problem fixed. Thursday I met Jill and the kids for lunch at Oak Brook Center. It was Oktoberfest at Macy's so I had Jagerschnitzel. Kyle thought that was a pretty funny name - accused me of making it up.

The guys came back and sealed the deck. They must have spilled some of the stain/sealer on the driveway. Jill called them this morning and they came out and cleaned it up.

Weather has been in the 50's but the hibiscus bushes are still hanging on.

The guy next door has an unusual display for Halloween

We're watching Kyle and Braden while Dan and Amy head down to Champaign for Homecoming at U of I.

Warm weather is over

2007-10-23T07:11:00.001-05:00

Yesterday started out nice enough - sunny and sixty something. By afternoon it had turned cold and then it started raining. We did get the deck power washed in preparation for having it sealed.

We still had crackling noises on the phone line. This time a guy came out and said it was inside. He had to come in and check every phone and jack in the house. Disconnected the jacks we aren't using and moved some wires around. It seems like the crackling is gone or at least infrequent enough that we can live with it.

Sad for us to watch these reports of the fires in Southern California. Our friends Bill and Alice are out there now along with their daughter Sue and her husband. They had to shut the windows in their hotel room in La Jolla because soot was getting on everything. Bill and Alice had planned to go to Long Beach but couldn't drive North because of the smoke. Alice called Jill yesterday and said they were down at Balboa Park in San Diego and that the smoke had not reached there yet.

This morning I read that the fires were approaching Del Mar and people were being evacuated. We heard that people in Encinitas were leaving their homes and heading South. News reports say it may be worse today.

San Diego County was ablaze from its rural north to its border region with Mexico,
The blazes bedeviled firefighters as walls of flame whipped from mountain passes to the edges of the state's celebrated coastline, spreading so quickly that even hotels serving as temporary shelters for evacuees had to be evacuated.
Wanda Tomkinson, 79, fled the Doubletree hotel in Del Mar with her husband and their Boston Terrier after employees called each room to tell customers they had to leave. The couple, carrying medication, clothes, tax records and a dog bowl, said they were relying on a family friend to take them in.
In the northern part of the county, 500 homes and 100 businesses had been destroyed as a wildfire exploded to 145,000 acres and marched toward the Pacific Coast enclave of Del Mar, forcing a partial evacuation.

Summer's last call

2007-10-21T08:14:00.001-05:00

Unbelievable warm weather for October. Yesterday was a perfect day - sunny, 77 degrees, low humidity - they don't get any better.

Friday night our friends Jack and Jeanie from Houston were here. We took them to Yau's Place in downtown La Grange for dinner - they really liked it.

Yesterday we spent the morning outside doing some yardwork, putting away the patio umbrellas, trimming some bushes - stuff like that. We were all done by 1:30 so we decided to take a ride. We went over to the Graue Mill and just walked along Salt Creek. The fall colors really haven't peaked but it was a nice walk anyway.

We went to Palmer Place for dinner - figured that will be our last time to eat outside there until next Spring (sigh). Watched the Illinois-Michigan football game last night. Illinois lost; although they seemed like they could have won, two big mistakes cost them the game.

Those two hibiscus bushes on our deck are still hanging in there.

Jersey Boys is one of the best plays we've seen

2007-10-18T06:33:00.001-05:00

We've been going to the theatre for years and years. We had a subscription to Broadway in Chicago for many years and we usually take in a play in New York. We've seen most of the big ones - Lion King, The Producers, Wicked and have seen a lot of big name stars. 9 out of 10 times we enjoy them but every once in a while we see a great one. Jersey Boys is one of those. It was fantastic. We went with Keir and Lori and Dan and Amy. Ate at the Grill Room (which was pretty good) across the street from the LaSalle Theatre. The play was very well done and of course we loved the music. Highly recommended!

Whirlwind weekend in New York

2007-10-15T08:40:00.001-05:00

We left Thursday to hook up with the "Table 1 Gang" - six people we met on our Mediterranean Cruise a couple of years ago. We flew into La Guardia where Anthony picked us up and drove us to Carole's and his condo in Garden City for lunch. After lunch we headed out for the 77 mile drive East on Long Island to Southhold where they have a home on the water. It's a great place that they totally rehabbed about two years ago.

We had a nice dinner at a place called legends in the nearby town of Cutchogue. I had elk which was very good. Next day we met the other four at a winery about 20 minutes away. We had lunch inside as the wind was keeping things pretty cool outside.

Jeanne, Mickey, Jill, Paul, Anthony, Dave, Art and Carole (seated)

We stopped at another winery after that and then went back to Carole and Anthony's place for wine, appetizers and dinner. As they say "a good time was had by all"

Next morning the girls were off to town for a massage and the guys headed out in Anthony's boat to do some clamming. Dave opted out early but I thought I would give it a try. When we arrived at the clamming spot it was cold and windy. I thought we were talking about wading in water up to your knees. When Anthony climbed out of the boat into water up to his chest (soaking his sweatshirt) I decided to watch Paul and Anthony from the boat.

They gave up pretty soon because of the cold and we headed back to Anthony's for lunch out on the deck. The girls arrived shortly thereafter and fixed themselves some lunch. Six of us then said goodby to Anthony and Carole and got in Paul's SUV for the two hour trip to Mickey and Paul's place in Yonkers. They have a lovely place up a hill in a nice section of Yonkers.

We had a wonderful Italian dinner and some more red wine. :-) Next morning Paul dropped us off at LaGuardia and continued on to JFK to drop off Jeanne and Paul. We had a nice flight home but our suitcases didn't come with us. They delivered them about 5 hours later.

Off to New York

2007-10-10T21:03:00.001-05:00

Cab comes at 7:00 tomorrow for our flight from O'Hare to LaGuardia. Our friends will pick us up and drive out to their place in Southold, NY. Friday we all meet up with the other two couples from our Mediterranean cruise.

We'll have lunch and tour a winery. Saturday the women go for massages or facials and the men go fishing if the weather cooperates. Saturday night we go back to Yonkers to Paul and Mickey's place and we fly back home Sunday.

Tonight we met Keir and Lindsey and Scarlett and Lindsey at California Pizza Kitchen in Oak Brook to celebrate Lindsey's birthday (which is tomorrow). She'll be three years old.

Summer might just be over

2007-10-09T16:58:00.001-05:00

With record or near record temperatures on Sunday and Monday (along with high humidity) it seemed like mid-August. Today is the transition day I guess, about 75 degrees with low humidity. Tomorrow the high is forecast to be 55. Only a 44 degree drop from Sunday! Well you knew it had to come.

Very good Bears game Sunday night. They beat the Green Bay Packers in Green Bay. And it was just a good game to watch. Went right down to the wire. Bears were behind most of the way but hung in there. Illinois is playing well too. First 3-0 start in the Big Ten since about 1989 or something like that. So, we had little bit of good stuff over the weekend in the sports front to make us forget that the Cubs got swept. Lost three games in a row. Next year it will be 100 years since the Cubs last World Series victory. They were beaten of course by Arizona. Arizona was not even a state when the Cubs last won the World Series. Gimme a break :-)

We got the net on the pond in time to start catching the leaves. So that's it for water lily pictures. Dumped the hanging flower pots too; they were starting to look pretty straggly. So the only thing really left are the two hibiscus bushes and this cold weather snap isn't going to set well with them.

We leave Thursday for Long Island New York for a "reunion" of our friends from the Mediterranean cruise. Back Sunday.

Yesterday was a great day!

2007-10-07T12:15:00.001-05:00

Lindsey's third birthday party was at Keir and Lori's new house in the morning. We went out at 9:30 to pick up balloons and then headed over. The party was just for family so it was Keir's Mom, Dad, brother and girlfriend, and grandmas as well as Dan and Amy. It was the first time Dan and the grandmas had seen the house so the first order of business was a tour.

Lori ordered food from Tommy R's - we all really like their food - the pesto chicken sandwiches are especially good. After we ate it was on to birthday cake and presents.

Dan and Amy took Braden home so he could nap but left Kyle to stay overnight with us. We left around 2 or 2:30. We had planned to go out to Oak Brook but it was so hot and muggy that we decided not to. Came home and looked up movie schedules and found Ratatouie playing at the La Grange Theatre at 4:40. So we played board games and card games until around 4:00.

We headed for downtown La Grange and thought we would walk around a bit and then head for the show. Kyle likes fountains so we headed for the big fountain next to the Village Hall. Unfortunately somebody had their big dog running in and out of the fountain splashing water everywhere so that didn't work out. We went into the Hollywood Video Store and found out it is closing so they were selling all the DVD's. Next was Ratatouie at the La Grange Theatre.

After that we went to Antonino's for dinner; Kyle had mostacholi. We finished up at Tate's for an ice cream cone - Kyle had pistachio. Before dinner Jill had told Kyle to remind us to buy some milk on the way home. As we left Tate's he called from the back seat "Nana, you have to buy some milk and there is the 7-11 right in front of you." We would have forgotten.

Different from last week

2007-10-02T14:08:00.001-05:00

Okay so I vowed not to take my car to the airport because of last week's awful experience with the traffic and parking. Today I'm on my way to Atlanta and I took a cab. There was no traffic - made the trip in under 20 minutes. The parking lots were full but without the traffic last week I would have made that plane.

So I checked in and naturally the plane is delayed a half an hour. If that had happened last week I would have made the plane. Did I check before I left the house? No because when you have a cab coming you're pretty much committed to leaving for the airport. So, you can't win. Get here late - the plane is on time. Get here early and the plane is late.

Where did September go?

2007-10-01T06:23:00.001-05:00

Gorgeous day yesterday. We went to Sunday School and got ready to watch Lindsey and Scarlett. Watched the Bears play Detroit. It was not a good game. I think it's going to be a long season.

Keir and Lori dropped the girls off around 1:00 and went for the final walkthrough on their new house. The movers come to their old place at 8:30 - they have to be out by 1:00. Closing on the new place is at 4:00 so the movers can't start there until 4:30. It rained last night but should be nice today.

Julie Andrews turns 72 today and Jimmy Carter turns 83.

There's no place like home

2007-09-29T17:29:00.001-05:00

Such a beautiful day. We ran some errands, did yard work and went to Palmer Place for lunch outdoors.

We dropped off some stuff at Alice's house and I grabbed a couple of morning glory pictures.

Perfect weather. Even though September is about to be over the hibiscus bushes are still acting like it's the middle of summer.

In a few minutes we leave to have dinner with our friends Bill and Susie at the Kona Grill in Oak Brook.

Back home

2007-09-29T08:02:00.001-05:00

My plane got in on time (8:15) but the remote parking thing was slow. Twenty minutes got me to the first remote lot but there was no bus to Lot F. 20 or 25 minutes later the bus shows up. Got home at 9:40 or so. Remember: do not drive to O'Hare - take a taxi.

Nothing much to report from Las Vegas. At the Thursday night "event" we gambled with play money. We each got $1000 in chips and at 8:45 counted up to see who had the most. I played blackjack and ended up with $6,750 so I was in second place. Now why wasn't it real money? The MGM Grand is just so large it's hard to comprehend. Over 5,000 rooms, 150,000 square foot casino, 3 Starbucks, a MacDonald's, more than a dozen restaurants, a lion habitat. You have to see it to believe it. And they are adding on to it.

Lori and Keir will drop of the kids and cats tomorrow so they can go on the final house walkthrough. They move Monday but can't move their stuff in until after the 4:00 closing. So we will have the girls until Tuesday morning. I leave Tuesday afternoon for Atlanta, back Thursday night (and no, I'm not driving to the airport).

A bad way to start a trip

2007-09-27T08:24:00.001-05:00

I drove to O'Hare yesterday in the middle of the day to catch a flight to Las Vegas. Traffic was awful - all backed up around the O'Hare exit. Worse, all of the main parking lots were full. I had to park in the economy lots before once so I still thought I would make it. Well all of the economy lots along Bessie Coleman Drive had "full" signs saying to proceed to parking lot F. Kept driving and driving and finally got to lot F. The shuttle bus came right away but seemed to go maddeningly slow on it's long trip to the shuttle train. The train stops at terminal 5,3,2, then 1. I was flying United out of terminal 1. When I finally arrived and tried to use the self check-in machine it said I was too late and offered to put me on stand-by for a flight leaving 2 1/2 hours later. I took the boarding pass but still thought I might be able to check-in at the gate. Of course the security line was impossibly long. I hustled to the gate - unfortunately B22 the farthest B gate from security. I got there before they had closed the doors but the agent said I was too late.

The next flight was leaving from gate B1, as far from B22 as you can get. I stopped at the customer service counter and asked if I could get "confirmed" on that flight. They said nope you have to stay on standby unless you want to be confirmed on a later flight which goes through L.A. So I waited, and waited and waited. They called a few names for standby as they were boarding the plane. Not mine. At the very last minute with no one left to board they called my name. Naturally the overhead luggage racks around my seat were full. I found a space a few rows back. There was already a guy in my seat (a middle seat) so I showed him my boarding pass and get checked his ticket and moved over to the window seat. I should have just kept my mouth shut and taken the window seat. Finally got to Las Vegas about 8 hours after I left my house. But the estimated 1000 people in the taxi line moved along pretty fast.

The MGM is huge - over 5000 rooms. I grabbed some dinner at Wolfgang Puck's in the hotel and then walked down to the Eiffel Tower for some night shots.

90 degrees

2007-09-24T21:41:00.001-05:00

Awfully warm considering the first day of fall was yesterday. Well summer can hang on for a long time as far as I'm concerned. Lots of leaves are falling already - seems too early. We may have to put the net over the pond sooner than we usually do. I hate to do it - the pond just isn't the same. Hoping we get a couple more weeks of water lilies. It is so much fun to go out there every day and see what has bloomed. This pink and white one is the most prolific. I haven't seen a white one of a burgundy one for quite a while now.

One week from today Keir and Lori and Lindsey and Scarlett move into their new house. They're excited and we are too.

I think it's going to be another long season for Bear fans. Let's face reality - Rex Grossman is a mediocre quarterback with an occasional great game. He is not good enough to be the starting quarterback. Last night's game was a clear a contrast between a regular quarterback (Grossman) and a great quarterback (Roma). When our defensive people got through the line Roma somehow got away and completed the pass. When theirs got through they sacked Grossman. I know, I know, we've heard all the spin - didn't get enough protection, receivers dropped some passes, so and so pulled up short on his route. But you never hear any of that when people talk about Favre, Marino, Montana, Staubach, Elway, Tarkenton.

The Bears won NFL championships in 1940, 1941, 1943, and 1946 and just missed 1942. In 1940 they beat the Redskins 73-0 in the NFL Championship game. During Sid Luckman's tenure, they were second in the division in 1939, 1944, 1947, 1948, 1949, and 1950. Only in 1945 did the Halas-men fail to win a divisional championship or challenge for the lead throughout the season. In contrast, the forty-plus years following Luckman's reign, the Bears have played in only five league championship games, achieving a World Championship in 1963, a victory in Super Bowl XX in 1985 and a loss in the Super Bowl last year.

First day of fall

2007-09-23T21:02:00.001-05:00

It sure didn't feel like fall, nice early but middle eighties by afternoon. Both girls slept till 7:00 which was nice. We just played and got ready to take them back downtown. That little Scarlett is a lot of fun. She sits up real well and seems to have great motor skills.

We met Keir and Lori down by their place at John's for breakfast/lunch and then came back home. Did some yard work and got the garbage out so we could watch the Bear game. It's 3-3 at halftime. The Bears offense doesn't seem to be able to get anything going.

The waterlilies are still hanging on.

What a gorgeous day

2007-09-23T07:04:00.001-05:00

Keir and Lori went to their new house today so check on the painting and the closets. We met them over there and I got a few more shots of the house.

They are all excited about moving into their new house

I put the rest at Keir and Lori's new house

We all came back to our house for lunch and then Keir and Lori left to run some errands and do some more packing. We kept the girls overnight and will take them back later this morning.