Art's Blog

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.