Halloween

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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?

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.