Life's Been Good To Me So Far

That song will forever remind me of two things. The first is my many summer vacations spent in upstate New York with my cousins, forever listening to The Eagles and Joe Walsh, drinking beer in the bandstand and down by the river, running back and forth between Aunt Jean's and Grandma's house, sleeping on Grandma's porch, brown bread, molasses cookies (my father's favorite) and so many other great memories. These were truly some of the best times of my life. While we only saw the NY cousins in the summer we are a close knit bunch despite the distance between us.

The second is when my brother Kenny bought his Moped. It was the coolest thing. His was actually yellow, if I remember correctly. My other brothers teased him relentlessly and came up with their own lyrics for this song that included "My Moped goes 45, I lost my license, now I don't drive!" Not very original, I know, but funny as hell at the time. The teasing in our family is still relentless. We will never grow up, at least I hope not.

Off to Minneapolis for Nationals tomorrow. Go ILLINI!

I Love NY But.........

.........Not Macy's. In the Chicago Tribune this morning, there was an article about how Macy's is still suffering poor sales since discarding the Marshall Field name. Really?! I am extremely proud to say that I have not even set foot in Macy's since they came to Chicago two years ago. And I have no intention of ever doing so. The funny thing is when we would travel I used to love to shop at Macy's. Now I'm just pissed. My daughter was a fourth generation Marshall Field shopper. How could they do that to us? I miss those green shopping bags. At Christmastime, the best day was was a long day of shopping at Field's on State Street. I did not even go downtown to see the Christmas windows last year. Long story short, Macy's is putting out some new ads this fall to try and get back all the lost shoppers. Problem is the ads feature Jessica Simpson and Donald fucking Trump. Chicago does not want Macy's and bringing in Donald Trump is only going to worsen things. How did they think that would help? The Donald, and his obnoxious new development on the site of the old Sun-Times building, and Macy's should go back to New York. PRONTO!

Maybe they could even take Oprah with them!

I Love New York

My Uncle Pete, that would be Big Bob's little bro, recently turned 70 and my cousins threw him a fabulous surprise party that I was lucky enough to attend. At first I was going to go to NY with Michael but he blew me off. I really did not want to go by myself. I tried coercing Lauren to no avail. Then last Monday my cousin Caroline called and convinced me to make the trip. After booking some really shitty, expensive, last minute flights I was off. Spent last Thursday night in Ausable with the "Upstate Cousins" and the remainder of the weekend in Pleasantville with all the cousins. I had seen the "Upstate Cousins" just two years ago when Ken-Bob and I travelled to the Adirondacks. But the "City Cousins" not since our Gram passed away seven years ago. And even my cousin James (who I haven't seen since I was a teenager), who lives in Brazil with his wife Fabiana and their daughter Julia, made the trek to NY. Growing up we spent many memorable summers together in the Adirondacks. We now all have families of our own which makes it difficult to get together. But when we do, look out. It's almost as if we're kids again playing in Grandma's yard. In reality, it is our kids playing now. Very bizarre. So, a great big THANK YOU to Caroline, Kevin and Carrie who put up with me all weekend and transported me to and from the Albany airport. Another one to Licia, Bill, Billy and Timmy for a great party, the tour of Yonkers to see my Dad's old house and Grampa's gas station, and all those baby Rolling Rocks! And one more to Joe and Erin for the very elegant Sunday brunch they hosted. To view all the pictures click here.

Quick Update

I really want to post about my impromptu trip to New York last week but that will have to wait. We had terrible storms here in Homer last night. No power for almost 7 hours. We have six trees down in the woods, one of them uprooted. I promise some pics later because it really is unbelievable. Before that, our basement flooded form a leaky well tank. My neighbor, Timmy, and I ripped up all the carpet in our basement yesterday. I am so sore today. Can you say old and out of shape?! Lots of pics and a NY post coming soon. In the meantime, you can check out the Chicago Tribune's story about the HG storm. click here

Does anyone have an emery board?

That question was asked by Shirl about 400 times while we were in New York. The night before we left Shirl spent the night at our house and asked for an emery board which I promptly and dutifully provided. What happened to that one? We will never know.

New York City ROCKS! I had heard stories about how rude and unfriendly New Yorkers are. These stories came from people who have never spent time with my Uncle Pete, a native New Yorker. Uncle Pete, his lovely wife Mary Jo and her daughter Sara met us for dinner on Tuesday evening. Our reservation was for 7pm. The conversation was lively and non-stop, dinner was incredible and meeting Sara was a bonus. And I only spilled one glass of wine! Before we knew it, we looked up and we were literally the only table left in the joint. It was after 11 and it felt like we had just arrived. Never enough time when you're with people you love. And Uncle Pete's cocktail of choice is scotch on the rocks. Sound familiar? I'm sure he and Rick would get along fabulously!

We managed to do just about everything on our list. The day we went to the Statue of Liberty the wind chill factor was zero. I should have dressed like I do for Bears games. We were all chilled to the bone. But we braved the wicked winds of New York Harbor to see Lady Liberty in all her magnificent glory. Quite a spectacular site. And Shirl even climbed the 156 steps to the base of the statue. Not bad for a 74 year old broad with a bad knee. We never made it to the Empire State Building due to cloudy and overcast skies. Seemed pointless. We also passed on the carriage ride in Central Park because it was just too damned cold. New York City is generally 10-15 degrees warmer than Chicago, just not when we were there. What's up with that?!

To view all the pictures from our New York adventure, click here.

Countdown to NYC

Less than 24 hours from now Karla, Shirl and I will be in the Big Apple! We have lots of shopping and sightseeing planned for Monday ending with dinner at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill. Tuesday we are up and out early to see Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty followed by some Little Italy action. Dinner is at Ben Benson's Steakhouse with my Uncle Pete and his wife Mary Jo. I haven't seen Uncle Pete in 6 1/2 years. Needless to say there will be some catching up over cocktails of course. The real New York experience is Wednesday. Lunch at Tavern on the Green, a matinee performance of "The Producers" on Broadway, a Central Park carriage ride and we'll top it off with sushi at Koi. Yes, we are taking Shirley for sushi but we did make sure there were some cooked items on the menu. Fortunately, she is not hard to please when it comes to food. And finally a little more shopping Thursday morning with lunch at the famous Stage Deli before heading back to Chicago. At least it is supposed to be warmer here when we get back. I should have some good bloggin' material when I return. Four days with my mother will just about guarantee that.

The Story of Ken-Bob

So, years ago, on one of our numerous trips to the North Country (aka Adirondack Mtns.) my brother, Ken, myself, probably a few NY cousins and some locals were enjoying some cold beverages in the bandstand that was across the street from our grandma's house when someone approached in the dark of the night and asked, "Friend or foe?" My loving brother, who turns 44 (shit you're old!) tomorrow responds with, "Hi. I'm Ken, Bob's son." Need I say more? Happy Birthday, Bro!