Lucky Me

Rick and I spent the early part of this week in Las Vegas. But that is not what I am referring to when I call myself lucky. Today I am taking Shirl to the Cubs/Cardinals game at Wrigley. That's lucky. Even luckier is the tickets aren't costing me a thing thanks to Debbie. If the Cubs win today and the Brewers lose, the Cubs clinch the division title. GO CUBBIES!!!!!!!

Another Glorious Vacation in Cadiz

It seems that's all we did this summer is go to the lake. Actually, that's all I did. My husband, who recently said that he was going to die at his desk, only vacationed twice at the lake this summer. I was fortunate enough to spend a bit more time in Cadiz. This particular trip was a blast. Our good friends and neighbors, Mike and Sue, finally made the trip down. Lots of food, drinks, fishing and boating ensued. And a little Wii action. We also had unexpected visitors. Marc and Ashley drove up from New Orleans along with their two cats and two bunnies. I would like to say they just wanted to spend some quality time with us but unfortunately they were forced out of their home by hurricane Gustav. I can only imagine what it is like to have to evacuate your home and city. They are now back in The Big Easy trying to dodge hurricane Ike.

There are a ton of pictures from this trip as Sue is non-stop with the camera. Thanks Sue. Without Sue's pics there would not be many. You can tell from these pics that Ozzy hates the lake and especially despises fish!



In other HG news: Lauren again made the IllinoiSkating team. She was unable to actually tryout this year due to her recent knee surgery. Since she was not an alternate last year and had a "spot" all year, her coach gave her a pass. While the rehab of her knee is going well, she has had a setback. Her skates were stolen. To come off an injury and have to break in new skates at the same time will be very challenging. For those of you who have never seen a pair of real figure skates, the leather is about an inch thick and it takes several hours of skating (and bad blisters and bleeding ankles) to break them in. If I find the fuckhead who stole her skates, I will beat them in the head with the toe pick of her new skates! Not a threat, more like a warning.

IllinoiSkating was recently featured in a spot on The Big Ten Network.Click here to see all the skaters except Lauren.

One More Day

Lauren goes back to school tomorrow. The summer just flew by. For her. Just kidding. Life has been crazy in the HG. Lauren finally had her much needed knee surgery in July and is just now starting to walk on it again. With one crutch. Hopefully it won't be long until she won't need any crutches. No skating for 3 months though. Thankfully her spot on Illinoiskating is safe and is being held for her. Because she is somewhat incapacitated, I have been doing all the packing etc. for the move back to U. of I. She sure has accumulated a lot of shit since going away to college. This year she shares an apartment with three other girls. Should be interesting.

I was fortunate to spend an entire week at the lake with Debbie and Sophia with no trips to the emergency room. (Deb thinks me and Fifi play too rough.) We discovered a great water park near the lake house. Pretty sure it was only about the third time I have ever left the lake house to go anywhere but out on the boat. We missed Dad since he is always willing to go get ice at the corner store. Here are the pictures from our week in Cadiz. Just click on the picture to see them all.

Cadiz w/Deb and Sophia

Busy weekend coming up. Tomorrow the big move, Thursday is Bears preseason with Kyle Orton as our starting quarterback (we wan Favre!!), Friday we see Jay Leno at the casino in Indiana, Saturday is dinner with the Roseland gang and Sunday Cubs game. I'm a little hesitant about going to the Cubs game. Rick and I have not seen a winning game in about 15 years. And the tickets were not cheap. But the beer will be cold!

Everything Is Better With Flames

Yesterday Megan and Scott had opportunity to take a ride in Lauren's Jeep. I told Scottie when he was old enough to drive perhaps he would want a Jeep. He replied excitedly, "Yeah, with flames on it!"

Truth be told, I love the Jeep when the top is off. If any of you have ever had a Wrangler or known anyone who has, there is this odd Wrangler wave that fellow Wrangler drivers give you when you pass them on the road. It's a culture all its own. Very cool.

West Nile Pond

This is my neighbor Lenny's pond. If you want to call it that. It is more like a giant mud puddle. He can aerate it all he wants but he needs to dig it deeper. The center of the pond is only about a foot deep. The dark patch on the left is the only part of the pond's surface that is not green with algae. And mosquito nests, I'm sure. I give it 2 days and the entire surface will be green. There must be some kind of ordinance in the HG for this. Fortunately for us, the landscape has matured so much in our 15 years here that we can barely see the pond from our house. But in the morning light it seems to glow an alien green.

I wonder if Lenny saw me early this morning taking this picture from my yard in my red and black moose night shirt, barefoot. Hmmm. I don't care.

Today we celebrate Poppie's (aka Ken, Rick's dad) 90th birthday! Go Poppie!

Mom's Fridge

While my mother loves all her grandchildren very much, she may love Kerry Wood more as evidenced by the size of his picture on her refrigerator. However, Lauren pointed out that there are two pictures of her, in her skates of course. Interesting.

It's Been Waaaaaaaay Too Long

I know, I know. But I am about to make up for it. BIG TIME. Good thing I don't get paid for blogging, I'd starve.

I'll start with Alex's wedding. What a fabulous evening. Perfect weather for an outdoor ceremony. Alex and Will both looked smashing as did their parents. Rick was super hot in his purple shirt. I still can't believe I convinced him to wear it. I found the perfect fat dress (and full body girdle). Thank goodness all the styles are made to look like your pregnant and therefore hide many things. Oh, and just in case a wedding isn't fun enough, Al's (the bride's father) Lexus got smashed by the hotel shuttle bus just before the wedding. Here is Melissa and Alex karaoking (is that a word?) to "You Shook Me All Night Long." Perfect music for a wedding!

I spent a fun filled afternoon at Brookfield Zoo with Sophia, Mom and Deb. Gotta love a kid at the zoo. If life could always be so simple..........

While I love my parents very much a week at the lake may have been a bit too much. Just kidding Mom. Shirley is a lot like a toddler in that she needs constant attention. You have to feed her every few hours or she gets extremely crabby. She also needs frequent naps and constant supervision. I have to admit that I could not have survived if Mikey and Karla didn't show up for a few days. We had the best weather but after a solid week of sunny and 90 degrees we were all ready to come home. I don't think I can get any browner than I am right now. And we even got Big Bob out on the boat one day! And we discovered that beer is good food. That's right, food.

Last year I got salmonella from some hummus at Taste of Chicago but I was not going to let that keep me away this year. I have gone every single year and a little food poisoning will not deter me. Actually, the salmonella incident last year was the first time there was ever any problem at Taste. In my opinion that's a pretty outstanding record for more than 20 years. We had the usual crowd this year. Left to right are Officer Jake, Kristin, Karla, Sammi, Steph, Lauren, Joe and myself in front of Buckingham fountain, one of my favorite Chicago landmarks. (sidebar: Kristin and Sammi are Karla's daughters, Sammi is also Lauren's BFF. Officer Jake is Kristin's BF, Steph is Sammi and Lauren's BFF and Joe is Lauren's BF. Confused yet?)There is always lots going on at Taste on any given day. Concerts, giveaways, demonstrations, appearances, etc. While we did not see any concerts this year we were lucky enough to see the Budweiser Clydesdales in all their magnificent glory.Some of my favorite Taste memories from years gone by:

• Taking Shirl to see Lynyrd Skynyrd and having her ask throughout the concert when they were going to play "that song." Freebird is always, always their 20 minute encore!


• Seeing Dwight Yoakam from about the 20th row and having Rick and Mikey laugh continuously through the concert because you could see Dwight's "thing" hanging down his leg ala Tom Jones!
  
• Having Rick meet us for lunch each and every year. This year was a quick one since he had a big project he was working on and couldn't escape for longer than a sausage sangwich and a brew.


• Lauren and Sammi sharing a Hefty bag "raincoat" when they were about 6 or 7 years old. That didn't work out too well.


• Losing, and then finding, my prescription sunglasses on the water ride. This year was the first time they did not have the water ride. Someone must have gotten hurt last year and sued. End of the water ride.

There were a ton of volunteers passing out stickers, literature, etc. regarding Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympics. That would be so awesome if we got them. I think Chicago is one of the greatest cities in the world and if ever there was a mayor who could get the Olympics here it's Richard M. Daley. Go Daley!

July 4th. It always starts July 3rd with watching the fireworks along the lakefront from Rick's office on the 63rd floor of Sears Tower. It is so perfect. No crowds (this year they estimated a million people at the lakefront), air conditioning, no mosquitoes, lots of good food and drink and my family. This was the first year that J & J joined us. Just think, next year Wyatt will be here. Very exciting. Here's the gang at Rick's office. Left to right are Justin, Jeanne (with Wyatt) me, Rick, Sammi, Sammi's BF Jeff, Lauren and Joe. Then it's "Party in the Street" for the 4th. We have this crazy neighbor who lives in Hawaii most of the year but comes in for the 4th just to have this huge fireworks display. I swear it is just like downtown. Anyone who has ever come to Party in the Street will vouch for me on this one. About 6pm all the neighbors (along with friends and family) gather in the street. Heavy drinking ensues until Al comes out to invite us all into his yard. This is just a sampling of what we see every year.

While this video is just shy of one minute long the actual display goes on for about an hour, nonstop. This guy may be a bigger pyromaniac than my husband! Shocking, I know.

To end this post I would like to talk a bit about my lazy ass dog. When we were at the lake Ozzy was so tired after a few days on the beach I thought he would collapse. But each morning when we would pack our lunch and boat bag he would be right there waiting to go. And each evening when we would arrive home he would pass out, usually on the couch. This particular couch picture is in my bedroom here in the HG but you get the idea. Once we got back to the HG I think Ozzy slept solid for three days. There were knocks at the door that didn't even rouse him. Life is hard for the Ozman. And so much for my nice leather couch that stays covered with an old comforter so Ozzy doesn't wreck it. There's some money well spent.

Again, my apologies for not posting for a month. I promise to try and be better. Don't give up on me.