Its Official

Skating is over and Lauren is heading to California this summer. Two big whammies.

IllinoiSkating actually got the chance to spend a day at Disneyland before competing. This photo is of the four seniors, at Disneyland, who skated all four years. There were others but they didn't last. Illinois placed 8th out of 9 teams. They had their best skates of the year and you can't ask for more than that. So sad to see it end. I can hardly look at the pictures without tearing up a bit. It's been a crazy 12 years. But so much fun. To my daughter: While I will miss all the good times we shared during your skating career, I am totally psyched for the next stage of your life. Pepperdine look out!

Yep. Its a done deal. Lauren will be attending Pepperdine University . We went for a tour and she was sold. We were sold. It wasn't hard to sell any of us. The campus is gorgeous and the graduate program that Lauren will be in only takes 6-12 students per year with about half of them continuing studies to pursue doctorate degrees, something Lauren is interested in. Most of her classes will be 6-12 students with the exception of her few "gen ed" classes that will have about 20-22. There are only 3500 total students at Pepperdine, smaller than Lauren's high school by 500. Wow. What an opportunity. Good for her. She has worked very hard, not only in college, but high school as well. I have always said that good things happen when you work hard. I think she gets it. First thing on her list is taking surfing lessons with her brother!

As for our time with the grandkids.......Too short. Audrey and Henry are growing up so fast. Henry is the happiest baby you have ever seen. The only time that kid fusses is when he is tired or hungry. That makes things so simple. Feed him or give him a nap. All the pictures can be viewed here. Disneyland, story time, park trips, meals and just plain fun. And we get to see them again in August when we take Lauren to school. Yippee!

Finally

Yesterday Lauren received an acceptance letter from Pepperdine University. Thank the good Lord. For the past month I have been inundated with phone calls and text messages from Lauren wanting to know if the mail has come and if she got anything from any of the schools she applied to. Like if something from one of the schools came in the mail I wouldn't call her! Pepperdine and USC are her top two choices, both of which we are touring on Monday while in LA. But just look at this place, who wouldn't want to go there? She has yet to hear from USC but just knowing she got into Pepperdine will make vacation more fun. We leave tomorrow morning for 11 glorious days in southern California. The first 4 days will be skating nationals, Lauren's last, then it's a week of fun with J & J and Audrey and Henry. I simply cannot wait to kiss those babies all over! So while we will have lots of fun over the next week it is also bittersweet. This will be the last time we see Lauren skate competitively. 12 years and it all comes down to this weekend. I hope I can hold it together. After Saturday there will be no more skate painting, bun sewing, I-L-L I-N-I yelling, late night lobby parties with the other parents and no more drama. At least skating drama. But Lauren loves drama so I'm sure she will find another source ASAP!

Go IllinoiSkating!

Happy to LIve in the HG

At least today. Two reasons. The first being the mayoral election coming February 22 in Chicago. Rahm Emmanuel. Really? He is the front runner as of now. He will most likely win only because of his association with Obama. It doesn't seem to matter that he has not even lived in the city for the last two years. In my opinion, that is why he should not win. Then there is Carol Moseley Braun. Where should I start? At a recent mayoral candidate forum she called another candidate a crack addict! If you don't believe me, Google it. This is who we want to run the great city of Chicago? And when she was a senator years ago, she was caught using campaign funds to fund a vacation to Hawaii with her then boyfriend. When asked to reveal her past years tax returns she told the public it was none of their business! That statement was quickly retracted and the spin doctors when to work. She is currently in second place behind Emmanuel in the polls. Why? She is a black women. Good for her but not a reason to vote for her.

Reason number two: Everyone knows by now of the great snowstorm of 2011. For a week prior to the storm, the media warned of the dangers impending. "Stay home!" "Take public transportation!" Yada, yada, yada. Most people did just that. Not the 300+ motorists that wound up stranded on Lake Shore Drive. Each and every one of them needed to be rescued by the city costing taxpayers lots of dough. They aught to be responsible for at least some of that cost. One motorist even admitted to being on his way to Starbucks! Idiots, all of them. And now they are screaming at the city for not rescuing them sooner. These folks need to take responsibility for their own moronic actions and stop blaming the city. The majority of Chicagoans are more than pleased with the handling of the blizzard. But the media will continue to focus on these idiots because they deem it "news."

So, while the politics in the HG leave much to be desired, I am thankful to live here. At least today.

IllinoiSkating Senior Team Takes Silver at Mids

This year IllinoiSkating has two teams: Collegiate and Senior. Lauren skates on both. There are several levels for colleges. The most popular being Collegiate and Open Collegiate. Those are the levels at which Illinois has skated in the past. This year they advanced their program and eliminated the Open Collegiate team and added the Senior team. I guess you could call it a rebuilding year. Unfortunate for Lauren since she is used to skating for winning teams. Senior level is the highest level of synchronized skating. And there are only nine Senior teams in the country, four of which are in the Midwest division. So while they took silver this weekend, there were only two teams competing in their division. The other two Midwest teams received a bye because they placed in the top four at Nationals last year. Illinois was either going to get silver or gold and they got silver. The big test will be at Nationals in March where all nine teams will compete. We're just hoping not to come in last place at Nationals.

There is nothing we love more than traveling, especially to see Lauren skate. But we love to come home to our pillows and our coffee. Ahhh, the simple pleasures of life.

And I really hate the Packers. All those cheeseheads will be wearing their championship t-shirts at Soldier Field next season. UGH!

Still Snowing

I am just loving this storm. It's hard to tell how deep the snow is from the pictures without someone standing in the snow, but trust me, it's deep. I just walked Ozzy and a few times he became lost in the snow drifts. He actually did his business standing up! The snow plows have yet to come through. No biggie though. Truthfully, no one is going anywhere anytime soon. Even Rick's office closed today. In his almost 40 years practicing law he has never had a snow day. Sophia was super excited to have a snow day until she found out that she would have to go to school an extra day at the end of the year to make up for it. She was not happy about that. And it is so cold and windy that the kids can't even play in the snow. Just too dangerous. I was only 2 years old when Chicago was hit with the snowstorm of 1967. However, I remember my brother Joe opening the door and the snow was taller than me. Today I walked through some drifts that were up to my behind. While I am only 5'3" that's still a lot of snow! I took a few pictures, nothing too exciting.

Snowstorm of 2011

IllinoiSkating is supposed to head to Rochester, MN for Midwestern Sectionals today. So are all the other midwest teams. Safe travels to all the skaters. And go ILLINI!

If It Must Be Cold...

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. Today we are expecting some serious snowfall. They are predicting up to 30 inches! I am not a fan of winters in Chicago. I know I have lived here all my life but I still don't like it. Yesterday I had to stop in the store for a few things, literally. Coffee, cream and onions. The grocery store was MOBBED at 11:30am. Six lines were stacked five and six carts deep and all carts were full. These are the people that my brother Mike does not want to be stuck with in a storm. He has always said that if there was a blizzard or the like that causes us to be stranded in our homes, he would like to be stranded at my house. Why? Because my pantry and freezers are stocked full. Who are these people that don't have anything in their house to eat for a few days? I have enough groceries here for us to live on for months. Even enough for Mike. And Kenny. The snow hasn't even started yet and people are freaking out. Schools are already closed today. Public transportation is gearing up for record numbers of travelers. And people are cramming the grocery stores. They're probably cramming the hardware stores too, for shovels, snow blowers and salt. I wouldn't know since I try to stay away from the hardware store! I don't need to worry about that. Last year we hired a neighbor kid to take care of all our snow removal. He has one of those 4 wheeler ATVs that he attaches a plow to and plows our driveway in about 5 minutes. It's a beautiful thing. I'll go out at 6am to get the paper and our snow is done. Can't beat that with a stick. So bring it on Mother Nature. I'm ready.

And to my Adirondack cousins: stop laughing at us. We know you get this kind of snow all the time. That's the deal you made when you chose to live in ski country. Honestly, I'm chuckling a bit myself.

It Wasn't Meant to Be

Yea, yea, we lost. Tough loss to our arch rivals. I refuse to jump on the bash Jay Cutler band wagon. But if you want to bash Lovie, I'm in. This guy has been notorious during his time with the Bears for calling time outs at all the wrong times. And then to lose a yard after the time out, great play calling Lovie! The officiating effed us a little too. But I am not blaming them either. The better team won. Period. Difficult to admit, but true. We really thought they might do it in the 4th quarter with Hanie. Why Collins was ever put in is beyond me. This guy has never done anything good. Not in training camp, preseason or regular season. Hanie should have gotten the shot first. Then maybe, just maybe, we may have had a chance. All water under the bridge now. And after being a life long Cubs fan I will not say, "Maybe next year."

Tailgate was a blast though. And sharing the experience with Lauren was awesome. When Lauren goes to the games with us her and I always take a walk through the parking lot to check out other tailgates. And boy was there a lot to see Sunday. A bloody mary bong, the burning of a foam cheese head, the drum corps and some other things we didn't get a chance to see. For example: rumor in the parking lot was someone had a life sized stuffed bear sitting in a lawn chair with a life size Packer dummy on his knees in front of the bear performing a certain sex act! And if that wasn't enough, apparently there was another life size Bear player standing behind the stuffed bear holding a dollar and waiting his turn. Beautiful. I just wish we could have found that. We had lots of visitors at our tailgate. That's the advantage of parking in the same spot each game. Everyone knows where we are. I saw my friend Tony who was on the news last week. And my seat mates, Paul and Tooch, stopped by with some of their friends. We also met a guy who flew from Albuquerque (how about that, Col) and a couple of guys from Toronto that didn't even have tickets but were hoping to scalp some for not too much money. Not sure how that worked out for them. And there were plenty of cheese heads. Not much you can do about that. All in all, it was a great season and we look forward to Pittsburgh kicking the crap out of Green Bay in the Superbowl.