My love till the end of time.....
Friday, December 26, 2008
Happy, Happy Fiftysomething Birthday Bill!
Yet another year together, yet another year shared. Wishing you wondrous times, experiences, and unexpected delights during this newest birthday year.
My love till the end of time.....
My love till the end of time.....
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
An Angelic Voice......Art Garfunkel...
Snowed in, emotions running high, Christmas nearly here.
Listening to "All I Know", written by the always brilliant Jimmy Webb, and sung with that gut wrenching, beautiful voice of a young Art Garfunkel....this soothes the soul like little else....
Listening to "All I Know", written by the always brilliant Jimmy Webb, and sung with that gut wrenching, beautiful voice of a young Art Garfunkel....this soothes the soul like little else....
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Christmas Sing-A-Long......Compliments of Barenaked Ladies & Sarah McLachlan
My very favorite Christmas offering. Makes me smile every single time I hear it. Enjoy....joyful toe tapping encouraged....
Monday, December 15, 2008
Library Harp Concert
Yet another free concert sponsored by the Arlington Heights Memorial Library this past week....
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Arlington Heights Santa Sleigh 5K Run
The Arlington Heights Rotary Club held its first annual Santa Sleigh 5K Run and 1 Mile Walk this past Saturday, drawing over 600 runners and walkers supporting this terrific event
Among the runners? Some of our fearless Arlington Heights Memorial Library staff! There's Christopher, first on the left....
The fund raiser brought in $16,000 to help with Rotary Club Internationals efforts to eradicate polio worldwide, and to help the Arlington Heights community effort, the Drive to Revive Memorial Park. Go Christopher...Number 114!
It was a magnificent sight to see hundreds and hundreds of Santa's clad in five piece red suits and white beards running through our downtown streets. Though we did miss the very beginning of the race, we heard that it began with a rousing chorus of "Jingle Bells" and lots of "Ho, Ho, Ho's".
Well done Christopher!
And well done library staffers!
Among the runners? Some of our fearless Arlington Heights Memorial Library staff! There's Christopher, first on the left....
The fund raiser brought in $16,000 to help with Rotary Club Internationals efforts to eradicate polio worldwide, and to help the Arlington Heights community effort, the Drive to Revive Memorial Park. Go Christopher...Number 114!
It was a magnificent sight to see hundreds and hundreds of Santa's clad in five piece red suits and white beards running through our downtown streets. Though we did miss the very beginning of the race, we heard that it began with a rousing chorus of "Jingle Bells" and lots of "Ho, Ho, Ho's".
Well done Christopher!
And well done library staffers!
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Christmas Concerts by the AH Concert Band
The Arlington Heights Community Concert Band performed two Christmas concerts this past week.
The first at the acoustically perfect Lutheran Home.....
And the second concert at Forest View this past Sunday....
The first at the acoustically perfect Lutheran Home.....
And the second concert at Forest View this past Sunday....
Friday, December 5, 2008
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Monday, December 1, 2008
Garrison Keillor on Barack Obama
Sitting on Top of the World - By Garrison Keillor
International Herald Tribune
Published November 13, 2008
Be happy, dear hearts, and allow yourselves a few more weeks of quiet exultation.
It isn't gloating, it's satisfaction at a job well done. He was a superb candidate, serious, professorial but with a flashing grin and a buoyancy that comes from working out in the gym every morning.
He spoke in a genuine voice, not senatorial at all. He relished campaigning. He accepted adulation gracefully. He brandished his sword against his opponents without mocking or belittling them. He was elegant, unaffected, utterly American, and now (Wow) suddenly America is cool. Chicago is cool.
Chicago!!!
We threw the dice and we won the jackpot and elected a black guy with a Harvard degree, the middle name Hussein and a sense of humor - he said, "I've got relatives who look like Bernie Mac, and I've got relatives who look like Margaret Thatcher."
The French junior minister for human rights said, "On this morning, we all want to be American so we can take a bite of this dream unfolding before our eyes." When was the last time you heard someone from France say they wanted to be American and take a bite of something of ours? Ponder that for a moment.
The world expects us to elect pompous yahoos and instead we have us a 47-year-old prince from the prairie who cheerfully ran the race, and when his opponents threw sand at him, he just smiled back.
He'll be the first president in history to look really good making a jump shot. He loves his classy wife and his sweet little daughters. He looks good in the kitchen. He can cook Indian or Chinese but for his girls he will do mac and cheese. At the same time, he knows pop music, American lit and constitutional law.
I just can't imagine anybody cooler. Look at a photo of the latest pooh-bah conference - the hausfrau Merkel, the big glum Scotsman, that goofball Berlusconi, Putin with his B-movie bad-boy scowl, and Sarkozy, who looks like a district manager for Avis - you put Barack in that bunch and he will shine.
It feels good to be cool and all of us can share in that, even sour old right-wingers and embittered blottoheads. Next time you fly to Heathrow and hand your passport to the man with the badge, he's going to see "United States of America" and look up and grin.
Even if you worship in the church of Fox, everyone you meet overseas is going to ask you about Obama and you may as well say you voted for him because, my friends, he is your line of credit over there. No need anymore to try to look Canadian.
And the coolest thing about him is the fact that back in the early Nineties, given a book contract after the hoo-ha about his becoming the First Black Editor of The Harvard Law Review, instead of writing the basic exploitation book he could've written, he put his head down and worked hard for a few years and wrote a good book, an honest one, which, since his rise in politics, has earned the Obamas enough to buy a very nice house and put money in the bank. A successful American entrepreneur.
The last American president to write a book all by his lonesome self, I believe, was Theodore Roosevelt, who, on graduation from Harvard, wrote "The Naval War of 1812," and in my humble opinion, Obama's is the better book for the general reader, but you be the judge.
Our hero who galloped to victory has inherited a gigantic mess. The country is sunk in debt. The Treasury announced it must borrow $550 billion to get the government through the fourth quarter, more than the entire deficit for 2008, so he will have to raise taxes and not only on bankers and lumber barons.
His promise never to raise the retirement age is not a good idea. Whatever he promised the Iowa farmers about subsidizing ethanol is best forgotten at this point. We may not be getting our National Health Service cards anytime soon. And so on and so on.
So enjoy the afterglow of the election awhile longer. We all walk taller this fall. People in Copenhagen and Stockholm are sending congratulatory e-mails - imagine! We are being admired by Danes and Swedes! And Chicago becomes The First City. Step aside, San Francisco. Shut up, New York. The Midwest is cool now. The mind reels. Have a good day.
Garrison Keillor is the author of a new Lake Wobegon novel, "Liberty." Distributed by Tribune Media Services.
International Herald Tribune
Published November 13, 2008
Be happy, dear hearts, and allow yourselves a few more weeks of quiet exultation.
It isn't gloating, it's satisfaction at a job well done. He was a superb candidate, serious, professorial but with a flashing grin and a buoyancy that comes from working out in the gym every morning.
He spoke in a genuine voice, not senatorial at all. He relished campaigning. He accepted adulation gracefully. He brandished his sword against his opponents without mocking or belittling them. He was elegant, unaffected, utterly American, and now (Wow) suddenly America is cool. Chicago is cool.
Chicago!!!
We threw the dice and we won the jackpot and elected a black guy with a Harvard degree, the middle name Hussein and a sense of humor - he said, "I've got relatives who look like Bernie Mac, and I've got relatives who look like Margaret Thatcher."
The French junior minister for human rights said, "On this morning, we all want to be American so we can take a bite of this dream unfolding before our eyes." When was the last time you heard someone from France say they wanted to be American and take a bite of something of ours? Ponder that for a moment.
The world expects us to elect pompous yahoos and instead we have us a 47-year-old prince from the prairie who cheerfully ran the race, and when his opponents threw sand at him, he just smiled back.
He'll be the first president in history to look really good making a jump shot. He loves his classy wife and his sweet little daughters. He looks good in the kitchen. He can cook Indian or Chinese but for his girls he will do mac and cheese. At the same time, he knows pop music, American lit and constitutional law.
I just can't imagine anybody cooler. Look at a photo of the latest pooh-bah conference - the hausfrau Merkel, the big glum Scotsman, that goofball Berlusconi, Putin with his B-movie bad-boy scowl, and Sarkozy, who looks like a district manager for Avis - you put Barack in that bunch and he will shine.
It feels good to be cool and all of us can share in that, even sour old right-wingers and embittered blottoheads. Next time you fly to Heathrow and hand your passport to the man with the badge, he's going to see "United States of America" and look up and grin.
Even if you worship in the church of Fox, everyone you meet overseas is going to ask you about Obama and you may as well say you voted for him because, my friends, he is your line of credit over there. No need anymore to try to look Canadian.
And the coolest thing about him is the fact that back in the early Nineties, given a book contract after the hoo-ha about his becoming the First Black Editor of The Harvard Law Review, instead of writing the basic exploitation book he could've written, he put his head down and worked hard for a few years and wrote a good book, an honest one, which, since his rise in politics, has earned the Obamas enough to buy a very nice house and put money in the bank. A successful American entrepreneur.
The last American president to write a book all by his lonesome self, I believe, was Theodore Roosevelt, who, on graduation from Harvard, wrote "The Naval War of 1812," and in my humble opinion, Obama's is the better book for the general reader, but you be the judge.
Our hero who galloped to victory has inherited a gigantic mess. The country is sunk in debt. The Treasury announced it must borrow $550 billion to get the government through the fourth quarter, more than the entire deficit for 2008, so he will have to raise taxes and not only on bankers and lumber barons.
His promise never to raise the retirement age is not a good idea. Whatever he promised the Iowa farmers about subsidizing ethanol is best forgotten at this point. We may not be getting our National Health Service cards anytime soon. And so on and so on.
So enjoy the afterglow of the election awhile longer. We all walk taller this fall. People in Copenhagen and Stockholm are sending congratulatory e-mails - imagine! We are being admired by Danes and Swedes! And Chicago becomes The First City. Step aside, San Francisco. Shut up, New York. The Midwest is cool now. The mind reels. Have a good day.
Garrison Keillor is the author of a new Lake Wobegon novel, "Liberty." Distributed by Tribune Media Services.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Beauty and the Beast
A handful of photos from a recently attended Round Lake performance of the musical, "Beauty and the Beast", choreographed by Melissa....
Nicely done Melissa!
Nicely done Melissa!
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Thanksgiving Is Very Special This Year
Happy, Happy Thanksgiving to those I love. I am, as always, grateful for my husband, my children, and my friends who mean the world to me. I am grateful for a warm home, good food, and minor worries in these tough times.
Why then, the Disney-like picture to celebrate this great day? That leads to why this Thanksgiving is so very special....
On Mother's Day this past May, Christopher and Melissa took Bill and myself to Starbucks for my annual mocha drink concoction, which I look forward to with great joy. This year though, after sitting down with our delicious drinks, Christopher and Melissa unveiled a much anticipated and greatly planned surprise.
They had made plans to take our family to Disney World for a winter vacation....drum roll please....all expenses paid! Repeat....all expenses paid....by the two of them...still shaking my head trying to grasp this unheard of concept.
Not only is the most generous gesture I could have have imagined, but the overwhelming notion that they...who take this trip to Disney World every year by themselves...thought while on their last trip that we, all seven of us, would have a wonderful time together. Astonishing.
In a time where so many young people are rushing to step away from their families, to back off a bit in order to spread their wings, these two incredible people are readily opening up their wings to include and embrace all of us in something so dear to them.
This gives new and indecipherable meaning to "my cup runneth over".
While Christopher and Melissa will be flying, the rest of us will travel by mini-van and meet them in sunny Orlando. I can't wait. Their love, excitement, enthusiasm, and generosity all pave the way for a trip of a lifetime.
Thank you Christopher my wonderful friend/son and Melissa my wonderful friend/daughter for all of this. This gesture is beyond words and dreams.
My love to you both. Happy Thanksgiving.
Mom-O
Why then, the Disney-like picture to celebrate this great day? That leads to why this Thanksgiving is so very special....
On Mother's Day this past May, Christopher and Melissa took Bill and myself to Starbucks for my annual mocha drink concoction, which I look forward to with great joy. This year though, after sitting down with our delicious drinks, Christopher and Melissa unveiled a much anticipated and greatly planned surprise.
They had made plans to take our family to Disney World for a winter vacation....drum roll please....all expenses paid! Repeat....all expenses paid....by the two of them...still shaking my head trying to grasp this unheard of concept.
Not only is the most generous gesture I could have have imagined, but the overwhelming notion that they...who take this trip to Disney World every year by themselves...thought while on their last trip that we, all seven of us, would have a wonderful time together. Astonishing.
In a time where so many young people are rushing to step away from their families, to back off a bit in order to spread their wings, these two incredible people are readily opening up their wings to include and embrace all of us in something so dear to them.
This gives new and indecipherable meaning to "my cup runneth over".
While Christopher and Melissa will be flying, the rest of us will travel by mini-van and meet them in sunny Orlando. I can't wait. Their love, excitement, enthusiasm, and generosity all pave the way for a trip of a lifetime.
Thank you Christopher my wonderful friend/son and Melissa my wonderful friend/daughter for all of this. This gesture is beyond words and dreams.
My love to you both. Happy Thanksgiving.
Mom-O
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Christopher is 24 Years Old Today!!!!!
Happy, Happy Birthday to my son and dear, best friend Christopher.
You have changed my life forever, you have enriched my life endlessly, you have made me enormously proud, impressed and thrilled to have been a part of your life for all of these 24 years.
Here then, my love and great wishes to a life so well lived thus far.
Carry on.
You have changed my life forever, you have enriched my life endlessly, you have made me enormously proud, impressed and thrilled to have been a part of your life for all of these 24 years.
Here then, my love and great wishes to a life so well lived thus far.
Carry on.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
More Music From the Summer Months....
Backtracking once again....
We attended yet another harp and clarinet concert compliments of the Indian Trails Public Library....
And finally getting around to posting photos of the last of the 2008 summer concert series with the Arlington Heights Community Concert Band. Well done Tess, Bill and Robin!
That should do it for now. Still to work on....182 photographs to sift through from our visit to the Skokie Sculpture Garden. After that...we are finally up to date!!!!!
We attended yet another harp and clarinet concert compliments of the Indian Trails Public Library....
And finally getting around to posting photos of the last of the 2008 summer concert series with the Arlington Heights Community Concert Band. Well done Tess, Bill and Robin!
That should do it for now. Still to work on....182 photographs to sift through from our visit to the Skokie Sculpture Garden. After that...we are finally up to date!!!!!
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Musical....and other.... Events.....
Lingering colds have found us under the weather lately. These are a few of the things we were doing before the germs attacked....
First, a stunning performance of Arthur Miller's "The Crucible". Front row seats at this incredible free event made for a memorable evening...
We began one drizzly Saturday morning by attending a re-dedication of Memorial Park, which is a few short blocks from our house. The ceremony was complete with all branches of the service presenting flags, and topped off with taps and a 21-gun salute...thus, the smoke in the photo...
Later that afternoon, we were lucky enough to have tickets (thanks Robin for saving us such great seats!) for this sold out performance of "The Andrews Sisters Revue", featuring Tres Bella and the Naperville Big Band!
Also, Mollie, Tess and I worked as volunteer ushers at a local performance of "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown". The show was incredible, and many of the performers were friends from our homeschool music and arts program! We were only able to snap this sole photo before my camera batteries bit the dust. So no photos of the show itself....but we do have great memories of this talented group of performers...
Lastly, I managed to capture a few shots of Mollie at the piano...
Not too shabby for being under the weather.....
First, a stunning performance of Arthur Miller's "The Crucible". Front row seats at this incredible free event made for a memorable evening...
We began one drizzly Saturday morning by attending a re-dedication of Memorial Park, which is a few short blocks from our house. The ceremony was complete with all branches of the service presenting flags, and topped off with taps and a 21-gun salute...thus, the smoke in the photo...
Later that afternoon, we were lucky enough to have tickets (thanks Robin for saving us such great seats!) for this sold out performance of "The Andrews Sisters Revue", featuring Tres Bella and the Naperville Big Band!
Also, Mollie, Tess and I worked as volunteer ushers at a local performance of "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown". The show was incredible, and many of the performers were friends from our homeschool music and arts program! We were only able to snap this sole photo before my camera batteries bit the dust. So no photos of the show itself....but we do have great memories of this talented group of performers...
Lastly, I managed to capture a few shots of Mollie at the piano...
Not too shabby for being under the weather.....
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