MORE....Millenium Park

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra got a new conductor this season, Ricardo Muti and it's a BIG Deal. They did a free concert in MP to celebrate and man was it packed. The three of us met up with my sis in law, Janet, daughter Jaimie and boyfriend Dan and Dan's mom. The lighting was really pretty, and if you look closely, you can see that the neighboring hi rise buildings spell out Muti, and CSO in their window lights. Again, just a wonderful evening!

The Beauty of HomeSchooling

In September, the Adler Planetarium had a free admission week, so one morning, Sarah and I got on our bikes and rode the Lakefront Path down to spend the day. It was a picture perfect morning and we had such fun on our ride, and of course the Planetarium was great! By the way, I have the coolest bike...a comfort model, in bright orange with white leather seat and grips. It makes me smile every time I see it. And, I see it often since it's parked in my dining room!

While I'm playing catch up

As I was just looking thru iphoto to post the pics to the last blog, I found some other ones....

Sarah had her 8th birthday in July and the whole family came into the city for a picnic and concert at Millenium Park, our FAVORITE hangout....

Illinois Institute of Technology hosted a Lego thing and we invited my nephew Kyle (prince of all Lego things) to join us. He and Sarah enjoyed that, as well as the silver helium pillows---actually an art installation conceived long ago (but constructed for the Lego weekend) by Andy Warhol.

I'll throw in any other summer ones that I find.....

When you can't remember how to start a new post on your blog.....you know it's been too long since you posted! Summer was more like one long vacation, but once September got here, the business of life swallowed us up! It's all been good though! We started a home school program on Mondays called Classical Conversations. We've met several families here in the city and are enjoying it very much. Sarah also does ballet twice a week and I started my first piano student here two weeks ago. Starting, too, to network for Silpada in the city while still caring for my Atlanta customers. So, a lot is going on!

August we headed back to Atlanta to help Elizabeth get back to UGA and then returned to the city to enjoy the Tall Ships events at Navy Pier. We sailed on a replica 1812 warship....and visited the HMS Bounty. It was constructed in the 1990's specifically for use in films and was the featured ship in the Pirates of the Caribbean. It is completely authentic on the outside, but custom built on the interior to allow extra room for lights and cameras. There were a dozen others, all fabulous and beautiful. The ships all sailed in on Tuesday of that week in a parade and we rode our bikes down near the planetarium to watch it all unfold.

The end of the month found us up in Wisconsin with Dick's family for our neice Jessica's wedding to Ben. It was a beautiful outdoor wedding in Dick's folks back yard, along a stream and finishing in their gazebo. Great weather finished a perfect day, and Jessica and Ben are on their way to London where Jessica will finish her medical training. It was so nice to see everyone and catch up!

Well....now that I've a new camera, I've been taking pics and just put them into iphoto. So, let's see if I can post them to the blog......

Quick, Call Land's End!

Saturday, September 4 2010......The first day we were COLD! The week had been quite warm--Monday was in the low 90's and I was getting pretty cranky....Chicago had betrayed me with promises of a cool lake breeze and reasonable summer temps. Then, we moved here and have had the hottest summer on record for decades. Atlanta had been cooler than Chicago by 6 - 10 degrees for the first part of the week. I really should not have Chicago and Atlanta weather side by side at my weather.com home page......

We headed over to Grant Park Saturday around 4:30 with a picnic to enjoy a part of the weekend Jazz Festival. We grabbed our jackets because it was cooler than usual that day and if we stayed into the evening, we would probably want them. By 6:00, we all had our outerwear on. I had a white denim jacket and it did not get the job done. Sarah had her warmest NorthFace type coat and Dick had a fleece. I checked weather while we were there (on my Blackberry---aren't I a techie?) and....get this...it was 62 degrees!!! That's it! We are SO gonna freeze up here.....

My coat wardrobe consists of the above mentioned denim and a thin fleece. I got home and went out to lands end and ordered what EVERY woman that I've talked to said I needed. It's a black, down Michelin-man (I'm sure) long coat with a fur trimmed hood. Fashionable? I think not! LE description says it's good down to 40 below. I also ordered Sarah a real winter coat and snow pants. Dick has been instructed to get out to LE and order some stuff as well...

But, the good news is daytime temps of mid to high 60's are delightful. Our Sunday trip to the Chicago Botanic Garden couldn't have been nicer weather. Today is sunny with a high of 77 and very windy. I'm OK with that....

What just happened.....?

Here's one for the record books.....Last Thursday, Sarah and I were walking home from ballet and saw a big street sign advertising the musical Shrek, which is in town for about another month. She's asked several times about seeing it, but I didn't really want to pay full price, so I've just been waiting. I've gotten some Broadway in Chicago emails with specials, but they weren't all that special. Then, a friend mentioned that her friend had gotten $25 Shrek tickets on the day of performance at the theater box office. Now, that was a price I was willing to pay......

So, we turned around and walked down to the theater box office. I asked about the $25 tics and he had two....and told me they were on the main floor, with a partially obstructed view (in this case, no pole, just far off to the side) and that the guy next to me paid $90. Such a deal! So I paid for the tics and we headed home for the afternoon. About 7pm, Sarah and I hailed a cab (theater was close, but shoes were not walkers) and glancing at the envelope front, told the cabbie to go to the Cadillac Palace theater. As we neared the theater that I had been to earlier that day, the cab didn't slow. And then I saw....I had been in the Oriental Theater, and in spite of the ENORMOUS signs and the detailed marquee advertising, I realized I had bought two tics to BILLY ELLIOT! Checking my tickets confirmed that I had indeed purchased tickets for the wrong show at a completely different theater! How in the world did I miss that I was in the theater showcasing Billy Elliot??? So the cabbie, after studying me for a minute, circled the block and pulled in at Billy Elliot. So, we saw Billy Elliot.

And Sarah is still asking about Shrek.

Running Errands--City Style!

Yesterday was my errands day.....city style means no car....so I set out with Sarah about 9am and headed to ballet camp. It takes us about 15 minutes or so to walk over and once she was dropped off I backtracked a block to catch the brown line up to my new chiropractor. I'm still not as confident as I will be at navigating the transportation here and usually have a few post-its with details as well as my little laminated maps in my purse. My goal is to be like the majority of the commuters: reading a book while listening to their ipod/cellphone and magically knowing when their stop is approaching. Then, being able to swiftly move to the door without losing or dropping anything would be the icing on the cake!

Once I exited the train, I had another 15 - 20 minute walk to the office. Such an interesting walk though! In one block I saw a peach tree, a Starbucks, an Iglesia Christiano, a double decker bike (two frames, one on top of the other) being ridden by a guy with purple spikey hair and two moms pushing their toddlers in strollers. Some of the little courtyard gardens were lovely....and some were not. Mixed zoning at it's finest. It is also interesting to note that with cell phone headsets, it is difficult now to tell the Probably Crazies apart from the Could Be Crazies----everyone (except me!) is talking to themselves! But it did occur to me that this walk might not be so interesting in the dead of winter so I'm gonna try the bus next time and see if that reduces the walking.

After my chiropractor, I took the brown line back into the Loop and got off at the Library stop. Headed for the Barnes and Noble to get a couple things for school and then met up with Dick for a quick Thai lunch. I continued on to another appt and Dick went up to ballet and walked Sarah home. As I walked home thru Millenium Park, the filming helicopter was very busy getting shots of the Lake, river and park again. Honestly, those guys never stop. We see them multiple times each day.....and often so close to our windows that we can see the guys IN the copter. They're still blowing things up a couple of blocks over at Michigan and the river so booms and smoke are part of the background up here in the clouds!