Why I Oughta...

That's it on the right.  My mom grew up right upstairs in the apartment while her Mom and Dad operated a bakery out of the first floor.  Later, after her folks moved out to a new, bigger house, my Mom and Dad moved in right after they were married.   It (obviously) looked a bit different back then!  It was named Dorianels after my mom and her two siblings.  DOrothy, floRIAN, and MitchEL.  Dorianels. The bakery was right on 51st Street a few blocks north of Sherman Park .  My sister Vic went with my folks to scout out my Mom's old neighborhood and see her old church before they dismantled it.  Quite the sad story, but that's for another post.  Vic supplied this photo (and a few others I'll use later) and was the driving force to getting my mom back to her old stomping grounds.  The closest thing I have to an "old neighborhood" is probably Champaign-Urbana.  I know how I feel when I'm back on campus, so I can guess how my mom was feeling as they wondered a

Back in the late 1970's and early 1980's, my father was a part-time police officer in my hometown of Frankfort.  He might have been called an auxiliary officer or something like that, but never-the-less he *was* still a copper.   That's him standing up in the light shirt farthest to the right with the mustache.   He looks great! In the back row, third from the left is my Uncle Ed.  He's my Godfather and meant a lot to me and my family.  This photo was shared with me by his daughter. It is kind of funny to think about my dad as a police officer.  Clearly, Uncle Ed had an impact on him to get him to join the force.  Frankfort is still a pretty small town (15,000ish people), but back in the late 1970's it was REALLY sleepy.  My dad grew up on the south side, so I'm thinking that after relocating from Hickory Hills to Frankfort in the 70's, he was looking for a bit of excitement.    He told me once that he had to pull his gun and (I think?) fired it.  Must ha

Seems as though my post about my paper Owl inspired my niece to make her own paper pumpkin.  Nice!  Look at the great job she did! My Owl was feeling a bit lonely so I made him a few friends.  That's for another post!

I didn't want my pumpkin owls to be all alone, so I folded up an indoor companion.   Using these as guidelines , I accordion-folded some construction paper.  He's a little amateurish, but that's fine with me.  I used the hot glue gun and I think that was a mistake, but being me, I also took a stab at the largest one - which according to the comments on the page is the one with the highest difficulty.   If I have time today, I'll make him a pumpkin and cat friend - perhaps in the medium version.  Spooky owls can't be sitting on our window sill all alone, right?

Not only is Congressman Mark Kirk pulling away in the Google Insights for Search Poll, but State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias is slumping as of late.   They came out of the primary locked in a dead-heat but with the news that Kirk wasn't being totally truthful during the summer, he surged in interest level.  Clearly, as we head into the final week, interest in both candidates is heating up.  Will Kirk's Google lead hold up?

State Senator Bill Brady is pulling away in the Illinois Governor's race as viewed through Google.  He took a lead in September and never looked back it seems.  Some official polls reflect a Brady lead , too.  Will this hold up?

After the weird video I posted yesterday, I thought it would be worthwhile showing a few close-ups of the two visitors.  This is the second year I've made these particular creatures and I think they've turned out better this year after making some minor modifications.   The plans we followed are featured here on Martha Stewart's pretty rad Halloween section . Here's how they look at night. With some backlighting on the porch. And....in the kitchen after being put together!