The three of us wanted to get on the road for the eight-hour-plus trip to Lincoln, Nebraska, as early as was feasible; a lot of the packing was done the night before, but there were some last minute holdups, such as one of the dogs (Dot, often blamed as the model for Dick the wonder sheep) who is horribly diabetic and was going into hypoglycemia ( Read more... )

I was delighted!  Mere took a 1st place in pairs, 1st place in Singles/C-Class and 2d place in Singles/B-Class..beating some girls who were *good* skaters.  She was very VERY happy.  This will, however, move her up to Singles/A-Class in the future….tougher competition.

Over the St. Patrick’s Day weekend, she’s going off with her coach and his ( Read more... )

Meredith is now out of school, and sleeping some very long hours, catching up on her sleep, energy, you name it.  Her artistic roller figure skating training schedule for the upcoming meets (Regionals in Flint, MI at the end of this month, and probably the National Championships in Fort Wayne at the end of July)  mean that she’s spending every day ( Read more... )

Still coughing and whatnot, but it seems that the more unbroken sleep I get the better off I am - also did a little shopping and took care of some quick errands with my MIL driving me around on Saturday; first time I’d felt like I hadn’t been knocked around for a week or so. Enjoyed the nice weather (raining cats and dogs now) and soaked up a ( Read more... )

My parents seriously impressed on me the concept of civic duty; that as a citizen of the US, you needed to do things to support it.  Positive things; get involved in local political efforts, stay well informed and able to make independent decisions, register and vote in every election and understand the players and the issues, speak up when it’s ( Read more... )

State Ag department:  http://www.agr.state.il.us/markets/farmers/

Farmers Markets Online: http://www.farmersmarketonline.com/fm/Illinois.htm

http://www.newsweek.com/id/225492/page/1
The Power of Two:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/225098
Photo gallery of the kids, etc.  The Intro picture is particularly stunning.

This has been in the works since spring.  Newsweek came in with a Pulitzer-award winning photographer who was fresh from covering the White House and Obama and Bush to do the shots ( Read more... )

Meredith came home early today sick to her stomach and running just under 100F; the H1N1 still isn’t available out here except a trickle with the public health departments, and there’s been some deaths with teenagers (usual serious swine flu symptoms).   I can’t take the live virus nose spray, and that’s all that’s available.

Susan may have some ( Read more... )

Two prominent Cook County politicians who are black will be running in the next election for President of the Cook County Board; this article discusses how that could split the black vote in the election and let Candidate #3 in the door, a reverse of what happened when Washington beat Byrne and Daley for the Mayor’s seat in 1983.

I remember that ( Read more... )

The short version seems to be that it’s unlikely without further explosions that Gov. Sanford of South Carolina will be forced to quit his job over the whole affair-affair, but it’s pretty certain that his political future is totally destroyed.   This review from the South Carolina paper The State puts it in a nutshell, without mentioning the ( Read more... )