Is everyone ready for the holidays?

I had pretty much all my shopping done, other than random, impulsive stocking-stuffer type purchases, or at least I thought I had! I have friends with whom I exchange gifts, and waaaaaay back in November I was at World Market and saw some nice mugs with initials. I decided to buy these but a couple of the ( Read more... )

Our "mild" winter has disappeared with a vengeance, now that spring is just a few weeks away. We got about 10" of snow yesterday (yes, New Englanders, I know that's nothing compared to what you've been dealing with!). It started in the early morning and just kept snowing into the night. Both things I had planned for yesterday were cancelled by ( Read more... )

Or packing material?

I've been on a shredding binge. Honestly, can anyone think of one good reason to keep pay stubs from a job I left years ago? Or statements from a brokerage account closed a decade ago? Or bills from my cat sitter? Why did I keep all this crap?

Now I'll have room in my filing cabinet for things I really do need. And I'll ( Read more... )

I was a good girl and voted today. The judicial ballot was annoyingly long as usual, and I spent inordinate amounts of time on the web reading the various bar association and judicial commission reports trying to figure out who to vote for. The one race I chose not to vote in was for our Congressman. The incumbent is someone whose positions I ( Read more... )

Since last I wrote, I have had quite a bit of music and music-related events in my life. Georg Friedrich figured prominently in a couple of them, hence the bad pun in my subject line.

I went to the dress rehearsal of Rinaldo at Lyric, which is basically little different from seeing an actual production. Some of the singers don't use full voice, ( Read more... )

I have just come in from clearing a few inches of snow off the car. It's supposed to snow all night, and since I have a class in the morning, I wanted to get a head start. A friend of mine is supposed to be flying in from New York tonight to see her mom and her two kids (I say "kids", but they are college grads); I hope she makes it ( Read more... )

Seriously, three movies in the last week.

1. The Women on the 6th FloorSome guy thought this was an Almodovar movie. No, it's not. It's French. Maybe it was the Spanish women in it that confused him. Plot: stodgy middle-aged Parisian financier and his very social wife hire a Spanish maid. The "6th floor" refers to the fact that the maids ( Read more... )

The holiday season is now in full swing, with lots of shopping opportunities. The Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust has a shop in The Rookery, a Burnham and Root designed office building with later renovations by Wright. They had an event a few days ago with choir, champagne and sweets, and tours, so how could I pass that up? I used it more ( Read more... )

I had an appointment last Wednesday to get my teeth cleaned and examined, and since my dentist's office is right across the street from Millennium Park, I decided to go downtown early and enjoy the open rehearsal for that night's Grant Park Symphony concert. How lovely to sit in the sun and listen to Mozart and various Strausses! Conductor Carlos ( Read more... )

I think winter might be really and truly over. (Having said that, it will probably snow ( Read more... )