....GOOD EVENING.......

I've got a lot to discuss... nothing important...but I'll start by saying...

hApPy HaLlowEeN....

 So, the last couple of weeks...busy, busy.  We have been discussing a remodeling project.  I've wanted something different with my kitchen window for a long time.  It might be going to happen... if the amount of time we've spent discussing it is any indication of how quickly it'll actually happen... I'll be dead of old age, but I'm hopeful.  Mark DID buy some materials (and of course a new tool) to use on it.  But, I'll take pictures, of before, during and after.. if we ever start.

Sailing season is over. Boo.

We went into Chicago last week, spent the night so we could get an early start the next day on the big sail.  We took our car up to Waukegan, road the train down to Chicago, checked into our hotel, and had dinner with Scarlett and Dan. 

Before dinner, we did go over and check on our boat.  A dreadful storm hit the Wednesday before and caused a LOT of damage in our harbor.  A real lot.  Like last count we heard, 27 boats broke loose, and 9 sunk.  We saw sailboats with their masts broken, sails  ripped, debris everywhere.. it was awful.  We were lucky, only problem we had was our anchor blew off it's holder and scratched our hull a bit.  Hardly worth mentioning looking at what others had. 

We set sail a bit before 9 a.m. on Saturday and it was a beautiful day.

I'm always sad on  this day...summer is over, boat goes into storage, and winter is coming soon... It seems like the 6 months it's in the water is a whole lot shorter than the 6 months it's out... hum...

Anyway, we left Chicago, enjoying one last look at our 'spot' and headed north.

Sailed by Scarlett's building, that's the last time we'll see 'her building' from the lake.. they are moving.... more on that later.

Sailed by my vacation property... I love this building, really.

I keep suggesting to Mark, he call Rahm and see if it's available... he looks at me like I'm daft. I can totally see myself arriving by  a little motor boat, in a mink stole....okay, maybe it's a bit Tippi Headron(ish) with all those damn evil black birds on there, but, I'm sure we can be rid of them.  Don't be so negative...

I took the helm for a while. Whilst I was 'manning' the boat, we had a small bird join us.  He fluttered around and landed on the head sail's rope... right near me.  I yelled and Mark came running, thinking it was something major... not just a little bird.. in close proximity...to me... little or not, they still flap and have beaks.

He wasn't the only stowaway we had. 

We also had a Monarch butterfly fluttering around us. This always amazes us, where do they come from?? He landed on Mark's coat, and rode along for quite awhile.  He seemed very content to rest there in the sun.  We seem to be joined by a Monarch often... Sometimes I think he might be someone we know...

Anyway, the day AFTER we sailed the boat up to Waukegan, we had to go back, because I stupidly left my leather jacket on the boat.  We took the convertible and meandered down Sheridan Road back to Chicago by the lake.  I gotta tell you... there are some extremely large, palatial homes along that road.  I really should probably live in one...

But I don't. 

I live here, in Victorian Hell... which brings us to my next tale... so I'm watching TV one night last week, and happen to glance into the kitchen, where I see a small mouse meandering along the edge of the island.  My doglet Millie, was sitting on the hassock, facing said mouse, tipped her head as dogs do, and turned around and looked at me like 'well, aren't YOU going to do something?'  Right.  I did go into the kitchen and the brazen little devil sauntered away... ugh.  Then, a while later, I was taking the dogs out for the last time that night, opened the door carrying Clemmie, Millie charged out to the porch, where she came face to face with a baby opossum. On. my. kitchen. porch.  I screamed, dropped my flip flop, Millie ran into the house and I slammed the door.  The stupid thing stayed out there for about a half hour, hanging out, with my shoe. 

What's up with me and the rodents? Reminds me of an old Alfred Hitchcock episode.  Remember?? The one with the rodent pin... that kept getting bigger and bigger??? 

Alfred has been heavy on my mind lately....

SAILING, SAILING...LAST FAMILY SAIL OF 2011

Last weekend we had the annual 'last family sail'.

 For some reason, this year, we just didn't get many people out on the boat, our kids included. They came out, but definitely NOT as often as we would have liked. Seems like everyone is busy, us included. With that said, IF you got slighted this year and didn't get a sail invitation, fear not, you are not alone! It's not a personal thing, we just ran out of weekends. Next year....

Actually, this season seemed to be short.

I'm sure the fact that the month of June was sort of 'rained out'; and the fact that we were on the wedding circuit, including a couple out of town weddings, as well as other social commitments, played heavily into it. Or maybe the 'blush is off the rose'? Nah, that MOST certainly is NOT it. Never.

Anyway, as I started to say, but got so sidetracked... we had our last family sail of the season last Sunday.

The weather cooperated, with sunshine, it was a bit cool, and we had a great time.

All MY kids were there, the girls' beaux, and Scarlett's beau Dan's sister, Stacey.

She was here for a visit from California, and we were delighted to have her join us.

 
Corbin's Ally couldn't make it, she wasn't feeling well, and bless her heart she gets sea sick, so I can't say I blame her for taking a pass. We missed her though.

At any rate, we had a delightful time, sailing about and 'being part of the Chicago experience'. This is Mark's explanation for the people who feel compelled to take pictures of us sailing by. Weird, but true.

I don't know. But sometimes I feel like everyone at Navy Pier just wants a picture of us, living the dream.

DO YOU EVER....

sleep on the boat?

It's a query we are asked a lot.

Do we?

Well.... if you know me well, you know I'm a Hilton kind of girl. And sleeping on the boat reminds me of....

well.....

camping.

And, I don't camp. Just in case you were wondering,  I'm just not an outdoorsy kind of girl. I don't like dirt, or sweating, and I'm pretty sure both of those go hand in hand with camping.  So with that said,  I've resisted spending the night on the boat.

But, I promise, next year, I will try it.  Pinky swear... so remind me. No excuses, I will do it... promise.

And who knows, maybe next year Conrad (Hilton) will have purchased our boat and installed air conditioning and offer room service.

Stranger things have happened...

don't be so negative.

SHOPPING...

So I get accused of 'shopping' a lot. Mark seems to think it's a big pastime for me.

Maybe he's right...

Point in case... the other day, I stopped to use the restroom, and was overtaken by a great piece of furniture. I took a picture of it, but resisted the urge. I didn't really have a place for it, and it could necessitate a whole room full of new furniture.  Redecorating can be that way....ugh...

But, a couple days later, I was forced to go back to the general area of the store (really it was a legit errand), so I thought I'd go in just to see if it was still there.  I was pretty sure it wouldn't be, it was really fab.

It was there, waiting for me!  Wow, meant to be, I'm telling you.

Another lady stopped to comment to me on how cool it was. I suggested SHE buy it, so I couldn't.  She just laughed. So....

I bought it.

Isn't it great? I'm not totally sure what I'm doing with it yet, it's traveling around in my house.

Mark, who was around this last week 'working from home' watching it move around from room to room, pointed out to me, that although he did think it was great, but.....just because I go shopping and fall in love with something, doesn't mean I HAVE TO BUY IT. I pointed out that, that isn't the case at all.  I go shopping and don't buy things quite often. His eyebrow disappeared into his hair line, and he just smiled that snarky smile at me.

So today, I proved him wrong.  Very wrong.  I can and do go somewhere and NOT buy something.

I totally resisted this.

So there Mr. Smartypants.....

Seriously, where does one store this until you 'need' it? And, what if you decide you want something different?  Then what? Throw that bad boy on your garage sale?

Really????

SAILING PARTY....

Last Saturday we had 10, count'em people on the boat. I was afraid it'd be to many...but it was fine.

No one fell over, or was knocked unconscious by the boom, and everyone had a good time. More or less.

We had my husband's siblings, cousins and their respective spouses. Fun people~ but then would you expect anything less, knowing us?

We watched the 'marine website' that my husband swears by, all week with cautious optimism. It appeared that the weather was going to cooperate. Sunny, a little cool and low waves.

Sorta.

It was indeed sunny, a little cool, but delightful, and as for low waves? They missed it that time. It was rough. Not too rough, but rough enough to make some people feel a little nauseous.

It had nothing to do with the large amount of beer consumed.

Nothing at all.

WHERE AM I???

I've been traveling.

Again.

A couple weeks ago, I flew down to Houston, hung out with Mark, and we flew over to Pensacola for a wedding.  We thought we'd enjoy the beach for Labor Day weekend.  What we didn't enjoy was Tropical Storm Lee.

We flew on a tiny plane (which I totally hate) through the nasty clouds, bumping along... in the exit seats, from which I expected to be sucked out from at any moment.  I wasn't, obviously, but it really did cross my mind.  Anyway, we landed in a steady rain, collected our car and luggage and headed out to the beach.  As we drove, the weather got progressively nastier.

We arrived at our hotel, settled into our room with a lovely view of the tumultuous ocean, crashing into shore under a very dark, windy, wet sky.  Ah, lovely.

Look very closely, there's a pier in this picture, I TOLD you it was storming.

 The next day (when we thought we'd hang out at the beach) we took a drive along the coast. We were actually out on an island of which half was just natural beach.

We drove along and met a couple other crazy fools out driving.  We commented on how the sand looked like snow, then we saw an end loader clearing sand off the road. Reminded me of good old Chicago in the winter.

Between storms, we decided to get out and walk on the beach, and get exfoliated.

The sand was blowing so badly, it hurt. I had to wear my sunglasses to keep it out of my eyes.

It did wonders for my hair.

We had a snack at Hooters. Really??? Let's just say, I've been there. Period.

The wedding was lovely. And in spite of the 'ugly day, ugly bride' saying, she was beautiful and it all came off splendidly.  The storm halted for a few minutes for the sword 'ceremony'.  After the wedding,  the bride and groom came out of the church.  A group of sword bearing soldiers assumed their positions at the foot of the stairs along the sidewalk.  They held the swords aloft, and the couple walked under them. It was pretty impressive, I have to say.  They went back into the church for photos, we made our way to our car, and it let loose with another delightful monsoon.

The reception was at the officer's club on the base, and I looked a little like a woman who's been rained on.  Pretty cool. 

Started in the bar, for cocktails then on into the ballroom.  We had a very nice time.  They are fun people, and the evening ended with dancing and singing and craziness....

The next day, we had hoped to spend basking in the sun working on our sun damage.  Not so.  It was still raining, windy and foreboding looking.  We attempted to get on an earlier flight. Us and everyone else on the island obviously, as there were no seats. So we had a long wet day ahead of us.

We headed back to the base and went to the National Naval Aviation Museum. I'll admit, I wasn't thrilled at the prospect. But went along.  It was really interesting. I enjoyed it!  Saw some delightful war clothing (a couple stained with what I am certain was blood spatter), old planes, blimps, fighter jets, space ships... flying things.  Did find this display of The Blue Angels interesting. This is an actual formation. Those babies are really close...there will be no mistakes.

After that, we checked out the lighthouse.. it was (here's a shock) raining, so I didn't get out, and went down to the harbor and looked at the boats.

We did make it out that night. naturally, as we sat at the airport, the rain stopped and out came the sun. Thank you Pensacola.

Headed back to the apartment in Houston. It's quite nice, after I did a load of laundry and ran the dishwasher, I had the rest of the week to do whatever. I could get used to this life, I think. We did take a walk over to a park area that had some interesting things.  Mark sat in this half shell like thing and I sat in another and we could talk in a normal voice and totally hear each other from that distance.

It was brilliant.  I need this at home, then I could hear my family. Then again, do I really want to?

Flew back to Chicago on my birthday.  I had another one... I hate getting old. Did get some nice presents though.

Saturday, we went to another wedding.  Yep, we are on the wedding circuit.  Third one in 6 weeks.  It was very lovely too.  Another beautiful bride.

Sunday and Monday we spent on the boat, after we de-spidered it. Man those little bastards take over when we are gone.  Ugh.

So that about sums it up... I'm just such a jet setter... you'll probably see me on the new 'Pan Am' TV show.

Seriously, we had one of those cool Pan Am bags. I think they gave them to you when you flew with them.  That was back when you were treated well when you traveled, AND you dressed up.  Now, your lucky to get a swig of pop, and forget the meal... you want nuts, and a blanket?  Get real.