Walk to Empower, Happy Mother's Day!

We are passing on the toilet training to her parents who returned this afternoon from their Cruise to Bermuda. Still no poop in the potty but she's happy to tell everybody she needs to go whether she needs to or not and then call out happily, "False Alarm!" This could get old pretty quickly if it wasn't so darn funny.

Art got up at 5:30 this morning when the temperatures were 39 degrees to pick up a neighbor and head down into Chicago for the Breast Cancer Walk to Empower Race. The plan was for all of us to go but I couldn't see waking KC and going out into the cold to walk when she still has a cough.


The 44 story CNA building had a huge ribbon. That's the Sears Tower on the left. Oops! I mean Willis Tower.


Art's mom had breast cancer and had a double mastectomy. She eventually passed away of throat cancer way too soon. She was the sort of mother-in-law paragon you wish everybody had.


Art and our neighbor, Alvin ran for the United Airlines team.


Art says although the temperatures were cool, it was a sunny day and no windchill. There were a reported 50,000 participants in the walk/race.

It was a lovely start to Mother's Day and it ended especially happily for KC who got to have her mommy and daddy back home.

I hope you all had a terrific Mother's Day!

50 Degrees Below Zero! Are you Kidding Me?

Art called up to me this morning to say I needed to see the outdoor thermometer from the window. It read 17 degrees below zero. It's 6:00 PM now as I write this and I just heard Brian Williams say we registered 50 degrees below zero when you factored in the windchill.

I went to our monthly luncheon of retired lady friends in our little village and they all laughed when they saw me. They jokingly razzed me about the timing of our visit. It was lovely seeing everybody. Our schedule is filling up quickly and suddenly we don't have enough time to see everybody and do all the things we were thinking of doing. Well, it did take us a few days to get over the jet lag and another few days to see KC through her nasty cold. Now we've only got three weeks left! Good gosh!

Tomorrow Art gets to see his E.P.A. buddies and Sunday we'll be attending a party being thrown by my teacher friends. On Tuesday, everything will stop so we can celebrate the inauguration! Woohoo! I hope President Obama can stay warm somehow.

Frozen Chicago Skies

I'm not posting on Sky Watch Friday today because we're leaving Chicago after lunch to return to the suburbs where I have dial-up again and can't blog easily. However, here is the Chicago skyline outside my daughter's window. That's the Sears Tower shivering under the frigid skies. I hear it's below 0 until Friday! I think I'll call my mom and ask if it's cool in Hawaii, too.

9 Days Before D(eparture) Day: Sky Watch

Driving back into Chicago on the Kennedy Expressway we could see the Sears Tower in the distance. It used to be the tallest building in the world until it was eclipsed by the building in Malaysia.

For more great Sky Watch Friday photos, join us at Welcome to Wiggers World and meet our very wonderful and most cordial host, Tom Wigley.

#3 Sky Watch Friday

Here's the blurb I found about this sculpture in Chicago
"Cloud Gate is British artist Anish Kapoor's first public outdoor work installed in the United States. The 110-ton elliptical sculpture is forged of a seamless series of highly polished stainless steel plates, which reflect the city's famous skyline and the clouds above. A 12-foot-high arch provides a "gate" to the concave chamber beneath the sculpture, inviting visitors to touch its mirror-like surface and see their image reflected back from a variety of perspectives."

I learned that it had a projected cost of 9 million dollars but that the final cost ended up being 23 million. It sort of reminded me of the Sydney Opera House... cost wise.
We were babysitting our granddaughter and decided to walk her over to Millennium Park to see the sculpture which Chicagoans actually call "The Bean." I think Mr. Kapoor has resigned himself to that title because that's what everybody I know calls it. We were amazed to see a wedding party pull up and have their photos taken in front of it, even as people swarmed all around them. You can see me in the 2nd photo almost dead center next to the carriage with the red top. I'm holding the camera. :-D

If you'd like to see some great Sky Watch Friday photos and join us just come on over to Welcome to Wiggers World and meet our very wonderful and most cordial host, Tom Wigley.