Saturday I will be participating at the Chicago Cares volunteer-a-thon. It'll be a day spent with my mother, sister Laura + niece Megan in the city, in a neighborhood that is not as comfortable as my own, painting or cleaning a school/playground/recreation center. I will be tweeting during the event so do follow me @whattheharry. I'll even have pictures too. Pictures of 4 suburbanites in the 'hood. That should be a hoot.
Ever wonder what its like to be the President of the United States of America? Ever wonder what its like to be president and travel to counties only heard of in the news? Me too.
Thank you sister Sharon for sending this to me. It was the very first email I opened Wednesday and made me feel appreciative of our nation. It kept away the work naggies (you know the little annoying things at work ... yes, i make up words) for most of the day.
Every year my step-father takes off for the great white north (Canada) for probably a total of 3 weeks, all broken out over 2 to 3 trips. He'll be gone so far north to areas that dont have cell phone service or even paved roads. He'll take a float plane into the lodge. He lives for this stuff.
When he is gone, my mother is basically a widow. The lures, fishing rods, reels, etc ... all that fishing stuff ... has taken her husband away. And she is absolutely fine with the temporary absence of my step-father. She does miss him and looks forward to his return, but at the same time, she enjoys her alone time. I used to fret of her being by herself so I would be over there all the time. I soon sensed she didnt mind being alone, in fact she looked forward to it.
I went over to their house on Sunday to take Mom to the Wilton Tent Sale for some baking goodies. I went into the basement to get something and I noticed the 'fishing' room was looking a bit vacant. Come to think of it the whole house felt a little vacant.
My friend Rich, whom I adore with all my heart, asked me to attend a wine festival with him on Saturday at the Chicago Botanical gardens. When we talked about it, we were both all about the 'taking pictures of the flowers and blooms' part. We were slightly interested in the wine part.
When Saturday arrived, we were more interested in the wine part, because it was cold and rainy. Who wants to take pictures of flowers in the rain? Especially when it was cold out? Most of the blooms were probably closed off and sucked inside the plant. I dont blame them!
The highlight of the day? The bird poop on my head. While devouring a mini cheeseburger from Morton's steakhouse, a bird flew over and opened up on my head. All I could say to Rich was 'Look!' pointing to my head, and 'Get it out!'.
(if you look closely, you'll see a white space/mark on my head, yeah, that's the bird poop)
And we were introduced to Kim Massie. Man, does this woman have a voice. Oo. La. La. 
Friday night I headed to the Schaumburg Flyers game with my friend Stefan. Minor leagues games are fun. Just the entertainment in between innings alone is worth the $10 ticket.
I really enjoy these games for the fact that these guys show up to play the game, not to count their millions. I can probably safely bet that A-Rod has gone up to bat and while waiting for the pitch has calculated how much he will make on that one pitch. The guys in the minors? They count their blessings they get to play the game. I am more than happy to support these guys who probably make less than minimum wage per pitch.
*dairy queen cone and flyers mascot (which is a bear...still trying to figure that one out)
*and the boy wins!
A couple of weeks ago I went over to my brother's to help out. I helped with teaching kisses and raspberries. Charlie was my first student.
Kisses.
Raspberries.
Watch this and you'll have no recollection of the previous eight hours.
