Spike The Corpse Flower

My husband and I used to be members of the Chicago Botanic Garden. We would normally visit two-three times during the summer, and we even had wedding pictures taken there. Unfortunately, we can't get out there very frequently anymore, though we still try to see the inside model train exhibit during the holidays. However, there's one special event we haven't seen yet: a blooming corpse flower. Spike, the corpse flower at the Chicago Botanic Garden, is due to bloom any day. (There's another corpse flower in Denver named Stinky ready to bloom too. According to this article, the flowers are even tweeting to each other. Amazing who's on Twitter these days.)


No one is quite sure when Spike will bloom, though it could be tonight. The garden plans to be open until 2:00 a.m. the day of the bloom.  I don't have the stamina these days to get up in the middle of the night (though I'd still be awake anyway) and drive nearly an hour to smell something terrible, so I'll just have to settle for following Spike at this link.

How familiar are you with the corpse flower? Have you seen or smelled on in person?

Seven Years and Counting

The next Blog Ring of Power progressive interview starts later this week. After this week, we do have interviews lined up into October. However, this is a good day to take a break from writing and celebrate a special day: my anniversary. My husband and I have been married for seven years now. Here are a couple of pictures from the day:

We took pictures at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Even though it was September, it was hot, and our schedule meant we had to go at noon, which makes for poor lighting. It was still worth it, though.

Cutting our delicious cake.

















Only forty-three years to go, Hon. I love you.

Pictures from a Garden

The rain held off yesterday, so Eugene and I decided to spend our "date day" at the Chicago Botanic Garden. The last time we went there was in June, and that was with Alex, so naturally we spent more time in the Railroad Garden exhibit than anywhere else. It was nice to be able to tour the rest of the garden. Here are a few pictures we took (we both used my camera):

A-Z: Trains

My son (who turns four next month) is obsessed with trains. He wears striped overalls and a striped cap every single day. His favorite things to bring for show-and-tell are model train catalogs, and he gets upset if one of the other kids tears a page. At home, he likes to cut the engines and cars out of the catalogs and tape them all over the walls and furniture. (I finally took down the ones in the living room, but there are still some in his bedroom.) He knows the difference between steamies and diesels, and he also recognizes the various types of freight cars. As you might expect, he has a ton of Thomas the Train toys, and he's also showing interest in Chuggington. However, he prefers "trains with no faces," such as the G-gauge freight train set he got for Christmas. Luckily, we live near the Illinois Railway Museum and the Chicago Botanic Garden, so we take him to those places, hobby train shops, and train shows. Here are a few of the exhibits we saw last year:

Every year, the Chicago Botanic Garden sets up an outdoor model railroad exhibit featuring American landmarks. Here's one of the trains.












My son riding in the Zephyr at the Illinois Railway Museum last year.












Here he is posing with his favorite train at the Railway Museum, a Baldwin Steam Locomotive. It doesn't run, but Alex talks about fixing it when he's old enough. I wonder if he'll still be as much of a trainiac at twelve as he is now.















We're actually taking Alex to a live Thomas the Train show tonight, so I wonder how he'll like it. While he does watch the show occasionally, he's more into other shows like Curious George--especially episodes involving trains.

Although train fascination seems to be a boy thing, I have written about trains in my stories. The final volume of my Season Lords trilogy was supposed to include a train trip, although I don't think I got to that part. There's also a train ride in Twinned Universes.

Are there any other current or recovering trainiacs out there?

Date Day--Chicago Botanic Garden

I mentioned before that Eugene and I took yesterday off. We haven't found a local babysitter, so it's hard for us to do date nights. Hence date days, when we get some couple time while Alex is in daycare. We plan to do this about once a month.

Yesterday, Eugene and I went to the Chicago Botanic Garden. We're members there and go several times a year. This was our first trip of the season. It was a bit brisk and cloudy, but there were plenty of spring flowers. The cloudy weather also made for good photography conditions. I'm not much of a photographer, unlike Eugene, who typically hauls around enough gear to make Alex's diaper bag seem lightweight. I normally just do point-and-shoot with my camera, though I have used macro. Yesterday, I wound up experimenting with the other settings, such as aperture and color. Here are a few of the best shots:

Despite what Eugene might like, I don't intend to get into photography as much as he is--our budget couldn't handle all of the equipment and workshops! Besides, I have enough to keep me busy as it is.

Whirlwind Weekend

It's feast or famine around here when it comes to my blog. After going through a dry spell when I didn't have anything interesting going on, I now have more blog fodder than I can manage. In fact, I missed my 20th high school reunion and a Halloween party for Alex this weekend. Why does everything have to happen at once?

It all started Friday, on Halloween. This year, Alex had two costumes: a dinosaur and a little devil. He wore the dinosaur outfit to daycare, where they had a little parade and a party for the kids. I don't have the pictures from that yet, but here's Alex earlier this month:




























And here's his devil costume:




Notice he doesn't like wearing the caps that come with his costumes.



I left work early on Friday to get ready for a trip up to Madison. After I had most of the packing done (I admit I overpacked, but with a toddler, you need to be prepared for anything), I picked up Alex and took him trick-or-treating to a few houses. Most of the kids came later--and there were lots. I bought five bags of candy; we would have run out if we had stayed for the entire trick-or-treat time. Although Alex wanted to go outside when he saw all of the kids, he was excited enough to hold the candy and wait at the door. At one point, a little girl in an angel outfit came. Eugene said, "Devil, meet angel," and the girl's father replied, "Devil, stay away from my angel." Too bad I didn't get a picture of them together.




We drove up to Madison Friday night and checked into our hotel, a Holiday Inn. This one featured a whirlpool bath in our room (which only got used for Alex's baths, alas) and a water park that we didn't use either. Unfortunately, we didn't have a suite, so when Alex woke up in the night, he could see us, and that made it harder to calm him. We wound up having to bring him into our bed--something we don't plan to do in the future!

On Saturday, we went to the Farmer's Market. I don't have any pictures from there, but Eugene took some. Instead of getting food, we bought a personalized piggy bank for Alex and a toy parrot for a friend's son. I browsed through Wintersilks but didn't find anything, and with Alex needing a nap, we skipped a trip to the Soap Opera. We let Alex sleep in the car while we took turns visiting Borders (one of us stayed in the car with him). We picked up lunch at Whole Foods; Alex woke up and ate a fair portion of a Honeycrisp. Later, we visited our friends for our annual Faux Thanksgiving reunion with our college friends. The food was good, and we enjoyed talking with everyone; unfortunately, I don't have any pictures. All of the kids are growing up, though.

We didn't have a chance to have brunch with our friends this year, since we were supposed to meet my family for lunch at a Polish restaurant. We did stop at the Olbrich Botanical Gardens briefly. Although we lost track of time, it was neat seeing the Thai Pavilion:



















































Finally, we left Madison to celebrate my grandmother's 94th birthday with my mother's side of the family:






















Luckily, at this point, it was a relatively short drive back home. It was great to go, but it's good to be back. Even with an extra hour today, I still have a lot to catch up on.

Wild Weekend

I didn't have a traditonal bachelorette party--not that I wanted one. The most I did was stay overnight at the Fest for Beatles Fans with one of my friends. Even then, I was so tired I didn't even go to the late night events; I just stayed in bed and read. What a fitting end to my singledom, eh?

Anyway, that same friend of mine is getting married in a few weeks, and I was invited to her bachelorette party/birthday party. It actually started yesterday afternoon with a purse-making party, but I had to skip that part. After Eugene came home and was able to watch Alex, I was free to leave for the main event.

The party was at a house in Chicago. I have to admit, I haven't driven in Chicago before, and if the place wasn't so close to I-90, I probably would have chickened out and not gone. But although I did make a wrong turn, I managed to find the place in one piece.

Most of the people at the party were relatives of the bride. We ate some hot dogs and listened to 50s-60s rock until the main event--a Passion Party! Yes, they had a sales rep show us all sorts of stuff. Some of it was "mild," while some of it was "wild." I'm not going to go into detail here, since I don't want to attract the attention of spammers. But I will say the funniest part of the party was when the bride's mother was handed a product, and she didn't realize it was on.

After that part of the party, we stayed up until midnight for a balloon release and ice cream. I wound up spending the night, but I left early (before the scheduled brunch) so I could help Eugene with Alex. Alex has been clingy the last couple of days (I can't even put him down for his nap; he only sleeps as long as he's on me), so I knew Eugene wouldn't be able to shower until I came home. Besides, with the weather being so beautiful, we wanted to go visit the Chicago Botanic Garden. We spent a couple of hours there, letting Alex do "walkies" occasionally (he can walk if he holds onto our hands) and feeling some of the plants. Then we stopped for a late lunch on the way home.

I don't have any pictures; even though I brought my camera, I forgot my memory card. Ah well, at least I managed to stretch my boundaries a bit.

We're Out and About!

It seems like work and chores and all the various little projects I want/need to do never end. Still, when the weather is as nice as it was today, it's time to get out and enjoy it. We went to the Chicago Botanic Garden this morning; we even beat the crowds. Here are a few pictures. I don't know why the top two are sideways; I rotated them when I uploaded them to my computer.