Happy Monday!
My apologies to John Steinbeck and lovers of his work, but this title was most apropos for how this Monday has become. When I walked our dogs this morning I mentally worked on my blog post, beginning of the month newsletter, and music I’d like to add to a slideshow I’m working on at home. It’s no wonder that I found us miles away from home when I finally started paying attention and the dogs have slept really well today.
As I put this post together in my head today I was going to tell you about attending the Illinois Association of Park District conference in Chicago this past weekend. As a Sycamore Park District commissioner I am invited each year and love to go. There’s always really interesting workshops, tons of great information, and oodles of fresh ideas. I also love that it gives me an excuse to take the train. I love the train! I still feel like a 5 year old when the conductor hollers, “Tickets”, I love the scenery outside the windows, I love to watch all of the people. The lady next to my on the way to Chicago Friday applied her makeup and gave herself a manicure. The young man who sat next to me on the way home Friday read a business magazine–he looked like he was 12 and the magazine something my dad would read. The trips there and back are also a great time to lose myself in a book. More on the book later.
Our new executive director, Dan Gibble, had suggested conference workshops that might benefit and interest us as commissioners and all that I attended were very worthwhile. My favorite was one on working together as a board and was conducted by Nancy Sylvester. Nancy is professional speaker and a professional parliamentarian and it was fascinating to learn how useful Roberts Rules of Order and Parliamentary Procedure can be. To be truthful I went into the workshop somewhat dragging my feet, but left wanting to learn more! if you’d like to learn more, please visit Nancy’s website: http://nancysylvester.com/
I did manage to squeeze in some time for a few of my favorite Chicago things– a wander down the Riverwalk, lunch at Fox and Obel, window shopping on State Street, and a bag of yummy Chicago mix from Garrett’s.
While I did love being in the big city, it always feels so good to come home! Friday night I was home in time to pick up Scott and see part of the Dekalb-Sycamore basketball game. What a tremendous opportunity for kids from both communities and the excitement in the air at N.I.U’s Convocation Center was electric! High school basketball played on a college basketball court under a Jumbotron, Miss Illinois and Miss Iowa, and kids covered in yellow or orange paint, glitter, or gear cheering back and forth–it was magic! Saturday night we attended the Groundhog Gala at the Midwest Museum of Natural History Museum. Lots of yummy food from around the world, Jesus Romero’s world-famous margaritas from Taxco restaurant, a lovely young woman playing African drums, and a couple exhibiting an amazing variety of spiders. They even allowed me to pet one of their spiders and while I hoped Scott would capture the moment with a picture, I instead discovered he has arachnophobia and no desire to be close enough to take pictures or pet spiders.
Somehow in between all of the events and with the help of a train I was able to finish the Zookeeper’s Wife. I actually had about 50 pages left that I sat and finished yesterday morning because I was so enthralled by this book. It’s a fictional story based on the journals and first person accounts of the wife of the zookeeper of the Warsaw Zoo in Poland during World War II. As the Warsaw Zoo is destroyed in the war, Antonina and her family hide Jewish friends in their home and the zoo, along with an assortment of odd household pets. The book was hard for me to put down and I also found myself stopping to wonder if I have the strength and wherewithal that Antonina possessed. The Zookeeper’s Wife is a book I won’t soon forget and I give it:
And now to Mr. Steinbeck’s part in this post. Kar-Fre sits on almost 3 acres of ground and backs up to the wide open space of the Sycamore Park Annex. All of that space means woodland creatures (mice) that want to be somewhere warm and dry for the winter season. Mice have always been a winter issue for us, but easily controlled with a few well placed traps. This year we’re having a relatively mild winter and with an above average mouse population! Last week Dad set out some mouse traps here and there throughout our workroom and office. I was here late finishing up some paperwork and out of the corner of my eye noticed that along our office door had become a mouse freeway! I calmly lifted my feet up as I finished what I was working on, but made sure we moved some traps around for better control.
So much for the control.
Unfortunately, Dad, Mom, and I were gone all weekend which left Kris to battle the mice. All of the office traps were successful Thursday night and Friday there were sightings of more running about. Kris called in her hunter brother-in-law, Scott, to empty the traps and reset them adding a few more in for even more crowd control. Saturday found more success and not even an hour after Scott had reset the traps one went off. Scott was here first thing this morning emptying and reloading our traps. This afternoon the sun was shining, the thermometer said 45 degrees, and the mice were running like crazy through the shop. They weren’t interested in our traps, weren’t scared of us, and scurried about as if what they were doing was just as important as what we were doing. Since I don’t like the traps, I decided to use used my garbage can for capture purposes. I laid the can down on it’s side and waited till I heard the scurrying of little feet on plastic–
Captive #1! (I’m glad I hate healthy today and my garbage looks so good!)
Captive #2. Curiosity doesn’t kill the mouse, but it does get it evicted from the flower shop!
Captive #3. That would be Michelle 3, Kar-Fre Mice 0
As far as this post and my work day, the Robert Burns poem To A Mouse which served as the inspiration for Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men has the perfect line: ”The best laid plans of mice and men often fo awry.”
And the battle wages on…..
You should know I love quirkier books and books that have English characters always win with me. This was perfect! A story about a Tower of London Beefeater named Balthazar and how his life changes when he is put in charge of the royal menagerie. While I adored all the Tower of London characters, Balthazar’s wife, Hebe, and her job in the office of Lost and Found for the London Underground steals the show. The Tower, The Zoo, and The Tortoise was a charming read with characters I won’t soon forget.
I went and bought my own copy! Without giving anything away, the author’s concept for this book intrigues me and while it is a Young Adult book, I loved it and couldn’t put it down. It’s the type of book that when you finish you daydream about it and wonder, what if? I read it in one day (couldn’t put it down) and Scott and Maggie are fighting over it now and they are both enjoying it.
