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…..

]]> http://karfre.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/of-mice-and-women/feed/ 0 karfre The Zookeeper's Wife Flower Flower Flower Flower There's a mouse in the house! Captive #1 Captive #2 Captive #3 http://karfre.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/red-roses/ http://karfre.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/red-roses/#comments Wed, 25 Jan 2012 23:11:24 +0000 karfre http://karfre.wordpress.com/?p=2835 ]]> Happy Wednesday!

I’ve been busily working on Valentine’s Day projects today.  Oodles of notes, lists, and ideas are scattered across my desk and I just keep adding to it!  I love when the ideas flow!!

Did you know our number one biggest seller for Valentine’s Day is red roses?

There is no better symbol of love and romance than the red rose.  Whether it’s a single one in a pretty vase or a dozen, the red rose is always able to make a recipient swoon.  Red roses have been incorporated in poetry, paintings and even William Shakespeare used a red rose in Romeo and Juliet.

These lovelies are Freedom roses and the variety we will be featuring for Valentine’s Day because only the best will do!   We love Freedom roses because they hold their shape without ever fully opening.  Don’t you love their velvety, rich red color?  Did you know the outer petals on a rose are called guard petals because they guard the rose from being bruised.  Our advice is that once you get your roses where they’ll be staying peel away any of the damage guard petals.  Freedom roses are not heavily scented because roses that have a heavy fragrance don’t last very long–we’d rather have a rose you enjoy for awhile, rather than a rose, that while beautifully fragrant, is gone in just a day or two.

Cleaned out and repacked my book bag this morning and thought I’d share a review of some of what I’ve been reading.

I’ve had this book on my radar for almost a year now and when I was shopping before Christmas I bought it for myself as a Christmas gift   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.

Rather than stars I give this–

At our Christmas Eve grab bag exchange I had this book in my hands for a short time and was so disappointed when someone else took it from me    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.

It’s because of this book that I wasn’t sure I could write this post.  I’m still processing how I feel about this book and the characters.  This is another quirky read that I found myself reading sections of and then setting the book down to ponder the story.  I follow grammar guru, Mignon Fogarty, on Twitter and was surprised to see her mention Night Circus in one of her posts.  http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/1st-person-2nd-person-3rd-person.aspx    I love creative writers, but I am impressed by writers that have this kind of writing talent.    I’ve never been the least bit interested in tarot cards, but after reading this book I am curious.

If you peek over to the right side of the blog, you see that this is the book at the top of my bag.  It’s well-written and already pulled me in.     Doesn’t look like laundry or cleaning will happen until I finish.

]]> http://karfre.wordpress.com/2012/01/24/bag-review/feed/ 0 karfre Flower http://karfre.wordpress.com/2012/01/23/sycamore-fun/ http://karfre.wordpress.com/2012/01/23/sycamore-fun/#comments Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:29:55 +0000 karfre http://karfre.wordpress.com/?p=2823 ]]> Happy Monday!

This past Saturday night the Sycamore History Museum hosted, The Pride of Sycamore High, Sycamore Authors, at Sycamore High School.   Featured authors were Dirk Johnson and Mark Vancil with a video presentation by Michael McMillan, biographies of other Sycamore authors read by current students, and also a reading by Alli Howland, Sycamore High School senior and talented writer.

Dirk has written for New York Times, authored two books,  and is currently the Chicago bureau chief and senior writer for Newsweek magazine.  For all of the stories he’s written and all of the places he’s traveled, when he speaks about Sycamore you can hear his passion and love for the community he grew up in and resides in today.  Among his recollections Saturday evening were some of the stories and people he covered, but also how Sycamore had shaped him to do his job and do it well.  He remembered Mrs. Charlotte Hess, his high school journalism teacher and her power to catch the attention of high school students, but also her leniency in allowing those students to have a voice through the school newspaper.  He also remembered principal Pete Johnson’s patience with the journalism students as they pushed the limits of using their voice.

Mark Vancil recalled hoping for a career in the NBA, and realizing that if that wasn’t possible perhaps writing about it would give him access.  Mark became the Chicago Bulls beat reporter for the Chicago Sun Times and is now the president of Rare Air Media which has published dozens of award-winning books and he is also the editor of the Michael Jordan book, Driven From Within.  Mark recalled growing up in Sycamore, what it was like to work with Michael Jordan, and shared stories from his work.

Mark catching up with Pete Johnson .

Michael McMillan wasn’t able to be at Saturday’s event, but the folks from Sycamore History Museum were able to share this remarkable video-

Pink Bat

Each and every time I have watched this video I am mesmerized by Michael’s talent and skill and the ends always blows me away.  How does he do it?

While we had dragged our feet about leaving our cozy, warm house to attend, we were thrilled that we did.   Dirk and Mark were fascinating to listen to and for all that they have accomplished, how proud they are of their hometown.  Michael’s video was awesome, and hearing about all of the other authors filled us with a warm Sycamore glow.

This Saturday evening from 6:00pm-9:00pm is another chance to enjoy some incredible fun in Sycamore.  It’s the Midwest Natural History Museum’s Groundhog Gala.  This year’s gala features delicious authentic Mexican fare from Taxco restaurant, wine from across the globe, unique coffees, a silent auction, African drumming, and the chance to enjoy the museum’s superlative exhibits at your leisure.  Tickets are $30.00 each or buy 2 and it’s $50.00.  This is the museum’s biggest fundraiser and always a very fun evening.  Why not order your tickets today by calling 815-895-9777.  If you’re looking for me, I’ll be hanging out with Hercules, the museum’s 25 pound Sulcata Tortoise.  He’s shy, but he’s adorable and I’d be happy to introduce you!

We escaped from the winter cold for some hot Cancun sun last week.
22 of us enjoyed the beach, the sun, and playing in white sand!
It’s hard to believe that 3 hours away on a plane is sun, sand, and 80 degree temperatures.
Sure was fun to soak some of it up, but always glad to be home again

Wow! Who knew January could be this awesome?  It even smells like a spring day outside!!  I was able to sneak away briefly–I call it a fact finding mission.  How could I have written this blog post if I didn’t at least get out and experience this day?

How wonderful to see people sitting outside at Shawn’s enjoying coffee and this day.  I saw oodles of people walking dogs, jogging, etc.  I think we’ve all been rooting around in this spring day-

All of our Jellycat critters are so snuggly and adorable, but I’m especially fond of this piggy.  I love his ears, his wistful eyes, and he has the cutest curly tail!!  So while we’re pigging out on spring today, he might be extra-nice to snuggle up with tomorrow.  I’m sure he won’t hog the blankies!

]]> http://karfre.wordpress.com/2012/01/11/pigging-out-on-spring/feed/ 0 karfre Jellycat Piggy http://karfre.wordpress.com/2012/01/10/wait-for-it/ http://karfre.wordpress.com/2012/01/10/wait-for-it/#comments Tue, 10 Jan 2012 22:31:11 +0000 karfre http://karfre.wordpress.com/?p=2741 ]]>  

Happy Tuesday!

The first bulb plants came today!!

It’s almost 50 degrees and you may not care how adorable and springy our bulb plants are.

Have you seen this?

Local Weather Alert

Special Weather Statement for De Kalb, IL

Issued by The National Weather Service
Chicago, IL

. ACCUMULATING SNOWFALL EXPECTED ON THURSDAY…

AFTER ANOTHER UNSEASONABLY MILD DAY ON WEDNESDAY… AN ARCTIC FRONT WILL PUSH THROUGH THE REGION WEDNESDAY NIGHT AND BRING AN ABRUPT END TO THE MILD AND DRY WEATHER.

PRECIPITATION WILL START WEDNESDAY NIGHT ACROSS NORTHWEST AND NORTH CENTRAL ILLINOIS AND SPREAD EAST OVERNIGHT… POSSIBLY STARTING AS A RAIN SNOW MIX BEFORE TRANSITIONING OVER TO ALL SNOW AS TEMPERATURES FALL BELOW FREEZING.

BY THURSDAY MORNING… TEMPERATURES WILL BE FALLING THROUGH THE 20S… ALONG WITH INCREASING NORTHWEST WINDS. THE COMBINATION OF FALLING SNOW AND WINDS GUSTING UP TO 30 MILES PER HOUR WILL LIKELY LEAD TO A HAZARDOUS MORNING COMMUTE. OCCASIONALLY MODERATE TO HEAVY SNOW… IN TANDEM WITH THE GUSTY WINDS… MAY REDUCE VISIBILITIES TO A HALF MILE OR LESS AT TIMES. THE AREA OF SNOW WILL GRADUALLY SHIFT EAST THROUGH THURSDAY EVENING… BUT THE THURSDAY EVENING COMMUTE WILL LIKELY BE SIGNIFICANTLY IMPACTED AS WELL. CURRENT FORECAST SNOWFALL AMOUNTS ARE FOR A WIDESPREAD GREATER THAN 2 INCH SNOWFALL… WITH THE HIGHEST AMOUNTS EXPECTED OVER FAR NORTHEAST ILLINOIS… WHERE UP TO 5 INCHES MAY ACCUMULATE.

OVERNIGHT LOWS PLUMMETING TO BETWEEN 10 AND 15 DEGREES ON THURSDAY NIGHT AND WESTERLY WINDS CONTINUING TO GUST TO 25 TO 30 MPH WILL RESULT IN MINIMUM WIND CHILL VALUES OF ROUGHLY 0 TO 5 BELOW ZERO.

FURTHER UPDATES AND REFINEMENTS TO THE FORECAST ARE LIKELY… SO PERSONS PLANNING TRAVEL ACROSS THE REGION THURSDAY SHOULD CLOSELY MONITOR LATER FORECASTS AND STATEMENTS.

Like I said wait for it, the bulb plants are going to look really good Friday!!

Michelle

We’re going on a little adventure this weekend and my favorite part of packing is what books I’m taking with me.

These are the books that have made the book bag for this adventure–

This is my book club’s book for February.   All of the reviews I’ve read have made me very excited to get started!

On a revolving schedule we celebrate Christmas Eve with our dear friends, Tom and Janis Kirts. This year’s celebration was at their home.  They have a lovely home and we always have a great time, but my favorite part is that Janis and Tom are both avid readers and have stacks of books to look through.  This book was in a stack near where I was sitting and I fell in love with it.  What I didn’t realize is that Janis and Tom hadn’t read it yet and were saving it for their vacation.  This borrowed book came with a deadline… February 10th or else!

This was also a Christmas Eve book.  The adults do a fun grab bag exchange and one of the grab bag gifts this year was this book along with another book and a book mark.  At one point I had this gift–until Janis rudely “grabbed” it back.  I was so enthralled that I went out and bought my own copy after Christmas.

My Kar-Fre friend, Eva, not only highly recommended this book, but dropped off her copy for me to read!  If you click on the picture I’ve linked it to a review from the New York Times that features a picture of the author writing the book.  Another one I cannot wait to get started on!!

Another book that comes highly recommended from quite a few of my Kar-Fre friends.  It’s scary how many of you know about, and continue to feed, my crushes on Donny Osmond and David Cassidy.   This book is about a 13 year old girl’s crush on David Cassidy and her life and crush as an adult.

This book seems to be popping up everywhere I turn.  It sounds really interesting, but there always seems to be a but.  I’ve even nosed around online about it and I can’t get a handle on the but.  It makes me leery, but I think I have to try it.  If this was a few years ago this book wouldn’t have made the cut because I wouldn’t have wanted to lug a book I wasn’t 100% certain of, but since I have a Nook and an IPad it’s in and my fingers are crossed.

I stumbled upon the first book in this series, The Sweetness at The Bottom of the Pie, and even though I am not a fan of mysteries, I became a fan of Flavia de Luce.  Flavia is almost 11and lives with her eccentric family in an old country home in England.  There’s enough charm and quirkiness in this series for me to overcome by issues with mysteries.

Looking at the number of books I’ve packed, it looks like we’re going to need to extend our adventure.  :)

It’s been busy at Kar-Fre this week as we take down and pack away Christmas, move out some displays, move in new displays, and begin to create our spring/Valentine displays.  Luckily there have been oodles of boxes of new goodies delivered to us.

Scads of boxes just waiting to unpacked and priced.

Just some of the pretties that have arrived.

You would think with all of that going on, we wouldn’t need to do anything else.  Unfortunately, there’s been a crimped computer cable causing our delivery room computer (and more importantly, its operators) all kinds of headaches.   The biggest dilemma is that this computer is the furthest from our server which means the cable does not take a direct path, but one of many twists and turns.  For this you have to have the right people for the job–the young, the nimble, those in need of money…

The computer cable runs from the computer up into the attic of the delivery room.  Here Maggie is crawling into the attic while Kris advises her of the best approach.  Once, Maggie got into the attic she pulled the cable up, over, and back down to Kris on the other side of the room.   Thank goodness money has power because the cable then went down into Kar-Fre’s crawl space.

This is Maggie going down into Kar-Fre’s crawl space.  When we first came to Sycamore the crawl space was a basement.  Unfortunately, Kar-Fre sits very close to the flood plain and the basement was always flooded and not space we were ever able to use. Rather than fighting the flooding, Dad filled the basement with pea gravel until we had a somewhat dry crawl space.  Thankfully, Maggie was going shopping this afternoon–the power of money helped her overcome her fear of dark, small places.  The cable runs the length of the flower shop into the office. The crawl space is damp, dark, dusty, and has a healthy collection of cobwebs.  Maggie crawled the length of it and pulled the cable out of the office.  She was thrilled until she learned we were only half done.  We needed to install the new cable.

Maggie installing the new cable.  Did you notice she is the perfect size for this job?

And the cable is successfully run through the attic and back to the delivery computer where it works perfectly and the operators are smiling happily!

There’s just one problem…

Can I get a hand?

]]> http://karfre.wordpress.com/2012/01/07/wired-for-the-weekend/feed/ 0 karfre Boxes, boxes, boxes, and more boxes Pretty new goodies Maggie going in the attic Maggie in the crawlsapce Maggie and the wire Done in the attic Uh-oh http://karfre.wordpress.com/2012/01/04/happy-2012/ http://karfre.wordpress.com/2012/01/04/happy-2012/#comments Wed, 04 Jan 2012 19:40:25 +0000 karfre http://karfre.wordpress.com/?p=2700 ]]> Happy Wednesday!

I’m hoping your New Year’s celebration was fun and that you’re energized to begin the New Year!

A couple years ago I learned about a 5k fun run in Chicago that’s held every year on New Year’s Day.  It’s on the jogging path between the Lincoln Park Zoo and Lake Michigan and while I love the entire run, my favorite part is the half-way point when you turn back to the south and are greeted by the magnificent Chicago skyline.  I takes my breath away every time I’ve been in the race.

The first time I did this 5k my knee replacement was 6 months old, the course was an icy, snowy mix, and the other participants were unique to any other race I had been in.   This year my knee and I will celebrate our 3rd anniversary and I am stronger than I have ever been.  While it was a bit blustery, the day was sunny,  and the course free of snow and ice.  The other participants still make me giggle–I’ve decided since it’s a New Year’s day 5k, it’s lots of folks who wake up and decide one of their resolutions for the New Year is to exercise more, jog, run.  I saw women carrying their purses, guys with backpacks jammed full of water bottles, couples holding hands, etc.  Scott’s favorite was this guy–

And I thought I was cold!!  Brrr!!

My favorite part was after the race Scott was patient and let us wander through Lincoln Park Zoo.  I have always loved Lincoln Park Zoo best of all.  I love the neighborhood that it’s in, I love how small and charming it is, and I love that it’s free.  I love the penguin house, the Farm At The Zoo, and the Children’s Zoo, but most of all I have always adored the Great Ape House.  It’s a true treat to visit the zoo on a day when it’s not crowded and you can take your time.  Years ago Scott took me to Lincoln Park Zoo as part of my Valentine’s gift.  We both fondly remember that we were almost the only people at the zoo that day and the animals were really interactive.  A giraffe befriended us that day and insisted on showing us what was in his mouth and when we visited the Great Ape House we met a psychology grad student from Loyola University who’d been studying one family of gorillas for a project.

The student told us about each of the gorilla’s personalities and how they interacted with each other.  The part I will always remember was when she warned us to watch a small male gorilla on the far side of the exhibit as she slyly pulled a woman’s clothing catalog from her bag.  He had seemed to have not been aware that she was even there, but as she pulled that catalog out he came stomping over and sat down next to her on the other side of the glass.  We were amazed and she simply smiled and explained that the gorilla loved looking through woman’s clothing catalogs.   She opened the catalog and he looked intently and then finally pointed and she turned the page.  She said that she’d been there one day working on her project, but had gotten bored.  She had some mail in her bag and pulled a catalog out to thumb through it.  The gorilla was curious and came and sat by her and from that point on it became a date.  She said he actually got agitated the days that she came and left without any catalog time.

This gorilla was my favorite during our visit Sunday.  He had is back to me and seemed oblivious to the fact that I was even there, but finally turned around to check out what I was doing.

I must not have been too exciting because he rolled over, gave a shake to the rope leading to the hammock another gorilla was sleeping in, and then he took a nap.

I’ve decided it was a sign of what one of my resolutions for 2012 was to be.. more naps!

Be warm!