Who'd a Thunk It?


If you follow major league baseball at all, it's probably dawned on you that THE NEW YORK YANKEES STINK. If it hadn't occurred to you yet -- here's proof. As of May 30, 2007, (remember this date for posterity) the perennial cellar dwelling Syracuse Chiefs possess a better record than the Yankees!

A big shout out to former Syracuse Chief, Carlos Delgado of the New York Mets who's broken out of his batting slump and how! He had two homers last night versus the San Francisco Giants and four home runs in the past week. Let's go Mets!

The Wright Stuff

Last weekend my husband and I headed to Oak Park, IL to attend the annual Wright Plus housewalk, held by the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust. My husband purchased tickets for the event last winter when he learned that the Heurtley House would on the tour. The house recently underwent a highly publicized restoration. This was one of the rare opporuntities for the public to see the house's interiors. Not all the homes featured on the housewalk were designed by Wright; there were a few houses in the Queen Anne Style which was the most popular style for residential architecture at the turn of the last century. There were also examples Prarie houses designed by other architects like E. E. Roberts and William G Barfield.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Heurtley House, the "star" of the 2007 Wright Plus housewalk.




To prove that we are real "archtitecture geeks" Friday evening we attended a lecture given by preservation expert Vincent Michael on preserving Prairie architecture. The talk was followed by a reception at a privately owned home designed by one of Wright's comtemporaries, George Washington Maher. Earlier in the day we visited Mahar's masterpiece, the Farson House, also known as Pleasant Home and were given a tour by Laura Thompson, the house foundation's executive director. She was extremely friendly and shared with us much useful information about the house. If you visit the Chicago area, I would highly recommend a visit to Pleasant Home.

In case you're thinking that this trip was all "work and no play" we found, or rather Bill found a neighborhood wine bar, The Oak Park Abbey. We were treated to wonderful wines and micro brews along with warm and attentive service from Ellen and Stephanie. For breakfast the morning of the housewalk, we stopped at Great Harvest Bread Company for a slab o' triple berry bread and my first hot steamy cup of Peet's coffee. Yum! R was right -- that coffee rocks!

Lastly a few more photos:

Here I am standing in front of a Wright-designed light fixture in Unity Temple.



This is Wright's Gale House. It wasn't part of Wright Plus, but it is my favorite Wright Prarie House.

I'm Back, I Think

I have been a bad blogger. Deathlok was recently fretting about not being able to keep up with his readers comments to his blog. I can't even find time to even post to mine. Then I really got depressed hearing that Ronald Reagan was able to keep a daily journal while serving as President. Well, I guess afterall he did have someone to do his laundry for him.

Here's the condensed version of what I've been up to for the past month:

I got an "A" on my Personal Information Privacy course. I still need to decide what to register for next fall.

Bill and I just got back from visiting Chicago (details & photos to follow, I promise!).

Got tons more responsiblity at work as the programmers are starting to flee like rats off a sinking ship.

Saw the Mayor of Syracuse at a function our cultural group co-sponsored. I didn't get to talk to him, but Bill did.

Didn't have anytime to go to the movies but we finally saw "Little Miss Sunshine" from Netflix.

And no, I still haven't been to a SkyChiefs game yet this season, but how about those Mets?

All is Right in the (Baseball) World


Vooty, my Yankee Voodoo Doll says he'd like to take credit for the Yankee's misfortunes, but he's just been hanging around in B's study collecting dust.

I know it's only May and the Yanks have a way of digging themselves out of big holes (this one's shaping up to be a freaking canyon). I'll enjoy the ride for now. Go Bosox!

And did I mention that the Mets are tied for first place in NL East? Well the Mets are tied for first place in NL East. So there I mentioned it.

Wow, they're playing some great stuff on Radio Hidebound right now:

Motels - "Art Fails"
OMD - "Statues"

Check it out, if you haven't already. http://www.radiohidebound.com/

School's Out!

Like the old Alice Cooper song goes, "School's Out for Summer, school's out forever." Well not forever, I have one more class to take in the fall. I am hoping to post more this summer, but it's shaking out to be pretty busy. I hope to see more of R, if her job prospects in Ithaca pan out. (We had a wonderful time with her last weekend, even if the weather was gray and damp). Looking forward to seeing K here in July for a Blotto Reunion. Hubby and I will be on our way to Chicago in 11 days. We're going out for the annual Wright Walk. Photos will be forthcoming.

The weather here is getting nice. Things are finally turning green in my garden so I plan an afternoon of weeding and cleaning up.