THE SILENCE OF THE BLOG...

My blogging has been pretty much non-existant over the past few days... This week has been nuts, plus teaching tomorrow @ service and our "Orchard 101" class after that. Good news is we have around 40 registered! Exciting!!

Anywho... I'll be doing some writing again soon - thanks for checking in! (Thank God for that extra hour of sleep tonight!!)

Later!

TIME CHANGE



Don't forget to change your clocks back one hour this weekend! It's "official" at 2am Sunday morning!

A BUNCH OF BULL...


Can you imagine what was going through this photographer's head at this moment??

LATE NIGHT @ THE OFFICE...

Approaching hour number 16 in my work day... I'm in my office w/ some Jazz pipin' through my computer thanks to Internet radio and a good station down in Tempe, Arizona. I'm eating leftovers (which I normally don't do, but because of where I ate last night, I certainly don't mind...) and working on a "talk" for a men's breakfast I'm giving on Saturday.

Yesterday was Amanda's birthday - AND my day off! Double whammy! We had a great dinner downtown at . Click the logo to check it out.

GREAT, GREAT dinner... Very trendy Asian/American/French/Indian cuisine - wonderful!! Not overly expensive for the quality and portions of food. The creativity level of the food, atmosphere, etc... was fantastic. I give it.................4 stars. If you live in the Chicago area or are visiting anytime soon, I would recommend it. Here's what we had:

"from our hearth oven" fresh baked olive tart topped with tossed greens,
goat cheese, caramelized onions and basil

french onion soup with normandy's twist on tradition
onion broth, smoked chicken, apple and camembert

hot and sour baked rock shrimp
crab and sriracha stuffing, hot and sour vinaigrette

pan-roasted osaka black cod, soy and sweet mirin glaze
roasted spring onions, fork-smashed snap peas

chinese bbq pork and lobster "chow mein"
coriander noodles, sweet soyu and cardamom

Hungry yet? Ok - I've got to get back to work. I just needed a quick break. (Just returned from my 2nd funeral today...)

UPDATE ON DIANE



Several weeks ago, I told you about a very close friend's (Abe Savona) sister, Diane, who has been in and out of the hospital for the past couple of months with a severe kidney related illness. The doctors have recently notified Diane that she is in need of a new kidney immediately. Her situation is very serious and we are all praying for a kidney to be found very soon.

So I am writing for 2 reasons. One, please pray for a kidney to be found very soon for Diane. Secondly, if you feel compelled or even the slightest bit interested in being a part of the solution for Diane, I would like to ask you to contact her brother, Abe Savona, as soon as possible. The donor needs to be O negative blood type. Age and weight is unimportant. You can contact Abe at: abesavona@yahoo.com.

I know it might seem "odd" to put an appeal like this on my site, but Abe is one of my closest friends in the world and I want to do anything I can to help him and his family - and especially his sister, Diane.

Thank you for your prayers for Diane. I will keep you updated on her progress.

ADVENTURES IN PARENTING



Well I thought it would be a fun "daddy/daughter" night out last night... I've been wanting to take Elise (our 3 1/2) year old to see the 3D IMAX movie called "BUGS" for a few weeks now. In fact, we went a couple of weeks ago, got in line to purchase our tickets and when we got up to the man behind the glass, he informed us that the movie projector broke so it wouldn't be showing for another week. So we finally went last night.

It's a 60 minute documentary on, yes, you guessed it - bugs. Real bugs - not these fake cartoon bugs that talk and dance. I'm talking about bugs that look like anything from twigs and leaves to monsters and demons. In fact, they actually had a bug sex scene in this movie. Music and all. Imagine that. And in 3D too! Wow. (Try explaining that to a 3 year old...)

As the movie began, Elise and I settled into our seats with our popcorn and GIANT Cherry Coke. We placed our special "3D" glasses on our faces and patiently waited. Suddenly out of nowhere bug noises began coming from all over the room. Elise began looking around, almost hysterically, for the bugs she was hearing. I could tell she was getting upset about these noises, so I leaned over and said, "It's ok honey - their not real." And as best as a 3 1/2 year old could, she said something like this: "Yeah, whatever dad, you're full of crap - they're real and they are coming to get us, so let's get out of here!" And before she could complete that sentence, bugs began flying into our faces - spiders, ants, satanbugs, you name it. It was "ugly bug" convention at the IMAX. Elise jumped out of her seat, pulled her glasses off of her head and said, "LET'S GO HOME NOW!"

(Side note: This reminds me of when I was a kid and my family was settled comfortably in front of the TV for the very first episode of the Incredible Hulk (March 10th, 1978) and as Bill Bixby turned into the Hulk, I jumped off of the couch, ran up to the TV and shut if off and said, "We're not watching that!")

So back to my daughter and the bug movie... Needless to say, Elise watched the rest of the movie WITHOUT the glasses on and holding on to me very tight.

It was not a good experience for her.

It was also not a good experience for Amanda and me, as we stayed up with her all night trying to convince her that there were no bugs in the room. 3 hours of sleep last night. No more bug movies for a while...

PS - I have to mention the movie's sponsor. Ok, are you ready........ TERMINIX! I'll bet the bugs were pretty excited about that...