Chicago has a World Champ

Watching this post season, it was obviously the White Sox's year. The pitching was awesome, the defense stellar and the offense found a way to win. OK, I'm a die-hard Cub fan, but it's nice to see Chicago win, even if it's the south siders. There's been a lot of frustration on both sides of town for years. Check out
this site for info on the 1983 "winning ugly" Sox. Hats off to the Sox (or as they were once known, White Stockings.) Can't wait til spring training. Visit here for a Cubs history lesson.

I don't usually ignore signs

This weekend I went hiking at Starved Rock State Park. It's a great time of year for this, with all the fall color. Of course, the temperature has dropped, but when you're walking up and down hills, you get warmed up. There's miles of trails with bluffs, interesting rock formations and various wildlife. All very beautiful and pristine. I guess to keep it that way, they don't have bathrooms or even outhouses along the way. Once you're on the trail, you hold it! Last year, we hiked way out of the way to find an outhouse. Then me with my bright ideas, decides to try a different way back. That's when we encountered this sign (and kept right on going.) The trail wasn't all that bad though, if you took your time. I think the warning may apply more to wet weather. It is disconcerting however, to be walking where hikers have fallen! This year staying on the regular trails turned out to be a better idea!

Ghosts!

Paranormal activity right here in central Illinois! That's what the Sangamon Valley Ghost Research Group investigates. I talked to John and Diane from the SVGRG and heard some Electronic Voice Phenomenon (evp) too. Find out more here. It's really fascinating hearing stories of things that have happened to real people, as opposed to Hollywood's version of hauntings. The groups' website has more info click here. Maybe your neighbor's house (or yours) is host to otherworldly guests!

Have a cigar

Oops, I haven't been blogging lately. Busy with work and trying to catch playoff baseball. I love the post season. Every game means something and the players and fans really get into it. Which brings me to the White Sox American League Championship last night. The Sox played great this series, no doubt about that, even if a few controversial calls did go their way. And, after years of waiting, the celebration had to be huge. But is it appropriate for these athletes to be smoking big stogies while post game interviews are on? I remember when I was a kid looking up to baseball players as many young kids do. My parents would let me stay up late if an important game was on. Imagine what might have gone through my mind...these guys are cool, these guys get paid millions of dollars...I wanna be just like them. Sneaking a Swishers Sweets when no one was looking. Eventually my cigar-obsession would lead me to sneak some Cuban smokes into the country. I'd be arrested, thrown in jail and have a bad cough to boot! OK, so I'm exaggerating. But I think with baseball already having a black eye from the steroids controversy, maybe they could lay off the cigars til the tv cameras are off.

Something's gone haywire

Wallace and Gromit-Curse of the Wererabbit was #1 at the box office over the weekend, but fans of the series got bad news too. The warehouse where a lot of the props from Aardman's W & G and Chicken Run were stored burned, destroying "a lot of history." Read the story here. I didn't see the movie yet, but enjoyed the claymation short stories as well as Chicken Run. Check these out on dvd when you get a chance. It's a painstaking process, more time consuming than animation, but the results are like nothing else. I love how Nick Park, the creator of the characters, can give them facial expressions and personalities. I love the quaint expressions "time for walkies Gromit" or "the trousers have gone haywire!"
In an age of computer animation, it's cool to see a studio that still values its craft and takes no shortcuts. As Park himself noted, in light of other tragedies, the fire isn't a really big deal, but it's too bad that stuff is gone. We'll always have the films though.

Autumn

What a great time of year...the weather's a little cooler, the leaves are changing colors, Halloween is coming! Fall events kick off this weekend with Octoberfest at the Fairgrounds, Terror on the Square haunted house in Petersburg and the Indian Summer Festival at Lincoln Memorial Gardens.
Don't forget on October 16, we're having a mass-pumpkin carving at the Warehouse. It's Carve for the Carillon. You carve a pumpkin (it's free) and we'll put it on display at Washington Park the following weekend. Then people have a chance to buy these Jack-o-lanterns, with proceeds going to build a new staircase at the carillon. Want to do a pattern like the one pictured here? Visit this site.