Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Walking in an Autumn Wonderland


Aaaaaaaand now for another update on this year’s Project 365….


Day 276 (2012-10-02) ~  This is Halloween, this is Halloween….  Our fireplace mantle is covered with spooky Jack Skellington lights.





Day 277 (2012-10-03)
~  Okay, so there is this therapist's office kind of nearby here that has this painting of a grumpy, surly-looking dog, glaring down at everyone in the lobby.  This has always made me wonder.... WHO picked out THIS particular painting for a THERAPIST'S office and WHY????  Wouldn't a painting of nice calming scenery be more appropriate?!  I mean, seriously.  Strange.





Day 278 (2012-10-04) ~   Whooooosh.  Just experimenting with the Halloween lights.





Day 279 (2012-10-05) ~  Fall leaves.





Day 280 (2012-10-06) ~  You just have to respect a person that is THIS self-aware.





Day 281 (2012-10-07) ~  We found some VERY red leaves at the park.  Soooo pretty!





Day 282 (2012-10-08) ~  More fall leaves at the park.  (This one was actually taken on the 7th, not the 8th.)





Day 283 (2012-10-09) ~  A very creeEEeeEEeepy front yard in our neighborhood.





Day 284 (2012-10-10) ~  This is the view of the city skyline from our window.  Half of the year it is completely hidden by that line of trees there, but all of a sudden this week the trees dropped all their leaves, revealing the city again.





Day 285 (2012-10-11) ~  Just an early autumn morning walk through the park.





Day 286 (2012-10-12) ~  One of our neighbors has Frankenstein's Monster lurking in their front yard.  Awesome!  I love Halloween!





Day 287 (2012-10-13) ~  Sooo.... is it luggage or a bench?!  Scope found this in a local train station and took me there to show me because he knew I'd get a kick out of it.






More on the way soon….





© Coracabana

Monday, October 29, 2012

And then JK Rowling punched me in the face


Aaaaaaaand now for another update on this year’s Project 365….


Day 261 (2012-09-17) ~  So, the teachers in Wednesday's school district went on strike for seven days after the start of the school year.  They picketed, marched, handed out pamphlets, and tied red ribbons all over the trees at the local schools.  This was one of the ribbons they wrapped around a tree at the local elementary school which I snapped with a partial color setting.  Fortunately, everyone is back in school now, but Wednesday will have a shortened Christmas break this December/January because of it.





Day 262 (2012-09-18)
~  Yeah.  *sigh*  It's a straw.  In a glass.  And it’s purple.  Uh-huh.  I've got nothing else for the day.  Sorry.





Day 263 (2012-09-19)
~  I kind of like this one.  It's the blinds in our living room.  Kind of cool, huh?





Day 264 (2012-09-20) ~  Ooooooooooooooooh!  Halloween is on its way!  Looky what I found outside the grocery store!  Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!





Day 265 (2012-09-21)
~  We planted roughly a trillion carrots on our deck this spring, hoping for a big ol' harvest in the fall.  Weirdly, they suddenly died all at once over the summer.  All except this itty bitty runty little one, our sole survivor. 





Day 266 (2012-09-22) ~  A bucket of ghostly pumpkins we saw on the sidewalk.





Day 267 (2012-09-23) ~  A wise old owl that watches over Lincoln Avenue in Chicago.  (Whoopsie.  This was taken on Sept 22, not the 23rd.  Sometimes life gets in the way of all this picture taking and posting.)





Day 268 (2012-09-24) ~  Yummy!





Day 269 (2012-09-25) ~  One very colorful sunset as seen from our deck.





Day 270 (2012-09-26) ~  Out of ideas for the day, I took a quick close-up shot of my favorite Harajuku Lovers backpack.





Day 271 (2012-09-27) ~  I was sooooooooo excited the morning of Sept. 27th.  I woke up with butterflies in my stomach and happy-danced my way out the door at 7am with my mind full of fond, old memories of Harry Potter midnight parties that I spent with Wednesday in our Hogwarts robes at Barnes and Noble several years ago. 


*le sigh* 


I literally ran (RAN!) (and there may also have been some skipping involved too!) down the street to get to Target before it opened so I could be first in line to get my copy of JK Rowling's new book, The Casual Vacancy.  Only.... the excitement was very short lived.  The Casual Vacancy was NOTHING like Harry Potter.


Oh.


SPOILER ALERT!  IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW THE DETAILS OF THE CASUAL VACANCY, SKIP TO THE NEXT PICTURE:  I…. I hardly know what to say, except, holy f*ck, do NOT read this book aloud to your kids!!!!  The story follows a slew of very messed up characters through an election in a small town, the result of which will determine what becomes of the ugly slum side of that town and the desperate and hopeless people who linger there.  Some want to give the residents a hand in bettering their lives so they can escape the slums; others would prefer to turn their backs and alter the town’s boundaries to make the slum and its residents someone else’s problem.  And throughout it all, the various characters (and there are many!) lead the most dark, disturbing, unhappy, and over-the-top soap opera-like lives.


There’s a toothless heroine addict prostitute who shoots up in front of her kids.  There’s an abusive dad who beats the sh*t out of his wife and sons.  There’s a rapist who attacks a teenage girl and a three year old boy.  There’s ANOTHER rapist who attacks his own daughter. There’s a suicidal girl who cuts herself with a razor blade because of bullies at school.  There’s a series of hackers posting the town folk’s secrets online on the town council’s website.  There’s a teenage girl who is desperate to get pregnant because she thinks it’s her only way out of the slums.  There are teenagers having sex in a graveyard.  There’s a thief.  There’s an egomaniacal kid who spreads misery wherever he goes.  There’s a drowning, a suicide, an attempted murder, a fatal medical malpractice case, AND a fatal brain aneurism.  There is more profanity than in a million public bathroom stalls combined.  There are two (TWO!) funerals at which Rihanna’s “Umbrella” song is played (????).  And, at the end of it all, there’s really no closure or answers to any questions in any way whatsoever and I was just left sitting there, blinking, and thinking what a sad and pointless book that was.  I mean, I feel like I was punched in the face by JK Rowling! 


(JK, what the hell did I ever do to YOU?!)


That morning in Target on the 27th, I had actually purchased two copies of The Casual Vacancy; one for me and one for Wednesday, but I promptly returned Wednesday’s copy before she could even crack it open because there’s NO WAY my kid needs to be reading twisted misery like that before she’s 18.  Or 30.  Or 102.


But anyway….


This is what Target’s shelf looked like first thing in the morning before I grabbed two books and ran for the cashier, squealing in glee, completely unaware of what a non-Harry Potter-y adventure I was embarking on.





Day 272 (2012-09-28) ~  The leaves started to fall in Chicago.





Day 273 (2012-09-29) ~  Scope and I saw this car while we were out driving and we couldn't resist stopping for a quick picture of it.  There were post it notes everywhere! 





Day 274 (2012-09-30)
~  Nom nom nom.  Wednesday was feeding some fish at a little pond, and this big fella was so excited about it that he came out of the water to try and get a bite.  Hee hee hee.





Day 275 (2012-10-01) ~  While taking pictures of some bright orange leaves, I noticed a ladybug lurking around.  Cute!  (Whoopsie.  This was taken on Sept 30, not Oct.1.  Sometimes life gets busy and you miss a day or two, y'know? Sorry.)






Almost all caught up now!  I’m so excited!







© Coracabana

Friday, October 26, 2012

The day I met The Blob. (No, no, I really did!)


Serving up another update on this year’s Project 365.  Here we go….



Day 247 (2012-09-03)
~  I took a walk through Sculpture Park with Scope and Wednesday and this was one of the sights we stumbled upon.  What a wild and wacky place!





Day 248 (2012-09-04)
~  This was Wednesday’s first day of school.  Since, I didn't want to have to hand in my Cool Mom card, I didn't take pictures of her outside her high school.  However, the bus stop was totally fair game!





Day 249 (2012-09-05)
~  Just an interesting shadow our bamboo plant made on the wall.





Day 250 (2012-09-06) ~  Kind of the opposite of yesterday's picture, I guess.  This is a shot of interesting splashes of light that were on a window sill in our stairwell.





Day 251 (2012-09-07) ~  Just a string of bells we have hanging on one of our doors.  (Oopsie.  A slight cheat on this one.  This was taken on the 6th, not the 7th.)





Day 252 (2012-09-08) ~  Awww.  My niece's outdoor wedding.  It was GORGEOUS!!





Day 253 (2012-09-09) ~  Yeah.  It's me and Wednesday in a fun house mirror.  Ha!





Day 254 (2012-09-10) ~  Hey, look!  It's The Blob!  I stumbled upon this while out on a walk.  Cute.





Day 255 (2012-09-11) ~  An Autumn-themed bench at a local elementary school.





Day 256 (2012-09-12) ~  Up close and personal in a local garden.  I muted the colors a bit on this one.  Duh.  (A slight cheat on this shot too.  It was taken on the 11th, not the 12th.)





Day 257 (2012-09-13) ~  Just a quickie of a tree I passed under while out on a walk. 





Day 258 (2012-09-14) ~  The circus came to a local park.  We were out of town for the clowns, but it was still kinda cool watching the tent being set up.  (Dang it!  A cheat on this shot too.  It was taken on the 15th, not the 14th.  Sorry, I got my days all scrambled for a little while there.)





Day 259 (2012-09-15) ~  At a friend's (and former blogger’s!) wedding we were all given sparklers at the party's end.  Sooooooooooo much fun!!  :-)  (If you want to read Scope’s detailed version of the wedding with many, many more pictures that we took during the reception, click HERE.)





Day 260 (2012-09-16) ~  Driving back up from southern Illinois, we saw lots of little oil wells working away in the fields alongside the road.  We got up close and person with this one.





More pictures coming soon!






© Coracabana

Thursday, October 25, 2012

And that’s how Cold Stone went out of business


Yup.  Another update on this year’s Project 365.  Here we go….


Day 230 (2012-08-17) ~  While out shopping with my hubby, Scope, the Blue Angels flew by and I managed to grab a quick shot of them before they rocketed out of sight.  I used a poster filter on this pic because I loved how it made the icky puke-yellow building in the shot a nice shade of Smurf-blue just like the sky.  (Oh.  And this is a slight cheat because I took this pic on the 18th, not the 17th.  Whoopsie!)





Day 231 (2012-08-18)
~  We had dinner at Pei Wei and I loved the MASSIVE red lights they had hanging over the tables.





Day 232 (2012-08-19)
~  I found grapes growing in the local community garden.  (Sorry.  Another slight cheat on this shot too.  It was taken on the 20th, not the 19th.  My days got a bit jumbled up after the trip to Seattle.  Oy!)





Day 233 (2012-08-20) ~  Cute.  Another find in the community garden at the local elementary school.  I'm not sure if it's supposed to be a sunflower or the sun, but I like it anyway.





Day 234 (2012-08-21) ~   Can you believe that I actually know two people with the first name “Aspen”?  TWO!  Just watch, Aspen will be the new Jennifer one day, you’ll see.  But anyway….  I had to giggle when I saw “Aspen” spray-painted across a bench near my house.





Day 235 (2012-08-22) ~  Hey, looky!  I found a Smurf house!





Day 236 (2012-08-23) ~  Any guesses what it is?





Day 237 (2012-08-24) ~  The view out of my living room window.





Day 238 (2012-08-25) ~  Wednesday and I made waffles to celebrate the happy purchase of some tickets for an upcoming vacation.  Any guesses where we’ll be going?!….   (WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!)





Day 239 (2012-08-26) ~  Just a rainy day.





Day 240 (2012-08-27) ~  Out on a walk, I found this gorgeous clematis climbing all over an iron gate.  (Yeah, oops on this shot too.  It's from the 28th, not the 27th.  *sigh*)





Day 241 (2012-08-28) ~  Just a shot from one of my eBay sales because I ran out of time on the 28th.





Day 242 (2012-08-29) ~  I saw these sunny, happy fellas while walking from the train station.





Day 243 (2012-08-30) ~  So.  Wednesday and I weren’t in Chicago for five weeks.... and our neighborhood Cold Stone closed down.  Coincidence?  I think not.





Day 244 (2012-08-31) ~  Well, it appears that the only picture I took on August 31st was this feeble one of my daughter's SIMS 3 game when the Grim Reaper killed off the character she modeled after herself.  Pitiful, I know.





Day 245 (2012-09-01) ~  Lacking ideas today, I just decided to illuminate a rug with an LED flashlight and be done with it.  Eh.





Day 246 (2012-09-02) ~  So, the remnants of Hurricane Isaac blew through town the first two days in September and it was really not that noticeable, frankly;  a little mist in the air and a slight gust of wind or two.  Eh.  No biggie.  However, there MUST have been a big gust of wind that I missed somewhere along the line, because all of a sudden this pinwheel came out of nowhere and landed on our deck.  Have I mentioned that we live on the third floor?!  Isaac REALLY wanted us to have that pinwheel.  Clearly.





Man, we are just burning through these things this week!  Hopefully we will be all caught up soon.







© Coracabana