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Help! Wild Orchid please ::

:: Wednesday, December 18, 2002 ::

I almost didn't get my mistletoe this year. Seems that those southern boys had a late start. Get out those .410s boys and shoot the plants out of the tops of those ancient oak trees. Get rid of the parasitic masses with poison berries. Get people to buy it and kiss under it.

How I adore Christmas with it's poison mistletoe, and poison poinsettias, and evergreens that make massive rashes up my arms when I decorate them. Whee hoo life is fun!

Song for the season...Baby It's Cold Outside by Petula Clark and Rod McKuen from the CD 1940s Christmas available at your local True Value Hardware store.

:: wild 12:53 AM [+] ::
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ready, set, STOP!
:: wild 7:33 PM [+] ::
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Have a Rockin' Holiday!
:: wild 9:16 AM [+] ::
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here's the link for the Algonquin PrincessClick!
:: wild 9:12 AM [+] ::
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Saturday night I went to Duke O’Brien’s to see/hear Local h. It was just a tiny notation in Friday’s club listings, and when I called to see if tickets were still available, I was told that it was FREE! Wheehoo! They would go on at 11:30. I was so excited all day that I had to take a nap in the afternoon. I wore myself out!
Around 8 I was awaken by a phone call from Saren. “Check out the paper! A story about Local H!”
Sure enough. Local h had offered themselves up on eBay with a starting price of $500. A businessman from Marengo had won with a bid of $9,701. Then he selected Duke’s for the free show. It’s a tiny place that only holds 250 max. The “h” dudes were surprised that it had gone over a $1000.
So there I was watching the group having their music reverb through my body. It was perfect and unimaginably FREE! They sound so good, just like on their CDs. Some groups don’t. They are produced in the studio. These guys are real musicians. Get to know them. “Here Comes the Zoo” is a terrific CD.
Thank-you to Kevin Krak!
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On the way home at 2 a.m. I picked up the Tribune. YES! My first article has been published. Another one is scheduled for next Sunday J
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Sunday night I went to Chicago Botanical Gardens for the light show. They decorate acres and acres with Christmas lights. There are carolers here and there, and they have bell ringers at the far edge near the expressway. How magical! We took a thermos of hot chocolate (29 degrees! Brrr) spiked with Peppermint Schnapps and tangerines. Life is sweet…hand-in-hand.


:: wild 9:01 AM [+] ::
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I just learned that Captain Bob died late last year. I had wondered why the Algonquin Princess, a magnificent paddle-wheel boat, didn’t cruise up and down the river this summer. I missed it…the grandeur and elegance of a time long past, the 19th Century.
The boat was a two-decker with a large enclosed cabin below (for chilly nights) and a red-and-white canopied second deck above. Two huge black regal smokestacks flanked the crew cabin at the bow. And, oh, the water rushing over the magnificent paddle. Spish spish spish...splash!
Captain Bob always gave a little shout-out if you were on your pier as he went past the riverfront properties. He’d go by three or four times a day. Captain Bob was a welcome fixture on the moody Fox River.
You could go on a drink cruise or schedule a 6-course dinner. Some people rented out the boat for parties and on certain summer nights, you could hear the Princess coming upriver long before you would see it. The loud music and laughter echoed through the river valley. What a sight is was, festooned bow to stern with white lights…and the low, bassoon toot of the warning horn.
His last cruise was in October 2001; he died in November 2001.
An article in the local paper stated that his family tried to find a buyer for the Princess right here in Illinois, but no one stepped forward. The Princess is now being dismantled to be trucked to new buyers in Ohio.

:: wild 8:21 AM [+] ::
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