This little fishy went to market,
This little fishy stayed home,
This little fishy had some algae,
This little fishy had none.
And this little fishy went …
“Wee wee wee” all the way to the hotel …

This lucky fishy will be included in a coffee table book, The Chicago River: A History in Pictures, scheduled to be published August, 2006.

While browsing the Lake Forest Gorton Community Center catalog, I was intrigued. Gorton offered the usual array of community center programs like cooking, pilates, bridge, antique appraisal, fencing and sewing.

At first glance, one would think it was standard community center fare, except, nearly every class was during the week. No problem I thought, my evenings are free. Then I noticed they were during the day.

Since I am not a man of leisure, how am I going to participate during the day? (cue up the cheesy music score) Duh, this is a community center run by housewives with courses for housewives. Now, I was really intrigued!

I figured, since I work from home and have some flexibility with my lunch schedule, I need to take a course or two. The series for me jumped off the page … Introduction to Sewing, followed by Basic Sewing for Busy Women – Home Decor. Yes, I can hear you giggling from here.

I just completed the Introduction to Sewing course, learning the very basics of sewing, creating a glamorous wine bag and catching up on some neighborhood gossip. Some of the gossip even included me. A few ladies are in a dither about the only man who has ever enrolled in sewing class.

Perhaps enrollment will increase? I wonder if I should buff up and start wearing tight t-shirts. Oh, the possibilities!

I can’t wait till Tuesday, the first day of Basic Sewing for Busy Women … four weeks of sewing and kavetching. I plan to walk away with a pillow, dog bed and another peek inside the bowels of Lake Forest.

The local wine and cheese shop, a favorite stop for tasty lunch-time sandwiches, is the new place to hang out on a Saturday afternoon. We strolled in today for a sandwich and discovered they just started Saturday Afternoon Wine Tasting.

After sampling six tasty wines, I was a happy camper and in need of a sandwich. I wouldn’t want to get pulled over drunk walking on my way home!

We put it in the calendar for next week. It’s a perfect excuse to take a walk!

Tim snagged a couple of tickets to the dress rehearsal at the Chicago Opera Theater. We hopped the train to the city to see a double feature of The Padlock and Dido and Aeneas. I was excited at the opportunity. I has been years since I have seen an opera.

The Padlock was a mildly amusing romantic comedy with a dash of old fashioned bawdy humor. The second, Dido and Aeneas, was more traditional love story about the Royal Prince Aeneas landing in Carthage and falling in love with Dido, the queen of Carthage.

Why would I even bother to babble about the opera, one may ask? I am shocked at how things have changed at the Opera. One of the scenes in Dido and Aeneas consisted of an orgy. Yes, an orgy at the opera. About 20 couples were dancing one moment, and on the floor the next. If that wasn’t enough, the ladies legs went in the air, the gentlemen mounted and proceeded to slow thrust while the lead sang a little diddy.

Our friend Jill, a self-proclaimed opera diva, noticed my jaw drop and leaned over whispering in my ear, “It’s all the rage, gratuitous sex on stage at the opera.” That got me thinking … are they looking to attract a younger crowd by using sex to sell the opera? Or perhaps, they need something to keep the old guys interested and the checks flowing?

If you can rake in a bunch on money with a musical called Naked Boys Singing, why not an opera performed in the nude? I’ll keep my eyes open, you just never know what will be done next in the name of art.

Tim ordered a “Pinot Noir Wine Flight” with dinner. I was amused when the waiter returned and placed three glasses of Pinot Noir infront of Tim. Talk about some serious double fisted drinking.

I opened the Valentine’s Day card from Tim …

Not only did the message make me chuckle, he wrote it as a haiku too.

Life comes in so many shapes and sizes. The loaf of bread served with dinner at Angelina’s gave us a chuckle after a few cocktails. Is it loaf of lopsided bread, a mushroom, or … ?

Tehe .. tehe .. I feel so Junior High!

While tackling the mess on my desk, I spotted the corner of the dryer manual and smiled as I recalled the delivery of the new dryer yesterday. One small event at the end of an insane personal and work week, turned my frown upsidedown.

48 hours earlier the ancient dryer went from a small mumur to an ear piercing scream. The load dried with its usual multi cycle effort. With my fingers crossed, I tossed in the wet clothes from the washer, closed the door, turned the dial and hit start. To my relief, there was no ear piercing scream. Then it hit me, the only noise was the whir on an engine that couldn’t. I tried again and my smile quickly turned upsidedown.

I reported the dryer death to Tim and asked him to let his boss, the landlord, know. I figured it would take a week to get fixed and calculated we had enough clothes to last before I would need to hunt down a Laundromat.

While on the conference call from hell Friday afternoon, the doorbell rang. I opened the door to find the maintenance man, two beefy guys and an appliance delivery truck. Less than 24 hours later, I have a new dryer.

I tossed the load of wet clothes into the new dryer. I was in seventh heaven, it took one cycle on medium heat to dry the load of clothes. Half the time and energy…yippee!

A random picture of my reflection while we were having a quick bite to eat at Chipotle.