Family Wedding

Last night the family went to Tammy Castillo's wedding. It was like a family reunion for my Dad's side of the family. Uncle Glen was in from Florida. Glen has cancer and he looked like Gandhi with his tan, his bald head and glasses. We saw Uncle Gene and Aunt Shirley, Aunt Dolores, Aunt Linda. Tammy's Mom Lois was there and her brother "little" Glen. Tammy's son David was there with his girlfriend Annie. We had a table right by the bar and dessert table with my Mom & Dad, Nancy & Dick, Patty & John and Steve. "Little" Jim was there with his wife Emily, Scott Holland & his wife Jennifer and Thom Holland and his daughter Sedona. Aunt Dolores' daughters Debbie, Shirley, Connie & Chrissie were there. Tammy married a very nice guy Ralph who she met at a wedding two years ago. It was very nice and the food was very good. The reception was at Elmcrest Banquets on Grand Avenue near Harlem in Elmwood Park. The night flew by.

The Hoax

We watched the DVD "The Hoax."

Synopsis

Early in 1971, McGraw-Hill passes on Clifford Irving's new novel. He's desperate for money, so, against the backdrop of Nixon's reelection calculations, Irving claims he has Howard Hughes's cooperation to write Hughes's autobiography. With the help of friend Dick Suskind, Irving does research, lucks into a manuscript written by a long-time Hughes associate, and plays on corporate greed. He's quick-thinking and outrageously bold. Plus, he banks on Hughes's reluctance to enter the public eye. At the same time, he's trying to rebuild his marriage and deflect the allure of his one-time mistress, Nina Van Pallandt.

Ideas

"Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen." - John Steinbeck

Become More Effective

"We immediately become more effective when we decide to change ourselves rather than asking things to change for us." - Stephen Covey

Memorial Day

This is a U.S. holiday, but a good opportunity to remember all who have died in war.

Abraham Lincoln gave perhaps the greatest of Memorial Day speeches not given on Memorial Day (at a cemetery dedication on November 19, 1863).

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

"Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met here on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

"But in a larger sense we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled, here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract.

"The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but can never forget what they did here.

"It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they have, thus far, so nobly carried on.

"It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

The boys ran a 5-K in Villa Park and my oldest son finished first in his age group and got a medal and gift certificate. My youngest son finished a minute better than his first 5-K. It was a beautiful morning. We spent the day at Cantigny in Wheaton for a family picnic which we have been doing for a few years.

White Sox Game

Carlos Quentin led off the ninth with his second homer off John Lackey, and the Chicago White Sox beat the Los Angeles Angels 3-2 to avoid a three-game sweep on Sunday night. Quentin, who had hit a two-run shot in the third, ended the game by driving a 1-1 pitch from Lackey (1-1) to the seats in left-center. He quickly rounded the bases and got mobbed at the plate as the White Sox ended the six-game homestand on a positive note after scoring just one run in the first two games. That made a winner of Scott Linebrink (2-0), who pitched a perfect ninth after Jose Contreras threw eight strong innings. The multihomer game was Quentin's second this season and the third in his career. His 14 homers lead the American League, and he had three of the White Sox's six hits. While Quentin came through at the plate, Contreras continued to pitch the way he did in 2006 when he made the All-Star team. He allowed just two runs and three hits, including a two-run homer by Gary Matthews Jr., while striking out 10 and walking none. It was his fourth double-digit strikeout game and his first since June 17, 2006, when he had 13 in six innings against Cincinnati on June 17, 2006. Lackey, meanwhile, struck out three and walked one. A 19-game winner last season, he is easing any concerns about his arm after beginning the season on the disabled list with a strained right triceps. He allowed one run in seven innings in each of his first two starts against the White Sox and Toronto, and he was good again on Sunday. The only glitches were to Quentin. He drove a 1-0 pitch out to center with two out in the third to make it 2-0, after Alexei Ramirez led off with a single. Contreras couldn't hold it after allowing one run in each of his previous three starts. He left a belt-high pitch to Matthews over the middle of the plate after Maicer Izturis led off the fourth with a single, resulting in a two-run homer that tied it. Contreras did not allow another runner until Garret Anderson led off the seventh with a double off the heel of Quentin's glove. Contreras retired Torii Hunter and Casey Kotchman before striking out Mike Napoli to end the inning, pumping his fist as he walked off the mound. Meanwhile, a White Sox team that entered the game with the American League's second-worst average (.244) provided little support. Perhaps that explains why fans in left-center decided to volley two blowup dolls like beach balls in the eighth inning, only three weeks after the White Sox caused an uproar in Toronto by placing two nude blowup dolls in the clubhouse with bats of the players fanning out around them in a weird slump-busting ritual. - from SunTimes.com

We went to the Chicago White Sox game. I won four tickets from a drawing at Ultra Foods. They were ticket vouchers and the May 25th game was the last game we could use them. We left around 5:00 p.m. and got to Cellular Field before 6:00 p.m. It was a beautiful night. We sat in the upper deck four rows from the last row. They played the California Angels. The Sox won in the bottom of the ninth with a home run by Carlos Quentin. He hit a home run earlier in the night for their first two runs. We got home after 11:00 p.m.

When You Want Something

"When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it.” - Paul Coelho

The Hours

We watched the DVD "The Hours."

Synopsis

Three women, each living in a different time and place, are all linked by their yearnings and their fears as they search for more potent, meaningful lives. Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman), in Richmond, a suburb of London in the early 1920s, is battling insanity as she begins to write her first great novel, Mrs. Dalloway. Laura Brown (Julianne Moore), a wife and mother in Los Angeles at the end of World War II, is reading Mrs. Dalloway, and finding it so revelatory that she begins to consider making a devasting change in her life. Clarissa Vaughan (Meryl Streep), a contemporary version of Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, lives in New York City today, and is in love with her friend Richard (Ed Harris), a brilliant poet who is dying of AIDS. Their stories intertwine, and finally come together in a surprising, transcendent moment of shared recognition.

Oakbrook Shopping Center

We made a trip to Sears at Oakbrook Shopping Center to get a new dryer. Our current dryer konked out after 15 years. It was no longer giving heat. I tried cleaning it and looked at it and after talking with the guy at Sears he thinks it's probably the ingniter. A service call only cost upwards of $90. After we bought the dryer we walked the whole mall. It's unbelievable all the new stores and changes since the last time we were there. The mall was empty because it was a cool night.

Progress

“All progress has resulted from people who took unpopular positions.” - Adlai Stevenson

Inspiration

“When inspiration doesn’t come to me, I go halfway to meet it.” - Sigmund Freud

Diablerie

I finished reading "Diablerie" by Walter Mosley

ABOUT THE BOOK

Ben Dibbuk has a good job, an accomplished wife, a bright college-age daughter, and a patient young mistress. Even as he goes through the motions of everyday life, however, inside he feels nothing. The explanation for this emotional void lies in the years he spent as a blacked-out drunk before pulling his life together—years in which he knows he committed acts he doesn't remember. Then a woman from his past turns up at a gala for his wife's new gig at a magazine called Diablerie and makes it clear that she remembers something he doesn't. Their encounter sets wheels in motion that will propel Dibbuk toward new knowledge, and perhaps the chance to feel again.

Be Like A Postage Stamp

"Be like a postage stamp. Stick to one thing until you get there." - Josh Billings

Enthusiasm

"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Faith, Hope and Discipline

"Character gets you out of bed; commitment moves you to action. Faith, hope, and discipline enable you to follow through to completion." - Zig Ziglar

The Price Of Success

"I know the price of success: dedication, hard work, and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen." — Frank Lloyd Wright

Believer In Luck

"I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more of it I seem to have." - Coleman Cox

Kind Words

"Kind words do not cost much. Yet they accomplish much." — Blaise Pascal

The Spirit Rejoices

"When the heart grieves over what it has lost, the spirit rejoices over what it has left." - Sufi Epigram

The Blade Itself

I finished reading "The Blade Itself" by Marcus Sakey.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Danny and Evan earned their reputation knocking over pawnshops and liquor stores, living from score to score, never thinking of tomorrow. Then in the roar of a gun blast everything changed. Years later, Danny doesn't think about his past. He's built a new world for himself: a legitimate career, a long-term girlfriend, and a clean conscience. He's just like anyone else. Normal. Successful. Happy. Until he spots his old partner staring him down in a smoky barroom mirror. The prison-hardened Evan believes he's owed major payback, and he's willing to do anything to get it. With all he loves on the line and nowhere to turn, Danny's new life hinges on a terrible choice: How far will he go to protect his future from his past?

A Mother

"A mother is not a person to lean on, but a person to make leaning unnecessary." — Dorothy Canfield Fisher

Help Another

"It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Brakes On The Buick

I went out to Earlville and had "Uncle John" fix the brakes on our 1995 Buick LeSabre. Bobby is going to be driving it and I want it to be safe. I visited with Leslie while John worked on the car. I got to see their house which is very nice. John has plenty of space to work on cars. They have a big yard on a quiet street and he has a big barn with four garage doors and a regular garage with more space. It was a nice driver out there past the farms. I came back on US 34 (Ogden Avenue) and went through Sandwich, Oswego and some other towns I've never driven through. It's about a hours drive.

Conference Meet

My oldest son's track team had their conference track meet and their sophomore team won conference. He came in third in the 1600 meters with a time of 4:58 his second best this year. He also ran the 3200 meters and finished fifth. It was a cool night.

The Key To Success

"Most people search high and wide for the keys to success. If they only knew, the key to their dreams lies within." — George Washington Carver

Cheap Trick

We got to go the VIP Grand Re-opening of the Hard Rock Cafe in Chicago with a special performance by Cheap Trick. We made it downtown about 7:00 p.m. and we had to line up outside until 8:00 p.m. when they started letting us in. It rained for a while and I went back and got the umbrella from the car. It was a good thing or we would have been soaked. We stood five feet from the stage the whole concert. It was great seeing them from so close. We were able to get a few good pictures and we made it home before 11:30 p.m.

Never Look Down On Anybody

"Never look down on anybody unless you're helping them up." - Jesse Jackson

Plain White T's

A couple of these guys graduated from my old high school - Willowbrook.

This song is for you Joanna!

Nobody Cares

"Nobody cares? They don’t have to as long as you do." - Croft M. Pentz

Old Age

"Old age is like everything else. To make a success of it, you've got to start young." - Fred Astaire

Another Prize

Congratulations, you have won two tickets to see Cheap Trick perform at the Grand Reopening of the Hard Rock Cafe Chicago next Wednesday May 7th. Your name will be on The Loop's guest list at the door of the Hard Rock Cafe on Wednesday night. We will have a sign-in table set-up near the entrance to check you in.

The Edge Of The City

I finished reading "The Edge Of The City" by Marcus Sakey.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Jason Palmer loved being a soldier. But returned from Iraq with an "other than honorable" discharge, he's finding rebuilding his life the toughest battle yet. Elena Cruz is a talented cop, the first woman to make Chicago's prestigious Gang Intelligence Unit. She's ready for anything the job can throw at her. Until Jason's brother, a prominent community activist, is murdered in front of his own son. Now, stalked by brutal men with a shadowy agenda, Jason and Elena must unravel a conspiracy stretching from the darkest alleys of the ghetto to the manicured lawns of the city's powerbrokers. In a world where corruption and violence are simply the cost of doing business, two damaged people are all that stand between an innocent child—and the killers who will stop at nothing to find him.

Try-Angle

"The best angle to approach a problem is the try-angle." - Croft M. Pentz