A Moving Tale Of Trust For Christmas*

In 1986, Mkele Mbembe was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from Northwestern University. On a hike through the bush, he came across a young bull elephant standing with one leg raised in the air. The elephant seemed distressed, so Mbembe approached it very carefully. He got down on one knee and inspected the elephant's foot and found a large piece of wood deeply embedded in it.

As carefully and as gently as he could, Mbembe worked the wood out with his hunting knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot. The elephant turned to face the man, and with a rather curious look on its face, stared at him for several tense moments.

Mbembe stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled. Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned, and walked away. Mbembe never forgot that elephant or the events of that day.

Twenty years later, Mbembe was walking through the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago with his teenaged son. As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked over to near where Mbembe and his son Tapu were standing.

The large bull elephant stared at Mbembe, lifted its front foot off the ground, then put it down. The elephant did that several times then trumpeted loudly, all the while staring at the man.

Remembering the encounter in 1986, Mbembe couldn't help wondering if this was the same elephant. Mbembe summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing and made his way into the enclosure. He walked right up to the elephant and stared back in wonder. The elephant looked at Mbembe as if could see straight into his soul.

The elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one of Mbembe's legs and slammed him against the railing, killing him instantly.

Probably wasn't the same elephant.

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*An oldie but a goodie. I got this a couple years back and just ran across it the other day while cleaning up some old email. In case you were wondering, Lincoln Park Zoo currently does not have any elephants, but if you're ever in Chicago, it is a cool place to visit in the winter, too. And it's FREE! (Parking will cost you $300,000, but admission is FREE!)

Here are some pix I've taken there in the winter time.

Getting In The Holiday Spirit

Today (Thursday 2009-12-17), I finished my holiday shopping and holiday shipping, and start my Christmas parties on Friday.  But what about the wrapping?  Hush, you!  :-)

I'm taking this little time out to show you my Christmas decorations.  This is the first year that I have had a tree.  I've been doing wreaths for years, but now I have enough room, so I bought an end of season, 80% off, pre-lit, Charlie Brown-esque tree, and went to decorating.  Just so you know, these pictures are carefully staged and cropped.  The condo is currently a toxic waste dump just off camera.

A number of years ago, I started giving out (and keeping) a different silver Christmas ornament each year as a package topper.  Just a little something to kick things up a notch.  So, my tree is filled with bright, shiny ornaments, the don't photograph worth a hoot.

This little Christmas tree from Crate & Barrel turned out looking nice, but you can hardly see last year's silver reindeer sitting right there.

Here is a full on shot of my tree.  See what I mean?  And I don't even have a proper tree topper, but Cora does, so I figure why go out and buy one now.

Yep, I had a pretty productive day off.  As I said, I finished my shopping, boxed, wrapped and mailed a couple of things out, got a hair cut, replaced the battery in my car, picked up the dry cleaning, etc.  Tomorrow is the company Christmas party, so I couldn't take tomorrow off.  And Saturday a good friend of mine is coming up from St. Louis and so friends from the suburbs are coming down into the city and we are going to have a nice dinner and hang out together for most of the day.  So, if I wanted to have a shot of not wrapping presents in Mom & Dad's basement on the 24th again, I needed to carve out the time somehow.

But now, on with the show…

So here's my fireplace, and you can see that my balls are hung…

I have some hand painted glass ball ornaments that I got at a craft show.  Long boring story short, my Mom & Dad had a booth at a  craft show in the Quad Cities one year after Thanksgiving.  The guy who made these had the next booth, and didn't sell a damn thing all day.  So, while not exactly a 'sympathy buy' I did buy 3 hand painted ornaments.  I bought the snowman…

the Christmas trees…

and the constipated sun.

And speaking of hand painted ornaments, (not constipation) this guy, "Party Boy" is a P. Buckley Moss design that I bought at her museum a few years back.  It is hand painted on the inside of the glass!

Getting back to the tree, I have a bit of a travel theme going on.  Restoration Hardware used to sell these beautiful brass ornaments of iconic structures and airplanes and such.  I bought many for places that I had been.

[Note:  A friend in Florida gave me the starfish.  It has glitter and shells, and is most charming. Doesn't photograph well, but is charming]  To go with the Eifel Tower, Big Ben, Roman Coliseum, and the Golden Gate Bride (off camera), I wanted a Space Needle, for fiancée currently lives in Seattle, and I wanted one on the tree.

But, I searched the internets, and all I saw were some cheesy looking glass ones.  So over Thanksgiving, Cora and I hunted and hunted for a nice, metallic one.  They had to have them, right?  This was the best we could find in the "Made in Washington" store.

A cheap resin one.

But there's that story about beggars not being choosers, so I bought it as a backup.  While at the festival of lights, I did buy this Borg sphere looking ornament, so that I would have a "nice" ornament to hang on the tree.  (In real life, it doesn't look like a big ball of tin foil, honest.)

On the way to the airport for my return flight, Cora and I stopped in at Wal-Mart, and struck gold.  Well, bronze.  We found two different sized bronze Space Needle paper weights. With a little ribbon & monofilament thread they became ornaments.

  To wrap up this monster post, and to get wrapping, I wouldn't want you to think that my decor is ALL fancy and sophisticated.

Yes – The hat has sequins on it.
Yes – The nose blinks.

You would expect nothing less from me, right?

Christmas Lights! Camera! Action!

Sorry, this is going to be a LOOOOONG post, filled with lots of pictures and video.  But I hope you enjoy it.

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SEATTLE LIGHTS

While out in Seattle for Thanksgiving, Cora & I went to the Bellevue Botanical Garden's: Garden d'Lights with her father and stepmother.  It was beautiful.  There were about 500,000 mini-LED lights over all.

What did it look like?

The grapes in the vineyard were glowing…

The butterfly flitted over the flowers… 

The Princess was radiant…

The Frog shimmered on the lily pad…

The Princess must have kissed the frog by the poinsettia tree!
  And this dude was just chillin'.

Here's a little video that I shot of a fountain of light:

Cora and her step-mother actually did some volunteer work over the summer stringing and tying and making some of these displays.

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 E-MAIL LIGHTS

The next set of theses I have gotten in email.  Maybe even from you.

I have always thought of doing something like this.  My idea was yellow motion lights, with Santa writing his name in the snow.  (Lights poking up through a chunk of white painted plywood shaped like a drift.)  It will probably never happen for me, so at least someone did it.

This next one, I have gotten a couple of times with the following text.

Email text - “Good news is that I truly outdid myself this year with my Christmas decorations.  The bad news is that I had to take him down after two days.  I had more people come screaming up to my house than ever.  Great stories.  But two things made me take it down.

First, the cops advised me that it would cause traffic accidents as they almost wrecked when they drove by.

Second, a 55 year old lady grabbed the 75 pound ladder almost killed herself putting it against my house and didn’t realize that it was fake until she climbed to the top (she was not happy).  By the way, she was one of the many people who attempted to do that.  My yard couldn’t take it either.  I have more than a few tire tracks where people literally drove up my yard.”

[Back to Eric] This next house, I have actually seen myself.  But it was daylight, so a friend sent me these pictures…     I'm not sure which is funnier, the penguin choir up on the roof, or the fact that his neighbors have their house up for sale!

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FROM MY CAMERA

And some pictures I've taken.  This pathetic little display is my Christmas lights.  I know a lighted wreath would look good right in the middle, but that's not happening this year.

Friday night, I was out doing a little Christmas and I saw this bike parked out in front of a bar.  I had to take a picture.

But then I remembered that my camera also shoots video.

And "No," I'm not sure that this is a Christmas display.

The Visitors

Wow, time flies!

About a month ago now (November 13-15), Pat & Harold came up to Chicago for a visit.  Not only was it their first trip to my new condo, but it was also their first real sight seeing trip to Chicago in a while.

A good time was had by all.

They arrived on a Friday night, right after I got off of work.  After Harold was just able to squeeze his car into my garage spot by justhismuch, we went and had dinner.  We tried my favorite German place, but the wait was a bit too long, so went up the street for some good Greek food.  When I order Greek, I cannot help but order saganaki (sounds Japanese, doesn't it?)  It's a baked cheese that they douse in booze and flambéed.  (The picture over there is from the same restaurant, but from a different visit.)  The food was good, and we had a nice walk home.

On Saturday, after a bite to eat at Lutz Bakery, which is literally next door), I drove us all down town for a driving / walking tour of the city.  We wandered around Millennium Park and had fun at "the Bean".  I think that's about the only place I pulled my camera out, unfortunately.As you can see, it was a pretty nice day for November in Chicago.  The sun was shining and the air was warm and pretty still.After taking our time in the park, we headed up Michigan Avenue, and had lunch at a place called "Boston Blackie's" where they serve a pretty good hamburger in a nice setting.

After seeing the sites, we went home and rested a bit, and then went to Mass.

After Mass, we did go to the German place we'd tried the day before, the Chicago Brauhaus.  We learned that one of the glass boots holds 2 liters of beer, and that the bartender saw a guy drink 3 of them one night.  We all enjoyed our meal and the entertainment.

We came back, and used Google Maps and Street View to travel around the globe (Australia, The Isle of Man, and Princeton, IN)  [Note:  Pat, Harold is so getting high speed internet for home…]  Eventually it was time to call it a day.

Sunday, we were back at Lutz for breakfast, but then it was time for them to hit the road.

All in all, I think we all had a wonderful time and a good visit.

Next summer, the guest room will be no more when my future step daughter moves in (if everything goes to plan) so those of you thinking of coming up and looking for a cheap (free) place to stay, get your dibs in now.

More Engagement Story

As I said, Cora and I were down at my college's homecoming this weekend when I popped the question.  I had been planning this for about 2 months now.

Annie Merner Chapel (left) is a really pretty building, and Cora had said that she wanted to be surprised and she wanted it to happen someplace memorable.

We'd gone ring shopping in Seattle about a month ago when I was out visiting, so I could find out her ring size, and the style of ring she wanted.  While we were out, all the jewelers had said "4 to 6 weeks" or "6 to 8 weeks" for delivery.  They would have to send off to get their ring from the factory.  When I got home on that Monday, I went to a jewelry store here in Chicago picked out the ring, chose the center stone, and picked it up the next after noon.

That meant that I had the ring WAY before she was expecting it.  (She was thinking New Year's Eve.)  Saturday, after the parade, we went on a tour of campus with about 6 other people.  50% of them she had met before when she was in town, and another one she had heard plenty of stories about.  As the tour progressed, we went into the chapel and I handed my camera to a friend (the only one of the 6 that had any CLUE this was going down) to take out picture.  But, I had flipped the camera over to video.  The picture would have looked something like this picture I stole from Cora:

In the video, you can see her posing for the picture, and then wonder what the heck I was doing stepping backwards.

And here is a picture of the ring that I also stole from Cora.

Right now, we are thinking a late spring wedding in Seattle, but with a party of some kind at Mom & Dad's sometime shortly after for those that can't make it out there.  As we know more, I will keep you posted.

A Pretty Good Weekend

Notre Dame beat Boston College.

The Steelers beat Farve and the Vikings.

Too bad MacMurray got thumped by Eureka.

Oh, and I got engaged.

Here's the video.

I have to get to work.  I will write more tonight.

Yarrr – It Be International Talk Like A Pirate Day

Ahoy!  Today be September the 19th in the year o' our Lord 1 Score Aught Nine and it be International Talk Like A Pirate Day, ya scurvy curs.

This treasure be from the curs at Bizarro.Com.

A co-worker (and saucy wench she be) asked me if'n it be appropriate to talk like a pirate in Temple (Rosh Hashanah).  "Yarr," I told her, "if she sees 'Long John Silverman' to tell him I said, 'oy-hoy'."

According to this SITE, some of us have very interesting pirate names:

Real Name	Pirate Name
Eric	Scowlin' Seamus Jones
Eric John	Cap'n Quincy Bloodbeard
Eric Collins	Pirate Bruno the Infected
Eric John Collins	Cap'n Stu Golddigger
Bob Anderson	Rough-Sailin' Hugo
Brett Anderson	Cap'n Mitch Jailbait
Margaret Anderson	Bad-Rum Carmen
Rob Anderson	Pirate Pablo the Back-Stabber
Troy Anderson	Noseless Norm Slaughter
Amy Collins	Fartin' Flora Read
Leanna Collins	Hobblin' Sophie Hornigold
Maxwell James Collins	Jelly Bones Bud
Richard Collins	Cap'n Conroy Saggingsails
Tim Collins	Cap'n Randal Chumbucket
Adam Parrott	Epileptic Burt Smythe
Doug Parrott	Lazy Eye Iggy
Hayley Parrott	Jolly Brit Scabb
Karin Parrott	Pirate Lindsey the Black
Chris Kermode	Epileptic Bill Barbossa
Greg Kermode	"Sharkbait" Doug Grimm
Herald Kermode	Rancid Billy Dread
Mary Kermode	Androgynous Caroline Cutler
Mike Kermode	Rough-Sailin' Hugo (same as Bob's)
Pat Kermode	Shoutin' Audra Smythe

Now if that thar don't shiver ye timbers and put some pep in ye hornpipe, arrr nuttin' shall.  I be surprised that it only created two names in thar list that be the same.  But we be havin' duplicate names in the family anyhow.

Today, I be helpin' some shipmates move in together. We'll be haulin' a lot o' booty in me ship's boot.

Gregory Lee's Wedding – Part 3

Well, we all saw THAT ONE picture that I took at the reception, so I would say that topic was, ummm, well covered. (Except it wasn't.)

The food was good, the music, especially before things really kicked off was pretty good too.  Young Michael sure got out there and shook his little money maker for all it was worth.

Unfortunately, my camera seemed to really be battling with the low light levels of the hall. Looking through my pictures of the reception, other than this picture of Dani & Greg, this one of Michael and his friend, and of course the one of the "Bone Sucking Sauce" that Mike the Elder gave Tiffany, most of my pictures not of the bride and groom turned out very dark and grainy.

Gregory Lee and Tiffany were putting off just enough glow to make the pictures turn out.

Otherwise, I think I did get a pretty nice series of shots over at the cake cutting:

I think everyone had a good time.  But finally, the night wound down, and everyone dispersed.

Most of us met back over at Pat & Harold's the next morning for some breakfast, but in ones and twos, everybody started drifting off again for church, ball games, or their long drives back into Illinois.

I was the last one to leave.  My drive home was uneventful, except for the fact that I saw 6 cops with people pulled over between Princeton and Vincennes.  That doesn't count the one who U-Turned on the north end of Vincennes and followed my about 2 or 3 cars back until Oaktown.

All told, a good wedding, and I wish the young couple all my best.  And I am DYING to know how much change was in that jar I gave them.