Winter Wonderland
It snowed big time last night. It started around 3pm, when I was out driving, and the forecast was we would get 3-6 inches. It seemed hard to believe at the time as it did not seem much then, and even stopped for a while. But by 5pm it was really snowing heavily and settling. Luckily I got home around 5.30pm so did not have any problems with it. When I took Reggie out for a walk at 11.30 though, there was around 10”, and there were a lot of cars having trouble out there. I was able to enjoy it because it wasn’t me! Just within our apartment complex, several people who were either just arriving home, or were just leaving here, were getting themselves stuck and having to dig and push and rock their way out. And most of them did not have any proper equipment to do it with, so were using hands and feet. And it was still snowing. I helped one person get her car into a space, but saw that several cars were just abandoned to one side. I can’t say that I blame them, as some of them were there for 30 minutes or more.
This morning on our 7am walk, there was a full foot of snow, but at least it had stopped falling by then. I went back outside later to clear the snow off our truck as I wanted to go shopping, but it took me so long to do it that I have given up the shopping plan and am now inside getting dry again. I may go out later, but tomorrow seems like a better idea now! I don’t think we are due for any more for a few days at least. I need to add a shovel and a snow clearing brush to my list as well, as the brush we had snapped this morning under the weight of all the snow it was sweeping, and we never had a shovel anyway, but really could do with one right now. And it would have to happen while Gordon is away – he is in Vegas for his stag weekend. It is really bizarre, they left Thursday afternoon and the weather was so sunny and mild you could go out without a coat, and then Friday we had a foot of snow dumped on us!
It is beautiful out there though. When I was out with Reggie this morning, we walked through some trees into the grounds of the church next door and found ourselves under a load of trees with their branches laden with snow. It was like walking through the wardrobe into Narnia. It was magical. Reggie loves it, she runs through all the deep stuff and buries her head right into it. But it is very tiring walking through it though, more like wading than walking!
More about The Dress
I just found out a couple of days ago that the dress I bought is in a junior size. It is a size 9, which I thought meant that it is just half way between an 8 and a 10, as logic would dictate, but apparently the odd number sizes are junior sizes. That makes me feel a lot better about the fact that it didn't fit!!!
Hazel has done her official assessment of it now and is fairly confident she can work her magic on it. I am very excited and can't wait!
Reggie Is Just Too Damn Good Looking!
I just got back from walking Reggie. While we were out, we went past a house on a corner of a street on the way to the park. We go past every day, and there is usually a rottweiler in there who barks as we pass on the opposite side of the road. I have always felt glad that he is behind a solid looking fence. Well, today as we passed, there were 2 rottweilers, and not only did they bark at us, but they squeezed themselves under the gate at the end of their garden and ran across the road to us. It is not a very nice feeling, have 2 unknown rottweilers running towards you, with their owner nowhere in sight! I know that sometimes rottweilers can be nasty dogs, and also Reggie does not really like other dogs anyway, so I knew I was going to have a struggle on my hands.
The one we normally see in there is a fully grown male. The other one is younger, less than a year, not fully grown yet, and the only one to be wearing a collar, although I couldn’t really get hold of him. They both seemed quite friendly, luckily, and they just wanted mainly to say hello and sniff out some new smells.
They both were sniffing around Reggie, and next thing I knew she had slipped her collar off, and so I had 3 dogs on the loose with cars going past. I was really worried that she would run out in the road to get away from them, as she was not enjoying the attention. Luckily I managed to get hold of her quickly enough and put it back on.
I tried telling them to go home and to carry on our way, hoping they would then go back, but they showed no inclination to go home now they had a taste of freedom. I couldn’t leave them there, as they had no road sense, and just wandered randomly around in the road, where cars were having to slow down to avoid them. Not one of those car drivers stopped to see if I needed any help though!
So I crossed over to their side of the street, and they followed. I tried shouting over the fence to their house for the owner, but was not really sure if anyone was even in. Also I was having to compete with their next-door neighbour’s dog who was barking non-stop. He was probably jealous that he hadn’t also managed to escape! So I walked back up the side of their garden towards their house, which unfortunately is on a major road and the dogs were following us but bounding around everywhere as well. Also the older dog had realised that Reggie is a girl, and he is a boy, and wanted to have his way with her, but she was having none of it, so every time he tried to jump her, she turned on him and there were a couple of scraps.
I managed to get into their driveway without anyone getting hurt, and shouted again and knocked on the door, but no answer. I was about to go next door, but just then the owner came out. She said thank you and took them in, and I tried telling her where they got out, and that they were running in the road in front of cars but she did not seem to be too bothered about it. We carried on to the park, and on our way back I noticed they were not outside anymore, so I hope she blocks up that gap under the fence before they go out again. She was lucky that it was me there, as so many people here would have been too scared of the dogs to try to deal with them.
And this is already the second time that we have had to deal with a randy dog on the loose in the 8 weeks or so that we have had Reggie! The first time I was walking with her, and a guy was driving past and stopped to ask if I had seen a black dog. At that point, I hadn’t. But about 20 minutes later, he found us. He was slightly smaller than Reggie, and completely black, quite young and stocky. I grabbed him to get his number off his collar to ring his owner. The dog’s name was Snoop. He was also very randy, and Reggie was not pleased. He kept trying to get her, and he was enormously strong! I spoke to the owner and described where I was, but since I was in the middle of the park, I said I would meet him at the road. So I put Snoop on Reggie’s lead as I knew Reggie could be relied on to go where I told her without it. But Snoop would only go where she went, lead or no lead. So I had to keep telling Reggie which way to go and then Snoop would follow and I would be dragged along behind him. It felt like my arm was being pulled out of the socket. This was the time when there was several inches of snow on the ground, and at one point we had to go down a slope so I was kind of dog sledding down! After about 20 minutes of trying to hold Snoop off Reggie and get him to the road, the owner turned up and took him away. Reggie and I were both exhausted and practically crawled home!
THE Dress
Well, I had a half successful shopping trip with Hazel the other day for my dress. We found the most GORGEOUS dress ever, but it was in the sale so there was only one left and it was about 2 sizes too small. I tried it on anyway, and didn't want to take it off. Hazel tells me she is an accomplished dress-maker so reckons she can do something with it to make it fit. So I bought another one at another brach of the shop, still in the same small size, as they dont have anything bigger anywhere now, and we will apparently be taking material from one to expand the other.
So I am half-way towards the dress of my dreams. It is so lovely. I am keeping all my fingers and toes crossed all the time in the hope that it works. Makes it quite uncomfortable to walk though!
I did buy another dress which we both liked as well, which is a back-up dress just in case. The main dress and the back-up are completely different colours, so I can't choose shoes or flowers until we figure out if it will work.
Weddings, Weddings, Weddings
Well, after the engagement, follows the wedding. And so starts all the hard work!We thought it best to do it before my current visa runs out, which is the very beginning of April, as renewing that again without being married may not be straightforward, and apparently once we are married my visa status changes and I should get one that matches Gordon’s in length of time. We decided against March, as we would love to get some photos with the snow, and we thought by March that would probably all be gone. So we opted for February, as any earlier than that would be too much of a rush.We looked at various venues. You can get married anywhere here, the place itself does not have to be licensed, only the person who marries you has to be licensed. We originally thought of going up into Wisconsin as there are some places there that do sleigh rides, and their websites said they also cater for weddings. Also, going that much further north would mean more likelihood of snow. In actual fact, when I called them, they all said the only weddings they have ever done were summer ones, and they seemed to think I was a bit mad to request a February outdoor wedding! But it sounded magical, as they would do a bonfire and sleigh ride, and the ceremony could be held in a barn. So we went one day to check a couple of places out. But the reality of it was that it was at least a 3 hour drive, which could be hellish if the weather is bad, and one of the places only had port-a-loos, and there is absolutely no way I am using one of them on my wedding day!!! This being our first winter here, it has been difficult to plan, as we just don’t know what to expect weather-wise at all, and we have heard wildly varying tales from locals of what we could get. So we decided it was safer to stay closer to home.So after looking at a few local venues, we narrowed it down to 2 places: Independence Grove Forest Preserve for an outdoor venue, where we would have the ceremony in a pavilion by a lake, and stay for photos which would look stunning if there was snow and the lake was frozen. Then we would have gone to a local restaurant for a meal.
The Country Squire in Grayslake for an indoor venue. This was the old Sears mansion which has since been converted to a restaurant and has several function and banquet rooms. The whole thing, ceremony and meal, would be indoors but they have lovely gardens with a gazebo for outdoor photos.Again, not knowing what the weather would do, and having tried the food at the Country Squire, which was fabulous, we opted for the indoor setting. So we booked for February 18th, and have since had our lives taken over with planning. It is going to be a pretty small affair, since we do not know that many people here yet, and there is only a small number of people coming over from the UK for it, since cost and timing is an issue.So far we have booked the minister, a lady called Reverend Patty, ordered the cake, started talking flowers with the florist, set up gift registries at several stores, chosen the menus for the day, sent out invitations, and started planning the table decorations. The biggest thing still to do is to buy an outfit for me. Until then the colour scheme cannot be totally set, and flowers cannot be chosen. I am going shopping tonight for that with Hazel, so fingers crossed!
Catch Up
It has been ages since I last wrote an entry, so there is quite a lot to catch up on, but I will keep it as short as possible.
We had a couple of friends visit us from England at the beginning of December, Tim and Darrell. It was extremely cold, and I think by the time they left they were looking forward to the mild, in comparison, climate back in England. It also snowed while they were here, which was really nice. We took them to the beach in the Lake Forest area, and it was a bit strange to be walking on snow instead of sand there. In keeping with the weather, we also took them to an ice hockey match, which was really fun, even though our team lost. They had tickets for the Bears v Packers game on the Sunday, Tim being a Bears fan and Darrell a Packers fan. We dropped them at the station so they could take themselves there, and then we met them later for a quick tour of the city, a few drinks at the top of the Hancock Tower for the awesome view, and a meal. They also did the obligatory shopping while they were here, buying so much that packing to go home was a serious challenge!
We had much more snow over the following week or so, with a total of around 8” being dropped in the space of a few days. It looked stunning, but made for some very wet walks with Reggie, as although they quickly clear the roads, the paths are a very different matter. It seems that it is down to each home-owner to clear the section of path outside their own property, but it apparently is not a legal requirement, and since walking is such a rarity here, not everyone bothers to do it. You can be walking along, and the path will be clear in some parts and covered over in others. So I was either having to trudge through 8” deep snow, or choose my route according to where the snow was cleared. Either way, I was getting very annoyed with those lazy ignorant people! It hung around for a couple of weeks, and we were starting to forget what grass looked like! Then it started to get mild so by Christmas time it was starting to melt, and it is all gone now. It has looked much more like an English winter out there recently, with grey skies and some rain.
We hosted a Christmas party here in early December. We had got Tim to bring over some supplies for it, so we were able to serve mulled wine, home-made mince pies, and Christmas pudding, all of which were previously unheard of here. They seemed to all go down well though. Also Todd had bought some Christmas crackers from a British online company, and that was a novelty for everyone as well. So was really fun to show the locals some British Christmas stuff.
For Christmas Day, we went to Hazel and Michael’s house. Hazel is originally from New Zealand, and lived in the UK for several years, and Michael is American, but also lived in the UK for several years. Michael’s parents were there, as was Hazel’s brother, so was quite an international affair. Hazel put on quite a spread, with roast ham, and roast lamb, both of which were delicious. We had a second Christmas pudding delivered by Tim, so took that, along with some brandy sauce. Hazel had also made the most delicious Christmas cake, the proper fruit kind with marzipan and royal icing. That is pretty unheard of here, they do not do fruit cakes normally. It was fantastic, and I still have a huge chunk of it that I brought home and am trying to eat sparingly to make it last as long as possible! So we had a fabulous day with them, they really made us feel part of the family.
Other than that, pretty much everything else we have been doing is all wedding stuff, so I will write a separate entry about all that.
