PHOTO BOOTH HI-JINX!

These were taken at the highly fabulous Heartland Cafe in Rogers Park, the hip Chicago neighborhood where our dear friends Aaron, Becky and sweet lil' Anya live. We truly enjoyed their company as well as a fantasic Heartland meal topped off with some organic bourbon for Todd.

The DiPfeiffers Hit The Windy City...

Hardware trade show time again! So we loaded up the family and flew to bustling Chicago.

Here's Henry enjoying the city's skyline on the Chicago Architectural Boat Cruise. Highly recommended!! Henry uttered his first sentence aboard the boat...."I want music." Although it sounded more like, "I wan' moozak," which could of course be a Greek dish I don't know about.

That's Henry in the red, white, and blue losing his mind with happiness at the amazing Crown Fountain. Best example of public interactive art I've ever seen.

Of course, it wouldn't be a hardware convention without a little naked slow-dancing. That's Anya Spevacek, super duper cutie bug and daughter of our dear Chicago friends Aaron and Becky. We were also lucky enough to hang out with Todd's high school friend Beth
McKeown Behland and her fun family.

Me and Henry making a pizza at the Chicago Children's Museum. Wouldn't Nonno be proud?

Todd, Henry and I riding a dolphin near Lake Michigan. Please note Todd's porn star mustache. Grown because..."Chicago's a mustache town." It was mercifully removed as a wedding anniversary gift to me. Five years, dudes! The time do fly when you're having fun.

FAMBLY VACATION AT TROPHY MOUNTAIN

So the DiFrancos et al decided to vacation in Central PA this year. (we were asked not to come back to West Virginia) We found an equidistant point between the 4 cities we live in, and found a place to rent. We were very lucky to have found Trophy Mountain Hunting Lodge in Huntingdon, PA. Although it took my parents the better part of a day to find it (directions? we don't need no stinkin' directions), once we all arrived we managed to have a great, cavatelli-filled time. You can see more vacation pix at Tricia's Live Journal. Click on the link to the left to get there.


I loves me a vacation!

Gabriella catches a fish. Tricia reels.














Uncle Richie teaches the boys the finer points of Sumo Wrestling.

Henry is contemplative.

LIGHTS OUT, UH HUH, BLAST BLAST BLAST.

So you know how these days you're reading the paper in the morning, and invariably you come across yet another story of a big city power outage caused by this incredible heat wave. "Poor unlucky sods," you think to yourself as you nibble the end of your raspberry scone.

Yeah, well we were the unlucky sods this time.

This past Tuesday, 'round about 3 am, my kid started crying. As his mother, I was able to intuitively translate his cry into: "Mom, what up?! Why am I lying in a puddle of my own sweat? And what the heck happened to the A.C.?"

Indeed.

When I got out of bed, I realized the power was out. I made my way to the living room and looked outside. Neighbors in various state of undress were congregating outside with flashlights. Me and Henry watched for awhile. I figured I should let Todd know what was happening. So I woke him. Within moments, he too was standing outside with the neighbors, pointing flashlights and talking seriously. Looked like nobody was going back to sleep any time soon. I warmed some milk on the gas stove for the child.

Todd seemed to be out there a long time. I looked out the window to see why, and realized he was chatting up a neighbor. "Hey Luís, how's your house remodeling going?" The man responded amiably, and they carried on a nice conversation. Picture it. It's 3 something a.m. Todd in his boxers. Todd who five minutes earlier had been sound asleep. I laughed in spite of myself. That man sure loves people.

Anyway, blah blah blah. Everyone called the electric company, and they raced onto the scene showing up promptly by 11 am THE NEXT DAY.

By that time, everyone was broiling. We sought refuge in the kindness of good friends Scott and Danielle who lent us their (mercifully) powered house. Our street was affected but not the hardware store.

Henry and I spent the whole day mooching A.C. from anywhere we could. We were central air gypsies. Moving from the library, to restaurants, to the hardware store and back. Did I mention it was 100 degrees out? Without the heat index?

Sure we could have just driven to the mall. If there were a mall around here, and if our car's air conditioning hadn't also recently died. Oh when it rains, it pours. Like sweat down your face.

The power outage turned out to be due to a blown transformer or Gobot or something. In the process of fixing it, they plunged hundreds more of our neighbors into darkness and misery. Yup, love that utility.

Good gravy, I sure am happy to be living with power again. I don't know HOW those pre-A.C. pioneers survived living in swampy ol' DC. God bless Willis Carrier, and pass the ice cream.