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Cold Feet, Hot Water

November 7, 2011 by Michelle O'Hagan

Chicago in Winter

Winter in Chicago would be a lot better if it weren’t so cold and so long. I love snow and eggnog and Christmas carols as much as anyone. But the extreme cold–and the months-long duration of the extreme cold–stinks.

It’s November, and I’m already cold. It’s pretty easy to deal with during the day by just wearing more clothes and turning on the space heater in my office. But at night, especially when I’m in bed for the first 10-15 minutes before Patrick gets in with me, I am freezing to the point that my digits start to turn blue. When I get that cold, it takes a really long time–like, hours–to warm up again.

That said, I’m not a big fan of the furnace either. If I set the thermostat above 68°F or so, our bedroom quickly resembles a dry sauna and my sinuses are shot. My dream home-improvement project would be to have someone come into my house and remove the furnace, and replace it with a boiler and radiators.

Today, I settle for the next best thing: About 10 minutes before I go to bed, I throw a couple of fleece-covered hot water bottles in-between the sheets.

One of my Fashy hot water bottles.

They make the sheets nice and warm. Hot, actually, since I fill them with boiling water. They are German imports made by Fashy, and they seem sturdy enough to last for years.

A couple of nights ago, it was super-cold and I put one down by my feet and a another right in the middle of the bed to warm the top half of me as well. When Patrick came to bed, I warned him not to burn himself by flopping down on a German, fleece-covered, scalding, hot-water bottle. He hates that. :-)

He asked if he could just put me in a Sleep Sack and zip me up, so he wouldn’t have to endure bottles of 212°F water in bed with him.

I wouldn't look good in a Sleep Sack.

That’s just crazy-talk. First, I have confinement issues. Second, it would be a problem if I had to get up in the middle of the night for any reason. Third, Sleep Sacks are for babies.

I’m keeping the hot water bottles. And here’s one for the person who has everything:

For the person who has everything: a fur-covered hot water bottle.

Category Chicago, Random | Tags: Fashy,hot water bottles,Sleep Sack,winter | No Comments
Two Cities, Two Finds

October 8, 2011 by Michelle O'Hagan

On this beautiful Indian-summer Saturday, the boys and I found two geocaches in two cities.

In Park Ridge, we found LL#1 – Local Landmarks – Bovine Royalty at the Dairy Queen at Devon and Canfield. What’s not to like about a 4-star find AND an Oreo Blizzard?

One-half of Team O'Hagan with the Dairy Queen cache.

Then, we headed to Niles in search of The Mighty Niles Conifer Seed. It would have helped–a lot–if I had bothered to Google “conifer seed” before I went and pried open a nearby electrical box that contained a mouse nest. To say that the mouse and I were quite startled is an understatement: the mouse buried his head, and I might have peed a little. So, it turns out a conifer seed is actually a fancy name for a pine cone. When I found that out via the trusty iPhone, I was able to spot the geocache right away.

This is a conifer seed. A mouse nest is NOT a conifer seed.

The tiny log, rolled up and inserted in the base of a pinecone.

Team O'Hagan with the conifer seed.

Category Chicago, Family and Friends, Geocaching, Super Cool | Tags: conifer seed,dairy queen,geocache | No Comments
Anatomy of a Geocache

September 16, 2011 by Michelle O'Hagan

I love geocaching. It is something I can do with my kids when we’d otherwise be doing nothing; many times, I end up visiting a neighborhood, or a park or a restaurant I’d never have discovered otherwise. Sometimes it’s just for numbers or to reach a goal, like the day we found our 100th geocache, or the time I found 10 geocaches in one day.

But the hides I like the most are ones that involve history, ones with a real story; or hides that have a “collateral” find, that is, something unexpected beyond just the cache itself.

This week, a new GC, “Not Just Another Hole in the Wall,” was posted on geocaching.com, and since it’s near my office, I took a lunchtime walk to check it out. It was rated 3.5-star difficulty / 1.5-star terrain, and it involved a puzzle, so I knew it would take longer than a lunch hour to grab it. A reconnaissance mission was needed.

First, I went to the Merchandise Mart, somewhere I’ve been at least 100 times. But in order to solve the puzzle to determine the GPS coordinates of the GC, I had to check out the “born” and “died” dates on the Merchandise Mart Hall of Fame busts which, frankly, I’d never paid attention to before. So, I’m already smarter than I was before this cache. ;-)

The Merchandise Mart Hall of Fame

After figuring out the GPS coordinates, the next step was to look for a rare earth magnet hidden inside a magnetic keybox attached to a metal railing down by the river. The magnet would be needed to dislodge the cache from its hiding place, and the GC description told me where I’d find that box with the magnet.

The magnetized keybox was attached to this railing.

The cache title implies that the tiny hide is somewhere in a hole in the wall. And the coordinates show that the wall in question is located at the Chicago Riverwalk that runs along Wacker Drive. But there are hundreds of holes in that section of the wall. And there are hundreds of people (muggles) walking around here at lunchtime.

The wall at the Chicago Riverwalk ... a lot of holes in this wall!

So, for nearly 45 minutes I casually strolled along in front of the wall, having a fake telephone conversation, acting like a tourist enjoying the view, all the while surreptitiously jamming my fingers into every hole in the wall I encountered. When I was about to call it a day, I spied the prize.

Holes in the wall: There's a geocache here somewhere!

And there is it. You don't see it? Really? It's that thing in the hole that looks like part of the hole.

The magnetic keybox with the magnet inside. I used the magnet to dislodge the cache from the hole in the wall.

The geocache, in front of a ballpoint pen I used to sign the tiny log sheet that is rolled up and sticking out of the top.

Armed with the knowledge of the location of the cache and the magnet needed to retrieve the cache, I walked back to work looking forward to Day #2 (today) when I’d make the grab, sign the log, return the cache and magnet to their proper places and continue to love the fact that there are hundreds of tiny containers all over the city that only I and a handful of others know anything about.

Category Chicago, Geocaching, Super Cool | Tags: Chicago Riverwalk,Merchandise Mart,Rare Earth Magnet | No Comments
The Midnight Sun

July 20, 2011 by Michelle O'Hagan

Chicago Is Hot Today!

Every few summers, Chicago experiences a heatwave that includes a stretch of more than a few days in which the high temps reach 90°F or above. For the last few days, it’s felt like a sauna around here with oppressive heat and humidity the likes of which I haven’t seen since … well, since I left Arkansas.

Not to “one-up” anyone, but this weather is completely normal in Little Rock, Arkansas. And by normal, I mean an entire summer–yes, about three straight months–of high temps in the mid- to upper-90s with high humidity.

It IS hot in Chicago right now: the air conditioner in my 85-year-old house has been running nonstop for the last few days, yet the inside temp never gets below 74°F. And people around here are acting like we’re all in that Twilight Zone episode: The Midnight Sun.

I chuckle when I hear/read comments like, “This must be what Hell is like.” Actually, this is exactly like what living in the South is like. I can’t get too upset over the outside temp of 97°F, especially when the temp inside the building in which I work seems to be about 65°F (as I write this, there is a space heater humming away at my feet).

And really: by mid-September, I’ll be wearing fleece and hoodies. By mid-October, the down jacket will come out of hiding and won’t be put away until May 2012.

And then it will be Chicago’s turn to chuckle at the folks in Arkansas when 1″ of precipitation causes a run on milk and bread at the local Kroger. :-)

Category Chicago, Not Cool At All, Random | Tags: heatwave,summer,Twilight Zone | No Comments
Before & After:
Kitchen, Living, Dining

July 10, 2011 by Michelle O'Hagan
We purchased our house last April and since then, lots of friends and family have asked us to post photos.

For the first four weeks, we didn’t live in the house; Patrick tore it up. And since we are on a budget, we had to pick and choose what to do now, and what will wait until later.

The house is a frame bungalow with 1.5 floors and a full basement. For now, we chose to fix up three rooms on the main floor: the kitchen, the living room and the dining room. Next will be the master bedroom and the basement. After that will be the boys’ bedroom and the bathroom on the main floor. Last will be the partially finished attic.

We wouldn’t have been able to do any of this in such a short time without a LOT of help. The drywall, trim, paint, tile, carpentry, and–most important–the electrical work, were performed flawlessly by Patrick’s many friends and acquaintances, experts and artists all. Without further ado, here are the pics of what we’ve accomplished so far.

The Kitchen

The kitchen as it looked when we bought the house

This is where the dishwasher lives now.

The kitchen as it looks now.

Another look at the kitchen today.

What’s New in the Kitchen:
- Drywall, paint and trim on all four walls
- Removed many layers of linoleum and replaced with ceramic tile
- Cut a hole in the cabinets for the dishwasher
- Cut a hole in the cabinets over the stove for a microwave
- Removed drop ceiling; then installed drywall over the existing plaster ceiling
- Installed new single-bowl sink, new faucet, garbage disposal, dishwasher
- Installed new stove, microwave
- Installed new ceiling fan
- Installed new electrical for dishwasher, microwave, garbage disposal, DIRECTV outlet, ceiling fan, GFCI outlets
What’s Left to Do:
- New cabinets, counter tops and back splash (someday)
- New window over sink
The Living Room, View #1

Living room, looking into dining room: Before

Demolition

Living room, looking into dining room: After

The Living Room: View #2

Living room demolition.

Living room: Today

What’s New in the Living Room:
- Drywall, trim and paint on all four walls
- New electrical outlets for entertainment center
- New window coverings
What’s Left to Do:
- Ceiling fan
- New windows
- Could be major changes depending upon what we do in the basement
The Dining Room

Dining room, looking into living room: Before

Dining room, looking into living room: Today

What’s New in the Dining Room:
- Drywall, trim and paint on all four walls
- New window coverings
- New thermostat
What’s Left to Do:
- New chandelier
- New dining room table and chairs
- New windows
Next Up: Master Bedroom and Closet
Category Chicago, Family and Friends, My Home | Tags: | No Comments