Someone Left the Cake Out in the Rain

I need to get out more to reconnoitre this lovely city because you know what? The ice cream store is gone! Vamoosed! Emptied! Skedaddled! As in not there anymore. Gone, baby, gone.When did that happen? Was anyone watching? Clearly, I wasn't.

Now I do know that it wasn't Baskin & Robbins for a long time. It morphed into something else, like a soda shop with dozens of candy jars.  I like ice cream and candy a lot, so this struck me as a sound business plan.

Prior to that, like every other red-blooded inept baker mother, I bought tons of cookie clowns, birthday cakes and ice cream pies for years. (This is obvious to the naked and not-so-naked eye.)

Our family spent many a summer's night in and outside that store. It's where daughter No. 1 eyed her sister's mint chip cone and asked if she could have a lick. Contemplating the request a beat longer than was necessary, daughter No. 2 shrugged, leaned in and licked her sister's arm.

In this life, sometimes you get what you ask for.

As for me, I'm hoping for another ice cream store.

On Your Mark, Get Set....

Okay, pilgrims, scram.

The city hosted an electric Christmas parade on Friday, but due to a bum foot, we didn't join the masses. Same for Black Friday, though we did take advantage of some online toy buying, something we haven't done in maybe 15 years.
 

Did you know you can STILL buy this?

And this?

For once, I don't feel overly outside the space/time continuum. These toys are great. They are colorful. Most of all, they are reassuring because they still exist unchanged, like Moonpies and RC Cola.

An Oyly Thankmas

Upon seeing Christmas wreaths outside the Jewel this afternoon, I realize that Oyly is the only proper response. It combines that perfect exclamatory response to every circumstance -- Oy veh! -- with early. For indeed, oyly it is. (And whom do we see about that?)

Clearly, retailers invented Thankmas to either annoy us and/or make us feel like we were being chased. Congratulations, I'm beginning to feel both annoyed AND out of breath.

Can we please respect the Pilgrims just a bit longer? Thank you.

Hiatus

I'd like to introduce you to my greatest AND smallest fan, Zachary. We had a playdate this afternoon. I'm beat. Zachary, however, is still raring to go. A fine quality in any person, particularly one in the so-done-with-crawling-ready-to-walk phase of his life.

Naperville Now will take a short break for some fine tuning of the author on Friday the 13th (I am not suspicious in the slightest, knock wood.) So leave me a bunch of messages and ideas for the blog and I'll be back at it next week.

In Honor, In Gratitude

Healing Field of Honor

Nov. 11, 2009 on Rotary Hill

2009 flags fly in honor and in gratitude for their military service

On the Right Path

As you may have read here and elsewhere, residents living near Royce Road dodged a serious garden RPG this summer. The existing garden plots on West Street will be enhanced while our corner of paradise will remain unmolested, at least for the time being. Thank you once again, powers that be.

However, a new bike path was forged in the wilderness this summer at the intersection of Royce and Washington roads, meandering toward Whalon Lake. We headed out on Sunday to check on its progress.

I love this path. I've never been taller nor looked so thin. (Honey, you look great, too.)

There is still work to be done, of course. And on Sunday, when these awesome photographs were taken, workers were swarming on both sides of the path, raking, seeding and conferring. (Did I mention conferring?)

Bikers whizzed by us, joggers plodded onward and yellow labs outnumbered all other breeds 3-to-1. Go us, for being so aerobic on Nov. 8th.

Once complete, I daresay we will have a really awesome, available to everyone, cost effective, reasonably aesthetic enhancement to our town.

Night Life

I haven't been paying attention to downtown Naperville these past few months. With the construction on Washington, I've taken my meanderings well east and away from that unholy vehicular blood clot at Chicago and Washington.

Last night, however, the golfers and golfettes gathered for a little Irish cuisine (some might argue the pairing of those words) and then headed to Blackfinn. If you remember Leonardo's Pizza, this is the same building. Blackfinn fills all three stories, but the decor is definitely mahogany-er and HD-er than its predecessor. In fact, on the first level, each booth has its own flat screen TV. Each booth. More TVs are located on nearly every bit of wall space, except where there's a portrait of George Washington. I hope someone will get back to me on that.

Upstairs, there's more bar, BIGGER flat screens and MUSIC. And a nice wait staff. Plus another GW portrait. Our presence pretty much skewed the mean age of the patrons, but in that we left before 10 p.m., Gen Y was safe to hob and knob the night away.

A few buildings away, there's a new (to me) gelato place. And there's some construction on a building facade just beyond that. And is that a new awning on Front Street Cantina? Jefferson Street, change becomes you.

In that it would have been quicker to walk from southwest Naperville to downtown than find a parking place (and yes, we did cruise the parking garages), it would seem the world is spinning a little faster and a little more profitably. Glad to see that our economic shorts are less knotty these days, at least in downtown Naperville. Cheers.

If I can find a place to park, I'll get out and take a picture of the restaurant from the street level. This publicity photo could not be more uninspiring.

Mulling

No, not cider, but what direction I want this blog to go (or limp, more fittingly). Frankly, I don't seem to be able to drum up conversation that is a.) funny and b.) sustainable over three paragraphs.

If you get a chance, read dooce.com. Heather Armstrong writes THE funniest blog with the best photography. It is priceless. Second runner-up is TheBlogess.com. Tonics both. If you're a francopohile, leave a note here and I'll email you the urls to some delicious sites authored by natives and non-natives alike. Eye candy plus. Also, I can decipher most of the French, with a little help from babelfish. (Sorry, Pop. It's been a long long time, from May to December, and I haven't taken a French class since DeGaulle was in office.)

Off to the store to replenish our "cave." Passez un bon weekend, everyone.

(This should get us through until Monday.)