When Tiffy Met Stanley

Usually when I write about something involving "Stanley," it is in reference to my arch nemesis--Stanley Thayne. You may remember some of my previous musings about how Stanley Thayne has been one-upping me ever since our first encounter in college. And the worst part is that he and I look alike (see photos)! He is my evil clone. Just kidding. But today I got to meet THE Stanley--Stanley Cup, that is.

Bright and early this morning the Stanley Cup--the holy grail of hockey--paid a visit to the Lincoln Home! The Cup was on its way to the State Fair, since it is currently in the possession of the Chicago Blackhawks who won the 2010 Stanley Cup Finals. As you can see, it was a pretty big deal. The Springfield Police Department was in the neighborhood, along with our law enforcement rangers. At about 8:15, this big, black SUV rolled into the neighborhood, and out came the Stanley Cup.

While it was publicized that the Cup would be at the State Fair, its photo-op stops at the Lincoln Tomb and Lincoln Home were kept "secret." Here is today's staff with the Stanley Cup in front of the home. It was a pretty amazing opportunity to be so close to the historic, iconic Stanley Cup. And, I suppose the Stanley Cup sort of has a connection to Lincoln, since the Blackhawks won the Cup this year, and Lincoln fought in the Blackhawk War? Okay, that's quite a stretch. But it did feel very historic to see the Cup at the home.

The Stanley Cup is different than other sports trophies. If you win the Super Bowl or the World Series, your team gets its own trophy--so a new one is made every year. But there is only one Stanley Cup--it is the same year-after-year. Whichever NHL team wins the Stanley Cup gets to keep it until another team wins it; and each team that wins the Cup has an engraved silver plate added to the Cup. The Stanley Cup tradition started back in 1892 and has been part of American hockey since 1915. Even someone who isn't really into hockey can't help but feel something special about such a storied piece of history.

Greg was a trooper and got up early with me today to go see the Cup. He had a really long (or short, depending on how you look at it) night last night. Someone died, so he was gone from midnight until 3:30 a.m., but there's nothing like a cup of genuine Stanley to wake you up in the morning! This would be a good Christmas card picture, don't you think? Tiff, Greg, and Stanley. As you can see, it's a pretty good-sized trophy. It is tradition for the winning team to drink champagne out of the cup, but we didn't drink any champagne today.

Greg and I even had the opportunity to meet Jay Blunk, one of the Vice Presidents of the Chicago Blackhawks. His aunt lives in Springfield, and he wanted her to be able to see the Cup, so he was instrumental in arranging the trip to Springfield. He was really nice and even signed a hat for Greg and me. What a memorable morning! It's good that I had a good morning because the rest of the day was filled with sweaty, grouchy visitors :-)

State Fair Time

It has been FAIRly crazy around here lately! During this past week, we wrapped up the summer Living History season at the Lincoln Home. On our last day, the whole Living History crew got together to have our picture with Mr. Lincoln. From left to right: Ashleen, Me, Trevor, Abe Lincoln, Melissa, Bob, Crystal, and Beth. It has been such a fun summer, and I loved working with all of these wonderful people! We had a great Lincoln Home Living History party yesterday evening. It was fun to reminisce about all of the exciting (and weird) experiences we've had this summer.

On Sunday evening Greg and I attended another Living History party (with all of the Springfield Living History people) including Fritz Klein (aka Abraham Lincoln). I think Greg was quite smitten with Fritz :-) It's not every day that you get to dine with Lincoln! Speaking of Lincoln, I guess you could say he went out with a bang (no pun intended) on Saturday. Each Saturday during the summer Lincoln (Fritz) has given his farewell speech on the front steps of the Lincoln Home, then led a parade down to the Old State Capitol. Well, this past Saturday--the last farewell address of the summer--Fritz went into the house in preparation for the speech. Then the fire alarm went off! (Remember a few weeks ago the police almost broke down the front door on him because of another alarm.) No one knows what set the alarm off--it was kind of creepy. (I know it sounds like something I would do, but I really didn't pull the alarm.) You could say that the fire alarm was "on the fritz" :-) They had to delay his speech for about 15 minutes while the fire department came and checked the house. It was definitely a memorable way to end the season!

And it's that time of year again for the STATE FAIR to roll into town! Greg and I are having a new experience living close to the fair grounds (we're about one mile away). We can hear everything going on at the fairgrounds--especially the nightly fireworks--which seem to be getting later every night. But it's all quite exciting. We went to the fair yesterday afternoon and, of course, started out by seeing the butter cow. This year's butter cow was a bit of a let-down after last year's butter cow AND butter Lincoln, but it was still cool. Maybe they should make Butter Lincoln a tradition too?

We saw a lot of pigs (actual pigs, not people pigs--well, I guess we saw a few of those too), horses, baby chickens, food stands, and a wide variety of people. The state fair truly is an ethnic Illinois experience. Since we tried the Key Lime Pie-on-a-Stick and the Fried Snickers last year, we decided to go easy on the fried fare this year and just stick with a good ol' funnel cake. It was delicious. We passed the chocolate-covered bacon booth, and Greg was tempted to try it, but it's probably better that we didn't. I have never seen so much fried food and/or food items "on a stick" before--it's amazing. Good times!