Will Work for Cool Stuff

Though I don't get paid for my work with the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency and the Lincoln Home curator, I do get to see and do a lot of cool things. So, I get paid in experience and chances to hold things like an actual handle from Abraham Lincoln's casket! I found this little gem down in the depths of the IHPA archives. There's something really neat about holding such an important piece of history in your hands.

A couple of weeks ago at the Lincoln Home, I got to see a book that belonged to Mary Lincoln. She had written her name inside the front cover. And here is something else I found in the IHPA archives: a collage of fabric that belonged to Mary Lincoln. So I'm having a lot of fun and learning some great things in my volunteer work.

I am currently listening to the BYU vs. San Diego State basketball game on the Internet. It is SO CRAZY!!! Jimmer Fredette is crazy good. I really, really hope BYU can pull this game out, and then hopefully they will have a good seed in the NCAA tournament next month. I definitely have a serious case of Jimmer Fever.

Fantasy Baseball

Greg and I are part of a Fantasy Baseball league with our friends David and Teal. Our team is the Springfield Death Dealers! Anyway, I'm just doing this post so that I can upload the logo I made--because in order for the logo to display on our team page, it has to come from somehwere on the Internet. Here's hoping for a good season!

Auntie Reah

Mom called today and gave me the sad news that her dear aunt Reah Wilcken passed away yesterday. "Auntie Reah," as we kids all called her, was one of my favorites. She was always so nice to her great-nieces and nephews. When I think of Auntie Reah, I automatically think of hummingbirds. She loved hummingbirds and had little hummingbird knickknacks all over her house. When I was young, she would always give me some little "hummingbird egg" candies for my birthday. When Auntie Reah still lived in Salt Lake, Mom and I would often go up there to have lunch with her. A while back she moved to St. George, and it was nice for Grandma F.T. and Grandpa Dick to have her there close by. We always enjoyed stopping to see her when we were in St. George. Unfortunately she had not been in good health for some time now, so I suppose it was good she could pass on, but she will be missed. She asked that Mom give her life sketch, which Mom will do at Auntie Reah's funeral in Salt Lake on Monday. I wish I could be there! But I'm sure it will be a very nice service. In other sad news, Dad is in the hospital again with intestinal complications (possibly related to his surgery in September). :-( Thankfully he is doing better today than he was yesterday. Please keep him in your prayers!

Presidentsmas Weekend

Happy Presidentsmas! Greg and I went to visit his grandparents in Iowa this weekend, and one morning I was watching the Cartoon Network. They were doing a weekend promo called Presidentsmas, and they kept showing these funny animated videos about different Presidents. My favorite was the song about Thomas Jefferson and macaroni and cheese. Anyway, I hope you are all enjoying a nice slice of cherry pie in honor of President's Day. Greg and I had cherry pie and cherry ice cream this evening! My favorite President's Day-ish story is from my time at the Lincoln Home. One day we had just finished a tour of the house, and I was in the backyard with my group. One man asked, "Where's the cherry tree?" I said, "What cherry tree?" He said, "You know, the one Lincoln cut down, and then he lied about it, but then he said he could not tell a lie and he became Honest Abe." I said, "Actually I think you're thinking of George Washington." He said, "But Lincoln was Honest Abe." I said, "Yes, but Washington is the one who cut down the cherry tree." The man said, "Oh, well where's that cherry tree?" I said, "Washington never really cut down a cherry tree--it's just a myth. But if he had cut down a cherry tree, then it wouldn't still be around anyway because he cut it down." He thought about that for a minute and said, "Oh, yeah, I guess so." :-)

Greg, the dogs, and I returned home yesterday from our nice weekend in Iowa. Here are the Spikes the night before we left. I went to get into bed, and this is what I found: two dogs in my spot! Lily got to stay home and take care of the house while we were gone (she hates riding in cars), but she got the whole house to herself, complete with a kitty food buffet, so she was happy. We had a really nice visit with Greg's grandparents and were able to help out a bit around the house. Grandma Gray fixed quite a feast for us! I think Grandpa Gray especially enjoyed seeing Little Spike--those two have been buddies for a long time. When it was time for us to go, Little Spike didn't want to leave Grandpa Gray's side--it was so cute. On the way home, Big Spike figured out how to roll the windows down in the car! That was interesting. Luckily the driver's door panel also has controls for the back windows, so Greg was able to roll the window back up. It was quite the Presidentsmas weekend.

Chicaghetto

Today I went with Greg to deliver a body to Chicago. It sounds very Al Capone-ish, doesn't it? It certainly felt mobster-ish to be delivering a body to Chicago--especially in the part of the city we were in! The nice lady from Athens who died had decided to donate her body to science, so we were delivering her to the Anatomical Gift Association of Illinois. It sounds legitimate enough, but when we found ourselves in the industrial slums of Chicago (I started singing the Elvis song "In the Ghetto"), at a warehouse underneath the train tracks, right next to several shady-looking pawn shops, I wondered just what kind of "science" her body was being donated to. But hopefully she will end up at a good medical school where she can help doctors-in-training learn how to help people.

Once we found our way out of the ghetto, we planned on having lunch at one of my favorite Chicago spots: Navy Pier. The two times I had been to Navy Pier in the past, however, I had walked there (from the Sheraton with Mom and then from the Sears Tower with David, Teal, and Melissa), and I was unaware of just how much it costs to park at Navy Pier. We decided that since parking would probably cost more than lunch, we would head out of downtown and find a good place to eat. Here's a shot of the Sears (Willis) Tower with the remnants of the recent massive snowstorm. It was a really nice, warm day today. We went to a restaurant in Willowbrook, Illinois, that my friend Melissa had recommended. It's called Portillo's, and we had some amazing Chicago-style hot dogs there--complete with onions, pickle slices, tomato slices, sweet relish, and peppers. We enjoyed them so much that we bought a few extras to bring home. So delivering a body to Chicago wasn't really as exciting as it sounds, but we had a good day.

And, I was happy when Mom called to tell me that we had made the BYU homepage! You can see the article by clicking here. Back during my Lincoln Home days I had been given the assignment to have a tour booklet translated into several different languages--and I was given no guidance whatsoever on who should do the translating. I immediately thought of BYU, and it turned into a class project for some students there. Before I left the Lincoln Home, I had written to BYU, telling them about the students who had done a great job on the brochure translations, hoping that it would give them some good press (my dad gave me the idea to do this--it was a great idea!). The last I heard, BYU had contacted Laura for more info. on the project, so I figured that the news story would die in her hands (she didn't really agree with my choice to have BYU do the translations, but she didn't have any other ideas)--and so I was pleasantly surprised to see that BYU published a really nice feature article about the project. It's things like this that make me glad I worked there.