Exploring two new book sites: BookLikes offers all members (not just authors) a platform to review and blog and BookBub, which alerts you to when your fav. authors books go on sale and new ones come out. Check out (and follow me on) BookLikes http://booklikes.com/ and BookBub https://www.bookbub.com/users/sign_in
To everyone who wrote a book in 2015…or will finish one in 2016…YOU ROCK. http://ow.ly/Wl23P
To everyone who wrote a book in 2015…or will finish one in 2016…YOU ROCK. http://ow.ly/Wl23P
Snow.
As I was considering this as a topic for this month’s blog, I had to keep the title of my blog in mind.
All Good Things McHenry County. Positive. Always positive.
Not at all what I was feeling this morning as I climbed into my van, covered with a neat cocoon of white powder, yet all neat and dry inside. At least until I turned the ignition with the door still open and my still-on windshield wipers brushed a small avalance all over the drivers seat. Then I trudged indoors, running late again, my feet chilled and wet inside my boots, for a delightful exchange with my oldest son whose less-than-urgent approach to shoveling didn’t jibe with my packed full Wednesday morning schedule.
Positive? Uhhh, not really.
Which is ironic, because I’m one of those rare birds who really loves winter. When the days get short and the weather turns blustery in mid November, I’m all smiles. Yes, the holidays are coming…but it’s more than that. It’s the taste of hot soup and freshly baked bread. It’s the cozy, relaxed feeling of watching movie, sipping a hearty red wine as the night wind howls outside. It’s new sweaters, boots and scarves—the stylish kind. It’s the time of year that you don’t have to feel embarrassed because your legs simply will not tan. Ever. And there’s snow.
I know. It’s a pain to drive in. People die from heart attacks after shoveling. There’s frostbite, Seasonal Affect Disorder. And it’s a pain to drive in. Did I mention that?
But it’s also beautiful, covering the mud-brown dead grass with pristine, luminous white. It’s frosting, layered on tree branches. Mounds of white on birdbaths. It’s the hope of a snow day. It’s replishment for our aquifers, streams and rivers. It’s snowmen, like the behemoth Frosty standing guard in my neighbors front yard. It’s slumbering farm fields banking rural highways, which are still fairly easy to find in McHenry County. It’s the Nippersink Creek as it winds near the Glacial Park conservation district site, on Route 31 south of Richmond, creating a scene worthy of a Christmas card.
If you’re driving that way, slow down and take a look. McHenry County in the wintertime is a beautiful place. And that’s definitely a Good Thing.
Last fall, my husband and I discovered that we could exercise and reconnect with our lost childhood love of skating. Him on wheels, me on blades. After a couple of 
months of renting, for Christmas we received shiny new toys courtesy of the Riedell Company in Minnesota; black “quad” roller skates with green wheels for him, white figure skates for me.
Each week finds us at one rink or another, usually Xtreme Wheels or the Crystal Ice House, both in Crystal Lake.
The Wednesday night Xtreme Wheels “Cheap Skate” can be packed with kids, but what I didn’t expect are a fair number of adult regulars who skate for fitness, and a mostly-teenaged staff, who are delighted to share their expertise with skaters old enough to be their parents. Ke$ha, Taylor Swift, and One Direction provide the soundtrack. It’s fast-paced and fun. I often leave with “Gangnam Style” stuck in my head, and a sense of accomplishment. The 300+ calories I burned in one hour are nice too.
Friday afternoon’s adults-only skate at the Crystal Ice House is relaxed. Serene. While the west rink sometimes hosts high school PE classes, the east rink is limited to skaters over 18, and typically, there fewer than a dozen skaters on the ice. Some are good enough to perform free-style elements (the stuff you see in the Olympics) out in the center. Others (me) are working on basics like crossovers and skating backwards, without falling down. Everyone is friendly, and willing to offer pointers. Music is eclectic and grown-up. Santana, Ray Charles, Sheryl Crow.
Again, calorie burning is an added bonus.
Which is easier? I feel more control in a lighter, tightly fitted figure skate, but a four-wheeled quad-style roller skate provides more stable footing. Tom is more at home on wheels, but recently tried the ice. He’d never ice skated before, but did pretty well, though the lack of a toe-stop/toe-pick on his rented hockey skates threw him. Next time, he’ll try figure skates, which have a toe-pick, and might feel more like what he’s used to.
I never realized it before, but we’re unusually fortunate to have both a roller and ice rink, right in our community. So if you never followed through on that resolution to join a gym, skating—either flavor, is fun, great exercise and easier than you think. For schedules, direction and cost visit www.crystalicehouse.com or www.xtremewheelsfuncenter.com
The few. The proud. The frozen.
I believe God has a special corner of Heaven reserved for sports parents. The sun is shining. The weather is tolerable. The concession stand is open and your team always wins.
Anyone who’s ever spent their Saturday huddled in a lawn chair against howling wind or experienced that special numbness known as “bleacher butt,” understands the reality is a lot different. Over the years, my sons have played soccer, baseball, volleyball, basketball, flag football, participated in karate, wrestling and track and field. All have their unique challenges, but I have to say that nothing builds sports-mom street cred like spring sports, at least in the northern Midwest. Here in McHenry County, April baseball seasoned with snow is not unheard of. And among spring sports, NOTHING beats track and field for sheer windblown/rain-soaked misery. Meets run for hours. Your child competes for minutes.
Yet year in and year out, we do it. I know one mom who’s still spending her weekends at basketball tournaments late in May. Another who chauffeurs her figure-skater daughter to competitions in far-flung locations in the dead of winter. A dad who rarely misses his sons’ events, even if it’s squeezed in between his day at work and his evening band practice. We while away the hours in the stands with laptops, knitting, books, and each other’s company. We cheer on our kids, gripe to each other about the officiating and hope someone knows of an affordable, kid-friendly restaurant that can seat thirty-two on extremely short notice.
Why do we do it? Scholarships? Living out our own lost sports glory? Maybe for some…but for those of us hunkered down in middle school gyms and park district baseball fields, the answer is simple. We do it for our kids. Because playing matters to them, and they matter to us. And when the last whistle blows, buzzer sounds and the final trophy goes to someone else, we want to be there to tell them, “good job.”
Because that’s what ‘love of the game’ is all about.
I admit, I don’t live next door to this thing. Nor am I a bat or migrating bird.
But in honor of Earth Day—(which was last week…but really isn’t every day Earth Day?) I’ve chosen to feature McHenry County’s most visible foray into alternative energy, The Other World Computing wind turbine.
It’s out in a field behind the company’s Woodstock office and as you’re heading in or out of Woodstock on Route 14, you can’t miss it. The thing is huge. According to OWC’s website, the tower is 131 feet tall, and the turbine itself is 194 feet high, extending from the top of a blade. It can produce power rotating at just nine miles per hour and the blade housing turns completely around so it can face into winds of up to 150 miles per hour. The thought of it and an F-5 tornado sharing space isn’t a pleasant one, but hey, that’s just me.
It also produces more energy in a week than what OWCs corporate office uses in a month. The rest is sold back to an energy provider, which powers more local homes and businesses. I think that’s pretty cool. No fossil fuels. No smoke. No freaky Three Mile Island/Chernobyl/Japanese earthquake scenarios to play out. No nothing. Just wind, which we’ll never run out of.
I know there are concerns about noise and wind turbines’ impact on birds, bats, etc. Once you get past their kind of other-worldly novelty, they aren’t much to look at. But regardless of where you fall in the whole climate change/diminishing fossil fuels debate, alternative energy is part of the future.
Nice to see a McHenry County business embracing it.
Bacon. Food of the gods.
No, not really. I don’t recall Zeus, Apollo or the rest of Mount Olympus gang ever sitting down to a big platter of fried pork goodness. Maybe they should have. They might have gotten along better. Or maybe not. Zeus probably wouldn’t have shared.
But we all know that bacon is the food of the moment. Burger King just rolled out a bacon sundae. Every burger place has its own bacon creation and my son even appropriated Wendy’s moniker and calls himself “the Baconator.”
And of course, McHenry County, trend-Mecca that we are…(insert snarky comment, here) has it’s homegrown answer to bacon-mania: Kiera Confections’ “Pancakes and Bacon” cupcake.
Oh no, a blog about two trendy foods?
Relax and keep reading. Better yet, hop in the car and head to McHenry.
The little strip-center bakery is located north of town on Route 31, tucked into one of the shopping centers across the highway from Penneys. Look for the CUPCAKES sign on the building. Owner Kim Loewe opened her business about a year ago, and features a rotating menu of cupcakes, usually themed to the month. July is a white cupcake with strawberries and blueberries. October is Pumpkin Spice. You get the idea.
There are also daily favorites, a cupcake of the day and a few others available any time, by request. One of these is the Pancakes and Bacon cupcake.
It’s a flavorful vanilla cupcake topped with cream cheese frosting, drizzled with maple syrup and sprinkled with bacon bits. While the combination might sound a little strange, the light, moist cupcake, the frosting (which doesn’t clobber your tongue with sweetness) the syrup and chewy, smoky real bacon bits is a winner. The Baconator gave it a thumbs up. My husband passed on the bacon cupcake experience but loved Kiera Confections’ Peanut Butter Cup cupcake. As for me, the Berry Bubbly, a strawberry cupcake with topped with champagne buttercreme frosting, was to die for.
Yeah, I know. Bacon and cupcakes. Too trendy for words. But sometimes, things are popular for a reason.
Kiera Confections, 2620 Schaid Ct., McHenry, IL 60051, 815.385.4372, www.kieraconfections.com ,
In the great Dunkin’ verses Starbucks debate, I’m definitely a Starbucks girl. Nothing against Rachel Ray, America and the stuff both apparently run on, but if I’m shelling out cash for something I could make for pennies in my kitchen, I want the whole faux Euro/Bohemian experience to go with it. Starbucks is a mini escape. Dunkin’ is caffeinated suburbia– in other words, reality. Mine, anyway.
But there are alternatives.
I’ve stumbled across a couple of locally owned shops with good coffee, great atmosphere and that whole community-coffee-house vibe that gets lost when your brew is served in a to-go cup from a drive-up window.
Java Planet on Route 14 outside Woodstock, looks like any other strip-mall franchise, but inside, it’s a welcoming place to sit and sip. My friend Caryl and I meet there monthly to discuss our various fiction works-in- progress. They serve coffee in actual mugs, not paper cups. There’s a flavor of the week and the Irish/St. Patrick’s Day themed brew they had last time I was there was amazing. Sweet and rich, but not cloying sweet and rich. Forgot to ask what was in it, but next time I’m there, I’ll try the special. (Easter Bunny Blend?) They also sell coffee mugs, locally made products, Woodstock’s very own award-winning weekly newspaper (plug!) and those stackable combination tea-pot/tea cups that I really don’t need, but, hey…I just know my tea would taste so much better in one.
If Himalayan salt lamps, notepads with funny sayings, and funky jewelry float your boat, or you’d like your coffee served in a cool mug with a handle that’s crafted from a rock, check out Cary’s Buddha Bean, across the street from the Metra station. This corner shop has the downtown community coffeehouse feel I love, plus a lot of interesting stuff to look at…and buy. No, you don’t have to be a Buddhist to go in, nor will you find anyone meditating but the coffee’s excellent– I had the vanilla (lightly flavored, very nice), the place is friendly and I walked out feeling a touch more Zen than I did when I walked in. On a workday Friday, that’s a very good thing.
So now I’m on a mission to find more locally owned one-of-a-kind (maybe two-of-a-kind) coffee places in McHenry County. I know they’re out there. Got any suggestions?
Cool beans, folks.
I’ll be honest. I never was much of a science girl.
So when I heard about the accomplishments of the Crystal Lake Central High School Science Olympiad teams, I felt a little like an “Are you Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?” contestant who went home early.
My friend Susan told me her son—one of the Science… Olympians?… created a functioning robotic arm from Erector set left-overs and stuff he bought at Home Depot.
For me, a mechanical accomplishment is fixing the rubber thing inside the toilet tank to make it flush right. Building Mr. Roboto over Christmas break was a little hard to get my mind around.
But I do understand what it’s like to set goals and work your tail off to achieve them. That’s what the twenty-four members of Central’s JV and Varsity Science Olympiad teams did.
Beginning in the fall, the students met on Friday mornings before school and worked independently to build robots, play “disease detective,” solve tricky problems in chemistry, anatomy, a variety of environmental science fields and even master something called “Fermi questions.” Not sure what those are, but I’ve got a hunch they concern atom smashing and some machine under the Swiss Alps that could blow us all to Jupiter.
Probably not a category for Jeff Foxworthy, his professional grade-schoolers, or celebrity guests to tackle.
On March 10, the students competed against sixteen other schools in the regional Illinois Science Olympiad at the College of Lake County in Grayslake, which included academic powerhouses Adlai Stevenson High School from Lincolnshire, Winnetka’s New Trier High School, and the University of Chicago Laboratory School. Local schools represented included Crystal Lake South High School, Huntley High School, and Cary-Grove High School.
When the robot racing, disease detecting and atom smashing were over, the kids from Central took second place. There were bigger teams from bigger schools with bigger budgets, but Central showed what hard work and Home Depot parts can do in the right hands.
They’ll get to strut their stuff again on April 14, at the state competition, which will be held at the University of Illinois in Champaign. The field will be larger, the competition stiffer, and who knows…the atoms might even be harder.
But whatever the outcome, the CLC Science Olympiad teams have done us proud.
Smash on.
All Good Things...McHenry County 