Today we went cross-country skiing at Old School Lake County Forest Preserve. They have some great skiing trails there and we had a lot of fun. Amy posted an article and some pictures on our birding blog Magnificent Frigatebird.
Check out this huge picture of Barack Obama’s inauguration in Washington DC as he gave his speech. It’s a whopping 1,474 megapixels! You can zoom in and see all the faces of the people in the audience. I’ve been trying to find Oprah because I didn’t see her all day while watching the coverage on TV and I was wondering if she was even there. Can you find Oprah?
I love the Lake County Forest Preserves. They are doing such an excellent job, with 125 miles of trails, 26,800 acres of nature preserves, informative visitor centers and great facilities. We’re new residents here in Illinois’ Lake County, and with all the snow and cold weather we haven’t been able to enjoy the forest preserves so much yet these last few months. But come spring and summer I’m sure we’ll explore as many trails as we can. We’ve even got a canoe here, so we can try out some of the canoe launches.
The other day we were at Ryerson Woods Welcome Center, which is just 4 miles from where we live. The parking lot at the new Welcome Center had several parking spaces for hybrid vehicles only! Isn’t that cool? I had never seen this before. Next to the usual handicapped spaces they had some with signs that said “Hybrid Vehicles Parking”. Here’s a picture if you don’t believe me:
And a close-up if you can’t read the sign:
Barack Obama is one electable collectible President. You can buy anything with his face on it, from Obama sneakers and skate boards to action figures and dog bowls. Ty Inc has even released two new Sasha and Malia beanie babies this week!
At Target (in the comics section) I came across President Obama trading cards from Topps that I hadn’t seen before. Obama is already a comic book hero in the latest Spider-Man issue, so trading cards were to be expected. Each packet sells for $1.99 and contains six trading cards and one sticker. There are a total of 90 different cards and 18 stickers. The cards contain educational, in-depth information about the President and his family, quotes, key moments from the campaign and profiles of Cabinet members.
Here are pictures of the pack I bought:
Arby is 14 years old and today, for the first time ever, he went inside a paper bag. He went in for about 30 seconds first, much too short for us to grab a photo. But a few minutes later, he went back inside and even laid down in it for a couple of minutes!
Artists around the globe have been inspired by Barack Obama’s message of hope and change and many have made works of art featuring Obama’s portrait. The most famous one has been the iconic HOPE poster by Shepard Fairey, but many other artists and supporters of the campaign have made more unusual portraits using different materials like butter and beans. Here’s a collection of twenty of these unique portraits featuring the 44th President of the United States. Let’s hope that after tomorrow people continue to be inspired by all the good work that Obama will deliver and continue to make more of these weird portraits to honor the man.
Back when he was an Illinois state senator, Barack Obama made an appearance on WTTW Channel 11’s restaurant review program “Check, Please!” The show never aired… until tonight. Local viewers can check out the full episode on Channel 11 tonight at 8pm or the rerun on Tuesday (that’s Inauguration Day!!) at 4pm. Meanwhile, here are two clips from the shelved episode.
We are having more record cold weather. It hasn’t been this cold here in northern Illinois since 1996. Schools are closed and they’re advising people to stay inside. Right now it’s -17oF / -27oC with wind chills hovering as low as -35oF / -37oC. I haven’t felt this cold ever, it’s quite extraordinary. We just did a little experiment outside with boiling water. From a spray bottle the water instantly evaporates in the dry air and some of it shoots out as ice. Boiled water thrown out from a pan gives the same effect.
Here’s another funny picture of a sign we saw in India. This one is from a Pizza Hut in Jaipur. The sign reads “Only pizzas can smoke”. LOL!
Two years ago we were in The Gambia where we stayed at Paradise Suites Hotel in Kololi. We were in this great country from 5 to 15 January 2007 and during this time we did a five-day birdwatching safari upriver to Georgetown under the expert birdwatching guidance of Ebrima Sidebe. We had a great time and saw over 175 different species of birds. After the 5-day excursion and on our last day in The Gambia we visited Abuko Nature Reserve.
