Thursday, December 2, 2010

Welcome to our World of the Weird…

Before I give you all an update on the house, I figure I should give you a little area history.  Here are some things unique to our neck of the woods:

This was the first thing I saw of the area when I came up with Neal for house shopping.  We saw the steam from a long way off and I jokingly said to Neal, “Hey, I bet that is a nuclear power plant.” Sure enough it was.  These cooling towers are seriously huge, reaching 495 feet into the air. Together the units can produce enough electricity to power more than 2 million average American homes.  Now it didn’t bother me that we would be living near one, and I especially felt comforted when I saw their “blast radius”.image

See that little star on the right, sitting pretty outside of the radius? Woot! That’s us! :)

The surrounding area is also home to…

Do you remember this movie?  The team was called the Rockford Peaches, one of the first all-female baseball teams in the world.  Well while they take many liberties with the characters and events in the movie, the team did exist. 

I have yet to go here but I’m told that Rockford has the nation’s finest Japanese Garden.  It seems kinda odd for the midwest but we’ll take it.

Lest you think the place is home to many Japanese American folks (I observe very few, it’s too bad), it is actually the home of one of the highest concentrations per capita of Swedish Americans.

Which brings us to the fact that as of this year we are now host to Illinois first ever Kubb Tournament.  Kubb (pronounced Koob) is nicknamed “Viking chess,”a Scandinavian lawn game where the object is to knock over wooden blocks by tossing wooden sticks at them. Obviously the helmets are essential. Anyone want to help us form a team so we can join in on the fun next year? :)

Ok one last weird one I promise:

Here let me zoom in for you in case you missed it

We don’t live in this town but our branch meets down the street from this place.  You ever wonder where all the extra parts of the turkey goes because Butterball sure doesn’t pack them with the rest of the bird?  Well now you know.  They truly chop them up and deep fry them. We really got into local festivals these past few years but I don’t know if I could ever bring myself to participate in this festival.  Apparently it has been going on for 30+ years.  Should you want to know more you can go here.  Yikes.  People are crazy.

Alright, now that I got that out of my system I can now give you a serious post about our place!  What weird things are happening in your world?

9 comments:

  1. Neal---I was born in Freeport, not too far away from where you guys live now. Small world! My dad taught and coached basketball in Mt. Carroll.

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  2. Totally off of the subjust, but I don't have your email so . . . I need your address and the address of all of your siblings if you have them! PLEASE!!!! you can email me at candiwelchATgmailDOTcom

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  3. Hi Jackie and Neal! Thanks for your Christmas card w/ blog address :-) I have just looked all through you blog and laughed myself silly at some of the pictures :-D Thanks so much for sharing your lives with me and Ed. Love to you all in your new house, w/ new car, and new job! Wahoo!!!

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  4. I just realized after reading this post that I sent your Christmas card to your old address. Hopefully, it will be forwarded. But, for future years, I need your new address. :)

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  5. Good to see you back on the blog!! We miss you!

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  6. Thank you for zooming in....that was awesome. To think you get to pass this inspiration every Sunday!

    Your town looks fun! I'll bet it looks white and windy right now! We will visit in summer. :)

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  7. Yay!! You're back! I stopped checking your blog because of the LOOONG pause in posting, but I missed you and your charming rhetoric...I'm so glad you are back! And you live in an awesome place, it looks like. Way more character than Bloomington. I hope you are doing fantastically! And great chess costumes, too!

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  8. And Amy - how the heck are you? I need your blog address again. I meant to put a link to it from my blog (assuming you'd be okay with that) but my life exploded into craziness, and I somehow mislaid the address. But I miss you!

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  9. Love this post. Miss your fam!

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