You’re invited! Please join the Churchill Elementary Home & School Association at the Annual Churchill Elementary Gala and Silent Auction Benefit - An Evening at the Races - Saturday, May 17th at Whitetail Ridge Golf Club in Yorkville, IL - 7pm to midnight.

This year, we have been fortunate to receive autographed Kerry Wood and Carlos Zambrano Cubs jerseys to silent auction at our event. We are spreading the word to Cubs fans who might like to bid on a jersey and support a great cause at the same time.

Not a lot of baseball right now, so how about a trip to a museum or two???

Museum of Science and Industry

The museum will open at 9:30 a.m. Saturday and offer free general admission for the rest of the month.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-nomuseum_both_11jan11,1,2092843.story

http://www.msichicago.org/info/admission/prices.html

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Shedd Aquarium
Discount week, Jan. 12 to 18

Take advantage of discount week at Shedd Aquarium.

Visit between Jan. 12 and 18, and your general admission is free.

http://www.sheddaquarium.org

I heard about this on the WGN Noon news.

http://wgntv.trb.com/

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http://chicago-restaurants.blogspot.com/

A second heir to the CubsNet.com empire has been born. Meet Noah Michael Steffens, born Friday night, January 12, weighing in at 7 lbs, 2 oz. He and Mom are both doing very well. He has a left kidney problem that may ultimately prevent him from playing tackle football if it doesn't resolve itself without surgery, but won't prevent him from learning to turn a double play.

The day after his sister was born, I held her in my arms in the hospital room as we watched the Cubs beat the Braves in 15 innings.

Two days after Noah was born, we watched the Bears win their first playoff game in 13 years.

Children are truly a blessing. If only they knew what they were getting into by being born and raised to be Cubs fans.

For some reason my friends and family give me anniversary gifts. Anyway, I knew what this was before I had the blanket out of the wrapping. The colors gave it away.

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Photos from Ryne Sandberg Day at Wrigley Field

Advice requested regarding the Hit a way trainer.

I bought a Hit-a-way softball trainer and need to get a pole for it.

The basketball pole here is too big and the thing falls off.

The Hit-A-Way Baseball and Pole Combo sells for around $100 and is out of my price range. I've tried shopping around the internet for a cheaper price for this item, but with no success.

Anyway, I'm looking for another alternative, because $100 for a poll seems a bit steep.

The pole in concrete seems like a plan.

Anyway, I'm guessing someone here has one of these and might have solutions for this project.

My brother-in-law is getting married in September. He and his wife-to-be met at Wrigley Field two years ago. I know it’s a long shot but I am trying to find some memorabilia from that night to be framed. Ideally I would want to find a lineup card or official score card but a game day program or something would be amazing.

The game that I am looking for is May 19th 2004. It was against the Giants where Moises Alou hit a 10th inning homerun to put the Cubs over San Fran.

If anyone has anything that they would be willing to sell or any ideas on where I could look, it would be much appreciated.

My email is johnawells@gmail.com and my AIM screen name is mrmejw.

Hey everyone!

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile, but I had to make a bit of an emergency trip to Florida to help an ailing relative.

3500+ miles later, I'm back.

It was difficult following the Cubs in Florida. The West Coast games (starting at 10pm Florida time) resulted in no game reports in the next day's USA Today.

Comcast Sports Chicago isn't available there, and even finding a game on the radio was unlikely. I couldn't get in WGN-AM there.

WGN-TV was available there, but some of the cable systems really need to tune it in better.

Ronnie the Collie was put to work as a therapy dog, meeting people at three nursing homes / rehab facilities while we were there.

So, did I miss anything?

I have a hunch the Cubbies haven't done well during my trip.

I was watching the "I Want That" show on HGTV last night which featured this item:
Markwort Speed Sensor Ball with LED Display 9" Baseball.

The project info states: Press start, throw the ball, and the LCD indicator displays pitch speed in MPH upon impact.

This sounds kewl! Imagine being able to know how fast you can pitch!

Has anyone tried this thing yet? I wonder if it gets hit with a bat if it gets destroyed???

For more info:

Speed Sensor Baseball
Markwort Sporting Goods Company
Website: www.markwort.com

Hi Friends,

My family is scheduled to offer foster care for a collie that is available for adoption. He doesn't respond to his given name, so we can re-name him if we want.

I haven't met him yet, so I can't tell you much about him.

Anyway, could some of you suggest a new name for this fellow?

We refuse to name him Lassie, even though most of the dogs that played the movie star k9 were males.

I used to have a dog named Cubbie. Would you believe that she didn't fetch?

If he's a howler, I guess we could name him "Ronnie Woo Woo".

PLEASE HELP ME FIND BETTER DOG NAMES!

Thanks!

Diana

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Find out how many days 'til the next Cubs spring training game here

Cubs trivia

I'm back to blogging about the Cubs after what seems like forever even though its only been 2 weeks calendar-wise. That's what a combination of getting a new job, a new car combined with both computer and internet access problems will do: plays havoc with your online activities.

During my absence, the Cubs finally got their act together. Hopefully, that's only a coincidence.

Finally, here's an email that my previous writings here generated:

Hey Rectum,

Saw your Cubs blogging.

To be blunt, you're stupid and uniformed. Guys like Hairston and Ohman wouldn't even make the rosters for at least 1/2 the teams in major league baseball. Yet you champion them just like their champions... ha ha ha. What a tool.

Stick to what you know, which is writing blogcrap about the Cubs and experiencing the futility of getting your writing career launched ... bwaa haaa haaaa!.

It's hard to imagine that too many people will read this, as this is my first blogging experience and I am green in the subject. But here goes, my first entry.
I started this blog a day after I wrote an upbeat column for the newspaper that I work at.
Today, I am writing this first entry just minutes after an 8-3 loss to the Padres in the first game of a twin bill. Holy crap was Kerry Wood just horrible.
Wood gave up five first-inning runs, including a lead-off homer by Geoff Blum. Nice work Kerry. Then the icing on the cake was the ridiclious bare handed throw to first base ... well, actually first base stands.
The following is my upbeat column on the Cubbies. This was a dualing column with another sportswriter who claimed that the White Sox are the best baseball team in Chicago.

My wife groaned when I told her I'd been considering a Cubs blog. We both thought I might be kidding, but the idea's made more and and more sense since I brought it up. Perhaps a small journal could be just what I need to channel my Cubbie exertions. Maybe she won't be drenched in so many spewings about bad baserunning or strikeouts or Why, God, Why Can We Hit So Many Homeruns But Rarely A Clutch Single? ...maybe.

Brief gratuitous bio:
I grew up in Niles, MI (near South Bend, IN), only an hour and a half or two from Chicago. We never had cable so I relied on the occasional Game of the Week broadcast (before Fox and Joe "Aren't I Royal and Rich?" Buch, we had Vin Scully and Joe Garagiola on NBC) or local channels caving to Cub fan influence. Most of the time, however, I listened to WGN Radio...I think Lou Boudreau was broadcasting when I first picked up the signal in the early to mid-80s (I only barely recall the legendary '84 season and was only seven years old at the time). Eventually I talked my dad into putting a very large antenna on top of the house so WGN-TV could come in sometimes. I rarely visited Wrigley Field physically, but knew every inch vicariously. The one time I remember visiting as a kid, Jamie Moyer pitched against Rick Honeycutt and the Dodgers. The Cubs lost 4-2, I recall. Several years later I met Greg Maddux at an appearance at a South Bend mental health facility's opening, but other than that my in-person experiences rarely happened.

Way back in the old days (1970s or '80s) the Chicago Cubs had a traveling basketball team that would play exhibition games in the off season.

I'd love to share some of my photos from those games.

How does one go about posting photographs here?

Thanks!