My First Award

I've been a delinquent blogger.  When I first started blogging I wondered how people got all these awards. Then I got one and it's taken me about a month to actually respond.  Anyway, I am finally spreading the bloggy love.  I received the Versatile Blogger Award from Holly over at My Life, as Mommy & Wife 

My first award - Yay!! Thank you, Holly, and so sorry for the delay.

Here are the rules for the Versatile Blogger Award: 

1. Add the award to your blog. 

2. Thank the person who presented it to you.  

3. List seven random facts about yourself.  

4. List the rules.  

5. Pass the award onto seven other bloggers.  

6. Inform each blogger they have won by posting a comment on their blog.

My 7 Random Facts:

1. I can't swim and have no desire to learn.

2. My blog pseudonym is the name I used to use for myself when my friend and I
would pretend we were rockstars and sing in our bedrooms.

3. I used to be obsessed with Michael J Fox (until I literally outgrew him).
He's 5'4", I'm 5'6".

4. According to Myers Briggs, I'm an INTJ.
According to an old boss, my work style is passive aggressive.
 Both are right on.

5. I have such a severe fear of spiders, I had to cancel my subscription to National Geographic.
 Those pictures were just too real looking.

6. I don't like coffee but can't get through the day without at least 2 cans of Coke.

7. I love getting rid of things - either donating or throwing away if it can't be used.
Unfortunately for my family, I'm better at purging their stuff than my own.

My 7 Nominees:

The Perfect Compilation Tape
Scattered Squirrel
Nest Your Best
Second Chance To Dream 
My {Not So} Glamourous Life 
Dawn's Disaster 
The Domesticated Princess 

Make sure you stop by their lovely blogs before you leave!!

Mt Prospect Recplex Indoor Playground

Since my oldest is 8 I figured that by this point I had been to or at least heard of all of the indoor play areas around me. Yesterday I found another one.

Inside of the Mt Prospect Recplex is an indoor playground. It has a climbing structure, slide and ball pit. Kids are supposed to be at least 3 and no taller than 48 inches, although I don't think anyone checks.

I took Little Man there and he loved it. We got there about 10 and ended up staying for two hours! There weren't a ton of kids there (maybe 8 at the most) even though the weather was kind of blah this morning.

It's located at 420 W Dempster in Mount Prospect and is open whenever the RecPlex is open - which on weekdays is 530am to 11pm.

The play area is not supervised. There are restrooms, vending machines and water fountains in the Recplex. Little Man had a lot of fun, and the price can't be beat for an indoor place. Best part, since it's about half way between us and Woodfield, I can use it as a reward for being good at the mall or a place to get the wiggles out before we get to the mall.

Two Lives, One Russia

I have had this book on my bookshelf for so long I don't even remember where or when I got it.  As a child of the Cold War I was always fascinated by US-Soviet relations, so much so that when I went to college I majored in Russian and spent a semester in Moscow.  It was in the fall of 1994 and an amazing experience.  It was probably some time after returning from my time abroad that I found this book in a bargain bookstore.  I finally read it last week when I had run out of other books to read, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

It's a true story of a US News & World Report journalist - Nicholas Daniloff - who is stationed in Moscow.  Daniloff is an American citizen of Russian descent.  Towards the end of his posting there he is arrested by the KGB and imprisoned in the infamous Lefortovo prison.  While in the Soviet Union Daniloff researched his family history.  One of his ancestors Alexander Frolov was a Decembrist and was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg.  The book alternates between Nicholas' experiences and Frolov's story. I don't usually read a lot of non-fiction as I find it can be very dry and tedious.  This was not.  It was engaging and the back and forth between the two men's stories and some parallel experiences worked well.  There were some passages that were difficult to read due to the harsh realities of their stories, but that is a testament to how well this was written. 

It's no spoiler to say that Nicholas did get out of Lefortovo - otherwise he obviously wouldn't have been able to publish the book.  Even knowing that I felt myself worrying about him as I was reading it and wondering if he would get out.  I'm not sure how easy this book is to find these days as it was published in 1988, but I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading about the Cold War.