Deaf Group Outing to Cantigny Park

On Saturday, I went to Cantigny Park with ALDA Chicago. This was an important day for me because it was my last event as Social Chair for the group. I found I still have more to learn about deaf awareness and creating accessible events.

At the Visitors Center we viewed a captioned film. The captions were standard - we did not have to make a special request for this. When we went to the McCormick Museum, we also viewed a captioned film. I learned a great deal about the McCormick family and their influence in Chicago. So far, so good. Unfortunately, when we began our guided tour through the mansion, I discovered that the available lighting was limited. This was in keeping with the practice of the day when the house was occupied. The low lighting may have helped with ambience, but it made lipreading the guide quite difficult. I was dismayed to see several of my friends unable to follow the tour guide's speech. At the start of the tour, we were given a brochure on the home, but it had little of the information covered in the guide's narration. What our group needed was a copy of the script. I don't know whether we would have been given a copy or not (I have had the request denied before), but I wish I had thought to ask.

After that bit, the rest of the day went well even with overcast skies and a little rain. The gardens were beautiful and relaxing to explore. The First Division Museum was very informative on the soldiers' experiences in World War I.

We had lunch at the restaurant on site, appropriately named Le Jardin (the garden in French). This was a wonderful time of socializing. I think we would have liked to stay at the table forever. There were 17 of us speaking, signing, repeating, and writing - whatever was needed to communicate. This part of the day reminded me of the best of my time as ALDA Chicago Social Chair. It was gratifying to be part of making this type of social interaction possible. In future, I will look forward to participating in such events without having the management aspect.

If you would like to see additional photos from my day at Cantigny Park, you can see them on Flickr.

Hilarious Hearing Mistake

I read this story today on Yahoo News. A mother ordered a graduation cake for her daughter with her photo on it. The clerk behind the bakery counter was rather busy and distracted. He looked at her strangely when she asked him to draw a cap on her head in the photo. When the mother returned to the bakery to pick up the cake, she saw that instead of a graduation cap, there was a cat drawn on her daughter's head. Oops! You can read the whole story and see a photo of the cake on this ABC news blog post.

Update to My Kitchen

Long time readers may remember a post about my rose themed kitchen. Well, this spring, I decided to change it all up and go with a completely different look. I started checking out kitchen photos online and decided I liked the white on white look for cabinets. Achieving this was simple enough but it took a bit of courage to cover up the stencils I had painstakingly done by hand. You can see the difference in this side by side comparison:


Fortunately, I like the end result a lot.



The stainless steel countertop remains the same. The cabinets are the same with new paint. The appliances are the same. I got new window treatments - white faux wood blinds to replace the hot pink blinds. I sewed new curtains for the door with material I bought at Joann Fabrics.



Using yellow as an accent color has kept the room cheerful. I bought a new table to replace the aging booth that was falling apart. The last item I purchased was a new floor. I got a patterned gray vinyl to replace the black and white checkerboard. I love it with the dogs because the dirt doesn't show. Funny story: The first time I swept the floor, I lost my dirt pile. I was so used to sweeping it onto a white tile that this time when I went to sweep it into the dustpan, I could not find where it was. This color is great!

More photos available on flickr.