Posts Tagged ‘neighborhood’
Grilling Ty Pennington
Last night I was lucky. I was invited to the Craftsman Experience in Chicago. It is so hot in Chicago right now though. It is like somebody turned on their Weber portable gas grill and left it on. It is just wrong that we are hitting close to the 100s in temperate in September. Down south? Yes. In Chicago, it’s wrong wrong wrong. It didn’t matter what I did last night though — I just looked like a sweaty mess. The train was about 150 degrees inside (I literally felt as if I climbed inside of a Napoleon grill!), and we were squished like Sardines.
That all being said, I got to meet Ty Pennington last night. He was nice and gracious to everyone. (For those who don’t know who Ty is — he use to be the carpenter on Trading Spaces. Now, he’s on Extreme Home Makeover.)
(Special thanks to Kris for taking such an awesome picture!)
Now, I personally didn’t get to do any grilling of Mr. Pennington. However, my friend Kim did and said he was sooooo awesome. He hosted a Craftsman online show last night and they surprised him. Extreme Home Makeover has been on the air 9 years. They showed some clips from the very first season, and we got to meet Sweet Alice:
(That’s Kris with her. I took the picture 
)
Now, Ty often talks about how a single tool can make a difference in people’s lives. Alice talked about how Ty changed not only her life but changed the life of her neighborhood. She talked about how he made her feel like a “somebody” (which we all knew she already was). Here’s the truly amazing thing — because of what he did, she went back to school and now has her PhD!!!!! (Needless to say, when Alice was talking I’m not sure there was a dry eye in room).
Kris, Kim, and I did an interview for the Craftsman Experience show, so as soon as I can figure out where they posted it on the internets I’ll post that too. :) (Please remember that it looks like we all climbed in our very own Napoleon grills. I can’t reiterate enough how hot it was!!! Coming home on the train last night at 9 pm, it was 91 degrees!)
Not only did I get to meet a really cool celebrity, but I learned a life lesson. FTW!
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Wednesdays Hero
This Weeks Soldier Was Suggested By Kathy
41 years old from Ann-Arbor, Michigan
Specialist Ahmed Qusai al-Taayie is a Iraqi American U.S. Army linguist soldier, from Ann-Arbor, Michigan who was kidnapped on October 23, 2006 in Baghdad and has not been seen since.
al-Taayie joined the Army in 2004 to help not only his country, the United States, but also his birthplace of Iraq and was deployed in 2005. On October 23, 2006 he was visiting his wife in the Karrada Shiite neighborhood in central Baghdad when he and his cousin were kidnapped by a group calling themselves Ahel al-Beit Brigades. His cousin was released shortly after. On November 2, 2006 al-Taayie’s uncle received a ransom demand of $250,000 for his return. Along with the ransom came a grainy video that showed a man beaten up who was identified as al-Taayie. No more has been heard from al-Taayie or his captures.
For more information on Ahmed Qusai al-Taayie you can go here
These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived
This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. To find out more about Wednesday Hero, you can go here.
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