News
The Armadillo Club
Singing Armadillos -
DRI Cocktail Party 2010
A few of the Armadillos who attended the Marty Jordan Family Benefit
Dawn, family and guest Armadillo
My husband first on the left.  I am third from the left.  We
were both citizens of the month in our respective classes in
8th grade. I got my award because I was good.  He got his
because his dad was mayor...  You know that's the only
reason that photo was in the newspaper...  

Right:  About 43 years ago. Sadie
Hawkins party at his fraternity.
May 2011 from my Dining Room Window
looking up North Lake Shore Drive-- kinda
like in the movie Ten Commandments when
death goes creeping through the city...
August 23 - View from my office window about 2:30 pm.
Airshow
2011
(from dining room
and living room)
August 2011 Sunrises & Other Photos
Now, you'll notice a bunch of boats still in the water as this fairly obvious
storm approaches... It is always interesting to watch.  Two weeks ago, we
saw a yacht sink its wave runner because it was pulling it backwards as the
storm approached... I've seen boats get struck by lightening.
Someone asked for some shots of how the boats line up in the lake off shore to watch the airshow, so I added a few shots.
You can double click on any of these photos to enlarge. Then hit your "back" button to return to this page.
September 2011:  Sunrise/Sunset
9/1/2011 Sunrise
From Chicago
to our East
Coast
Armadillos with
Love
(View from my husband's
office 9/9/2011)
1992 The Original Endorsement  & 13 Members as of July 23, 1992.   11 of the 13 are still members.  Mary Sliwinski has retired.
December 1994 - Letter to the 30 members as of that date.  At least 25 of those members are still members almost 20 years later.          
Feb. 22, 1995   Letter to members
May 22, 1995  Letter to members - one of first mentions of our male counterparts... (Dan Jordan of course).
June 29, 1995   Letter to almost 50 Armadillos
October 10, 1995    Marty Hollingsworth (Indy) recommends Mary DeYoung in Seattle to be a member.
Nov. 7, 1995   We continue to expand beyond Chicago. Vicky Roberts joins.
Jan. 1996    I propose our first Sadie Hawkins Luncheon for February.
Feb. 21, 1996   Newsletter and RSVPs for 1st Sadie Hawkins luncheon. Brave men joining us were Dan Jordan, Keith Carlson,
Wayne Karbal, D.J. Sartorio and Mike Baughman.
June 1996    Newsletter with Fax Service list of about 66 members.
July 10, 1996   Acceptance of Kathy Waring & Kim Lane (then at Luce Forward) into the Club as we expanded to San Diego and NYC.
Aug. 21, 1996   Newsletter. Lots of good news.
November 13, 1996  6 Full pages of news and announcement of first Cookie Exchange --- everything from child rearing, to food tips to
career advice and how I saw captive coverage firms developing at the time. Who knew 7 years later I would be employed by one!
Jan. 14, 1997   Notice of joint luncheon with CPCU with Armadillo speakers.
Feb. 21, 1997   Second Sadie Hawkins luncheon & my son eloped...
May 1, 1997   Second Sadie Hawkins luncheon. It was reported that Bob Soderstrom was very entertaining and Steve Sonderby
was behaving. Dan Jordan couldn't attend cause he had just gotten married.    Cocktail hour and Investment Club.  
Sept. 10, 1997   Newsletter.  We have over 100 members now.
Nov. 13, 1997   News and Sara Thorpe or Gordon & Rees to attend the 2nd Annual Cookie Exchange.
Dec. 8, 1997   Brief announcements and Ms. Bondi Morrison is warned that oreos and 'Nilla Wafers did not meet the cookie
exchange criteria...   Ever-charming Don Rees mentioned.
May 6, 1995   Hope Nightingale nominates Vicky Kaiser Russell for membership.
April 20, 2000   I almost threw in the towel...  I guess I didn't.
April 9, 2003    First e-mail sent out since joining CNA's captive coverage firm. I had just taught myself how to build websites
and built this one.  Men have obviously been given full rights by now.  This service list has more than 50 women and more
than 100 women.
10/9/2011:   As I contemplated ending the Club, I found a folder with many of the newsletters from the beginning.  It was only after reviewing
them, I realized a couple of things:  

1)  Probably in March, the Armadillo Club will have been in existence for 20 years.  I joined Hinshaw in Feb. 1992, and it was shortly thereafter
that Karen Golden, Ellyn Dorf Hoffman and I got together for lunch and the Club was born.

2) Through all of these letters, I have shared much of my life with all of my friends for the last 20 years.  I always lamented that I never had time
to keep a diary.  I smiled as I read these letters as they comprise a diary of some very important events in my life and the lives of my friends.

For those of you who have traveled this journey with me since the beginning, I hope you enjoy reading these as much as I did. I have another
large box in storage somewhere, but that's a job for another day... or week...or month...   You may need to zoom in once you open the page.
1997
1998
Three amateur shots from my
daughter's New Year's Eve wedding.
Double click on any photo to enlarge.
It was wonderful.
Okay, do I throw a good party???  : )   Now you can see the difference
a great professional photographer makes.  These three new photos
were taken by Andre LaCour. He was fabulous.  I can't wait to see the
rest. He teased us with these. Check him out at: http://andrelacour.com
New Year's Eve, Dec. 31, 2011
Zachary Alan
DOB: 9/24   9 lbs. 15 oz.
You want coverage for what???? Really?
Little Z is a happy camper.
Dallas Armadillos
Baby Zachary at 1 week old and at 26 1/2 weeks in the womb.
Extra-Contractual
Conference in Boston was
great! Not only was it
substantively thorough, the
speakers were great and we
had a lot of fun!  
Congratulations to Matt
Haar at Saul Ewing for all
his hard work Chairing and
to all our Armadillo speakers
who did a great job. (I gave
you all very high ratings...)

Pictured  left are several
Armadillos who gathered
for lunch Wednesday
before the conference at
Local 149 in Boston.
Thanks to Tony Zelle for
arranging that for us.
Local 149 was awesome.
We had the whole place to
ourselves. As you can see
in the pics, the food was
delicious. I left my sweater
and went back for it
Thursday night about 6
pm. The place was packed!

Then several of us
gathered to have  dinner
at Legal Sea Foods
Harborside with the SVP
and General Counsel
(seated at the far end of
the table in the pic below).
For privacy purposes, I
don't post the names of
Armadillos with the pics
on this web site. Next
thing you know, your
opposition would be doing
a google image search for
you and pull up a photo
here! Who needs that???

He graciously treated us
all to appetizers. It was a
lovely evening in a great
restaurant with good
friends.  We have  several
new Armadillos (some
pictured here).

I love DRI conferences.  
They are the best - light
years ahead of any others
that I have attended lately.
The above pictures were taken by my son, John, as we sat in the Family Audience in St. Peter's Square on Saturday, Oct. 26, 2013.   
The Pope was awesome.  If you want to see something really cool, look at this short video (about 30 seconds) of the balloons as the
children let them go and they went up to Heaven.  It was a sight that I had never seen before and doubt I will ever see again.

http://youtu.be/vcgQaBAb5VY
©2013-John W Weaver III
©2013-John W Weaver III
Need to talk
to me???

Contact my
agent -

the
Z man!
For those of you new to the club, this is the
page where I post miscellaneous pictures
to which I refer in my newsletters.

Updated March 6, 2018
Grandma Duty!
Cooking at the farm for 31!
Joshua is doing fine!
Link to my Other Desserts,
including but not limited to
Cookies, Cakes and Pies.
Click Here!
Best Gluten Free Brownie Mix I have found.
You can't tell they are gluten free...
2015
What a ride!
Go Hawks!
Lori at one of my ICCI my cocktail parties.
Lori now....  : )
'Da Boys - Zachary 2 1/2 yr
and Joshua 1 year picture.  
3/22/15: Back in Business - Baking Cookies
at the Farm for my nieces and nephews.
Chicago
Minneapolis
Carol and the boys circa
2004 at a pumpkin farm.

Carol's two
boys with
Karen's two
boys.  Then
and in 2012.  
Thank you to everyone who has sent checks, who attended the Jan. 21
fundraiser and have sent their love and prayers to Carol.  You have no
idea how much your kindness has meant to her.  

Remember - Armadillos are not alone!  We have been a family for about
24 years now.  It's the Armadillo Advantage!
January 10 Happy Hour in Chicago  
APRIL 5, 2017 25th Anniversary Armadillo Luncheon at Macy's Walnut Room in Chicago
by Tom Segalla, Goldberg & Segalla.  Published in the February 2018 issue of
DRI's For the Defense magazine.  Some great recommendations for reading that
helped Tom become the stellar attorney and human that he is.   Posted here with
permission from DRI. Thanks!
The little guys at Disney World - February 2018