First day back to work from my first furlough. Didn't miss this place a bit. The amount of important email stacked-up is actually overwhelming. New projects coming up that actually scare the hell out of me. No, really. I am worried sick about this one thing coming up. All-in-all, I don't feel good being back here. Maybe it'll all work itself out... by the time I go on my next furlough...

Nope. No change. How long do you wait until you give up?

Nothing is better than spending the day with your friends, barbecuing, drinking, eating, talking and having a good time. That's what we did at Barry & Buffy's today. Barry grilled some pork chops (and a chicken breast for Deb), Carol made a salad, Buff made some corn on the cob. Wonderful. Pat made a great blueberry bundt cake for desert. Yummy. I love days like this. Wish we were together hours earlier and stayed hours later.

I don't know... the hostas don't appear to be getting any better.

Spent a long time this evening trying to kill a wasp nest inside the cable demark box on the outside of the house. Took a while, and I soaked the mother and every damn wasp I could see.

Today - I SLEPT. For HOURS. Though I was up and about, I just napped on the couch, finally getting up after noon. Had a nice drenching rain storm go through early this evening, so I didn't have to water anything today. Of course, I had to find another problem - I just happen to walk by the garage and noticed some water dripping from the gutter. I didn't think the gutter should be dripping any water. So, I grabbed a ladder, which is just too short to really use on the house, grabbed my camera and reached up into the air and took a shot of the gutter. FULL. The gutter was clogged. I got a stick and moved some gunk )since I couldn't see it, it must have been leaves or something) and got the gutter unplugged. Gushed out the downspout, but didn't was away any pea gravel. Hostas status: no change.

Carol got out of work early and we went to the AMC South Barrington 30 to catch a 5:00 showing of Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. Action - good! Script - weak, though it actually does tie everything together in one neat bow. Worst acting ever: Natalie Portman. She looked gorgeous, but her acting was terrible. The script turned her from a strong leader to a woman without a backbone. Terrible.

I actually shed a tear at the end. Not because of the acting, not because of the storyline. Because it's over. Six movies and 3 decades. It's over.

Diane's back at the house today. I finished with the border in the front garden, and built another along the garage, where Diane had reworked the soil. More Home Depot shopping where we picked-up and then planted some Day Lillies on either side of the garage door. We got some pea gravel and we worked some areas around the downspouts. Diane also dug-up some large groups of hostas out of her garden, split them up, and replanted them under our hawthorn tree. Um... I don't know - they're not looking so good. I'll water them every day, but... I don't know...

So, the phone call that I took at the movies was that Carol wanted to go shopping for her chair. It's a chair for the family room that matches the couch. When we got to La-Z-Boy, they no longer had the couch on display in our color, so it was easier to look at alternatives (Carol didn't like the color of the chair - it matched the couch pillows, and it may look good on pillows but not on an entire chair). We found a chair that she liked and it was significantly cheaper than anything we were looking at before, so we ordered it. We then took a ride to Ethan Allen in Arlington Heights to look at a media cabinet. It's part of a much larger entertainment center, but all we wanted was the low cabinet to replace the base of the TV we have now, and in preparation for acquiring a much larger TV in the near future. We didn't buy the cabinet - I had to measure the shelf areas and make sure all of the equipment fits. It looks like it will.

I went to the AMC South Barrington 30 this afternoon to catch a 2:15 showing of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I'm not sure what I was expecting - my exposure to the storyline is the BBC TV miniseries. I liked the movie (I'm not going to rave about it - I don't think it's worth "raves"). The character I was most disappointed in was Mos Def - I felt he just mumbled his way through the picture. A disappointing performance.

Had an unusual experience in the theater. For the ENTIRE movie, I was the only one in the theater. No one even poked their head in to see what the crowd looked like APR peek at the movie. It was my own private screening. Carol called my cell phone during the movie. I actually talked on my cell phone in the middle of the movie - I wasn't disturbing ANYBODY!

It's my first day off in months, and my sister Diane comes over to work on our front landscaping. After a trip to Home Depot (Where I had a bird take a dump on my head, thank you very much) we started working on our tasks. For me - trimming out the area with decorative brick. It's not quite as easy as it looks, but it's looking great. Diane's trying to rework some of the dirt in the corner by our second burning bush. The dirt around the house is absolutely terrible - clay and construction rubbish, loaded with rocks. We had another trip to Home Depot and called it a day. It's starting to look real good.

It's that time of year again when we get together and celebrate Carol's & Debbie's birthdays'. This year, Carol came up with the idea of just going to Chinatown, walk around, shop, and just find a restaurant to have dinner at. So that's what we did. I drove everyone down to Chinatown, parked, and walked down Wentworth. We stopped in a few stores to look around. We walked a few blocks, and finally settled on a restaurant at the end of the street, with the un-Chinese name of Evergreen. We went inside and it was more than half empty, with many tables of 10 just sitting there idle. Our hostess struggled to find us a table, as it sounded like they were going to be busy tonight. The cobbled together a table for 5 in a corner of the room( Which actually blocked-off serving traffic to some of the tables). We ordered a Deluxe Dinner for Five with an additional order of roast duck. We COULD NOT BELIEVE the amount of food that showed-up at the table! No, really! The table was covered in serving dishes and we barely had room to maneuver anything around. LOTS of food came home with us? Oh, and those empty tables? FILLED! A Bus pulled-up outside and people poured-in. They all had ID's from the National Restaurant Show! Guess we picked a good place... the food was wonderful... all of it.

We "waddled" back up Wentworth, stopped in more stores, and drove back to Barry & Buffy's for desert - a birthday cake from Dinkel's which was great as well. A nice, fun evening.

We've seen a new rug store open up in the area. I'm always leery about these places. Then we got a flyer in the mail and it looked like it had promise. Tonight, we went shopping at the store - Capel Rugs - and we were really surprised. The store was huge, the selection was huge, and the prices were damn affordable. We wound-up coming home with not one but two rugs, identical except for size, for the dining room and living room. (How the hell we got the big rug home in my car was a damn miracle - my car has a small pass-through hatch from the trunk into the back seat and the rug was tightly wound enough to fit through the hole, with the rug resting just 6 inches short of the stick!)

Spent most of the day making sure things run OK while I'm gone.

Gone? Yeah. Starting Monday I will be out of work. Without pay. For a week.

I'm being furloughed. Actually, all of the contractors are being furloughed for a total of two weeks sometime in the first quarter to help the company make some numbers. My first week is next week - the week before Memorial Day. The second week will be the week before 4th of July.

Quite frankly - I'm REALLY looking forward to this!

Carol and I went out and got a new microwave tonight. What's wrong with the old one? Nothing, really. It's just 20 years old, has a manual wind-up turntable, and it's huge and doesn't have the cool settings that the newer ones have (you know, like throw in a bag of popcorn and just press the "Popcorn" button - it's times it out correctly with its internal sensors). Also, you can make the beeper quieter - great for the real late night snacks where you're trying not to wake up your spouse...

So, today is Carol's Birthday. We spent the night with restless sleep, each of us taking time to check-up on our little Chip. He's not eating, he's not moving around. About 2:30 this morning I just picked him up out of his cage and held him for a while, trying to make him feel better. Even Indy didn't know what to do - she just looked at me as if to say "I don't know what's wrong here - you have to do something."

When morning came around, Chip wasn't any different. We both went to work. Carol called the vet - no openings this morning, but she could just show-up and they'll treat it like an emergency, wedging her in between appointments.

Back to long sleeves and coats.

Figures that we have White Sox games this weekend - we're back into what appears to be annual cycle of "if the White Sox are in town and are playing on a weekend, the weekend is going to be crumby".

Since the Chicago Wolves lost the other night, they have to play Game 5 of this round tomorrow night. Big deal, right? It is when it's your wife's birthday. So we went out to dinner tonight (nothing fancy - she had a craving for meat, so we went to Outback).

We seem to have a problem - our youngest bunny Chip is not acting right. He was fine this morning, running, jumping and zipping around the family room. Tonight - he's not moving much, if at all. He looks uncomfortable. When we pet him, he "vibrates". Based on our history of rabbits, that's a strong indication of pain or discomfort. He's looking for a place to be by himself. We're going to have to watch him.

It's been in the 70's for days now. This morning, we've got a major thunderstorm coming through (cool!) which is already forcing the temperatures downward. It's supposed to be in the 40's by the time I leave to go home...

and me, dressed in short sleeves and no jacket...

We have barely had the fresh paint on the walls for, what, 5 days?

There, on the stairs, I can see where a certain older female bunny has satisfied her urge to chew by chewing on the fresh paint on the outside corner of the wall! I guess we setup the gates a bit too late.

Time to break out some touch-up paint!!!

Carol took today off to try to start putting the house back together from our pre-paint pre-flooring days.

Today - in what I consider a smart move - she hired some movers to move furniture from the garage into the house. Took less than 30 minutes and saved us pain and agony of a few days, not to mention a drastic reduction in yelling and arguing on how a certain piece of furniture fits/does not fit through certain doorways.

I know I'm going to somehow wind up complaining about this, but it's actually hot outside! It's humid and almost in the 80's, sunny, not much of a breeze.

We drove into the city to pickup my Mom to bring her over to Diane & Melinda's so we can go out to dinner. Diane told Mom to have me get off the Kennedy Expressway at Fullerton just to see "Underpass Mary" or "Our Lady Of The Underpass". Well, we did, but we didn't know that the image is actually on the north side of the underpass and we were going southbound. We couldn't see it at all - all we could see is a crowd of about 50 standing around where the image would be. Odd - very odd. Yet, somehow, I feel compelled to see this before it gets defaced again or changes due to rainfall or whatever.

We went out to dinner at Tufano's Vernon Park Tap, which is pretty decent Italian food - nothing fancy at all, but good. We went back to the house and did the present thing. There was a fire truck and ambulance down the block at the nursing/retirement home. They're there so frequently, that they don't even use sirens anymore - just lights. Sad.

We didn't stop on the way home. Still have a need to see this... icon?

Time for my annual commute to the White Sox Yard Sale (formerly Garage Sale) at U.S. Cellular Field. Again, this year it was held in the Patio area while Family Day was held out on the field itself, where the outfield was covered with families running around playing catch. How cool it is to watch these families - dads and sons and daughters just playing catch in the outfield of a major league ballpark. It really is special. Sort of a weird passing of the torch, inspiring the young ones to get involved in baseball.

Anyway, there weren't many racks of game-worn jerseys this year - I think there was only 3 or 4. The "deals" in jerseys would be the most recently traded or released players - this year, that would be Carlos Lee and Jose Valentin - both players had at least half a dozen jerseys on the rack that went quickly. This year, I picked up a jacket for Carol (a gray "Away-Style" version) and one for me (the standard black "Home-Style" version). at $75 each, they were a steal. I can't find any ID in Carol's jacket, but I found a "46" in mine - I guess that would be Neal Cotts.

Good turnout. I don't know why people buy player's hats. Just don't want to wear something that sweaty. And bats? Most of them were cracked, but some were still in good shape. Had some catchers gear, too. Actually the best deal is the Media Guides from all of the MLB teams for 25 cents each.

Odd things? Bricks from old Comiskey, Parking Lot signs, and very worn On-Deck circles (pads).

That's it - John and his crew have completed and are we happy about the quality of his work (You need a painter in the Chicago area and we'd be more than happy to give you a recommendation). It's hard to get the feel of the place - it's way different and looks great, but it's different, too, compared to the last 20-some years. It takes getting used to.

Went to Expo Design Center tonight and looked at area rugs. Fell in love with one that's on sale. I mean, it called out to me from across the room. Alas, we don't have the money - even at 50% off - to buy it tonight. Who knows how long it will be there.

Followed that up with dinner at Fuddruckers and a trip to Home Depot for new paint-able switch and outlet plates, a piece of Plexiglas for the rabbit cage (long story - let's just say it's about neatness and protection), and some knew door pulls for the foyer closet bi-fold doors.

The walls are done and most of the trim. It's really great walking in for the first time and seeing the color - everything is just warmer than before. Our accent color is not what I expected. The swatches made it look as if the colors were further apart than what they're looking like on the walls. Looks like it's an optical illusion, though. It depends on lighting and the angle that you look at the wall. The third accent color is even better than I thought, turning out slightly lighter and redder than the swatches (actually, all of the colors are slightly redder, but that could just be lighting). That color as an accent is like the best move yet with the painting. It's a small wall, but it just punches it up so well, we're both pretty psyched about it.

And it's just damn paint.

Happy 05/05/05! Kinda cool in a very geeky sort of way. We've only got one opportunity each year for the next seven so we might as well celebrate Symmetry Day...

What am I doing up?... Long story, other than Carol being up, the TV is on, I have 2 cooped-up rabbits running around my bedroom, and they've blocked-off Michigan Avenue downtown because of the Bombing outside the British Embassy in New York... (that's why the TV was on because Carol heard the police calls on the scanner...)

The guys were gone by the time I got home. There isn't a lot of visible things going on - it's obvious that the day has been spent with more nail pops and patches and filling and sanding. But, you can tell that they ended the day by putting some color on the walls in the living room (it's still really wet when I got home).

I need to see an accent wall to see if we're on the right track, but I have to tell you that I like the base color a lot.

Well, we are officially into our second house project - painting the first floor. Well, actually, hiring someone to paint the first floor.

The guys are doing good - they've applied primer on the God-awful baseboards and have actually painted all of the ceilings. We had a lot of nail pops in the big wall in the living room/dining room. The guys took the time and felt the wall, and installed over 100 screws and patched over them.

I like these guys.

The "Kidlettes" - Indy & Chip - are back in our bedroom, just as they were during House Project #1 - new Brazilian Cherry hardwood floors.

We're not going to be as "put out" living in our house this time. In fact, other than the rabbits being upstairs, it's business as usual.

Actually... this is kind of exciting! The guys said we'll start seeing colors tomorrow.

Mother Nature is striving for balance as she's making-up for the wonderful weather we've had over the past few weeks. There are freeze warnings up for tonight as we did into the 20's. It's dark, cold, and windy outside.

And, of course, it's May. Hopefully by the end of the week it's going to warm-up again.

I'm struggling to type as my right index finger is just a bit sensitive right now, and I'm limping around the office building because of that damn hole in back of my right heel that got ripped-open because of the stupid shoes I wore Friday night. I'm in pain and I can't get it to stop. At least I have a desk job so I don't walk all that much, but damn, I'm uncomfortable.

"Rabbit, Rabbit!"