I'm getting tired of this... I'm just not sure of what yet...

At one time late yesterday, I had heard a forecast that said the upper end of the snowfall could be as much as 13 inches.

This morning... MAYBE it was 3"-5".. and the alerts were all cancelled... and the storm was over.

So... am I more tired and fed up about:

The snow storms piling-up the snow in big batches...

The roller coaster temperatures that never seem to get warm enough but sure seem to plummet at the drop of a hat...

The weathercritters who just can't get it right... they can predict the temperatures pretty well... but snowfall? When? Were? How much? NO WAY...

Still another storm rollls in later today with possibilities of up to 9 inches of snow...

I am SO over this...

Another trip into the city for the annual Academy Awards party at B&B's.

I just didn't like the evening... wait... that came out wrong... I loved being with our friends and having a good time...

It's just the Red Carpet.. and the Awards... meh

No stellar dresses... STUPID people doing the coverage of the Red Carpet....and with SO many "dark" movies nominated, it was just kind of depressing, and since we don't see those kind of movies, we had no vested interest with anything in the show.

On top of that, no contest this year at the party because "because Michael always wins!!"

Well... not ALWAYS...

This is so cool. I don't know if a national chain of movie theaters has ever done this before....

Today, starting at 11am, select AMC theaters will start a marathon of movies nominated for Best Picture at tomorrow's Academy Awards.

Michael Clayton 11:00 a.m.
There Will Be Blood 1:20 p.m.
Atonement 4:20 p.m.
Juno 7:00 p.m.
No Country for Old Men 9:00 p.m.

I think this would be SO COOL... but... if I have problems sitting through one movie, how am I going to sit for 5 movies over 12 hours?

OK... sunset.. creating long shadows over my front lawn...

Does NOT make the situation more... ummm... "palatable"

As my memory seems to have been going haywire over the past months, it's nice to find things that jog the memory.

I was reading this post I wrote back toward the end of 2005 that referenced a list (and VOLUMINOUS comments) at Eric Zorn's blog at the Tribune of stores, shops, buildings, institutions that have left the Chicago landscape. (I think this was in reaction to MARSHAL FIELD'S leaving the landscape, a move that I STILL think is WRONG... but... I digress...)

I was SHOCKED to find out that people are STILL commenting on that blog entry for things that they remember that are no longer around...

But what a GREAT way to reminisce about ... "the old days"...

... and, are you old if you talk about "the old days"?

Oh god...

The sun is out.... I open the drapes on our patio door...

and there it is...

They've laid waste to the backyard too...

My blood is boiling...

OK... I'm am SO NOT HAPPY... and I'm not sure how to go about talking about this, but let me summarize:

Neighbor. 2 Golden Retrievers. Neighbor lets the dogs out, while he either stays inside the house or stands in the garage and smokes.

Dogs do not stay on his property - they go to the neighboring properties...

... and proceed to... ummm... dump... their waste.

Neighbor calls dogs back inside...

DOES NOT CLEANUP AFTER THE DOGS. EVER.

So, during the snowfall season... they've been crapping on my lawn... and now that the snow has melted a bit... I can see them... everywhere...

We've had this issue for years now. During the summer, our lawn mowing service would come weekly to mow... and ... well... that would.. umm... dissipate the issue...

We've had TruGreen ChemLawn come out to fertilize and treat the lawn and leave us messages that we should clean-up after our dog.

OUR DOG.

Do you have any idea how ANGRY I am right now?

OK... saw this today... and it just FEELS like it's something out of The Onion... but... could it be true?

Somebody is floating the idea of a reality show that can actually produce - as a winner - an Olympian.

So... what kind of sport would work for that? How about... curling!

Now, it has turned into a American Idol reality thing with five male and five female slots to produce the entries to the Olympic tryouts.

The cool thing, that was unfortunately false, is that at one time they were talking about "closet curlers" that are rockstars would be involved - specifically John Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen. How cool would that have been? How cool would it have been for those guys to expose more people to the sport?

You know... Valentine's day.. make me think of roses... and just how damn confusing they are when you try to buy flowers for someone and have to be worried about the damn color of the rose so that the gift doesn't get misconstrued... and not only color, but how many as well. It's not like everybody agrees on all the colors, too. It's insane.

It's Valentine's Day... meh.

But I thought it was interesting to hear about what I would think would be another "shot through the heart" that is being planned, though not from cupid... or Bon Jovi for that matter.

There's this Spy Satellite (identified only as USA 193) that was launched on December 14th, 2006 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on a Delta II rocket. Shortly after reaching obit, ground controllers lost the ability to control the satellite, and have never regained it.

So, this thing is in this decaying orbit. Since there was never any contact, 1,000 pounds of the maneuvering fuel (hydrazine) is still onboard. So, the United States is concerned that this huge thing is not going to burn-up completely when it finally dives into the atmosphere. The hydrazine is deadly, so the United States is going to shoot down the satellite first. With an anti-ballistic missile. To make sure the tank gets ruptured and the hydrazine gets dissipated.

Let's look at a few things. this satellite is about 5,000 pounds. The government is worried about the debris. Larger things have re-entered with little damage, like Mir (clocking in at about 274,000 lbs). Even Skylab, that had major pieces survive didn't do that much damage (about 169,000 pounds).

I'd like to believe the government is worried about the hydrazine, but... come on... truthfully... don't you think it's because they're worried key technology components may survive reentry and be recovered by other unnamed countries? I mean... hello!... Spy satellite!

Still... kinda cool if they could actually hit the thing.

I knew there was more snow this season...

Snowfall this season up through today: 45.2 inches

Snow up to this date last year? 13.5 inches.

-6°F (about -21.11°C)... -30°F wind chill (that's about -34.44°C for you international types)

It's becoming obvious to me that I've accepted the past mild winters as normal, because this winter is just weighing hard on me...

The snowstorm is actually here... heard a rumor that the building actually shutdown around noon. I looked out the window and saw the frontloader moving snow piles around and the parking lot was empty. My office is more of a branch office - nobody is really here to say go home.. and since my manager is actually located across the country, I had to contact her to let her know about the local weather. Needless to say, I left a few hours early.

The trip home was terrible, but actually moved better than I had anticipated, but it was still a struggle to get there.

Perhaps this will be the biggest one of the season... maybe...

Who's bright idea was it to schedule Super Tuesday on the same day as Mardi Gras?

I mean... there's too much scheduled today... it's Fat Tuesday... which really is Mardi Gras... which is the last day of Carnival... (that started on Twelfth Night, which is the 12th day after Christmas, January 6, or as the dictionary says "the evening of the fifth of January, preceding Twelfth Day, the eve of the Epiphany, formerly the last day of the Christmas festivities and observed as a time of merrymaking"... which also marked the end of a winter festival that started on All Hallows (also known as All Saints) Eve — now more commonly known as Halloween)... but it's also Shrove Tuesday... but that's also Pancake Day? ... and then, in Chicago, it's Pączki Day... but that's only for Chicago, Detroit, Hamtramck, Milwaukee, and South Bend... because it's really supposed to be on Tłusty Czwartek or Fat Thursday which would have been last Thursday... which is also Fettdonnerstag, or Schmutziger Donnerstag in Germany... or Giovedì Grasso in Italy... and all of this is because of Ash Wednesday tomorrow...

THERE IS JUST TOO MUCH HAPPENING WITH TODAY...

... and I'm supposed to go out and vote today?

But... it's only a Primary election... and I don't exercise my right to vote on those days... because it requires me to officially declare a party and I refuse to do that. I always rather vote for a candidate that I believe in regardless of the party affiliation.

I'm just looking forward to the end of all the damn political advertising... at least until we do this all again later this year - for "real".

Wow... the fog rolled in today.. and it's sticking around... and it's not our usual fog - this one is thick. Tonight the visibility went down to one-tenth of a mile.

I love fog. I love walking in it. And, if the traffic is light, I love driving in it. I loved driving home after work tonight.

It was thick, but it didn't feel dangerous... and it felt great.

Went to my sister's house to have an impromptu Super Bowl viewing party. What was REALLY great was that B&B were also invited, and picked-up (and dropped-off) my mom. It was great having them at Diane's.

Now, you know, I love watching the game. There is just so much surrounding it, between the pomp and circumstance of a championship sporting event and then there's the great commercials that are rolled-out just for that event. That means that you really can't take much of a break from watching anything. But that also means that everything could be interrupted with talk... usually loud... at any time. And my family is all about the socializing and between B&B.. and Jack.. and my mom... well, there was a lot that was going on.

I feel that I REALLY never heard the game. I'm pretty sure i saw most of the plays (and I have to tell you, this was a wonderful game to watch... and I found out I was the only Patriots fan in the house...) Really really enjoyable game.. close, well fought, well played. And you gotta love a game - inside a dome (well, the roof was closed) - on grass.

OK... favorite commercials? Bud takes them all again, with FedEx Carrier Pigeons being up there. Oh, and screaming animals in a Bridgestone tire commercial (even a little screaming... grasshopper?)

The surprise of the evening? It was that while we were enjoying the game, eating pulled pork from Sweet Baby Ray's... it was snowing the whole time and we didn't know.

There was 3 inches of snow on my car when we were getting ready to leave. The streets were plowed in places. The expressways were not really clear. A treacherous, slow drive home - I felt the back end slide-out once... made be back off a bit and I wasn't doing anything bad.

Update: You know, I can't complain with this year's USA Today Ad Meter rankings of this year's commercials.

Update: It's official.. .and WOW. An estimated 97.5 million viewers watched the game. It was the second-most watched television program of all time, behind the 1983 finale of "M*A*S*H," which was viewed by 106 million people. The previous most-watched Bowl, with 94.1 million viewers, was Dallas vs. Pittsburgh in 1996. The game scored a 37.6 rating among adults 18 to 49, making it the highest-rated Super Bowl in that target demographic in eight years. The 1996 Super Bowl remains the highest rated with a 41.2 rating.

Over 6 inches as of this morning. Our area was supposed to be around 4". Somebody didn't see this coming. The snow distribution is nothing like they said it would be. At least it doesn't feel like it to me.

At least the traffic was really light. People must be staying home, schools must be closed.

A good thing, too, since the roads weren't cleared. The plows couldn't keep up overnight.

It was snowing all afternoon. Something tells me the Weather Critters got this wrong - we weren't supposed to get hit this hard north and west of the city.

The drive home was a mess.... We barely moved during the entire trip. In fact, the needle on my speedometer never actually moved - I have no idea how fast I was traveling. The road surface was a mess.... no one was out plowing either.

And this is to continue until noon tomorrow...

If you happen to see a coworker who is walking - with a purpose - toward where the restrooms are located, DO NOT stop this person to chat...

If you notice this coworker shifting slightly back and forth with their eyes pretty wide open... STOP TALKING TO THEM...

If you notice the co-worker's knees subtly move toward each other...

STOP TALKING IMMEDIATELY...

Man... Chicago weather can be really extreme at times...

Case in point:

High yesterday 48°F (almost 9°C). Woke up this morning and it was -2°F (almost -19°C)... that's a 50 degree swing in about 18 hours.

Add into that the Wind Chill: -22°F (almost -19°C)... this is crazy.. because it'll be in the 30's for the weekend...

It was like a blizzard outside last night - the snow was blowing sideways. Looked like hell. More snow to come in the next couple of days.

Traffic was terrible this morning - slow moving. The salt just doesn't work at these temperatures.

The weather is going to go crazy again... another "the sky is falling!" weather report .. and alerts... and warnings...

Was actually in the 30's this morning... and I found it refreshing...

Carol pointed out something in the neighborhood that I have never seen before. I guess I never paid attention.

For as long as we've lived out here, we are constantly seeing "For Sale" signs in front of houses.

One in front of a house looked quite normal... from a local RE/MAX realtor. Except.. it was night.. and the sign was lit. It has solar panels on top and, judging by the color of the light, white LED's lighting the sign!

Then I noticed another sign on the bottom, hanging off the main sign... it was a website address for the street address of the house. Great idea... and cheap... it just redirects to the realtor's page, but then you can pick the homes that she's brokering, like this particular one...

I like seeing the use of technology creeping into things we've used to take for granted.

Remember that radio we bought yesterday for Carol's truck?

Well, we had it installed today...

Actually, first I went online and pulled the most complete list of radio stations and frequencies in the Chicago area. I'm saying "most complete" because trying to find a complete list of stations that you can receive in the area is damn near impossible. There were always stations missing or mislabeled.

OK... so... programming a car radio...
while in motion...
while reading a manual... and associated frequency lists...
trying to press VERY TEENY program buttons...
while wearing a restrictive seat belt (that locks frequently)...
while driving bouncing and swerving over, through - and perhaps dodging - the ever-growing fields of some menacing potholes...
trying to find something to fill 6 selections in the AM band...
not to mention filling 3 bands of 6 selections in for FM...

All on the way driving to my mom's house for dinner.

My head was BUZZING by the time I stumbled out of the car. I wasn't in good shape at all... but at least Carol is happy with having a radio with a display that she can actually read... though I have to admit, it looks great and has a great sound (something she's been sorely lacking)...

This writers strike is just nuts... nothing to REALLY watch on TV except Reality and Game Shows...

..and now, a new word to describe how the strike is manifesting itself - TiVorexia.

See... when you setup a Season Pass to record your favorite shows, typically you set the Show Type to "First run only", so you only get the first showing of an episode of a show, and not the reruns. Great feature.

Now, with the strike, there's no new episodes of many of the shows we watch... and you look at the "To Do List"... and all you see is the Show Name... and "None scheduled" instead of the list of shows coming up to be recorded...

Carol actually thought ahead, and TiVo'd shows that she wasn't going to watch until later sometime... well... later is coming around sooner, and our TiVo still has things to watch.

Wow - what a mess driving this morning.

It had actually warmed up (if you can call it "warm") to 29°F (almost -1°C) and it lightly snowed during the course of the night.

I mean lightly.. .covered everything, but barely... maybe an inch or so...

...and yet, it was one of the worst drives I've had in the morning recently. The side streets weren't plowed. the main streets weren't plowed. I was going down Higgins Road and I saw a police car up ahead on the right shoulder. When the traffic made it up toward him you could see a car down in a steep ditch along the road.

I can't figure out why - if the snow had already started last night during my drive home at 5pm, and it was only an inch or so since then - why were the streets in such bad shape?

At least it's not as bad as the 36" water main break in the city this morning that produced a huge hole and flooding up to 4 feet deep in the area, flooding nearby houses and stores.

Hey, on the positive side... sometime overnight, our driveway got plowed... and it must have been from the plowing company and not like last time.

The Martin Luther King Jr. Day is an odd experience because, for me at least, it's not a holiday - it's just another work day.

You can tell, though, by the amount of traffic that many people have the day off. You can tell by the number of open parking spots in the garage at work that many people have the day off.

Not only a day to celebrate the life of a monumental civil rights leader, it's also a day that is used as a call to service for the community.

The origin of the day is not only his birthday, but it's also rooted in labor rights and unions...

So... today i work.

A cold night.. .was down to -6°F (about -21°C). We knew we were going to have problems last night going to the hockey game.

Other than the obvious when we couldn't get the garage door to open (it would only travel between 6 inches and a foot even after stopping, reversing slightly and restarting it, taking several attempts to open the door all the way), it was on the shelves near the utility room door that we saw the issue.

We store soda on the shelving unit. Several of the bottles were freezing, so we had to get them inside so they wouldn't get screwed-up.

Too late for some of them, though.

The glass bottle six-packs of IBC Root Beer weren't surviving well.. in fact, 3 bottles were frozen and shattered.. and there's frozen root beer all over the shelves and other bottles.

We cleaned up the bottles, but we'll have to wait for a thaw to cleanup the shelves.

OK.. .another in what seems to be a series of small things that make you happy...

It is absolutely great to pull into a parking lot, or in my case - a parking garage, and find a parking spot... that you can pull through! You know the ones, where you're in one aisle and the spot that you pull in is open... but so is the one in front of you... allowing you to pull forward into that space.. so you can just pull out at the end of the day instead of having to back up! And you don't have to go through the effort of backing up into the space either!

This ONLY works when the parking spaces are straight, and not on a diagonal, because either the opposite spot is angled the opposite direction, or if it's not, that means that aisle is one-way the wrong way... and I HATE HATE HATE people that pull forward into those because it takes them FOREVER to swing their car around to pull out... .or even worse, just drive down the aisle the wrong way.

See? Small things...

You know... sometime you're just thankful for little things...

... little... odd... things...

It's winter here in Chicago, so I wear button-down shirts to work (no suits, thank gawd)

Being a geek, I not only love having a pocket on my shirt, but I also use it, holding onto whatever I would need.

But, you know what's cool? Having the style of pocket that actually has a separate little sleeve that holds a pen, so that the pen doesn't flop around the pocket... it's all self contained, snugly holding my pen...

That's cool...

OK... I've been having this problem for at least a year now, and I have absolutely no explanation for this.

My left shoe constantly unties.

It doesn't matter at all which pair of shoes I have on. The left one always unties.

I have no explanation to offer. And it just pisses me off having to continually stop and tie my shoe.

Doesn't make any sense....

OK.. just a small Pet Peeve here... but...

Carol said something and... do you ever have something that all of a sudden triggers something... or at least reminds you that you have something that bothers you?

Today, it was something that was innocent that everyone says, but it just riles me up when i hear it.

"It figures... it was in the last place I looked..."

See? innocent... but... my brain just goes...

OF COURSE IT'S IN THE LAST PLACE YOU LOOKED! IT'S ALWAYS IN THE LAST PLACE YOU LOOK, BECAUSE WHY WOULD ANYONE IN THEIR RIGHT MIND CONTINUE TO LOOK WHEN YOU'VE ALREADY FOUND WHAT YOU WERE LOOKING FOR!!!!!!!

I think I'm getting tired of two words that are all I hear the last few weeks...

"change" - if you've been listening to all of the political events... and...

"bipolar"...

I always worry when I leave the house in the morning for my trek to work, and, as I drive through the neighborhood, all I see are squirrels everywhere, standing upright, eating nuts...

... what does this mean?

OK... look... I'm getting upset at all of our liberties and freedoms being encroached upon... America is not the same place that it used to be... not that I'm saying that we should be EXACTLY where we were 8 years ago, but... I don't know... I just get pissed-off at things...

like... oh... Federal wiretapping... especially those of the warrant-less variety...

But, when you have a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act investigation (which is used in the government's most sensitive and secretive criminal investigations, and allow eavesdropping on suspected terrorists or spies)... when THOSE wiretaps get CUT OFF because the government didn't pay the bills to the phone companies....

something REALLY SCREWED UP is happening in government...

Phone companies cut FBI wiretaps due to unpaid bills

In Florida, on I-4, imagine not being able to see in front of the hood of your car. Normally, in fog or smoke, you could see pavement at least a little bit in front of you. In this case - no. I never heard that there are "Fog Warnings" that have a scale to them - 1-10. Anything over 7 is supposed to be risky for driving. the alert was for a 10.

Now, add to that a wildfire that started as a controlled burn that got away from the Florida Division of Forestry.

Sometime after 4am is when it all hit at the same time... and the horrendous collisions began.

I guess it wasn't just one crash, but rather 10 crashes involving 70 vehicles. 38 injured. 5 died. In a 2½ mile stretch of road.

Responding fire crews had to walk in front of the engines to guide them through the smoke & fog because the drivers just couldn't see.

There were reports of people hearing erie sounds of crashes, screams, people calling for help all around them... popping of tires from the vehicles engulfed in flames... and not being able to see any of it.

Ummm... ok... could be all those times going to the annual Elvis Night at U.S. Cellular Field (you know... I'm still having problems saying that... I STILL call it Comiskey... I mean, how long do I have to refer to the place as TPFKAC™? It's going to be 5 years already...)

...but.. .Happy 73rd Birthday, Elvis Presley... wherever you are...

OK, this is crazy...

It was 64°F (a bit over 17°C) today. If that's not crazy enough, let's add-in tornadoes, up by the Wisconsin border. Homes blown apart, 12 cars of a freight train blown over. Saw cell pone video of the actual tornado that was seen. There's a question if there was one, two, or three... but they have finally figured out that it was an F3 tornado (on the Fujita Scale... oh wow... they decomissioned the scale.. now there's an Enhanced Fujita Scale... with enhanced damage indicators... hmmmm... may have to read-up more about this...)

Anyway... it's January. Tornadoes in January.

Now we're up to Flash Flood Warnings from the Winter Storm Warnings because it's so warm today, all of the snow has melted and it's got nowhere to go...

High today: 61°F (a bit over 16° C). Stepped outside today to... ummm... turn off our Christmas lights... almost felt "balmy"...

Sorry, I would rather have this than a typical Chicago winter weather.

Watched American Gladiators tonight. I was so pumped-up to watch this show. Carol and I used to love the original - in fact, we went to a live show at the Rosemont Horizon (now Allstate Arena) back when the show was originally airing (can't remember when.. must have been in the early 90's)

Though the show still holds a sense of nostalgia for me, perhaps... I am over with it? I can't help but to feel like there's a faint smell of "professional wrestling" with this, which just taints it for me...

You know, no matter how old you are, you have to like it when you get to extend your birthday bay a day or two, just so you can celebrate it with family... or whoever.

So, went to my mom's for dinner today instead of tomorrow, since she is playing social butterfly tomorrow and going to a party herself.

Carol had stopped earlier today and brought along a great cake from Deerfield's. - Double layer chocolate cake, covered in chocolate mousse, with a layer of ladyfingers around the outside. Oh, man... wonderful... and it wasn't really sweet, somehow, which is what made it wonderful.

Woke up today to ... green grass. All that snow? GONE. Why? It's warm today, finally... even warmer tomorrow...

Happy Birthday to...

ME

Finding birthday cards strewn around the house... on my pillow (after I had gotten up to ... ummm... go... to the bathroom), on my chair by my computer... on my dashboard covering up my spedometer... and then one in my backpack under the Velcro strap holding in my laptop...

... and a wrapped DVD case (you just know it's a DVD by the size and weight).

So... still another year has passed... and I'm still here to see it.

Which is all good.

At least it's warmer today when I woke up: 25°F (about -3°C).

Came home tonight to find two interesting items...

The first, in the mail, was a CD from the neurologist's office, of the brain MRI that I had a week ago Wednesday. It has software on it that autoloads and you can browse through all of the images of each series that was taken. A very odd journey through my brain...

The second was hanging from my front door, in a clear plastic bag.

It was the English Translation of the Message of the Quran .

Yes, a paperback version, distributed by the Book of Signs Foundation, with a cover letter.

Not something I would have gone out and bought (probably ever), but... I don't mind having a copy around.

Woke up to find the temperature is 0°F (about -17°C).

There is heat out there somewhere that is supposed to be coming this way.

Oh, who am I kidding... it's not "heat"... let's just say "warmer air"... I mean, this is Chicago.

I got home after work today and as I pulled into my clean driveway I realized I had forgotten to mention this yesterday.

In the middle of the Rose Bowl game, the doorbell rang and it looked like a family of 4 that wanted to know if we wanted our driveway and sidewalks cleared.

Since we hadn't seen "hide nor hair" of our plowing service, we said sure... and they did a wonderful job with shovels and a snowblower. Looking out at the snow they had to cut through, it was a lot deeper than I had thought - maybe 9 inches to a foot (in places).

And, as anybody knows, it's not the snow on the driveway that's the killer - it the mound of snow that the village snowplow leaves at the end of the driveway when they come along and plow the street.

Wonder if we'll ever hear from our plowing service ever again, or did Carol's incessant phone calls to their voice mail scare them off?

Great way to start the shortened work week... the temperature is 3°F (about -16°C). Going to be cold all day.

And then I thought I saw 50°F (10°C) later, like maybe next week?

And the climate isn't changing?

So.. what have I done to start 2008? Let's see...

• Woke up
• Watched the 119th Tournament of Roses Parade on HGTV (only thing better would be to watch this in HD, but all we had was the KTLA feed, and I'd rather have a commercial-free viewing experience with commentators that talked about what was used in the float construction, and the advantages of certain pieces, rather than the pre-written inane banter of major network coverage)
• Watched The Winter Classic from Buffalo... first time ever in the United States... imagine... an NHL hockey game - a regulation in-season game - played on a temporary ice rink built between the 16-yard lines on the football field in Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, NY where the Buffalo Bills play. An NHL-record 71,217 fans watched in the middle of a snow storm (with the vast majority staying to watch the entire game) (best sign that a fan held up: "Look Mom, no roof"). And, it has to be settled in a shootout. What a GREAT event for the NHL (oh, it was Pittsburgh 2, Buffalo 1)
• The 94th Rose Bowl Game. uggh... how friggin' embarrassing... another Big-10 fiasco at the hands of the Pac-10, with the Illini losing to USC 49-17.... ugggh...

And basically, those few things took up my whole day, outside of Carol cooking-up a wonderful breakfast and dinner...

Welcome to 2008...

ugggghhhh... just got home after a HORRENDOUS drive from Wrigleyville out to the suburbs. The weather just wasn't right today/tonight/this morning... whatever this time period was...

ooops... so much for that "Rabbit, Rabbit" thing.... there must be a way around that for New year's celebrations

It started snowing while I was at work (yes, I had to actually work today). The drive home wasn't really treacherous yet, as I stayed on the most traveled streets... thank God for the lack of regular traffic.

Picked up Carol and made our way into the city to Barry & Buffy's. The Tollway and expressway were wet and slow... no traffic tie-ups, just a constant slow speed, which, in the long run, was not bad at all. The snow by us was deeper, heavier than what we experienced by them. I felt good, though, knowing that the weather-critters were predicting the snow ending my 11pm, which gave the plows/salt trucks a few hours to work before we had to make it home.

In lieu of an "Away Team" trip up to LaValle like we've been doing, the guys that are down here got together for lunch today... OK... it's just me and Barry and Joe. Not a big deal, but it turns out that the place we went to both Barry & Joe have been to before. In fact, Joe used to go there quite often in a prior life when he worked in the area.

We went to Manny's deli on Jefferson in Chicago's "South Loop" area... an area that didn't look ANYTHING like it does now just a few years ago. Huge developments, both commercial and residential.

And then there's Manny's. Who ever heard of a cafeteria style deli that's been around since 1942, a place that politicians STILL do business there in the seating areas, a place that STILL has a GOOD selection of cigars in the humidor at the checkout cash registers, a place that has... COMPLIMENTARY VALET PARKING?

Had a Reuben (Barry and I were standing around for quite a while waiting for Joe and smelled that sauerkraut so... had to have the Reuben). Haven't had that quality corned beef in quite a while... so tender and moist...

Man... Carol was jealous that we were going after seeing it on Check Please! I'll going to have to bring here there some weekend...

A long story, but one that NEEDS to be told, becuase... THIS IS GETTING REDICULOUS...

A few weeks ago, I was at Lowes... and they had started displaying all their Christmas merchandise... I went to Home Depot - same thing.

At Walgreen's this week, you could find Halloween candy in one aisle, Christmas candy - and decorations - in the next aisle.

Today, I'm reading a great Chicago blog - Gaper's Block - and found something even more disturbing.

There's a station here in Chicago - WLIT 93.9 FM - that, every year, switches to 24 Christmas music during the season. They are scheduled to do it next Friday - November 9!!!!

There's a rock station here - WCKG 105.9 FM - that is a talk (sorta rock) station. They are actually pulling the plug on their format, dumping their on-air personalities, and starting something new... someday soon... and... they're not saying what it is... (rumors are saying that it will be "adult-contemporary music format for women between 25 and 54")

So. sometime later today, WCKG is going to start playing Christmas music until they figure out what they're doing! Today!

So... what does WLIT do? They want to get the jump on WCKG, so they start their 24-hour Christmas music format THIS MORNING - FRIDAY NOVEMBER 2!

TWO RADIO STATIONS IN CHICAGO - PLAYING CHRISTMAS MUSIC - 24 HOURS A DAY - STARTING TODAY, NOVEMBER *** 2 *** ?!?!?!?!?!?!!!!!!

This is CRAZY!!! Whatever happened to No Christmas Until After Thanksgiving!!!!!

UPDATE: WCKG didn't go Christmas... at least not yet... interesting idea: if they get WLIT to move off their regular Adult Contemporary programming earlier than they were going to, then perhaps they can make a grab at the WLIT audience when WCKG changes to a format similar to what WLIT NORMALLY has

I've been hearing the news over the past week or so... and I kept seeing the prices go down... now I guess they're trying to catch up...

Gas prices are up 33 cents a gallon today compared to what I paid on Monday...

So.. it was - what I thought - a very nice day. Sunny. Low 60's. A bit breezy, though.

And ... thanks to our screwed-up government, Daylight Saving is still in effect for an extra week, just to allow the Trick or Treater's out there one extra hour of daylight.

So, I was disappointed in the turnout - another downturn in visitors. You know I keep track of the kids.

So... here we go... here's the look of the numbers over the years:

2006: 57
2005: 56
2004: 61
2003: 69
2002: 79

and... drumroll... this year's count: 46

And that doesn't count the 3 kids that came back (they were in my first group - at 4:21pm).. .and.. it doesn't count the dog dressed like a devil, either.

On the way home from work today, I had to stop by Taco Bell.

Now... why would I do that... and why would you care?

Because everyone in the United States is getting a free taco today. Now... again... why?

Because Taco Bell ran a promotion that was called "Steal a Base Steal a Taco". In a nutshell, if anybody in the World Series steals a base in a World Series game, America gets a free a free crunchy seasoned beef taco .

So - there it was: last Thursday, Game 2, bottom of the 4th. - Thank You Boston Red Sox rookie center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury (he walked after two out, and stole second in a 2-1 win by Boston over Colorado)

The place wasn't crowded at all... you could only cash-in today from 2pm-5pm. I can't imagine what the chain's 5,800 stores were like during all of this.

Woke up this morning to 39°F outside... yeah.. the season has turned...

It's been a disappointing fall, though... it's been warm for so long, that the trees REALLY haven't changed colors as well as they used to. Add to that the high winds we had recently, and the trees are becoming more bare than retaining colorful leaves.

Well, at least I won't be staying in the house this morning, having to go to work. yesterday it was 61°F in the house, and that just made a bit too uncomfortable.

Boston sweeps Colorado in the World Series... and thus brings to a close another baseball season...

My heart goes into hibernation until the spring...

Drove into the city to pickup B&B to drive to the Evanston Century 12 theaters to see Gone Baby Gone.

Well, I have to say lately that I think I've decided that "my kind of movie" is one that entertains, it could be "light", it could be "action"... and this movie doesn't fall into that genre for me. I was reluctant to go, but as Carol pointed out to me, I seem to have been steering our movie going in that direction when the four of us are together and it was time to see one of "their" movies.

A bit dark... a bit disturbing (the subject matter)... but.. I MUST admit, well performed... and enjoyable in that sense.

And, to top it off, my legs didn't twitch at all in those seats, and I haven't the foggiest reason why.

After the movie, we drove back to their neighborhood to hit a LITTLE restaurant that we love going to - El Tapatio. The food was great, as always, but tonight our issues were 1) sitting under a speaker that was JUST TOO LOUD... and 2) since when do all these toddlers love Mexican food? the restaurant is TINY and the tables really close together, especially in the back where we always seem to sit, but I don't like have to scoot my chair as close to the table as possible (up against my stomach) to stay out of the way of the lady sitting behind.. .and the toddler always running into my chair... the amount of kids in such a tiny restaurant was startling...

We went to their house afterward to watch Game 3 of the World Series (there's no way Boston is gonna loose this series... sorry Colorado...) and had some yummy hot apple pie from Dinkel's (complete with a great vanilla bean ice cream, too).

Am I off-base here? Is there some kind of cultural thing going on?

When I'm in an elevator and when I reach my floor... the doors will open...

WHY OH WHY OH WHY.. am I sensing that certain people of certain ethnic decents... have this... compulsion.. to enter the elevator before you can get out?

That's why I'm asking if it's a cultural thing that I'm just aware of... or are these individuals just discourteous?

So, the official high temperature on Sunday was 87°F.

Today, I woke up and it was 48°F. The high was only 53°F - 34°F colder than Sunday for the marathon. Today's temperature would have been so much better for that event - more seasonal, I suppose.

That's why they scheduled it at this time of year.

It's October. Baseball is over. It's fall...

it's not supposed to be 87 degrees outside.

That's why the Chicago Marathon is scheduled at this time of year.

The race started today at 8am. At 11:30, for any runners that didn't make the half-way point, they were diverted to the Finish Line.

The organizers shutdown the marathon.

It was already too late. A 35-year-old guy from Michigan died after 19 miles.

24,931 of the 35,867 that started actually completed the race (about 4,000 finishing under 3½ hours) - when the officials stopped the race. And about 10,000 registered runners took the heat warnings to heart and didn't even start the race.

Still, over 300 were hospitalized.

On top of that, there were many reports of the water stations were depleted... many runners not getting any water until mile 8... or mile 13, depending on the reports I was hearing.

It was 50 years ago today that life on this planet changed. The Soviet Union launched the first satellite to orbit the earth - Sputnik 1 (or "Спутник-1") On October 4, 1957 at 19:28:34 UTC. It was 22.8 inches in diameter, 183.9 pounds, orbiting on an elliptical orbit that took about 98 minutes. It took until January 31, 1958 for the U.S. to even fight back in what has always been described as a "Space Race" by launching Explorer 1 (ummm.. after Vanguard TV-3 explodes on launch pad on December 6, 1957). NASA was created on October 1, 1958 from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) by the congress's National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 (commonly called the "Space Act") Public Law #85-568, 72 Stat., 426. Signed by the President on July 29, 1958. Sputnik-1 orbited 1,440 times and lasted about 3 months. The transmitter batteries ran out after 22 days.

It all REALLY started 50 years ago today, 9 months to the day after I was born.

What a great foggy morning. It's mornings like this that I am reminded about how much I love fog... and I really can't tell you why. Fog usually means no wind - not even a breeze. For some reason, too... it seems quiet. So mysterious. Driving is always a heightened experience... not knowing what's ahead of you... an enjoyable drive to work, for a change.

Man... I'm exhausted.. and even though I know that part of it was the week I was busy and the time up in Michigan, I'm thinking it's my allergies. I know that when I feel like this, it's because my body just seems to be reacting to fighting something. I'm not giving in and saying I'm sick, but ... maybe.. the allergies are just zapping the energy from my body... I'm just not used to being outside of air conditioning for extended lengths of time... it's that Michigan pollen, I tells ya...

Oh man... between my week of being an Ambassador of Chicago to my friend Ali... and this past weekend going up to Michigan and attempting to relax, today I'm back at work... and I don't wanna be...

I'm feeling really fatigued.. could be all that pollen up in Michigan that I'm not used to.

So... bobbed in the pool for only a while... the BUGS up there are CRAZY... worse than I have ever seen.. SWARMING mosquitoes.. and BIG ones.. that you can SEE from a distance... they're crazy...

So... where did we spend a bit of time? Four Winds Casino Resort in New Buffalo. This place is BIG.. no ... B - I - G. How big? At 130,000 square feet, there are only three casinos in Las Vegas that have more casino floor space - MGM, Caesar's and Mandalay Bay. Four Winds is bigger than The Venetian, Bellagio, Luxor, Rio, Wynn... well you get the idea. Went when we got up there on Saturday - BIG mistake... MAN there were a lot of people there.. idiots.. asswipes... I've NEVER been BUMPED so much in a casino... as if these people didn't care... and were just oblivious... I mean... people just stepping in front of someone waiting for a slot machine? It ALMOST got us turned off from being there and going back... well, that and what appears to be the total lack of smoke handling systems to scrub the air from all the damn smokers... but.. Tuesday - TOTALLY different... so it had to be the weekend.. and a holiday weekend at that...

So, now I'm back at work... no days off until Thanksgiving... depressing... the days are getting shorter, too... and may baseball team is in LAST PLACE...

...depressing...

Never, in my... ummm... 29 years in my career, have I EVER had to evacuate my office due to severe weather... until today.

I opened the garage door and glanced outside, It was gloomy, but I could see a fine drizzle coming down. I took off my glasses and left them on the roof of my car. I walked out onto the driveway. The neighborhood was perfectly quiet, rare for a weekday morning. I looked across the street to my left and saw a bunny sitting in the parkway, getting wet. There wasn't a breeze at all. Quiet and calm. I looked to my right and I saw a squirrel standing up watching me, just taking in the drizzle.

I really enjoyed that rain.

I wanted to go get some audio to use in my podcast, so I drove up to the Wisconsin State Fair.

I really do enjoy going up there. The drive was pretty crappy this year with all of the highway construction in Illinois, but it was tolerable.

It's been a few years since I've been there, but it just seems that things change and yet they stay the same. Obviously the permanent buildings don't really change, but all of the other food vendors (as well as the other "non-food" vendors) may have different setups.. or are new to the event. What a wonderful place to just graze on food.

Which lead me to the destination of my pilgrimage: The Cream Puff Parlor.

83 Years at the fair - they are WONDERFUL. I wanted to bring some home for my family to eat tomorrow, but... whipped cream? Summer? long drive home? How am I going to pull this off?

I bought a 6-pack and this year a special add-on: a special soft-sided cooler the same size as the 6-pack box, that has 2 re-freezable ice packs that slip into the lid and the base of the cooler! Sweet... and they cooler is made with insulted reflecting mylar so you could use it as a warming bag, too, when not transporting cream puffs.

Carol took off this morning to drive up to Diane's in Michigan for the annual "Summer Club" weekend with the girls.

The house is mine... all alone... until Sunday night...

....ahhhhhhhhh....

Do you remember a show on Showtime called "Dead Like Me"? It was a favorite of ours, a great show about... grim reapers. The concept is the reapers must take the souls of people before the actually die so they can "move on". I know, it sounds grim, but the show was anything but.

Anyway, there was an article published in, of all publications, The New England Journal of Medicine about a cat that lives at a nursing home in Providence, Rhode Island. I thought it was odd that a nursing home would own a cat, but then I remembered that animals do have a therapeutic affect on the elderly. And I thought it was VERY odd to have a story about a cat in The New England Journal of Medicine.

But, you see, Oscar lives on the third floor - the dementia unit.

Oscar goes on his own rounds each day... he has his own schedule, and he MUST visit each patient. If a door is closed, he waits to go in. He jumps onto the bed of each patient and surveys them. Most times after his survey he will jump down and move on to the next bed.

But, there are times when Oscar will curl up beside the patient.. and wait.

The staff knows that if Oscar is found laying next to a patient, they have to act quickly. The staff will start making phone calls. To the family.

Because, within about 4 hours, the patient will be dead. Oscar keeps them company until they pass. The staff calls the family to inform them that the time has come and gives them the opportunity to be with the patient for the last time.

When the patient takes his last breath, Oscar gets up, looks around, and leaves.

Coincidence? Look, I would say that... but if it happens a few times, you start to wonder.

But this cat has done this... 25 TIMES.

If anyone ever saw "Dead Like Me", you'd be convinced Oscar was a reaper.

The New England Journal of Medicine - A Day in the Life of Oscar the Cat

Yes... Finally... Summer is here... well, at least astronomically speaking... longest daylight day of the year...

and the daylight gets shorter from here...

Bummer

To those people that actually contacted me (and there was more than one, so that SHOCKED me...) about my lack of postings... I don't think I can come up with an excuse. I just got a bit busy, a bit burned out, and... well... guess it was time for a bit of a break... I even got behind on my podcasts (and I'll be fixing THAT soon...)

I am OK, Carol (my wife) is OK... I have a thing or two to tell you that I haven't really blogged about before (I think).

I hope that the one... or two... or three people that actually read this blog weren't disappointed by my absence. I just got a little burned out... happens to bloggers after five years... and on top of that, had website issues (oops... people rushing to my website to read things and I went over my bandwidth allocation for the month)

I think I'll back-fill a few things, just so that I can make a note of a few things... nothing earth shattering, just sports stuff... a few other items... you know...

... so, I'm back.. just in enough time to probably go offline again... cause we leave for Las Vegas on Sunday! woot!

Soothsayer Caesar!
CAESAR Ha! who calls?
CASCA Bid every noise be still: peace yet again!
CAESAR Who is it in the press that calls on me?
I hear a tongue, shriller than all the music,
Cry 'Caesar!' Speak; Caesar is turn'd to hear.
Soothsayer Beware the ides of March.
CAESAR What man is that?
BRUTUS A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March.
CAESAR Set him before me; let me see his face.
CASSIUS Fellow, come from the throng; look upon Caesar.
CAESAR What say'st thou to me now? speak once again.
Soothsayer Beware the ides of March.
CAESAR He is a dreamer; let us leave him: pass.
Julius Caesar Act I Scene II

OH MY!!!!!

It was a record high temperature for this date today... 73°F (for you people outside the US... it's about 22°C)

This was exquisite! It wasn't just a warm breeze that still had that cold bite behind it after the breeze was gone... no... I felt... warmth... it smelled different.. .oh, such a tease... it's going away, I know... but... now I just want days like this when baseball starts next month...

Woke up at my normal time... but it was dark outside. Pitch black. It was that damn Daylight Saving thing. It was cloudy... and dark. this is going to be hell for a few weeks... my body feels like it's just not supposed to be up right now, feeling awfully groggy... So, we get more time of sunlight in the evening. I'm starting to think "big deal" and what goos is that when you don't have sun to wake you up in the morning...

...though I have to admit, traffic didn't feel all that bad this morning...

Yes.. I Time Traveled last night. Well, actually this morning.

I was a bad boy an stayed up way too late, playing in Second Life, talking on Skype with some friends... before i knew it, it was 2am... but wait... suddenly I time traveled! I went ... to the future!

OK, not exactly, but I can't remember the last time I was awake for this event, when it is 2am, but, suddenly ... it's actually 3am! That's when I knew that it was a mistake staying up late...

Yes, it was the magic of Daylight Saving, under the new laws... all of my Windows XP machines made the transition just fine... for the first time, none of my Windows 2000 machines did not. are there patches available? I'll need to see... even my TiVo's transitioned correctly... my Treo 700wx was fine... then there's all the clocks, both in the home and in the car, watches, the microwave, the stove, the DVD recorder, the VCR... which, I come to find out, won't even listen to the remote...I can't get it to change the time! Perhaps it's time for the VCR to be pitched... the Infoglobe needed a phone call to pick up the new time from the caller ID...

What makes today so much nicer, is that it's getting warm outside... in the 50's... and having the patio door open was just so refreshing...

Thank you so much, Congress... moving Daylight Saving just makes no friggin' sense... how much is this going to cost businesses, let alone how much this is going screw up home life.. I am NOT looking forward to being in my house on Sunday... there's just too many gadgets in the house, and I've just got this feeling that the next few weeks will be hell trying to get everything to sync-up correctly..

Y2K again? Daylight time may baffle computers

Mega Millions. Who will win it? Someone has to in it tonight... otherwise, it's going to get a little crazy around here...

Mega Millions jackpot swells to record $370 million

Update: Lottery waiting to hear from $370 million winners

Winning numbers were 16-22-29-39-42; Mega Ball number was 20

Two winning tickets: one sold at Campark Liquors in Woodbine, New Jersey and the other at Favorite Market in Dalton, Georgia.

The largest previous multistate lottery jackpot was $365 million in 2006, when eight workers at a Nebraska meat processing plant hit the Powerball lotto. The Big Game lotto, the forerunner of Mega Millions, paid out a $363 million jackpot in 2000.

It was 25 years ago today that John Belushi was found dead at age 33, in a hotel room at the Château Marmont on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, California.

I loved his Saturday Night Live characters, especially the Samurai character (my favorite - "Samurai Delicatessen" and "Samurai Stockbroker" where he accidentally hits Buck Henry in the forehead), his Joe Cocker impersonation - even in a duet with him - is priceless.

And, if you grew-up in Chicago at that time, "The Blues Brothers" is the pinnacle of Chicago films.

Are we the only city that celebrates a Polish Revolutionary War hero?

Chicagoland still boasts the 2nd largest population of residents of Polish descent (behind only Warsaw) in the world!

We did something totally out of the ordinary/mundane today... We drove into the city and picked-up B&B and drove downtown (South Loop) to Buddy Guy's Legend’s.

I know that, on the surface, this may not seem disastrous - Honey Bees Vanish, Leaving Keepers In Peril

They're calling it "Colony Collapse Disorder" With CCD, most adult honeybees abandon a hive and disappear, abandoning the queen and a remnant of younger bees. It is causing agricultural honeybees nationwide to abandon their hives and disappear.

They just... disappear. No bodies to autopsy to figure it all out. It's happening in at least 22 states..

So what? A third of our diet and billions of dollars in the agricultural economy relies on honeybee pollination. No bees, no fruits, nuts, vegetables...

"If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years left to live." - Albert Einstein

Somehow, I lost sight of the fact that there was an election today. Maybe it was because it was local, and we were BOMBARDED by political ads. The only ads I saw were for the mayoral election in Chicago (Dailey won by 71% for a 6th term). Our own village had elections, too tat I somehow didn't know about ... so.. I guess I didn't vote.

For me, that is what an election should be... quiet.

Now, If I could just get this GM President's Day sale with the "Hail to the Chief" music off the damn TV, I'll be soooooo much happier

42°F yesterday... BALMY... before yesterday, we had 24 days under freezing... this feels so good.. I mean, it's STILL cold, but... I guess it's all relative.

But... I have been to White Sox games when the temperature was worse than 42°F... again... it's ALL relative...

On one hand, the drive to work was great - nobody was on the road.

On the other hand, it's a holiday - President's Day. Carol is off work, I am not.

I think I'd rather have the day off...

It started Monday night and had been snowing all day. Final total at O'Hare: 8.6". This was a pretty big deal, disruptions everywhere. The travel to and from work yesterday was a mess... almost 3 times the length of a normal commute. I heard on the radio yesterday that the commute on I-290 from downtown to basically next to my office was 2 hours and 30 minutes. And, although they had all night to work it, the commute this morning was pretty severely impacted, too. It's a cold snow, to, meaning that you can plow, but salting the streets won't work, since the temperatures are in the teens and salt is not effective.

Still... it's still better than upstate New York and the Lake Effect Blizzard that's been going on for over a week.

I still can't imagine having - within the course of a week - snowfall of up to 141", That's almost 12 feet of snow. In one week.

Had a few hours I had to take off this afternoon (comp time for overtime), so I drove downtown to the 2007 Chicago Auto Show. I haven't been to the show in years... and this time was the perfect time to do it - during the week, and during the day... though.. I was there for four hours - four hours of non-stop walking, no sitting, no eating, no drinking. In retrospect, this was a huge mistake. I can't do that anymore... my legs were twitching.. and almost flopping by the time I was trying to make my way back to the car...

Anyway, the day & time meant that the crowds were non-existent. You could walk the floor, look at the cars, sit in them if you'd like, without being jostled by so many people.

Great seeing all the cars... I was pleasantly surprised that you could actually find cars for under $20,000 that I wouldn't mind TOO terribly owning... And, of course... there were cars that I wouldn't mind owning in spite of their price. Oh, and another surprise was how nicely priced some of the hybrids were.

Now, unfortunately, it still wasn't a great experience being at the show for one specific reason -

Maybe it was because it was during the day. Maybe it was because they were free (to get in), but the amount of families with kids was pretty much unbearable. It wasn't that they were there - I am sure that mom & dad were there looking at possibly a new car for the family. The problem was that at a minimum 75% of the parents let their kids run rampant throughout the show floor, frequently having the kids leave the sight of the parents. They were everywhere, running, jumping in front of adults to open a car door, jump in and close the door behind them and sit and screw with the car for 5, 10, even 15 minutes at a time. It was unbearable. A lot of the vehicles have working batteries to be able to show-off their navigation displays, which means the radios are active... so let's see what hip-hop station we can pull in off of FM and how high we can crank the volume... I was at the Inifiniti exhibit, and had a kid almost push me out of the way to climb into the driver's seat of a GX35, only to close the door behind him, and, after some flailing at the switches and flipping the wiper and light stalks on the wheel, proceeded to stand up on the leather seats so that he can get outside the open sunroof, to yell at the rest of his family at the Hummer exhibit. No one stopped this kid, even when the family finally came by. How fed up was I? I was standing next to a Nissan 350Z convertible that I wanted to get in, but I was behind an elderly couple .. a little girl pushed her way ahead of us, climbed in and slammed the door shut. She then proceeded to immediately start playing with the power seats... pushing the seat as far forward as it could go, and then she played with the tilt.. to tilt her face damn near into the steering wheel... I let her, and prayed that she would just crush herself... the elderly couple eventually told to little asswipe that adults want to see the car and she reluctantly left, leaving the seat in the fully extended position, requiring the man to lean in and get the seat fixed before he could sit down... and it was 4 hours of this...

I know we had a GREAT "heat wave" a month or so ago, and we're now going through this HELLACIOUS cold snap, but.. has the fear of Global Warming forced us into action?

Work starts on Arctic seed vault

...within a year the first seeds of what will eventually be home for samples of all 1.5 million distinct varieties of agricultural crops worldwide will be tucked safely inside the vaults deep in a mountain on the archipelago of Svalbard.

There, at the end of a tunnel 120 meters into the side of a mountain, 80 meters above estimated sea levels even if all polar ice melts, and 18 degrees Celsius below freezing, they will stay like a bank security deposit.

The Norwegian government is footing the $5 million construction bill and the Global Crop Diversity Trust is providing the estimated $125,000 a year running costs.

The function of the Arctic Noah's Ark will be to hold samples of all the food crop varieties in case disaster strikes any of the banks -- like the typhoon that wiped out the Philippines agri crop gene bank in October.

The vaults on the remote archipelago 1,500 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle should have been dug and lined with meter-thick concrete by October ready for systems installation and a formal opening early in 2008.

6 straight days of temperatures under -0°F

I know Mother Nature seems to average things out, so this is probably payback for the 37+ days over 32°F a month or so ago...

It's only 0°F outside! woot! Heat Wave!!!

Of course, it's now snowing... hearing that it's over 2 hours to drive on the Edens from Lake Cook to downtown.

I woke-up, put on the Today show... and was shocked at the breaking story overnight that led the cast...

So bizarre... so... foreign... what causes someone to do something like this? Especially, a shuttle astronaut????

CNN Stories (Updated)
Astronaut to face attempted murder charge
Astronaut's star appeared to be on rise at NASA
Astronaut flies back to troubled Houston home
NASA wants to know if there are 'lessons to be learned'
No attempted murder charge for astronaut Nowak
NASA chief: We didn't recognize Nowak was troubled
Sexy e-mails shed light on astronaut's bizarre behavior
NASA fires astronaut Nowak

Orlando Sentinel Story - Astronaut charged with attempted murder

I heard that.. and immediately thought about some guy going nuts, 'cause after all... the astronaut corps is mainly men... but, no... not a guy... a woman... Navy Capt. Lisa Marie Nowak - a Mission Specialist on STS-121 (July 4-17, 2006)... you know, a flight that was a return-to-flight test mission and assembly flight to the International Space Station, responsible for operating the remote arm during scheduled EVAs. She's married, with three children

You know... somebody driven, intelligent, skilled... under significant scrutiny to make sure she is physically and mentally fit for spaceflight.

Oh, such a strange tale... more bizarre the more I hear of it...

Woke up this morning... and we've got new records for the last 11 years...

-9°F (or for those from elsewhere in the world: -22°C)

Wind chill? Even worse - (there are Wind Chill Warnings out until 1pm today) Current Wind Chill: -30°F (-34°C)

Woke up this morning...

-6°F (or for those from elsewhere in the world: -21°C)

Spent the day holed-up in the house... it is officially the coldest day we've had in 11 years. It's bad outside. Nobody went out to get the mail.

We have to make ice for the game tomorrow - and I came up with the idea of taking our extra ice trays, fill them up, and just put them in the garage.

Worked like a champ.

I don't believe... or maybe I should believe... that the NFL are such... ummm.... asswipes...

I read today in Chicago Tribune's Eric Zorn's column about something that they are doing that just doesn't make any sense to me...

According to an article in The Indianapolis Star, the NFL is screwing with the definition of copyright, forcing places to cancel their Superbowl Parties.

The NFL considers big gatherings -- whether in churches, movie theaters or casinos -- to be a huge no-no if the game is being shown on TV screens bigger than 55 inches wide or if the host charges admission to watch

How could this be?

...the NFL is being quick to point out that federal copyright law bans public exhibitions of NFL games on sets or screens larger than 55 inches.

This is written in the federal copyright law?

Well, thank God for my Sony 55 inch TV at home..

Oh, one more Superbowl item, courtesy of the folks at The Onion - yes, the Bears are awakening the city of Chicago... "Bears Inspire A City Still Reeling From Great Chicago Fire Of 1871"

Punxsutawney Phil did NOT see his shadow this morning, which, according to German folklore, means we can expect an early spring instead of six more weeks of winter.

Since 1886, Phil has seen his shadow 96 times, hasn't seen it 15 times and there are no records for nine years, according to the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club.

Now wait a minute... was it Phil?... or was it the handlers? Phil talks to the handlers, who transcribe what he says so that it can be proclaimed... hmmmm...

Longtime handler Bill Deeley retired and was replaced Friday by Punxsutawney Groundhog Club Inner Circle members John Griffiths and Ben Hughes.

Oh wait... from the official FAQ at the official website:

Phil's forecasts are not made in advance by the Inner Circle. After Phil emerges from his burrow on February 2, he speaks to the Groundhog Club president in "Groundhogese"(a language only understood by the current president of the Inner Circle). His proclamation is then translated for the world.

And, in case you wanted to know...

The Germans believed that if a hibernating animal cast a shadow February 2 -- the Christian holiday of Candlemas -- winter would last another six weeks. If no shadow was seen, legend said spring would come early.

And if you really really really wanted to know...

GPS Coordinates
Gobbler's Knob is located at the following coordinates (these readings were taken with a GPS unit placed on the stump on the stage at Gobbler's Knob):

N40.93027 W78.95772 (hddd.ddddd°)
N40 55.816 W78 57.463 (hddd°mm.mmm')

I had heard talk about this, as an option for the future, but I had thought it was going to be expensive. It turns out, they are actually doing commercial flight tests of ananti-missile system. The tests, though on commercial MD-11's , are all on freighters from FedEx, so no passengers are involved.

Up until this past Christmas, the "extended family" celebrated Christmas Eve together. This year - just us. Today was our regular Christmas Eve.. actually, a little bit better because everyone could be together... and today was the only time that everyone was available...

Was a little dicey, though... with the Bears in their first playoff game after a bye... and they BARELY won.. as everyone was traveling to my sister's house in Bucktown.

We went downtown and met B&B to go to the Ford Center for the Performing Arts (also known as the old Oriental Theatre on Randolph) to see Wicked.

Boy, do I have mixed feelings about this experience.

On the plus side, gorgeous venue, and it was really great and refreshing to be around people (mostly women that actually dressed-up to go to the theater... they way it always has been.. and should be... (in my opinion).

The script for the show... is ok... good, even. The cast - first rate.

The seats sucked. We were in the "Dress Circle" which is the first level above the main floor. But - way in the back on the theater. What made it worse, is that it was easily 20 to 30 feet underneath the balcony, so your view was clipped at the top, and I could see the very top of the stage. I had no idea that having that clipped effected the way I enjoyed the performance... but it did. I guess I just need to see the whole proscenium, even maybe the ceiling as well, to feel that I was actually in a legitimate theater, instead of a drive-in theater. The audio sucked. It was fine for dialog and solos, but put a full orchestra and full chorus up, and it was mush. Hated the frequency envelope that was used - made the orchestra sound small, canned.

Did I like it? Let me see it again and I'll tell you.

Afterward, in the rain, Carol & I walked around the corner on State Street and caught the end of the 10 o'clock news at Channel 7 (WLS - the local ABC affiliate, where I worked 30 years ago), who has a glassed-in studio right there on State Street underneath and sort of to the side of where the regular studios and offices are at State and Lake.

I even made a prominent spot in the crowd shot at the end of the news!

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum announced the inductees for 2007.

I've got an issue...

Museum name? The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. Rock and Roll.

Using that as the MAIN focus... why, oh why are they inducting Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum???????????

I recorded all of the events of my party last night, dinner, cake, gifts.

I transfered the files off my iRiver this morning, and listened to it...

I listened to dead air... hours and hours of dead air... I had cabled the in and out of the mic preamp backward, and it didn't record a single thing.

Even though I wanted to use pieces on my podcast, I really just wanted it for myself... a record of people coming out and being with me, celebrating my birhday...

...and GOD did his hit me hard. Suddenly, the new year felt a thousand times worse... I wanted a copy of a part of my life, and I lost it... and then - I lost it. I actually started to cry... well, bawl actually. It was just another log on the fire... and the sense of loss was just so real to me... a recording of a one-time-only event, never to be reproduced. Gone. Only to be locked away in my brain, as a memory that lately seems to fade all too quickly. Maybe that's why I wanted the recording... a a backup to my failing memory.

It hurts.

It hurts really bad.

Regardless of how this year has started for me, tonight it didn't matter.

We hosted a small party of family and friends at the Weber Grill in Schaumburg. It was wonderful - the food was good, the company was great... Janie & Gary had just come back from their home in Santa Fe which was buried in the same snowstorm that hit Denver... but no one has heard about how bad it was in New Mexico.

We had everyone come over to the house for cake.. (and to open presents, as well). Carol got the cake from Deerfields bakery. It was chocolate with an off-white fronsting... with black pinstripes and the White Sox logo! GREAT GREAT cake... one problem though - we have NO idea what the black frosting is made of, but it stained our teeth.. it stained our skin (and yes - we could not was it off!) and stained our clothes. Gave us a good laugh.

Lots of great presents (mostly new shirts(?!)) and a great gift certificate from my sister Diane - City Segway Tours - Chicago! I get to ride a Segway around the museum campus this summer!!!

It was a monumental birthday for me, and it was wonderful to have people together... for me. It meant an awful lot to me. I don't think anyone really knew, but.. it REALLY touched me, even though it was just a small dinner, and cake, and a few gifts.

Every single day this young year has sucked for me... loads of bad luck... the bifold door on our pantry fell off, our nice new-ish gorgeous patio door was dripping water during a rain storm,.. I had a significant birthday (OK, that really shouldn't be a sucky thing), and then i went to my neurologist today as she was giddy that she actually found something in the cerebral spinal fluid they sampled a few weeks ago - now giddy, is not good, it just means that something was found ad so many possibilities exist, and most of them aren't good ,and most of those have some nasty treatments...

Is it too early to want the year to be over?

I could say that this is going to be the high temperature today, which it is... it's been unseasonably warm for a while, with about a month straight of above average temperatures... No White Christmas for 2006.

I mean... I could say that for today...

...but, no... the 50 is up there for a reason.

Today is my birthday and I turn <shudder> 50 today.

I am no longer in my 40's... now I am viewed as being old. I think I become eligible to join AARP today.

Over the past years, I have actually started to come up against instances of ageism. I have the issue when I'm in Second Life. It doesn't matter which life I'm in, I've seen it and experienced it.

I have to rationalize that - overall - I am happy, and that I'm still alive, without any major medical issues and that I am still working full-time (which, trust me, I wouldn't do if I could find some means of support).

Happy Bitrhday to ME.

I hung the pictures on the wall tonight.

I had this grandiose plan to put some of the ~40,000 digital photos that I have on a wall in my family room and have it done in time for Thanksgiving. We bought picture frames at Ikea that fit what my design vision. I had mattes cut to fit the frames. Then, as I was just beginning to choose the pictures for the wall my hard drive crashed. It took a while, but I had the drive recovered and I got my photos back. Over the weekend, now that the holidays are just about over, we started the work. I had selected 61 photos. We whittled it down to 30. We started assembling the frames, hanging the picture frame wire (which SUCKS - thank you so very much Ikea), traded the existing 5x5 mattes with my new either 5x7 matte or 4x6 matte, and mounted the photos.

I bought a laser level and marked the wall. What I had hoped to have was 30 photos. They really wouldn't fit in the space available in the wall - we had to cut down to 24. Then I decided a design change, where instead of 3 rows of 8 frames, I decided for 3 rows with 8-7-8 frames, cutting the group down to 23 pictures. It was hard to come up with a final cut, but we did. (oh, and in the process of marking the wall, I dropped the laser level about 5 times, all of them barely missing Indy The Bunny's head, who was crawling around the floor at my feet wanting to know what I was doing. The second to last crash did the level in - it no longer auto levels, and I then just took measurements and manually adjusted the level. I LOVE the laser level! Too bad I broke it...)

The frames we bought are about an 1¾ inches deep, and there are two mounting positions within the frame for the matte - forward against the glass, or back against the back of the frame. i decided to alternate each picture in a row - front, back, front, back... etc So I had to go through the frames and set the spaces for front mount or back mount...

Then Carol cleaned the glass, sealed up the frames, and I hung them on the wall tonight.

A once empty wall now holds 23 pictures of family and friends. It was startling to see this once empty wall now filled with frames and photos.

And now... we're thinking about other walls...

Driving to work this morning... and there's more traffic than the last few weeks.. (duh)... clear skies... sunrise.. low on the horizon...

Nothing I hate more than, as I'm driving, traffic comes to a stop in front of me, I apply the brakes in a safe fashion... and you HAPPEN to glance in the rear view mirror, seeing the car behind you careening toward you... only to have the driver jerk the wheel at the last minute, throwing the car onto the shoulder to avoid plowing into your trunk... because the driver isn't paying attention to the traffic in front of him...

Hey there everyone... a new year is upon us...

We spent the evening last night at B&B's, with friends... ringing in the New Year... after SUFFERING through watching the Chicago Bears LOSE to the Green Bay Packers... which.. the WHOLE thing, about the NFL MOVING the game from noon to 7pm... on New Year's Eve, causing chaos in homes, restaurants, and bars around Chicagoland, (do you have/go to a party? do you open your business instead for Bears fans to watch the game?)

We watched the local coverage of New Year's celebrations around Chicago, and heckle the people being shown, whether they are the local hosts doing a poor job transitioning from remote to remote... or the choice of clothing that everyone being shown is wearing... and... perhaps the sad state of decent music being played at these venues

So... that was last night.. celebrating with friends...

This morning, it was the Tournament of Roses Parade. We caught the KTLA broadcast in HD on Discovery HD. We normally watch the HGTV coverage, because of the different approach to it (all bout the float decorations and materials), but... it's just damn hard to pass-up HD broadcasts...

And George Lucas as Grand Marshall... an Ewok float... a Naboo float... original costumes from the movies... The Grambling Marching Band dressed in Empire Officers uniforms playing Star Wars music... and 200 marching stormtroopers, in uniform and all variations of them, all of them fans from around the world. Way cool...

Well.. it's way too late in the day to say "Rabbit, Rabbit!" as your first words of the day to have good luck (or, if you blew it, before you go to sleep tonight, you can still try to get some luck, your last words have to be "Tibbar! Tibbar!")... But.. I wonder what happens on a day like this? I mean.. are we supposed to say "Rabbit, Rabbit!" as our first words after midnight, instead of "Happy New Year"? or... is it the first words to utter after you awake for the day?... I'm so confused...

The only time of year that I truly enjoy going to work - the week between Christmas and New Year's. There's nobody on the streets on the way to work. There's nobody in the parking garage. There's nobody in the office.There's nobody in their offices calling this office. Quiet. Peaceful. Relaxing.

Merry Christmas everybody!

It's hard to shake the feelings of Christmas Morning.. and the expectations when you were a kid... when you become an adult... and adult with years under your belt... Though you love every gift you get, somehow you feel like you're chasing the elusive excitement and joy of receiving toys as a kid on Christmas morning.

So... this year brought Jackson's first Christmas he could react to (last year, he was 14 weeks old, this year 15½ months). It's great seeing Christmas through his eyes... I can't wait 'till next year when he should be more excited.

An odd Christmas Day for us, part of the odd Christmas season I suppose - Diane, Melinda and Jackson took off after opening presents to drive to Melinda's family in downstate Illinois. The house was empty, except for me, Carol, and my mom. It felt... empty...

...except for my stomach, which feels bloated, tight, and cramping...

We've always celebrated Christmas Eve with our extended family - aunts, uncles, cousins.

This is our first year together where - it's only immediate family. We went to Diane & Melinda's for just a buffet of appetizers, very low key, no present exchanges (that's tomorrow morning).

Still... it felt odd... small... something I wasn't accustomed to... and I'm not sure I like it. I don't see that extended family much,, and I just missed them somehow.

The concept of an appetizer buffet is very bad for me. The appetizers were all setup on an island in the kitchen, and we spent our evening in the back family room.

Me - I spent my time in a continuous slow walk... around and around the island... using just a napkin and no plate, I grazed for what seems like hours, taking a bite here and a piece there... over... and over...

I know I'm going to pay for this somewhere along the line...

I had something happen today, that quite frankly... I'm not comfortable talking about.

Why? Because I can't believe I had this done...

A girl in the office came up to me this afternoon (after I was walking around trying to figure out what a loud noise was that we had heard... it was thunder!). We went into a larger, empty management-size cubicle and she asked me if I was having back problems. I explained my situation.. that for years my legs have been spasming... I had no pain, but the spasms can get severe... and it's not fun trying to drive if your right leg twitches, causing your foot to tromp on the accelerator...

She then told me that she is a practicing healer.. and that she can help me with a "treatment" as a Christmas Present...

The day after a myelogram, I was told could be hell, because of headaches. I had one last night, but I took Tylenol (not Advil, not aspirin) and it helped.

Today - no headache...

...but...

I really feel like I had a side effect. I was loopy - my short-term memory was shot. I couldn't remember things that I neded to do, that I thought about just minutes earlier. Let me give you the final example of the day...

I went to Walgreens to pick up a prescription and I bought 5 containers of Dibbs ice cream nuggets (mmm.. mint... love these things...) I came home, put the Walgreens bag on the counter. The first thing I do when I get home, is bunny-proof the family room and let the "kids" (bunnies) out o fthe cage so they can romp and exercise. I prepped the room, turned on the TV... and went upstairs to sit down at the computer and login to Second Life...

About an hour to hour and a hlaf passes when Carol finally came home, and I can hear her yelling at me downstairs. I cam edown to find 1) the "kids" ar still in the cage - I had prepped the room, but never opened their door to let them out, and more importantly 2) I never put the ice cream away in the freezer - it was still in the bag on the counter.

That's what my whole day was like.

My little medical journey to finding the reason why my legs twitch changed today from hands-off to my first "invasive" procedure.

The Bears advancing into the NFL playoffs has got the city all giddy again. Chicago Magazine has posted the lyrics and a video for "The Super Bowl Mumble," this year's "smash-hit update" of the now famous (in Chicago anyway) "Super Bowl Shuffle."

Oh, yeah... not to mention that at the beginning of Monday Night's Bears game, Senator Barack Obama came on to address viewers

I had a doctor's appointment over lunch today, and it was just a short ride from my office.

I was driving down the road next to the WGN radio tower, when I noticed something I have never seen before.

There were large piles of snow along the banks of the road. They appeared to be steaming.

The weather has been so strange, with the temperatures in the 50's, that the cold piles of snow were generating a local fog (hence, the appearance of "steam"), that would roll off and collect on the road.

This weather is just out of control - It's supposed to be warm until Christmas, negating a possibility of a White Christmas.

It's been bitterly cold recently... in the teens and single digits overnight... and yet we wound up traveling to Zanies in St. Charles (at Pheasant Run) to catch a comedian/story teller/great guy that we saw last May, TV's Craig Ferguson.

He was in-town to do 3 nights, one at each Zanies (Chicago last night, St. Charles tonight, and Vernon Hills tomorrow night).

He seemed to enjoy Chicago back in May... this time: not so much...

Mashups are all the rage... audio or video...

Now, what would happen if...

Mary Poppins was recut into a horror movie???

One week of above average temperatures, in the 60's... and overnight all hell broke loose.

We're getting hit HARD with a snow storm in the northwest suburbs. We've got about 6 inches of snow, that has sleet buried underneath (probably a few inches). The street looks like it was plowed hours ago. It didn't start snowing until after 11pm last night. I was worried that I wouldn't get out of the driveway, but I plowed through it (of course, the garage door didn't close, probably because of snow falling underneath the door and the door couldn't hit the floor.

The drive was slow, but not treacherous. The snow was coming down so hard that the rear defroster couldn't melt it, and the windshield wipers couldn't keep the window clean.

The commute was just under an hour (it's normally 15-20 minutes). The garage at work was empty. So is the office itself. There are a handful of people here. Quiet.

They're expecting another 6 inches by this afternoon (whoever "they" are...)

So, I'm chilln' my soft drinks at my desk at work, while I'm chillin' waiting for the chilly air to take over Chicago... and the snow. Yes, the Winter Storm Warning is up, and we're going to get dumped. It's been in the 50's for over a week now, and overnight the temperature plummeted into the 30's. The huge snowstorm is just around the corner If you believe the TV weather critters, we could get over a foot of snow in the next 24 hours.

Almost 60 degrees to one foot of snow in 36 hours. Welcome to weather in Chicago.

Now, as to my drink chillin'... I bought the CoolIT USB Beverage Cooler from ThinkGeek. Yes, USB Powered. it plugs into a USB port and chills the plate almost immediately down to 45 degrees. I want to keep my drinks cold at my desk... and I want to see if this works.

Carol got discharged late this afternoon. She drove herself home, since her truck was still in valet parking for the doctor visit on Monday. She's got 2 meds to take, one (Lisinopril) is the exact same dosage that I take for my blood pressure. The second one (clonodine) is only to be taken when her BP is high. So, we had to get a blood pressure monitor. We bought a wrist cuff. it's easy to use and very convenient. She can return to work Monday, so she'll take it easy for the rest of the week.

It was so nice having the bed to myself for two nights... I'll miss that ... but, she's out of the hospital and home.

We thought Carol would be home today.

Nope... not yet... her BP went up overnight, so they tried all day to get it back down. By the time I left tonight, it had gone back up to 190/110. She's been having blood draws and there's nothing else wrong right now. The doctor said that sometimes there's no clinical reason to cause it... sometimes it just happens. So, now they have to see if they could just get it down and controlled with medication.

Carol's bored, watching TV being the only entertainment. And no guests, just me, and I'm only there in the evenings.

She'll be ok... I know it...

Carol scheduled a doctor's appointment today. She's been complaining about headaches, and she feels that her blood pressure is up. When she was at the gynecologist recently, her BP was up though she claimed it was because that she wasn't sleeping (hormone issues from menopause) and if she could sleep, she'd be better. Actually, she said if she could sleep for 5 straight nights, she would see her doctor about her BP. Well, she got a new med (Ambien CR) and now she sleeps great. So, she made the doctor's appointment.

Well, he takes her BP, and it's 240/150. They threw her in a wheelchair and rolled her next door to St. Alexius Medical Center.

So, she was admitted, and she's up in a room on the cardiac floor, as they struggle to get her BP down. By the time I left her tonight, it was down to about 140/100... so, we'll see what happens.

She's in good spirits, because high blood pressure is one of those things that don't effect how you feel, very much.(One of the reasons that it's so deadly... and i know, since I have high blood pressure and I'm taking medication for it).

It's taken 22 years, but we finally got forced into it.

Carol is hosting the annual Christmas Club event this Friday. We had put up the 9 foot Christmas tree that we bought (looks really good), but the outside of the house looks so un-Christmas-y. And all of the houses around us just seem to have more and more lights. We've never had outside lights in the 22 years we've lived here. Never. But, now we are feeling shamed into doing something, both to meet the pressure of the neighbors and have something to welcome the club girls.

We decide the best and quickest thing would be to get net lights to put over the bushes. So, I had to go out shopping, and went to Walgreens to get some extension cords and a timer for outside, Lowe's didn't have any net lights (they sold-out yesterday), so I went to Home Depot. Twice. the second time to buy them out of the net lights, since they don't cover as much as we had thought.

So, we have multi-colored lights on the bushes, lit dusk-to-dawn. It's not bright (we wanted white lights, but there weren't any available), but it's colorful and at least it's something.

It really is strange when the planets align...

Tonight, Carol didn't plan on anything to cook (still recovering from preparing thanksgiving), so we were trying to figure out what to do. On a lark, Carol decides on pizza from Giordano's. We haven't been there in years, and we could use a nice deep dish.

So, Carol called-in the order, and I went to pick it up. I walked up to the corner, not paying attention to the lady that was standing to the side. The girl behind the counter asked what she could help me with, I say I'm there for a pickup, and give my name. The lady next to me, who had her back to me, whips around.

It's our friend Teri, who we haven't seen in a year or two. She happens to be in the same place, picking up a pizza order to bring home!

We talked for 5, 10, maybe 15 minutes... trying to catch up with each other. While we were talking, her son Joey came out of the bathroom. He's taller than her now.

Damn I miss them...

I had this great idea for a wall in our family room... I've been cooking this up for a while... We went out an bought some picture frames from Ikea.

30 of them.

I am going to arrange them on one wall and show off some of the pictures I have taken. I am going to go through my library and produce some 5x7 prints of a whole bunch of stuff.

The frames are square (9x9) and the mattes inside are cut for 5x5 prints. I wanted to do something different, but with the same frame. My idea was to get new 9x9 mattes with 5x7 cutouts, and I can rotate the image to portrait or landscape, and the frame is still square, so all of the frames on the wall wouldn't have to rotate - everything stays the same, just the image inside rotates.. makes it easy to plan the wall. Also, the frames are deep (over an inch) and you can mount the mattes either forward (up against the glass) or back (to the rear of the frame, creating depth) which also adds to the variety on the wall, and yet keeping the same 9x9 square form.

Anyway... I needed 30 mattes to be cut. 9x9 with a 5x7 cutout. I sent to a Michael's to get the mattes.

The kid behind the counter had absolutely no clue what I was asking for... the whole concept that I was asking for a matte that wasn't one off the shelf was daunting... and then asking for a square matte with a non-square cut-out... I can't tell you how many times I had to explain it, even when I had one of the 5x5 mattes from the frames. He couldn't get it.

Thank God there was a guy who was actually working on cutting mattes at the time that could help out.

I ordered 6 extra with a 4x6 cutout. just in case I get a picture from someone in that size.

How long is it going to take to cut 36 mattes? They're going to be ready FRIDAY DECEMBER 8. Why would it take that long????

So, I had this great idea yesterday. I wore my binaural mic's and recorded some segments for my podcast, complete with sounds of the turkey sizzling on the grill, the wood being started in the charcoal chimney, crackling and popping. This would be so cool.. you could almost smell the smoke...

Well, you could if it recorded.

The 9-volt battery in the mic preamp was dead, and like an idiot, I didn't check any of the recordings.

I need sound for a podcast, and I screwed-up the only chance I have all year. Now, i needed something else to fill-in.

It's Black Friday. The day after Thanksgiving. The day that everyone is going out shopping for the Christmas sales. I never leave the house on this day. The traffic from all the shoppers is bad.

But, I needed some audio. So, I ventured out. To Woodfield - home to nearly 300 stores and restaurants, including dozens that cant be found anywhere else in the Midwest, Woodfield is the Chicago area's largest shopping center and the number one tourist attraction in the state of Illinois.

On Black Friday.

It was bad, really bad. Somehow, though, I tolerated it, accepted it, recorded an open and close and ambient sounds of shoppers, took a few pictures, had lunch and left. I guess I was just in a good frame of mind and I could totally have done this (as a shopper).

Ah, yes... the time of year to give thanks with family and freinds...

It's also a big stressful day for me. I cook the turkey every year. Actually barbecue it on my Weber. This year, added stress: no more regular Kingsford CharcoalNo... I've decided to go with wood - Wicked Good "Weekend Warrior Blend" Hardwood Lump Charcoal. I just loved this whole idea of using wood charcoal instead of charcoal briquettes.

I heard that the wood burns faster and hotter, so I started the wood later than I have in the past - I started the first chimney at 1pm. The chimney lights fine (but I used 4 sheets of newspaper just in case), and seems to be completely involved a little faster, by maybe 5 or 10 minutes. and it's HOT... not just hot, but HOT. I threw the first chimney on the grill, started a second, added chunks to the first batch. The second chimney is done at the one hour mark from the start of the first, and both chimneys full of charcoal are in the grill, soaked hickory chips thrown over the top, and the turkey (18.3 lbs), in a rack, breast-down, on the grill at 2:05.

Pouring the chimneys into the grill was interesting. First, let me say that this is the best weather we've had on Thanksgiving in years.. and possibly ever... it's about 60 degrees. I don't need a jacket, and I had a fleece sweater on. Had. The charcoal was so hot, that when I poured a chimney into the grill and the heat so intense, my sweater started to smell as if it was starting to liquefy and melt. I really didn't need the sweater anyway.

2 hours and 10 minutes later, the turkey was off the grill and resting under an aluminum tent at Turkey Carving Central. Done.

Did the new charcoal work? Hell, yeah! Was the juiciest bird we had ever had... the meat was still moist putting the leftovers away after dinner.

As I write this, the charcoal is still burning in the grill. All the vents are closed, it should kill the fire. No. That's how hot the fire was.

Back in September, Carol and I along with our BBFs B&B, went to Las Vegas for a nice short vacation. We hadn't been to Las Vegas together in quite a few years.

While we were there, we took in a show at The Mirage called "Love" (I talked about it in Show #16 of my podcast). It's the only Cirque du Soliel show that moved me to tears. And I wasn't the only one from our group. To hear the original master recordings of The Beatles, remixed, blessed by the surviving members and spouses of the departed, and presented as a Cirque show was just so friggin' moving... shocked.. SHOCKED!!! the hell out of me.

THIS is the show to see in Las Vegas.

But the music.. THE MUSIC... all familiar, all known, all original recordings... but.. you're hearing them for the first time.. remastered... remixed...

I ordered the CD (and Audio DVD) from Amazon. It was released to the public yesterday, and sure enough the Amazon box was waiting at my door when I got home. I brought it to work with me today. I popped it into my laptop, jammed my earbuds in, and started to listen...

I just finished my first pass at the soundtrack, and I'm restarting it to listen to all over again.

It's like listening to the stage show... flowing song to song, no breaks.. standing on its own as a remarkable piece of history, as if the songs are all new again.

Like the Beatles? GET THIS ALBUM.

I just got off a call from the hard drive recovery company that I talked about last week.

THEY RECOVERED MY HARD DRIVE

We walked through some of the directories to make sure that the information was indeed there... and it was!

The photos.. the documents.. the tax info...

The data is being copied-off to a MyBook external hard drive. I should have it Friday or Monday.

They hold onto the failed hard drive (or "troubled" hard drive, as it was called) for 10 days, after which it goes into a destruction program. I have about 48 hours for the copied data to still be spinning on their servers if there's an issue. After that, they have to go back after the original drive. They also are supplying a stack of DVDs that they're going to pull off selected data onto (just in case the drive has issues during shipping), so they're going to grab as much of the photos as they can.

You know how happy I am? I am dancing in my cubicle!!!! Thank God there is hardly anybody in the office today...

Yeah... sweet drive to work.. clear skies.. bright sun... and nobody on the roads. Yesss... sweet commute... everybody must have taken the day off to get a jump on holiday travel, getting to where they need to be before tomorrow...

Rearranged the garage... and just got done assembling my brand new Weber grill, in prep for Thursday. Yeah, after 20+ years, it was time to retire the old one... it was pretty bad looking... what surprised me is that the whole assembly was done without a tool... well, except a hammer to hammer-on the end caps on the axles to hold the wheels on. All bright shiny new. Love the new addition - a removable ash bucket underneath... oh, and the grill itself has little doors built in so you could add charcoal after the fire's been lit.

I'm still SO worried about this year's turkey. Did I talk about this? Instead of using regular Kingsford Charcoal, I'm going to try Wicked Good "Weekend Warrior Blend" Hardwood Lump Charcoal. Yes, wood.

So, after 20+ years of barbecuing a turkey, I had it all down - how much charcoal to use, how long it would take to cook, how to monitor the bird, how the hickory chips should be prepped, when to add them, and how many... I'm switching to a new fuel that burns quicker and hotter...

and now I have to use all my many years of skill to adjust.. and save the Thanksgiving Turkey,,,

We drove up to Wisconsin and spent the day at our friend Chelby & Damian's house, to celebrate Thanksgiving a little early. We've had the pleasure of being included in Chelby's Extended Family Thanksgiving celebrations for a quite a few years now. We went up slightly early, because Carol was asked to do her wonderful stuffing, and since Carol was looking for someone to shorten some kitchen drapes that she had bought, she made a deal with Chelby - shorten the drapes in exchange for teaching how to make the stuffing. Done.

It had occurred to me when we got up there, that they didn't know about me being diagnosed with Type II Daiabetes... which I sort of forgot about... The only soda they had was either the real stuff, that I shouldn't have, or... what I would consider "odd" flavors. White grape? Tangerine? I had a Diet Coke that was found in the back of the fridge. I had never had a Diet Coke in a can... it had absolutely no flavor.. .and tasted like I was drinking Alka Seltzer. I am SO happy that I've avoided Diet Coke so far, if that's what it tastes like... in a can, at least.

I spent the morning searching the internet for hard drive recovery companies. None of these places has any online means of generating a price quote, but everything I'm seeing shows well over a thousand dollars to recover a drive.

My lack of backup has now officially begun to cost me. Real dollars.

I found a company in Madison, Wisconsin that wouldn't charge me for an attempt to recover, only if they recover data.

I called an talked to a tech... and found out that, because of the clicking noise, my 250Gb Maxtor MaxLine Plus II hard drive was 30%-40% likely to have had it's platters turned to dust and not have anything recoverable, based on the hundreds of that drive model that they have seen recently.

That left 60%-70% likely that SOMETHING could be recovered. It was worth a shot, so my hard drive is now on it's way to Madison Wisconsin, hoping beyond hope that SOMETHING can be pulled off...

... I feel like I lost part of my life when that drive went down... all of those photos, those memories...

I've been working on a project at home, to put up a series of picture frames in our family room that would hold selected images from the extensive digital photo images that I've shot over the years...

When my old computer died, and I got a new one, I transfered the old hard drives to external USB enclosures. this also upset the database I use to catalog the photos. So, I had to go in and tell the software that the image that used to be here on this disk, is now over on this disk and this directory structure. I had been tagging my images so that if I wanted to see something an image of a place or a person, I could just call it up.

I had been working on the database fixes all week. I got them all done.

I had just started to select the photos. I knew of a a few that I needed to include on the wall I was going to select more than the number of frames I was mounting, just so I can see what they look like printed.

I cam home tonight after work, went on my machine to do more photo selection. I thought I had smelled an odd odor in my den. It wasn't strong, but it smelled like ozone.

My machine was locked-up. Frozen. I cold-booted the machine, and logged back in.

And that's when I heard it... a clicking noise.

My one big, critical drive from the old machine is clicking, and not mounting.

It's dead. I lost it.

All 34,000 photos I've taken.

NO BACKUP.

I've lost it. I've lost it all. All my photos, documents, spreadsheet, tax information...

Depression sets in...

Fall to me has two parts.

The first is the wonderful colors of the trees and bushes as the weather changes early in the season. So bright, so invigorating with the first few chills in the air.

The second, is the bleak, gray cold days. The leaves are all gone, the trees are bare, the winds are cold and there's no sign of sun for days.

We went from almost 70 degrees on Thursday to the 30's on Friday. Wind. Rain.

Depressing.

Every year, I'm in charge of barbecuing the thanksgiving Turkey... I've only had one bad one in about 20 years... so, when I see things about turkey preparation, I have to read it.

This is over the top: Season Shot. For hunters.

For those guys that go out and shoot their Thanksgiving Turkey.

See, why bother trying to get all the metal shot out of the bird, when you can have shotgun shells made with "tightly packed seasoning bound by a fully biodegradable food product" ??? "The Season Shot pellets will melt in the oven seasoning the entire bird."

Oh, My.

And they have plans for new flavors: Cajun, Lemon Pepper, Garlic, Teriyaki, and Honey Mustard.

I've got a feeling that it's not really available.. yet.

I had to take off of work this afternoon. I had an appointment with a neurosurgeon downtown at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

What a gorgeous day, for November.. 68 degrees.. the drive downtown wasn't so bad, though not totally free and clear. It's maneuvering downtown that's a bitch. I had t go to the 675 N. St. Clair which is just east of Michigan Avanue... tight streets, lots of traffic, lots of peds. Thank Dog I had left early to compensate for the possibility of travel issues.

My buddy Barry knows Northwestern Hospital pretty well, but this is my first time. It's a sprawling campus in the middle of town. I had to go to the 20th floor of one of the pavilions and I was SOOOoooo impressed with the facility.. the people... The doctor is a spinal surgeon, so this is right up his alley...

So... again, another doctor that doesn't understand what's going on (MRI's do not show what the symptoms would indicate), but I'm at the right place... a teaching/research hospital. We've got another test on the books that would help the diagnosis... so I'll need to coordinate it with my neurologist and the new "Team"/doctor.

Thank God I had stopped at the oasis on the way into the city to buy snacks and drinks for the drive home... I left at the beginning of Rush Hour and it took me about 90 minutes to get home. So i listed to some Podcasts on my iPod on the drive.. and the time passed pretty easily.

Here it is.. just a day or so after the elections... the Democrats have taken over the House and Senate... and the republican-led administration, with so many ties to "big oil", had taken a "thumpin'" (as George W. said)...

..and gas prices go up???

The whole world falls apart, with nuclear threats, continued unrest in the middle east.. .and gas prices fall... but... give checks-and-balances against big oil supporters and the prices go up???

Coincidence???

I JUST WANT IT ALL TO END...

It's Election Day in the United States.

Campaign Advertising has just gone downhill over the years... I can't tell you what the hell any candidate stands for because it feels like all I hear & see is what is wrong with the other candidate... attack, attack, attack... and it's not just radio ads... or TV ads... our mailbox has been stuffed with material for the last week or so... and what about the damn pre-recorded telemarketing??? (I have to admit, Carol was ecstatic that Bill Clinton called and left a message... just for her...)

I strongly believe that there should be some kind of legislation passed to limit the length of time that candidates can run ads... like maybe 4-6 weeks, and that's it...

Update: I went to vote.. what a mess and it was because of our poling place, a grammar school a few blocks away. First.. the kids have the day off (and that's a great idea... you just don't want adults roaming the halls of a grade school). For some reason, they setup the voting stations in a back hallway of the school, which made it almost impossible to move around, between the voting stations, tables, judges, voters...

It was a choice of a paper ballot (connecting two halves of an arrow with a special pen, with the whole ballot being scanned when you're done) or electronic (touchscreen). Issues? They're were down to just 4 pens to mark the ballots if you used paper, causing long lines), and down to 5 smartcards for the touchscreens (again, causing lines).

I chose to use the touchscreen.. I had to - I'm a geek and wanted to experience this. I loved it... it's a very easy experience, easy to read and follow. The slowest part?... OH! BEFORE I FORGET!!! THERE HAS GOT TO BE A BETTER WAY TO HANDLE THE ELECTION AND RETENTION OF JUDGES! How many were there? It went on for pages and pages and pages on the touchscreen... anyway... The slowest part? Verifying your votes. When you use paper, well... by default, you are verifying what you're doing. On a touchscreen, it'll show you all of your votes, and if you under/over voted for anything highlighted in red. Your votes are stored on the smartcard that you use to activate the machine. But, as a backup and a physical record, there's a paper tape that is printed, and you must review it as it's printed after you have verified your on-screen vote. When you're done, the smartcard is ejected from the machine. You bring the card to a judge, who copies the data, erases the card, and hands it to the next person waiting in line. I enjoyed using the machine.. now I wish they had more cards/machines/pens.. and why the hell weren't we in the gum like the last time???

We've had an atritificial Christmas tree for for all of our married life. On top of that, there are years where we don't even put up the tree. I know, a lot of you won't understand that, but since there's just the two of us, we don't need a tree to celebtrate the holiday. We usually don't have anybody over during the holidays, so theres no tree, no lights... just a wreath on the front door (and we're pretty sure that the rabbits don't miss a tree either).

But, the last few times when we've had to put the tree up, it's been a chore, and after 20 years... it's seen better days.

So, since we're putting up a tree this year, we decided to get a new one. We've seen ads for this online store, that has a warehouse in Barrington, that's open to the public only on weekends, so we took a drive to Tree Classics

The place was packed... the company took a cornetr of their warehouse and setup one of each style of tree, some of them at the different heights offered, and you can just wander through the "forest" and check out what you like. If you find something, you flag down a worker with a clipboard, who fills out a form, and you got to a cubicle to pay. Then you go to the dock doors and guys wil help you take your tree to your vehicle.

We chose a realtive thin (or at least on the thin side) tree that was 9 feet tall that would look great in house, not thinking about how big the box was. Thank god we had Carol's Grand Vitara... we had to put the passenger front seat down to get the box to fit. Thank God the rear seats are split, because I was able to sit back there. And then, we didn't think about how heavy the box was. Carol crushed her thumbnail as we tried to get the box out of the truck.

So.. it's in the garage... have no idea where we're going to store this thing... it's so much biger and heavier than we thought it could be.

We always keep paper and a pen at the door to tally the Trick-or-Treat'ers.

Today, it was sunny, but the temperatures went from 62 degrees down to 44 by the time the kids showed-up. Speaking of which, the first ones came to the door at 4:52, which seemed late to me. It was barely still light out (wonder how the new daylight Saving is going to fix that next year).

I was disappointed... hardly any inspired costumes, just your run-of-the-mill football player (Go Bears!), LaCrosse player (OK, that was a little surprising), cheerleader, princess, and only one Captain Jack Sparrow, that was an older teen-ager.

Today's count: 57
2005: 56
2004: 61
2003: 69
2002: 79

We took count the years before, but never kept the information - 2002 was the first year I had my blog up and running (I know one year was over 100).

Saw a photo set at Flickr or the annual ILM-Lucasfilm-LucasArts Halloween Party.

Not as impressive as I would have hoped. Now, don't get me wrong, there are one or two costumes that are pretty inspired... but it just looks like a "normal" (yeah, like there's a normal one) Halloween Party.

But... you have to like the Trojan Rabbit complete with a some Monty Python Holy Grail knights inside (apparently, this won Best Costume of the night). The runner's up, or honerable mention,or.. whatever went to a Marie Antoinette (decked-out in all handmade clothing and wig), a digital camera that took real images (complete with tourist hanging onto the strap) and (you gotta love this) a Wack-A-Mole with companion walking mallet)

(In case you don't look at the photo set, you'll miss not only those costumes, but also Bride of Frankenstein, a Stick Man, the Stephen Colbert Greenscreen Challenge, Britney Spears (which actually looks pretty good/accurate), K-Fed, a cardboard stormtrooper (finally! A Lucas-tie-in), Chinese Take out, a sugar glider (what? You don't listen to Dawn and Drew?), some Katamari Damacy characters, an R2 unit with an oompa loompa, a Deviled Egg, replica ILM Security Badges, the Starbucks mermaid and (yawn) Spiderman, A burrito (looks like Chipotle), characters from Serenity (!), a chef, an attempt at Lucille Ball , A real stormtrooper (as opposed to cardboard), Flavor Flav (oh, God), ... even Borat showed up.)

I bought a new cell phone back on the 11th - a Palm® Treo™ 700wx with Windows Mobile 5.0, not Palm OS. I love this thing. It's come in handy. having access to email, my contacts and calendar, even the Internet.

So, this morning, I noticed that it was acting really sluggish... it would take many seconds to delete an incoming email. Then, I couldn't delete the email before by the time the phone turned off from not being used. Then I couldn't turn the phone off/on. I pulled the battery, and the unit would just boot to the Palm splash screen. I tried hard reset. Nothing. No change.

It had been under 30 days since I purchased it, so I went back to the store tonight. The same guy that sold me the phone waited on me. I went to the store with just the phone, in an attempt to just say "Phone broke - fix", but the "tech" had gone for the day. Will told me if I had the box, they'd just swap the phone.

I left, drove all the way home, gathered the box, cables, software and a receipt and drove back to the store.

Will had already pulled a box from inventory, and we started processing the work order/exchange. that's when we found out that the phone was already on someone's account, as a defective phone, and that was the last phone they had. So, he called another store in the area. They didn't have the phone. He called another store and they had one, so I had to drive a while to get to the store.

So, I have a new phone, now covered under an insurance plan so that I can get a replacement/repair after my 30 days are up. After having the phone die, and going to a store that had another defective phone, I'm not feeling comfortable with the hardware, though I really do like it, so... I might as well be prepared for another excursion in the future.

So, we did the annual Fall Back thing at 2am this morning. We forgot to change any clock in the house before we went to bed.

Now, starting next year, the whole Daylight Saving (yes, it's Saving not Savings) rules change next year.

It used to be the first Sunday of April to the last Sunday of October. Starting next year it's the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November.

Of course, this is somehow supposed to save energy. I think it's a conspiracy with the Candy Companies, so there's more light when kids go Trick-or-Treating.

Now, how much software and firmware has to be changed to accommodate this? I know Windows does the adjustment automagically at the correct times, so some fix has to be out in for that change, but what about other things, like VCR's? Automated thermostats? Think about the items that you don't have to touch when the time changes... all of them won't change correctly starting next year...

W had B&B come out to the house just to hang out... it's been a while since they've been out. It's a windy day outside - High Winds Warning all day, though it's sunny and chilly... we've been averaging about 10 degrees cooler than what the average for the day. Carol cooked a pork roast, that was cooked over a bed of root vegetables, and we had egg noddles and corn... it actually turned out really well. We hung out and checked out a movie that we've never seen before - Inside Man, a better movie than we had thought.

We love having them out here..

Today was the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon, and was won by Robert Cheruiyot from Kenya in 2:07:35. It was lousy weather - temperatures hovered around 40 degrees, but the wind gusted to over 20 m.p.h. (so there was a typical Chicago Wind Chill) and it misted on and off...

... affecting the runner's footing.

Sure enough, as Cheruiyot reached the finish line, he thrust out his right arm and briefly wagged a finger signaling that he was No. 1, spread both arms wide and seemed to lean back. His foot stepped on a race decal, skidded and went down on the red finish mat, hitting the asphalt hard while sliding forward across the line. He never broke the tape, but tapes are ceremonial, and his body crossed the line.

So he celebrated in the hospital with minor bleeding on the surface of his brain, and he has also been told to rest for up to three months to give the brain time to heal.

According to a spokesperson, the decal is made of non-skid, non-slip material and is designed specifically for outdoor sports in all-weather conditions.

Ummm.. guess not.

About 1 o'clock this morning, I woke up, having to go to the bathroom. No big deal, this is what my life has been for the past couple of years.

I rolled out of bed, placed my feet on the floor, and then...

...WHAM!...

I never had my balance when I rolled out of bed. I was never dizzy, no sense of vertigo. My legs seemed to support me, but I must have planted my feet waaaayyyy off balance...

..and collapsed into my nightstand, tipping it, sending things to the floor, including myself, and along the way scaring the hell out of Carol who was silently asleep (at least, I think she was silent).

I was awake, but I just remember realizing my body isn't in the position that I think it is just before I crashed. So, I wasn't dizzy, but maybe this is vertigo?

I've been unsteady on my feet for the last few years, and, come to think of it, I've had this sensation MANY times before,where I'm not where I think I am. When that happens, I'm not dizzy, it's almost like a type of disconnect when I finally realize "Hey! I'm not supposed to be here!" and then try to compensate.

Even though I am frequently off-kilter, I have never lost my balance and fallen.. up until this morning. But, take it with a grain of salt.. .I had been sleeping, and was barely awake when I rolled out of bed. (It's not like I rolled out of bed onto the floor either... I had swung my legs underneath me... I just never got vertical.

I think I'll partially blame that new 4-inch Memory Foam Mattress Topper... making the bed too tall to easily get in and out of for us Height Challenged individuals.

Gotta blame someone.. or something...

Friday the 13th.

So far, the world hasn't exploded/imploded, and in general, doesn't seem any stranger today than yesterday.

I'm at work. In my cube. yes, actually working.

Pam - my next door cube neighbor - is suddenly hanging over the wall between the cubes, and says "Michael... look".

I stood up... looked out the window across the floor from us... to see...

SNOW. BLOWING SIDEWAYS left to right. I went to the window... looked down and saw the snow accumulating on the grass, the bushes, the trees, lamp posts...

Holy crap, it's actually snowing... sideways....

NOOOOOooooooo!!!!!! I'm not ready for this!!!!!!

Update: O'Hare registered 0.3" of snow - a record earliest snowfall

Today was the day.

Today was the day where it was warm (70's), sunny, not a cloud in the sky...

... when the leaves have all changed, and they're all still on the trees. Color everywhere. Gorgeous. It'll probably all be gone by the end of the week, so today was the day to be outside and pay attention to the color all around you.

Autumn is here (baseball is over - at least for me - , so I can finally talk about this), and the temperatures haven't plumeted... so today is just a perfect day.

Huge huge huge thunderstorms going through the area tonight. We had a power blip that wasn't long, but, damn, there was lightning and thunder. It's also pretty warm, so this is like a late summer thunderstorm... in autumn.

Just got back from our Annual "Away Team" trip to little LaValle, Wisconsin with Barry and Joe to what is now John's permanent home.

Man.. .I guess I'm just a City Boy at heart... that's just WAY too far off the grid for my comfort. I mean, I had no cell service the entire time I was up there... good ol' Spring just didn't have the coverage.

Late yesterday afternoon, we were on the deck, overlooking the lake, eating some salmon fillets that John had smoked... just watching life on the lake pass by.

We did that for two hours. Maybe more. I couldn't tell. I just watched and ate and watched... and time just passed... so relaxing, and yet not boring.

I guess that was the whole weekend... relaxing and not boring. Good to get away every once in a while to do this.

And... I blew the whole "Rabbit, Rabbit" meme thing, along with "White Rabbit" or Rabbit! Rabbit! Rabbit! today... just too relaxed.. and, being away from home, you kind of forget things...

Our buddy John (the guy that retired a few months ago) lives in a small town in Wisconsin called LaValle.

6½ miles to the southwest, is a small town called Cazenovia that we've driven through a few times, even when we were up there back in July.

Just over the wires is a story about a kid (15 years old) that shot and killed his High School Principal today, the day of their Homecoming.

Update: We found out after we got up here that another kid from the high school was killed in a car wreck 15 minutes before the shooting. The two things weren't related - this kid was running from a police traffic stop, lot control of his vehicle, ran into a ditch and flipped the car a few times. His passenger wasn't hurt - he was wearing a seatbelt, the driver wasn't.

This is going to send small town, rural America into a turmoil up there... and we're on our way up tonight...

The tornado sirens went off, which is startling because they're about a block away, so they're pretty friggin' loud.

Jeez did it rain.. I think I heard it was up to 2" an hour. Schaumburg police are reporting rotation in the clouds (hence, the reason for the sirens). Man... hardly any wind... but jeez did it come down...

There's no debris anywhere... just rivers of water rushing down the streets. I have standing water on my lawn.

This was bad... I really feel like we dodged a bullet.

And to top it all off - we're just hours away from the Autumnal Equinox - the beginning of Fall...

OK. Example: Our house:

Number of Occupants - 2 (well, 2 human, 2 rabbit)

Number of TV's: 4

Researchers: Homes have more TVs than people

Just got home from Midway Airport... ready to go to sleep...

We've just returned from Las Vegas where we've been for a couple of days...

We left, and the temperatures were going to be in the low 90's yesterday.

We got off the plane, and the temperatures are almost in the high 40's.

SHOCK TO THE SYSTEM - not ready for the... "absence"... of summer...

Where were you 40 years ago tonight?

Sitting in front of your TV?

Watching NBC?

Star Trek premiered on NBC 40 years ago tonight, on September 8, 1966

Take a moment and stop to think... How many thing has Star Trek, its 4 spin-off television programs, its 10 motion pictures, its thousands of novels and millions of fans have affected every day life... whether you have noticed or not... whether you liked it or not.

A popular day for birthdays for us!

Happy Birthday to my sister Diane!

Happy Birhday to my buddy Barry!

Labor Day Weekend - the traditional end of summer.

Time to spend it with friends. Went to B&B's for the day. We were all going next door to Kenny & Pat's for a barbecue. Debbie came over. And then - before we went next door - Diane and Melinda brought Jackson over, so B&B could finally meet him before he turned one years old. Jackson was a big hit. It was a great visit. We went next door, sat outside in the backyard, I had a couple of beers (!) and we had some hotdogs from Falatic's Meat Market in Michigan.

Celebrate the "End of Summer"... a time that came and went too quickly.

This is where I usually post the "Rabbit, Rabbit" meme thing, along with "White Rabbit" or Rabbit! Rabbit! Rabbit!.

Screw that.

Luck?

DON'T HAVE ANY.

I have a back hoe sitting in the middle of my front yard.

I the middle of the Most Perfect Lawn I have ever had. In the 22 years we've been here, the lawn has never never never looked this good.

Now I have a back hoe as a lawn ornament.

Why?

I blogged about this once, but it's been happening every once in a while ever since.

Today, it pushed us over the edge. Anytime we took a shower, flushed a toilet.. the drain in the utility room backed-up, flooding the room. And this time, it just wasn't a little. Carol called the plumbers that we have use before, had them come out on an emergency.

We have a blockage. In the sewer line. It has to be dug-up and fixed (hence, the back hoe). We were lucky in the respect that - YAY! - they didn't have to tear-up the lawn. They tore-up our landscaping that my sister Diane slaved over. So now... the plumbers got enough of the work done so that we could use water in the house. Emergency Call fee? $850. But they have to come back Tuesday to do the rest of the work.

The back hoe is staying on my lawn until Tuesday. Burning out the lawn.

CRAP.

The cost of the whole sewer replacement? Just under $7,000!

CRAP!

Then I got a weird call at work yesterday just before I was leaving. A doctor's office called, telling me that the doctor needed see today.

I found out that this is the doctor that reviewed the results of my sleep study. And I was upset that - without knowing anything - that this doctor wanted to see me that quickly.

So, I went to the doctors. What a great facility. Big. What a great staff. Here's a few tidbits from the sleep study: I have significant sleep apnea - 90 events an hour. My blood oxygen level - which should normally be in the 90% range, drops and stays in the 70% range overnight. I am oxygen starved, screwing up my brain and organs. I need a CPAP machine, I need it now, and I need to get this under control and breathe normally overnight. The doctor and nurses all seamed really concerned when they saw the results.

I now have a prescription for Flonase and a loaner CPAP machine (until I get clearance from the insurance company and I'll get my own). I have to start using it right away with the mask tat I have from the sleep study.

And probably use this every night for the rest of my life.

The third thing that happened today, and perhaps the saddest, is about Diane's beagle Chelsea. All of us love this dog. But she's 12 years old, and has had a major problem develop that required Diane to take her in to the Vet...

Chelsea has some form of a very aggressive cancer... and the vet gives her about 6-8 weeks. If she got chemo, she would probably have 6-8 months.

This is going to devastating to a lot of us... Chelsea has been a major part of our family and has a place deep in our hearts.

So, screw any lucky "Rabbit, Rabbit" crap.

Welcome to September.

the weather - in my opinion - has been great lately. After such a friggin' hot heat wave, the temperatures have been cooler that the average temperature for that day. It's been around 75 degrees (average is supposed to be 80).. and you know? 75 - in my opinion - is perfect. 75 and sunny. Perfect temperature. Perfect environment.

Just perfect.

I left the house this morning and saw something that I didn't realized i hadn't seen in a few months... kids waiting for a school bus.

All over the neighborhood.

That - to me - signals the beginning of the end of summer.

Spent the weekend at my sister Diane's house up in Michigan with B&B.

We left on Saturday morning, drove up to Harbert, stopped at Falatic's Meat Market (butcher.. for meats for our meals, since Carol shopped for other groceries on Friday and packed them into the VERY crowded trunk)

The weather wasn't great when we got there.. we were there early enough for pool-time, but no sun.. and it had been raining, so we went to Redamak's for lunch. Took off for Indiana.. stopping first at Lighthouse Place Premium Outlets mall for Buff to do some quick shopping, then over to Blue Chip Casino, where I sat down and played Blackjack for the first time since... well, first time this decade, I think...

Had a Prime Rib dinner at Skip's. Crashed at home, pool the next day with fresh chicken brats and hotdogs. B&B took the car and went to New Buffalo to get some fresh corn on the cob for dinner and some Sweet Baby ray's barbecue sauce... for the ribs that Barry prepared for dinner. Great meats, great cooking, great meals, great company.

Today, B&B took the car and went back to Lighthouse and Blue Chip, Carol bobbed in the pool and I did some podcasting.

The drive home late this afternoon was a breeze, with the exception of the hour we spent on Lake Shore Drive from Soldier Field north.

We love going up there just to "get away"... and we acually travel well together...

Why the hell am I even sharing this with you?

Just went into the men's room at work...

and it looked like... someone... didn't make it to the urinals in time....

eeeewwwww..

Broke down and ordered a new Dell to replace the old machine. I REALLY didn't want to do this, but I don't have a choice. It's doesn't even boot anymore... it would show the Safe Boot menu and then.. never boot. Now, it's not even getting that far. New machine doesn't ship until next Wednesday.

I HOPE TO GOD THE DRIVES ARE STILL OK.. OH, PLEASE LET THEM BE OK...

The total costs of car repair - $2,134.

OK, that wasn't just to fix the electrical problem..

The alternator had a bad diode that charged the battery - sometime. OK, that needed replacing. That fixes Saturday's problem.

I complained about road noise coming from the rear. Well, yeah.. the tires are cutup and cupped and have tread issues... OK, new set of tires

Well.. why did the tires degrade? Well, the rear struts were worn and shot. Replace the rear struts.

Braking seems week? Yep... rotors are fine.. but needs brakes both front and rear. Replace brakes.

Original belts on the car? Well, we're replacing the alternator so... replace belts.

$2,134 later, I have a car that rides better and quieter.

Carol and Diane were coming back home today, and I was to meet them at my mom's house.

I started to think about this as the time came closer to me leaving. I was totally ignoring the sick car in the garage. I started to think about the car - if it starts - dieing again, God knows where, on the way into Chicago, or in-town... I realized that this is a stupid thing to do.

So.. I talk to Carol for the first time... fill her in... talk to my mom, and let her know... then Carol calls back saying she doesn't want to go to my mom's, then... so I call my mom and let her know about Carol... and then my sister calls and YELLS AND BERATES ME about how I should have made the decision earlier and then if both Carol & I would go to my mom's, then she would have just stayed in Michigan (like I knew that was an option)

This weekend had all the earmarkings to be good... and turned into a private hell...

I had a wonderful day, just goofing off, copying some things off of TiVo, exploring and playing in Second Life...

Then dinner time rolled along.. and passed... and I got hungry and I jumped into the car and drove to Portillo's to grab an Italian beef.

It was a gorgeous night, had the window open, and I pulled into the drive-thru. As usual, the place was hopping, so they had guys outside taking the orders and delivering food to the cars to help expedite the process.

A guy comes over and I complete step one of the process - give him the order, and in-turn radio's the order inside. He walks away to process other cars.

I'm sitting there, listening to the radio...

when I look down and see my ABS light go on.. I panic, yell "NOOO!!!" and start playing with the brake pedal.. I don't need brake problems now...

And then I realize... my tachometer is at zero. The car had died. No noise, no rumble, ... it just faded away. I never heard it.

I turn the key, only to hear "click...click...click...click"

Dead battery. WTF?

I was hoping to have more fun than this at home...

My computer has been Blue Screen-ing. The old BSOD. It's not software. It's not a driver.

It's hardware.

I can't keep the machine up and running for more than a few minutes at a time.

This could get expensive...

Carol took off for my sister Diane's house in Michigan this afternoon for the Annual Summer "Club" function with the ladies... and isn't coming back until Sunday!!!!

Wooooo HOOOOOO!!!!

I'm alone for the weekend!!!! YES!!!!!

Friggin' oppressive heat over the Chicago Area... over the United States.. hell, Europe has it as well... WTF?

I have been REALLY lucky so far... we've had some really nice sized thunderstorms rolling through the neighborhood every other day or so... until recently.

I've avoided watering our plants.. can't avoid it any longer...

So.. since I spend no time around the outside of our house, I was shocked and appalled to find out something going on.

We had to get a new lawn mowing service this year, because the one we've used had to close down.. due to some family thing...

So our new guys are.. well, OK. Not stellar, but OK.

I left the hose out behind the house for at least the last month, maybe longer... like I said, it's been a while since I last watered. The hose is on one of those plastic hose mobile cart things. Just siting there.

So I go out there and start unwinding the hose... and I'm HORRIFIED to find out that the lawn crew... has never touched the hose mobile when they cut the grass. They NEVER MOVED IT. The grass under the hose mobile was over a foot tall. So I moved the damn hose mobile, forcing these idiots to cut the damn grass!!! The feed hose that goes to the cart was buried in the grass and I had to rip it out of the grass clump to move the cart!

The White Sox threw a party for season ticket holders today (actually, on Thursday and Friday, too). They used to do this almost every year. They suspended this or a few years, because the park had renovations being done, almost year long. Now, that the season ticket base has grown so dramatically, the team decided to throw another party.

I LOVE these things. There's something special about being in the park - when the team isn't there playing ball. I took my buddy Barry to share this unusual event.

OK.. so.. I KNOW it's summer... I KNOW it's supposed to be hot...

But this is rediculous... nationwide record heat? Europe?

A week at a time? And then, another week? Another week in the 90's? Hear index over 105?

And then, on TV this morning, hear that in Sacremento, bats are falling out of trees because of heat and dehydration.

Our friends B&B told us about this mattress cover they got from Overstock.com. The love it. We tested it on their bed and loved it - reminded us of the mattress at the Venetian. So I went online and ordered a Serta® Ultimate 4-inch Memory Foam Mattress Topper and it showed up yesterday. It came in this little box, all 37 pounds of it. So, we found out that we have to unroll it and let it air out. No way the size of the roll is a full-size bed mattress topper.

So we unroll it and unfold it on top of our bed and... sure enough it's the right size... and within seconds, any creases and folds are gone.

Now... it's becoming clear... we have a more significant problem...

Box spring... mattress.. new 4 inches of foam...

We're short, and the top of the bed is now belt high. How are we going to get in at night?

I finally had an appointment with a neurologist today. It has been months and months, and because I was a new patient, this was the first opening I could get.

So.. it's the same thing.. "I don't know"... because like all my problems and all my doctors, it's all the same.. "I don't know".. and whatever I have, it doesn't "fit" with test/scan results.

But, now with her, it's like.. OK, let's go down this path and start eliminating. I have another series of blood tests to take.. eliminating Vitamin deficiency, Lyme Disease.. stuff like that..

Oh, and she wants me to go in for a sleep study... my fatigue, coordination issues... it all fits sleep apnia... along with - believe it or not - high blood pressure, high cholesterol, etc.

I feel comfortable with her.. great attitude... I think maybe, SOMEDAY, we'll figure this out.

I don't know how a woman, who is CLEARLY intolerant of heat, has been driving around in an SUV that doesn't have working air conditioning during the oppressive heat wave (that may be rearing its ugly head again this week).

We brought her truck in to get serviced today (along with, oh, a RECALL that had to get fixed).

She should feel better now. At least while she's driving.

myesetrdamy, I accidenallmy spilled mmy Diet Pepsi all ovtetr mmy desk. MUnftotrmunatelmy, I gtot a little on mmy laptop keyboatrd, and now... well, you can see that I'm gtettingt extra key ptresses. I can't logtin because I'm gtettingt invtalid passwotrds.

Gtreat.

Just got back from a weekend trip to the small-town America, central Wisconsin style.

Carol and I along with Barry & Buffy traveled almost 200 miles to a small town called laValle - population 329 - in south central Wisconsin

I feel I've hit the summer doldrums... nothing much going on, every thing the same... why write about it?

We at the beginning of a real significant het spell that will last a week. Temperatures in the mid to upper 90's... high humidity. Heat index 105 and above.

Tomorrow B&B and the two of us drive up to Wisconsin for the weekend.. more on that some other time...

OH.

MY.

GOD.

This is NOT NOT NOT the best time of yesr driving to work in the morning.

Actually, it's not he drive to work. It's not the parking in the parking garage.

It's walking from the car to the building.

In the humidity. If there's heat, God help us.

We're downwind of a waste treatment plant. Human waiste treatment plant. Vile. Nausiating. Disgusting.

OK, I'm thinking of posting this entry later, sometime after I can tell my family about what happened today before they read it here first.

Oh, man - I love weeks like this...

Commuting traffic is just non-existent. The holiday just fell in the right spot that people took off the whole week instead of just the weekend.

Sweet, easy, commuting...

Back to work - only three work days this week.

It's gorgeous outside - sunny, blue sky, no clouds, 70's.

Where was this weather this past weekend? Why is it here NOW when I have to work?