Have I Mentioned Rain?

On Sunday we went to church and stopped at Panera Bread on the way home. After that we just hung out at home for the rest of the day. The Cubs game was rained out and the Bears didn't play so there certainly wasn't anything to watch on TV. Julie was doing the laundry and I was trying to determine what we needed to buy to put our bicycles on top of my Escape when we go on our bike trip this weekend. It took a long time to finally figure out what we actually needed and then I finally got it ordered which wasn't as easy as it sounds. Some sites I was checking prices at kept emptying my shopping cart. And then some didn't have the parts I needed.

As it turns out the place I did order the parts from didn't have the parts their site said they had since they called today and left a message saying they didn't have them. So I'm going to cancel that order as I placed the order with another website today. And now I have to pay more for shipping as we need it by Thursday. I called around to places around here where I could drive to get these parts and they didn't have them either. The entire reason I ordered them online was because it was cheaper than any place locally even with shipping. So now that I'm increasing my shipping costs, I had to check and see if anyone had them because it might be cheaper just to drive over and get them. But they didn't have the parts either. So I'll just hope that this new company has them and can get them to us in time.

Today was Grace's first day of dance class this year. It was this afternoon from 3-4 pm. I'm not excited about the time but I'm sure when we get our whole routine going it won't be so bad. I'm just wondering if Grace shouldn't be in a more advanced class. There are some girls in there that were in her class last year but there are some new kids that don't appear to have much experience or maybe any experience and Grace is doing really well with just about anything asked of her. I think I'll have to ask her teacher and see what she says. Maybe there isn't a class available for her to take or maybe she's in pre-school or gymnastics during that class.

We went to Menards before her class and were looking to buy a battery backup sump pump system and a new sump pump because they recommend that you buy a new sump pump when you buy and install the battery backup system. Well with all the rain we've been having I guess sump pumps are in high demand as they didn't have hardly ANY sump pumps nor the battery backup system I wanted. They checked in the computer and the Menards in Fox Lake and Gurnee both have the backup system I want so I guess Grace and I will have to check at one of those stores tomorrow.

Speaking of rain, we've had so much! Just yesterday we got about 4 inches. And it's supposed to continue raining for the next 4-5 days. Our sump pump has been working hard and I'm not surprised that sump pumps have been selling well lately. It's just like in the winter when the snow starts to fall people all rush to buy shovels and snow blowers, etc. So then the stores run out if it's a big storm and then lets say your shovel breaks and you need to go and buy a replacement, you're out of luck. It seems to be that way every winter. I suppose it shouldn't be any different during rainy times with sump pumps.

Anyway, it was annoying that they didn't have what I wanted but at least I didn't have to have one because mine was broken. So I'll just continue on my quest tomorrow. We came home after dance class and had dinner and then I went grocery shopping after dinner and just got home not too long ago. So its been a long day and I'm ready for the rain to stop! As a result of all the rain the mosquitoes are horrible. Rosco was waiting to come in and had about 8-10 of them flying around him as he waited. You walk outside and they start attacking no matter what time of day. We just have too much standing water.

If you've been watching the news lately, you might have noticed that Illinois has now gone 20 days without a state budget because they can't agree on the particulars. I don't know how or when they're going to fix this because both sides are trying to pull punches and neither side is giving in. The Governor Rod Blagojevich isn't giving in and has put new bills in front of the legislators that were hundreds of pages long and was expecting them to vote after only an hour or so. This could go on for a very long time.

Have you also noticed that the lady that was holed up in a church here in Chicago for over a year Elvira Arellano to avoid deportation recently left the security of the church and went to Los Angeles to speak at an immigration rally. She was on a nationwide campaign for immigration reform. As soon as she was done speaking, ICE came and arrested her and took her down to the border and handed her over to Mexican Authorities. Wouldn't you think she'd expect this? I don't think I would have left that church until the immigration reforms I was fighting for were in place. Her son was born here and is a US citizen and she didn't want to be deported so that she wouldn't be separated from her son. Of course her son has followed her down into Mexico for now.