No Rain!

We actually didn't have any rain today. Can you believe it? I can't. So I took advantage of that fact and got the lawn mowed this evening. I actually was able to mow the lawn before it got super high and needed special attention to be mowed. So that is out of the way and I can rest easy over the weekend when we aren't here that the grass won't grow too much. Ha-ha; watch it grow 6 inches while we're gone.

Grace and I pretty much just hung out at home today. She slept in so we had a late start anyway. We didn't finish breakfast until 11 and then we had lunch at 2:30 or 3 so the whole day was a little off. But we did manage to get over to the village hall and buy some yard waste stickers so they'll take my grass clippings this week. Then we went over to the Fox Lake Menards and bought our new sump pump and battery backup system. It didn't include the battery and I didn't see one sitting there by the backup systems so they are either out or I have to buy it somewhere else. So that's another thing to add to my to-do list. We checked the recessed lights they were selling there and I wasn't too impressed. I'll have to try the Home Depot or Lowe's or an electrical supply company.

After Menards we stopped at the park near our house on the way home. We didn't have much time because Julie was going to be home from work soon. As it turns out she got home about the same time we got to the park so Grace only got to play for 15 minutes. She wasn't so happy about that even though I told her when we got there that we only had 15 minutes. The trials and tribulations of a 4 year old...

So then we came home and I made dinner - quesedillas - and then like I said I mowed the grass. After a shower and a shave I paid our bills and now I'm writing this. Did you hear that the space shuttle landed safely today? I'm so glad nothing bad happened when they re-entered the earth's atmosphere. I really was afraid it had been damaged too much. I know they do this anyway, but they had better check everything out now to make sure it doesn't need further repair besides just the heat shields now that it's been subjected to those extreme temperatures.

Oh the bike trip we're taking this weekend is called "Rolling on the River." It's down in Yorkville, IL which is 55 miles southwest of Chicago. That's 85 miles from here and will take us almost 2 hours to get there. It's a two day event to benefit Illinois' Environment. Since we've been trying to do little steps in helping the environment this sounded like a good thing to do. We'll be camping and helping with registration and hopefully riding in the event too. We're just hoping it doesn't rain the whole time and that our campsite isn't completely full of mud!

I'll talk more about this later - I've got to get to bed.

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.

Paint

Today is Tuesday so we had gymnastics this morning. Grace woke up around 7:30 and we were only 5 minutes late this morning. While she was working at the gym I ran to Menards to return something we didn't need and then went to pick up Grace's dance pictures. They are adorable! Here is a scan of it:



After that I played around on my laptop for a while to see what else I needed to figure out. I was actually able to turn a "feature" off that was annoying. Then we ran by Radio Shack to return something also. Then we came home and Grace played for a while, we had lunch and then she played all afternoon at her friend across the street's house. While she was there I started painting.

I got some of the shelves for the bookcase primed. Then I was working on our "Paint Organizer." It is a little notebook that lets you write down everything about the way your whole house is painted. It's pretty cool, got it from the paint store. It's made by Rubbermaid.

Then the wallpaper person stopped by. She gave us an estimate that was just a little more than I expected, but to put wallpaper on a ceiling, sounds great! The tile guy called me back today. Sounds like he wants me to get the old tile taken out and the floor repaired before we go on vacation so that he can stop over while we're on vacation and set the tile for us. So I need to get another estimate for the wallpapering and start working on other things in the family room like putting up the wallpaper on the lower portion of the walls, painting, puttying and priming the shelf I put on the ledge, painting the room, installing recessed lighting, making the cornices, having the drapes made and other things I'm probably forgetting.

After dinner which was burgers on the grill (and they were REALLY good tonight BTW) I came down and started painting parts of the bookcase I made. I got all of the face frames painted, the crown molding painted and part of one bookcase section. So we can get a pretty good idea for how it's going to look. And we both like it! Yea! And I painted one area of the room in the three colors we picked out. It looks really cool too. After I get a second coat on it and get the shelf primed and painted I'll take a picture and post that for everyone to see. Ditto for the bookcase although it's already primed and parts are already painted. Maybe we can actually have this family room looking like a room pretty soon! That will be really nice! And it'll be nice to finally be done with these darn bookcases. That's a project that has just lingered. I'm so excited to have the paint to get it finished and see how it looks and how well it will work out for us. It's fun to see an idea from your head come to fruition, but when it takes this long, it's nice just to finally be done with it and cross it off the list!

Well this isn't the most comprehensive blog posting to date, or the best written, but I'm really tired. I'll get more thoughts down tomorrow.

Saying Goodbye

...is never easy.

We went to a going away party for our friends that are moving out of the country at the end of the summer. They're moving up to Minnesota for the summer on Monday, and we'll still see them tomorrow and Sunday but the time is drawing closer and closer. They are just THE nicest people and we truly will miss them. Grace is going to miss her friend I know that. Fortunately they will be "connected" when they're over on the other side of the world and so hopefully we can stay in touch through the years they'll be gone.

Alright, sorry to have started this out on a sad note. Grace AND I got to sleep in today and that was certainly welcome! We had a pretty good morning and then were going to the chiropractor and of course we were late--which we never are for him, usually we're really early and are waiting because he's not ready for regular patients yet. He has certain hours where he does initial consultations that require x-rays and the whole analysis. But it didn't matter as he was behind schedule and was actually busy. He's never busy in the middle of the day, but he was today. So we actually had to wait which we also never have to do, unless you're really early. After that, we drove up to my new favorite store, the Menards in Antioch. We stopped and had lunch on the way. I needed those new post toppers for the garden fence and some type of stakes to use to cover up the strawberries which I didn't get to today. Hopefully I can get to that tomorrow. This weekend is such a busy one. We'll be spending most of our time up in Kenosha for the Recital. Tomorrow we're leaving at 11:15am to go up there and probably won't be home before 4:30pm and then Sunday we'll probably leave by 10:30am and not be home before 6:30 and that's assuming we don't go to dinner afterwards which we normally do.

After Menards, we stopped at the grocery store to get a side dish to bring to dinner tonight. I got 14 ears of corn on the cob. We brought it home and I threw it in the cooler and added water. That's how you cook corn on the cob on the grill if you didn't know that. That's the secret, don't remove any of the skin or the silk and soak them for at least an hour in water. Start the grill, let it heat up and then spread the coals around and I usually add some more fresh coals so the fire doesn't get low near the end of cooking. Then add them and I generally turn them about every 20 minutes and it takes about an hour. All that water inside the husks steams the corn from the inside out while the charcoal imparts it's own flavor throughout the whole ear of corn. Mmmm mmmm good!

Then we get home from dinner tonight and my poor Aunt, she needs help with her computer and I wasn't home long enough to call her today. I'll have to call her first thing in the morning tomorrow before we head out to Kenosha. So look for that call Luvy - I didn't forget about you!

I was checking online today about renting a professional video camera to use when I record the recital as I always do. I just have a consumer level Canon mini-dv video recorder. I wanted to rent one that was better so that the end result is higher quality, but the price was a little too steep since I'm not going to be paid for any type of video I produce. And even if I produced a video that I tried to sell, I'm not that good, so it's really not worth their spending much money on it. So with Julie's level head, we nixed that idea. It would have been about $200 for one day to rent it. And you generally have to put a down-payment for the full sales price down before you take it and then you get that money back when you return the item you've rented. (You know my track record with a down-payment being returned.)

The Storms are a Coming

Today was busy as usual. But the real story was last night. After I wrote my blog last night, I stayed up until 4:00am writing a rebuttal letter to the Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan about Libertyville Lincoln Mercury. I think this is the first time I've actually mentioned them and if you remember a few days ago I said I would at some point explain this whole issue with ordering a new car and canceling the order. I'll get to that later after I write about the day today.

Obviously I had a difficult time getting up since I only got about 3 1/2 hours of sleep, but Grace also slept in until 9:00am which is when we're supposed to leave for dance class. So I got her ready real quick and thankfully she was in a pretty good mood. I gave her a quick snack and we "hit the road" as Aunt Connie would say. Unfortunately we were about 5 minutes late to dance class. It was the last week for dance class before summer break as our recital is on Sunday so a lot of extra people were there like parents that are normally working or grandparents that maybe wanted a preview of the dance before Sunday. Grace's friends Mom works for the Lake County Sherriff's Department and I brought the letter I stayed up most of the night writing for her to review. Julie and her said pretty much the same thing that it sounded very professional and that I had really done a good job. So anyway, Grace got her costume today to bring home and our friends that are moving out of the country were there and we were all saying goodbye. We're going to see them tomorrow for a dinner at another friends house and then Saturday for Stage Rehearsal and then Sunday for the Recital. Then on Monday they leave for Minnesota to visit family for the summer before heading overseas. So that was pretty sad. I don't think Grace really understands but she has asked when she'll see her friend again and I said I don't know if we ever will and she gets pretty sad, so maybe she does understand.

After dance class was over Grace was in no hurry to leave as usual, so she was coloring and I was making phone calls for some things I needed to follow up on. Then we went to lunch with my SIL. That was really nice and relaxing and Grace ate her whole lunch today. Plus she had two snacks and a sucker after dance class plus the snacks she had on the way to dance class, so she was filling up. Then we came home and I needed to fax my letter to the husband of the person who read my letter at dance class. He also works for the Lake County Sherriff's Department, is also a car dealership owner and works with arbitration so his opinion of my letter was very important to me. Unfortunately, my fax wasn't working right and it took some time for me to get it working. Grace when we first got home wanted to play outside and I told her she could for a few minutes, but that was it because it was just too hot. She didn't even pursue the 10 minutes for some reason and instead asked to play a preschool "game" on the computer. They are programs that are like games to her, but she's really learning things like patterns, same or different, does it belong, etc. So while she was occupied with that I finally got the fax working and sent the letter to my friend. He called me back and said that first of all he was sorry we had to go through all of this. He said we were right on the money with the letter and gave me some more ideas to follow up with if this letter wasn't successful in getting our money returned. He also basically said that the dealership is just playing hardball and want to keep our money.

I also got a call from another local newspaper today, the Daily Herald. I'm becoming famous! They are also writing an article for Father's Day but are taking a different angle and it sounds really interesting. The reporter said they did this for Mother's Day and had a good response so they're pursuing doing this for Father's Day also. She's contacting Father's from all different walks and trying to get a snapshot or glimpse into the Father/Child bond that exists in each situation. She did a much better job of explaining it, but trust me, it sounded very cool and interesting. I can't wait to read it. She called me back this evening and conducted the interview over the phone and is sending a camera crew out on Tuesday morning to take some shots of Grace and I doing our normal morning routine.

Speaking of newspapers, the reporter from the News-Sun called back today and said he wanted to come out on Monday and interview me and would also be bringing a camera crew and a video crew to shoot some video for their website. We didn't set up a time yet as when I returned his phone call he said he was in the middle of something (his phone was cutting in and out) and that he'd call later. I'm guessing he'll call back tomorrow.

Grace got to play at her friend across the street's house this afternoon and she was excited about that, but her friend was a little sleepy or didn't feel well or something. She had gone to the zoo this morning with her dad and since we had dance class, we couldn't go. So her dad said that she was exhausted when they got back. Maybe her nap wasn't enough to keep her going for the rest of the day. Then her friends mom's train was delayed for I believe mechanical reasons so she was really late getting home tonight. She's leaving for a business trip tomorrow overseas, so I'm sure that's the last thing she wanted tonight as she won't see her family for a week.

Then Julie went over to the friend that read my letter this morning's house and practiced her dances for the recital on Sunday. She took Grace with her so that her and her friend could play together and so I could get a little free time. I ate some leftovers and worked in the garden. I think it's too late to plant a garden now, but it looks horrible and we could still plant a few things that don't take a long time to grow. I've got to tell you though that the strawberries look GREAT! I had one that was ripe and it sure was yummy! So I need to get the netting out there TOMORROW so the birds and other varmints don't take them all like they did last year. I'm going to get a crop of strawberries if it kills me! The garden needs some general maintenance too as the posts aren't looking so great. I think they need some new toppers as the ones I have look very worn. The birds are always landing there en route to the bird feeders and they of course leave their muck/fertilizer right on my posts. Sounds like it's time for a trip to Menards!

After that, I just watched the Cubs game and talked to my cousin on the phone. I forgot to mention that my great-Uncle Chuck who was, I believe, my Grandmothers Brother passed away yesterday. Almost all of the older generation in our family has passed. There aren't too many left. It's very sad. Unfortunately we aren't going to be able to go to the wake and probably not the funeral either. The wake is Sunday and that's recital and I'm not being selfish in that I want to see my daughter and my wife dance, it's that I also shoot video for the dance studio and I believe I'll be taking and selling tickets this year as well. Which reminds me, I need to see about renting an HD video camera tomorrow. I just wrote that down, or I WOULD forget. But I only remember meeting my Uncle Chuck one time and that was just a few years ago when we went out to see my Aunt Annabel. They lived out in Seattle I believe for what seemed like forever to me, and then they've been living out west of here now for quite a while too.

So I think that about covers today. The title of the post is in reference to the approaching storms we have right now complete with tornado warnings. It's supposed to really storm tonight and it's a cool front so tomorrow should thankfully be much cooler than today - it was 92 degrees and VERY humid. The thunder is starting already. I'll post a second blog about Libertyville Lincoln Mercury.

Another Tuesday

Well it's Tuesday which means we've got gymnastics. This was the last week of gymnastics before the summer session starts and they called last week and asked us to come in at 10:00am instead of Noon. So we got there almost right at 10:00 and Miss Deb wasn't there. We got inside to find out that she wasn't going to be there because she was doing something for school with her son and that Grace was just going to have open gym instead of class. All of us parents said that if we'd known that, we wouldn't have come. So anyway, we all stayed and the girls all played around but I think they were bored. Grace's friend from class invited us to their end of school party at Centennial Park just down the street from gymnastics which was really nice.

So we went there after gymnastics and Grace had a wonderful time. She got to play with her friends and made some new friends. Unfortunately it was a little cold today, I think the high was only 61 and we didn't bring clothes for Grace to change into, but at least we had jackets and sweatshirts. She never said she was cold and of course she was running around a lot. I was kind of cold, but my sweatshirt was enough to keep me warm.

After that I got gas at the cheapest place I know of around here in Antioch which was $3.33/gal which was cheaper than their sign said $3.39. So that made me a little happy. Then we went to Menards to get a new toilet flushing mechanism as ours broke in the downstairs bathroom. Actually this is kind of cool (I know; how can a toilet flush mechanism be interesting right?) Well, it's called something like silent or quiet flush and they aren't using false advertising. That toilet is really quiet now when you flush it. Alright maybe it's not so exciting, but it's interesting. I never gave much thought to the volume of my toilet when it flushes, have you?

Alright, enough of that subject. We also got Grace a new kite. I had bought her one last year at like Jewel or somewhere and it was completely useless. We couldn't keep it in the air longer than 10-15 seconds. Apparently you get what you pay for so I saw these kites at Menards for like $10 or maybe a little less and found one that looked kind of cool - nothing really for girls - and got it for her. This was the new Menards up in Antioch by the way and I just have to say WOW that place is cool. They have a very large selection including things you wouldn't expect like food (just packaged food) and the lumber yard is not just indoors like at most Menards, but it's inside the store - heated, cooled, etc. I heard they had a good selection of plants, but we never made it over there. I also got a rain gauge so I know when to water the lawn. Until this week, we hadn't really gotten much rain so my yard was looking horrible.

They didn't have my grass trimmer attachment either, so I guess I'll have to call around and check the internet etc. because the areas that you would normally trim are looking really bad. And since we pay someone to come and fertilize the yard, it's the least I could do to keep things looking good. Speaking of which, I REALLY need to mow the back yard now. It's looking like a field and I'm not sure when it will be dry enough to cut. I'm pretty sure it won't be dry enough tomorrow since we also have a chance for rain again tomorrow afternoon. Then it's supposed to be like 92 on Thursday so maybe Friday is a possibility. We'll see. Thank goodness I mowed the front yard when I did or the neighbors would disown us.

So after the short shopping trip, Grace and I came home. She had already had lunch at the park so I needed to eat something. Then she went to play with her friend next door. Today was the day to pick up Market Day at our church while Grace was still at her friends house. So I stopped over to ask if it was alright if she stay there while I ran to church (not literally.) They said it was no problem so I ran and got that. Just before I got home Julie called and wondered where I was. I thought I'd be back home before she got there but I was off by about a minute I think.

So we all kind of hung out for a while and I made dinner for Grace - I ate my lunch really late and wasn't hungry and I don't think Julie was very hungry either because she couldn't decide what she wanted. I offered to cook something for her but that didn't seem to help her decide either. Then while Grace was eating her friend from across the street came over and said they were riding their bikes to the library and wondered if we wanted to come with. I definitely did because I needed the exercise, but Julie couldn't decide because she was still trying to decide what to eat. But she decided to come along and just eat something later which is usually ice cream :->

So we all rode to the library and it's like 55 degrees outside in June - just crazy! We were all bundled up, the girls with their gloves on and everyone with a jacket and/or sweatshirt. The girls were having a blast and we made it there in like record time. Boy was I tired; I think we averaged about 10.6 mph on the way there, and it seemed faster. Maybe the jeans I was wearing didn't help - they made my legs feel like I was wearing a wool blanket on them. But the next time I ride with shorts my legs will feel really light! So the average speed for the whole trip which was just under 5 miles was 9.8 mph. So we slowed down about 2 mph overall I think on the way back but we made it and now my legs feel like rubber. I should try to ride tomorrow to get my legs moving. We'll see as I'm pretty sure we're going to Great America with another of Grace's friends. He's so cute and the two of them just seem to really like each other. This will be their first "play date" and I think she's excited - and I haven't even told her where we're going yet.

My Aunt from Nebraska called today. She's coming out in July (which is kind of funny because we're going to see her later in July) and was making sure we'd be around and be able to pick her up from the airport and such. So now we have something to look forward to in the beginning of July. We normally go to the Taste of Chicago before the 4th, but we haven't made any plans yet. Maybe we should start working on making those plans and then we'll have even more to look forward to.

Looks like I am going to the Cubs game next Tuesday, so I'll be missing the Village Board Meeting. I've been going to them since March I think. It's really opened my eyes to the things going on in our Village and the surrounding area. But I can miss just this one right? I called my BIL to see if he could go and it looks like he can. So it looks like the three of us are going, should be fun! I've never been to a night game at Wrigley - at least I don't think so.

Oh when I went to the library I got a book about learning Windows Server 2003. I don't know much about it and this'll help me learn how to start playing around with it since I installed it on the computer I got from my Dad. I'm not sure if it'll really work since it's only licensed for development purposes. But I can certainly play around with it until it tells me to stop or something doesn't work when it really should be working. So I now have 10 books checked out of the library. Most of them are stuff for vacation though, so I'm not reading the entire book for those, just trying to get ideas.

Saturday and Birthday Parties

Grace got up super early today - 6:20 - which really sucked because I didn't go to bed until like 2am. So I was a little tired today. Julie had dance class and then after that Grace went to a birthday party for a friend of hers. His party was at My Jump Place in Lake Villa. She loves going there and was very excited. We got there a few minutes late because "somebody" was taking their time getting ready. After we'd been there a few minutes Julie came to watch Grace and I got a little free time.

I went to Staples and made some copies of a book I borrowed from the library about southwest interior design for ideas of how to further decorate our first floor since it's an Arizona theme. After I returned the book to the library, I went to Menards to get a new weed-trimmer attachment for my weed wacker. For some reason it stopped working. The edger attachment still works fine, but not the trimmer. But of course they didn't have any. I'll have to look somewhere else for that. I did get a new thistle feeder bag to feed the birds with since the one we have has a gaping hole in it that lets the seeds fall on the ground in big piles.

Then I went over to my Dad's house to install Microsoft Office 2003 on his new computer. It came with a 60-day trial of Office 2007 Home & Student which isn't enough for him (doesn't include Outlook) plus he'd have to pay a lot to keep it after the 60 days. This took a while to do because in the interim he was using the new version of Outlook Express that comes with Vista called Microsoft Mail. So I had to import his old mail file (.PST) from Outlook and then try to import the mail from Microsoft Mail. This proved difficult as following the instructions didn't work. I had to make it up as I went along. After this, I went home and Julie had just gotten home too. We just hung out and ordered a pizza - YEA! I don't get to do that often, as Julie doesn't really like it.

While I was at my Dad's house, I had turned on the Cubs game just a few minutes before Lou Piniella went on his tirade that got him ejected. That was exciting. Can't wait to see how he is at the Cubs game tomorrow as Grace, my Dad and I are going. YEA!