Fathers Day

Today was Fathers Day and we make the rounds to see my Dad and Julie's Dad every year. Julie made us cinnamon rolls for breakfast--mmmm, so good! Then we went to church, haven't been there in so long - ha, ha! After that we came back home to finish a few things up; I'm trying to finish recording the recital to DVD for everyone that needs a copy. I wanted to finish up one copy of each show for Julie's Dad since he wasn't well enough to go to the recital this year. So after I was done with that we ran over there.

While we were there I helped my BIL set up his DirecTV boxes that he ordered over eBay. We ended up having to order some new access cards for each of his boxes because the ones that came with them were still registered to the previous owner. I don't know, I guess it makes sense but at the same time it doesn't because you just change it to be registered to my BIL. But I know they deal with fraud every day with people trying to steal their service without paying for it and so they have these procedures in place to stop or at least limit that as much as possible. Neither of us was upset, it just seems like a little too much - too many hoops.

So we got that done except it obviously doesn't work yet as we have to wait for the new access cards to come in the mail. We then were into dinner time and stayed for dinner (darn, how could that have happened :->). It was really good; MIL made a standing rib roast with nice fluffy mashed potatoes and really tasty gravy, mmmmmm! I sure ate good on Fathers Day!

After that we headed over to my Dad's house and my sister and BIL were there. So that was really nice for us all to be together for a few hours. We don't get to see each other as often as we should, especially for how close we live to each other. We were watching a show on the Discovery Channel called "Man vs. Wild" and the host was in the everglades and was showing you how to survive and to find your way out. It was pretty engaging and very interesting. After that we came home and got Grace to bed. I was then continuing to work on the recital videos and to try and get new music onto Julie's MP3 player. She doesn't have an iPod and for some reason, it doesn't ever seem to work as easily as my iPod does as far as transferring music onto it. But I'm pretty sure I uninstalled the application that has been causing the problem and hopefully this won't happen any more. What's crazy is I used to love this application - Musicmatch Jukebox; It's just become too buggy.

Swimming in Hot Weather

Grace had VBS today and I had to wake her up at 8:45 to get her to church at 9:00am. After I dropped her off I came home so I could get the driveway seal coated. Today was the right day and they were here to do it. I'm so glad I had this company (Adolfo's Sealcoating - Waukegan - 847-782-0758) do it because they did a really nice job; much nicer than the previous company we had. They didn't get any of the sealer on the brickwork that butts directly against the blacktop and there isn't any on the sidewalk either. It was worth every penny!

After that I worked on the DVD recorder and transferring video. I got one show transferred to DVD using the regular video output from my camcorder. So now I can just transfer it this way. It's not how the recorder is supposed to work, but it is working. After this "A" and I went to pick up Grace from VBS. We got there a couple minutes early and were able to hear them all practicing their songs they are going to sing tonight for their mini-concert. It was really cool and actually a little moving. It's pretty cool to listen to 500 kids sing the same song and sing it so well!

After that we were headed to her friend from dance class's house for a swim party. We stopped at Culvers for lunch first and then headed over there. We stayed there until 3:30 because it's impossible to get her to leave any place, let alone when she's having fun swimming. And she did have a good time and so did "A" I think. It was really refreshing to get in a nice cool pool when it's so warm out. The official high today was 87° with 73% humidity here in Grayslake, but my car said it was 90°; although that's only 3 degrees difference. Then we had to stop at the local paint store and return some wallpaper and fabric samples. We're trying to create and finalize our decorating plan for our family room downstairs here. The overall theme is Academy Awards/Kodak Theater. We know we want red velvet drapes that imitate a movie theater, and that old tyme look of the old movie theaters. So I showed her the patterns Julie and I liked and she picked from those the ones she thought the most in line with what we're looking to do. For those she ordered some samples for us to use in determining which one we really want and what color to paint the room in. She suggested we start by deciding what to do with the ceiling both with wallpaper and color and what furniture we want to put in the room as well. After that we can finalize any plans for the walls, etc.

After that we finally came back home. Grace and "A" only had about 30 minutes to play before "A" had to go home. Then Grace went to play at her friends house across the street. I went with to make sure it was alright that she go over there and then I ended up staying and talking to her friends dad. It's nice to have adult conversations. He asked me to fax something for him so I came back home to do that and Julie was already home (oops!) and she was wondering where I had been. We didn't have much time because we needed to get back to church so Grace could do her mini-concert/ice cream social. So I sent the fax and then we were getting ready to go when I realized (pit in bottom of stomach) that I had washed the shirt she was supposed to wear again tonight and forgot to put it in the dryer. So it was soaking wet and I put it in the dryer because we did have a "few" minutes before we had to leave. While it was in the dryer I went to retrieve Grace from across the street. She didn't go too willingly, but it didn't take too long. When I got back Julie had already taken the shirt out of the dryer and it wasn't really dry yet, but it wasn't too bad. She held it in front of the A/C outlets in the car and that helped it dry some more.

Once we were in the gymnasium, it was warm enough to dry anything, so her shirt was dry when we were done. But anyway the concert was really cute and Grace did a great job. I shot video of it and will put that up on her website soon. Then since Julie and I hadn't had dinner we left without the ice cream. We wanted to go somewhere that we could have both and we headed over to DQ in Round Lake. We waited in line and come to find out they don't serve food after 8pm. So we didn't get dinner tonight, just dessert. Guess we should have just stayed and had free ice cream at the church. Hindsight is still 20/20.

Then we came home and I had to call the police since we can't park in the driveway. We can't park in the street without permits unless we call and tell them we're parking there. And since my little "run-in" with the local police recently we don't want to take any chances. By the way, still no updates/no word on our new car; and no update on the rebuttal I sent to Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan about our issue with

Post Cubs Game Tiredness

So I got home late last night from the Cubs game and still had to get up to take Grace to VBS. I'm really dragging today - I have to get more sleep. Grandma (Julie's Mom) came with her today because it was bring a relative/senior day so she got to spend the whole time with Grace. But that time was shortened because we were really late getting there. There was a fatal accident this morning in Grayslake just a few blocks east of the church. So Rte.'s 120 and 83 were closed for three and a half hours this morning. It took us 20 minutes to drive the 2 miles or so to church. Here is the article from the Chicago Tribune. While Grace was in VBS I came back home because I thought my neighbor was having his driveway sealed and I wanted to get mine done too. Apparently I got mixed up because it's actually tomorrow.

So I went to pick Grace up and both her and Grandma had a wonderful time. Grandma was going to Libertyville to buy something afterwards, and Grace and I went to Best Buy and got a cable I needed to transfer video from my camcorder to my DVD recorder. Then we grabbed some lunch and came home because the neighbor that's helping out with Grace this summer (I'll call her "A" from now on) was going to be at our house at 1pm and we were a few minutes late. So then Grace's friend that she always plays with on Wednesdays came over and her friend from across the street. "A" had a really good time with them and had them busy doing all sorts of role playing and other fun stuff. So then I started dinner and "A" went home around 5pm and then Julie came home and we all had taco's. It's so funny that Grace loves tacos. I mean she really gets excited about them. She only puts sour cream and shredded cheese on them, but she usually has two. It's pretty much the only food she gets excited about.

Then Julie was getting ready for her monthly Stampin' Up meeting which she was hosting this month. Right after her friends got here, Grace was saying that the friend from across the street wondered if she could go to the park with her. I was confused because it was 7:30 and they usually get ready for bed then, but she wasn't kidding, they were going. So we all went down on our bikes to the park for a few minutes. I was pulling Grace and her friend from across the street in the trailer on my bike. And her Dad was pulling her sister in another trailer. And then "A" and her brother came with too. So when we got home Julie's meeting was almost over. I helped Grace get in her PJ's and then while Julie was putting her to bed I had to return some books to the library. While I was out I stopped at Wal-Mart to get a few things.

I forgot to mention much about transferring video from my camcorder to the DVD recorder. That's what I was trying to do most of the afternoon while "A" was playing with the girls. I mentioned that I needed a cable. This cable is a firewire cable that you would normally use on your computer to transfer video. But our new DVD recorder has a DV-In port which is firewire, but it's the 4-pin variety and usually on a computer it's the 6-pin. So I needed a 4-pin to 4-pin cable instead of the normal 4-pin to 6-pin cable. That's what Grace and I got at Best Buy (plus the first season of Las Vegas on DVD) and I got it all hooked up and the DVD recorder wasn't showing anything on the TV screen. So I'm thinking their is something wrong with either the cable or the input for the DVD recorder. I wrote LG's customer service and they want me to call about getting it serviced. So I guess tomorrow I'll try using regular video cables and see if that will work. I'll get is serviced later after I get everything transferred (as long as I can without using my computer.) It was very frustrating though especially since I went and bought a special cable to get everything working and then it didn't.

Recital 2007

Wow was today ever a long day. We left the house this morning at 10:30 or so and just got home at 9:50. What a day, we're all just exhausted. The recital itself was great. Grace and Julie did a great job. I'll get my computer chewing on the video either tomorrow or Tuesday.

Didn't get anything done around the house. And I'm too tired to write much of anything else so I'll write more tomorrow.

Stage Rehearsal

Today was stage rehearsal and we were there a little longer than I thought we would be because we stayed to watch all the dances. Plus we picked up Julie's Mom on the way there and she came with us. Then we dropped her off on the way home. Stage rehearsal itself went pretty good I think. There were a few glitches like when the curtains broke and they couldn't close them. That's bad when you get to the end of the show and you can't close the curtains, but overall things went well. So I think everyone is ready for tomorrow.

As I'm writing this however Grace is still not asleep. She's pulling out every card she's got for a reason why she can't go to sleep. It might be partly because she took a nap in the car on the way home, but who knows. She didn't eat much of her dinner and that usually means she doesn't feel well. So hopefully she isn't getting sick.

Sadly, my whole family won't be able to come and see Grace dance this year. My Dad and my Aunt are both going out to Uncle Chuck's wake and funeral. And my Sister is going to our cousins graduation party. So I've got four extra tickets if anyone wants them. :-)

I tried to get a few things done around the house today to make it more presentable, but we just really didn't have any time at home. I was helping my Aunt (different from the last paragraph) with a computer problem on the phone in the morning after I paid a few bills. Talked to my Sister for a few minutes too. My niece had her recital today and so we couldn't go to that since we were at stage rehearsal all day. I was amazed at how she was describing how they do their recitals. For our recitals they have two shows and they generally go for about two hours each. For their recital, they have between 6 and 7 shows and each one is about an hour and a half. I was amazed. That's a lot of dancing! Now that would take all day!

I did get a few minutes to work in the garden a little. I finally got my netting put down and my strawberries are mostly protected now. I also put the new post caps on all the garden posts so they all look nicer. Now I just need to finish weeding and till the soil so I can maybe plant a few things. I need to think of someplace to transplant the strawberries to next year because they take up a lot of room in the garden. They are probably taking up 1/3 of the garden and thats too much in my opinion.

I'm so ready to get our new car. This car is nice, but it's not perfect for us and I'm just tired of driving it. I feel like a yuppy in it. Although we did see two "older" ladies driving one tonight on the way home from Wisconsin. Speaking of Wisconsin, we couldn't believe the gas prices up there. We're definitely filling up before we come home tomorrow. I think I mentioned the other day that the cheapest I've seen around here is $3.33/gallon. Up in Kenosha it's only $2.99/gallon. WOW! 34¢ a gallon can add up quick!

That's all I can remember, so I'll add more if I think of it 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.