DadStock 2007

Julie and I had blood tests this morning because we're applying to a new company for life insurance. Then I got the front yard mowed. Sometime while I was gone someone mowed the back yard. I'm guessing it was Julie, but I'm not sure. --Update, yes it was Julie. Wasn't that nice? :-)

After that I went to another SAHD's house today for DadStock 2007. It started as a SAHD's event for the Dad's to get together and have some beer and just be away from the "job" for a while. It ballooned into a national event that brought people from as far away as Massachusetts, New Jersey, Indiana, Quad-Cities area, Wisconsin and maybe a few others plus around here too. There were 13 of us all together I think.

I actually picked up one of the Dads from the group at the train station here in Grayslake as he had stayed in the city/downtown last night with a friend from back home in South Africa where he's originally from. He lives in Boston now with his American wife that he met in London and then moved here to the States with her. This is interesting because South Africa borders...Zimbabwe! His Mum is from Zimbabwe and he still has a lot of family there. So we talked about the situation there and whether my friends would be safe there. He said that considering the ex-pat network they were going to be associated with that they should be just fine. But that the country itself is headed for some type of conclusion because it's getting more and more heated and has to end at some point. By the way, he's 6'7" and I felt so short next to him! Really nice guy, I'm glad I got to meet him.

But really all the guys I met were really nice. The guy from Wisconsin "woodchuck" was really cool too. He brought his chain saw with and did a demonstration for everyone for how he mills trees into board stock which he can use to build things or to sell as finished lumber. He also gave us instructions for how to sharpen your chain saw blades and he even sharpened a neighbor's blades for him.

A guy that came from the Indianapolis area brought some home-brewed beer. It was really good! Maybe an idea for something to try in the future... The beer I brought is from Goose Island Beer Co and is called 312. It's really good! It just might be my new favorite.

I won't go into detail about each person, but all the guys were really nice and it was fun spending the day with them.

After I left there I headed over to my BIL's house to help him with his satellite dish. He was trying to add a grounding block to the lines coming in from the dish. Turns out the cable trimmer he had wasn't adjusted right so the wires weren't contacting the connector. So it was an easy fix.

Then it was late so I just came home and watched a little TV before heading to bed.

NYC Taxis

Here is why I think I don't have my new car yet:

Another Week

This week just flew by for some reason. I guess when you're busy those kinds of things happen. Julie actually took a half day at work today but wasn't home much sooner than normal because she went shopping on her way home. Unfortunately she wasn't too successful as she only came home with a new swimming suit and she's been wanting work clothes.

Grace slept until 9:15 this morning so we obviously didn't do much of anything this morning. We went to blockbuster today to get our free rentals for returning our Blockbuster Total Access rentals. After that we had some lunch at McDonalds. Can you believe they actually told me they don't have double-cheeseburger meals anymore? You have to order everything separately. Anyway, then we ran over to my Aunt's work and dropped off our carpet cleaner. They are having company over the weekend and wanted to clean their carpets prior to the party. After that we ran to Target to get a few things including dinner for today. I just ended up getting some sirloin steaks to grill up and some mashed potatoes and green bean casserole.

I grilled the steak before heading over to the in-laws. It turned out pretty good, but the juice from the steak leaked in the car. I'll have to clean that up tomorrow. I've got so many things to do this weekend it's just crazy. I need to mow the lawn, paint some exterior trim pieces and replace them, pull weeds (just never ends), prime the shelves for the bookcases I made here in the office and another shelf I want to hang up in the dining room. Then there's cleaning (also never ending) and just general getting rid of junk. We plain have too much of it or I have too much. Julie doesn't save much, I'm the saver and boy do I do my part. I've also got so many unfinished projects. I guess I should make a list and start working on completing a few of them. Lists help me a lot. If it's not on a list I generally just forget about it.

I'm going to need to water the lawn on Sunday I guess. We have watering restrictions and can only water on odd days since our house number is an odd number. The other day I said that we got about a quarter inch of rain but we actually got a half an inch. That's not enough so I'll need to water since it isn't supposed to rain now for another week.

I've been getting good responses to my email campaign against Libertyville Lincoln Mercury. Thanks to everyone that has helped already. Please forward to anyone you know!

What a difference a day makes

It's been hot and so humid here for some time now it was a real shock today to go outside. I forgot what nice weather was like - it actually felt cold to me and that's scary because this is my ideal temperature. The high today was 74° and a nice cool breeze. I should have changed from shorts to jeans, that would have helped. But that's just crazy talk for this time of year.

After Julie left for work today Rosco (our dog) decided it was time to get up. I usually sleep until Grace wakes up but not today as he had to go out. So I was up at 6:20 this morning and it was nice to relax and read before Grace got up, but I'm really tired! I'm not used to getting up early any more. Grace got up around 8:00 and she didn't want breakfast until 10:00 or so I think. But she did eat a good breakfast when we finally had it and then "A" came over. Julie's sister called and wanted to have lunch with us today so we all went to Panera Bread for lunch. There was a little "excitement" there as we were eating the police came and ticketed a car that was parked in a handicapped spot without a placard in the window or a plate. It was interesting to watch. There were two squad cars one parked behind the "offending" vehicle and another was writing the ticket out. Once they were done the one that was parked behind took a picture of the back of the car aiming at what looked like the license plate.

We tried to stick around long enough to see who's car it was, but Grace was getting tired of waiting so we left. Interestingly most of the people that were in the restaurant while we were eating had left so who knows who's car it was. They might not have even been there. After that we ran over to Office Depot and got some self-stick fasteners for file folders. I couldn't believe that the smallest package you could buy them in was 100 pieces. I'll have those for the rest of my life. Also picked up an optical mouse for my experimental "server" for only $5. And I grabbed the smallest package they had of DVD-RW's so I could experiment with them in my DVD recorder. Not sure how well those really work.

After that we came back home and Grace wanted to play outside but like I said it actually felt cold with the wind, so "A" wasn't too keen on the whole idea. After Julie came home I convinced her to go out to eat for dinner at Culvers. One of her other sisters called and mentioned that portions of their proceeds today were going to the Relay for Life/American Cancer Society. So we were just doing our part and helping out. We actually met Julie's sister and her family there, and our neighbors from across the street met us there later for dessert.

We were going to watch the movie "Citizen Kane" tonight as it's due at Blockbuster tomorrow but Grace wasn't cooperating too well to get in bed easily for Julie tonight, so we didn't really have time. Not sure what I should do; just be late since there aren't any "late fees" any more or just take it back. We can always rent it again.

So as you can see from my other post today I haven't heard anything from Libertyville Lincoln Mercury or Lisa Madigan's office about our complaint and I'm tired of waiting. I did finally hear from our credit card company yesterday or the day before that they are still reviewing the case and haven't made any determinations. I called the representative from Lisa Madigan's office again today and her voice mail again said she was out of the office. Maybe I should leave a message every time I call, but I don't want to be a pest they are helping me after all; at least I think they are.

I talked to the Ford store where we ordered our Escape from and our salesperson said that she thinks she knows why our order is taking so long. Apparently taxi companies in New York are using the Escape Hybrids and they've ordered a boatload of them. So of course these taxi companies take precedence over the "average consumer." Which really sucks because we really wanted to take this new car on vacation because it'll have a navigation system and it gets great fuel mileage (not as good on the highway as the city, but still better than any other car we've owned recently.) She said to pretty much plan on taking Julie's car to Colorado and if this one is in before we leave it will be a pleasant surprise. So that's what I'm going to do and that is usually my philosophy, but we've just been waiting so long for this darn car that I'm tired of waiting.

I asked if there was a way I could pick up the car from the factory and avoid the whole delivery time frame after the car has been built. She said absolutely not. But I know I've read somewhere before that some customers have done that. I'm thinking there is a way around that. Maybe it's more of a dealership policy that they want to take physical possession of the car so they can sell it, like they wouldn't trust me with it until I've paid for it or something; who knows. Obviously I'd be willing to do all the paperwork before I actually took possession.

On a lighter note, a blog reader suggested I look into myfantasyleague.com as an option for our Fantasy Football league this year. We have looked into that site in previous years when we were considering changing, but we weren't impressed at that time. I have to say after creating our league today on their site I'm very impressed with the number of customization options available. Thanks for telling me to check them out again. I'll bring it to every one else's attention in our league and see which one they prefer.

Libertyville Lincoln Mercury Email Campaign

Please help me send a message to Libertyville Lincoln Mercury. Just copy the text below and paste it into an email to the owner of the dealership Dan Marks. His email address is llmdan@aol.com - feel free to change the text anyway you like just make sure you are still mentioning my name in the email. Please send this to everyone you know so that I can get as many messages to him as I can so that he knows the power of the internet and how it can affect his business.

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I have recently been made aware of how a friend of mine, Mr. Steve Serres, was treated at your dealership Libertyville Lincoln Mercury Mr. Marks. I wanted to let you know that I am appalled at how my friend was treated and unless you return the $1,500 to him I plan to never do business with your dealership. Furthermore, I will make sure all of my family members, co-workers and friends are made aware of how you treated Mr. Serres and recommend that they never do business with you either. Please keep track of how many of these emails you receive and multiply it by how many family members, co-workers and friends you think each person might have. When you add all those numbers up, this will be how many customers at a minimum that will never do business with you; these are lost customers and lost revenue. And the more people that know the more your dealerships image will be tarnished. I look forward to hearing from Mr. Serres that his money has been returned.

Preliminary Painting

Grace slept in again today. I wanted to run and get the birthday present for the party tonight after we ate breakfast but the only thing on her mind this morning was "A" and we had to wait for her to get here before we could do anything else. Her friend from down the street called and asked if Grace wanted to go to the park and I mentioned "A" and so she said she'd call after I knew if "A" would want to do that or not.

So "A" comes over and we all went to McDonalds for lunch and then they went to Grace's friends house as she was taking them to the park. So I had a little time to get a few things done before picking them back up. I ran to Wal-Mart and got the gift we needed for party later and a few other things for Grace. Then came home and started painting the wallpaper samples we're going to use on the ceiling in the family room. They look pretty cool. After Grace was in bed I stuck one of the samples to the ceiling and we both like it. I think it'll be a focal point and really cool. I just hope it's easier to paint than it was with the little sample bottles of paint that Benjamin Moore sells. But considering that it's a ceiling, I don't think easy will describe anything to do with it's installation or painting.

So then it was time to go and pick up Grace and "A" so we could make it to the party on time. Her friend from down the street wasn't so happy that she was leaving; She wanted to play longer. So Grace and "A" came back here and "A" helped Grace get ready for the party. Then I had her sign the card and we were actually ready to go 10 minutes early! WOW! So Grace and "A" played a quick game of checkers and then Grace and I left to go to the birthday party.

Grace had a wonderful time; a lot of her friends were there and they got to play for at least 2 of the 2 1/2 hours we were there. Julie showed up too; I wasn't sure she was coming because she had called earlier in the day and said she wasn't feeling well and that she would probably just go home. But she stopped and got to spend time with everyone; that was a nice surprise. On the way home we passed this house where all these people were outside holding signs that said "Round Lake Police broke into my house and killed my dog." I'm thinking, Wow that's crazy, how could that happen. So when I got home I asked my neighbor if he knew anything about it. He did - apparently it was a drug bust and when they broke in to arrest everyone their dog started attacking the police so they shot the dog. There's always more to the story isn't there...

It's still warm and very humid. The cool front that came through this afternoon and dropped .27 in. of rain in about 15 minutes including a little hail. But it didn't cool it off too much, plus the humidity didn't go away at all. The weather man says tomorrow will be much better. I sure hope so as it feels like an oven outside with the humidity.

The new gas station just a few blocks from our house opened on schedule today. It'll be nice to have a gas station that close. It's even closer than the Walgreens; that should tell you something seeing as how there are Walgreens on most every corner. The only bad thing is that it's location probably makes it be in Round Lake Park and not Hainesville so the tax revenue won't benefit our town I don't think.

I forgot to mention that I talked to DirecTV yesterday about the issue with the remote control where it's controlling both the High Definition tuner and the new DVR tuner. Yea, that's what its supposed to do and there isn't anything I can do. The two boxes weren't meant to be used right next to each other and that's just how it is. Nice. Then we get a "courtesy" call from them today asking if we're happy with our installation. Yea - couldn't be better.

It's Hot - and did I mention Humid?

Today was gymnastics and of course Grace wanted to sleep in. I woke her up and we made it to gymnastics only a few minutes late. While she was there I ran to the Super Wal-Mart in Antioch to look for a birthday present for a friend of Grace's for her birthday party tomorrow. I didn't find that gift there, but I found something we wanted to get Grace for our trip to Colorado. We got her a Leapfrog Leapster; it'll give her something to do in the car on our trip. Plus if it's something new it'll take her at least 10 minutes to figure out how to use it.

So then I ran to the post office to mail a package to my Mom and came back to get Grace. We had to take the Edge back to the Ford store today and I got my cursory Taurus. It's not pretty, but it's free and it gets us places. Can't complain too loudly. After that we went to pick up the wallpaper for the lower portion of the walls down in the family room. Also we went to Best Buy to get the gift for her friend. Actually what we got will end up being Grace's birthday present; so we'll have to get something else tomorrow for her friend.

Funny thing actually, her friends Dad called tonight to see if we've heard anything about the whole issue with Libertyville Lincoln Mercury. I've been worried about that myselth (the spelling is for Ella) so I called again today to Lisa Madigan's office in Chicago and the message again said they were out of the office. I then called her office down in Springfield and they said that the office in Chicago is where the file is and they couldn't provide any more information. So I guess I'll just have to keep calling or wait for her to call me back since I left a message yesterday.

After that we just took it easy; Grace's friend from across the street came over for a while and then they both went across the street for a while to swim in the little pool they have. Then after Julie made it home we had dinner and I ran out to the Hainesville Village Board Meeting. Good thing I wasn't late as the mayor started 2 minutes early. The big discussion tonight was about the budget. Basically it will be unchanged from last year, with a few exceptions of course. There will be a commercial development at the entrance to our subdivision on Rte. 120. I wondered because a week or so ago they surveyed and marked it so it seemed logical. They talked about the bike path that they are going to put on Hainesville Road from Washington Street down to Rte. 120. Apparently the portion of the path that will go from Washington Street down to the old "Softball City" location will be started in the fall and the portion south of there won't be started until next year.

HainesvilleFest '07 is sounding exciting as there seems to be more activities planned for this year but they need more volunteers. Also August 7th is National Night Out - more info to come later. Apparently IDOT is publishing results of a field test on July 5th and 12th with bidding beginning on July 26th and tentative approval by the board on August 21st (I'm guessing it's repaving.) Also there was a wetlands meeting last Wednesday with little attendance and another is scheduled for Thursday at 7 pm. Trustee Walkington is hoping for more attendance. Personally I had no idea.

By the way, the high here today was 89° with 95% humidity and the dew point is all the way up at 70°.