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.

Last Day of VBS

Well Grace got up early today at 7am and we obviously were late for VBS - Ha-Ha. Grace was in the slowest mood today as I couldn't get her to do anything in a timely manner. She got dressed pretty easily but breakfast was an afterthought as she couldn't be bothered to sit long enough to actually eat it; she ate about 2/3 of her cereal. Then we get in the car to leave and we actually will be on time, but the neighbor's dog is out. So I get out of the car and go to retrieve their dog and place him back in his yard/house. It takes him a few minutes to warm up to me so it took a few minutes longer than I wanted it to to get him back there. So we were a couple of minutes late to the church. We get there and she doesn't get out of the car, she just sits there. This was how the whole morning was with her. I finally get her out of the car and she's walking as slowly as she possibly can to go in - this kid is exhausted.

So I finally get her dropped off and get on my way to run some errands. I ran to T.J. Maxx to get some clothes and then to Target for a little light grocery shopping. Then over to the park district to register Grace from some summer classes. The photography one we really wanted her to be in has no one registered yet and they need 6 kids by next Friday. So I registered her anyway just in case more people sign up before it's canceled. But I did register her for a nature bugs class where she'll learn about all kinds of outside stuff that she's always interested in. That doesn't start until July and we'll be on vacation for one week of the class, but I know she'll have a good time in that class.

After that I ran to the Home Depot in Round Lake to get my weed trimmer attachment that I couldn't find anywhere. I looked it up online and was able to see that they had one there; saved a lot of driving around--including expensive gas. Also called the Ford Store today and come to find out my car hasn't even been put on the assembly line yet. So who knows when we'll actually get this silly car. We ordered it 6 weeks ago Wednesday. Like the sales person said, maybe we aren't meant to have this car.

Went and picked Grace up from VBS and came home to have lunch. She wasn't really interested in eating that either - mostly because her friend from around the corner was here for about an hour and a half. So she would rather have played with her instead of eat. They've only played a couple of times and she is a little younger than Grace, but they get along really well and they place nicely together. After she left we just kind of hung out and watched the Cubs game in Hi-Def. Man Hi-Def is really nice. If you don't have it, you need it. Actually you will need it in the next 5 years or so (I can't remember when exactly) as standard definition TV will be no more, they're phasing it out at some point in the future.

After that Grace went to swim at her friend across the street's house and I finally got serious about what to make for dinner. But it was really too late to do anything about dinner. We don't really have much except pork chops that are frozen solid and hamburgers with no buns to eat them with. I thought of making egg salad but we didn't have all the ingredients for that either. Obviously I should have decided this before my light grocery shopping or just decided on something while actually shopping. But for as hectic as the morning was we were lucky to get out of the house with any hope of getting their close to on-time. So I'm sure you know what's coming, we just went to pick something up for dinner. It didn't make Julie too happy, but it was dinner and it wasn't very expensive ($18 for five people) and it was taken care of. I'll do better next time - no really I will.

At least I got the other things she wanted me to do today done like giving a donation to her sister who is doing the Relay for Life tonight in Buffalo Grove and also finally registering Grace for those park district classes, plus washing Grace's new mattress pad and sheets as we are out of pull-ups and have decided not to buy any more. So she's likely to be wetting the bed fairly regularly for a while. Hopefully it won't take too long for her to recognize when she needs to go while she's sleeping.

So the weekend comes tomorrow and hopefully I can actually get some projects around the house done. Julie's talking about shopping in the morning, hopefully she'll take the loaner car as her car needs an oil change desperately. I will need to get up fairly early to do that so I have some shade as it's supposed to be in the mid-90's tomorrow. Julie has a workshop Saturday night and Sunday is Father's Day. Both articles are set to run in the newspapers this weekend and if I can, I'll put a link in here when I find out about them.