Another busy day

Well today was another busy day. Grace slept in to 10:15 this morning which was nice, but that made the day shorter. Her friend came over before I could jump in the shower, so I had to postpone that for a while. Instead, I got breakfast for Grace and checked my email. Grace's friends mom called to see when her daughter should come home and we talked for a few minutes and then Julie called. We finalized the menu for the picnic! Another thing I can check off the list. That was good.

Then Grace was done with breakfast and her and her friend were out in the backyard playing on the swing. I asked them to come in mainly because I wanted to shower, but I also said that they didn't ask if they could go outside. They are both the same age and suddenly think they don't need to listen to everything us parents say, especially when they are together. So they came in and I locked the front door and told them not to go outside while I was in the shower (I'm sure you know where this is going already.) So I get in the shower and "big surprise" it gets really quiet in the house. I get out, get dressed and go to check on them and I find that the "escape artists" have figured out how to open the gate in the backyard and have moved the party over to her friends house. I was not happy! But they were alright and I guess that's the bottom line. I'll learn from my mistake and lock the back door too if this ever happens again.

So Grace stayed there for lunch and I had a little free time. But it wasn't long as both girls come in with another neighbors two dogs. Our dog Rosco wasn't so happy and was ready to attack. I put him outside and was trying to ascertain what the girls were telling me with their excitement. Apparently the dogs had escaped from their yard and went into Grace's friends backyard so they brought them here since we have a fenced yard (actually pretty smart.) But it couldn't go on for too long as Rosco is outside barking the whole time wanting to get at these two dogs. Unfortunatley, as you would suspect, this neighbor wasn't home but the back door wasn't locked. So I called the neighbor at work and left a message that we were just going to put them in his house. So we got leashes on the two of them and took them home. When I got back the neighbor called and was glad we had done what we did.

So then the girls went back to Grace's friends house to finish lunch, but were only there for about 30 minutes and were right back at our house. Then it was time for Grace's friend to take a nap, so her Mom came over to get her. Then we had a few minutes with just Grace and I and then another neighbor came over to play. They played for about a half an hour and then Julie called and said she had gotten off work early - yea! So I told Grace and her friend that we needed to go because we were taking my car back to the dealer to give it back.

So we drove to the dealer and turned the car in and Julie met us there. We turned it in with 23,993 miles on it - 7 miles shy of how many we could put on it without a penalty - Yes! Then we drove to the dealership where we ordered our new car from and got the loaner they were giving us and came home. So that's all taken care of and I can drive places again - thank goodness.

I got a letter from Lisa Madigan the Illinois Attorney General today and what it said sounded good. I'll have to write about that another day though, because it's a long story and I need to get to bed. But at least this way, I won't forget.

First blog post

I thought it was time I started blogging so that far-away family and friends can keep up with our day-to-day happens/turmoil/etc.

The days of driving the Freestyle are officially over. I only have about 16 miles left before I reach the magical number (24,000 miles) and will have to start paying by the mile since it's a lease. The dealership is only around 10 miles away, so that isn't a problem. Good news is that we're turning it in on Friday (2 days), bad news is I haven't really done anything except take Grace to her activities for the last two weeks. I'm getting a little stir crazy with not being able to go anywhere.

And you'd think that since the weather's been nice and gas prices are so high (lowest by me is $3.57 as of today) that I'd be able to ride my bicycle, but I had a flat on Monday. I built it up all morning with Grace after school and we came home and the front tire was as flat as a pancake. So I thought: no problem, just air it up. Ha-ha-ha - no, didn't help. Gaping hole in the tube. And I can't drive anywhere to get it fixed. No places close enough to walk to, so I'll just wait until I can use another car to get it fixed. Well, my neighbor let me borrow his car today and I thought I'd go and get the tire fixed while Grace was in school (her last day of preschool until the fall.) But the bike shop we go to - M&M Bikes in Mundelein - didn't open until 11:00am which is when Grace gets out of school. So I went to the library while Grace was in school and then her and I went to the bike shop after school and got it fixed. Turns out it was a spoke that put the gaping hole in the tube as the inner protector that covers the spoke holes had shifted and allowed the spoke to touch the tube - bummer!

So anyway, I now have two tires that work and my bike is ready to go. I'm planning on using it tomorrow (Thursday) to go somewhere, just because I have to go somewhere. I can't stay at home all day. But I do have things to do at home. I need to cut the grass as we're hosting our "Somewhat Annual Memorial Day Picnic" on Sunday and I want the yard to look good. Probably should pull some weeds in the flower beds too. Also need to get to cleaning the house and we still haven't planned the food we're going to serve and therefore can't tell anyone what to bring yet. Good news is the RSVP's have been coming in pretty darn strong and no "no's" yet.

I'm trying to learn ASP.net 2.0 and since I only have Windows XP Home on my computer, I don't have and can't install IIS which allows you to run ASP.net files (basically a web server.) So I've been using the Cassini Web Server that Microsoft provides on the asp.net website but it doesn't do everything that IIS does. So I've been playing with Windows Server 2003 on a spare computer and trying to figure everything out so that I can run IIS on there and have access to all of it's features. I'll let you know. Hopefully my brother-in-law can help as he uses Windows Server 2003 all day at work. I was talking to him tonight and maybe he can help me a little at our picnic on Sunday! I'm actually kind of excited - learning can be fun!

Alright, this will have to be enough for my first post as it's late and I need some sleep.