Picnic Results are In

Well the picnic has come and gone now and I'd say it was a success. We had 41 people here including us. The only thing is we didn't buy any extra burgers, and we did run out of food, but only after most everyone had eaten. There were a few people that came pretty late and we had no food to offer except dessert. So they may not have had a good time and Julie and I felt bad, but it's too late now.

We really upset the momma robin whose nest is on our back patio where we had the picnic. She couldn't feed her four little babies the entire afternoon. I'll check on them tomorrow. I haven't taken a picture in the last couple of days, but here is a picture from the 25th. They grow really fast.



We got the house cleaned in plenty of time and Julie went to get the beer and pop. I started cooking the bratwurst while I was cleaning the floors and then started the grill at 12:30 to cook the corn. Apparently the corn was really good as it was all gone and I didn't get to try it. The day turned out just beautiful; a high in the 70's, lots of sun and just a great day. Even our friends that are moving stopped by and we're going to plan a new dinner get together since we didn't actually get together yesterday.

No time for much of anything else today. Tomorrow we're going to the Memorial Day Parade in Round Lake. Should be fun - Grace always has fun at a parade! Hopefully we can get a good bike ride in since it's supposed to be nice out tomorrow too. But the house is a disaster after having those many people coming in and out, so maybe I'll be cleaning again.

Picnics

Spent the majority of the day today getting ready for our picnic tomorrow. We got most of the house cleaned up, most toys put away (they come back out immediately) and the carpet vacuumed and shampooed. Plus I got the groceries bought. I still need to clean the hardwood floors and start cooking; boil the brat's and cook the corn. But we didn't buy any pop or beer, so we may have to run out and buy a few things tomorrow yet. Looks like the weather should hold out and it should be a nice sunny and fairly warm day.

Some friends of ours are moving out of the country and we wanted to take them to dinner tonight, but they were busy packing and couldn't make it. Maybe they can come to our picnic tomorrow. We're going to have to get a bigger house for these picnics. Looks like we will have a minimum of 34 people plus 4 more who might stop by and 8 more we mentioned it to today. Sure hope we have enough food. That's always my biggest fear. Maybe I'll grab more burgers tomorrow when I'm buying the beer and pop.

I'm moving along on my book about ASP.net 2.0 Programming. Made it through chapter 5 this morning while Julie was at dance class and Grace was still sleeping. Now it's getting to the fun stuff where you actually start doing things that create a web site.

Finally got to talk to my Mom tonight. Haven't talked to her in a while - probably a month. She seems to be doing good. She bought a Toyota Prius a few months ago and Mom said that my step-Dad bought one just a few days ago. So they are a two Prius family now. Would have never guessed that as he has driven a Rav-4 forever. Mom said she's been getting between 45-50 mpg and my step-Dad has been getting more since he does more city driving. I can't wait to get my new Escape. It should be in no longer than 3 1/2 weeks from now.

We're driving the loaner now which is a 2007 Ford Edge. It is a nice car; great ride, excellent acceleration and lots of bells and whistles but the fuel mileage isn't that great and the headrests aren't very comfortable. I do kind of like the color - Ford calls it copper, here's a picture.

But again, I can't wait for my new car. With gas at the price it is, I need the fuel mileage. I wish I could have the profits of one of the big oil companies for just one day. Boy would that change things in my life.

Alright, well I'm tired and must get to bed.

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.

Busy Day

Well today was a busy day. Grace went to Dance class with her friend and then another friend took her home for a play date. So I had most of the day to myself. I got the grass mowed and pulled some weeds. I got tired of pulling them and resorted to spraying them especially since it seems to work better anyway. Looks like I picked a good day to mow as it's now raining.

eBay was having a special today on their listing fees, so I added an extra American Eagle Silver Dollar that I had. Then I was working on my Windows Server 2003 installation again. It seems to be all installed, I'm just not sure how it works and I'm not sure how the licensing works either. Hopefully my brother-in-law can shed some light on that on Sunday. I didn't work on ASP.net at all today. And I didn't ride my bike either.

Still have a lot to do to be ready for the picnic on Sunday although I did work on the menu today. I still need to finish that, clean the house and till the garden. I need to get my plants ordered too for the garden. Probably should get that taken care of this weekend so I'm not planting too late again like I did last year. Then I didn't get much if any crop from some of the plants. Plus somehow I need to get to the grocery store to buy the food. That'll have to wait for Saturday I suppose, even though nobody likes to go grocery shopping on the weekend.

I'm afraid I've done a terrible thing. Yesterday was Grace's last day of preschool and when I went to pick her up (after I had gone to the library) I was a little early. So I was reading a book while I waited for her class to be over. Then I went in to get her and they had a whole stack of papers to send home with her. There was a scrapbook they had made with different little hand-made projects Grace had done throughout the year, some with hand prints and stuff like that. Plus there was her certificate and a progress report and a couple of other things she had done. Well there is a park right next to her school and Grace wanted to go down the slide so I agreed and while I was waiting, I put her papers on the bench by the slide. Then when I finally pried Grace away from the slide to go to the car, I think I left them there. I went back in the evening and there was nothing there and no papers were anywhere in the park either.

So today I called the school and they said nobody turned it in. Now I guess my only chance at reprieve is that someone picked it up with the intention of returning it later. There is a small chance that I left them in my neighbors car that I borrowed yesterday, but I was pretty thorough about taking everything out of his car when I was done with it. Maybe I could call all the parents on our class phone list tomorrow and ask. I need to ease my mind. If I just would have brought her backpack like we always do this wouldn't have happened. I didn't bring it because I thought it's the last day, probably don't need it. Stupid mistake. I just really hope we find it.