Only 28 days

...until Christmas. Can you believe it? I suppose we should really start working on purchasing all of our gifts. We got our tree this last weekend. We went to a new place in Lake Villa called Gengel's Tree Farm. The tree we picked out was taller than we had intended to buy. Usually I want a really tall tree that goes as close to the ceiling as is possible. But to be quite honest it just makes it more difficult to decorate. You have to use a ladder and it takes more time and effort than if the tree were shorter. So we went to buy the tree with the intention of getting an 8' tree and the one we picked out didn't look so tall but when we got it home, it's at least 9'; so maybe next year we'll get a shorter one.

Our Thanksgiving was really good. The turkey I cooked on the grill came out REALLY good. I think it's the best one I've ever made. Then on (black) Friday I went out shopping early in the morning. I was waiting in line at Circuit City at 3:15 am waiting for them to open at 5 am. It was 20 degrees outside and I was number 172 in line at that time. By the time they opened there was six or seven hundred people waiting. I was able to go in and get everything I wanted. I got an LCD monitor (Merry Christmas to me!) Then I went across the street to the Staples and waited in line there as they didn't open until 6 am. I got everything I wanted there too including a new 400 Gb hard drive for only $60. That's about half price. The monitor I got was almost half price too.

So I saved a lot of money but most of what I bought was for myself. Is that selfish? Probably, but it sure was fun. And I love my new monitor. The only thing I haven't figured out yet is how to get the screen resolution to stay. Every time I reboot my computer it defaults to 1024 x 768 and I have to change it to 1680 x 1050 every day. It's annoying; granted I have a new monitor, but nonetheless annoying.

I got the grass mowed on Sunday after church and mostly before the Bears game. I ended up with 6+ yard waste bags full of grass and a lot of leaves. I don't know where the leaves come from in the front yard as we don't really have any trees - at least not mature ones. But I got them all cleaned up and the grass looks good. Now if I could just get the other things on my "outside" to-do list completed I might not dread spring so much. There isn't much left. I really need to dig up my dahlias as they will die in this cold weather we've been having.

The Bears actually won this weekend. I was really surprised after how they played in the first half, I almost wasn't going to watch the second half because there were other games on that looked good, but I started watching and they all the sudden were doing better so I stuck with them.

Grace is officially old enough (alright: tall and heavy enough) to be out of the car seat in Julie's car. So we got her a booster for my car and put the car seat from my car into Julie's. So now she has a few more freedoms in the car and since we just picked it up yesterday and used it for the first time today, I'm not sure how well this will actually go over with Grace. So far she can't do the buckle by herself and she's already discovering that she can move around more and reach things while she's in her seat. But at least she's getting in her seat quickly. That's one thing she does that drives me batty. She will get in the car in a normal amount of time but then she just stands (or sits) there and won't get in her seat. Same thing happens when we get where we were going; she just continues to sit in her seat and doesn't get out. It doesn't help us get places in a timely fashion I'll tell you that.

Did you hear about the safety from the Washington Redskins that they're telling us got shot during a home invasion yesterday? His name is Sean Taylor; and he was only 24 years old and he died today. Very sad. He was too young. Obviously they haven't released many details about the circumstances, but what they are saying is that it's related to a home invasion that occurred about a week ago and that I guess they broke in again and this time he was shot in the groin area and lost a lot of blood and they attempted to do surgery and save him but they couldn't. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Redskins family as well as Sean's family.

That's about all for now. I hope you had a good Thanksgiving too.

Happy Thanksgiving

A very Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.

Here is how it looked outside this morning:

And here is the grill when I was about to start cooking the turkey:

And...Here is how the turkey looks now:

More Rain

Our weekend was pretty good. Saturday was like a regular day as Julie was at a craft fair for her Stampin' Up business and to help her Mom out. Then on Sunday after church we headed over to the Farm Bureau for our family portraits. Since we have our insurance through Country Insurance we're members of the Farm Bureau and as a "perk" for belonging to it we get to have our portrait taken with no fees, a free 10x13 print and really good prices on extra prints. I'll post some of them when they come in on the 13th of December. Hopefully we'll have Grace's school pictures by then too.

The weather was supposed to be nice today so I had planned on doing a few things in the yard just to button everything up outside. But it wasn't so nice as it was drizzling all day long pretty much. So I never started working on that project at all. I never really started any projects today. There's something about a rainy day that makes you want to just sit around and relax. And both Grace and I took advantage of it.

Julie talked her Mom into letting us help out this year with the Thanksgiving meal for the family. We'll be cooking the turkey (on the grill), making the obligatory green bean casserole and either making or buying some rolls. I found a recipe for rolls that looks good but we could just buy them too; that would be even easier than a recipe that's easy to make.

Our neighbor that helped us out over the summer that I referred to as "A" had her tonsils taken out today. Everything went well and she'll be recovering over the next week. I didn't know this but a tonsillectomy is now an outpatient surgery. She went in the O.R. at 8:00 am and was home before 11:30 am; that's just amazing.

This afternoon Grace and I went over to her friends house up in Antioch and picked up the cookie dough we ordered through her preschool. I can't wait to try it. And then another friend brought over a pie we ordered through his school tonight so we're all set for desserts for a while.

I've actually been working on organizing the office. For those of you that have seen our office, you'll know it's desperately needed. I've only gone through a portion of it so far, but have thrown a lot out already. And last night I made my first homemade notepad. I got to thinking that I recycle a lot of paper from things I no longer need or things I try to print that don't print properly, etc. and that I could reuse that paper to make notepads. So I got all the stuff and last night I finally trimmed some of the paper I had been saving to size and put it all together in the clamp I made and glued it up. It turned out really well. If I had used plain and unused paper it would have looked like anything you can get in the store. I'm really excited how they turned out. Julie and I are going to work together and make some Christmas gifts related to this.

Village Board Meeting Update 11.13.2007

I haven't been posting my observations and notes from the village board meetings lately. I thought I'd start to catch up on these by starting with the latest one which was just this last Tuesday the 13th. This meeting had the potential of being an "ugly" one as some of the topics up for discussion where controversial.

The meeting started right on time (as the Mayor was watching the clock waiting for 7 pm to start) and one trustee (Trustee Bonds) was absent.

Immediately upon the start of the meeting the Mayor said that he was moving the Executive Session up from the end of the meeting to the beginning of the meeting. So as soon as we started the meeting all of the residents were left alone while the Mayor and trustees all left for the executive chamber. This executive session was labeled as a discussion of imminent litigation.

It was short as they all returned within 5 minutes. Public discussion was next on the agenda and there was quite a bit of discussion this evening. First the Mayor acknowledged that our State Representative was in attendance tonight: Sandy Cole and Lake County Board Member Bob Powers. Then Georgeann Duberstein mentioned that the Great Age Club was taking collections especially toiletries for Winchester House in Libertyville.

Then the real public discussion began when Georgeann's husband George brought up item number J-5 from the agenda (A Resolution Calling for an Advisory Referendum to Determine whether the Village should provide Retirement Benefits to Long-Time Employees.) He was asking the Mayor for permission to talk about this topic when it came up in the meeting instead of at the beginning before any discussion among the trustees had occurred. The Mayor said no that he should talk now.

George went on to say that this is not a resolution that the residents have filed and whether or not the village will provide this to it's employees but that it's a tax that the residents (as tax payers) will be required to pay for and shouldn't be worded as such in the agenda. The plan (through IMRF) as it's laid out now obligates the village to permanently remain in the program they've selected to provide retirement benefits to its employees. This plan also requires that in the first year that the villages contribution would be approximately $20,000 and that this was essentially an unfunded mandate as we will never know in advance how much it will cost the tax payers. George has put up a resolution for the spring ballot (the Mayor verified it will be on the ballot and that representatives from IMRF will be at the December Village Board Meeting.) He also states that a 457(b) retirement plan is much better and the Mayor responded with "We will have our say" meaning the trustees, village employees and himself will have the final word on this issue.

Georgeann then got up again and stated that a misnomer has occurred (which is basically what George said) in that the village isn't being obligated, it's the residents that will end up paying for this retirement plan. She read from the IMRF brochure saying "who guarantees employees pension? - the tax payer." She asked the Mayor and the board to please look at other options as the referendum as stated doesn't have other options.

Douglas Raul Williams stood up and said he concurs with Georgeann.

Kelly Hensley (Treasurer) asked the villages lawyer Dirk if the retirement plan would show up on each residents tax bill as a separate line item. He said no it would not, it would just be included in whatever amount the village needs each year unless the village defaults (goes bankrupt) in which case it would show up as a line item because then it would be solely the residents responsibility.

The Mayor also states that village has the hardest working staff in the state probably and are entitled to this - its about time we did this.

Georgeann responded saying that isn't the issue. To the trustees: if you, having been elected by us, truly feel this is the right plan to implement you are askew. In the corporate world nearly every company has moved away from pension plans and towards 401(k) plans instead which is what a 457(b) plan is (just for municipal employees.) With the IMRF plan the village is permanently obligated to remain with that plan, it's not transferable for the employee even after terminating their employment with the municipality. Please consider other options.

The Mayor states we are investigating the 457(b) plan - but again they are entitled to whatever decision they make. This was the end of public discussion.

The Mayor started his report saying that on Monday the 26th that Kelly Hensley, Debbie Bonds and himself would be discussing a new contract with Veolia and that hopefully they would complete those negotiations before the December meeting.

He also gave an update on the bike path along Hainesville Rd. For the Avon portion between Washington St and the ball fields the bidding opens on November 27th. So it will obviously be done next year and the other portion from the ball fields south to Walgreens would occur next year as well.

Kathy Metzler (Clerk) said she's working on the village newsletter and needs articles from the trustees by the 27th.

Debbie Bonds (trustee - not present) is spearheading a Santa visit to the Village Hall on December 8th.

Kelly Hensley (Treasurer) said the audit's start has been delayed and will begin on Thursday the 15th.

Jeff Gately (Public Works) said there are approximately 60 homes left to convert from the old water meter reading system to the new wireless system. Hopes to set up appointments and complete this task by Thanksgiving.

Jeff also stated that a maintenance plan is being developed for the air relief valves to avoid any further problems with the sewer mains going into the Fox Lake Treatment Facility.

Marcia McCutchan (Engineer) said in regards to the MFT (road repaving and improvement throughout the village and along E Big Horn Dr) that the contractor is having difficulty with the landscaping sub-contractor and are finding a new one and it will be done before Thanksgiving.

Mark Gottsacker (trustee -> Public Safety Coor.) Georgeann wants an article in the newsletter.

Kelly Hensley (Treasurer) said in regards to the Tax Levy: An overall increase of 5.6% which is not per homeowner, this is the overall increase. Public hearing in regards to this will be December 11 with (hopefully) ordinance approval that night at the village board meeting. (approved resolution # R07-11-39)

Set of three ordinances in response to AT&T trying to avoid paying fees associated with the delivery of video by claiming they aren't a "cable" company and that their video service isn't delivered over "cable" lines (it's over fiber.) Basically these bills re-phrase the ordinances to state that any video delivery, regardless of delivery method, must provide a certain level of service to their customers. And also that they are obligated to pay any fees associated with the delivery of video just as any other company must. Approved ordinance #'s 07-11-86, 07-11-87 & 07-11-88.

For the "big question" resolution regarding retirement benefits all trustees unanimously decided to not include this resolution on the spring ballot basically stating that they need to explore all their options before jumping in especially since the IMRF plan is permanent. The Mayor stated "note to Georgeann: we will be looking into the 457(b) plan."

End of meeting - cake time celebrating everyone's birthday for this year. Cake was from Lovin' Oven Cakery in Round Lake with whipped cream frosting.

REI

Grace woke up early today. I'm not sure why she's been doing this lately; it was 7 am today. She seems tired then for most of the day after she's gotten up early so I don't really understand, but there isn't much I can do about it either.

She had preschool today and then afterwards she was going to a friends house for a play date. That Mom picked her up from school so I had a few hours to myself. Unfortunately I talked for a while and then had to go back home and turn the Crockpot down because I accidentally left it on high and I only needed it on high for an hour, not most of the day. So I ran home and turned that down and then headed to Schaumburg.

Have you heard of the store REI? It's a cool outdoor store - they sell pretty much anything related to the outdoors. I've received their catalogs and shopped online at rei.com for years. And they've had stores kind of in the area but they were a long drive away. Now they have a new store in the town Julie works in so I drove down there and checked out the Grand Opening which today was the first day. I found some replacement gloves for myself since my gloves that I've been using have a hole in them. And I got Grace some new gloves too since she seems to outgrow everything for some reason. I also got a free t-shirt and nalgene bottle that both said Schaumburg Grand Opening on them. After that I picked Julie up and we went to lunch at Red Robin and then I came back home.

I had about an hour to do whatever I wanted since Grace was still at her play date, and I had planned on doing a little yard work since it wasn't too cold out and ALL of the leaves fell off the big box elder tree we have in our backyard last night because of a fairly hard frost (26 degrees.) But I ended up just relaxing for a while. It felt good, but now I have even more work to do this weekend.

So then I went and picked Grace up and we came home so I could finish making dinner. It was a good one: beef roast in the Crockpot with gravy, mashed potatoes and caramel apple pie for dessert. Unfortunately I didn't have time to make a vegetable but there was plenty of food.

We heard from our friends in Zimbabwe today and things aren't so great there. The electricity is out much more than it's on - if it's on at all. And that means they can't access the internet either. It's also hard to keep food fresh if the refrigerator isn't on.

So that was today in a nutshell. Tomorrow starts a weekend full of work around the house. Hopefully I can get a lot of those things crossed-off my to-do list.

Long Week

It's been a long week this week. I'll be glad when the weekend gets here. I'm looking forward to relaxing - well not too much I guess. I need to start removing that ceiling in the family room. My brother-in-law stopped by tonight to tell me how to remove the ceiling so that we could put it back up the easiest. So I've got a lot of work ahead of me.

I didn't hear from my uncle so I'm not sure if he picked up the lights today or not. They were supposed to be ready to be picked up today. In fact I haven't talked to him since ordering the lights. I'm not even sure when he's available to help me put them in; hopefully soon as our ceiling will be missing soon! We're looking forward to getting this done not just so that we can begin working on other parts of the room, but also so that we'll be able to see in the room. It's always been a dark room with not enough light to see what you're reading.

Grace didn't do as well today as yesterday. She was happy this morning but she's usually quite happy in the morning anyway. Julie was home for a while this morning because she had a dentist appointment to go to before work. I think Grace was really happy that her Mom was home for a while this morning. Then after she had preschool her and I went to the car wash to clean my filthy dirty car. It looks so much nicer; you can actually tell that it's blue again. When the car was done and it was time to leave she started to have a breakdown because she wanted a candy bar instead of waiting for lunch. We already had a cookie while we were waiting for the car to be cleaned and then she wanted the candy bar too. I knew if she ate it she wouldn't eat her lunch.

She ended up coming home and having some of her halloween candy and she didn't really eat her lunch or dinner after that anyway. So I guess overall it didn't really matter, but I wasn't giving in. I'm thinking she'll be hungry for breakfast in the morning tomorrow.

Did you see today that Barry Bonds was indicted for lying under oath about taking steroids. I guess someone is finally getting caught. I hope more players that have used steroids get caught and have to pay the price. I have no sympathy for them as not only is it against the rules, but it's just generally wrong and it just tears your body apart. It's never worth it in my opinion.

I'll have to keep this short tonight as it's late and I'm too tired to stay up.

Can you believe it?

Can you believe that Thanksgiving is only one week from tomorrow? Where has this year gone? And Christmas is only about a month away? Wow! Where does the time go? It's hard to believe and I'm not really ready for these holidays. I'm ready for the change in schedule (read: no schedule or obligations) but Christmas seems like it's coming up so quickly. I'm thinking we should decide what we're buying everyone for Christmas and we should start buying those gifts. I hate having to rush around last minute trying to buy things that aren't on the shelves anymore as everyone else has already bought them.


Unfortunately Grace has decided that what she wants is this half full-size pony from Toy's R Us that's $250 on sale; it's name is Butterscotch. She talks about it every day asking when she's going to get it, whether or not Santa is going to make it for her. It's really sweet, but it's just too expensive and quite honestly I don't know how long she'd really play with it; plus it's size is another factor we have to take into account as in where would we keep it in our house?

Grace is still doing really well behavior-wise. We've implemented this new reward chart where she gets check-marks for doing everyday things like listening or behaving on trips out of the house. And she's getting more and more check-marks and fewer X's since we implemented this new program. Hopefully this will help prevent any further craziness like we had at the end of last week. A little motivation to behave well; we'll see.

Grace and I had a fun time together at the library yesterday. I took her there after preschool. She was so excited not just because we were there (she really likes to go) but because she is now old enough to get her own library card. She thinks that's the coolest thing and is very proud of it. She can't wait to show her friend. Of course I had already checked out her books on my card, but she doesn't realize that.


The book I checked out was "Lone Survivor" by Marcus Luttrell. It's the story of (and by the) fire team leader whom was the sole survivor of Operation Redwing in Afghanistan and the desperate battle in the mountains that led to the largest loss in Navy SEAL history. I'm only on page 26 but I'm already hooked. He's a good conversational-type author and I like military books anyway. So I'm finding it very interesting.


The last book I checked out was "Hard Call" by Senator John McCain. It seemed like a good book but I just couldn't get into it and never got very far with it. Obviously I never finished it.


I'm also "reading" a book on CD right now called "3 Nights in August" by Buzz Bissinger. It's about St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa and is centered around a particular 3 game series against the Cubs. It's very good. The only thing that would make the CD better would be if Buzz Bissinger was reading it himself. I'm learning a lot about the Cubs by reading this book and a lot about baseball and baseball strategy too. Sometimes you take for granted what players are on your team especially since you watch them day in and day out. But listening to Tony La Russa's take on your team's players really sheds some light on them. I'm really glad I'm reading it. Unfortunately it's making me want to watch baseball again which just ended until March/April of next year.

Speaking of things on TV, have you heard about this church in Kansas (Westboro Baptist Church) that sends it's members (there are allegedly only 75 of them) to picket military funerals? They were picketing the funeral of the son of Albert Synder of York, Pennsylvania whose son was a Marine that died in Iraq. They were picketing at the cemetery holding up these signs and more that I didn't write down:
"Thank God for IED's"
"Thank God for Dead Soldiers"
"God is America's Terror"
"America is Doomed"
"You're Going to Hell"
"God Hates You"
"God Hates Fags"

I mean how cruel can people be? First of all aren't they supposed to be Christians? They call themselves "Baptist's" but aren't affiliated with any baptist organization. They are classified as a hate group and possibly a cult and are monitored by the Anti-Defamation League. They feel that every bad thing that has happened in this world is to blame on gay people and since there are some gay people in the military that the military shouldn't exist. The same goes for the government and everything else there is in America. Shouldn't they just move to another country? Clearly they don't like America as they state: "It's too late to pray for America. It's a sin to pray for America", and: "The hell with your flag. The hell with your fag army, your fag courts, your fag-run government".

Personally I think they should be forced out of the country but our laws state they can say anything they want so that will never happen. But I do think that no matter how they feel about the military or the government that they need to be kept at least a respectable distance from funerals out of respect for the people that are there who actually care about the person that has died. Obviously these people don't care about the person who died nor the people that are there mourning nor the country they live in for that matter. I think it's despicable and disgusting and I wish they would have to pay for what they are doing to these people as they are trying to mourn the loss of their loved ones whom just happen to be heroes in my opinion.

The court did award the family in this case $11 million but the church is appealing and I'm thinking it will probably be overturned mostly because of our guarantee of free speech. Plus the church is allegedly only worth about $1 million so the actual payment would probably never occur. However I truly hope and pray that this is not overturned and that this will stop. Let them picket and complain all they want in front of their own "church" but leave the good citizens of our country and our respectable members of the military alone.