Crosswalks to Nowhere

In August, 2002 the suburban Chicago newspaper The Daily Herald asked readers for their thoughts on the events of September 11, 2001. On September 3, 2002 they published my letter below:

Success: To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded! --Ralph Waldo Emerson

Last night, I stopped by the car dealership to pick up the set of floormats and the wheel cover they owed me. There was a huge champagne-wine-and-hors d'oeuvres kickoff party going on for the new Volkswagen Phaeton. The kids grabbed a couple pieces of cheese toast, and I looked for my salesguy. A few minutes later, he drove up in one of the new cars. He asked me if I wanted to take it out for a spin. I was hesitant at first, then I realized that one doesn't get the opportunity to be in control of $89,000 worth of German engineering that often. The kids climbed in back and the salesguy got in the passenger seat, and off we went. All leather interior, lumbar massage while driving, sweet audio system, and all the gadgetry you could imagine, driven by 12 cylinders under the hood. The most amazing thing was hitting the gas and reaching 55 MPH in seconds, all in complete silence. The kids wanted me to buy it, at least until I explained that I could buy them each a convertible slug bug with money left over for gas for the same price as the car we were in. The salesguy pointed out that the car was also worth a couple years of college. I think I'll stick with the Passat for now.

It's been hovering in the single digits around here the past few days. It's 15 degrees in downtown Chicago as I write this.

A lot of people are complaining, but once again Roger the Security Guard came up with words of wisdom: "It's Chicago. It's January. What do people expect? You just gotta go with it."

Makes sense to me.

In the past couple of days, I've seen four guys from the 'old days:' Chuck, Jim, Michael, and Tim. Chuck is still consulting (no surprise), Jim's getting married next summer (he found The One), Michael's company just went public and they cut his stock options in a 3-to-2 reverse split (bummer), and Tim is still on an even keel, trying to teach his 16-year-old son that it might be a good idea for him to get a job if he wants to use the car. In all, it seems we remain a pretty well-adjusted group. Or we're really fooling ourselves.

I'm gonna get the lowdown on the knifemaking world tonight with my pal Journeyman Smith Bob.

The following is for administrative purposes only :-) ---> A:8 P:4 D:2 (NA)

Just finished reading "The Man Who Ate The 747." It sort of turned into "It's A Wonderful Life" at one point, but it was a really nice and sweet love story. Next up: whatever moves me when I make it downstairs to Barbara's Bestsellers.

You think it's easy? I don't think so. :-)

Elsewhere in my internet travels, I ran across another very helpful tool, The Blackadder Quote Generator. You'll get words to live by, such as: "If nothing else works, a total pig-headed unwillingness to look facts in the face will see us through. "

Today, I saw the first display of real, true class in a long time. Thanks, Jeanne.

And why are we turning into a nation with the most obnoxious cellphone ringers around? On the train tonight, I heard no fewer than 10 really loud and annoying "polyphonic" cellphone ringtones. Fur Elise, the "I Dream of Jeannie" theme song, some Mozart thing I can't remember the name to but I've heard it millions of times, and I can't remember the others. It used to be that all we had to contend with were obnoxious cellphone users-- now their rings are worse.

My favorite, though, was one I heard the other day: not only was there a loud, polyphonic thing playing, but over the song, this lady's phone had a voice saying "Attention: you have an incoming call." Where did she get her phone? Cingular Brainless?

All I know is that when I'm in charge, we're going back to a simple chime (bells are nice, you know?) on all cellphones. And I will be the sole arbiter of who should carry a cellphone in the first place. Arrrrrrrrrrgggggghhhhhh.

Okay, I'm better now.

I was listening to Wings' "Band on the Run" CD the other night. This was a great album, and proof that Paul could come up with something really good when he put his mind to it.

MLK day. It's a good time to put aside whatever comparatively petty problems we have in our lives and think about the people who struggled to actually put some good and justice in this world.

We'll all probably hear the Dion song "Abraham, Martin, and John" before the day is out, so here are a few lines from that song:

----

Anybody here seen my old friend Martin?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
He freed a lot of people,
But it seems the good they die young.
I just looked 'round and he's gone.

Didn't you love the things that they stood for?
Didn't they try to find some good for you and me?
And we'll be free
Some day soon, and it's a-gonna be one day ...

----

I've also registered for the 2004 MS 150 Bike Ride, which is coming up the weekend of June 26-27. The BITEMS team roster is already growing, and you can visit our team site at www.bitems.org. I also have my own page at the MS Society, and you can get there by clicking right here.

Sorry, no rants today. :-)

I'm in the middle of reading Michael Moore's "Dude, Where's My Country?" and suddenly feeling a responsible member of society. Today's lyrics (below) were written in 1992 but seem more poignant today.

The kids and I saw the Chinese New Year's parade in Chinatown on Sunday. This was the first time I'd been in Chicago's Chinatown since I was probably 10 years old. It was really cold, so we wound up in one of the restaurants for lunch. Then we hit a couple stores and picked up some cheap stuff at one of the little shops. I picked up this awesome tea -- a blend of chamomile, spearmint, catnip, valerian, and skullcap. Two mugs of this stuff on Sunday evening and I was falling asleep by 10:00, which is highly unusual for me on a Sunday night.

We also saw Cheaper by the Dozen on Saturday, which was a lot better than I'd expected. Steve Martin was playing his usual cynical-yet-loveable-Dad character, and Bonnie Hunt was, well, she's always great in whatever she does.

In the last week, we lost Ray Rayner, Bob Keeshan, and Jack Paar. Jack was a bit before my time, but in the films and videos I've seen he clearly had a gift.

(And on a cynical note, I will never get why people thought Steve Allen was so brilliant. Above average, maybe. Henry Morgan mentioned in his autobiography that working with Steve Allen was like being a full time straight man: not something a truly brilliant person like Morgan was suited for.)

Today's song lyric comes from the band XTC on their album "Nonsuch." Like I said earlier, these are appropriate lyrics in these days of the "Patriot Act."

---
Books Are Burning
(Andy Partridge)

Books are burning
In the main square, and I saw there
The fire eating the text
Books are burning
In the still air
And you know where they burn books
People are next
I believe the printed word should be forgiven
Doesn't matter what it said
Wisdom hotline from the dead back to the living
Key to the larder for your heart and your head
Books are burning
In our own town, watch us turn 'round
And cast our glances elsewhere
Books are burning
In the playground
Smell of burnt book is not unlike human hair
I believe the printed word is more than sacred
Beyond the gauge of good or bad
The human right to let your soul fly free and naked
Above the violence of the fearful and sad
The church of matches
Anoints in ignorance with gasoline
The church of matches
Grows fat by breathing in the smoke of dreams
It's quite obscene
Books are burning
More each day now, and I pray now
You boys will tire of these games
I hope somehow
This will allow
A phoenix up from the flames

On Saturday, I completed the first annual Boot Camp at The Pavilion. Not only did I get to see a side of the trainers I'd never seen before, but my butt was thoroughly kicked by the time it was all over at 10:30 am. I've got a nice certificate hanging on my wall as proof of my accomplishment.

I watched Shadow of the Vampire the other night. Man, that was intense. The plot revolves around John Malkovich as German filmmaker FW Murnau, making his version of 'Nosferatu.' Willem Dafoe plays Max Schreck, the person hired to play the vampire in the movie. A lot of drugs, drinking, and between-war German attitude with a couple freaked-out Czechoslovakians tossed in for color. Malkovich is always good, especially when he's playing off-center characters (has he ever played one that isn't?) and Dafoe is completely unrecognizeable as Schreck.

Today's lyric comes from one the first LPs I ever owned, Elton John's "Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only The Piano Player." The song is "Teacher I Need You." There's no particular reason for its being posted here, other than the fact that I can't get the song out of my head.

---
TEACHER I NEED YOU
(Elton John - Bernie Taupin)

I was sitting in the classroom,
Trying to look intelligent
In case the teacher looked at me.
She was long and she was lean.
She's a middle-aged dream,
And that lady means the whole world to me.

It's a natural achievement,
Conquering my homework
With her image pounding in my brain.
She's an inspiration
For my graduation,
And she helps to keep the classroom sane.

Oh teacher I need you,
Like a little child.
You got something in you
To drive a schoolboy wild.

You give me education
In the lovesick blues.
Help me get straight come out and say,
Teacher I, teacher I, teacher I,
Teacher I need you.

I have to write a letter,
Tell about my feelings,
Just to let her know the scene.
Focus my attention
On some further education
In connection with the birds and the bees.

So I'm sitting in the classroom.
I'm looking like a zombie.
I'm waiting for the bell to ring.
I've got John Wayne stances.
I've got Erroll Flynn advances,
And it doesn't mean a doggone thing.

Yes, I know I haven't done anything further with the RadioBlog. It's all a matter of finding the time, which I hope to do shortly.

The next projects on tap for me are the new appliances for the kitchen (coming next week) and figuring out what I am going to do with furniture in the bedroom and living room, followed by painting the whole joint. I've gotta call Designer Guy and have him give me the numbers of the paints he recommended-- I may do a splotch in the living room just to see how it looks.

Got my butt kicked this morning in a 6:00 am cycling class. I could feel my legs tightening up on the train afterwards. At least I can justify a big lunch today.

My DVD of The Commitments showed up the other day. I can't wait to see that again. "Say it once and say it loud: I'm black, and I'm proud." (I wonder how long it's going to be before Fox Home Video realizes that most of the people on the DVD cover are making a rude gesture-- and people start complaining about it?)

This weekend is the Badger Knife Show in Janesville. I may take a ride up there to see what Bob's showing.

I've taken the first step towards getting more space here at www.jtl.us.

My radio page is going to be moving to its own host, which makes sense since I've owned the domain name www.joesradiopage.com for about a year. (That domain name already forwards to the existing radio page.) The new site should be up within the next week.

Now I've got the itch to redesign my personal page. Yeah, like I've got the time. :-)

I'm not sure what's going on with this blog page-- the radio.blog appears in different places depending on which machine I'm using. When I clear the radio page off this server, I may switch to a different blogging program.

We had another Duck Race meeting tonight at Peggy's, and in the middle of it I was taken to task for putting vinegar on my fries. Clearly, these people don't know that when in Ireland (or at least in an Irish pub) you gotta play the part.

Each year, I participate as a first-round reader in an essay contest where kids write about their dads (or father figures). Most of these kids are from poorer neighborhoods, and are in first through fifth grade. This year I got a stack of papers from third-graders.

Here is a bit from one of the essays that I chose as a semi-finalist; it's from a girl writing about her "ideal dad:"

...If I had a dad I will thank him for everything that he did like play with me and buy me stuff. I will buy him stuff too and make him laugh too. I will (be) just like my dad because he can be cool. He would help me with my homework and play soccer and games so he think(s) I'm cool too. I'd be just like him. We could give hugs and kisse(s) to each other. We could read scary stories.

Another semifinalist was from a boy who talked about the fun things he did with his dad, including how his dad comes in the room and changes the channel while he's watching TV.

This is the sort of thing that helps you keep perspective-- makes you think the stuff you're dealing with every day really isn't as important as it seems.

The new radio page is now live. You can get to it by hitting www.joesradiopage.com. I may do a couple updates to some of the descriptions, but it's 99.9% ready to go. Next up is putting the pointer to the new page.

I've been messing around with some new weblog software, but I can't seem to get it running correctly yet. I'll try again tonight. In any event, one of these days you'll log in to see this page looking a bit different, so don't be surprised.

There's also been a bit of housecleaning going on here at www.jtl.us. Some of the old graphics and audio files that were linked within the weblog are no longer on the server, so if you find a dead link it most likely means I needed the disk space. All will be well within the next few weeks, though.

I started reading The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers. This was on the recommendation of a guy at Barbara's downstairs here. Thanks to discussions I'm having and overhearing on "The Passion," the question of what "faith" is keeps creeping into view. This book takes a look at how various traditions run parallel and even overlap in their beliefs and rituals. I'm only about a quarter of the way into it, but I'll post more when I get further.

Welcome to the new weblog! I hope this software will be less troublesome than what I was dealing with before. The old weblog will be available for a while right here, until I get around to cleaning up to get more space.

I was in a meeting this morning, noticing how they had the lights on at Comiskey Park (sorry, "US Cellular Field"-- yeesh), when these three small planes with trailing banners start circling downtown. One banner said "Stand Up," another said "Fight Back," and the third said "Walk Tall." At first, I thought it was from some group with a political agenda, but then I remembered there's some new movie starring The Rock coming out, so that's probably what it's all about. Besides, I can't imagine any political group getting permission to circle a major city in three small planes.

After the meeting, against my better judgment, I went down to the Corner Bakery to get a bagel. Let's just say that when I'm in charge around here, every single Corner Bakery is going to be turned into a dry cleaners or some place that provides something that remotely resembles service. They told me if I wanted a bagel I would have to wait "until they were done in 15 minutes." And this was at 9:00 in the morning. Very nice.

So I wound up across the street at the Worst McDonald's in the World. By the time I got back, I probably would have had my lousy bagel.

Okay, enough of my griping.

My radio site is now officially on its own, and I've done a lot of cleaning up on the www.jtl.us server. Some space has been cleared up, but there's still more to do.

I loaded up some old Moody Blues on the iPod last night. "A Question of Balance" and "To Our Children's Children's Children," both from 1970. It seems I've been stuck in that year lately-- I was listening to "Jesus Christ Superstar" the other night.

More in a while.

A full Saturday.

First off, we had the cousins here after a sugared-up breakfast at Eros. While that was going on, Team One from Sears showed up with the new fridge and range. (Proving that nothing really goes as planned, I need to have the gas line moved so I can slide the range back to the wall-- it's sticking out about 8 inches right now. I gotta tell ya, though-- it's a good lookin' range.) A couple hours later, Alan The Australian Sears Guy showed up with the new dishwasher and some pretty good stories.

So now that I've got these cool new appliances, I guess I'd better start cooking a little more seriously.

Emma spent the night at a friend's house, so Becky and I headed over to the mall-- she has birthday money yet to spend, and I wanted to get to the Apple Store for another iPod cable.

On the way there, I had the overwhelming pleasure of seeing flashing red, white, and blue lights in my rear view mirror. Evidently, Northwest Highway through Palatine is a 30 MPH zone, and I was a little above that. Argh. The interesting thing is that they make this whole thing really easy now -- you can pay your ticket through the mail, agree to attend traffic class (even over the internet-- imagine, CBT driving class) and the violation doesn't appear on your record. Well, at least the County got something out of this.

I picked up the soundtrack to Lost in Translation, which playing now. Border's is open until 11 on Saturdays, so we goofed around in there for a while.

There's some new modern art on my walls-- actually, there are seven very strategically placed 3' x 3' squares of two different colors on the walls in my living and dining rooms. I got a quart of each of the two different colors that Designer Guy recommended to me, and I put 'em up on the walls to see how they play out. I'll post some photos tomorrow.

Don't forget to turn your clocks back 23 hours before going to bed tonight. Or is it turning them ahead 25 hours and sleeping through Monday?

Here are the paint samples.

Okay, I am sure the flash threw it off, and each monitor is different, but at least you'll have an idea of what I'm dealing with.

Votes are now coming in in favor of the darker color. Thanks for all the comments. I'll let you guys know what it's gonna be.

I had lunch with JDR today-- good ol' Silk Road, home of Spicy Pigeon (er... Chicken). He's pretty psyched about his upcoming nuptials (July 4) and all that's involved. I asked him how he felt about taking the plunge again, and he said it was just like playing a country music record backwards-- you get your truck back, your wife back, your job back... only it's better this time, 'cause you get a different truck, a different wife....

And Happy Passover to those of you who celebrate it. Maybe I'll whip up some of those potato pancakes like I did for the kids' Christmas/Chanukah dinner. My place will smell like onions for a week again. But hey-- I gotta break the new stove in.

More later.

First thing this morning, I was in a steering committee meeting. I wondered who came up with that term. I wonder what kind of image they had in their head. A committee that steers? That makes no sense. Does a truck have a committee to steer it? A train? A plane (well, okay, copilots)? Are there multiple steering wheels in cars these days? Whenever I've heard that term, I picture a decrepit pickup careening down a mountain road with no railing and five guys in suits trying to wrest contol of the wheel as they rattle downwards.

Okay, so maybe the management-type who came up with the term didn't have that image in mind. This morning's meeting was actually very productive.

Chipotle for lunch today. Now it's Chris' turn to be mad at us since he's off this week.

And you know it's going to be a good day when you get an email (non-spam, mind you) with the subject line "Duck Head." (Ellen from the Foundation has a friend who has offered to rebuild the head component of the ABC/25 duck costume. I know, the subject line shows much more promise than the actual content.)

Just got an email that says that every Wednesday is now "$6 Martini Night" at Basta. Now that's just freakin' dangerous talk.

The gas pipe in my kitchen was successfully moved yesterday by a dude named Domingo. So now my range fits in nicely with the rest of the kitchen. Next up, painting.

The other day, I told Glenn and Cindy about my speeding ticket. Then Cindy told us about the one she got a couple weeks ago. Glenn decided to show his sympathy by explaining how a cop buddy of his told him how to talk your way out of a ticket: get out of the car slowly, keep your hands where the officer can see them, and go no further than the edge of your car. "Works every time," he said with a grin. "Even in Indiana."

This morning, he showed me a little yellow piece of paper he got last night from a gentleman in uniform.

Steer clear of me, people.

(Holly, I apologize if I jinxed you by accident-- but at least yours was only a warning. I didn't mean to put a whammy on you.)

I learned last night just how relaxing a dirty martini can be after a workout. Isn't there protein in blue cheese-stuffed olives?

The cycling classes at my club are on hiatus while they do some repairs on the bikes. Instead, they're offering a cardio-variety class in its place. Wanna know how uncoordinated I am? Didn't think so.

My refinancing closing is tomorrow, so I'm waiting for my final numbers. It would be nice to have them today, so I can get the check cut. I would hate to have to come downtown tomorrow morning before the closing since my bank (ahem) doesn't have any branches near me.

Public-access wireless internet is cool, but FREE public-access wireless internet rocks. Sitting at Panera Bread on a beautiful Friday afternoon, amid the steady stream of customers and kids who are off school today for Good Friday.

Good Friday-- I may have to run through "Jesus Christ Superstar" one more time to get into the spirit of the weekend.

Speaking of that, it seems my local train station is the latest forum for churches' interpretations of The Passion of the Christ. Last week, folks from the local Lutheran church were handing out water bottles with a note attached about the movie and their Easter services, and yesterday people from a local Bible Church were distributing pamphlets explaining The Passion... and inviting people to their Easter services.

Saw Art today, so I'm one well-groomed dude right now. Lisa P. (she of the "every woman on the planet, including myself" comment) found a new gig, managing a high-end Italian boutique at Northbrook Court. She starts in two weeks and is really psyched about it.

Heading off to refinance the pad. Before I go, here are the lyrics to a song that figured prominently in a dream I had last night. (It was the Aimee Mann-Michael Penn version.)

Happy Easter! And this year, I see both the Orthodox and Western Easters happen on the same day. So my wish to all of you is for happy egg hunting and mazeltov.

This morning, I was listening to Dean Richards on WGN, and he was talking about this cute little rapping Easter Bunny Flash animation. He said he didn't have the link, but if you went to a certain site you would find a link to it. Slight problem, Dean-- the link you gave on the air was for a porn site. Ooops.

I finally got around to watching my new DVD of The Commitments. Man, what an awesome movie. I'm just starting the bonus disc now. Next up: Abre los Ojos, the movie that Vanilla Sky was based on.

New to the iPod this weekend is The Best of OMD. I remember when their first album came out-- they were like a combination of Kraftwerk (though with cheaper synthesizers) and a Brit Pop band. It worked, though. As the years progressed, they added guitars, real drums, and eventually horns. (Fans of 80s music will know their song "If You Leave" from the movie Pretty in Pink.) OMD's finest moment, though, was a track called "Time Signals" on their album Dazzle Ships. This was basically an overlaying, one at a time, of different "at the tone, the time will be.." recordings from all over the world, in different languages, with the time pulse synced up. A neat concept, especially for the geekier among us.

There's a questionnaire circulating the blogs these days asking some seemingly random questions. This is similar to the thing that's going around where you're supposed to post "100 Things About Me." My answers are on the next page.

By the way, if you're reading this and you want to add a comment, you don't have to leave your email address when you do so. You can be anonymous.

I finally got my auxiliary interface for my car. This neat little device plugs into the prewired CD changer connector in the trunk, so that you can connect any audio device to your car stereo without tearing the dash apart. I ran a cable from the trunk to the front seat, so now I have iPod tunes in my car without having to resort to one of those cassette adapters or funky FM transmitters that never work around here anyway.

It was a beautiful day in Chicago. I managed to get out of the office for just a bit to see spring raising its head, ever so briefly.

Li'l Blue Eyes' team played their first game this morning. The Pioneer Dynamite fell to the Recreation Leopards 0-3. Some may view this as an inauspicious start, but the Dynamite do show promise. At least that's what some of the other dads and I say.

After this morning's 3:30 am thunderstorm I figured today would be awful. I mean, the rain was coming in the window sideways, as if someone had a hose pointed directly at the house. As I type this, it's 80 degrees and beautiful outside. Time to get bikes out.

Oh, and I picked up Manu Chao's Proxima Estación: Esperanza, since I keep hearing more and more about this guy. I haven't formulated an opinion on it yet-- it's definitely different, with all sorts of world-music influences, and it certainly keeps your attention. It reminds me (sort of) of bits of Kirsty MacColl's Tropical Brainstorm, although Kirsty's album is a lot more melodic and poppy. I'll let you know after the second and third listen.

87°, sunny, and windy. It was one of those rare, absolutely beautiful days in springtime in Chicago.

Sammy Sosa broke Ernie Banks' home run record, and the fact that the Cubs lost in extra innings doesn't really matter. If there was a day I should have paid the guys on Waveland Avenue to get into the park, this was the day.

Instead, we took in Navy Pier, which is always a great time. And for the very first time, we did the Ferris Wheel. And getting hit by that wind at the top was pretty cool, too. (There's a photo of the Pier on my main page, and I'll edit some of my other photos down for the photo page soon.)

Last night we bought School of Rock on DVD. The kids and I saw it in the theatre in November, and they've been waiting for this to come out. I think it has something to do with the fact that both of them have a crush on the kid who plays the drums. We're on out third viewing now. (I also keep telling the Brown-Eyed one that she reminds me of Summer Hathaway, the class factotum and the band's "manager" in the movie. She points out to me that she isn't quite the "PITA" Summer is. My, how quickly they grow.)

The movie was a vehicle for Jack Black doing Jack Black (which he did pretty well in High Fidelity and Shallow Hal of course), but it also confirmed for me that Joan Cusack (another Chicagoan, by the way) really is a talent. It's kind of funny that the first role I ever saw her in was as a high school student in My Bodyguard, and in this movie she plays the principal of a prep school.

I also think it's cool that my kids knew what Jack Black was talking about when he referred to "the vocal solo in 'The Great Gig in the Sky.'"

And on a barely-related note, I noticed today that the term "Satan's iPod" is now officially listed in Google. Go me.

One of the things I've noticed since I started working out is the fact that when I slow down (as in, not going to the gym enough) my energy level drops dramatically. Today was one such day, and I started feeling zombiefied after lunch, and I know what caused it. So, it was over to the gym for the full circuit tonight. Now I'm feeling much better, thank you.

I had a little help with the energy, though: on my way to the car, I stopped at Urban Harvest and they sold me this evil seven-layer cookie bar thing that had enough sugar to get me buzzed by the time I reached the health club. I burned through it pretty quickly, 'cause as I sit here at Panera in Schaumburg (yay to free internet again) I'm about to crash.

(Placeholder: I just wrote this really whiny bit about how some of the female clients at my club hog the abduction and adduction machines, but I deleted it. I'll save it for later, so when you do see it, just mentally stick it in this spot right here.)

One more note on Satan's iPod, by the way: you can get to those postings directly by entering www.satansipod.com. Ahh, the wonderment of being able to buy a domain for under 10 bucks.

Today's lyric is on the next page.

The art of the metaphor is not dead. It just takes a little more work to figure out what the hell they mean these days.

I just came out of a meeting where the guy running the thing said, "Let's not turn this into a 'scope' meeting. We already have too many horses in the stable."

Huh? I would have thought "horses in the stable" might imply something good, as in, "we've got all this under control."

I also heard the term "taking the short bus to school" for the first time this week, which is kind of a cruel image once I realized what it meant, but I had to laugh 'cause it was well-timed and well-delivered by this dude named John. Okay, so I'm not all perfect and sensitive.

(Stream of Consciousness ramble ahead.)

Bill, the co-captain of the BITEMS cycling team, forwarded the list that appears on the next page (thus proving #4 on the list). It's one of those e-mail things that circulates everywhere, but I make it a policy not to clog bandwidth with this stuff. This one is pretty funny, though, so here 'tis.

And check out this link to learn why iTunes and services like it are growing in popularity. (Courtesy of required reading, The Onion. (PDF doc))

Today was "Take Your Offspring to Work" Day. Oh yeah, and it was Earth Day, too, but I don't have anything to contribute to the latter topic, so let's talk about my day with L'il Blue Eyes.

(Wait, I threw my newspapers in the recycling bin: does that count for doing my part for Earth Day?)

The Brown-Eyed One spent the day with her grandmother at the school where she teaches, so it was L'il Blue Eyes and me today at work. Glenn brought his older daughter in, so while the two kids did homework and watched videos (I am almost ready to do a line-by-line reading from memory of School of Rock) we attempted to get some work done.

Lunch was at Mrs. Levy's, where the kids got free shakes with their lunches. That's right: get 'em all sugared up for the afternoon... But seriously, it was a nice touch. Later in the day, the kids got free ice cream and a free company T-shirt courtesy of my employer.

I was telling a dear friend of mine about how "Take Your.. Day" puts an interesting spin on the typical business day. People who under typical circumstances are thorns in your side magically soften when they see your progeny sitting there at your desk. And with LBE being the charmer that she is, I've seen entirely new sides to some of the people I see every day. We'll call that a good thing.

Picked up Brown-Eyed Girl at Grandma's, then it was off to a quick dinner then back home so the girls could get over their AIM withdrawal. Oh, and see School of Rock.. again.

After the kids went back to their mom's, I was at Peggy's for a Harp or two. Derek was filling me in on how he almost ejected a lady from the place tonight (for reasons I won't go into just now), and how the bar's golf outing in August is already overbooked but he insisted that my name be added. And as always, he asked me "how things were going" and offered up his friendly pub-owner perspective on "things." Sort of a personal-adviser service, that.

(See? I'm like Zelig in the way I can adapt to the culture I'm in.)

I also ran into the lady from Urban Harvest, who sold me the evil 7-layer cookie bars I told you about the other day. (I bought four more to bring to the office today. They were a major hit. The tray in the picture must have weighed eight pounds.) She asked me if I was still in insulin shock, and that I should stop by tomorrow 'cause she just cut another huge batch. I told her she was worse than a crack dealer. But I meant it in the nicest possible way.

Cycling class at 6:00 am tomorrow. Will Joe make it? Tune in and find out.

Yes, I made it to the cycling class this morning. Aileen led the class, and while she can be a lot of fun, I think she was determined to put us through our paces. My legs are still recharging.

Here are the usual instructors, so when I refer to them in the future, you'll know of whom I speak. At the top of that page, you can see a little bit of the room where I put myself through this. The difference is that the lights are usually out.

The Silent Film Society of Chicago is starting their 2004 season, tonight featuring Madame DuBarry starring Pola Negri. I was thinking about going to see it, but I'll probably use the time to catch up on other things.

I will be stopping to see my pal Mitch (scroll down to where it says "Under the Tuscan Sunset") for a wine tasting, though. I'm amazed at how much I've learned about wines in the few months I've been stopping by the shop.

After Tuscan Market, I stopped at the WaMu branch next door for cash. (It seems a certain bank still hasn't opened a branch in my home town.) WaMu's ATMs crack me up: "Hey Mr. Lynn, how can I help you?" (I'd still like to see their screens in haiku, though.)

And the big annoucement for today is that I am doing The Garden again this year. And this year I'm doing it right. Or righter, anyway. The signs went up this week saying that the gardens were open, so today I went over there and put up a fence to keep the critters away. Now, if we get some more dry weekends, I'll be able to get the thing going before the end of May, unlike last year. Still no plans as to what I'll be planting beyond the sunflowers and marigolds S gave me. But (and remember these words) there will be a plan. (Now ask me again in August.)

And come to think of it (stream-of-consciousness ahead) I have one of those Hometime videos around here that talks about doing a vegetable garden. I oughta dig that one out and watch it.

A final comment that has nothing to do with anything above: Bob Chinn's rocks. Still.

Yesterday I went to the Lake County Discovery Museum to see the Linda McCartney's Sixties exhibition.

I'm not sure how or why it was chosen to be presented here-- the venue is a little historical society museum located in a forest preserve in Wauconda, which is about 40 miles northwest of downtown Chicago.

The exhibit consisted of about 50 photos, taken from her book of the same name. The photos featured The Beatles (of course) and Paul (of course), along with some wonderful shots of Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, and Aretha Franklin among others. There were also photos from her first professional shoot, of The Rolling Stones' press junket to the States in 1966.

The photos that really stood out, though, were the ones of The Beatles and Paul.

Linda's Beatles pictures captured the guys near the end of their time together, when (as she put it) "the weight of the world was on their shoulders." We've heard the stories of all the fighting and nastiness between them during the recording of Get Back (posthumously released as Let it Be) and Abbey Road, but there are a few photos of Paul and John where she captured moments when you can clearly see their friendship in the middle of it all.

The photos of Paul were very touching. My issue with him is that he's a perpetual mugger-- when the camera's on him, the charm goes on. She captured him when he wasn't "on," and we got to see the less showbizzy side of the guy. You can tell these pictures were taken by someone who really loved him-- there's a tenderness that comes through. The photo that appeared on the cover of the McCartney album, showing Paul with his daughter Mary inside his coat, is always a sweet one to see. (I can't seem to locate this one on the web right now. Maybe later.)

The exhibit included two video presentations-- one was a biography of Linda, the other was a photo history of the Grateful Dead that Paul assembled from Linda's photos. The rest of the exhibit consisted of sixties memorabilia which we've all seen hundreds of times.

Definitely worth the trip to see the original work of someone who was actually there.

Saturday night, Emma made her skating debut at the Rolling Meadows 34th Annual Ice Show, "Kaleidoscope." Her group (Alpha) skated to "Rainbow Song," and did a wonderful job with their routine. They had a repeat performance Sunday afternoon.

I'm going to attempt to digitize the video and post it here, so watch for a link. Photos to follow, too. I also expect an article in one of the local papers, and when that goes up there will be a link there, too. (See? I'm just full of promises today.)

I didn't realize what an event this really is: several of the skaters in the show are Olympic-bound, which is pretty cool. While I wouldn't call myself a skating aficionado I can certainly appreciate the hard work and skill that goes into it.

Yay to Li'l Blue Eyes!

Hmm. I make number three on this list. According to the car I drive, anyway.

Those wacky Germans.

Last year, we went to a big to-do at one of the local restaurants for Cinco de Mayo. I remember the beginning of the evening and the Folkloric Dancers, and these big giant three-foot long plastic glasses with margaritas inside. After that, I'm sure the evening was fun.

This year, my tribute to the day was listening to a scratchy recording of "Las Perlitas" by Arturo Lopez and Mariachi Chapultepec. I don't know much about mariachi music, but I always thought this was a happy little song.

(The story here is this: in the summer of 1999, someone I worked with handed me a stack of scratchy 45s and asked me if I would convert them to CD for her grandmother. Most of them were mariachi records from the 50s and 60s. I'd never really listened to this stuff before, and in the process of recording them to tape, transferring them to .wav files, editing them to get rid of the worst of the pops and clicks, then burning them to CD, I got real familiar with them. "Las Perlitas" is, as I said, a happy little song, and when I request it at a Mexican restaurant, the local mariachis are really impressed.)

We're getting closer to the Lake Arlington Duck Race. Next Tuesday, I'm speaking at the Park District Board meeting and The Duck will make an appearance. I won't say who'll be in the costume, but it's in my trunk and it's designed to fit an 11-to-13 year old kid.

The photos of Emma in her skating outfit were posted on the studio's web site, so that order will be placed shortly. Stand by for new pics. And I promise I'll get to digitizing the video soon.

Emma's class is reading a book called Flat Stanley. This is the story of a kid who gets squashed to half an inch thick, but otherwise remains completely normal. He has all kinds of neat adventures as a result of his two-dimensionality.

The standard third-grade project that goes along with reading the book involves the kids making their own Stanleys and mailing them to friends and family, so they can take Stanley on adventures.

Emma chose her dad to receive her Stanley. :-) When I opened the letter, she was standing right there, and she instructed me to take Stanley to work, since I work in a landmark building.

Today, Stanley had a nice time in the city. He also sat in a conference call on my behalf, which was pretty nice of him.

I was thinking of treating him to a margarita at Dos, but I'd worry that he would accidentally be used as a coaster.

There's still time for more adventures, so if they happen I will be sure to share.

I ran across this poem today and found it very inspirational and touching.

It's called "The Invitation" and was written by a Canadian author named Oriah Mountain Dreamer. This poem has been circulating the internet for some time, but I never saw it before today.

Enjoy.

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there, present and future. :-)

From the Blue Jays album by Justin Hayward and John Lodge of The Moody Blues.

I loaded Office 2003 on my home PC over the weekend, and it was followed immediately by a "Critical Update" notice from Microsoft.

The notice said that the suggested patch addresses the Bookshelf Symbol 7 font, stating: "this font has been found to contain unacceptable symbols."

Of course, I had to check it out.

Under the original version of Bookshelf Symbol 7 the tilde produces a swastika and an upper-case T produces a Star of David. Microsoft decided to delete them both from the font.

This article from ABC News says there were two swastikas in the font, but I only found one. This article from The Memory Hole has some captures of before-and-afters.

I understand Microsoft's sensitivity to this issue, but does this qualify as a "critical" update? I'm just glad I'm not the guy deploying the now-weekly "critical updates" for Win2K and XP in a large corporate environment-- it's hard enough staying ahead of the holes the hackers discover without having Microsoft sending stuff your way that should be categorized as "highly recommended."

And besides, if they're going to make font updates they should take steps towards adding my new favorite character, the interrobang.

Did you ever have one of those days when you wanted just 10 minutes to yourself?

I've been trying to compose an e-mail since early this morning, and it's still sitting on my screen because every time I sit down something pulls me away.

The kids and I went to CNA for breakfast (I guess the article didn't pack 'em in the way I thought it would), followed by brief stops at Urban Harvest (an evil brownie, a "Derek" cookie, and a Jones Bubblegum Soda left with us), Starbucks, and Tuscan Market, then Emma's soccer game took us up to almost 1:00. (The game, by the way, ended with some of the worst parental behavior I've seen at a kids' sporting event... and I've been to a lot of them.)

Then it was downtown to get my new bike (more on that later) then back to Lake Arlington to get the lane lines in for tomorrow's duck race. After that, we had to go to Michael's to get stuff for Rebecca's latest school project, then a quick dinner at Baja Fresh, followed by all sorts of miscellany here at home.

Now it's almost 10:00 and the email is almost done.

Oh, and in the middle of all this, Cingular's service went down, so my cellphone was outta commission for part of the day.

Tomorrow will be a better day. It'll be fun, too, because of this. Photos to follow...

Today was the Lake Arlington Duck Race, and we couldn't have asked for a better day-- mid 70s and sunny all day.

The day started out at the lake with our favorite adventure, assembling The Contraption. The idea is that we put all the plastic ducks the people "buy" in the big box at the top, and then at the right moment they're dropped down the slide into the water, then the Fire Department blows them across the lake with their hoses.

The Contraption stands about 30 feet high and comes in four parts. It usually takes four of us to assemble it, and one of those four typically winds up in the water, preferably intentionally.

The lane lines were yesterday's project. And that's Howie's arm on the right.

Becky and her friend Torie were running the face painting table for most of the day, and Emma stuck with me doing various odd jobs.

Overall, the race was a success-- we figured we cleared a pretty decent figure, although a little lighter than last year.

Now I have to do something about that first case of sunburn on my arms and legs.

I need to try and not make this another late night. Turner Classic Movies is showing Buster Keaton's Steamboat Bill, Jr..

As we approach Memorial Day, veterans all over the country will be accepting donations and distributing poppies in honor of the people we've lost in war. This effort seems much more poignant these days.

The significance of the poppy and its relation to veterans goes back to World War I. During the conflict, there were three battles in the region known as Flanders (covering parts of Belgium, France and the Netherlands). Beginning on April 22, 1915 and continuing for 17 days, one of the bloodiest conflicts took place, with over 100,000 casualties on either side. This area was (and is) known for their poppy fields, and the resilience of these flowers to grow there year after year despite the battles and bloodshed.

Later that year, a Canadian army surgeon named John MacRae who served in Flanders wrote a poem called "In Flanders Fields" which was the inspiration behind Remembrance Day in the UK, and the use of the poppy as a device to remember those who served and died in battle. The poem and a good analysis of it can be found here.

Additionally, the final episode of Black Adder Goes Forth, which takes place in the trenches in Flanders (a fine setting for a comedy show :-), ends with the cast 'going over the top' in one of these battles. The final scene dissolves from a raging battle scene to a peaceful poppy field.

On the next page, you'll find the lyrics to the Renaissance song "Remember." The first time I heard this, I thought it was a nice little 'nothing' song about poppies. It wasn't until a few years later when I learned the significance of everything mentioned in the song.

I have this WeatherBug thing running on my PC, and when there's all sorts of nasty weather (like we've been having for the past week) it sends out warnings to your desktop.

Just now, I received this:

Lakeshore Flood Statement National Weather Service Chicago IL 1137 AM CDT Fri May 21 2004

There Will Be A Seiche Along The Southern And Southwest Shores Of Lake Michigan. The Water Level Will Rise To Around Two Feet Along The Shores Cook County Illinois And Lake County Illinois....

Whoa, a "seiche!" I sure as heck didn't expect a "seiche."

Okay, I have no idea what a seiche is. But this is what I learned from Merriam-Webster:

: an oscillation of the surface of a landlocked body of water (as a lake) that varies in period from a few minutes to several hours

So I guess it's like Lake Michigan has turned into some sorta big ol' bathtub and the water is sloshing around in it. Just like when you were taking a bath as a kid and you did that sliding-back-and-forth thing that your parents yelled at you about.

This is one of those Chicago days that makes you want to stay in bed all day. It started raining around 9:00 this morning, and it's been grey ever since. But there are things to do...

I updated Bob's website with some new pieces, so check that out if you're so inclined.

Kevin the Painter Guy showed up this morning to drop off the paint and his tarps. Painting starts Tuesday morning. The splotches to which I've become so accustomed will be missed. I also have the pleasure of dismantling a lot of stuff in my living room, so I will be living with chaos this week.

The weather better cooperate for the ride tomorrow.

In the meantime, I got through the first two episodes of Northern Exposure on the DVD set. The extra scenes are neat-- they cut probably 10 minutes from each show when they originally aired it. What a great show.

Further updates as events warrant.

The dismantling has begun. My bedroom is now home to my CDs, rugs, tables, chairs, the barstool, speakers, and soon the desk and computer, probably in pieces. Oh, and my bike. It looks like a garage sale in here because the splotches on my walls are going away this week.

Since it was another rainy day today, activities were pretty much limited to indoor stuff. I caught up on the rest of the Northern Exposure DVD set and finally watched Empire Records, which had the distinction of being in my Netflix queue the longest (about two and half years).

The movie was pretty much what I expected, and it reminded me a lot of The Breakfast Club for some reason. Not a bad "stick it to the man" kinda movie.

Heading out for ice cream with the ladies in a few.

TCM showed The Big Parade last night, but I was too tired to watch. I have it on VHS, though, so my Memorial Day plans will include that movie to end my day.

Glenn really enjoyed this.

...or rather, finally undoing it.

The painting is complete, and I'm very pleased with the results.

I spent a chunk of the day yesterday replacing outlets and switches along with connecting all that had been disconnected. Now the search for a couch can kick into high gear.

Emma's team had their last game yesterday. So it's time to give the soccer ball a rest until fall.

My train was 20 minutes late this morning due to a "mechanical failure." I could complain about it, but what good would it do?

Instead, here's a public service announcement to guys who ride the Metra Northwest Line:

It's so cool that you get to wear shorts to work, but on days when you choose to do so, please do us all a favor and don't sit on the upper level.

Thank you.

Here's a neat animation from Aiwa. It takes a while to load, but the characters' movements (and the audio) are pretty cool.

Here. Be geeky.

And as long as I'm at it, I am not condoning the misuse of these celebrity soundboards, but some of them are pretty funny.

Something is going on with Metra. It seems as though at least once a week they have some sort of "mechanical failure" on the line I ride.

I've ridden these trains (from various locations throughout the city and suburbs) for more than 15 years, and until this past year I could count on one hand the number of times there was a "failure" that resulted in a delay. Now it happens all the time.

Don (who takes the same line as i do) seems to think it's been worse since the Union Pacific bought out the Chicago and Northwestern. He's got a few years of riding the rails on me, but I can see how he could be right. His plan today was to write a nasty letter to those in charge at Metra. I gave him a couple of choice words to throw in.

Then, around 10:00 this morning, the sky turned black. As in "why am I at the office at 1:00 in the morning" black. The sky opened up and it was Armageddon outside-- rain, wind, thunder, lightning... It lasted for about a half hour.

By lunchtime, there wasn't a cloud in the crystal blue sky and it was beautiful. I took and afternoon walk to Starbucks' down the street (sharing LJD's lunch hour via cellphone) and soaked up the nice weather.

If everything's dried out, I'll take a training ride through the woods when I get home.

Yesterday, the Illinois State Highway Authority held a five-minute meeting to rename I-88 (the expressway that leads to Chicago's western suburbs and beyond) the Ronald Reagan Memorial Tollway.

Considering we have a tendency to name our roads around here (I-90/I-94 is the Kennedy, I-290 is the Eisenhower, I-94 south of downtown is the Dan Ryan), I don't have a big issue with this. Even the fact that part of Northwest Highway is already called the Ronald Reagan Highway (so named years ago) doesn't bother me, probably because everyone calls it "Northwest Highway."

Now people are lobbying to have Reagan put on our money, replacing someone like Alexander Hamilton ("he wasn't a president") or U.S. Grant ("what did he do again?"), and this really bugs me for a couple of reasons.

This is just a brief posting to say that I had a very, very cool long weekend.

The first part was a wonderful adventure. The second part consisted of my kids reminding me that they appreciate my being their dad.

Together, these things made for a fantastic weekend.

Details to follow soon.

This was a big part of my life earlier this week:

Sure, it looks relaxing. :-) Actually, it was a nice followup to the MS150, but after running from car to airport to car to house then all over greater Scottsdale then to airport to plane to car to house.. followed by a full day at the waterpark yesterday, I am ready for a vacation from my vacation.

But enough of my griping. It was a great time. And I should have some new pictures up on the photo page soon.

The kids had a wonderful time, even though we didn't do a lot. They were perfectly happy splashing in the pool most of the time. A couple trips to Sonic Burger and visits to all the area malls kept the "dry" times nice. Burning up roaming minutes under moonlight was a nice way to end my days.

This weekend will bring a visit with the kids' cousins and grandparents today, the NFH party at Glenn's tomorrow, and the AH Fourth of July parade on Monday, in which I will be either walking or driving a vehicle on behalf of the ABC/25 Foundation. (Above all this, my thoughts and positive energy are directed towards AZ this weekend.)

And then it's back to work Tuesday, wishing for that "one more day off."

Things I learned from walking in the Arlington Heights July 4th parade today (yeah, I know it's the 5th.. why don't they just call it "Independence Day?"):

1. Tootsie Rolls fly very quickly with little effort.


2. Frisbees are the most popular giveaway I've ever encountered.


3. When a grandma says "Can I have one (meaning aforementioned Frisbees) for my granddaughter?" Don't pull your arm back in a Frisbee-golf overhand manner-- people will duck, thinking you're serious.


4. People like it when you hand them toys or candy. They do not like it when you give them leaflets.


5. A large segment of the population does not know the difference between a Hummer and a 1973 Volkswagen Thing. We had the latter.


6. When in a parade, try to avoid walking behind the vehicle. There's carbon monoxide back there, and you will get lightheaded.


7. Also, try to avoid being behind an animal shelter's float. Your shoes will thank you.


8. All those beauty pageant contestants were right: it is hard to keep smiling all that time.

Last night I had the kids at Glenn's annual NFH party. Lots of food, beverages, water balloons, and fun. The dunk tank was a big hit with the kids, as was the fire department's dousing them for about 20 minutes with the giant hoses. It really was a slice of Suburbia USA: at dusk, the lightning bugs came out as if on queue, followed by the mosquitos. Then we had the "Stop, Drop and Roll" Fireworks Display (aptly named for previous years, but no mishaps this year). The drive home was the coolest, though: watching several towns' fireworks displays simultaneously while driving up 294.

I wonder if I'll remember my password when I get back to work tomorrow.

For a time while I was in college, I used to hang out with my cousin in Lake Forest. (I mentioned in an earlier entry that this is a rather moneyed area.) I went to a lot of parties (think the party scenes in Sixteen Candles) and met a lot of his friends.

One of the things that struck me was the fact that almost everyone I met there was into The Grateful Dead and other bands of that genre. Very few of them had jobs, yet they had access to a lot of really cool stuff like cars and stereos. I even dated a girl who lived in Lake Bluff whose dream was to follow The Dead on a summer tour. I was among a lot of tie-dyed, long haired, unshaven people who had, for all appearances, brought hippiedom into the 1980s.

My first question after seeing all this was "How can you afford to do all this when you're not working and going to school?" It remained officially unanswered for many years (of course, I knew the real answer).

Today I learned not only that this phenomenon still exists, but that there's a name for it: Trustafarians.

Courtesy of KEXP in Seattle, here's a description of these folks:

Trustafarian is such a great term. As a recovering Dead Head (yes I will admit it) I have seen more then my fair share of the type. The basic description is a person, (usually in there 20's but some of the more well established ones will continue until their later years), who pass themselves off as an earthy liberal as indicated by Tie-dye, excessive body hair ("natural" legs and pits in the case of women and scraggly beards preferably with some woven beads in the case of men), conversation beginning with umm you know and revolving around some mystic experience at Red Rocks, the Himalayas, or a porta pottie in Eugene. However they are not making their living off of veggie burritos, Nitrous or T- Shirts but the checks coming from Mommy, Daddy or the executor of their estate. If in doubt the scent of Patchouli oil is a give away.

I realize that as the years go on, more of life's mysteries are revealed to me.

When I was at lunch yesterday, I noticed all kinds of media trucks in my area of downtown Chicago. I don't know what was going on, but I did find one thing interesting:

As a local reporter interviewed someone in a suit, this guy stood behind the interviewee and off to the left (presumably off camera), running through the ringtones on his cellphone. It was obvious from the smile on his face that he was determined to go home (or maybe to the local bar) and when the interview came up with the soundtrack of "Ride of the Valkyries" played on a Nokia, he'd stand up and say, "That's Me!!"

I was tempted to join in, but I didn't want to ruin the simple elegance of this guy's shot at near-stardom.

Here's an interesting article about a guy in his mid-30s who accepted the challenge to live the first 10 days of 2004 as if it were 1954.

It's a pretty interesting read, although by the end of it I was pretty tired of hearing about his fiancée "Piper."

I always tell the story about how my first car was a 1974 VW Super Beetle. Well, that's not entirely true.

I found the first car I ever drove on a neat site called Rick's Pedal Cars. This car actually belonged to one of my siblings. A little later I drove this really cool fire engine.

If I have time this weekend I'll try to do a video capture of my home movies and post pictures here.

No, it's not what you think.

This is a link to a photo gallery by Benjamin Pierce, who serves on the faculty of the Department of Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania. The photos are of ENIAC, one of the first computers ever built, and they capture the essence of how it truly was a calculating machine.

It may remind you of the great old sci-fi movies.

Here's an interesting collection of vintage ads which have been retooled with modern-day products.

I wouldn't be surprised if some of the companies whose products are featured here decided to develop ad campaigns like these.

What did these people do before PhotoShop? :-)

My week with the kids was supposed to be filled with outdoor fun and adventure, but those in charge of the weather thought otherwise. We did make it to Indy for a couple days, though, and as Becky points out in her blog I broke down and popped for a GameCube. Now they're stuck on Animal Crossing and I've begun having Tetris dreams again.

Lisa was in for the weekend and on Saturday we wound up at Bookman's Alley in Evanston followed by the Retro on Roscoe festival in the city, which was a blast. Sure, there were $4 Budweisers in plastic cups, but mmmmm... funnel cake.

Now it's back-to-work time.

Here's an interesting collection of wacky (presumably unintentionally so) signage, instructions, and warnings. It's The Hall of Technical Documentation Weirdness.

This sort of reminds me of National Lampoon's True Facts, although in these days of the internet there seems to be a lot more phony stuff out there.

And speaking of phony stuff, you can create your own church sign. Some of the links on this page are cool, too-- check out the license plate maker and the candy heart maker.

I loaded up some new images on the photo page. In the interest of conserving server space, the pictures on the page are larger than the previous ones, although they're not "clickable."

I'll be updating that page again soon, 'cause there will be more to share-- plus I didn't mean to go a year without changing it.

Oh, the wonderment of living in a connected age.

Friday night, I saw Blood and Sand at the Gateway Theatre, where they held the final night of the Silent Film Society of Chicago's Silent Summer 2004 Festival. This was a great event, and very well attended; the theatre seats over 2000 and the main floor was more than 3/4-full. (There's a fairly substantial balcony at the Gateway but I didn't see how many people were up there.)

The movie was the classic story of the small town guy who becomes famous and his success leads to his moral undoing. There's a heart-wrenching redemption scene at the end which ties it all up nicely, and even though you see it coming all along, it was easy to get sucked into the moment.

This summer has been pretty busy, and I was disappointed that this was the only movie in this summer's series that I managed to see. Next year will be a different story. (We say that a lot here in Chicago.)

A few hours later, I found myself booked on a Saturday morning flight to Seattle. Unplanned, yes. Impulsive, yes. Cheap... yes! I am still amazed that I can sit at my computer and land inexpensive airline tickets in a matter of minutes and be in another city a few hours later.

Lisa and I had a blast, and spent a couple hours at the Seattle Art Museum to see the Van Gogh to Mondrian exhibit. Unless we accidentally skipped a whole section, we didn't see any actual Mondrian pieces. The rest of it was very cool, though.

Oh, and we had our picture taken with some dude dressed up like the AIM guy. And Lisa had her first experience with Cold Stone Creamery to top it all off.

I arrived back in Chicago Sunday night.

A final thought to pass along: as long as you are willing and able to assist in the event of an emergency, the exit row rocks.

Counting on technology to bring you happiness is a risky thing. Whenever I think of “computer dating” I get images of guys with white lab coats and dark horn-rimmed glasses carrying stacks of punch cards through pristine computer labs. Then there are those endless pieces of junk mail from companies with names like “Great Expectations” that offer you the opportunity to meet your lifelong partner through their scientific matching methods.

When I saw an article in the Wall Street Journal in the summer of 2003 about eHarmony.com, I was intrigued. eHarmony’s marketing touts its ability to match people based on “29 dimensions of compatibility” and has slogans such as “When you’re ready to find the love of your life.” How could anyone argue with that? I decided to sign up.

I am hereby sharing my real-life eHarmony experience in the interest of assisting those of you who are considering going this route. I hope this review proves helpful, if not entertaining.

The eHarmony Process

It should be pointed out that eHarmony.com is not an online personals site like match.com or Lavalife. It’s the modern version of the yenta, a matchmaker who looks at who you are and what you’re looking for and connects you up with someone of (ostensibly) compatible values and goals. eHarmony clients don’t get to pick from thousands of other clients—they have to wait for the matches to come to them.

Once I decided to jump in, the first thing I was presented with was the "Personality Profile." This is a questionnaire that takes about 30-40 minutes to complete, and it’s very similar to those surveys you took in high school to determine what career best suited you (dog catcher? neurosurgeon?): they ask the same question three or four different ways, presumably to get all those subtle nuances of who you really are.

(There are also some trick questions which are meant to filter out the liars in the crowd, such as “do you ever drive over the speed limit?” I’ve heard that if you answer “no” to that particular question you are rejected by the system. So if you’re a liar or a really really safe driver, keep that in mind—you may be driving to the movies alone for a while longer.)

I finished the personality profile, sat back, and waited for the Love of My Life.

Two days later, I received a couple of emails from eHarmony, telling me that they had found some matches for me, and if I chose to communicate with these women, I could do so.

When you see your matches, this is what you know about them: their first name, what town they live in, their age, their height, and what they do for a living. If they choose to post a picture, it may be available for you to view at this point. They can also choose to hide their photo until later in the process. Further down the page, you see several sections of introductory information, where your match gets to talk about herself (or himself). You get to read about her passions, what she's looking for in another person, how her friends describe her, and other things like that. At the time your match is made, your match receives a similar page that you've created about yourself.

This is the part of eHarmony that’s the most similar to other dating sites, because this is where you establish yourself to your matches—- I’ve seen a lot of posing and "trying really hard to make a good first impression" stuff going on here.

If you choose to communicate with one of your matches, you click a button that says “Start Communication.” This causes the system to send your match an email that says that you want to start the process with them. You then choose five closed-ended questions (from a list of about 30) that you’d like the other person to answer: these questions are along the lines of “what do you like to do on a Saturday night?” and your match has to choose from four predetermined answers or they can fill in their own answer.

If your match decides to start the process, they will answer the five questions and return with five of their own. If they choose not to start, they can hit the “Close Match” button at any time, and choose from a couple dozen reasons for dumping you, from “I am pursuing another relationship” to “Other.” Once you close the other person (or they close you) you cannot, in any way, communicate with them again. A pretty nice feature in case you run across a stalker or something.

Once you’ve exchanged closed-ended questions, you then exchange “Must-Haves/Can’t Stands.” This is actually a worthwhile thing because it really gets down to what’s important to you and your match. You pick 10 things (again, from a list of about 40) that you absolutely must have in a relationship, and then 10 more things that you absolutely do not want. A typical must-have is “I must have someone who likes to give and receive physical affection,” and a can’t stand would be “I can’t stand someone who is married to their job.” A few of my matches ended after this point when it was clear we didn’t sync up.

If you make it past this stage, the next step is where you exchange open-ended questions, and you get to go a little deeper into your and your match’s personalities. Again, you get to choose from about 30 pre-written questions, like “What is your simplest pleasure?” or you can write your own. This area can be a lot of fun, and it can be like a really bad job interview. One question I was asked was “how would you feel about dating someone who is considered ‘unattractive?’" You can learn a lot about someone here.

Completing this step successfully leads to the next step, “Open Communications,” which is essentially sending emails through eHarmony’s system. You do not have each other's personal email or other contact information at this point. The idea is that you continue to communicate through eHarmony as long as you like, until you reach the point where you’re both comfortable with a phone call and/or meeting. Theoretically, by the time you reach this point most of the hard questions should be out of the way.

The next step is up to you and your match. This is where that pesky human chemistry thing comes into play—- someone you are completely compatible with on paper (or in this case, bits floating over the internet) may do nothing for you when you actually meet. The hope is, of course, that magic happens and you and your match go on to be one of the “thousands of success stories” in eHarmony's ads.

That’s how the process works. Now on to the real interesting part-— my actual experience with the service.

First, a little about me: early forties, divorced, two kids with me part time. I think I'm pretty decent looking, I've got a very good job, I own my own home, I'm a nice, considerate guy, etc., so I guess I'm a good catch, as they say.

Now, the raw numbers: I was a member of eHarmony for 7 months. In that time, I was matched with 216 women. Of those 216, I reached Open Communications with about 50. Of those 50, 28 are ones with whom there was a mutual interest, at least electronically. Of the 28, about 10 led to phone calls and/or arrangements to meet. Of the 10, 7 led to first dates. Of the 7, 3 led to second dates. Of those three, two led to third dates.

What follows is a representation of the women I was matched with. I am presenting this out of human interest and I am not trying to sound bitchy. I'm sure some of these women could tell you what they didn't like about me, but they can enter that in their own blogs.

The List

In the order in which I was matched with them, here's a list of some of the more interesting women I was matched with and what happened. All the names have been changed:

1. Laura was a Real Estate agent. The most influential person in her life is her ex-husband, with whom she has a very “loving relationship” to this day. She also has two cats she refers to as “the girls.” I was not encouraged by my first eHarmony match.

2. Mary was an attorney. She prided herself on her sense of humor, but when we spoke on the phone, she was one of the most humorless people I’d ever spoken with. (Imagine this: a great joke flying overhead like a frisbee, only to splat into a vat of cold oatmeal.) We arranged a lunch date, but she cancelled the day before because she decided she wanted to exclusively date someone else she met through eHarmony. I told her I appreciated her honesty and secretly sighed in relief.

3. Marissa was in Sales and was also a student majoring in Psychology. I kind of got the impression in our communications that she was analyzing me. Maybe it was just my paranoia. I ended it because of that and a lack of "spark."

4. Ariel was a DBA and Webmaster whose office was a block away from mine. Her whole deal was in living a Tantric lifestyle, and I got the impression she was really, um, horny. She proposed we meet for lunch right away, and I really didn’t see anything in any of our communications to merit such a quick suggestion. It concerned me, to be honest.

5. Leslie was a freelance PR consultant. Okay, she was unemployed. She was very nice, very bright, and we met for lunch. In person she was the spitting image of my ex-wife’s aunt, and I just couldn’t get past that.

6. Cynthia was an attorney. We had a very nice conversation on the phone and decided to meet for lunch. Within the first 5 minutes of our meeting, I felt there was no chemistry at all, and that was confirmed a few minutes later when she told me she wouldn’t sleep with anyone unless she was going introduce them to her kids. I suggested we see how lunch went first. Our encounter ended when the check came and she stood and said she had to catch a train, but I should "call her sometime."

7. Angela was, it turned out, the head chef at a restaurant in a town where I used to live. (I’ve never been there, but it has a good reputation.) I was her first eHarmony match and she didn’t quite know how to do this whole internet thing. I gave her a little advice on how to go through the process (eHarmony should have paid me!). She really wasn't ready to date, though, so we just kind of let it fade.

8. Monica, at first, seemed to be living proof that eHarmony works. She owned her own PR firm, and was attactive and smart. We clicked right away, talked on the phone, and went on a couple dates. Things seemed to be going nicely when she told me I was the first guy she dated since she left her husband of 20 years, and her divorce had become final one month before we met. When I'd back off, she'd come on stronger, and when I'd show interest in her, she'd back off. She either wasn’t ready for a relationship or, somewhat likely, she had another relationship going at the time. After about a month of dating, I received an eHarmony Open Communication message from her in the middle of the night, ending it.

9. Melissa was a salesperson who had her own line of cosmetics that she sold to salons around Chicago. She never could tell me how she manufactured the stuff, and she said it “doesn’t have a brand name yet.” Whenever I asked about her work, she seemed to change the subject to my work or gloss over the question. I just got a creepy feeling from the whole situation. When I ended communications, I was glad she didn’t have my phone number because I think I would have been called. A lot.

10. Helena was an office manager and by far the funniest person I met on eHarmony, which is a big plus. We became friends over email and met for dinner once. There was nothing romantic between us, but we kept communicating outside eHarmony as good friends.

11. Sherry worked in Customer Service and asked right up front how I would feel about dating someone “unattractive.” She actually looked nice in her photo, but I wanted to see if there was something positive underneath all the cynicism. There really wasn’t. We never even got to a phone conversation.

12. Emily was an art director who was very cute and funny, but also very recently divorced. We had lunch a couple of times, and she asked me to a movie on a weeknight. The day before the movie she had to cancel our date because of “work.” She told me at one of our lunches that she was seeing another guy from eHarmony, so I figured that had something to do with it.

13. Sandy was a medical transcriptionist. We met for dinner and we had a lot in common, but it was one of those situations where there could have been sparks, but for some reason they never ignited. We stayed in touch for a while, but eventually lost contact.

14. Jessica was probably the most interesting person I met on eHarmony. She had a very interesting life as a teenager, and in the late 70s-early 80s hung out at punk clubs in Boston. We emailed each other for a while, and like Sandy, if there were sparks it might have gone somewhere.

15. Carol was a nurse at a fertility clinic. We met for dinner and she seemed nice, but once again, very light in the sense-of-humor department. She holds distinction of being the last eHarmony match whom I met in real life.

I refrained from mentioning The Really Scary Goth Chick, The Fundamental Atheist, The Crusader, and the Lady Who Was Soooooooo Attractive That Men Are Put Off By Her Beauty and the Glamour Shot on her Profile Proved It. They were all interesting, yes, but not people I ever took seriously.

This is not to imply that the women I met on eHarmony were all nuts or defective in some way. Many of them were very nice, normal, sweet people-- just not "The Love of My Life," as advertised. And let's face it, you probably wouldn't have read this far if you thought the stories were boring.


It All Comes Down To This:

On paper, eHarmony sounds like the perfect solution to meeting people. By getting to all the deep-down stuff up front, you should be able to determine whether someone is right for you or not. I have to admit that there are things that I learned about my eHarmony matches that I might not have discovered until many dates into the relationship, if ever. For these purposes, it works just fine.

What’s missing is the element of personal chemistry. Some people are writers, some are talkers: it’s easy to become enamored of someone who writes well, only to discover they can’t look you in the eye when you meet. The other side is that some people can’t write at all, yet in person they’re completely charming. And above all this, you can feel perfectly comfortable and attracted to someone on line and even on the phone, but once you meet you’re still down to pheromones or whatever.

“Find the love of your life?” Maybe it’s possible with eHarmony. My advice to anyone who tries it is to be yourself, have fun, enjoy the way the system works, but never discount the importance of the element of human wackiness.

There's an article about my buddy Bob in our local paper this week. He's appearing at the Chicago Custom Knife Show this weekend.

I am officially putting a moratorium on the overuse of rock song lyrics by lazy writers. Offenses will be punishable by something that I haven't decided upon, but trust me, it will not be pleasant.

On my very first day of college, my Comp 101 teacher (the one who wore the stormtrooper boots) handed us a copy of George Orwell's "Politics and the English Language." In it, Orwell warns against using "dying metaphors." I always took that to mean that you shouldn't use something that's already been overused. Hence, today's rant.

This morning, the Ars Technica blog includes an article called "It's the end of the 'Net as we know it (and I feel fine)" by Eric Bangeman. Congratulations, Eric: you are officially the last person to be allowed to use this phrase. (By the way, do a search on your title and you'll see that it's been used about 75 times before, at least according to the search engines.)

A quick AltaVista search came up with the following results, all based on the REM song ("It's The End of the World As We Know It") in question:

"It's the end of Windows as we know it, and I feel fine"
"It's the end of Geekcorps as we know it, and we feel fine"
"It's the end of summer as we know it, and I feel fine"
"It’s The End Of Capitalism As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)"
"It's the end of Testing as we know it, and I feel fine"
"It's the end of Spain as we know it (and I feel fine)"
"It's the end of Lunar as we know it and I feel fine"
"It's the end of democracy as we know it??.... and I feel fine!"
"It's the end of baseball as we know it, and I feel fine"
"It’s the end of movies as we know it, and I feel fine"
"It's the End of QA as We Know It, and I Feel Fine"

Note to each and every one of you:

Knock it off. Right now.

I feel better. And Lisa, you're welcome.

You have found the hidden entry.

No prize will be awarded, beyond your own satisfaction of a job well done.

Here's a cool way of expressing yourself: a Spam Shirt.

These guys take your favorite spam headline (you type it in) or you can choose from their pre-selected phrases and proudly display it on your chest!

Imagine going to your next party wearing a shirt that says "ADV: GET CASH WITH A 4.10% RATE!", "CHEAP VIAGRA THROUGH US," or even "FW: TELL ME ABOUT IT COOKIE TRANSACT ORDERLY" -- You'll be the envy of your friends.

This appeared in today's Chicago Tribune. Let me know if any of you try it!

--

The Official 2004 Presidential Debate Drinking Game
By David Martin

Let's face it. The presidential debates are a nuisance. But for whatever reason, most television networks feel obliged to carry them.

So stop your whining and make the best of a bad situation with the Official 2004 Presidential Debate Drinking Game. All you have to do is line up your favorite beverage and pick a candidate. Then let the game begin:

- Every time President Bush says the word "safer," take a drink. If he uses the word "democracy" in the same sentence, make it a double.

- For every John Kerry reference to the UN, have a drink.

- If Bush uses the phrase "compassionate conservative," you must chug your entire beverage.

- Take one drink for every three times Kerry points with his left hand.

- Any previously recorded Bushism, like "misunderestimate" or "subliminable," used by the president during the debate requires one drink.

- If Kerry exceeds the time limit for any response, take a drink.

- Back-to-back offenses require a double shot and a NoDoz.

A reference by your candidate to any of the following requires one drink:

1) Florida

2) North Korea

3) Axis of evil

4) Saddam Hussein

5) The American people

- And for an exciting twist on the game, anytime anybody mentions the word "Vietnam," everybody has to take a drink.

In this game, everyone's a winner. At worst, you'll reach the end of the debate experiencing a warm, pleasant buzz. But if you're really lucky, you'll pass out by 10 o'clock and won't have to listen to the closing statements. Cheers!

We've been back for two weeks, so I figured it was about time to post something here about the trip. Here are some fun facts and things we learned along the way:

- Roslyn, WA, where they shot the exteriors for Northern Exposure, looks smaller in real life than it does on TV.

- When your car's temperature gauge hits "H," turn on the heat and open the windows. You'll have the experience of going cross-country in a convertible without the hassles of a removable top or looking really cool.

- Anthony's overlooking the Spokane River is a great place for seafood, and they have the best creme brulee I've ever tasted.

- Fox News is great: all it takes is one guy on the phone saying that planes don't really go near Mount St. Helens, and a caption "NO FLY ZONE DECLARED" pops up on the screen.

- The best pizza and beer in Montana is at the MacKenzie River Pizza Co. in Bozeman.

- (It is worth noting here that when we reached Billings, MT, neither of us went to the airport to buy a plane ticket. :-)

- I discovered a chain of gas stations in the area called "Holiday" whose logo looks like a mid-70s NBC logo that's been cheaply modified.

- Microsoft must be in collusion with the North Dakota Tourism Board. Their MapPoint software wanted to take us off I-90 and onto I-94 which passes through ND, despite the fact that I-90 seems to be the more direct route.

- The town on the border of South Dakota and Wyoming is Spearfish, not "Fish Stab."

- Wall Drug has pretty good buffalo burgers. Oh, and donuts.

- If a gas station appears to be closed (in, for example, Nowhere, SD), take a look to see if the pumps are still turned on. You may be able to fill up if you have a credit card.

- It's a good thing we did the trip when we did. They've been getting snow and rainstorms along the route we took.

In all, it was a great trip and a lot of fun. We'll have stories to tell for years to come, I'm sure, and knowing me, none of the stories will be short.

We took an hour of video which is being edited into something viewable. It'll be holiday entertainment at its best.

Nothing looks quite like Chicago at Christmastime: millions of people scrambling in and out of stores, and lights strung on anything that's not moving (and a few that are).

We spent the better part of Saturday on North Michigan Avenue. Working our way north on the east side of the street, we spent the most time at Water Tower Place, then we crossed the street to get to 900 N Michigan. Then we worked our way back.

I tried to disrupt a seminar at the Apple Store by asking why iTunes insists on sorting the "Artist" category by first rather than last name ("Paul McCartney" is filed under "P" instead of "M") and I was told that this is only a problem if you let it bother you. Yay! A classic Steve Jobs-influenced answer. My feeling is that Steve's the visionary, he oughta figure out a way to make it work the right way.

We were at Water Tower Place long enough for the sun to vanish. We managed to pick up a few holiday items while we were there, although I think Lisa is still disappointed that we didn't pick up the white feather Christmas tree for the chick pad. I was disappointed to see that FAO Schweetz closed, joining Rizzoli and Aunt Diana's as stores no longer there that were reasons to fight the crowds at Water Tower.

We managed to find some great Swiss chocolate at the Teuscher store at 900 N Michigan Avenue, followed by a great dinner at Heaven on Seven.

On Sunday we visited the stores on State Street, which is a slightly different and more earthy experience than Michigan Avenue. Field's was nice in the traditional way, although our food court experience gave us a different view. I have to say that there is something about hearing "we don't got no more pizza" that says "Merry Christmas" in the unique Chicago way.

...and after all that, Lisa still has not had the pleasure of a fresh batch of Garrett's Caramel Corn. This will happen within the next couple of weeks, for sure.

The FCC announced that they are discussing auctioning off airwave rights to companies who will provide in-flight internet access. This is a really cool thing.

They also announced that they are considering lifting the ban on the use of cellular telephones in flight. This is a really frightening thing.

I have a 35-minute commute by train now, and at least three times a week I am subjected to some idiot entertaining the entire car with his/her work/home life.

I can just imagine what a four-hour flight across the country would be like:

"Hi Cindy, this is Karen. Yeah, I'm on a flight to Seattle and... yeah, on the plane... NO SH**! They've got this really cool thing now where you can call from the plane! Anyway, I wanted you to get that project plan together for the 2005 budgets. Yeah, I know Rob wanted them Thursday, but he's such a d*** that I want to do it now. I know he's p.o.'d because I wouldn't go out with him. That's why I only got a 32k bonus last year, you know. Remember what I told you about the Christmas party when he.. oh wait, hang on-- I have another call... Hello? What? Wha-- Ashley... Ashley! Stop hitting your brother! Ashl--- give your dad the phone. GIVE HIM THE G*****N PHONE!!!"

...and with my luck, I'll have the middle seat and my iPod's batteries will be dead.

Everywhere it's Christmas,
Everywhere it's song
London, Paris, Rome, New York,
Tokyo, Hong Kong
Oh, Everywhere it's Christmas,
and I'm off to join the cheer!
Everywhere it's Christmas
at the end of every year!
Oh, Everywhere it's Christmas
at the end of every year!

That little bit from the Beatles' 1966 Christmas record, "Pantomime," keeps rolling through my head. I figured if I put it here the music would stop.

Okay, call it sentimental or cheesy, but once again I am sitting here on Christmas Eve saying that there is still magic in the world. No doubt about it.

Downtown Chicago, at least my end of it, is deserted today. Our day started with an early Christmas Eve day breakfast at CNA. Becky is in the office with me today, writing in her blog. We're probably going to make an early day of it.

The shopping is all done, Santa's getting his sleigh charged up, my coworker Bob V's annual Christmas CD is playing, and I believe the lasagne will be in the oven in a couple hours.

The next page features a poem that my knifemaker buddy Bob wrote this year.

Merry Christmas.

I turned the webcam on for a while today. Check it out by clicking the link above.

As I write this, I am sitting on Lisa's couch at the chick pad watching Everybody Loves Raymond and eating hot dogs and nachos with salsa. Exciting stuff, I know :-). In a little while, we'll be over at Peggy's for an old-fashioned (whatever that means) Irish New Year's celebration. At the moment, they are celebrating the arrival of 2005 on the Emerald Isle.

2004 has been a great year. And the promise of 2005 looks reeeeeeallly good.

So far, the year looks pretty good. :-)

We had a great time last night; Derek bought us a round and at midnight there was a champagne toast. The band was pretty good, too-- an acoustic outfit called Cirrus Falcon. And hey-- it was another chance to dance to The Violent Femmes' "Blister in the Sun," which seems to be a popular bar band tune these days.

We got in at about 1:30 am, which was pretty respectable.

Not sure what's on the docket for today, but I am about to head over to Starbucks to get something to kickstart the day.

Did anyone else see this photo of Jenna Bush making the Sign of the Devil at her dad's inauguration? :-)

Update: wait, here's one of her dad doing it.

What's going on with these people?

Another update: evidently, this is the Texas "Longhorn" high-sign. I still think the Satan thing was funnier.

Someone got the idea to make t-shirts of Jenna and her hand signal.

Here's a neat job posting. I'd apply, but I don't want to miss any of Emma's soccer games.

I especially like the fact that they want to see a photo. :-)

I just received this email:

Dear Variable Name,

Because of your industry involvement, you have been selected to apply for a FREE (No fee whatsoever) subscription to eWEEK – The Enterprise Newsweekly.

Please apply online:

by Month 18, 2005

eWEEK (formerly PC Week) is an award winning newsweekly brought to you exclusively by Ziff Davis Media.

Sincerely,

eWEEK Circulation Department

I've been called a lot of things in my life, but "Variable Name" is a new one.

Yesterday, I passed the PMI's Project Management Professional exam on the first attempt. Go me. I didn't take any formal classes; I chose instead to study Rita Mulcahy's PMP Exam Prep book, taking it two or three chapters at a time. I ran through it twice, taking all the test exams and burning through a couple highlighters along the way. Then I ran through the sample exam on the CD that came with Tony Johnson's Certification Exam Manual, becoming aggravated with Johnson and myself at the way the exam questions were written; it turned out they were pretty close to what was on the real exam. Finally, I spent an afternoon memorizing all the PMBOK formulae.

The test took four hours and consisted of 200 multiple-choice questions. Many of the questions had two or even three answers that seemed correct-- the test taker has to read each word carefully in order to determine the right answer. The best part was when my computer at the testing facility crashed at question 181. Fortunately, the people there were able to get me back to where I belonged.

I learned immediately afterwards that I'd passed. Another milestone in the career path!

Last night, Lisa and I had a celebratory dinner, and the guys at the office are expecting beer from me any time now. Well, today's St. Pat's, so maybe one will be coming their way.

And if anyone wants me to compute their Cost-Performance Index, drop me a line. :-)

You may have noticed the new logo at the top of the page. The reason behind this is the fact that the old graphic never looked right on the Mac, and it really started to bug me. I whipped up a new logo with a font that was similar to the old one, but more importantly, it's now rendered correctly on all platforms.

I'm going to be tweaking this site while I test Adobe GoLive on the Mac, so you may see a few more changes in the coming weeks.

The other big change is that the main www.jtl.us page now forwards to this blog. I figured this just made more sense since it's the most dynamic page on the site.

Now all I have to do is be more diligent about posting here on a regular basis.

Busy day today... Lisa got back to her place at 2:00 am-- make that 3:00 am since we changed the clocks--- and she was wayy tired when she got here after lunchtime to make lasagna with Becky. Lisa had a trying weekend with all her driving and family stuff, so hopefully today was a little more relaxing for her.

Celebrating Emma's and her Grandma's birthdays today, so the dinner was a special thing, capped off with a cake from Deerfields. We just got back from walking to 7-11 for Slurpees in Spongebob cups.

I'd better get to the gym tomorrow.

The weather here was great today: in the 60s and sunny, the first real spring day. I have the feeling it's gonna be better from here on out.

I upgraded Movable Type on my server to version 3.15. That won't mean much to you guys, but it makes entering and managing this blog easier.

I've also got some ideas for this site that will make it a little easier to navigate. More on that soon.

The new name of my blog is now official, as you can see from the graphic at the top of the page. Thanks to Lisa and a very long analysis of an empty park in Chicago (oh, don't ask) for the new title.

I also moved some items into the weblog: my 9/11 article and the Christmas MP3s are now here, so they no longer have their own page. The Live Cam and Photos pages are under "About Me" on the right.

Hope you enjoy the new look and layout.

Today was another beautiful day, and the first time this year that I walked out for a Jamba Juice without wearing a jacket. On street level it was very nice. There was a little haze over the city as I looked out the 26th floor conference room window, but it was still better than the rain and nastiness of a couple weeks ago.

Springtime in Chicago is always a string of surprises, so let's see what happens over the next few days.

Yesterday was beautiful here in Chicago. The day started with Emma's soccer game, followed by a picnic at Pioneer Park. After a little bit of running around, we settled in for a couple hours, and then went to Pappadeaux for dinner. Emma made it through her shrimp in no time, with just a little pile of tails on her plate. Becky wrestled with crab legs and provided the entertainment for the evening with one of the claws. Lisa had the crawfish platter and I had a spicy shrimp thing over a bed of dirty rice. I don't think I'll need to eat for a few days now. :-)

Hopefully, we'll be out on the bikes today-- it looks like it's going to be another nice one.

We went to the Chocolate Fest in Long Grove on Saturday.

The weather was typical late-April stuff, cloudy and windy with an occasional patch of sun. At least it didn't rain.

We were there for about 5 minutes when Becky spotted the Kettle Corn vendor, and then we picked up some deep-fried cheese curds (mmmm... currrds) from another stand. And we washed it down with a lemonade shakeup.

Long Grove is a touristy little town with a bunch of little shops where you can buy all sorts of gourmet items, antiques, and other knickknack stuff. The kids each made a glitter-decorated pen and Lisa got her chocolate covered strawberries, which added up to a pretty good time.

Today was a beautiful day here in Chicago. We started off with a bike ride to downtown AH and lunch at Harry's. Then it was to my folks' house for Mother's Day dinner. It seems my old yearbooks and report cards didn't get destroyed in their basement flood years ago, and we all enjoyed (hmm) looking at my illustrious academic career between grades K-7 (not sure where 8th grade went).

Yesterday we had a bunch of errands to run, but we did manage to get a few holes of golf in at Salt Creek. We started at about 6:00, and as the sun got lower in the sky I was glad I spent $35 at the pro shop for a fashionable SC sweatshirt. By 8:00 it was starting to get cold, and when we got back to the clubhouse, there were only the two retired guys waiting for us to return so they could go home. We had a pretty good start to the season, though: we didn't keep score but we managed to finish five holes before we quit.

Back to the grind tomorrow, sorta. My new living room window gets installed tomorrow morning.

On Sunday, my father and I went to the Popeye's Chicken to pick up dinner because, of course, nobody wants to cook on Mother's Day. When we got there, the line was out the door, and there were about 20 people working at the store.

Right off the bat, we noticed some guy having an argument about mashed potatoes with the girl at the register. I didn't get all the details, but this guy was determined to make his point and no amount of reasoning from the counter girl could slow him down. What I got out of it was the fact that he phoned in his order ahead of time and at the last minute added to or changed his order to include mashed potatoes. It's not even clear what the guy wanted, because his order was correct-- I think he was just out to prove he was right about something. The counter girl seemed to legitimately care about solving this guy's problem, and in a moment of either brilliance or frustration looked at him and said "Okay, sir, you're right. Is there anything else I can help you with?" The guy said "No," picked up his bags, and left.

The next guy wanted to use his credit card. This particular Popeye's doesn't take credit cards-- they installed an ATM from which you get a voucher and take it to the register to pay. There was a sign on the counter pointing this out. This is a PITA way of doing business, but I'm sure they did it so they could turn an expense (the 1%-3% they would pay for processing credit cards) to income (the percentage of the transaction fee on the ATM). The counter girl pointed the guy to the ATM and he was (understandably) annoyed, so now there's another delay for those of us in line. He got his voucher, paid, and was on his way.

More grumbling from the chicken-challenged masses standing in line.

The next few customers didn't have problems, and the guy in front of me decided to use the ATM before getting to the register, thus sparing us all the delay.

When we got to the register, I ordered the 22-Piece Family Meal. Without looking up, the girl asked "for here or to go?" I looked at her, then at my dad, then back at her and smiled. She grabbed my arm and started laughing. I asked if we looked like we were that hungry. Then, other people behind the counter and a few customers started laughing. The mood of the place changed immediately, and the churning fast food experience became a little nicer.

The point here is not to say I'm some kind of hero because I cracked up a fast food place with a lame joke-- the point is that you can often create your own (and others') experience depending on how you handle a situation.

I've never understood people who walk through life with clouds over their heads. Spending your life waiting for the next thing to go wrong or assuming everyone is the adversary seems like an extraordinary outlay of effort for very little gain.

In my life I've associated with people whose goal was to work every angle of the system and take whatever they could grab. Many of these people automatically thought the worst of people by default, and that someone else's misfortune was nothing more than an advantage for them.

My preference is to assume the best with people from the start. It may be a naïve way of doing things, but I find it's better than living a life that leads to chugging Mylanta and popping Excedrin.

And if I can crack up a fast food joint with a lame joke, go me.

Some of you already know of my ongoing battle with the local squirrel population. For those of you who don't, here's the story:

I live in a second-floor condominium in a complex which has some very nice landscaping surrounding it. There are many squirrels in the area, which adds a nice little touch of nature whenever I walk or look outside. Unfortunately, it seems over the past two years those little touches of nature have decided to touch me, or more accurately, touch my balcony.

Okay, I'll put a finer point on it: they've decided to use my balcony as their personal "comfort station."

They do this is by climbing up on the brick wall, moving to the railing, then winding up at point x then launch, following with a landing on my balcony at point y. From there, they wreak their rodental havoc on my balcony and, when they're feeling particularly artistic, they climb on my screen and decorate my patio window.

When this first started, I searched the internet for "squirrel problem on condo balcony" and came up with nothing. There were a lot of tips on how to keep critters out of your garden, but nothing for condo dwellers. I had to figure out a way of fixing this on my own.

I didn't want to injure the animals, so the first thing I did was scare them off every time I saw them on the balcony with various noises and harmless implements like squirt guns. The approach worked for about two minutes, as these techniques made them come back even sooner, like a one year old in a tournament of "peek-a-boo" with Uncle Steve. Time for another approach.

I went to my local Ace Hardware and bought something called Shake Away, which is powdered fox, bobcat, and coyote urine. I sprinkled this stuff at the squirrels' entry point (y) and waited. I didn't see any trace of squirrels for a few days, and then one day immediately after I put an application down, one of my little neighbors hopped up, walked through the powder, and did its thing right in front of me.

I fired off an email to Shake Away's manufacturer and received a response immediately from one of their customer service people. She was very apologetic and offered to send me a new can of the stuff, and explained that when squirrels get scared, their instinct is to climb up, and my balcony is the most convenient exit path from the patio of the people below me.

While I waited for my new can of Shake Away to show up, I told some friends about this and got suggestions that ranged from a large rat trap to various sorts of BB and pellet guns. The common theme was that I shouldn't get a live trap and take it to the forest preserve, because I'd get fined by the county; I'd get in less trouble for killing them than relocating them.

The next can of Shake Away showed up, and man, was it fresh. I sprinkled it in the usual spot and reapplied it as suggested, every couple of days. It seemed to slow down the visits, but once again I saw one of the squirrels hop up, sniff and walk right through it, walk to the middle of my balcony, and do its thing.

Time for another solution, this one called Hot Pepper Wax Animal Repellent, which seemed like another environmentally-safe, humane approach to take. It seemed to work for a couple weeks, and then...

Yeah, you know the rest of this story.

I was about to head over to the local Bass Pro Shop for a bottle of bear urine (hey, if they're not scared by foxes, bobcats, or coyote, I figured I'd just keep going up the food chain until I found one that worked) when Lisa suggested that some sort of barrier might work.

I thought of that before, but every option seemed like something the squirrels would get around: they'd climb on any kind of metal mesh or screen. Lisa suggested something slippery and non-climbable. Then the word "Plexiglas" came up.

Brilliant. They couldn't climb on it, and if we did this right you wouldn't even be able to see it without looking for it. A few bucks at Menards later, this is what we came up with:

Can you see it? I know-- pretty cool.

What we did was cut a piece of plexiglas to fit the area of the railing, drilled holes in strategic locations, and fastened it to the railing with cable ties. Installed, it's almost invisible. Now I'm waiting to hear the "thud" of a nearsighted squirrel.

This seems to be the answer so far, at least for the three hours it's been up. I'll let you know if this moment of brilliance solves the problem.

Yesterday was one of those time-shifted days. I did some early-morning grocery shopping before the kids got up, and we didn't get around to eating breakfast until almost noon, which is when Becky finally got up.

We went to the laundromat to wash the sleeping bag I loaned Becky three weeks ago ("Here's the sleeping bag, Dad.. I accidentally left a wet towel in there"), and did some other household stuff. "Lunch" was at Subway at about 5:00 pm, followed by a stop at the new Ashby's Sterling ice cream shop in downtown AH and a stroll through the new park.

The season finale of The Simpsons was great, with Bart and Homer converting to Catholicism.

Later in the evening, we watched the original Superman movie and pondered the age-old (well, since 1978 anyway) question of what would really happen if Superman were able to spin the earth in reverse on its axis. While we agreed that events wouldn't happen in reverse (although how cool would that be?), the force of the earth losing its momentum, grinding to a halt, and turning the other way would cause everything to fly off the surface, the oceans would slosh over everything (a mega-seiche, if you will), and the reorientation of the planet's gravitational forces would mess up our solar system bigtime.

Okay, it's just a movie. Back to reality:

No squirrels as of Monday morning. I'm going to hold off on waving the victory sign for now.

My new living room window is supposed to be installed on Thursday (it was raining last Monday, the original scheduled date). I hope I don't have to do too much drywall work afterwards.

I'm now in the process of loading up my web sites in FrontPage, which is running within VirtualPC on my Mac. We'll see just how ridiculously slow this little setup works. I really hate FrontPage, but until I (a) have the time to recode things by hand (unlikely ever) or (2) can afford Dreamweaver or GoLive (someday), it's gonna have to do.

Northern Exposure Volume Three is ready for pre-ordering. This was the first full season I watched when it first aired, and I associate most of these episodes with the days leading up to and through the arrival of Chick #1: I don't think Becky remembers too much of those days, though.

The "Miscellaneous" file is now clean. Back to your regularly scheduled programming. (I feel like Paul Harvey right now.)

Good day.

Check it out. 2005 VW Touareg.

"How did you pull this one off?" you may ask-- "Promotion? Lottery? Made a killing on one of those internet domain names you bought years ago?"

Nope. The reason for my driving this fine piece of German (and Slovakian, I believe) machinery can be found in these six, very simple words:

The thermostat blew on my Passat.

On Wednesday morning, I had a dentist appointment at 8:30 am (note to anyone who's tired of waiting in doctor's offices: always be the first appointment of the day and they have no excuse not to take you on time), and I got out of there at about an hour later. I was happily zipping down I-294 towards the office when I heard a beep coming from the dashboard and the word "STOP" appeared on the digital display.

Uh, okay, the car wants me to stop.

I noticed that the temperature gauge was pinned at "H", and the word "COOLANT" appeared below the big word "STOP." German engineering at its best, ladies and gentlemen.

I pulled to the shoulder (which is in the center of the roadway at this point) and waited a few minutes for the engine to cool down. Turning on the ignition, the gauge shot up and the warning came on again. Rather than mess around with the car, I called the 800 number for Roadside Assistance. I know it was a wussy way out, but I've already paid my dues with, among other things, a broken timing belt ('81 Escort), frozen water pump ('79 Scirocco), and busted CV joint ('83 Sentra). The tow truck arrived in about 30 minutes, and I was on my way to the dealership.

When I got there, they told me my repairs, the tow, and a rental car were all covered under my warranty. Sweet. The Enterprise guy told me he was setting me up with a Touareg. I verified that the dealer was, in fact, paying for this, and he said yes. I asked what other vehicles were available. He looked through his little metal box and said, "Uhhh.... I've got a Chevy Malibu."

Five minutes later I was outta there with the car in the photo above. I made sure all my essentials were out of the Passat, although I should have taken my golf clubs with me.

This car has a V6 and while it's really comfortable and easy to drive, I have to say I'm unimpressed by the way it runs. I hit the gas and there's a pause before it begins accelerating. My '95 Plymouth Voyager had more pickup than this car.

The next day, I got the call from the dealership saying they replaced the thermostat and water pump on the Passat and my car was ready to go. So back goes the SUV.

I learned that if I go the SUV route at some point I won't get a Touareg, so the inconvenience had a learning experience with it. And I got my golf clubs back.

Yesterday was the 10th Annual Lake Arlington Duck Race. This event is a benefit for the Arlington Heights PTA and the ABC/25 Foundation, and usually draws a nice crowd from the community. Lisa was this year's media person (she did the brochure linked above).

(While I am not allowed to reveal the identity of the person inside the costume, I can say that her soccer team tied on Saturday.)

The contraption was once again pressed into service, probably for the final time due to its age and state. The plastic ducks are dropped from the box at the top, down a slide, and into the water. The Fire Department shoots water behind the ducks to push them towards the finish line at the other side of the lake.

This year, however, we were dealing with a prevailing 30 mph wind coming from the west, which meant the hoses were effective only to a certain point. Once the ducks were at mid-race, they all huddled against one section of the lane lines and stayed there. The park district kids ran their boats near the mob to help them along by creating waves, and while the group was broken up, many ducks took the opportunity to escape the lane lines and take the more interesting mile-long journey to the east end of the lake.

We made it through this near-catastrophe with some last-minute lane line adjustments (as in, we moved them several yards eastward), and the winning ducks finally crossed the finish line.

It was a beautiful day and everyone had a great time. Becky and her friends were painting faces again and Emma and Lisa came with me on few shuttle runs (I learned that school district vans have pretty good pickup).

We were exhausted at the end of the day, but I know we all slept well.

This morning as I was standing at the train station, I saw helicopters hovering nearby. No, there weren't exercises at the Reserve Base or a life-saving airlift to Northwest Community Hospital-- the media swooped down to cover the resignation of five teachers at South Middle School.

Here's the story:

Each year, teams of seventh graders go on an overnight retreat/team-building exercise at Lorado Taft, a facility at a state park in Oregon, Illinois. An "unwritten tradition" for the teacher-chaperones is to spend an evening at a local bar to unwind, leaving other teacher-chaperones at the campus to watch over the kids.

After midnight, the teachers returned and some continued drinking at a site within the park. Then, sometime after 3:00 am one of the teachers went into a student dorm and fell asleep in a student's bed. (Supposedly, nothing further happened.) This raised concern with some of the students and the school district's investigation was begun.

The teacher who fell asleep was suspended immediately, and the other four were suspended a few days later. The school board continued its investigation, and presented its findings last night.

The school board issued the statement which appears on the next page. As a result of the investigation, the board accepted the resignation of five teachers who were involved in the incident.

At the center of the commotion is a school district policy adopted in 2001 that states that alcohol is prohibited for staff, students, and chaperones at all field trips and overnight trips. Apparently, the "traditional" visit to the bar has been going on for years with the knowledge (and implied consent, some say) of school officials. The attached statement denies district knowledge and consent.

The helicopters were there to cover the crowd of protesters who claim these teachers are being made into examples. There's a group of parents calling themselves "Sunrise SOS" who are behind the protests and are demanding the reinstatement of the teachers. I assume these are the people who called out the media.

I've learned from many years in the business world that all organizations have policies and rules and if you violate those policies and rules, you're out. The policies may not make sense or may even be completely whacked out, but its the organizations' prerogative to put whatever rules they wish in place. It is the responsibility of the employee to abide by those policies if they wish to remain employed by the organization, and if they don't, they can find employment with another organization that has policies that match their own objectives.

This sounds harsh, but it's true.

I agree to my employer's strict internet policy as a condition of employment. If I were to surf porn at work, I would expect a visit from the Security staff within the next two weeks telling me to clean out my desk. The fact that the guy on the other side of the wall does it daily or my boss down the hall has been doing it for five years does not excuse my violating the policy.

Plain and simple: the teachers violated the policy. I cannot believe these individuals were unaware of distict policy, and by violating it, they opened themselves up for dismissal.

Further, as a parent I am not comfortable with the idea of my childrens' care being in the hands of people who do not have their wits about them, whether it's "a couple beers" or more. The fact that one of the chaperones fell asleep in the kids' dorm tells me we're not talking about a Smirnoff Ice being nursed over the course of three hours.

Then there's the question of whether this punishment is too harsh. Think about this: if you were an administrator for a school district and you were presented with this situation, what message would you be sending to the parents and the kids (who attend mandatory D.A.R.E. classes) if you said "Well, okay, since other teachers did it, we'll go easy on these people."

I believe the district did what they had to do: decisive and quick action to an issue that could have quickly exploded.

Unfortunately, the people gaining media attention are the ones who have called out the helicopters-- the people who are chanting outside the school, clamoring for the teachers' return.

The administrators of the district should know that there are many of us who support this decision, and we simply choose to avoid the cameras.

Lisa, Emma, and I went to the Memorial Day Parade in downtown AH this morning. We parked at her condo and walked to town, camped out in front of Mitchell's Jewelers, and with bagels and drinks (an iced mocha for Lisa) from Panera, we watched as veterans, high school bands, politicans, and Cub Scouts marched down Dunton Street. Emma scored a bag full of candy and was amazed by a kid from a karate school breaking a board with his bare hands.

I snitched an A&W Root Beer Barrel from the candy bag. Don't tell Emma.

We were treated once again to beautiful weather. Let's hope it holds out for the rest of the day.

I was looking through some old Zip disks and found a bunch of snapshots that were scanned in for my parents' anniversary party a few years ago.

Here's one of me and my neighbors Mike and Lori-- I'm sitting in my first car, which I wrote about in a blog entry last August.

It looks a lot like The Wonder Years, doesn't it?

This is a photo I took in Amsterdam in November of 1999.

I don't remember a lot about this trip (STOP what you're thinking RIGHT NOW), mostly because I was jetlagged the entire time I was there.

This morning, Emma's team ended their season. It was an auspicious year for the Invaders... or perhaps just a fun one, which is probably more important. There was a "Kids vs. Parents" game at the end of the "real" game, and the kids proved we're not threat to them on the soccer field.

This is an artist's representation of what my right eye looks like right now.

Becky and I went to the eye doctor this morning-- she to get a new prescription and to try out contact lenses (a less than successful outing, details on her blog), and I to get a new prescription so I can get new glasses. I also learned I am a good candidate for PRK, which is an alternative to Lasik. This is something I'll be investigating later this summer...

Somehow, I always manage to pick the sunniest days to get my pupils dilated. So now I'm sitting here squinting as I type. Better stop before I cause any damage.

Tonight Lisa, Emma, and I went to Pronto Roma for dinner and Ashby's for dessert. Yum.

Becky went with her friends to see some movie about pants.

Above, we see Emma by the fountain in Harmony Park. I had to play with the photo in Photoshop a little, but I think it came out fine.

This is a photo of Rebecca at the Museum of Science and Industry in the Spring of 2000. We were there to see the Titanic exhibit and wandered into the area of color and light.

Here's a photo taken during rush hour this afternoon. You're looking north from the west side of the river: that's the Madison Street bridge and the large stone building on the right is the rear of the Civic Opera House.

Beck's dance recital took place this afternoon at RMHS. Here she is, second from right, performing to "After School" by LL Cool J.

Other dancers performed to everything from REO Speedwagon's "Time to Eat a Fly" "Time for me to Fly" and Sheena Easton's "Morning Train" to "Eine Kleine Nacht Musik" and the Sergio Mendes version of "Night and Day."

It's been a few years since Beck was onstage in her pj's singing "Me and My Teddy Bear..."

No, not the awesome Ian Gomm album from 1979... I'm talking about the summer season's official start with the kickoff of the Elk Grove Village Rotary Fest.

The evening started with American English, who did a shorter version of the act they did when I saw them in 2003. Then we obtained wristbands and the corresponding refreshments that they entitled us to, and then we were off to the midway to win a few things.

We got the monster bag of cotton candy, but never made it to the funnel cake booth. That's something that'll have to wait for the next fest.

The fireworks began in the football field while we were at the carnival, so we crashed in the tennis court and watched as the explosions went off overhead.

Summer has officially kicked off.

By request, here is a photo of the front of the Civic Opera House. This was shot looking towards the southwest from the corner of Washington and Wacker.

This was my everyday vista for the past week, which should give an explanation for the lack of updates on Crosswalks recently.

The view above is from the Secrets Capri, an all-inclusive resort located south of Cancun, near Playa del Carmen. We spent several days there, under the sun and between a bunch of (did I mention all-inclusive?) bars and restaurants. Yes, that's a swim-up bar in the photo.

The weather was beautiful right up until Sunday afternoon, when it started to rain. We were shopping in town that day, so it wasn't a big deal. The following day, July 4 (and Lisa's birthday) it rained most of the day but we managed to jump into the Caribbean Sea during a "dry" spell.

Here's a view of the beach from just beyond the pool:

The resort had different activities throughout the day and at night, including a Mexican fiesta on Friday and an "American" festival on Monday night. We also learned a lot about tequila at a tasting one afternoon--expect more from The Punk Epicure on that later.

Here's the pool bar at night:

Back to the office for us tomorrow, but we're gonna hold on to this feeling for a while...

The kids and I had the pleasure of being in Scottsdale for our annual visit when a new temperature record was made on Monday-- 115°F. Fortunately, there was a way to combat the heat:

Our stay was very nice, and included Barbara's homemade pizza and a couple rounds of Mille Bornes. What you see above, though, is how we spent most of the time there.

We got back to Chicago at about 9:00 last night, and the Lisa Limousine Service brought us back home.

I'm gonna need a vacation from all this vacationing.

We went for a bike ride at lunchtime today, and stopped for lunch at Subway.

Later in the day, Emma and I went for a dip in the pool, which was refreshing after all that riding. This was followed by dinner with the Stevensons at La Tasca.

This was the kids' first experience with tapas, and they especially liked the fried potatoes and chicken brochette. My favorite item on the menu is the beef brochette, which is served on a bed of shoestring potatoes. We also had the mushrooms, calamari, and assorted meats and cheeses, accompanied by a pitcher of sangria for the adults. Great stuff.

Things I learned on my week off that just ended:

- My favorite rides at Great America are still The Demon, The American Eagle, and Batman;

- The crowd we walked through at The Mane Event in downtown AH Friday Night ultimately reached 12,000 people;

- It took almost a gallon of primer and a gallon of paint to do my kitchen (photos to come);

- The Ilo DVD04 is proving to be a pretty good value in DVD recorders;

- Sky High is a pretty cute movie-- Emma really liked it, too-- although they could have broken the Disney mold by using the original artists' versions of the songs in the soundtrack. I mean, TMBG does a good job of Devo's "Through Being Cool," but Bowling For Soup doing "I Melt With You?" Come on.

- Ikea on a Saturday Afternoon is always a bad idea. Although we decided "North To Ikea" (the sign on the Schaumburg Free Trolley) would make a great album name;

- The episode of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 featuring The Giant Gila Monster is still the best;

- Smithwick's Ale ($4.00 a pint this month at Peggy's) is pretty good;

- Toma Rosa's pizza is astonishingly delicious;

- One more day off would be nice.

And so the new work week begins. :-)

This was our view this morning when we took the kids to the Signature Room in the John Hancock Building. We were there for lunch and to watch the Chicago Air and Water Show.

I was a little worried about the weather-- when I woke up it was pouring, but then the sun came out and things seemed promising, and then it looked like it was going to rain again. Fortunately, the weather turned out perfectly: it seemed to keep the crowds on the street down, and the view from 95 floors up was very very cool.

We had lunch with Glenn and Lauren, and afterwards we went across the street to the Ghirardelli Chocolate Cafe, where Emma and I shared a banana split and Lisa and Bec split a chocolate brownie sundae. Glenn also had a banana split and Lauren had this awesome looking ice cream cone that featured a dipped waffle cone. We also spent some time in the Hershey's Chocolate Store, conveniently located across the street from Ghirardelli. We got out of there unscathed, at least by chocolate.

It's evening now and we're back home, trying to decide our evening plans.

Second time's the charm.

When I moved into my condo, most of the place was painted in this cheap, chalky white paint (except for the main bedroom, which was a lovely lilac). I don't have a lot of wall space in my kitchen, which is why I decided to do something a little bolder in there.

The designer guy I talked to a couple years ago recommended red or green for the kitchen, but I couldn't find the color he suggested. I decided red was the way to go, and I found a paint that I thought would look good. After it was up, though, I realized it was too orange. Then I discovered the color I wanted was already on the walls at Chipotle, so Lisa found a bunch of paint chips at Home Depot and on a Saturday afternoon we took them over and compared.

Chipotle's walls are very close to Home Depot's "Cinnamon Cherry" Behr paint. So a couple coats went up, and you can see the result above.

Now I need to get over to Farmer's Pride for some fresh guac.

This morning I took the train from Mt Prospect because I had to drop my car at the dealership for some work.

Taking a different train is the sort of thing that keeps you on your toes. Typically, you get into a routine that allows your brain to get into a cloudy, auto-pilot kind of mode. You follow the same path from the car to the station, see the same people standing in the same crowd, you head to the same spot, pass the same guy who works on the 25th floor ("Hey George"), and wait for the same train to come to the same spot where you board and sit in the same seat and take the same ride in.

That's why sometimes I like to mix it up, so today it was Mt Prospect.

While on the platform waiting for the 7:38, everyone shifted into their positions as the train approached. I was observing the overall zombiness of the crowd when some dude ran across the tracks and the train, less than a block from the spot where the guy was, blasted its whistle.

The train stopped and people started boarding.

Once everyone was on the train, a conductor came on the P.A.: "To the guy who ran in front of the train, you'll have to get off because we're not moving until you do" and that they would have the police remove him if he didn't go nicely.

We sat there for a few minutes while the trainmen looked for a guy in a brown jacket. We started moving again, and I figured they found him, but for the rest of the ride they went up and down the aisles of each car, still looking. This was accompanied by several announcements concerning Metra's annual safety awareness program which starts on October 1.

I've always believed in Natural Selection and that stupid people are the most likely to create their own undoing, but I just don't want to see it happen before I have breakfast.

I don't know if they ever found the guy, but here's hoping he'll realize that being a few minutes late for work is better than not going at all ever again.

This morning, the AHPD were at their posts at the Arlington Heights train station, handing out tickets to people who walked around the gates and in front of oncoming trains. And sure enough, in the time I was standing there I saw three of 'em get caught.

As one of the officers said, it's not worth $250 to walk around a closed gate.

There's your public service announcement for today.

My plan this year was to plant and maintain my plot at Cypress Gardens so that by this time of year I would have all sorts of vegetables and flowers filling the trunk of my car.

In April, I went out there and put up my chicken wire fence, and in May I bought some mulch and made a few pathways and planted some sunflower seeds just to get started. I planned on planting tomatoes, all sorts of peppers, and maybe even watermelon or cantaloupe.

Well, the summer got away from me. You can see the results above.

I went there this morning to clear out the stuff I left in the plot, and while my little section of the world was overgrown (I like to call it a "prairie preserve") I happened to notice that my sunflowers were the tallest in all of Cypress Gardens. If you head south on Arlington Heights Road, you can still see them-- they're past their prime, but still standing, right there in the middle of everything.

I think gardening will have to wait until I can just step outside my door instead of driving a mile.

Yesterday the Arlington Heights Park District hosted the annual Autumn Harvest Festival at North School Park. Here's Rebecca playing "Count Trickula" with the South Wind Ensemble. Proud dad over here.

And here's Emma relaxing after I picked her up from dance class. She missed Bec's performance, but I have it committed to tape (thanks to Lisa) so we all enjoyed it during today's thunderstorms.

I've taken the kids to the Festival every year since 2000, and this was the first year it wasn't cold and/or raining. I also bought some mega-sweet natural honey at the Farmers Market right on the street across from the park.

We finished up the day with dinner with my folks at Periyali. Opaaa!

On a storefront in downtown Arlington Heights:

Today was the annual fifth-grade trip to Camp Tu-Endie-Wie near Elgin. This is a day for the kids to participate in all sorts of nature education and team-building exercises. I was a team lead, so I spent the day in the fresh air in charge of 12 kids instead of behind a keyboard in charge of, well, other things.

Above you see Emma's group learning a lesson about how the deer population grows and shrinks depending on the resources available to them.

The kids had a great time, playing games, working on crafts, doing archery, and building a shelter out of sticks in the woods.

(Emma took the photo above, and she wanted to see it here in the weblog. So here it is!)

By the way, "Tu-Endie-Wie" is a Wyandotte Indian phrase meaning "the point between two waters."

The day ended with a singalong around the campfire.

Emma fell asleep in the car on the way home. I think she had a great time.

I connected the webcam again, so if you click the "Live Cam" link on the right you'll get to see how Columbus Day looks over here.

Update: I turned it off 'cause we're going to lunch, but it will be back on later.

Today was one of those nonstop days.

It started with running out for bagels, then over to the orthodontist for Becka (where I learned that Dr Schneider, my orthodontist and the guy who instructed Beck's, is still alive and kicking). Emma had her dance class, then we picked up Lisa and went to Subway. Then it was time for Emma to be picked up followed by Becka having to be driven to the mall with three of her peeps, and on the way back I saw Art for a haircut.

Oh, but that's not all. We took Lisa home so she could head off to a party with her pals in Indy, and Emma and I went to the SWANCC Computer and Electronics Recycling Event to get rid of a bunch of old computer and video parts I had collecting dust in the house. Then it was off on the promised trip to Borders, where Emma got another Magic Tree House book and I picked up Heavy Words Lightly Thrown, which so far is a very interesting read.

Becka went out again to see Elizabethtown, and Emma and I went to see The Corpse Bride. Becka gave her movie a 4/10 rating, and I gave the movie we saw an 8/10.

(A mini-diversion/capsule review follows:)

I never saw The Nightmare Before Christmas so can't make any comparisons, but I have been a fan of Tim Burton's since Beetlejuice. Corpse Bride continues the dark, strange view of the afterlife, where, certainly in this case, there's a far more colorful life than what the characters with pulses enjoy. Johnny Depp is great voicing the man who accidentally marries a dead woman, and Helena Bonham Carter brings the character of the deceased Emily to, uh, life (sorry, it's late). Tracey Ullman is wonderful as always, and Richard E. Grant (whom I know best as the manager of the Spice Girls in Spice World) plays a really evil dude who's responsible for a lot of this mess. Definitely worth seeing on the big screen.

Whew. Now I am going to catch my breath and watch the Cinemax SCTV episodes I taped back in '84 while I convert them to DVD.

Tonight was Emma's school concert. We made sure to get there with a decent amount of time to spare because, as those of you without kids may not know, parents can be worse than fifth graders when it comes to saving seats.

As always, the kids did a super job with songs like "Wacky Weather" and "Dem Bones." The concert ended with everyone rooting for the White Sox in "Take Me Out To The Ballgame."

I have a few items up for sale on eBay, so I'm using my blog for shameless plug purposes.

Netgear MA111 USB Adapter

Dual Firewire 1394 Cardbus PCMCIA Adapter Card

USB 2.0 Adapter PCMCIA Cardbus

The auctions end on Sunday morning, October 23.

Yesterday (to be more accurate, at 1214 GMT on October 17, which would put it at yesterday morning) we had a full moon. You can see it in the center of the above photo, shot last night at Sunset Ridge, loking east over the basin where some of the Arlington Aces were practicing.

This was taken this morning atop the Vail Street Garage, looking west.

Here's a link to a web site by a guy at Northern Michigan University who built a Sears Tower sculpture out of Jenga blocks.

Wow. I can almost see myself looking out the window.

Be sure to check out this page to see the work in progress by the artist. And in November, there's going to be a "Sears Tower as a bowling pin" fundraiser.

Here's Lisa's contribution to the holiday, Scooter the Pumpkin.

Becky's creation was accessorized with glitter.

Here's Emma outside Westgate's annual Halloween parade. It was a nice day today, although it was spookily overcast. By 6:00 it was drizzling, but the kids managed to collect a good share of candy.

Happy Halloween!

Lisa and I have joined the podcasting community with 4th Time Around, a weekly show where we'll talk about just about anything that comes to mind.

This week we covered the controversy surrounding the "girlcott" of the latest Abercrombie & Fitch t-shirts, a review of TNT's Restaurant in Arlington Heights, and the fact that people who complain about where they live should probably think twice.

You don't need an iPod or portable music player to listen. Just click the button that says "Pod" and the show will start playing.

Enjoy!

Here's one of the culprits I mentioned in an earlier posting.

And this is a shot I took in North School Park to remind you that The Season just around the corner...

In the tradition of Sydney J Harris and Roger Simon (when he was worth reading), here are some thoughts and ideas which have been floating around my brain lately which don't merit blog entries of their own but are important nonetheless:

- What is so freaking important that an ever-growing segment of the population finds it necessary to walk around with Bluetooth headsets all the time? What really gets me are the 60-year-old grandparents walking around with these things on Sunday mornings at places like Egg'lectic Cafe.

- If you do not carry a UK or Australian driver's license, don't call computer hardware "kit." It's called "computer hardware" or "equipment."

- If you're in line at Starbucks in downtown Arlington Heights on a Saturday morning, don't start shopping and sampling items from the bakery case while the line builds behind you. Some of us just want to get our coffee and leave so we can wake up and be productive members of society. And we don't care if the coffee cake is "ohmygodthisisAWESOME!" You're not Rachel Ray and we're not interested.

- A rule I've lived by long before Esquire said you should do it: always schedule appointments-- doctor, dentist, etc.-- at the very beginning of the day. You will rarely be taken late, and if you are, you can blame it squarely on the person you're seeing. Then attempt to charge them for their tardiness.

- My buddy JDR's #1 Rule of Fast Food: You can always tell a good hotdog place by their use of the word "Dawg" in their name.

- Do not, ever, refer to the suburbs as "the 'burbs." You just sound stupid.

- I am convinced that the Food Network's Alton Brown is the annoying kid from the Encyclopedia Britannica commercials from the 80s. I have nothing to back it up other than the fact that they are both at the same level on the annoyance meter and they look a lot alike:

(Okay, so I learned that they're not the same person. The Encyclopedia Britannica kid is actually Stan Freberg's son. I still think they could be the same person, though.)

There. I feel better now.

This afternoon, the Village of Arlington Heights had their annual Tree Lighting ceremony.

About a half hour before the mayor threw the switch, the white stuff started falling, making it a real holiday event.

Yes, I got out the boxes of Christmas stuff over the weekend and I got to do my favorite activity of all time, assembling the tree.

One cool thing I discovered was how much easier it is to put the lights on the tree while you're assembling it. I can't be the first to do this, but it's a neat discovery nonetheless.

Ho ho ho.

Check out this collection of gingerbread houses in Seattle!

(Photos by Jeff Barr.)

Here's the Wrigley Building last night. Chicago at Christmastime is certainly something.

We spent Christmas Eve at home, making a mini-feast consisting of a turkey breast and all the fixings. We also realized that

"Chestnuts roasting on the ol' Char-Broil......."

And Lisa got the hear my story again about the guy on State Street who used to sell chestnuts and had a fake Brit accent. Only it turned out the accent wasn't fake.

On Christmas Day, the chix came over to open their gifts and then it was off to Grandma and Grandpa's house for an awesome Christmas dinner.

'tis the season...

Oh, and welcome to everyone who's come here looking for the MP3s of "Hardrock, Coco, and Joe" and "Susie Snowflake." And a special welcome to the folks who came here via the Chicagoland Fishing forum site: you guys seem to really like those songs. :-)

I know the posting just rolled off the current main page, so feel free to hit this page, which has the MP3s on it.

Happy New Year!

...and so the clean up begins. :-)

On Friday, January 6, I left Sears Tower for the last time as an employee.

It was certainly interesting working in the building, especially since I started there two weeks before September 11. One point is that I never felt unsafe there. September 11 gave me an entire new perspective on what's important and the concept of a "number being up," and my priorities and the things I worry about changed after that.

The building was also an interesting study in self-containment. It has restaurants, a US post office, a really cool bookstore, a card shop, a couple banks and many ATMs, and of course, a Starbucks. Sometimes in the winter I would get into the office at 7:30 am and not leave the building all day, yet I was able to go "out" for lunch and completely get away from the office by heading downstairs.

The fact that the Tower was home to many companies made it interesting, too: at a lot of workplaces you see Steve from Accounting or Dave from Applications Development when you're in the cafeteria; at the Sears Tower, the person next to you in line at the Corner Bakery or riding the elevator could have worked for E&Y, Eurex, or any one of a dozen law firms.

In the summertime, it was fascinating to see the faces and hear the accents of all the people who came to visit. At one point I thought of learning how to say "The entrance to the Skydeck is on the Jackson Boulevard side" in German, Japanese, French, Russian, and any of a dozen other languages because visitors tend to mill around the employees' and retail shops' entrances. I've also taken more than my share of photos of tourists (with their cameras) in front of the big granite sign on Wacker Drive, which was usually followed by providing directions to a nearby landmark (often accompanied by lots of hand gestures). The last time I was asked for directions, a gentleman from London asked me how to to get to the "Golden Mile" from the Tower. Not only did he get directions back to Michigan Avenue, but I gave him a restaurant recommendation for him and his family as well.

One of the things a coworker used to say about the Sears Tower was that, no matter where you were, as long as you were within 25 miles and it was a clear day, you always saw your office, which could be a good or bad thing.

As I write this, I am sitting in the "Connections Court" at Woodfield Mall, riding their free WiFi connection. This isn't quite the example of self-containment that is the Sears Tower, mainly because Woodfield is completely focused on retail commerce. If there were professional offices here (as there used to be in the Randhurst Mall, where I spent much of my youth), it would be a fair comparison. (So I guess this paragraph really serves no purpose other than to let everyone know there's free WiFi to be had in the Northwest suburbs :-)

So farewell to a place I called, well, not quite 'home,' but certainly a place I spent many, many hours. A new phase begins next week.

Saturday night was the annual Daddy-Daughter Dance for the area grammar schools.

Emma and I had a blast, although her fuzzy sweater left me looking like I walked through a snowstorm. :-)

Yes folks, this weblog is still alive. Things have been really busy over here, and since so many of you have whined asked about when I was going to start posting again, here I am.

A quick update and hints of things to come on the blog:

- The new job started in mid-January, and it's all looking good;

- The Cheap Date podcast is doing very well, with many new listeners every week;

- My latest toy is an Intel Core Duo Mac Mini, and no, I have not attempted to load Windows XP on it yet;

- Everyone is happy and healthy here.

There will be updates on these and many other topics in the coming weeks, so stay tuned-- Crosswalks to Nowhere has returned.

...and it's looking good so far.

I took a long walk at lunch today, starting at Buckingham Fountain and walking north to Millenium Park, home of The Bean:

Another beautiful day in Chicago.

Here's a video of the Mentos Test we did last Friday night.

If this doesn't play properly, you may need to upgrade your version of Macromedia Flash.

This year's excursion to Arlington Heights' Frontier Days was a short one for us. Becky had already gone during the day today, and we were all a bit tired, but Lisa and Emma decided to take on the very cool Matterhorn.

While playing the games, Emma won a bear dressed like a wizard and a little fuzzy orange critter, and Becky won a huge inflatable lollipop.

I had my annual monster bag of cotton candy. Yum.

And so the holiday week begins!

The 4th of July was a full day, starting with the annual Arlington Heights Parade and ending with fireworks in Rolling Meadows. And yes, the one shown above was a really cool one that exploded into a smiley face...

In the middle of it all, we did 18 holes at Twin Links, which will be closing permanently at the end of the season. Here's Emma right after she sunk one.

We also celebrated Lisa's birthday, complete with a tiara and a pink cake. Talk about the complete package..

Happy Fourth of July!

These two guys are running for office. And they're both dead.

Okay, I'm kidding: the guys mentioned on these posters are very much alive, but I thought it was pretty funny to see these on a corner in Scottsdale.

We just got back from our annual trip to Arizona, and of course we had a great time. Lots of lounging by the pool and just hanging out, which is a nice change of pace. We made our traditional visit to Islands Restaurant, and we enjoyed Aunt Barbara's famous thin-crust pizza.

The kids and I met with some podcasting friends, Aaron and Jenny from The Big Show, and we were on their show, too. We had dinner at a local restaurant called San Tan Flat, which was very good and very cool-- a real Arizona/cowboy experience.

And I am succumbing to peer pressure by posting this photo of me in my Rex Kwon Do getup.

It was a great, relaxing few days in the Arizona sun!

This morning, Emma participated in one of the Apple Store's Apple Camps. These are very cool events where kids 13 and under spend a few hours learning how to make a Podcast or Song (using GarageBand), a web site (using iWeb), or a movie (with iMovie and iDVD).

Emma and some new friends made a movie called "iDrop," the centerpiece of which was Emma throwing an iPod on the nice maple floors of the Apple Store. Fortunately, the kids were given a dead iPod to use as a prop, but I didn't find out about it until well after the movie was shown to the group.

I learned from some of the other parents that these are annual events at the store, so I think we may be back next year-- perhaps for a class that won't involve props.

Emma had a great time, and I learned what a peaceful place Woodfield is at 9:00 am on a Wednesday morning.

We visited Lisa's parents at their new home in Indiana this past weekend. Here's Emma having her first experience with a lawn tractor. :-)

As I was walking to my car yesterday afternoon, I saw this little fall display standing at the ready behind the Vail Street Jewel.

I'm always a little amused by the fact that many of my fellow suburban co-dwellers actually pay for dead corn stalks, but hey-- if there's a market for it... :-)

And inside those neatly stacked big boxes we find...

A sure sign that Fall is here.

Summer certainly screamed by this year: the kids' (and Lisa's brother's) graduations seem like only a couple weeks ago, and it's tough to fathom all the time that passed between then and last week's reunion weekend for my parents' 55th anniversary with my siblings and nieces and nephews.

We covered a lot of ground, that's for sure. On to the next season. :-)

From left to right, the artists are: Becka, Lisa, and Emma.

Happy Pumpkin Day!

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, as I've said many times before. So Happy Turkey Day to all of you!

This morning I was up at my usual weekday time (don't ask), and once the sun came up, around 7:00, I made a Starbucks run.

This is always my favorite time of day: most people are still asleep, and especially on a holiday like today it feels like you have the run of the place, no matter where you are.

It's also very eerie: the photos above show our local Wal-Mart (not that I'm a fan) and some of the stores at the Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg. Here it is, a bright morning and less than 24 hours away from shopping mayhem, and the parking lots are completely empty.

The calm before the storm, indeed.

Tags: Christmas, shopping, 60005, 60173

It was a quiet Thanksgiving this year, just my parents and Lisa and me. We talked about the plans for next year and all that kind of thing.

Lisa made the cranberries (above) and I made the Magic Pumpkin Pie. Mmmmmm.

We went to Arlington Heights' Tree Lighting tonight, an annual tradition. :-)

It was the shortest ceremony they've ever held: the speeches started at 4:45 pm and the lights were on by 5:15. There were no chants of "Light The Tree!" coming from the crowd, probably because the temperature was in the upper 40s.

This followed a day downtown at my office with the girls. Becka decorated a little tree (Lisa's former Chick Pad tree) for my office, and Emma diligently finished her homework before surfing the net.

We finished decorating our tree tonight, so now we're all set for the holidays.

Almost.

Tags: Christmas, tree, 60005, 60004

My health club was supposed to be open early today, but I guess nobody told the employees. So, I decided to get my cardio by walking Woodfield Mall with all the senior citizens.

It wasn't too bad-- twice around both levels took me about a half hour.

The photo above was taken at about 7:00 am today.

One thing for sure: this is the quietest the mall will be today.

2007 is going to be a year of changes for me and my loved ones.

So let's start it out right with a picture of a Chia Head.

This guy, named "Arnold" by Becka, came to me from a guy at my office who moved to the other side of the building last year. This was on his desk, and he willed it to me when he left. Nice gesture, I think.

I brought Arnold home because he was "disturbing" to certain coworkers who came into my office for meetings.

So here he is, and occasionally I'll be posting Arnold updates so you can see how his Chia "Hair" progresses.

On a technical side note, this message is being posted using software called ecto. It supposedly makes composing Movable Type blogs easier when you're offline. We'll just see about that.

Technorati Tags: 60005, arlington heights, chia head

Here are some photos from my recent trip to Tokyo.

I got out on the bike this morning for a morning ride around town and wound up at the Jewel for some groceries and yes, flowers for my sweetie.

You'll notice the new look of this blog. I think it's nicer, cleaner, and a bit easier on the eyes overall. This came as a result of upgrading to the latest version of MovableType, which is the software I use to run this site. I won't go into the technical details here, but the stuff from the old blog is all here, so you should be able to find what you're looking for. I expect Google and the other search engines to catch up shortly.

A few updates: (1) got married in March to my soulmate; (2) bought a wonderful house in a great neighborhood (and went through the wringer at the 11th hour doing so); and (3) started another podcast, Discover Woodfield, as a companion to our award-winning Cheap Date Show. The cool thing about Discover Woodfield: it's sponsored.

Okay, that's it for now. The blogging now continues...

"I'm looking at a picture of a market in Marrakesh with plucked chickens hanging
with oregano around their necks. No, really, oregano."

[Spoken in full voice by the guy next to me on the train this evening, as he surfed the internet and talked to his wife on his cellphone. After this, he went into a 10 minute tirade about how their daughter ruined the serpentine belt on the tractor mower.]

Last Friday was one of those perfectly beautiful days in Chicago, and here are some photos that show it.

In order, we have The Sears Tower, the old Post Office, and one of the towers at Two North Riverside Plaza.

That's an awful lot of blue...

I mentioned in an earlier posting that I was at an event in Tokyo. The invitation I received from the sponsor said it was a "Business Casual Event." I asked one of my traveling companions (who works for the company sponsoring the event) to verify this for me. "Business casual, for certain," is what he was told.

I decided to follow the advice a clothing salesman gave me years ago: "You could dress business casual-- but why?" I packed two suits, a sport jacket with a couple turtleneck sweaters and coordinated pants, and-- just in case-- a pair of tan Dockers and a blue button-up shirt.

The first day of the meetings, held at the Park Hyatt Tokyo (where Lost in Translation was filmed, by the way) nearly every single one of the over 300 attendees was wearing a suit.

So much for "business casual, for certain." At least I bet right.

The truth is that "business casual" is a meaningless term that thousands of fashion writers and HR departments have tried to define but have had little success. At best, I can come up with the common threads of "collared shirts, clothing with finished seams, no logo wear, and no Spandex." (I remember seeing an Arthur Andersen memo in the mid-1980s which specified that female employees "must wear appropriate undergarments" but that's another topic.)

For several years in the late 1980s and early 1990s I worked for an investment firm known for its casual approach to the employee environment: free breakfast and lunch, free ice cream in the afternoon, free soda, water, and beer in all the refrigerators-- and a nonexistent dress code. The idea was that you were supposed to do your job and do it extremely well, and in return the company didn't bother you with checking your death-metal-band T-shirt underneath your flannel. I'd call the environment "proto-dot-com." (The funny part is that by the time the dot-com boom was in full force, the company had been swallowed up by a gigantic Swiss bank and the beer and nonexistent dress code were gone.)

While working at the firm, I rode the train regularly with one of its partners. Both of us were usually in jeans, and we'd get disdainful looks from everyone else on the train, each one spiffed up in suits and ties. I used to laugh, thinking that this guy could have bought and sold most of the people in the car, and they looked at him like he was a low-life.

I would never call that company's environment "business casual"-- it was clearly all the way on the other side of it-- but I believe that firms like mine had a huge influence on more traditional companies and encouraged the casual-dress policies of the 90s.

By the time "jeans Friday" started to take hold in the business world in the 1990s, I was already tired of it. Yes, it's zero-brain-power easy to put on jeans in the morning and match them up with a polo shirt and sneakers, but at some point-- say, after doing this for 10 years-- you don't feel like you're really going to work. And while that's not necessarily a bad thing, there is something to be said for more clearly defining the line between life at home and life at the office.

That's when I began my transformation into a beDockered middle manager, for better or worse.

So, while everyone else was getting ready to go ahead and uh, wear a Hawaiian shirt and jeans on Friday, I was already on the way back. And that was around the time I met the salesman mentioned at the top of this piece.

The dress code at most of the places I've worked has been some sort of business casual. This included everything from khakis to polo shirts, down to jeans and even shorts in the summer (at one particular company). The common stipulation among all of them, though, was that when you met with the company's clients, you should dress in formal business attire.

Over the years, I defined "business casual" to mean "no jacket, no tie." There's room to move in that definition, but I usually try to err on the side of overdressing. I remember getting off a plane in Amsterdam and heading straight to a meeting in my company's offices, figuring my travel attire (khaki pants and a polo shirt) would be fine, as it was acceptable in most of the company's offices worldwide. When I entered the conference room, I felt like the guy who cleans the conference rooms after everyone leaves-- wait, even he was dressed better than I was.

Never again.

My current employer just opened up the dress code on summer Fridays to allow jeans. Many of my coworkers are excited about this.

As for me, it will be business as usual.

Vacation time is here again. With all the excitement of earlier this year, we decided to stay close to home for the week.

First, a stop at Frontier Days where we saw American English on the 4th and Kansas on the 6th:

...and here's Sears Tower as seen from the top of the Ferris Wheel (it's faint and to the left of the antenna tower):

...then, out traditional first-of-the-summer visit to Superdawg:

We spent a day at Gurnee Mills:

Followed by dinner at Green Basil Thai, including this soft-shell crab:

And there's more of the week to go.

I've been meaning to get the tent out now that we have a backyard, and yesterday was the day. (The last time this saw daylight was when I did the MS150.)

We got the sleeping bags out of storage, Becka strung the patio lights, Lisa got a fire going in the firepit, and we turned the yard into a mini-Wisconsin Dells, without the go-karts.

We all made it through the night-- the first time I camped out in the backyard since I was, I dunno, 11?

Fellow podcaster pal Shelly hit me with an old blogging chestnut, and boy, does the back of my head hurt (RIMSHOT).

But seriously: I've been tagged to do an "Eight Things You May Not Know About Me" blog entry. I could have sworn I did one here years ago, but 'twasn't the case. So here it is:

1.My very first posting to the Internet (or, to be accurate: Usenet) was on April 28, 1989. You can see it here. Aside from proving that I'm old, it also shows that things you put on the 'net never go away.

2. I was a winning contestant on NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. I won the Listener Limerick Challenge on the March 29, 2003 show.

3. I rarely swear. I believe it's a sign of intelligence to be able to express yourself firmly, powerfully, and creatively without resorting to one of the "deadly seven." And at the risk of sounding like an old man, I am appalled by the way people drop the f-word so casually.

4. I live by the two best pieces of advice I've ever received. The first came from my father: "Trust your gut," and the second from my friend Bob: "Don't let people rent space in your head." The third best piece of advice was spoken by Sir Anthony Hopkins in The Mask of Zorro: "Lesson number one: never attack in anger." That pretty much covers it.

5. My two favorite TV shows of all time are The Dick Van Dyke Show and SCTV. Aside from the brilliant writing, they provide all sorts of wonderful archetypes: Rob Petrie as the suburban husband and father who works in the city, Alan Brady as the overbearing boss, and Johnny LaRue as the successful entepreneur, TV host, and ladies' man.

6. I always treat the people who provide a service to me with an extra level of respect. It gets you much further than treating them like servants. Build the relationship, even if it's just for the duration of dinner.

7. If there's one key lesson I've learned from my life experiences, it's that life is very precious, it's all over too soon, and so very little is worth fretting over. And we need to cherish every single good thing in our lives and to stop bitching about everything that's wrong, while acting to change the things we can. I sometimes forget that, but it doesn't take much to bring me back: usually, it's the three sets of eyes looking at me.

8. My early musical tastes were greatly influenced by my older siblings, then later by my stint as a DJ on my college's radio station. My listening habits grew more eclectic from there. It wouldn't be unusual for my iPod to play "Dedicated to the One I Love" by the Mamas and the Papas, followed by "Respectable Street" by XTC, then "Solitude" by Duke Ellington, "Hotel Song" by Regina Spektor, and "Unbroken Chain" by The Grateful Dead. Oh, and I can sing you a song in Portuguese about mermaids, and it isn't even dirty.

That's it for me. I am going to tag Lisa and Becka for the next round. :-)

Lisa tagged me with the following questionnaire, originally lifted from Microserfs (which I thought was okay, if a bit too navel-gazing). Enjoy...

If your life were a game of Jeopardy, what would your categories be?

1. Brazilian Music
2. Lines from It's A Wonderful Life
3. Snacks: Healthy and Un
4. How a Dad Kills Time When His Daughters Take Him Into Claire's
5. Elementary Gardening
6. Silent Movies
7. Anything That Can Possibly Go Wrong When Selling and Buying a Home

And in the spirit of all things bloggerific, I hereby tag Shelly and Steve.

Fall is on its way: the temperatures here in the Chicago suburbs have begun dipping below 70 degrees at night, and the humidity has been chased away, so it's perfect weather for a fire in the firepit.

Saturday night was a great evening: we sat outside drinking Old Style (just like college kids-- well, one of us fits the profile), grilling Hebrew Nationals, and cooking up Smores. By the time we got through all that, we were too full to make Jiffy Pop.

Next time. :-)

We stopped at the Berghoff Restaurant's Oktoberfest this evening before the Chicago Podcaster Meetup at the Apple Store.

It's great to know that even though the main restaurant is officially closed, they're keeping up with this autumn tradition. I remember going to this with my pals from the old O'Connor days.

The photo above was taken before the crowd really grew. There was a hair-metal cover band playing this evening, and it was a sight to see-- all those bedockered middle-aged guys singing "You Give Love a Bad Name."

Good times.

We went Apple picking at a new place this year, More Than Delicious Orchard in Woodstock.

This is a great little place that is much more manageable and less crowded than many of the other orchards we've tried over the years.

Our trunk was filled with a half-bushel of Cortland, Red and Golden Delicious, and Connell Red.

Good stuff!

Last weekend Rolling Meadows has its Homecoming festivities.

The Mustangs lost their varsity game on Friday night to Buffalo Grove (10-12) but this was their first loss of the season. Next weekend, they face Hersey.

Rebecca went to the dance with a bunch of friends and had a very nice time. She was a little bleary-eyed when I picked her up Sunday morning after she slept over at a friend's house. :-)

The photos say it all.

The bottom photo shows just how cool my wife is. :-)

Taken in the back yard at about 8:45 PM tonight.

Right after this was snapped, we were at Lowe's buying a snow shovel. :-)

We had another wonderful Thanksgiving, this one being our first in the new house. Oh, and as a married couple.

We had Mom and Dad L over for dinner along with the chicks, and the dinner was amazing. Our turkey was a fresh one from the fine folks at Tuscan Market.

On Friday, all the girls came to the office with me and camped out in a conference room while I got some work done. We had breakfast at White Palace and lunch at Panera, and made the obligatory stop at World Market for ornaments.

Later in the day, we went to North School Park for the annual tree lighting. You can see a five-minute video of the event on our podcast site.

I remember going to the very first village tree lighting in 1990: there were about 25 of us standing on a piece of vacant land in front of the spot where Egg Harbor and Fannie May now stand. A switch was thrown, the lights on a 10-foot evergreen went on, and we sang "White Christmas," and it started raining. It was a far cry from today's event.

On Saturday, we went to Lisa's parents' house. Rebecca drove us there, and Emma drove the tractor once we got there.

Saturday night, we went to see the lights that were set up in the TPA park in Frankfort, Indiana. Very cool!

We got home early Sunday afternoon, and started setting up Christmas decorations in the house.

The holiday season is in full swing!

We spent this past Saturday afternoon and evening in downtown Chicago.

After an afternoon of shopping, we had dinner at Heaven on Seven and then walked through the snow that fell over Michigan Avenue.

The streets and stores were certainly crowded...

Sunday morning was beautiful-- I trudged through the snowy streets to the nearest Starbucks.

It sure feels like Christmas!

It's our first Christmas as husband and wife and the first in our new home.

We had the family over and ordered out Chinese food. A new tradition is born.

And one of my favorite moments of the day was Becka talking on the phone to Frankfort, Indiana: "What's up, Curt?"

:-)

Holidays are about tradition, and this year is no exception. Four orders of spicy stuff at Buffalo Joe's in Evanston says "Happy Holidays" like nothing else.

(photo by Becka)

One thing I missed when I was a condo owner was the joy of shoveling snow.

No, really.

This was the view at around 8:00 am today when I finished the driveway. Pretty, isn't it?

Happy 2008!

In a previous blog posting, I talked about the fact that Metra, our commuter rail system, is getting tough on people who do stupid things like running in front of a moving train and walking around crossing gates when they're down. A lot of people have been cited and have paid fines for doing this.

Now I'd like the Village of Arlington Heights to get tough on some real stupidity.

I usually take a train into the city that reaches Arlington Heights at 6:10 am. When the train stops to pick up passengers, it blocks traffic on the cross streets that run through downtown. The doors where I board typically line up in the same spot every day, which happens to be right in the middle of Vail Avenue, a busy two-lane street.

(If you look at this map, the spot I'm talking about is up and to the left of the little blue train icon.)

So, a typical scenario should be:

(a) passengers wait on the sidewalk or side of the road, waiting for the train to approach, while cars and other vehicles drive up and down Vail Avenue;

(b) the train approaches and the gates come down, causing Vail traffic to stop;

(c) passengers move into position and board the train when the doors open.

Nope.

Maybe it's because it's early or maybe it's due to a serious lack of common sense, but several of my fellow commuters insist on standing right in the middle of the street several minutes before the train approaches, presumably to make sure they get a good seat on the train when it does arrive. Then, when a car comes barreling down Vail in an attempt at getting wherever someone wants to be at 6:00 am, they honk and swerve around the people standing in the middle of the street.

And my favorite part is this: the people standing in the street always give the car drivers really dirty looks, as if the commuters have a right to stand in traffic.

This spot is right next to a Jewel Food Store, so there are always trucks rushing up and down the street, heading to the store to make deliveries. At least once a week I see someone 'this close' to getting hit because they're not paying attention or thinking about their right to stand in the middle of traffic.

One of the very first things my parents taught me was to not stand in traffic. I know, this seems very basic, but I seem to be in the minority. My concern is that one of these days I'm going to witness something I don't want to see at 6:00 am.

Not that the AHPD needs more to do, but I think some basic education could be effected by the writing of some tickets. As I mentioned, I'm all for Natural Selection, but I'd rather see someone get a ticket than wind up under the wheels of an S Rosen's Bread truck.

It's been alternately snowing and below freezing here in Chicago, but I was lucky enough to arrange a trip to visit some of our strategic business partners in Silicon Valley. This afternoon it hit the mid-sixties, and I have to say it was pretty good for this frozen dude.

The photo above was shot in a parking lot in Santa Clara. (I know, a parking lot.)

Back to the frozen world tomorrow...

Becka got her driver's license this past Saturday morning.

Just writing those words makes me feel more like a parent than I would have expected.

Sure, I knew that one day I'd be at the Illinois Secretary of State's office with each of the kids, running through the Rules of the Road Drill. I used to joke that I could send them over to Portillo's to get me a hot dog if I was in the middle of some consuming home improvement project. (Becka joked back that if I sent her out with $50 for groceries she'd come back two hours later with a Hollister bag and an empty Starbucks cup.) I guess I thought it just wouldn't come this soon.

So this past Saturday morning at 7:00 am, I found myself shivering in line outside the Niles DMV office with my 16 year old daughter nervously standing next to me, ready for her road test. My steaming travel mug took some of the chill off.

We went through the line, handing over certified copies of birth certificates, Social Security cards, and Becka's driver's log, all dutifully filled out. By 7:20 am, she was sitting in the car with Harvey, the road test instructor. I sat down in the waiting area and waited for their return.

(I've always wondered why government facilities look so drab. Of course, if they were decorated in any way they'd be lightning rods for criticism of government waste. The only real "human" touch in the place was the picture of Jesse White, welcoming me to his facility. Thanks, Jesse-- it's really great to be here.)

About 10 minutes later, Becka walked back into the facility with a hard-to-contain smile. Harvey called me over and asked for her Social Security card. He pointed his pen at Becka, saying, "Give it to her, and she takes it over there. She's a good kid. She passed."

Moments later, my daughter was in possession of something she'll be expected to carry for the rest of her life-- her Driver's License.

If I were a more sentimental type, I would go on about "leaving the nest" and "they grow up so fast," with the tune of "Sunrise, Sunset" playing underneath my words. Since I'm not that bad, I'll just say that I'm really proud of the fact that my daughter reached this milestone and I was glad to be there to see it. And I hope I was able to teach her a few things about driving and responsibility that only a father can-- something other than "Slow Down!!!"

That afternoon, my daughter came up to me and asked-- for the first time-- if she could take the car.

At least she offered to pick up a Starbucks for me.

Spring is finally on its way. This weather this past weekend was beautiful and we were able to clear up the remaining leaves and other garden debris from the yard.

And this little guy is pushing his way through the ground...

Has anyone else noticed that the music in Walgreens is a little more, uh, hip than it used to be?

Okay, I'll admit that by "hip" I mean "the sort of thing they may play on your 'classic rock ' station's 'Deep Cuts' segment."

Over the past couple of weeks, I've heard Pink Floyd's "Learning to Fly," Jimi Hendrix' "Little Wing," and "I Hear You Knocking" by Dave Edmunds, all while shopping for things like shaving cream and coffee filters. And this was in a couple different stores, so it's not like the Walgreens I usually visit has suddenly become a Muzak rebel.

I couldn't tell you what they were playing before-- shows how innocuous it must have been.

I wonder if playing the Rolling Stones will increase sales of Geritol...

We attended this year's Chef's Fest at Arlington International Racecourse. You can hear all about it on our Discover Woodfield! podcast.

Here's Emma with Sonic the Hedgehog, who was visiting from GameWorks in Schaumburg.

I'm pretty sure it's safe to say that Spring finally arrived in Chicago this past weekend. Our bulbs (those that made it through the winter, anyway) finally came up...

...our hostas are climbing out of the ground...

..and a robin built her nest in the crabtree right outside our dining room window.

I was also able to complete the first outdoor project of the year, building a new planter in the corner of the yard:

Now all we need is for the weather to cooperate, and we'll be on our way to all sorts of fresh veggie goodness. I may even drag out my old tomato sauce recipe.

What a great time of year.

We spent the weekend at a bed and breakfast on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. This was the view from our window.

The weather held out beautifully, with only a thundertorm on Saturday night.

We took the Skyway to the Indiana Tollroad on the way there, and thanks to the reciprocal agreement between the states, we were able to breeze through all the tolls with our I-Pass.

On the way home Sunday, we decided to take the "old school" way home-- we drove US Route 12 from New Buffalo all the way back-- we saw some interesting things along the way... but that's another story.

What a relaxing weekend.

Our Roma tomatoes and peppers (cayenne, jalapeno, green bell) really enjoyed all the heat and rain we had recently, as have the onions and bush beans. The heirloom bean seeds didn't come up, but the cukes did. We now have carrots and some new bean seeds in the ground, and those should surface shortly. And the sunflowers in the back row are about to spring up in a huge way.

More updates as events warrant. :-)

The photo above shows my Father's Day present: an awesome hammock, complete with frame. I'm looking forward to a nice, sunny day when I'll be able to hang out there for an hour or two...

The weekend was very nice: we had dinner on Saturday night with my dad at Johnny's in Glenview, followed by a visit to the physical therapy center where my mom is staying following her knee surgery. Our last stop was our first visit of the season to the Glenview Dairy Bar. Yum.

On Sunday, the kids came over and we had an early dinner at Maggiano's followed by a relaxing day just hanging out.

Sometimes the quietest days are the best.. :-)

The weather here has been alternately hot and muggy and cool and rainy. The tomatoes are digging it, as are the beans. We have a few tomatoes and peppers on the plants, and the cukes are starting to climb.

This photo was taken just before I went in and trimmed the tomato plants back.

In the right rear corner of the garden, you can see the emerging Mammoth sunflowers. By next update, they should be significantly taller.

Salsa and tomato sauce soon!

We just got back from our (sorta) annual trip to Scottsdale, and for the first time Lisa was part of all the traditions. And boy, was she ever told about the traditions. :-)

The weather was beautiful, even though it was well over 100° every day.

Every time I drive down Higgins/Touhy Avenue in unincorporated Elk Grove Village (or it might be Des Plaines, when I think of it), my eyes are always drawn to an old, abandoned gas station just west of some railroad tracks.

One day back in the early 1980s I took my parents to the airport, and on the way home I stopped here to fill up the car. I paid $1.29 a gallon that day.

A week later I passed by the station and it was closed. The signs, lights, pumps, station house, and billboards were all in place, but the station never reopened. The Marlboro cartons were still stacked just inside the station's windows. The sign with the gas prices still read $1.29 for Regular.

Over the next twenty-some years I drove by the place every so often and saw how it was both frozen in time and deteriorating simultaneously. The "1 29" eventually fell off the sign, the billboards, station, and a couple light posts collapsed, and the concrete became overgrown as the prairie reclaimed its space.

A few years ago, someone took over the property and stacked huge concrete blocks all over the property and surrounding area. You can see they left the sign and one of the lights intact. (The billboard with the law firm advertisement is a newer addition.) I've wondered if the station and everything else is still there behind the concrete and bushes.

I'm not sure why I'm drawn to this place. Maybe it has to do with the way it's become a physical representation of the passage of time and the fact that things keep moving forward even after "business as usual" is done. That I was at the gas station right before it closed somehow connects me to it.

Now, if only that $1.29 gas was still around...

In the few weeks since I last posted a garden update, we've had a lot of rain and many humid, sunny days. You can see the tomatoes (left), beans (middle), cucumbers (right) and sunflowers (back row) all love this weather. Also digging the weather but much less visible are the onions and pepper plants, next to the tomatoes.

The tomato plants are almost 5 feet tall and the sunflowers are approaching 6 feet. We have a lot of fruit on the tomato plants (still all green), and I picked our first cayenne peppers and green beans last night.

Salsa soon. In the meantime, I'm gonna have to do some trimming in there.. :-)

I recently received a notice from the Illinois State Tollway Authority for $396.40 in toll violations. Basically, the letter said that if I didn't pay up they'd come after my driver's license, and who knows what other bad things would befall me.

Here in Illlinois, we have a wonderful Tollway system that's supported partially by the people who pass through tollbooths and drop in 80 cents to a few bucks, depending on where you are. (We'll put aside the fact that the tollbooths were supposed to go away in the 1970s when the infrastructure was paid off.)

If you choose to blow off the toll plazas by zipping through the lanes designed for I-Pass holders (an electronic method of payment), the Tollway Authority will take a photo of your license plate and after you reach a threshold you receive a letter like the one above.

It should be stated that I am an I-Pass holder in good standing. My account gets charged, from what I can tell, every time I go through a tollbooth. It's not out of the question to think that the tollbooth would occasionally not pick up my transponder. I just figured that somehow they would match the license plate on my account to the plate that they photographed and say "Okay, maybe he's got a weak battery in his I-Pass" or something.

Nope.

Between July of 2006 and January of 2008 they caught my plate 19 times. At an average of $.86 per toll plus a $20 fine per violation, the Tollway Authority came to me with a bill for the aforementioned $396.40.

Now, here's the really stupid part of all this:

I have "Park District/Youth" plates on my car: let's say the number is "1234," and the plate has a "YP" designation at the end of the number to differentiate it from any other "1234" out there. My registration from the Illinois Secretary of State's office says that my license plate number is "1234YP."

When I registered the I-Pass transponder, I told them that my license plate was "1234YP." In the photograph that accompanied the letter, you can see I have the Park District plates with a number and "YP."

Someone in the Illinois Tollway Authority's office decided that this license plate belongs to a car that does not have an I-Pass registered to it, so the registered owner must be a scofflaw. So they go to another state agency, the Secretary of State, to get my name and address from the vehicle's registration information. The Illinois Secretary of State's office happily complies, and the violation notice is sent.

To put it another way, one Illinois agency will gladly pass along information to another Illinois agency as long as there's bucks to be made. Let's not let facts get in the way or anything.

In the middle of the letter, there's a statement to I-Pass users that the notice may have been sent in error if the vehicle information is not up to date, so just call and they'll take care of it. This is amid all sorts of nasty threats and admonishments.

After 45 minutes on hold, I was connected to a nice lady named Rachael who explained that "1234YP" is not, in fact, my license plate number: it's "1234 / Park District Youth" and she'd be happy to change my I-Pass registration and remove the violations from my record.

I asked if I was the first person to have this problem and she said "Oh heavens, no. This happens all the time." I had to ask if there was any way the Tollway Authority could communicate better with the Secretary of State-- after all, they all have the same boss, right? She laughed and said, "You would think so, wouldn't you?"

So let this be a cautionary tale: if you have special plates (or, heaven forbid are from out-of-state), beware that something like this may be lurking near you.

And sometime in the future, I'll tell the story of how a local police officer stopped me and asked if my license plates were legal Illinois tags. But I'll save that for another time.

We had an awesome wave of green beans, and then the plants started to tucker out. There are a few on the bushes now, but it seems the supply is nearing exhaustion.

On happier notes, you can see the sunflowers have hit 6-8 feet and are about ready to open. The onions are huge in the ground, and the cucumber feast has begun:

We've had a handful of jalapenos and cayenne peppers so far:

And this is the very beginning of our second wave of Roma tomatoes:

Read the next entry to see what happened to these guys.

A photo essay of our home-based vacation last week:

A ton of tomatoes and other good stuff later, the garden is heading into the home stretch for the year. The sunflowers finally bloomed this past week, and we picked some very nice-sized cucumbers.

Next up: Lisa is going to share her experiences with composting-- you'll want to be around for that. :-)

We decided to do some thinning out in the garden the other day and wound up cleaning most of it up.

The tomato plants pretty much breathed their last a while ago-- there were a few straggler romas hanging on the vines, but for the most part the plants were exhausted. It might have been the hot and dry August we just came through, but no amount of care seemed to help them keep going. I was a little surprised because in the past I've been able to keep tomato plants going well into the first frost of October.

The green beans produced a second wave and we have a bunch of cayenne and jalapeno peppers along with some nice cucumbers.

What remains in the garden are our white onions, which should be ready to be pulled in about a week.

I'm pretty sure we overcrowded the garden this year, which contributed to some of the issues we faced. We kind of expected issues since this year was really an experiment in what we could accomplish in that corner of the yard. Part of our plan for next year is to limit what's in the backyard garden and do some serious planting at the community garden where I had some things growing back in 2003.

The sunflowers did well, and I'll be drying the flower heads to get seeds for next year's crop.

The top layer of the garden consists of the compost Lisa made. More to follow on that.

This past weekend, we dealt with the remnants of Hurricane Ike. This is a shot of the detention pond at Sunset Meadows in Arlington Heights taken on Sunday. It's difficult to get a clear idea of how much water we're looking at, but there's about 30 feet of water in the basin in this photo.

By comparison, this is a picture taken from the same angle in May, 2005:

Here's the driving range:

The Weather Service predicts clearer weather for the rest of this week, so we'll get the chance to dry out.

This past weekend, we visited More Than Delicious Orchard in Woodstock. This was our second year there, and we were once again very pleased with the selection and the overall experience.

Years ago, my favorite place to go for apples was Wauconda Orchards, which was cleared a few years ago for another housing development. Wauconda Orchards was a real destination, with a huge store with a bakery, a petting zoo, and hayrides.

More Than Delicious is much smaller, but certainly more manageable.

Now we have a half-bushel of assorted apples, ready to be turned into all sorts of fall culinary goodness.

This year's pumpkins by (from left to right) Becca, Lisa, and Emma.

We received no corporate sponsorship money. :-)

I'm going to buy The Wellington a "G" or two.

We got our first few flakes the other night-- a couple weeks earlier than last year. None of it really stuck, which was nice, but it's just a sign of things to come...

On another note, I heard from the VP of Operations of Biggby Coffee regarding the store in downtown Arlington Heights. He told me that "the previous operator will not be re-opening the store, but we do have several other people interested in it..."

We'll see if someone takes over soon. Biggby's is a nice alternative to the other coffee shop a couple blocks away.

We had a very nice Thanksgiving weekend-- it started with Craig and Megan's visit Wednesday night as they were on their way down to Indiana. We broke open a Mommessin Beaujolais Nouveau, which was very nice despite the plastic bottle. :-)

On Thursday we went to my parents' house and enjoyed a great dinner including Lisa's secret cranberry sauce and a new version of Magic Pumpkin Pie. My sister and her kids were there, so even though Becca and Emma weren't there, there were still other little voices in the house.

I went into the office on Friday as I usually do, mainly because I can actually get something done on that day. I typically hate going out for the Black Friday madness, but this year I did wind up at Best Buy since it's walking distance from my office, and I managed to knock off a little Christmas shopping. There weren't long lines, but people were spending money.

An interesting side note: as I approached the store at around 8:30 am, I could see the line of trash left by the people who waited alongside the building earlier that day. Clearly, Dunkin' Donuts was the preferred refreshment, given the number of cups and bags left behind that bore their logo.

Around noon, Lisa came and picked me up and we took off for her folks' house. The 94/65 junction in Indiana is fully repaired and open, so we whizzed right through to the land of $1.50 per gallon gasoline.

We broke tradition this year and missed the annual Arlington Heights Tree Lighting Event, but we've more than made up for it with our previous attendance.

We arrived in Frankfort on Friday evening, and spent the next couple days eating, playing Tripoley and Scrabble and watching this year's Apple Butter video.

We had our first Chick-Fil-A experience in Lafayette on the way home. We were there on "All You Can Eat Nuggets" night, but we didn't partake. Our verdict: good, but not really exceptional.

On Sunday, we had breakfast at TNT and then picked up our Christmas tree at Lowe's. I know, it's not exactly the Currier and Ives image of cutting down our own tree in a snowy woodlands, but our feet stayed dry and we wound up with a really fresh tree.

The holiday season has officially begun.

We got a few inches of snow today, which makes it feel a lot like Christmas.

All of our decorations are up, and we've dragged out the Dickens, as Tom Lehrer once sang.

I also got out some of my old Dennis the Menace "Pocket Full of Fun" digests. The frame above comes from the 1972 "Xmas Xtra" collection. My original copy disappeared years ago, but I picked up a nearly-complete collection from an eBay seller.

More of the season to follow!

Here's wishing everyone the happiest and all the best the New Year has to offer.

Your regularly scheduled blogging will resume next week. :-)

I bought my first house in Arlington Heights in 1990. It was on Highland Avenue just south of downtown and was built in 1929. According to the neighbors-- and the Arlington Heights telephone directories I've seen-- the same family lived there until sometime in the 1980s.

While doing various remodeling projects, I found lots of old things behind walls, under staircases, and under eaves. The calendar above was rolled up and stuck in a corner of the attic, under a pile of insulation. It was accompanied by this one:

I recently ran across these calendars and decided to post images of them here. The fact that the 1942 calendar syncs up with 2009 is sort of an added bonus, actually making it useful.

The calendars are a nice size: the Arlington calendar measures about 16" x 14" and the Cherry-Burrell is 18" x 24". As you may expect, the paper is a bit delicate after 60-some years in storage.

I like a lot of things about this calendar: the practical tips given each month ("Not What You Get, but What You Hold Eases LIfe's Burden when You're Old."); the days that were marked as noteworthy (April 13: "Lafayette Arrives From France 1777"); and the graphics for the phases of the moon. I may scan some of these images for use as handy clip art.

The Arlington Heights National Bank stood at 14 E Campbell Street, where the Chase Bank is today.

The second, a 1948 calendar from Cherry-Burrell, is interesting for the fact that underneath the tear-off calendar pages there's a list of all the offices the company had around the world. Evidently, they were based at 427 W Randolph St, near the North Western train station, and specialized in milk and ice cream processing equipment. In fact, the company lives on, based in Wisconsin.

Update 1/11/2009: I also found this calendar from U O Colson Company, from 1948. Colson was based in Paris, Illinois, which is between Mattoon, Illinois and Terre Haute, Indiana. Here's an interesting history of the company.

On the next page you'll see photos of each page of the Arlington National Bank calendar. Click on each to see the complete image. I hope you enjoy them!

Here's another find from the Highland Avenue attic: a copy of Captain Marvel Adventures, dated May, 1949.

The comic book is in fair condition, although the pages are somewhat brittle.

There's nothing even remotely political in the stories, which I suppose makes sense given the year. The most socially-conscious storyline features one of the characters, Tawky Tawny the Tiger, selling his name to endorse a bunch of junk products, and later realizing he probably should have checked out his business partner, a certain "Mr Twister," a little more closely.

A scan of the cover and a couple the pages from the comic book appear on the next page. Enjoy!

Our new president was inaugurated today: many of us watched the event from our homes and offices, stopping in our tracks to hear the words that will set the tone for the next phase of our country's journey.

Mr Obama's speech was inspirational and well put-together.

Now, before I continue, I'll mention that I voted for Mr Obama because I felt his message and platform closely match my own priorities, and I am glad that he won the election.

That said, I have to admit I am terribly uncomfortable with the Rock Star status we've given our president. People have "Obama-ized" their Twitter and Facebook icons, and are a little too focused on the "We Won!!!!" aspect of the election's outcome.

Based on much of what I've seen, you would think we just elected Eric Clapton president. (Okay, if this was 1972. And if he was American. And if he actually wanted to be president. I think you get my point.)

I have absolutely nothing against celebrations in general, and nothing against celebrating the victory that Mr Obama represents from so many standpoints. The president and those who worked hard to support his campaign deserve to cut loose today.

What concerns me is Tomorrow.

Barack Obama is not a rock star. He's not The Wizard of Oz. He's a man who's got a very tough job to do: he needs to address the economy and the threat of terrorism, both areas that have spiraled in recent years. Hero worship alone cannot sustain the changes needed to bring the country where it needs to be.

What worries me most is that we as a country have tough choices to make, and when a Rock Star says something unpopular, he suddenly finds himself at the bottom of the charts. To quote the president's inaugural speech:

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America — they will be met.

A clear message, to be sure. And I sincerely hope the people with Obama-ized icons will be willing to listen to the man when he has an unpleasant message to send about those challenges that will not be met easily or-- more importantly-- in the "short span of time." The true believers of Change will stand by the president. Hero worshippers may not.

Today, conservative columnist Cal Thomas wrote in an open letter to the president: "You campaigned on change and won the election. That was the easy part. Every new administration comes to town thinking it will be better than the one before it, more honest, more ethical, more competent. But people and events have a way of frustrating the loftiest goals. All of your good intentions notwithstanding, no one person can change a city built on a swamp, a city that has taken on many of a swamp's characteristics."

Okay, so Cal's a bit of a downer. Still, there's something to be said for taking a realistic view of the world and the politics of our country. I believe that those who listen to the Rush Limbaughs and Rachel Maddows of the world-- I know people who are fanatical about each of them-- should keep their eyes on what's real and what's noise. Be careful what you accept as truth, and what you should realize is merely showmanship.

I truly want to see Mr Obama succeed. The United States has too long been mired in areas where we shouldn't, and the wrong priorities have driven us for too long.

Change is good. And I am willing to give it the time and energy it deserves.

Two years ago today, I became the happiest person I know.

And I still feel the same way.

...'cause I said it was.

This is what our world looked like this past Sunday morning:

Bring it on, Spring!

Here are Lisa and Emma by the firepit a couple weeks ago. It was a warm Friday night and we took advantage of the nice weather.

As soon as this nonsensical "spring" weather goes away, we'll do this a lot more often!

I have a ton of negatives in a box in my crawl space. Most of them are 35mm, but I also have a bunch of 35mm slides and even an envelope full of 110 shots.

Over the years, I've thought about scanning in the prints or even the negatives so I could have them archived digitally, but every time I attempted it I decided it was a ton of work that would take up time I simply didn't have. As a result, I managed to scan in some photos as one-offs, but having everything in my collection in digital form was elusive.

One of Lisa's friends blogged about an online service called ScanCafe, whose prices are reasonable (24¢ per image) and provides scans with excellent quality (3000 dpi). I was intrigued, so I went through my box 'o' negatives and picked a bunch of samples and tried out the service.

Here's how it works: You pick out the negatives you want to have scanned-- they're initially scanned at the negative strip level, not the individual photo level-- and put them in a plastic ziplock bag or an envelope, then pack them in a box. You enter your account information on ScanCafe's site, they give you a UPS shipping label to print out, and you pay for 50% of the images you're sending in.

A few weeks later, you'll receive an email from ScanCafe with a link to thumbnails of the initial scans, then you select the images you want them to scan and put on a DVD for you. Add a few more weeks, and a box shows up at your door with your original negatives and a DVD with your selected photos in digital form.

I chose photos across several years. The shot at the top was taken in 1998, and the one below was a 35mm slide that was shot in my back yard in 1976.

I have to admit the quality is pretty good, better than I could have done with my Epson scanner at home. I had about 120 images scanned, and they all turned out very nice.

The scanning is all done at ScanCafe's facility in Bangalore, India, with the company's California address acting as a dispatch/coordination center. This contributes to the lead times-- in reality, it took about two months from the time I sent in the negatives to the time the DVD showed up.

As I think about my next order, I may choose photos from a certain period-- perhaps two or three years' worth at a time-- and have them scanned so sorting the images at the receiving end is less of a task. Right now, the images jump around from year to year.

If you're looking for a hands-off solution to digitizing your photos, ScanCafe is a service to seriously consider.

The Summer season has officially kicked in, and of course, Summer means Graduations. Emma's class held their graduation ceremony Monday night at Rolling Meadows High School. Needless to say, it was a happy and emotional occasion for everyone, including E.

Congratulations, Emma! (I know I'm not old enough to have two high-school-aged daughters-- something must have gotten mixed up somewhere.)

And this little guy is our newest addition to the family. Clark was born in March, and he came home with us last week. So far, he's managed to charm everyone who walks through the front door.

All we need now is for the weather to cooperate, and we can get this "Summer" thing underway.

Well, it's that time of year again. Actually, it's well past that time of year: the time to get out there and commune with the soil.

While we've had plenty of rain so far this year, there haven't been too many wam days, so my gardening efforts have fallen a bit behind schedule.

A few weeks ago, I managed to get our backyard garden planted; we have a few tomato and pepper plants along with some bush beans. New to the yard this year are two zucchini plants and some basil. Once the temps heat up we should be in good shape, and not nearly as overcrowded as last year.

The reason for the less-crowded garden this year is the fact that we have a 25' x 25' plot at Cypress Gardens just across Arlington Heights Road.

You may recall from this blog that I had a plot at Cypress in 2003 and 2004, with varying degrees of success. I was a condo-dweller in those days, and only a fraction of a mile further from the garden in the other direction. For some reason, though, it was difficult to keep it going. Now that we live closer and have a place to store all the appropriate tools, it seems to be going much better.

In addition to the chicken-wire fence I put up, I also set the plot up into quadrants. One area has about 20 tomato plants, another has beans, peppers, and cucumbers, and a third has four "Three Sisters" plantings underway. So far, things are moving along, albeit slowly.

The fourth quadrant, it turns out, is problematic. When we first checked out the plot before planting, one of our "neighbors" came over to say that we would have a water problem. He explained in a heavy Russian accent that the water spigot we were near always leaks, and that his friend who had the plot last year had to abandon it because of flooding. Well, he was right. We thought we'd be smart and plant something that needed a lot of water in that spot, so we stuck a watermelon plant in the ground. The poor thing is practically drowned at this point. Fortunately, the water problem seems to be limited to that one section of the garden, so when the weather finally heats up maybe things will dry out.

The other clever thing I've done this year is to bring my grass clippings from the house and put them in the pathways I formed between the garden quadrants. This helps keep the weeds down and sucks up the extra moisture from the leaky water spigot. If I get enough clippings I'll put them down among the plants.

I also have a couple rows of sunflowers going at both Cypress and in the backyard.

Now all we need is some real sunshine.

On Friday evening we took off for Akron, OH to attend Lisa's cousin's graduation party. We got to take two of the Great American Roads, the Indiana Tollway and the Ohio Turnpike. This was the first time I was on these roads since I was a kid, and aside from the fact that I didn't have any comic books in the car it was pretty much as I remembered it: straight and flat.

One of my favorite memories of this road was when my family was returning from a trip to Canada, and we stopped at a Howard Johnson's at one of the waysides. This wasn't a regular restaurant-- it was kind of a lousy cafeteria with all sorts of prepackaged sandwiches and whatnot. I remember as we were leaving my oldest brother got a comment card that we filled out while riding in the station wagon. We couldn't wait to get home so we could tell the Howard Johnson people about their "raunchy pizza."

"You never know when you're making a memory..." as Rickie Lee Jones once sang. A bad lunch experience actually wound up a happy memory.

We had the chance to almost re-live this moment as Lisa, Emma, and I had some über-average Uno's microwave pizza at a stop on the turnpike on the way home. It wasn't Dondi's, but Emma said "it's okay for road-trip pizza." What a trouper.

The nice thing about the trip was the fact that the weather held out and the six and a half hour ride went very smoothly.

We returned late Saturday in time to prepare for a great Father's Day celebration with the family.

Summerfest, Farmer's Markets, and Superdawg. What more could we ask for?

Summer's here!

Last week we took our annual excursion to Scottsdale. It was a great trip, as usual.

The neat thing is that they were having this thing called "Summer," as opposed to what we've had in Chicago, which is an average of one day of summer wrapped up in three days of Fall.

We stayed at a place called The Xona Resort Suites, which was pretty nice: these are shots of the pool that was right outside our door.

After a few days of family, swimming, tanning, and yes, a trip to Old Town Scottsdale, we were on our way back home to cooler temperatures.

We've had some strange weather here in Chicago his summer. As a result, the garden has been a bit behind schedule. We've had some green beans and a couple of nice-sized zucchini, but the tomatoes are all green. We usually have more than a few red ones by this time of year.

Over at Cypress, the "Three Sisters" experiment didn't go as planned, but we still have several corn plants going over there as well as some peppers and a bunch of tomato plants (with all green fruit as well). Photos coming soon.

The Rose of Sharon bush bloomed just in time for the annual family party in mid-July, and our first wave of sunflowers burst nicely.

It's vacation week here, so we'll have a good combination of relaxing and working on the house.

I've noticed over the past several weeks that many of the people I follow on social networking sites have started quoting motivational speakers. Often. For some reason, I suddenly have about a half-dozen people in my feeds on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn who not only want to ensure I have a great day, but that I Do What I Love To Do Because I Love To Do What I Do.

What I don't understand is why all these people have suddenly taken it upon themselves to spread these messages. Good wishes are one thing, but being told over Twitter that it's my #1 Priority to Make Today Count By Being The Best Possible You (or "Me," presumably) is something else.

I understand why people on LinkedIn do this: LinkedIn a business networking site and in the business world we live this stuff, so why not make a good showing to a potential employer or business partner by showing publicly that you're one of those carpe-diem people? (And perhaps sometime I'll tell you how often my cheese has been moved.) But now Facebook and Twitter also seem to be homes for platitudes.

Maybe it's tension over the economy or just something in the air that's spurring on a sudden desire for introspection... I don't know. All I know is that I'm seeing a lot of it these days.

I've previously questioned the value of Facebook and Twitter, and I know the real answer is to direct my browser elsewhere and shut up. Still, that doesn't stop me from feeling a little annoyed. Seeing an inspirational quote in my feeds rarely serves to inspire me-- actually, it makes me wonder what's up with the person posting it.

I believe an affirmation is something private. At certain times we all need a little lift in our shoe, as it were, and it's those times when I seek out some form of inspiration. Sometimes I'll do something as simple as heading out into the sunshine or putting on a song that I know will get me charged up or lift my spirits. When I was going through a particularly rough phase of my life a few years ago, I had the lyrics to one of my favorite songs stuck to my fridge with a magnet. A few years earlier, I had the "Five Votes of Confidence" printed out and stuck on the flyleaf of my DayRunner. The point is that I sought out the inspiration.

In general, I've always been a pretty upbeat guy, and despite whatever setbacks or challenges I've had in my life, I've managed to keep an even keel. And yes, I've read some of the books and heard the tapes by the bigshots of the motivational speaker world.

I have nothing against the likes of Zig Ziglar, Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, Anthony Robbins, et al. They all provide a worthwhile service, and if their audiences find their words helpful, more power to them. (And don't forget, the books, tapes, and posters are available for sale at the back of the room.)

From what I've seen, most motivational speakers take simple concepts and express them in simpler terms. The better ones in the bunch, like those named above, do it in a fashion that makes you stop and think, and it's not until much later that you realize the ideas you heard were very simple, yet they stuck with you. The lousy speakers, like the guy I saw at a company seminar years ago-- he was previously a high school football coach and still acted every bit of it-- have a technique that's so transparent that they have a Matt Foley effect: I walked away motivated to do the opposite of what the speaker said.

It comes down to this: if you get something out of motivational speakers' words, go you. I'm just not sure I need to see it blasting at me between "I'm waiting in line 20 mins at Starbucks. Coffee break=FAIL" and "Dan just took the quiz 'Which brand of ketchup are you?'"

This is downtown Arlington Heights as seen from the Metra station.

I took these two photos this morning with my BlackBerry Curve. The quality doesn't rival a real digital camera, but I really like the effect-- it has almost an Impressionist feel to it. These were shot with the default settings, so the device took it upon itself to put that blue color in the sky; it was actually much darker.

And here's the 5:44 am train approaching the station.

We closed out the traditional end of summer on Labor Day with Liz and Bob and their boat on the Fox River.

We took off around 10:30 am and got back in just before sunset.

It was a beautiful day, and a lot of other people had the same idea...

Including the floating hot dog guy.

We sailed under the Metra UP Northwest line at Cary on the way back to the marina, and we ended the day with hot dogs grilled over the firepit.

Now we're officially ready for Fall!

IT'S ALWAYS MEANS IT IS.

When I was in college, one Professor Hardy took down the grade on one of my papers just a fraction because I used the word "critique" as a verb. At that time, Merriam-Webster categorized "critique" as a noun only. That became something else I carried with me.

Needless to say, having this stuff drilled into me day after day throughout my formative years had an effect on me. I'd always make sure that whatever communication I'd create would be well constructed and appropriately delivered. I carried this through high school and college, then into the professional world. When I started accessing Usenet and later the Web, I was proud of the way I could hone a phrase in a discussion forum. ("I'm not saying Justin Hayward's contribution to progressive rock wasn't significant; I just believe 'he's so adorable' is no basis for the creation of a Usenet newsgroup." -me, sometime in 1994). It was very easy to sound intelligent when everyone else in the forums were either SHOUTING or developing their L337 Speak.

Above all, I tried not to turn into a pedantic smarty-pants.

As my daughters made their way through school, I tried to instill in them a sense of what correct grammar looked and sounded like, but I did it without the steel-ruler approach-- I would offer gentle corrections. I'd occasionally find grammar mistakes in the newspaper and point them out to family and friends (like the time our local paper reported how the grade schools got electronic microscopes with special "censors" attached), but I tried really hard not to become that guy.

Then I started to notice more people around me calling out errors. Grammar blogs and podcasts started up, and people started carrying Wite-Out to remove errant apostrophes and Sharpies to put them in where they belonged. At first it was kind of funny and brought a sense of community to us English Majors, but then I realized I was surrounded by pedantic smarty-pantses.

And I was one of them.

This realization came to me via three different routes in a very short time. First, BBC film critic Mark Kermode has made a career out of being pedantic, but he presents his case in a sort of ironic form, which makes it a bit more palatable. Listen to a few of his reviews and you'll hear statements (and associated lengthy explanations) like "that part of the movie was 'obscene' in the Greek sense of the word." Mark can be a funny and interesting guy, but after a few months of listening I realized he is that guy.

Second, my lovely wife overheard my use of the phrase "I was an English major, and..." and she stopped, looked at me, and said "please don't be that guy." Wow-- it was like some sort of laser-guided X-Acto knife aimed at my diploma (but in the nicest possible way).

Finally, I heard this podcast by actor Stephen Fry, in which he set things right regarding language and its usage. Fry is well-known to fans of British comedies like Blackadder and A Bit of Fry and Laurie, and is also a scholar of the English language. In this piece, Fry wonders why the people who concern themselves with language are focused on the mechanics rather than the joy of putting words together for the sheer fun of it. And in the process, he takes grammar cops down a notch or two:

Excerpt from Stephen Fry's Podgrams, 22 December 2008: "Language"
(available at this link)

Sadly, desperately sadly, the only people who seem to be bothered with language today, bother with it in quite the wrong way. They write letters to broadcasters and newspapers in which they are rude and haughty about other peoples' usage and in which they show off their superior knowledge of how language should be.

I hate that and I particularly hate that so many of these pedants assume that I'm on their side. When asked to join into a "let's persuade this supermarket chain to get rid of their 'five items or less' sign", I never join in. Yes, I am aware of the technical distinction between less and fewer, and between uninterested and disinterested and infer and imply, and all the rest of them but none of these are of importance to me. None of these are of importance, I said, you'll notice. The old pedantic me would have insisted on none of them is of importance to me. Well I'm glad to say I've outgrown that silly approach to language.

Oscar Wilde, and there have been no more greater and more complete lords of language in the past thousand years, once included in a manuscript he was delivering to his publisher, a compliments slip in which he'd scribbled the injunction, 'I'll leave you to tidy up the woulds and shoulds, wills and shalls, thats and whichs etc'.

There's all kinds of pedants around with more time to read and imitate Lynn Truss and John Humphries than to write poems, love letters, novels and stories it seems. They whip out their Sharpies and take away and add apostrophes from public signs. Shake their heads at prepositions which end sentences and mutter at split infinitives and misspellings.

But do they bubble and froth and slobber and careen with joy at language? Do they ever let the tripping of the tips of their tongues against the tops of their teeth transport them to giddy euphoric bliss? Do they ever yoke impossible words together for the sound-sex of it? Do they use language to seduce, charm, excite, please, affirm and tickle those they talk too? Do they? I doubt it, they're too farting busy sneering at a green grocer's less than perfect use of the apostrophe. Well sod them to Hades. They think they're guardians of language; they're no more guardians of language than the kennel club is the guardians of dog-kind.

Well put.

Don't get me wrong: I'll continue to honor my education by following the rules instilled in me, with my copy of The Transitive Vampire at my side, but I won't be calling others out. I don't want to be that guy. And nobody likes a smarty-pants.

Earlier this year, I got a BlackBerry Curve 8900. The phone has a 3 megapixel camera, and while I've never been impressed with the quality of photos produced by smartphones, there's something about the pictures this one takes that makes them seem almost other-worldly: the colors are intense, and there's an interesting graininess to the shots. I resized all of these in Photoshop in order to fit them here, but the quality of the images remain intact.

The photo above was shot at Top Golf in Wood Dale in June.

Busse Woods.

Superdawg.

Patio on a summer evening.

Firepit.

Smores and the Grundig Satellit 700.

Heading north on the Fox River at Northwest Highway/UPRR Northwest Line tracks.

Berghoff Oktoberfest: September 17 2009.

The heck with Talk Like a Pirate Day-- here's Drinking Like a Pirate.

Neon sign at Scooby's in Arlington Heights.

Actually, this is a "just-past" Harvest Moon, which was a couple days ago.

The Harvest Moon is the full moon nearest the Autumnal Equinox. The story goes that the brightness of the moon would allow farmers to harvest their fields through the night.

With tonight's winds and clouds, it just looks plain spooky.

...actually, it wasn't that late. It was around 8:00 pm this evening.

I took this shot from the parking lot at my office. I adjusted the lighting a bit and it came up a little eerie.

Another frosty morning.

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving weekend, although it started a bit rocky with some furnace issues.

The family came over here on Thursday for dinner, we got our tree and started decorating on Friday, and on Friday night we drove to Indiana to spend time in the now-barren cornfields.

And now the holiday season is in full-swing. Let's make it a happy one!

While Winter doesn't officially begin for a few weeks, we've already had our first snowfall and cold snap.

The gourd in this photo is still targeted to have its seeds roasted. I hope the pumpkin thaws so we can get them out.

We spent the weekend in downtown Chicago, one of our holiday traditions.

This year, we decided to try and leave a smaller carbon footprint while enjoying our time. First, Becca drove us to the Arlington Heights Metra station (an advantage of having a teenaged daughter who drives) and we took the train downtown. Once at Ogilvie, we took a CTA bus which landed us within a few blocks of our hotel.

We walked the rest of the day, and then took a bus which dropped us near the Greek Islands (another favorite), and caught another one back to the hotel. A train ride back to Arlington and another lift from Becca on Sunday afternoon brought the trip full circle.

Not only were we trying to accomplish a more "green" excursion, but we also saved the valet fee downtown and most of all, proved that it could be done: making the trip without driving into and around the city.

Happy holidays!

I don't make New Year's Resolutions.

I realize that many people use the end of the year as their reflect-and-recharge period, where they review the previous year and determine what changes they want to make in the following year. That's good, and I wish those people all the power in the world to make it happen.

That said, I think there are many more people who dive headlong into the excesses of the holiday season-- some starting as far back as Halloween-- and pull all the stops and overindulge for the next several weeks, using the excuse that their New Year's Resolution will be to go to the gym every night, get on Weight Watchers, and only eat Lean Cuisines.

And in many cases, that's exactly what these people do, and the stores and health clubs love it. Walk into any store the day after Christmas and you'll see aisles of SlimFast shakes, Alli (if they even sell that stuff any more), and tons of As-Seen-On-TV exercise devices. I have to adjust my workout schedule this time of year because my gym is always packed right after January 1.

Then, predictably, we start to approach Spring Break time and the healthy displays at the stores go away and the crowds at the health club start to dissipate. And I'm able to get a bike in cycling class 5 minutes before it starts rather than having to get there an hour early. After April 1, we're guaranteed to be back to business-as-usual.

The turning of the calendar page is as good a time as any to make a change, but I believe that if a change needs to be made in my life I should make it as soon as possible once it's identified. Life certainly doesn't care what page is showing on your calendar, so why use that to determine when you want to improve something in your life? When I think back on all the major changes I've made in my life over the years, none of them were based on the calendar (and by extension, none of them were New Year's Resolutions): changing jobs, changing relationships, changing my approach to what and how I eat and drink, how often I exercise: every single one of these significant lifestyle changes came about when I decided it was time to do it.

Lisa and I recently completed an exercise where we cleared out every storage space in the house and got rid of a whole bunch of unused things. This wasn't a "2010" thing-- it was a "we've got the time to do it now, so let's do it" thing.

So as we approach 2010, I recommend you resolve just one thing: to recognize a need for change in your life and to do it without waiting for the calendar to turn over.

Have a safe and happy New Year's Eve, and here's to kicking off 2010 as a great year!

31 years ago a snowstorm began in Chicago. It ended three days later, and by that time 21 inches of snow had fallen. And this was on top of the 7 to 10 inches that were already on the ground from a storm on New Year's Eve.

I was in high school at the time, and that's my red 1974 VW Super Beetle under the white blanket. While VWs weren't the best cold-weather cars (mostly due to their lack of heat), I will say that I was able to crawl through the streets while friends of mine in their rear-wheel drive cars cut donuts in the snow.

These photos were shot between January 12-14 1979 and give an idea of just how much we had to deal with.

This is one of my favorites: my sister Marybeth looking eye-level at our dog, Nicky. Nicky was "playing in the yard."

So far, Chicago's had a cold winter with a fair amount of snow, but I hope these photos will help the complainers keep perspective.

Here's another photo from my archives.

This is an abandoned Shell gas station that was somewhere near the Wisconsin Dells. I wish I had put more of the building in the photo, but as I recall it had almost entirely collapsed.

I took this photo one morning in August, 1983 with a Pentax K1000 and Kodacolor VR (probably 200 ASA) film. This was scanned from the original print.

On a related note, I sent over 2000 images (color photo negatives and slides, as well as some black and white negatives) to be scanned at ScanCafe.com. Some of these go back as far as 1976. Within the next couple of months you can expect to see those, including a cleaned-up version of this shot.

I took the photo above sometime in 1983-- probably in the Spring. This is a view looking north on Halsted around Jackson Blvd.

A couple interesting points about this shot: the Greek Islands restaurant had just moved to their new location at Halsted and Adams, and they were in the process of painting a new mural on their building and water tower. There was previously a mural for a Danny Boy / Texaco station (see here for an interesting article about Dan Terzakis, the Danny Boy mogul) on the wall, so the interim message turned out kind of funny.

That mural and water tower weren't touched again until the past couple of years, when they sandblasted the Greek Islands mural. The water tower still has the 1983 paint job.

Here's a view of (almost) the same spot in January 2010:

It's interesting to see the changes that took place in 25-plus years: the streetlamps are upgraded; there are trees on the sidewalks; the transient hotels (the "New Jackson" is on the right) are gone, as is the Currency Exchange. Roditys Restaurant, on the left side of the street, is still there and doing grand business.

Some technical notes: the original photo was shot with a Pentax K1000 on Tri-X film. I was a student at UIC at the time, and I developed and printed this photo myself. I scanned the print for this blog entry. The 2010 shot was taken with my Canon PowerShot A720IS digital camera.

Clark ponders a February afternoon.