Here is the link to all the photos I have from Taste of Chicago. It was really cool this year. Took the whole family. Lots of walking, but it was still cool! Here was the basic itinerary:

• July 3
  • Drove from our home to Princeton, IL, and got on the Illinois Zephyr to Chicago. The train left Princeton at 8:35am.
  • Arrived in Chicago at 10:45am. Walked from Union Station to our hotel, the Congress Plaza Hotel. We got to the hotel about noon; didn’t expect it but our suite was ready so we dropped our bags there.
  • Went to Taste of Chicago. Had LOTS of food and plenty of drink (water and Gatorade – no alcohol!)
  • At 3pm, got to see Steve Miller Band at Taste of Chicago – FREE! Wow! What a show!
  • Left the Taste and walked to Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower) and went up to the SkyDeck. Awesome view from there!
  • Went back to the hotel, ate a late supper and crashed.
• July 4
  • Got up kind of late – it was nice to sleep in. The kids brought us breakfast from Dunkin’ Donuts.
  • The hotel agreed to watch our bags after checkout so we didn’t have to carry them. Great!
  • Walked to Navy Pier. Wow! Lots to see. We walked along the shore of Lake Michigan.
  • Walked all around Navy Pier. Ate lunch at one of the restaurants there.
  • Spent a lot of time walking around looking at the kiosks that had knick-knacks.
  • Took a water taxi to Shedd Aquarium, then walked back to the hotel from there.
  • Took a break in the hotel – air conditioning was welcome.
  • Walked to Union Station to catch our train, which left at 5:55pm.
  • Train to Princeton and drive home were uneventful.

Lots of sight-seeing, eating, laughing and good times. And a great time spent with family.

It happened this afternoon. Our neighbor called KC at work and she called me. George is down and out.

Now for the hardest part: the cleanup. Do I hear the call of any volunteers?

We had tornado warnings today. They were issued while I was at work and we all had to file into our “bunker” during the warnings. And I guess a tornado was sighted here in town. But that’s not my big news. My big news is that George fell down; well at least part did. George is the name my daughter gave the pretty much dead willow tree at the bottom of the hill in our back yard. And George is down. We’ve been waiting for this to happen since the other tree simply snapped and fell in the wee hours of the morning. Of course, that was just under four years ago! Here’s the damage:

So now it’s time to clean up. Do I have any volunteers?

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Now playing: Spatterdash – Learning to Crawl
via FoxyTunes

Happy Anniversary, Al and Sue!

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Now playing: Dada – Posters
via FoxyTunes

So KC finally did it. She went to the Humane Society here in town and got a dog. I was against it. Not because I don’t like dogs – I LOVE dogs! But now, when we want to go to the Quad Cities we’ll have to make sure the dog is taken care of. When we make a shopping trip to Chicago, we’ll have to kennel the dog. When we make … well, you get the idea.

Anyway, she seems to be a well mannered dog. She’s a boxer. She’s awfully thin; “you can count ribs” thin. Hopefully she’ll flesh out a bit after she’s been here a while. She’s also housebroken so we won’t have to go through that pain. And her name? Can’t you guess by the title of the post? It’s Layla.

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Now playing: Rammstein – Sehnsucht
via FoxyTunes

It finished about an hour ago. It hailed here. It did hail earlier, but they were tiny little things only about a quarter inch in diameter (about the size of ice cream sprinkles). But about an hour ago, they were the biggest hail stones we’ve had in quite a few years. Some of these were three quarters of an inch in diameter (bigger than a peanut M&M). Here’s a few photos:

It sounded like somebody was hitting the side of the house while these were coming down!

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Now playing: Sweet – Fox On The Run
via FoxyTunes

Well, at least let’s hope it’s the end of the season! The snow season, that is. And what goes on sale at the end of the snow season? That’s right, Martha! Snow throwers. Here’s what I got:

It’s a Troy-Bilt. It’s a quality brand. Got a friend Rick who’s had one for a while and he says his still runs like new. I got it at Lowe’s. KC and I were going in to look at sliding patio doors – ours need either replacing or reworking this summer – and saw this as we first entered. With the discounts the floor guy gave me on top of the marked down price, I ended up getting it for 25% off what the typical selling price was. I was looking for one, kind of, and this one fell into my lap, so I HAD to get it!!

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Now playing: Prism – Spaceship Superstar
via FoxyTunes

So I’m at WalMart buying lunch and some snacks for tonight (we’re going to a trivia night for JDRF) and I’m walking to the back of WalMart where I can get some popcorn chicken. On the way I see this young one who is probably no older than 3 crawling on the floor, as pretty much every parent has seen their own 2 or 3 year old do. The parent then says, “Get off the floor!”

Excuse me? WHAT did you just say? How the heck can the child “get off the floor”? Does the child normally fly?

That’s right, I’m losing it. This morning at church is my example. When we left from home, I brought along my “cheaters” – glasses I’ve had to wear to read small print (like in the hymnals at church) since my lasik surgery – in order to make a joyful noise. KC and I went in and sat down in the pew and I realized I had left my cheaters in my coat pocket. (Sign number one that I’m losing it – I should have remembered to bring them in with me!) So I got up and headed out to the coat rack where I had hung up my coat. I saw where I had hung up my coat and began searching the pockets – no cheaters! What the….???? Then I noticed a tissue in one of the pockets, and I don’t keep tissues in my coat pockets…. then I noticed that…. you guessed it…. IT’S NOT MY COAT! I mean really, how bad is that?! It was a leather coat, and was patent leather instead of suede, and was dark brown instead of black, but still… it wasn’t my coat! I did then see my coat, grab the cheaters and head back into the service, but MAN! I’m losing it!

One year ago, I had my Lasik surgery. One year ago, I went “under the laser” (as opposed to “under the knife”) and had my corneas reshaped. And I haven’t looked back.

• I LOVE the fact that I don’t have to put on glasses to read the clock in the morning.
• I LOVE the fact that I can see things at night while driving and not worry about dry contacts being blurry and scraping my cornea.
• I LOVE the fact that I don’t have to wear glasses (except for small print in bad light).
• I LOVE the fact that when my eyes get a bit tired I don’t have to pop out contacts and wear glasses – all I have to do is put a drop or two of Systane in my eyes.
• I LOVE the fact that I can walk in from the cold and not worry about glasses fogging up.
• I LOVE the fact that I can watch my drive in golf all the way to where it lands (that is without a slice or hook!!)
• I LOVE the fact that I don’t have to buy saline/daily cleaner/weekly enzyme for contacts.
• I LOVE the fact that I don’t have to buy prescription glasses.

For anyone out there who is considering Lasik surgery, I would recommend it wholeheartedly.

Happy New Year!!

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Listening to: Bad Religion – 21st Century Digital Boy
via FoxyTunes

Got a TON of stuff done today, and it shows. You know how sometimes when you are working on a project and it doesn’t look like much is getting done? Well, it isn’t that way today. I got a lot of the handrail and stair rail up today. Also, with KC’s help I got the lattice up on the street side. Still have some lattice and screen to go, but really got a lot of stuff done today. I need a few hours (or one good day) to finish it off for the winter. There will still be things to do for it this spring, but until then….

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Listening to: Theory Of A Deadman – Bad Girlfriend
via FoxyTunes