I tried my hand at crepes tonight and they turned out pretty good. I made a small batch just to try it out as a snack, but I think it is actually going to be our dinner.

I put all of this into a blender:

2 eggs
½ cup of flour
¼ cup of milk
¼ cup of water
¼ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon melted butter

I added a little bit of butter to a hot pan (a little bit below medium-high) just for the first crepe. I poured just enough batter into the pan to make a three or four inch circle, and then tilted the pan in all directions to work as much of the batter to the edges as I could.

As it cooked I worked the edges up as they dried. You want to flip the crepe over while the top is still wet. If you wait until the top dries before you flip it you won't get a nice brown on the second side. Don't over cook them. No more than two minutes on the first side and maybe 30 seconds on the second side.

We put a little bit of cheddar in a few and some grape jelly in the others.

I love looking at my Office Depot rebate status page.

I forgot to mention as we were walking to the crepe restaurant from the L stop a bird crapped on my head.

MIT Cheer

E to the U, dU, dx
E to the Y, dy
Cosine, secant, tangent, sine
Three point one four one five nine
Integral, radical, u dv
Slipstick, slide rule
MIT!

We had a very nice and relaxing day in Chicago. The weather was perfect. Low 80's. Low humidity. Partyly sunny. Right before we left home Sheri made herself some iced espresso to take along, and she also brought a Clif Bar for me and a Luna bar for her. We finished these by the time we got to the train station.

We got to the train station about an hour early, so we were just going to sit in the car, listen to the radio, and read the paper. However, next to the train station they had a small farmer's market set up, so we walked around that for maybe 20 minutes but did not buy anything. After that we walked to the train station and bought our tickets and waited there for the train.

The amateur weekend train riders are so annoying. They get off the platform and enter Union Station and then just freeze in front of the doors trying to decide which way to go. Meanwhile there are 1,000 (literally) other people stopped behind them waiting for them to make up their mind.

Once we made our way through the human log jam we stopped at a Walgreen's on Adams and got a pack of gum and a travel pack of Kleenex. I have a little bit of a runny nose.

Then Sheri showed me her beloved W Hotel and I dropped the kids off at the pool. It is very nice. Maybe the nicest hotel (lobby) I have ever been in.

Sheri working on her crossword puzzle at the Quincy L stop while waiting for the Brown line.


Then we took the Brown line to the Wellington stop and then walked to the crepe restaurant for our brunch. The food was VERY good and the atmosphere was wonderful. They were seating everyone behind the restaurant on their patio.

The patio of La Creperie as seen from our table.


This is Sheri's buckwheat crepe with cheddar, Swiss, and goat cheese. Mine had mushrooms, onions, and garlic sautéed in olive oil. They also had very good chewy bread on every table to eat while waiting. It was served with real butter and a nice assortment of fancy preserves.




After eating we walked across the street to a four or five story mall. It wasn't on our list, it just looked interesting. They had a nice theater that was only showing good films. They did not have any of the mainstream fluff showing. We spent maybe 20 minutes walking around.

At one of the first little vintage consignment shops we went into we saw this cute sign posted near the front door.


We started hitting all of the stores on our list. Sheri really really liked Hollywood Mirror. My stupid back started hurting so I looked for chairs in every store we stopped in.

After a couple of hours it was time for a little break. We walked into the Clark Diner and then walked right back out because it was hot and stuffy inside, so we crossed the street and split an order of Ann Sather's famous cinnamon rolls. Sheri had a cup of hot coffee and I just drank water.

One of the last stores we stopped in was Uncle Fun. This store sells a lot of stupid useless really fun stuff. Thousands and thousands of plastic figures, toys, cards, and stuff like that. What is the one thing you think I bought there? A slide rule. It was really weird. Just a few days ago I was doing some searches on the Internet for slide rules; where to buy them and how to use them. I was just curious. I turned the corner down one of the isles and there was a display of about ten of them. The best part was it was only $2. It was made by Mead, the paper and office supply company.

At this point we had only a couple more hours until the express train left Union Station. We got on the L back to the Loop. The lady sitting in front of us fell asleep and then fell over into the next seat. We thought her head was going to land in our laps. She didn't wake up though. She stayed like that for at least five minutes. When she finally woke up she was surprised where she was and made an embarrassed sound, like "Oh my!"



We were going to go hang out at Intelligentsia Coffee on Jackson for a while, but they were already closed.

We started walking towards Union Station, and ended up laying in the grassy courtyard on Jackson across the street from the south side of the Sears Tower. It felt good on my back.

We moved on to Union Station after 15 minutes or so and I had a hotdog from Gold Coast Hot Dog, and we split a small order of fries. Then for old times sake Sheri got a small buttered popcorn and I got a small Chicago mix (caramel corn and cheese corn).

I didn't have any caffeine all day and was feeling the start of a headache, so I got a Diet Coke at the news stand for the train ride home. I also got a Discover magazine and Sheri got a Weekly World News.

As soon as we got home I mixed up some Miracle Gro fertilizer for the tomatoes and Sheri set out the sprinklers in the front and back yards.

We both showered, I am making this post, and now we are going to watch The Mother.

Tomorrow (Saturday) we are going to go into the City for a day of fun. We have not done that in a while.

The only express train in leaves here at 9:25 AM. We will take the train in, walk to an L station and take the Brown line north to the area around Halsted and Belmont.

We are going to have breakfast at a crepe place first, and then we have about six stores mapped out in the area to go to.

Then we will take the Brown line back to the Loop and get on the Blue line and go to the area around Damen and Milwaukee. If we do lunch in this area it will either be at the restaurant called Piece that was used as a location in a lot of the "Real World: Chicago" episodes, or a taco place called Lazo's Tacos that I found a lot of good things about on the web. This area has a lot of little funky boutiques.

After that we will take the Blue line back to the Loop. Sheri will probably take me to the fabulous W Hotel restrooms she always talks about, and then we will take the only express train back home which heads out at 5:25 PM.

We will get home, shower off the day, and then settle in for a movie.

Laptop rebate update:

Last Tuesday, July 19, remember that I submitted an on-line plea to the rebate department of Office Depot explaining how we sent in the one rebate envelope without the required copy of the UPC and receipt.

The website said to expect a response within 72 hours. I had submitted a form a few weeks before that as soon as I realized the mistake and they did get back to me in less than 72 hours.

After four days of not hearing anything I took that as a good sign. If it were a slam-dunk-we-got-your-money-screw-you response I would expect that right away. I figured they had to get some approvals from managers and they were going to get it straightened out before they responded to me.

I checked the on-line status of my rebate every day, but it never changed from the big red "RESUBMIT".

So today, almost two weeks and not hearing anything, I thought I had better give them a call. I was dreading it. I just knew I was going to get frustrated because it was going to be a minimum wage person on the other side, reading from a script, telling me to send in the copy of the UPC and receipt that I did not have, and I was going to have to resign myself to the fact that the "bargain" laptop was going to cost me $660 instead of $500.

She asked for my name, ZIP code, and first letter of my first name. She asked if I was calling about the $160 rebate. "Yes". "You need to resubmit the UPC…"

I politely interrupted and asked if the system shows they received any correspondence from me on July 19 about this. "No."

I tried my best to explain the complicated series of events as simply as I could, with a special emphasis on talking slowly and not sounding rude, angry, accusing, etc., and then after I laid out the facts requested that they please approve the rebate because they already received and verified the UPC and receipt from the other offer.

I got it all out there, and then it was time to wait and see what my fate would be. "Can you please hold?" "Not a problem. Thank you very much for your help."

This was unexpected. No script telling me sorry I'm out of luck? OK, this seemed promising.

After a minute or two she came back on and said she confirmed they received the UPC and receipt for the related offer, so she was going to go ahead and approve this offer as well and I should get my check in eight to twelve weeks. Yippee!

After I hung up I went back out to the rebate status website and re-checked my status. It had already changed from a red "RESUBMIT" to a nice soothing green "Qualified".

This is my official endorsement of Office Depot, and declaration that they will always be the first choice for my office supply needs. They should be your first choice too.

I was at the location indicated with the red pointer yesterday. We were outside in the parking lot configuring a new GPS when there was this incredibly loud and deep-feeling explosion. It was like nothing I ever felt or heard before. I must have looked a little concerned, but the guy I was with just waved it off and said something like "Oh, we hear that three or four times a day. There is a quarry just around the corner."

How cool! I have always wanted to hear and feel what a big explosion is like, and now I know. The quarry is to the southeast of the red pointer about half a mile.

I planted two types of tomatoes this year: Better Boy and Big Beef. I was checking them out after work tonight and it dawned on me that I don't know anything about these varieties, so I did some Google searches. (They are both hybrids.) As I was doing this I came across an interesting tomato growing tip from a gardening web site:

To boost the pH and potassium level of the soil up to tomato standards, we simply add wood ashes. Not only do they have almost the same lime equivalent (85 percent) as garden lime, but they are also about 5 percent potassium. For a normal soil, I will add 10 to 15 pounds to a 300-square-foot bed. Fall is the best time to add lime and potassium to the garden because it gives the nutrients time to spread into the topsoil.

We still have ashes in the fireplace from last winter, so I know where they will be going this fall!

Most (maybe all) of my plants have a few green tomatoes set so far. They range in size from half of a golf ball to three-quarters of a golf ball. I pounded in three stakes last night. I need to find something to tie the plants to the stakes this weekend. Last year I used strips I cut up from plastic grocery bags. I think this year I will cut up some socks that I never wear because they have "too much sock in the toe."

The last few days here have been like hell on Earth with temperatures over a 100º and the heat index even higher. Today it feels like football weather. It is beautiful. It feels like I should have a pot of chili on the stove getting ready for an OSU game while I am outside raking leaves. We had over three hours of good hard rain last night. That should really help the grass.

Our electric bill from June 9 to July 12 is $135.16 for 1,742 kwh.

Our water bill for the same period is $63.71 for 17,205 gallons.

The storm that was 30 miles to the NNW fizzled out before it could get here and do any damage. First bullet dodged.

The National Weather Service has issued a severe thunderstorm watch until 9 PM for our county. The radar shows a storm about 30 to 40 directly to the north. It is coming south with just a little bit of eastward movement. It looks like it should be able to miss us.

The hour-by-hour forecast says our ZIP code should not expect rain until the midnight hour. After that it says it should be dry through the rest of the 24 hour initial curing period. My fingers are crossed.

Crap. Crap. Crap. (a lot of that today)

The directions on the seal-coat said that if it rains within 24 hours of application, it will cause irreparable damage to the coating. I looked at the weather this morning and it said no rain for the next 24 hours. I glanced at my barometer just a bit ago (of course I have a barometer) and the pressure is falling. I looked at the radar and there are storm clouds 30 miles NNW of us, and it looks like they are blowing this way. Grrrr…..

Have you seen these pictures of the poor USA diver Chelsea Davis that hit her head on the diving board. Ouch!

Crap. Crap. Crap.

I ran out of seal-coat with literally just a few square feet of driveway left. I don't want to buy another whole 5 gallon bucket just for a few square feet. Not because of the wasted money, but because I don't want to figure out how to dispose of 4.9 gallons of seal-coat. I guess I will wander around the hardware store and see if they have any other products in small containers.

I just had a thought: I could go ahead and buy another 5 gallon bucket, and then what I have left over take to a church or school parking lot and spread it around there. I couldn't do it if they had painted striping though. I don't think anyone would mind. That part of their parking lot would be a little extra protected. I will have to think about that for a bit.

On the positive side, what I did complete looks really good.

This little thin strip by the curb is all I have left to do. Crap.




Those are some damn sexy legs if I do say so myself.


Doing the seal-coat two-step.






I'm glad I don't have to do that again for another few years.

Crap. Crap. Crap.

I moved the car into the street. Used the leaf blower to remove all of the debris from the driveway. Then I started to stir the first bucket of seal-coat. It takes about 20 minutes to work all of the solids at the bottom into a nice smooth thick emulsion.

After the first bucket I needed to give my hand a break before I started the second bucket. I poured myself an iced tea, and then thought I would get out the squeegee-brush we got at Farm and Fleet a couple weeks ago. I don't know how we missed it, but it is just a brush, not a squeegee-brush. Crap.

I stirred the second bucket for 20 minutes, and now I am going to change out of my grubby seal-coating clothes (it is already uncomfortably warm here and my shirt and head bandana are already sweaty from just stirring) and into some going-to-the-store clothes. Go buy a squeegee-brush head. Come back home. Change into my seal-coating clothes. Stir each of the buckets again for five or ten minutes each, because the solids will have already started to settle out, but not as bad as a freshly opened bucket, and then FINALLY seal-coat the driveway.

It is supposed to be 100º here tomorrow (Sunday) with a heat index of 106º. That should really cure my seal-coating. (That sounds strangely dirty.)

I think Subway subs are pretty crappy. The main fault is their cheeses and meats are almost flavorless. I defy you to tell the difference between their provolone, Swiss, and American cheeses in a blind taste test. The meats are only a little bit better.

The bread doesn't have much flavor either, and it could be a little bit chewier. On the plus side, it is always fresh. There is a lot of room for improvement though.

Actually most of their vegetables are usually good. The tomatoes, green peppers, etc. always looks fresh.

Having said all that, I occasionally eat there for lunch because there is not much else near where I work, and sometimes I just have to get out of the building. Usually I just eat at my desk.

To make the best out of a bad situation I have come up with the best and most flavorful way to order a Subway sub.

1. Bread. Choose whatever you want. Not much difference.

2. Meat and cheese. They have a daily special for $2.49. I always just order that. It doesn't matter which one because they all taste pretty much the same.

3. Toppings. OK, here is where the differentiation comes in. You only need four toppings: onion, green pepper, cucumber, and tomato. Don't order lettuce because it doesn’t add to the taste, and only takes away room from the more flavorful toppings. These four toppings offer enough moisture and cool crunch anyway.

4. Dressing. Secret number two. The last thing they will ask you is if you want mayonnaise or mustard. Say "Just a little of each." This lets them know not to drench it in too much mayonnaise, but you get just enough for flavor and a little extra moisture. The light mustard gives it just a little zip without overpowering the rest of the sandwich.

That's it. Do NOT be tempted to go overboard and have them add other stuff. It will only muddle the carefully balanced flavors of the four vegetables. Their black olives always have an awful taste too.

Stop by a Subway and order it exactly this way just once and tell me if it is not the best you can do with their crappy ingredients.

I used to get a foot long because I thought a 6" sub just wouldn't fill me up. I usually ended up feeling slightly too full afterwards. When that realization finally hit me I tried just getting a 6". Immediately after eating I felt like I could still go for more, but after just 10 or 15 minutes of digesting I usually feel pleasantly satisfied. When I go to a Subway I always take a newspaper. That way I am focusing on reading and I get enough time for the sandwich to take effect. I also never get chips. Just the sandwich and sometimes a drink. Today I just had water.

A few weeks back I posted that Sheri sent in the two rebate envelopes for our laptop that I left on the counter before I got a chance to make copies for both of them.

The good news is that they honored the $150 rebate. (I did not know if the UPC and receipt were both in one envelope or if I had one in each.)

I just sent the following e-mail to their customer support department. I don't know if they will go by the exact rules printed on the offer, or if they will be nice about.

What do you think about the letter? Does it clearly state the problem and how I want it resolved? Do you think it is an effective letter?

There were two rebates for the notebook computer I purchased from Office Depot. I had all of the forms filled out the UPC clipped. All I had to do was make copies of the receipt and UPC for the two envelopes and then mail them in.

My wife saw the two envelopes and thought they were ready to go, sealed them, and just dropped them in the mail before I could make the needed copies.

The offer that was mailed in with the ORIGINAL UPC and receipt was OD6300xxx (ref # C17764xxx).

Offer OD6300yyy (ref # C17802yyy) was only mailed in with the form. The ORIGINAL receipt and UPC were sent in with the other offer.

Because the ORIGINALS were mailed before I had a chance to make copies it would be impossible for me to re-send anything to you.

I am hoping that you will see I have met the requirements for offer OD6300xxx, and you will approve offer OD6300yyy because it requires the exact same documentation that you already received with the other offer.

Thank you very much for your help. I will be a life-long Office Depot customer if you can help me fix this problem!

Brad

We were curious to see how the housing bubble has affected our home value. We had our real estate agent stop out, look around, and let us know what she would list our house for.

She just left and our house has appreciated almost 45% in 4.5 years.

We have not seen one rabbit in the backyard since I sprayed the rabbit repellant around. The brand name was Liquid Fence. I definitely will suffer through its application again.

This had me laughing so hard out loud when I watched it in Panera. The dog gets angry at its own leg because he thinks it's trying to steal his bone.

"Look, I'm not a prude. I'm married to an Italian."

From the movie A Dirty Shame we watched last weekend.

Sheri is already 15% finished with her Harry Potter book.

Well, we are at our favorite Panera's again. We didn't intend to, but this is how we got here.

Sheri got up and walked dogs at her normal time. When she got home she felt beat because it was hot and humid outside, the dogs always wear her out a bit, and we are both still trying to get our sleep schedule back to normal. We are not going to seal coat the driveway and we are not going to go pick up the buckets of tar yet. Sheri's new Harry Potter book arrived in the mail today, so we decided to go out to lunch and then find a comfortable place for her to read Harry Potter and for me to read the book she bought me last week about the 2004 election, Spanking the Donkey; Dispatches from the Dumb Season.



For lunch we decided on Lou Malnati's thin crust pizza with green pepper and mushrooms. I had a craving for that particular combination, plus we have not had their pizza in a long time. We finished a medium there rather than bring it home.

I had a taste for a little something sweet so we walked to the downtown candy store and I got a two pieces of chocolate covered nougat, and Sheri got a little box of Nerds.

We walked down to Penzey's Spices so I could get a little jar of crushed hot red pepper flakes. I like getting my spices there rather than the grocery store. The difference in freshness and taste is very noticeable.

Then the plan was to walk to the little coffee house we have not been to in a long time but that we used to visit every weekend. I had the laptop (and they have free Wi-Fi), the book that Sheri got me, and she had her book. We were going to get a couple of iced espressos and hang out for a few hours. The only problem was that the place was too busy. Almost all of the tables were taken so we couldn't take our time and get lost in our books.

Which led us back to Panera. Between the main meal times we can almost have the place to ourselves. They have a couple of nice soft chairs up front for us to relax in. Here is a picture I just took of Sheri lost in her book. She didn't even realize I was taking her photo. I was messing around with the camera controls for a long while too trying to adjust the exposure to compensate for the back-lighting.



It is a little back-lit but you get the idea.

We will probably stay here for a couple of hours and then go across the street to Best Buy to pick up a couple of things.

After that we will go to Trader Joes and a grocery store to pick up ingredients for tonight's movie feast. I am going to make my award winning guacamole which I have not made in a while, and my famous pico de gallo. Those will be accompanied by Trader Joes reduced carb tortilla chips. I was also going to make hummus and baba ganoush, but then I remembered that I still have some raw pork loin slices in the fridge that I need to grill before they go bad, and that would have been too much food.

We will eat our chips, dips, and pork will watching Cursed.



Here is a cute picture that Lisa sent out today of Shawn and Dad. I might get this printed at Wal-Mart.



No idea what we have planned for tomorrow. Probably not much though. Just relaxing and recovering from the tiring week we had.

Well I made it through a week of third shifts. I really didn't mind it. What made it bad was my bad back. I am used to sitting upright in a supportive office chair all day. If I focused on my posture my back hurt less, but it still made the time go very slowly at times.

Last night for lunch around midnight we went to Arby's. I didn't want to get French fries, so I got a big sandwich. I tried their half-pound Big Montana. All it is is a half pound of their shaved roast beef on a bun. It was $4.50 and I would probably order it again in the future.

I would do it again if I had to, but it really did disrupt my whole week. I didn't feel like I really had any personal time at home for myself. It all centered around trying to get sleep before I had to go back to work. I have a stack of mail and bills to take care of from the week.

Every night I took along a few bottles of water and a few protein bars. I tried and really like the South Beach protein bars. A box of 5 is a little over $3 which is about $0.65 per bar. One bar has 20% RDA of protein, only 7 grams of sugars, and 12% RDA of fiber. Every couple of hours when I would get a little hungry I would nibble on a bar and have some water. That would keep me going for another couple of hours. Oh, I think they taste really really good too. I have tried and liked the maple, peanut butter, and cinnamon raison.

I didn't get to see Sheri too much this week because we had opposite schedules, so I really missed her. Even though she was home when I was home I was trying to sleep and she didn't want to disturb me.

Last night I used my key to get into work and disabled the alarm with no problem, then re-armed it successfully when I left.

We got our first bill for COBRA coverage. It was a little bit over $2,000 for three months of coverage. I can pay it with a credit card on the web, so I will wait until after the next billing cycle and then pay it in order to get a little extra time.

I lost a couple more pounds this week from the extra activity of working outside. As a treat we went to Bobak's for a late lunch/early dinner Polish buffet. I didn't over-do it either. I stayed away from the mashed potatoes, even though I wanted a big blob. I had a delicious sauerkraut pierogi. A breaded pork cutlet. A small piece of orange roughie. Two small pieces of sausage. Cucumber salad. Half of cabbage roll. (The sauce is not as good as Mom's. The filling was good though.) Half of a potato pancake. I also had a paczki and a little piece of apple strudel. We walked through their grocery store afterwards and bought two pickles from their brine barrel and a gallon of milk on special.

We took the milk and pickles home, picked up the laptop and the newspaper and are at Panera now. Sheri got a double iced espresso and I got an iced tea. We have to go to Best Buy so I can pick up a memory card reader for work, and then we will probably go home and watch a movie.

Our plan for today was that I was going to come home and sleep for a few hours and then we were going to go have a fun day. Hang out at the book store. Walk around downtown. Maybe even see a movie. We ended up sleeping off and on until about 4 PM. Oh well, I guess night shifts are tougher to get used to than I thought.

We planned on seal coating our driveway this weekend, but I didn't feel like going to the store tonight and lifting the 5 gallon buckets of tar tonight because of my back. I probably shouldn't doing any back-bending kind of activity tomorrow to give my back some time to heal. If we did it Sunday we would have to leave the cars parked in the street for a day or two, and we can't do that because they will be ripping up our street and re-paving it Monday morning at 5 AM. I guess we will seal coat next weekend.

Sheri pre-ordered the new Harry Potter book a few months ago. It should arrive tomorrow afternoon via UPS. I think I know what Sheri will be doing.

I tossed our card reader in the bag along with the laptop so I could post a couple of pictures of us hanging out in Panera.

I would be tickled if this is how my obituary reads.

I wanted to take some more pictures of the trucks, action shots of me, etc., but I really didn't have a chance. It probably also wouldn't look too good for gubmint employees to be mugging for the camera while on duty.

When we stop everyone jumps out and has their tasks to do. While they are setting up the work site with cones and pulling the lids from the storm sewers, I have to pull my measuring rod and GPS antenna combo from the truck and put the flashlight in my back pocket. I then start the process of entering the data for that particular site into the GPS. It takes a couple minutes of data-entry button-pushing for each storm sewer. Because of that I am on the critical path of the process and don't have time to get the camera, walk to a good vantage point, take a few pictures, walk back to the cab to put the camera back into my bag, and then get my GPS gear. I was able to grab a couple shots though.

I ride in the front truck with the crew cab. When we are doing the inside lanes I ride in the back seat on the driver's side so I don't have to step into on-coming traffic. Of course when we are doing outside lanes I ride in the front on the passenger side.

You can't tell from these pictures but the truck blocking traffic from our work zone is really really big. It has a big 10 foot long bumper mounted on the back that is designed to absorb the impact of a car. There is also a big flashing directional arrow on the back to warn cars from a distance to switch lanes. Cars still wait until the last minute to get over and end up too close to the truck.

The truck I ride in has a crane on the back that we use sometimes to pull storm sewer covers that are stuck. There also two very bright spot lights that we can aim where we are working. It is like working in daylight when they are on.

The first night my back started hurting after about 7 or 8 hours of our 10-hour shift. Last night it started hurting after about five hours. Stupid back. I am not going to be able to do this next week if they can't find someone else to do it. The back pain just takes too much out of me. I really don't mind the work or the late hours. It is just the back pain.

I got about five hours of sleep when I got home. I will try to get a couple more hours of sleep later this afternoon before I go back to work.

I was able to get probably about another two hours of sleep in. I feel pretty good.

I had a few pieces of chicken with all of the skin and breading removed, and my protein drink made with two cups of milk instead of two cups of water. That should keep my going well past midnight.

I need to go into the office before I go out tonight, but by the time I get there everyone will have probably left for the day. I have a key and an access code to the alarm system, but I have never used it. I am a little nervous that I will enter it in wrong and the Sheriff's department will have to show up.

It looks like it might be a somewhat rainy night tonight. I will work in a light drizzle, but if it gets any heavier I think we might sit it out for a bit. Not because my hair will get mussed, but because I think it gets more dangerous for road crews when the roads get wet and slippery. Cars wait until the last minute to change lanes and end up right on top of the bumper truck.

I am going to brush my teeth and take a quick shower just to wake me up and then get going.

I am going to work overnights through Thursday. It's not too bad. Kind of a fun change of pace actually. I got a little sleepy when we took "lunch" around 1 am or 2 am. And the last 1 to 1.5 hours I really started feeling it.

Came home. Showered. Slept for about three hours. Putzed around for a bit, and then Sheri and I went to the grocery store and got some protein bars, cheese crackers, and bottled water for me to take with me tonight. They also had half-priced cold fried chicken in the deli. I got eight pieces. I will eat a few without the skin for dinner.

I am also taking the camera tonight and get some pictures of the trucks with all their lights and maybe get the guys to take a few action shots of me.

I just took a melatonin and am going to try and get a few more hours of sleep before I head into work. I am going to go in a little early to swap out batteries, pick up the battery charger, download last night's data to my PC, and print out an updated map for tonight's run.

Since we are working 10 hour shifts I will get 40 hours in by Thursday and will have Friday off. We didn't want to work Friday nights because of the increase in nighttime traffic.

My gas mileage for the last week was 29.5 mpg. I expected it to be only about 27 mpg, but there is a section of I-88 that is normally 70 mph, but because of construction it is being heavily enforced to 45 mph. I didn't think I would see a noticeable difference in gas mileage traveling at slower speeds for just several miles each day, but I guess I was wrong. That makes me think how much oil we could save if the national speed limit were reduced to 55 mph again.

I was only at work for a couple of hours today. Because of a scheduling mix-up I am going to work an overnight shift doing some GPS work on some busy roadways. I don't know if it will be just for tonight or for the rest of the week. I got a couple of hours of sleep in. Sheri went to Trader Joes and picked up some Clif Bars for me to take along. I don't know if the trucks will have a water jug or not, so I am going to look for something to take some water in. I am going to wear one of my safety green t-shirts. I also have a reflective safety vest at work that has fiber optic strips running throughout the vest that are lit up by an LED light source.

We do one lane at a time. A big truck with a huge crash-absorbing bumper protects us about 100 feet or so behind us. It has a giant flashing arrow too. We just stay inside the lane and we should be OK. I ride in another truck that goes ahead. The driver pops the lids of storm water sewers, I take some observations and a GPS measurement and move on to the next one.

We did this for most of the county during the daytime, but the remaining roads are extremely busy and we wanted to do them at night for safety reasons. We will not do any structures that are in an intersection because we would be vulnerable from two sides. I will coordinate with the Sheriff's department to do the intersections once the rest of the road segments are done. We will have protection from the bumper truck for oncoming traffic, and have one or two Sheriff's cars protecting us from cross traffic.

They made us feel very welcome and we had a great time. I think we are really going to like the new church.

The spray nozzle on the rabbit repellant leaked a little bit on my hand each time I squeezed the trigger! Ewww. I was going to just use my one hand so I wouldn't have two putrid hands, but my wrist started to ache halfway through from all the squirting, so I had two putrid hands. I washed my hands three times with the SoftSoap we have in the kitchen, but my hands still smelled pretty strong. I have some hand degreaser with pumice and orange oil. I thought the pumice might help exfoliate some skin that might be holding on to some stink, and the orange oil has a strong scent that would do a better job at masking the smell. It worked better than the SoftSoap, but my hands still smell like have been playing in a bucket of sick dog diarrhea. Any rabbit that still eats my plants must have pretty big kahones and deserves to eat whatever he wants. I am going to wash my hands a few more times until they bleed.

We went to the mall today to see if they had any good deals on arm chairs for our front room. They had a nice burgundy colored one that was a floor model. The regular price was $650 on clearance for $299. The only catch is that for some reason they wouldn't deliver it. It's not an urgent purchase so I didn't feel any pressure to jump, even though is was a really nice chair. Just what I had in mind.

In J.C. Penny's Sheri spotted a couple of shirts that she really like for me on sale for half off, we got those. They kind have that old-man retro 1950's look that is really cool.







Then we went to the middle of the mall and sat at a table while Sheri drank an iced coffee from Starbuck's. I was a little hungry so we walked down to Taco Bell and I had a tostada and a taco, and Sheri had a CrunchWrap Supreme.

The next stop was Farm and Fleet. The main things for this trip were rabbit repellant, a squeegee brush for applying seal coat, and Sheri wanted to look for some Lee brand jean shorts.

We found rabbit repellant, and boy is it repellant. They had three brands and the common ingredient between all three of them were putrefied egg solids and garlic. One brand also had capsicum; the chemical that makes peppers hot. I opened the top of the bottle to smell and a little bit got on my hands. Yuck. It says to spray it right on the plants that the rabbits eat, and I will, but I am not going to spray it on the tomato plants. That just seems gross. I am going to go outside and spray it as soon as I am done with this.

[Side note: I took an old bulb of garlic out to the back yard a week or two ago and cracked open each individual clove of garlic and tossed it near the plants that the rabbits like. I don't think I have seen the rabbits as much since then, nor have I noticed any additional rabbit damage. Just wait until they get a whiff of the putrid eggs!]

We found a seal coat squeegee brush for under $4. At Home Depot they were charging almost $15. That just seemed stupid for something I will use for an hour and then throw away.

Sheri didn't find any shorts she like.

I picked up another safety green t-shirt for biking. The only one in my size, 2xlt, was sleeveless, and I almost didn't get it because I didn't want to look trashy. But then I thought it's not like I am going to wear it out in stores, restaurants, etc. It will purely functional. Go for a ride for an hour or two, get sweaty, come home, toss it in the hamper.



The cargo shorts in the picture are from Farm and Fleet too. They are also what I was wearing in the first two pictures showing my shirts from Penny's. The waist size is 36"! Last winter I was wearing 42"! They still feel a little snug to me, but am probably just not used to wearing pants that fit me. Sheri says they look really good on me.

I also got another pair of house lounge pants for the winter time. I got a pair their last fall and I really liked wearing them.

We also got a few snacks. A box of pretzels. A Peterson's peanut roll. (I LOVE those!) We split a 4-pack of Reeses Peanut Butter Cookies. I also got a 20 ounce bottle of Diet Coke for the ride home. I have been pretty good about not drinking diet cola's, so a splurge every once in a while is OK.

We topped of the gas tank for $42 on the way home.

I am going to putrefy the back yard for the rabbits, wash my hands three times, and then watch a movie (The Machinist) with Sheri. She is feeling a little blah.

I am thinking that a chair like this is what I want in the front room.

These are some pictures I just took of the yard.

Mom and Dad brought these last summer when they helped us with some landscaping. Lilies?


Notice all of the fresh mulch that Sheri put down today.





The tomatoes are doing really well considering what they looked like when we got them. The small plant in the front is cilantro that the rabbits almost ate to death. They have not touched it in a while. We'll keep our fingers crossed.



The two plants in the middle are peonies that we planted last summer, and they didn't grow nearly as much as I thought they would. I remember the peonies in Mom and Dad's yard would get almost five feet tall with big huge fragrant flowers. Maybe next year. Notice the hosta in the front that the rabbits almost killed.


These yellow lilies (?) were here when we moved in and they have always done really well.


Our feeding sock has had almost non-stop finch action this summer. I think just about every time I look out the window I see at least one finch on it. Here are two, but the camera does not have that strong of a zoom. Any closer and they fly away. At least you can see how brilliant their yellow is. I love our finches. You can click on the picture to see the full-sized picture. You can see more detail of finch.


This is all that is left of the plants that are under our family room window. The rabbits got everything else and half of the hosta pictured.

I was going to pressure-wash the driveway, put crack-sealer in any cracks I found, and then seal coat the driveway first thing tomorrow morning. The instructions on the crack-sealer say to wait seven days before applying a sealer, so we are going to wait until next Saturday to do that. Oh well.

Sheri bought ten bags of mulch today and already placed it in all of our beds.

I don't know why, but I really like it when Sheri makes her espresso, so I thought I would take a couple pictures of the process.

Pouring two shots of fresh espresso over ice.


Adding just the right amount of cold milk.

Recall from a week or so ago that the master plan was to turn our front room into more of a den/reading room. The stationary bike is to be moved upstairs to the unused middle bedroom. That room will become an exercise room. The inversion table will also go in there. The on-the-fritz console TV taking up room in front room is going to be put on the curb on garbage day. In place of the TV is going to be a comfortable reading chair, like a recliner, and in the place of the bike in the corner is going to be a good sized table for puzzles, hobbies, a place for Sheri to set up when she is on-call for work. Stuff like that.

We didn't want a 6' folding table like we use for our workstation in the upstairs office. That would just look to utilitarian and unfinished. We had in mind a good solid country kitchen table. A few scuff marks would be OK because we anticipate it getting a lot of use anyway. We didn't want to spend a lot for it.

We were walking through Meijer today when Sheri spotted a clearance sign sitting on just the kind of table we had in mind. It was normally $69, but was on sale for $39. Perfect! We walked back to where all of the boxes were but we couldn't find the model that was on sale. We grabbed an employee that walked by and asked her. Turns out it is $39 for the floor model. That is still OK. It has a few scuffs but it kind of gives it the character we wanted, plus the price was too perfect. We told her we would take it and she could get it taken apart and leave it upfront for when we check out.

We got done with our shopping and it was still not up there. Sheri walked back and the guy had just started taking in apart. She grabbed the clearance sign so she could pay for it and get that out of the way while we waited. It rang up for $34! Even better. Here is what it looks like and where it will probably stay. The chair we already had.



I think the picture makes it look smaller than it does in person. It is 3 feet deep by 4 feet wide and 2.5 feet tall.

The next step is to find a comfortable reading chair for the corner. Sheri wants to go to Ikea tomorrow and see what they have.

I just found the most amazing thing. First you have to install the free and amazing in itself Google Earth. This program alone will keep you entertained for hours. It lets you "fly" all over the world and zoom in and out of satellite and aerial images.

After you do that, right click on this link and select "Save Target As…" and save the small file to your desktop. When you double click it from your desktop, it will start Google Earth. What it does is link to any picture posted at Flickr.com that is within 100 km of where you are currently zoomed in on with Google Earth! It puts a little thumbnail image of that picture directly on the aerial photograph you are looking at. If you want to see the picture you just click on it.

For the pictures to show up the person that posts the picture has to geotag the image with its latitude and longitude, so not every picture will show up. More and more people are beginning to do this though, especially as more and more devices like cell phones have GPS receivers embedded. Eventually cameras will have GPS receivers installed and will automatically tag each picture with the exact location it was taken.

I predict this will be really big with current events. Local people at the scene of something, like the bombings in London, will snap pictures and post them at Flickr.com with the lat and longs in almost real-time. You will see events happen this way faster than by watching the news.

The best photographs I have ever taken in my life were of my nephew Dylan when he was just a year or two old. Sheri and I emptied out the middle of our family room and then on one side of the room set up a six-foot stepladder with a broom handle clamped to it horizontally. From the broom handle we draped a white sheet from it. It served as both the backdrop as well as the floor. We also took every light we had and shined it at our "set". We also had the window shades open, but I think it was a cloudy fall day so we didn’t have much natural light. I shot in black and white using my Canon EOS Elan. [top picture]

The pictures came out looking, in my opinion, very professional. I couldn't have got the same results with just a point and shoot camera. I am itching to get my hands on an SLR again and get creative.

The camera I have decided on is the Canon Rebel XT. [bottom picture] I will be able to use the two lenses I already have from my old EOS Elan which is nice. I have a pretty nice 75 mm – 300 mm zoom.

Sheri went over to a friends house after he got home from work because his grandmother died yesterday, so I went on a good bike ride. I rode 8.15 miles in 46 minutes at an average speed of 10.6 mph.

Before I left I took the water bottle cage off of Sheri's bike and attached it to mine. I went through the first bottle after about 4 miles, and finished the second one by the time I got back home. I will pick up another cage and bottle this weekend for her bike.

The tile guy is coming tomorrow to finish up the bathtub. Sheri gave his information to one of her friends and she already hired him to do some painting tomorrow.

We are going to seal coat the driveway Sunday morning. We can't do it Saturday because Sheri has to walk dogs and I have a doctor appointment. Saturday afternoon I will use the pressure washer to prepare the driveway. We have about 680 square feet of asphalt which means we need 1.7 five gallon buckets of seal coat. (The label says a 5 gallon bucket will cover between 350 and 450 square feet.)

I am going to take a shower, brush the teeth, and lay in bed with the laptop and catch up on the London bombings.

Sheri Hotness this morning before she left for her interviews.