Welcome to all of you who arrived here via the LaGrange Art League web site. To view Stephanie's Art Pages, click here, or click on "Stephanie's Art Pages" in the blue column on the left hand side. You may e-mail Stephanie directly by clicking here.

Please feel free to browse the entire site if you wish. We hope you enjoy your visit!

08/27/10: I had a strange experience the other night I thought I'd share. I was checking my e-mail before going to bed, and while waiting for the screen to load, I took a look at the DualDisc of "Angel of Retribution" by Judas Priest that my brother gave me that day. As is the norm when I'm in front of the computer, my attention to the task at hand wandered and I started thinking about these DualDiscs, which if you don't know are single discs with CD information on one side and DVD information on the other. I remember there was a lot of press when they came out, primarily because of the incompatibility with many CD players, but I haven't seen much since.
     So I navigated to Google and searched for DualDisc. The first thing that came up was the dualdisc.com "official" web site. A quick look at the News section has the most recent item as being from May of 2005. I next went to the Wikipedia entry, and the text there also strangely doesn't mention anything beyond 2005. The list of releases there does not have dates of the releases, and although I don't recognise most of the artists on the list, nothing there seems current. The Wikipedia history shows that the article has been modified recently, but the text of the entry seems as though it was still 2005.
     And that's the feeling I got when I looked at some of the other articles on the Google list. I went through several pages of links and there's really nothing more recent than 2005. Maybe the format died back then, but I find it odd that I did not see one link to an article about its demise. Even the Wikipedia article about Laserdiscs has a section about the rise and fall of the technology. I had this odd feeling that I had stepped back in time. Or maybe I should have gone to bed earlier.


08/03/10: Happy Tie Tuesday, everybody! And The Doctor is right: bow ties are cool!


07/17/10: I think a main reason why I haven't posted here more freqently lately is that my MythTV installation is not functioning correctly. MythTV is the open-source DVR that we've been enjoying for over two years now without a major problem. A couple months ago our cable company pushed us to digital, which means that I can only record broadcast channels (CBS, NBC, etc.) with the built-in tuner card. This was not too big a problem through the end of the TV season, but now that the regular season is over, it seems everything I want to record is on USA or H&G or Discovery or other "expanded basic" channels that my MythTV box can't see.
     I do have a digital coverter box, which will translate the digital signal, and I bought the serial cable which is supposed to let MythTV change the channel, but I haven't been able to get the channel changing app to work. I even upgraded the OS on the box to the latest version of Debian Linux, which was not without its own challenges, but the driver still refuses to work. So for now the only way to get the shows we want to see is to record them on my desktop machine, then copy them to the MythTV box. This means that either my system is recording or I'm processing something I just recorded. This is not leaving much time for other important endeavors, such as finishing the mix CD that I've been "working on" since March, or getting the pictures from Stephie's art exhibit up on our site. My apologies to Stephie for that. I'm going to have another go at the IR control software this weekend, and maybe I can crack the problem. Immediately after that, I'm going to attack this pile of things I want to finish, like updating Stephie's art pages and finishing the story of our trip to Ireland last December.


06/08/10: It's time for another one of those anthology posts here, where I try to catch up on what's going on. We've been really busy, but I've not found the time (or been too lazy) to post anything. Sorry if a lot of this is really short notice, but a lot of it I just found out about.
     The biggest thing around here, and the thing that's been taking up most of our time lately, is Stephie's upcoming one-person art at the LaGrange Art League. The art is up now, so you can stop by and see it any time the gallery is open in June, but the reception is this Friday, June 11. Here's a flyer I made from the postcards she had sent out.
     I missed the early announcement of one of our traditions here because they did not send me a postcard about the Little City Book Sale, which usually signifies the start of summer for us. It occurred to me the middle of last week that I hadn't seen any mail about it, so I checked their web site and found that it was starting two days later (last Friday). Stephie and I went Saturday and had a great time. I didn't get as many books as I usually do, but I did get a couple things I had been looking for, and at least one that I wasn't. The sale runs through Sunday June 13, with the last Saturday and Sunday being bargain days. Click the link above for all the details.
     We're completely thrilled to let you know that one of our favorite restaurants is back, and better than ever. The new Via Bella opened a couple weeks ago, and Stephie and I went to check it out. She had one of her all-time favorite dishes, Chicken Oreganato, and said that it was as good, if not better, than she remembers it. We'll be going back.
     This is my last week working out in the suburbs for the foreseeable future, as my company is moving downtown. I'm looking forward to trading my 40 mile round-trip daily commute for a (hopefully) relaxing train ride and some extra exercise walking to the office. I'm a little nervous, though, because I haven't taken public transportation regularly since high school and even then I was rarely going at the same time two days in a row, and that doesn't work too well with trains. It'll be an adventure.
     And tonight Chris and I are going to see the restored Metropolis at the Music Box Theater. I couldn't tell you how many times I've seen this movie, but with a half hour of additional scenes, I expect this to be something special.
     That's all for now. The picture above is from the music shop around the corner from us. I wonder if this would have made us more eager to practice piano.


04/10/10: I was taking Kisu to obedience class this morning and had one of those moments where I thought "I wish I had my camera". I then realized that I had my brand new phone with me, and like most modern phones (but unlike my previous one), it has a camera built in. So I followed this person until we stopped at a light, so I could unlock the phone and snap this picture. You know, this "camera in a phone" might be a good idea after all!
     I assume that by having the sticker on their bumper, this person is trying to make a statement, but what is that statement? "Buy American, except for cars"? "Buy American-built products, even if they have a foreign name on it", in which case, what's the point? "Buy American, even if I don't"? "I'm patriotic because I have a 'Buy American' sticker on my foreign car"? And what lesson are we supposed to be learning? It's all so confusing to me.


03/24/10: I just finished reading "Make Room! Make Room!" by Harry Harrison, the basis for a sci-fi film I remember fondly from when I was a kid: "Soylent Green". I'm pretty sure I saw "Soylent Green" at the Brighton Theater, possibly as a re-release, as they did frequently in the days before cable TV and home video. SPOILER WARNING (if that's even necessary for a 37-year old film): Certain things I remember vividly from the movie: the overcrowded city, the oppressive heat, the dirt and garbage everywhere, the "furniture" that came with the luxury apartment, the "Computer Space" arcade game in the background, the "150 buck a jar strawberries", the government-assisted suicide facility, the shower scene, and of course, the startling revelation that "Soylent Green is people!"
     The funny thing is, according to the book, it's not. In the book, there's only one type of "soylent", a meat substitute made of soy beans and lentils, hence the name. Also, there was no concept of "furniture", no suicide facility, no Soylent corporation. The overpopulation, the stifling heat from the greenhouse effect and the scarcity of food and water are in there. In fact, that's really the point of the book. Set in the far-off year of 1999 (it was written in 1966) the book was a cautionary tale of what would happen if the population explosion was out of control and the human race consumed more resources faster than the environment could replace them. In the midst of this is the main character, a police detective, trying to solve a murder. It's a pretty bleak, but very entertaining, vision of a future which still could happen. For the movie they moved the date out to 2022, but it's still near enough to make you think.
     Harry Harrison is one of our favorite authors. Stephie and I have both read his West of Eden series and I think we have all the Stainless Steel Rat stories but the new one, so I figured I would enjoy the book, which I did. I need to watch the movie again, though, while the book is fresh in my mind. Harrison was not a big fan of the film, but in an interview, he said that they got the look of film right. He said what he, and most people he spoke to, took away from the film is "the feeling of horror of this world" as depicted on the screen. It's certainly not anywhere I'd like to live.


02/15/10: The 2010 Birthday Season has officially begun, with Stephie and Dad sharing their birthday again as they have for many years. This year I'm fortunate that my new job has given me a day off so I can stay home and celebrate with Stephie. They said there was also something about Presidents, but I know it's just so I can spend the day with my wife. Happy Birthday Sweetie, and Happy Birthday Dad.


02/10/10: Things have been kind of tough around here lately, as we are struggling with the loss of our one of our best friends, our upstairs neighbor Kevin, who passed away suddenly last week at the way-too-young age of 50 (or 32 in hex, which tickled him when I pointed that out). A talented musician and artist, Kevin was one of those guys who seemed to always be in a good mood, was always eager to offer assistance to a friend, and was just an all-around good guy. And Kisu loved him too, practically knocking him over in her attempt to lick his face when she saw him, which he didn't seem to mind at all. He lived upstairs from us for almost 15 years, and even though we didn't see him every day, or even every week, I think it's going to be real difficult for us knowing we'll never see him again. No more knocks at the door to drop off leftover pizza, or to show us a new tattoo he just gave himself, or to show us a new picture he just completed, or just to say "Hi". It's been almost a week and it still doesn't seem real.
     In my effort to make some sense of this, I've been looking him up on the 'net, just to see what's out there. He was a long-time member of Johnny Justice, a local cover band of some renown. They broke up late last year and their site is gone (although you can find it in the Wayback machine) but their MySpace page is still there, although it hasn't been updated in a while. From there, I found that Kevin actually had his own MySpace page at one point. I think what he wrote in the "About Me" was great, and pretty much sums up what we loved in his character. I'm sure he wouldn't mind me quoting him here:
It's really not at all about me, it's about every one around me. It's about treating people right. Even the ones that won't get or respect others! It's about helping and listening and sharing. Knowing when to shut up and when to quit cuz you, he or she jus done had enough. Its about painting what you see in your mind, with your eyes and your imagination. It's about playing what you feel and not just what's already been it's about variance flexibility and annoyiance. It's about lightening up because the world is too effin nuts as it is. It's about respect and manners and and and...it's about playing music, which is creating and thats artistic and that's truely productive. It's productive whether you hear it or see it alone or share it with others.
He loved his music, he loved his art, he loved his nieces, and we loved him. Rest In Peace, pal. You are sorely missed.


02/09/10: It's Tie Tuesday! This started back in December when I wore a suit and tie to work because I had a job interview. Someone asked me why I was wearing a tie, and I didn't want to mention the interview, so I replied "Because it's Tuesday!" And the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. I have lots of ties in my closet going back to my Dominick's days (some too hideous to wear in public) and I rarely have an opportunity to wear most of them. So each Tuesday in December I wore one of my Christmas ties. I had such a good response, I've kept going into the new year. And it's catching on, too. Last week there was one other guy in the office wearing a tie on Tuesday, and today there is another. As I told someone last week, when it was just me it was an affectation, now it's a trend!


01/25/10: This is Boston, Kisu's pal from obedience class. She was rescued by her owner and is now a therapy and READ-certified pooch! She's in the running to be Top Dog on WCIU for January, and she has a pretty good chance of winning. Click here or click her picture to go to the WCIU site and place your vote. And unlike Chicago politics, you are allowed to vote more than once, but you can only vote once per day. Let's help Boston be Top Dog!

02/01/2010 Update: Boston won! Congratulations on being Top U Dog for January!


12/25/09: Kisu asked me to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year.

And she also says to check out her page to see the video of her romping in the show!


12/20/09: I've been a fan of the Irish band Horslips since probably 1979, when WXRT was playing "Loneliness" and "The Man Who Built America" on a semi-regular basis, and I picked up a couple of their albums at Kroozin' Music on Archer Ave. The last time they played Chicago was in December of '79 at the Park West, but it was a 21-and-over show and I was not quite old enough to get in. They broke up the following year, and I figured I'd never get to see them live.
     And they were supposed to be very good live. In the early '80s, I was able to get most of their records from a great used record store on Clark Street called "Just For The Record". (Legend has it that Al Jourgensen of Ministry once worked there!) One of the guys in the store said he actually saw Horslips perform at a club in Schaumburg and described them as "like an Irish Grateful Dead, real laid back and talking to the audience between songs." I figured I would never get a chance to see them, so I had to be content with listening to the albums I had been fortunate enough to find.
     Then came the Internet. I searched for Horslips info, but all I could find was a general "Irish music" site which had a couple paragraphs about the band. At the same time, WXRT's web site had a message board where people could post messages to other fans, and there was a section where you could swap things you taped off the radio. I knew that XRT had broadcast that last Park West Horslips show, but I had never heard it, so I took a chance and asked if anyone had a tape of it (and of a show from around the same time featuring FM, a progressive rock band from Canada) and as luck would have it, a guy from Chicago responded that he had both shows. I don't remember what I offered him in exchange, but I soon had cassettes of both shows, which I promptly turned into CDs using the brand new CD burner I had just installed in my PC. I even made a fancy cover for the jewel case and everything! I may never find anything else about the band, but at least I had that show.
     Then I got another e-mail. A guy in Ireland had seen my posting about the shows and was wondering if I ever got a copy, and I could send it to him. I was so excited! I didn't know who this guy was, but he was from Ireland! I sent him a copy of my fancy CD (which looks a little cheezy in retrospect) and he sent me a CD by Moving Hearts, another Irish band that merged Irish folk and rock. He also sent me a couple other Horslips concerts which had been broadcast on the radio. Not long after that, the official Horslips website went up, and the band announced that they would be reissuing all their albums on CD. No plans to play live, though.
     Time passed, I lost track of my pal in Ireland, the Horslips site kind of stagnated for a while as there was no new news after the CDs were all released, but I still was playing my Horslips albums. I made a compilation CD for one of the other dog owners in Cheyenne's obedience class after Stephie mentioned the band to him. Then in 2004, there was a flurry of activity on the 'net. A group of fans had put together an art exhibit in Derry of all their collectibles, with album covers and concert posters and all things Horslips. And the band was so impressed that they showed up at the opening night and played a few songs live! I was stunned! And on top of it all, one of the guys that put the show together, Paul Callaghan, was the guy I had swapped CDs with! That show got the guys together and they went on and recorded an acoustic album of their old songs. There was even a DVD documentary about the band. With all that activity, there were even rumors of a tour, with a supposed stop in Chicago! But again, time passed, not much new on the site, and life went on.
     I can't say what it was this summer, but something got me thinking about that art exhibit five years ago. One day, out of the blue, I thought that I would check the web site, and IF they were going to display the show again (as they had a few times since the initial Derry exhibit) and IF we had enough lead time, we should try to go to see it. We were planning on going to Ireland next year for our 20th wedding anniversary, so if we could see that while we were there, it would be almost like seeing the band. So I logged on the 'net from work and navigated to the Horslips web site, and darn near fell out of my chair. They were getting back together for two shows in December! I couldn't believe it. Wouldn't it be great to go? But no, that's silly, we can't go to Ireland for a concert...
     On the way home from work that day, I dialed up some Horslips on my mp3 player and instead of hearing the music, I kept hearing something that my Mom and my Aunt Vi say many times. They would tell me that if there was something that I really wanted to do that was not illegal, and would not "break the bank" that I should do it, because life is short. I got home and told Stephie that we should really consider going.
     I'll continue this later, but in the meantime, I've started to put up some pictures I took. You can see them here.


12/14/09: Well, it's back to work. As you can see, I only had 634 e-mails waiting for me when I got back!

Also, I should have the vacation pictures up in a day or so.


12/08/09: Hey, we're back! Guess where we went for the weekend! More details to follow...


11/26/09: Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. We had a very nice day, with Stephie cooking (and Kisu helping, as you can see) and my family coming over to share in the good food and good conversation. I hope everyone's holiday was as nice as ours.
     Lots of things have been happening lately, but I've just been too lazy to write. I had a business trip to Calgary back in October, which ate up most of the month with getting approvals and booking the flight and room and getting a passport and everything. I planned to post stuff from up there, but the beginning of the week was extremely busy with work, then I caught a bad cold and the rest of the week was miserable. I did spend a lot of time asking people "How's it going, eh?", which really never gets old. The work part of the trip didn't go well, but everything else was fine. One thing that was pretty cool was that I used Gizmo5 ( a VoIP app) on my Nokia N810 to talk to Stephie each night from my hotel room. We didn't use the video chat, since she doesn't have a camera, but the voice part was as good as a regular phone but with no long-distance charges!
     Likewise, there's been lots of stuff is going on around here. Stephie has a couple new pieces on her art page, and she had a booth at a local art show recently, but due to lack of promotion, very few people attended. It was good experience for her, with transporting all her artwork and setting up her display and all, and the people running the show were very apologetic, so if they have it next year, she'll participate. We did discover that we really need to work on her self-promotion, though. For one thing, there was no notice on this site that she was even going to be there! That's something we're going to have to improve on next year. We're also thinking about trying to sell her artwork on eBay. I'll post a link if we do that.
     And Kisu's been just fine. She's still having problems with her eyes being very dry, but the drops and ointment that she now gladly lets us apply seem to be helping out a lot. We've also been letting her off the leash in the yard or when we're taking her to the car, and she's really doing well with that. Last week, Stephie took her around the block without her leash, but I'm a little uncomfortable doing that. It's not that I think she would run away. I'd actually be concerned that I would be distracted and not notice if she took off after a squirrel or bunny until it was too late. I had her in the yard once when she saw a squirrel and started after it, but I was able to call her back before she really got going. I'd be afraid of her running into the street.
     Otherwise, all is well here. I'll try not to be so lazy in the future!


10/02/09: I ran across this Dilbert strip from 1991 recently and thought it was pretty funny, so I showed it to Stephie. She insisted that I put it up on the refrigerator, because it reminded her of so many conversations that we've had over the years. But the more I think about it, the joke is pretty much obsolete, because as everyone knows you can now access the works of Shakespeare or study the history of Greece on the Internet. No optical disk needed!

By the way, you should check out Stephie's Art page, because she has a cool new picture up there.

09/22/09:
Nineteen years ago, I made one of the best moves of my life when I married my best friend. We were discussing this last weekend and my Dad joked "And they said it wouldn't last!". I replied "Nobody ever said that. What they said was 'What took you so long?'". It was obvious to everyone even then that we were meant to be together, and they were right. Happy Anniversary, Stephie!



08/24/09: I had the radio on last week and I heard a song that I hadn't heard in a long time. Apparently, on that date in 1969 "In the Year 2525" by Zager & Evans was the number one song in the country. Wikipedia says that it was the number one song in the country the week of the first moon landing. It was also the number one single the week that the original Woodstock festival was held. I used to like that song, but as I was listening to the lyrics, it struck me what a creepy song it actually was. I mean, I knew it was all doom 'n' gloom, but "Everything you think, do, and say, is in the pill you took today". Brrrrrr.
     But it is a catchy tune, and I couldn't get it out of my head. Oddly enough, we don't have it on the MP3 jukebox at home. I could have sworn I picked it up somewhere along the way. I wanted to play it for Stephie yesterday but it wasn't there.
     I did finally get it out of my head yesterday but I went into the local hardware store and went down to the lower level, where they usually have "oldies" playing, and guess what I heard. Yep, "In the Year 2525"! I don't think I'd heard it in years, then twice in one week? I guess that's a sign that I'll just have to buy it.


07/30/09: Earlier this month, I read a fascinating book about the making of, and subsequent restoration of, Napoleon, a French silent film made in 1927 by Abel Gance. I saw Napoleon in 1981 or '82 at the Chicago Theater, with a full orchestra, conducted by Carmine Coppola (Francis Ford's dad) who had written a score for the restored version. I was blown away by the film, which ran for almost four hours, even even the friend I took, who had never seen a silent movie, though it seemed like much less. This book was published around that time, and was written by Kevin Brownlow, who had almost made it his life's work to get this film restored.
      The first half of the book details the making of the film. Gance used many techniques that were revolutionary at the time (many he invented himself) but have become commonplace today, like widescreen projection, extreme close-ups, hand-held cameras, and MTV-style editing. He also seemed to have pioneered going way over budget, both in money and time, and apparently made very little money for his efforts.
      The second half of the book, however, was almost more interesting to me, in which Brownlow discovers the film as a youngster by way of a severely edited version, then over time assembles it back from bits and pieces to wind up with the version that I saw on the big screen. He buys, begs, borrows, and at one point secretly copies different prints of what is basically the same movie to gather all the different scenes in order to recreate the film as close to the original version as he could get. In this age of home video, where we can just get pretty much any movie you want delivered from Deep Discount or Netfix, it is astounding to me that it took him years and the cooperation of film archivists in several countries just to be able to see a movie that may still not be exactly as it was when it was first released.
      Not that you can see it today. Film fans have been waiting patiently for a DVD release of this film, but as I understand it, worldwide there are three companies who claim to have the rights to it, and use the legal system to enforce their rights. Brownlow has done more reconstruction after the Coppola version and had a new score produced in 2000, but that version can't be shown in the US, supposedly because the Coppola's won't let it be seen. I have a VHS copy of the Coppola version that one of Stephie's friends recorded for me years ago off a cable channel that we did not have, but as I was reading the book I was looking on eBay for the laserdisc version that came out in the early '80s, which is the best we can get in the US without a DVD release. Imagine my surprise when I found it (reasonably priced!) at the Hillside Record Show a couple weeks ago. Now all I have to do is find four contiguous hours to watch it.
      And since I'm writing about silent movies, I should probably mention that the Silent Film Society of Chicago is running their Silent Summer festival every Friday through August 28 at the Portage Theater. I may be going tomorrow by myself, but Stephie and I are going on the 21st to see Douglas Fairbanks in The Thief of Baghdad. I saw it years ago on TV and can't wait to see it on the big screen, with live organ accompaniment. There are worse ways of spending a couple hours on a Friday night.


06/24/09: Stephie's friend Diane, who some of you know of from their Science Fair adventure, recently earned her Master of Science degree in Plant Biology and Conservation. She followed up this amazing feat by scoring a spot on a summer-long research expedition to the Arctic Circle! There should be a picture around here somewhere of her, proving to us that she's really there. We're going to miss her, but as a small consolation, she took everyone's advice and set up a blog, so at least we can read about her adventures. And as it turns out, she writes pretty well! Is there anything this woman can't do? Click here to read about her adventures on the not-so-frozen tundra.
     I, on the other hand, have just gotten off my lazy butt long enough to put up another page of vacation pictures, this time featuring our visit to Disney's Animal Kingdom. Click here to check them out.


06/04/09: A couple years ago, I realized that I was not putting much of a dent in the huge book collection that Stephie and I had accumulated over the years. I would try to read at night, usually in bed, but sometimes I would get through only a couple pages before I found I couldn't keep my eyes open. It was taking me forever to finish a book, so I started taking one to work with me every day. I figured it'd be better than just working through lunch or surfing the 'net while eating. That turned out to be a great idea, so much so that I completed reading 41 books last year, a personal record.
     I also found that I enjoyed when people asked me what I was reading. Granted, I'm not always reading great literature, but it was fun explaining what "pulps" are (a personal favorite of mine) to people who had never heard of them. And it turns out it's great for your morale to get away from your desk for an hour in the middle of the day. Who knew?
     I mention this now because coming up next week is the primary reason why I have a massive backlog and sometimes have trouble deciding what to read next. Tomorrow starts the big Little City Used Book Sale at the Westfield Old Orchard mall in Skokie. It's a huge tent sale which benefits The Little City Foundation in Palatine, and always signals the beginning of summer for us. This year the sale starts on Friday, June 5th and runs through Sunday, June 14th. Click here to see the full schedule. As usual, they will be accepting book donations right at the sale, so we plan to donate at least as much as we bring home, probably more. Click the picture of the flyer here for more details of the sale, and plan to pick up some fine reading at some great prices.


05/31/09: I just put up the first batch of pictures from our Florida trip. Click here to check them out. The picture here is us on the Dinosaur ride in Animal Kingdom. As you can see, Stephie is having a great time, but I'm not sure what I was looking at. Probably something shiny.


05/20/09: Hi, we're back. We spent the last couple days in sometimes sunny Florida. This was our first trip to Disney World and certainly is like going to another world! I will be putting some of the digital pictures up over the next couple days, as well as some of our thoughts on the experience, and when Stephie gets her rolls of film developed, I'll put some of those up as well. In the meantime, I wanted to share one of the best pictures of the trip with you. It was taken at Discovery Cove, during our "Dolphin Interaction". Yeah, that's Stephie, smooching a real dolphin (her name is Dixie). It was a great trip overall, but that experience (the whole Dolphin Interaction, not just the smooching) was definitely the high point.

05/01/09: Holy cow, it's May! Where is this year going? Time always goes by much faster when you're busy, and we did have a very busy April, but May already? Next thing you know, it will be summer!
     At least Stephie's been productive. She has a couple new pieces on her web site, and they are pretty awesome. Click here now to check them out.


04/03/09: Sugar-free Peeps? Really? What's the point?

03/16/09: We had two concerts on two consecutive Fridays in March. March 13 we saw Poi Dog Pondering at the Beverly Arts Center. We've seen them play to thousands of people at Naperville Rib Fest and to hundreds of people at Fitzgerald's and they are always terrific. The Beverly Arts Center is where we saw the Ventures last year and it's a great place to see a show. Well, it is if you're not on the main floor where the drunk concertgoers are constantly going up and down the aisles while the band is playing, or standing in the middle of the aisle talking on their cell phones. And these two girls in our row seemed to have gone out and come back every other song. And what's with all the empty seats? The show sold out in two days, but the four seats in front of us and the two next to us were empty the whole time! And don't get me started on the talking between the songs and during any somewhat quiet part. Sheesh! Um, sorry, where was I? Oh, yeah, the Beverly Arts Center is a great small venue, especially when you're sitting up in the balcony.
      The big revelation, though, was the week before, when we went to the House of Blues to see Great Big Sea. I thought GBS was, well, great, which I expected ever since picking up their "Something Beautiful" album a couple years ago. I'd have to say that is one of my favorite albums of the last five years. And they really looked like they were having fun on-stage. A couple weeks ago we watched the DVD of 'The Last Waltz', and in it Robbie Robertson of The Band briefly spoke about what a hard life touring can really be, but when I was watching these guys, I kept thinking "That looks like a lot of fun!".
      But as good as Great Big Sea was, the opening act might have been better. These four guys came out on the stage with no introduction, picked up their instruments (drums and washboard, guitar, and two violins) and had the crowd jumping from the first song, and really didn't let up for forty-five minutes! The band's name is Scythian, they're from Washington DC, and here's a clip I found on youTube (not the show we saw, unfortunately):

These guys were tremendous! Except for maybe the Lackloves a couple years ago, I never had an unknown opening act blow me away like that. After their set I went and bought all three of their CDs. Of the three, I'd recommend "Immigrant Road Show", which is the only one that contains the current lineup of musicians. They said they have a live CD coming out in the spring, and if it captures half the energy of the show we saw at the House of Blues, it will be in heavy rotation here and in the car! I'd go see them again in a heartbeat.


03/01/09: A bunch of things to catch up on:

- A couple weekends ago we went to Galena for a little Valentine/Birthday weekend getaway. One of the highlights of the trip (and the main reason for going) was the eagle-watching tour that we took on Saturday morning. We climbed on a bus and rode around the Galena/Dubuque area, which happens to be right on the migration path of the Bald Eagles as they move up along the Mississippi river to their summer home in Wisconsin and Canada. We had an unofficial count of 45 eagles, between the ones we saw in the trees and the ones we saw soaring through the air. They are magnificent animals to see in an artificial setting like a zoo, but they are breathtaking to see in the wild. The tours are held on Saturday mornings in January and February, so if you find yourself in Galena around those times next year, you can do worse than taking a couple hours to see our national bird in the wild.
      We also discovered that it's best if I drive and Stephie navigates when we go places. I was not feeling well so we reversed our usual assignments for the trip out, but I thought I was paying attention. Imagine my surprise when we saw the sign that said "Welcome to Wisconsin." (For those of you who don't know, Galena is not in Wisconsin, nor is Wisconsin on the way to Galena.) Turns out I missed an exit and had been driving 20 minutes in the wrong direction!

- Galena is a cute little town, with lots of nice shops and restaurants, but in the middle of winter they don't have much of a night-life, so we found ourselves flipping through the cable channels and discovered that Comedy Central was showing "Idiocracy". I had read some positive things on this movie (in fact it's near the top of our Netflix queue) so we settled in to watch. The story in a nutshell is that a regular guy is selected for a hibernation project by the Pentagon, but instead of waking in a year he wakes in 500 years and finds a society so “dumbed-down” that he is now the most intelligent person in America.
      It was not a great movie, but it made me laugh many times. I thought the premise of the movie, that dumb people are breeding at an alarming rate while the intelligent people are not, was brilliant. Maybe the execution left a little to be desired, but it was entertaining and really made me fear for where society is going. And watching it on Comedy Central really hammered home the central theme of the movie, since the commercials seemed to be part of the movie. We're watching these characters do stupid things, then the next thing you know you have Larry the Cable Guy on the screen, and you have to remind yourself that it's a commercial and not part of the movie! It looks like it's on Comedy Central again next weekend, so you can check it out for yourself.

- And speaking of movies, we finally watched "Yesterday Once More", that DVD that we received damaged from Netflix four times. So was it worth all the aggravation? Yeah, I'd say so, at least up until the ending. So many times lately we have been enjoying a movie up until the very end when something happens that either ruins it for us, or just disappoints us in some way, and this was one of them. The movie was very well done, with great scenery, good acting, interesting characters, a complex plot but not too complex to follow, and of course, the adorable Sammi Cheng. I liked it all the way up until the ending.

- Last week a guy at work told me that I had one of the coolest screen-savers he had ever seen, but what he didn't know what that it was just one of the default options in Windows: "My Pictures Slide Show". If you select that from your Display Properties dialog box, you can point it to any folder on your system, then when the screen-saver kicks in, it will cycle through the pictures in that folder. I currently have it pointed to a folder full of old pulp covers, so when I'm not at my desk you can see a steady stream of Doc Savage, The Shadow, The Spider, Weird Tales, Operator #5, Black Mask, Captain Future, and other colorful covers. I used to have a folder full of silent movie posters, and that was pretty cool, too. All you need is a bunch of pictures (and Windows, of course) and you're all set.

- If you've been reading this site for a while you may recall that I had written about a Flash-based Theremin app that I had that required an old version of Shockwave to run. Well, for some reason I found myself on the theremin.info site and found that a guy named Jim Spinner had created a free Theremin Simulator that did more than what the Flash one did, and it ran as a single executable, so you don't have to install anything on your system. Sure, it doesn't have a virtual Leon Theremin that you can control like some kind of a puppet, but it can make some pretty cool sounds. Check it out!

- And the picture? I was digging through one of my junk drawers and found three strips of stickers that Chris, Ricky and I got when we went to the old Disney Quest indoor theme park that they had downtown many years ago. They had these vending machines that took your picture and inserted it into one of the backgrounds you select. This is the one Chris took. I could have sworn that I put mine up on this site sometime ago but I may be mistaken. I'll have to get mine and Ricky's up soon.

02/08/09: Two new pieces were posted to Stephie's Art Pages today. Click here to check them out.

And the fifth time was the charm for "Yesterday Once More", as Hartford, CT came through with an undamaged copy! We'll be watching it in the next couple days and I'll let you know if it was worth the trouble.


01/31/09: Netflix update: Erie, PA lets me down! The latest version of Yesterday Once More came from the Erie, PA shipping location, and wouldn't you know it: it's cracked as well, as you can see in the picture (click for a larger image). That makes four times this movie showed up damaged. I wonder where the next one is coming from.


01/23/09: It's a conspiracy, I tell ya...

We've had Netflix since January of 2001 and have had very little trouble with the service. The occasional missing or damaged disk, but for the most part our membership has been trouble-free. The only real "problem" we've had is every once in a while, we can't figure out who put a specific movie on our list. I don't think movies are randomly added to the list, but it takes so long for a movie to bubble to the top of our queue (usually 80 to 100 movies) that neither of us remember putting the movie on the list.

Recently, I noticed that we were in line to get Yesterday Once More, a Chinese romantic comedy starring the adorable Sammi Cheng, star of one of my recent favorites My Left Eye Sees Ghosts. It was coming from Memphis, which is not unusual when the movie is not a popular release, and I think Netflix gave us an additional movie because of the delay, which was nice. The movie arrived, and I put it aside to watch later. But when we got around to watching it, I noticed that it was split almost in half. Not a problem, since Netflix has a facility for reporting damaged disks. I did so and sent it back.

Later I got an e-mail that said that another copy was on its way, this time from Minneapolis. It arrived and I immediately checked it and it was cracked into three pieces. Again I reported the damaged disk and sent it back. The next replacement was coming from Madison, WI. It got here yesterday as we were leaving the house. I almost checked it then, but I put everything back in the mailbox until we got home. Sure enough, this copy was split, also in three pieces but differently from the other two.

I'm beginning to think that I'm not supposed to see this movie. I wonder if it has something to do with the bone-chilling cold that we've had around here lately. Or maybe the studio that put the disk out had some bad disk stock. I don't know. I just hope that Netflix doesn't think I'm breaking these disks on purpose. I really want to see this movie. Honest.


12/25/08: The snowmen on top of our TV would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. (Extra points to any L. Fish alumni who recognize the guy that's second from the left in the picture.) We had a great couple days visiting family and friends, eating too much and collecting lots of booty! Hope all of you had the same.


12/05/08: Happy "Day of the Ninja", everybody! I know "Talk Like A Pirate Day" is a lot more fun, because you get to annoy your family, friends and co-workers by being louder and more obnoxious than usual, calling everyone "Wenches" and "Scurvy Dogs" and such, when on the "Day of the Ninja" you just sneak around silently and kill them. This may be fun for you but definitely not for them. But that's what ninja do.
     On the other hand, you can just celebrate quietly (dare I say "stealthily") and afterwards order take-out from Ninja Burger ("Guaranteed delivery in 30 minutes or less, or we commit Seppuku!") and watch "The Octagon" for the 275th time.
     Just be careful with your paper shurikens. You know, it's all fun and games until somebody puts an eye out.


11/27/08: Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Each year we give thanks for all the good things in our lives. I'm thankful for my friends, my family, my lovely wife, my silly dog. I'm thankful that I'm still relatively healthy, still employed, still have at least a couple dollars left in my 401K. Thankful that my brothers are coming over for Thanksgiving dinner, that Stephie is cooking a beautiful bird, and it's a beautiful day outside.

But mostly this year I'm thankful that my Dad's OK. As some of you know, Dad went in for a quadruple bypass and valve replacement at the end of October and there were some complications which kept him in the hospital much longer than planned. He's home now, as you can see from the picture, and it looks like he's going to be OK. He has a sackful of medicine to take and the plan is for him to go to therapy three days a week until his body recovers from the trauma of the surgery. But he never lost his sense of humor, even when he wasn't doing too well, and I believe that's an important part of a successful recovery. It's going to be a while until he's completely back to normal, but we're willing to wait for him!


11/19/08: "The 2008 National Medal of Arts to Stan Lee, for his groundbreaking work as one of America's most prolific storytellers, recreating the American comic book. His complex plots and humane super heroes celebrate courage, honesty, and the importance of helping the less fortunate, reflecting America's inherent goodness." Excelsior!


11/04/08: OK, so Howard's not running this time, but today is Election Day 2008, so VOTE! Vote like your life depends on it. It may not, but your country sure does!


10/31/08: Happy Halloween, everyone! My costume this year was supposed to be kind of cute, but as usual, it turned out to be kind of creepy. Click here for pictures.

10/26/08: Recent e-mail exchange with my brother:

From: Matt
To: Chris
Subject: Tonight on TCM
Date: Friday, October 24, 2008, 7:47 AM

Hey, can you do me a big favor? Evanier says today that The World's Greatest Sinner is being shown on TCM early tomorrow morning. Would you be able record it for me? I've been curious about this film for years, because Zappa wrote the soundtrack, but the only time I've seen it for sale was from some shady public domain vendor. It looks like it's on at 1am for about 80 minutes.

And since you're already setting up the Tivo, they're showing 200 Motels at 2:45, and I wouldn't mind having a DVD of that, because all I have is a crappy nth-generation tape, and the Zappa Family Trust has never gotten around to putting that out on DVD!

________________________________________
From: Chris
To: Matt
Subject: Re: Tonight on TCM
Date: Friday, October 24, 2008, 12:30 PM

No problem! I've got plenty of space on the Tivo, and there's no Bears game to record this weekend. ;)

________________________________________
From: Chris
To: Matt
Subject: Re: Re: Tonight on TCM
Date: Saturday, October 25, 2008, 9:19 AM

Wow.

Dude, some people should not be allowed to play with cameras. And I'm talking about BOTH of these movies!

________________________________________
From: Matt
To: Chris
Subject: Re: Re: Tonight on TCM
Date: Saturday, October 25, 2008, 11:41 AM

Hey, I didn't ask you to WATCH them, just record them.

________________________________________
From: Chris
To: Matt
Subject: Re: Re: Tonight on TCM
Date: Saturday, October 25, 2008, 2:12 PM

HA HA! Touche'!

________________________________________

10/24/08: Sorry, but I've been really busy lately, keeping an eye on the upcoming election. You did register to vote, didn't you? And you do plan to vote on November 4th, don't you? Remember, your guy needs your vote, regardless of which guy is your guy. (Of course, it would be best if your guy was my guy, but either way, don't forget to vote!) I'm going to try to catch up in the next couple days on some stuff I've been meaning to post, so check back.

     Last week, Stephie took me to the Park West to see Alejandro Escovedo and the Nicholas Tremulis Orchestra, with tickets she gave me for my birthday. We first both of them (without full band) a couple years ago at Fitzgerald's at a benefit with Poi Dog Pondering. Man, I wish I had a tape of that show. For that night, the bulk of Escovedo's set was just him on guitar and the fabulous Susan Voelz on violin, and they blew us away! I'd seen her play with PDP several times, but the two together just clicked. And last week, Escovedo had his full band along (including the talented Ms. Voelz) and they were really terrific. I've only been to the Park West twice, and that was nearly 25 years ago (Uriah Heep and Marillion, not on the same night), but I really liked the place. I wouldn't mind going back if they had someone I liked.

     But where I'm pretty sure we will be going back is Stanley's Kitchen & Tap, about a block away from the Park West. Stephie was a little reluctant to go in, and was even more reluctant when we saw the front of the place was a dimly-lit bar, but the hostess took us in the back to a well-lit, well-decorated dining area that made me feel like we were in someone's kitchen. And the food was fantastic! Stephie had lake perch that was so light and fluffy it seemed almost creamy, with a side order of mac-and-cheese that she initially said was better than hers! I had chicken-fried steak and mashed potatoes, and it might have been the best I've ever had. And the price was reasonable, especially for the area. We've got to figure out what else to do in that neighborhood so we can go back and eat there!

10/06/08:

If you live in Illinois, you only have until the end of the day Tuesday, October 7 to register to vote, so don't delay. As Craig Ferguson says in the clip that should be embedded here, "If you don't vote, you're a moron".

     On a lighter note, here's another Craig Ferguson clip where he takes the media to task for the way the election campaign is being covered. Funny stuff, and more than a little bit true.



09/19/08: Avast, ye land lubbers! Don't be fergettin' that today is International Talk Like A Pirate Day, in which we celebrate all things piratical!
     Now ye might think that bein' a pirate was all Johnny Depp and Disney-style monsters, but nothin' kin be further from the truth. Sure, ye had the freedom o' the sea, but ye also had long weeks of nothin' to look at but yer tyrannical cap'n and yer fellow bilge-rats. Nothin' to do but swab th' deck and scrape barnacles, with only the occasional lootin' an' pillagin' te break up th' monotony. Weeks of nothin' to eat but sea biscuits and salted beef, if yer lucky. Scurvy! Ricketts!
     Ye know, maybe the life of a pirate weren't all it's cracked up to be. But we can still talk like one today! So hoist a tankard of yer favorite grog and shout a hearty "Yo-Ho"!


09/13/08: Things we learned in Green Bay last weekend (that's us under the arrow in the picture):


08/30/08: Usually we celebrate R. Crumb's birthday on the 30th, but this year, as I recently read in an article in "Films of the Golden Age, the 30th is also the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kankakee's favorite son Fred MacMurray. I mainly remember him as the father on "My Three Sons", which Mom says should be brought back on TV Land or one of the local channels, but I still remember the first time I saw him in Double Indemnity. That was not the Mr. Douglas that I knew! I also later found out that he was the inspiration for the design of the original Captain Marvel. How cool is that?


08/25/08: This good looking young guy is Sigmund, and until last weekend, he was our upstairs neighbor. He has a problem with most men (although we got along great right off the bat) and he tends to be a bit yappy (with a bark that goes right through you), but Kisu seemed to like him. At least she tolerated him well enough when he would come down to visit. But his Mom got a great job in another state, so last weekend they moved away. We're going to miss them both but wish them nothing but the best.
     He came down to visit with us while his Mom was waiting for the movers, so we got some final pictures and a couple videos. Check out Kisu's page to see them.


08/06/08: Stephie and I saw "The Dark Knight" a couple weeks ago, and since then I have been struggling with my opinion of the movie. Neither of us liked it, but that's not what I've been struggling with. I just can't seem to put my finger on what it was that I didn't like.
     I've been a Batman fan for a long time. I read the comics, as you can see by the accompanying picture, and enjoyed the Adam West TV series for what it was. I still remember when we went with friends to see the Tim Burton-Michael Keaton "Batman" the day it opened, and when it was over we all walked out and immediately wanted to go back in and watch it again. But this movie was a completely different experience.
     To begin with, I didn't care for the Joker character. Except for the face paint, I didn't see much difference between this character and so many other "criminal masterminds" that we see on TV and in movies. To me, he didn't have the kind of obvious lunacy that I equate with the Joker character. No, I didn't want to see Caesar Romero on the big screen, and I'm not that locked into the Jack Nicholson version (although the forced grin was well done), but Heath Ledger just seemed more like a generic terrorist than the Joker I know. There were a couple things he did that fit my idea of the character, but overall, I was unimpressed with the way the character was written.
     There were several spots in the movie where I didn't know what was going on, and I was a little annoyed by that. There was at least one point where there seemed to be a scene or two missing. I thought maybe I zoned out for a couple minutes, but Stephie was lost as well so it wasn't just me. Some people say that we should have seen it at an IMAX theater, but I don't think that would have helped me over the plot holes.
     The acting was pretty good, although I had trouble understanding Christian Bale when he was in costume. I guess he was going for the "Clint Eastwood tough-guy" voice, but all I got was a bunch of mumbling. True, there was a great scene with Morgan Freeman and a Wayne Corp accountant, but my impression was that Michael Caine's dialog was intentionally more vague than I thought the down-to-earth Alfred would say.
     This all seems like nit-picking, and I guess it is, but that's what I've been doing since we saw it because there was no one glaring thing that turned me off of the film, besides maybe the Joker character. I think it all boils down to the fact that I didn't have a good time watching this movie. We saw "Batman Begins" on DVD and I thought it was such a good movie from start to finish that I was kicking myself for not seeing it at the show, so I was expecting a similar experience with this one. But I was really disappointed. I had a much better time at the show when we saw "Iron Man", so much so that I can see myself watching "Iron Man" again in the near future. I can't say the same for "The Dark Knight".


07/30/08: I saw this listed as one of the top news items (actually news videos) on Yahoo! today. I didn't click the link. I don't know about you guys, but I don't need to see any exploding deer any time soon.

07/20/08: Last Friday evening I finished reading "The Number of the Beast" by Robert Heinlein. The book was given to me by a friend who said she received two copies from whatever book club she was in at the time, and thought I might like it. I think that was back in 1980. And it was not very good. Parts of it were, in fact, pretty bad. It started out pretty good, dragged towards the middle, started to pick up, then crashed and burned by the end. In fact, I had no idea what was going on in the whole final chapter, and couldn't wait to be done with it. When I started to lose interest the first time, I checked the 'net for reviews, and found many which recommended not reading it. But I pressed on, and can safely say that I'm never going to read this particular book ever again.
     So then why in the two days since can I not get the book out of my head. Inexplicably, I actually feel a little sad that I'm done, that I won't have some of these characters to read about any more. Makes no sense, but there you go.

06/23/08: This was my Diversity & Inclusion moment at our staff meeting last week:
     I always think that the D&I moment should be something personal, something that makes us different. My D&I moment today is about one of my hobbies, which is listening to radio.
     My opinion is that what is now known as "Terrestrial Radio" these days is pretty much crap, especially at drive time. If you can find music that you like, and that's a pretty big "if", you typically hear as many commercials as you do songs. I've never tried Satellite radio, which is supposed to be better and have a lot of variety, but there's a monthly fee, and who needs that these days. Fortunately for us, there's the Internet.
     Many things are easily and legally available to download from the Internet. Old-time radio shows have long been a personal favorite of mine. When I was a kid, my uncle gave me a bunch of tapes of shows like The Shadow, The Green Hornet, Jack Benny, The Great Gildersleeve, and that got me started. For a while (pre-mp3) I would use my VCR to record When Radio Was on WBBM at midnight, then while I was getting ready to go to work, I would record from the VCR to a cassette and listen in the car on my way to work. Between that show and Those Were the Days on Saturday afternoon, I discovered some great shows like The Voyage of the Scarlet Queen and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.
     Nowadays, there's lots of good OTR stuff available as free downloads, and since most shows are self-contained and around 15 or 30 minutes, they are great to listen to on your mp3 player while stuck in traffic. You can easly find them by a little searching. Here's a link to one of my favorites, the aforementioned Voyage of the Scarlet Queen. Think of it as a hard-boiled detective series on a ship as it sails from port to port. Great stuff. I had the complete set on cassette and after I listened to it, I passed it around at work and everyone loved it. Another really good series is Speed Gibson, a kid's show that has enough action for kids of all ages!
     But if you'd rather listen to music, you're in luck there as well. You probably think of Public Radio as the news and information you hear prime-time on WBEZ, but there are a lot of interesting music programs in the evenings and over the weekends on 'BEZ and other NPR stations. Just a few of the shows I listen to, either occasionally or regularly, are Blues Before Sunrise, Thistle & Shamrock, Hearts of Space, and Riverwalk Jazz on WUIS from Springfield, Those Were The Days, Putumayo World Music Hour, Victor Parra's Mambo Express, and Metal Rock on WDCB in Glen Ellyn, and Sound Opinions, Prairie Home Companion, This American Life, Afropop Worldwide, Dick Buckley (big band), and Word Jazz on WBEZ. Some of these shows are available as "podcasts", basically mp3 files you can save to your computer and transfer to your mp3 player, while others are streamed over the 'net, and there are free programs you can use to capture the streams and save them to your mp3 player. I use Streamripper to record a half-dozen shows each weekend. I just created a batch file with the Streamripper command line and added it to the Windows scheduler, so I don't have to think about it every weekend, just make sure the computer is on and hooked to the Internet. You can also use the VLC media player to record the streams.
     So with a little investigation, and a couple free programs, you can get more music and entertainment than you have time for, and it doesn't cost you a cent.

06/14/08: Just a brief note to recognize that today is the fifth anniversary of this site going live. To be honest, I didn't think it would last this long. I never doubted my ability to run off at the mouth (or in this case, the keyboard) but when I started this five years ago, I had no idea where I was going with this, or how long I would keep it going. Still don't, really. But even though I'm way behind, in that I have a bunch of stuff from May that I wanted to write about but just haven't got around to it, I'm still having fun with this, and I hope you find my ramblings (and run-on sentences) at least mildly interesting. Thanks for reading!


06/03/08: A regular item on this site is news of the big Used Book Sale at the Westfield Old Orchard mall in Skokie. For the second year in a row The Little City Foundation in Palatine is running the book sale that signals the beginning of summer in this household. This year the sale starts on Friday, June 6th and runs through Sunday, June 15th. It looks like they are trying to make people come out more than once, as they will be hosting various authors there throughout the week. Click here to see the full schedule. As in past sales, they will be accepting book donations right at the sale, so I plan to weed out our collection a little, and give back some of the things that I really don't see myself reading again. I figure if I donate a box and then come home with only a bag full, I will make a little space at home and help out a worthwhile charity. Click the picture of the flyer here for more details of the sale, and plan to pick up some fine reading at some great prices.

05/20/08: We seem to have the poopy robin problem taken care of. Just after I posted the video of that nutty robin, I called the local Wild Birds Unlimited and explained my predicament to the woman there. She said that it was likely that there was a nest nearby, and that was why the robins were hanging around. She also thought that this behavior, like the reported cases of robins flying into windows, would stop once mating season was over, probably in a couple weeks.
     I told her that I had seen these inflatable owls on the 'net and was wondering if they carried them, or if she thought they would work. She told me that robins are pretty smart birds, and if the owl was not moving, they would figure out that it was not a threat and ignore it. She recommended either tying some of those mylar balloons on the antenna, or covering the car with a sheet, but making sure that it was loose enough to flutter in the breeze. She thought the motion of either would be enough to keep the birds away.
     So that night I got out this plastic tarp that we had in the cabinet and layed it across the roof of Stephie's Beetle, closing the door on either side. It didn't completely cover the car, but enough of the roof, and it was a little loose so the wind blew it around a bit. There were a couple spots on the car the next morning, but we left it on a couple days and ... nothing. Not on the Beetle, not on my car, not on the neighbor's car, nothing! We've since had the cars parked out there without any covering and it's been just fine. It seems that one weekend with the plastic was enough to scare them away. Thanks, Wild Birds Unlimited!

05/04/08: More Bird Fun: When I got home from work on Friday, I thought I'd switch parking places with Stephie, figuring that maybe I'd confuse the poopy robin. Apparently, she's too smart for me, but at least this time I was able to grab the camera and catch her in the act.

     So yesterday, Stephie figured she'd had enough and parked in front. Judging by the shape of the cars this morning, either she parked under the wrong tree or her car is actually the object of the robin's affections, because my car (in back) is clear but hers is not!


04/30/08: Bird Fun: A couple weeks ago, I was getting ready for work and I heard a bump...bump...bump coming from the dining room. Kisu was sleeping so I knew it wasn't her. I slowly walked in there, and there was this bird (one of those little wrens, I think) on the evergreen, right outside the window. On my side of the window is also a tree, so the bird is trying to fly from the evergreen to the other tree, but he bumps into the window and goes back to the evergreen. This went on for several minutes (with no apparent damage to the bird, I might add) until I chased him away. This happened a couple more days since, and once I tried to get some video of him, but it was too dark to see anything.
     Now we have a new problem. Stephie called me last Friday and said that she almost gagged when she went to her car because it was full of bird poop. I had noticed a dropping on my car when I left the house, but I didn't get a good look at the passenger side of my car, and when I checked, it was pretty loaded as well. We had a bird poop problem in the past because there are some telephone and cable lines going over where we park in the back, but we were not parked under the lines this time, and also, why her driver's door and my passenger door?
     The next day, I found out why. I peeked out the back and saw a robin hopping from Stephie's car to mine, back and forth, over and over. And you know what birds do almost as well as fly? That's right: poop. Stephie had had her car professionally washed after the last coating, and it was covered with poop again! I went back to get the camera, but he was gone when I got back. I hauled out the hose and washed the new poop off, and he didn't come back for a couple days. But look what I found when I was going to work this morning. I got out there and this goofy robin is sitting on her car! He took off when he saw me, but the picture here shows that he had been there for a while.
     Ain't nature wonderful?


03/30/08: Random stuff:




03/02/08: One of our favorite shows from last season was Jericho. We watched every episode after catching the terrific pilot, waited patiently during the almost three-month break that CBS inflicted on us before showing the second half of the first season, and were upset and heartbroken when the show was canceled. We weren't among the group that sent thousands of pounds of peanuts to CBS to protest the shows cancellation, but both Stephie and I signed the on-line petitions, and I bought the DVD set when it came out. Stephie thought I was a little nuts (pun intended) for buying the series after we watched every single episode, but I figured that it was my way of directly supporting the show. Plus, I wanted to see the first season again before the second season started, and we don't get channel 2 in very well, so I couldn't really tape it to keep when they reran it over the summer.
     As time rolled by, and the date of the second season premiere approached, I mentioned that I wanted to watch at least part of the DVDs before getting into the second season. Stephie was less than enthusiastic, because "we already watched them." I convinced her that we should at least watch the pilot again, and she agreed that maybe she's like to see the season finale before the new season starts, so a couple Sundays ago, I pulled out the set and popped in the first disk. After the first episode, Stephie said "Maybe we should watch the next one." Seven episodes later, she wanted to watch more, but it was late and I had to go to work the next day! We wound up watching a disk a night after that, finishing the set in a total of four days. On the fifth day, we watched the first two episodes of the new season, and now we're stuck, waiting for more!
     This little marathon confirmed what I thought last year, that Jericho is a terrific show. It's a little like Lost, where you have a group of characters isolated from the rest of the world, and have to rely on each other to survive. But unlike Lost, which we eventually gave up on, there's a logical progression of the plot, and the writers actually give you answers to some of the mysteries as they add more puzzles to the storyline. And while we really enjoyed it as a weekly show last season, I think it works better when watching multiple episodes in one sitting. During last season, I thought the tone of the story changed in the two-and-a-half months it was off last year. It seemed like it abruptly shifted from the town surviving on its own to defending from hostile outside forces, but watching the series as we did over a couple days, the shift now seems more reasonable to me, and much more logical.
     Judging by the first two episodes this year, the quality has not suffered much due to its temporary cancellation, although it's a little different show this season. Where last season was about the town and how it was going to survive after the bombs destroyed most of the major cities in the US, this season seems to be about rebuilding in the aftermath, and also finding who was responsible. I'm curious to see how they're going to do that while still focusing on this small town in Kansas.
     But while they have announced that this second season is only going to be seven episodes long, there are no assurances that it will be back for a third. I understand that the ratings haven't been spectacular, which means that this compelling, unique show is possibly going to be canceled again. I hope that doesn't happen, because quality TV is getting harder and harder to find. We watch less network TV every season, as they cancel shows that we like and replace them with "reality" shows, game shows and other garbage. And when something interesting does find its way to the airwaves, we're hesitant to start it, for fear that we'll get sucked into the show, only to have it canceled after a single season or less, recent examples being Traveler, Invasion, Threshold, The Class, Commander in Chief, Out of Practice, The Job, Joan of Arcadia, It's All Relative, Hidden Hills, and the list goes on. Maybe these were not high art, but we liked 'em. And they were a darn sight more entertaining to us than American Idol! But I digress...
     If you haven't given it a chance, try Jericho. The DVDs are available from Netflix or probably your local video store, and the entire first season is viewable on-line. New episodes are on Tuesday night. And if you like it, tell people about it, like I'm doing here.

02/15/08: Well, this years birthday season starts off with a bang today, with two of the most important people in my life celebrating birthdays today. Happy Birthday, Dad and Stephie! Looking forward to that big birthday meal this weekend!


02/11/08: This winter has been particularly brutal on my poor little car. A couple weeks ago I was driving home from work during one of our recent afternoon snowstorms when a chunk of what I'm assuming to be ice and snow flew off the truck in the next lane and exploded on the front of my car, covering every available surface in muck. I couldn't see out of any of the windows, front, back or sides, and it took three or four swipes of the wipers before I could see where I was going. Quite a harrowing experience at tollway speeds. The corpse-sized chunk of crud must have hit the nose of the car first, because it punched a hole in the plastic cover of the headlight, which had to be replaced, before splattering the windows and taking a tiny chip out of the windshield, which will have to be replaced one of these days.
     Then last Friday, I was on my way to work when I came across an abyss on the tollway, with no way to avoid it. I knew it wasn't good the way the car shook when I hit it, but it wasn't until I was parking that I realized that my tire was flat. What's worse was the rim was bent, so while they were able to save the tire, I had to buy a new rim. I guess I should count myself fortunate that nothing else was damaged, like the steering or the transmission. But still...      I did have to laugh, though, when I was coming back from dropping off the damaged wheel and saw two guys changing a tire in the parking lot. I stopped and said "Let me guess: Westbound 88 right around Naperville road?" They both looked up a little startled and said "Yeah, how did you know?" At least I'm not alone.

02/05/08:
It's Super Tuesday! If you're already registered, go vote today! If not, listen to what Frank says in this little video clip and register before the general election in November. You know the old saying: "If you don’t vote, you have no right to complain about the outcome."



01/06/08: We had a quick warmup this weekend, so all the snow on the ground is gone, but we took some pictures when we were on our walk a couple days ago, including this awesome Christmas decoration. Click here to see a couple pictures.


12/25/07: We had a great Christmas morning. We put on a put of fresh-ground coffee (thanks, Julie!) and popped some cinnamon rolls in the oven (thanks, Pillsbury!), then sat on the couch and opened presents (thanks, Stephie!). Afterwards, we watched our all-time favorite Christmas (or any time of the year) movie, the original Die Hard! Life doesn't get much better than that. Merry Christmas to all!


12/18/07: Kinda says it all, don't it?


11/26/07: It's not often that I stop watching a TV show mid-season, especially after watching one faithfully for several years, but we've finally given up on House. We're both Hugh Laurie fans, especially from his time with Stephen Fry on Jeeves and Wooster, and we really enjoyed the first couple seasons of House. But by now, the character is just totally out of control, and we don't find it entertaining any more. He's never had a bedside manner, but this season it seems like he is spending more time tormenting his new "recruits" than he is solving the puzzles that are his patients. In several episodes this season, the patient was cured really in spite of House. He should have been fired long, long ago, the Cuddy character (who I really liked in previous seasons) probably should be fired for letting him run amok for so long, and why the Wilson character is still even speaking to him after the way he's been treated, I have no idea. I also have no idea why House (the show) has ratings in the top ten each week. I can only think it's people like me waiting for someone to rap him across the head with his cane. Repeatedly. Well, we won't be around to see it.
     Another show that (in my opinion) should be in the top ten, and coincidentally is on at the same time as House, is Reaper, over on the CW. It's got just about everything you need: likeable characters, snappy dialogue, slightly cheesy special effects, a monster-of-the-week, and best of all, Ray Wise as the Devil. Yeah, the "Sock" character can be a little over the top, but I think everyone else on the show does a great job, and Ray Wise looks like he's having a ball. It's one I look forward to every week. Check it out.


10/31/07: Here's something that I should have written about a long time ago. Two years ago, I got home from work on Halloween to find an envelope waiting for me from the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society. I had been seeing mentions of their (then) new film "The Call of Cthulhu" for some time in the Silent Movie newsgroup, so I had ordered the DVD from their web site. How they timed it to arrive on Halloween I have no idea!
     I've been a fan of silent movies since I was a kid (probably from watching Metropolis so many times) and I've read a few Lovecraft stories, so I figured that I was firmly in their target audience. Turns out I was right, because I really enjoyed the movie. They really did a great job of capturing the feel of a 1920s era silent movie. The story, the actors, the sets, and the music all are a cut above what you would expect from an independent film made by a bunch of fans. The special effects, while maybe primitive by todays Hollywood standards, serve the story well, and look as though they could actually have been done in the early days of motion pictures. On top of all that, the intertitles are available in 24 languages! You can watch the film in Polish, Norwegian, or Luxembourgish if you wish. I watched it (in English) the night it arrived, and several times since, and have been thoroughly entertained each time. And the "making of" featurette was almost as entertaining as the film itself. Check out the trailer if you think you might be interested. I'd recommend it to anyone open-minded enough to watch a "movie without sound".
     The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society has since put out a radio drama of another Lovecraft story in the style of an old-time radio show, another medium of entertainment that I'm fond of, and is apparently now working on another film adaptation, this time with sound, though still in black and white. It looks this one might be in the style of those film noir B-movies that I've been taping off of late night TV. These guys really have my number!


09/30/07: Today's Kisu's birthday! She turns six today, which according to the handy Dog Years calculator on our site is the equivalent of 42 people years! I can say with some authority that she neither looks nor acts her age. We celebrated the usual way, with a nice long walk around the neighborhood, followed by a quick trip to local burger emporium for her traditional plain burger (with just a couple fries on the side). This is about the only people food she gets all year (not counting the vegetables that she likes) and judging by how fast it left her bowl, she really enjoyed it. Happy Birthday, Pumpkin!

09/22/07: We had a great Anniversary day. We (Stephie, Kisu and I) started out at a dog event along the Riverwalk in Naperville. It was a beautiful day for being outside, so after the event, we spent a leisurly hour or so strolling up and down the Riverwalk. The ducks and geese were out on the river, and as Stephie pointed out, it felt like we were on vacation.
     A couple weeks ago we found a restaurant near another dog event we attended that had an outdoor seating area where we could have Kisu with us while we ate lunch. We didn't know if there would be such a place in Naperville, but while we were sitting in this little garden area, I pulled out my latest gadget, a Nokia 770 internet tablet, which Stephie presciently suggested I bring along. I quickly picked up a broadband connection and Googled "naperville dog-friendly restaurants", which gave me a link to petfriendlytravel.com, and that in turn had a listing for Quigley's Irish Pub, which turned out to be only two blocks away! We wandered over, making a quick stop at Two Bostons Pet Boutique to pick up some treats for Kisu, and had a fabulous meal. It was great to sit on the patio with Kisu, and a number of other dogs as well, and sip a pint or two and have some great food. This is by far the most pet-friendly restaurant we had ever been to, and the food was terrific. (Make sure you try the Reuben Rolls!) I would highly recommend it, whether you have a dog or not.
     Oh, and the best part of it all was I got to spend all day with my two favorite girls. Happy Anniversary, Stephie!


09/19/07: Ahoy, me hearties! It again be International Talk Like A Pirate Day! The day when all yer mates are scurvy dogs and all women are saucy wenches. If ye be needin' a rousing tune to carry ye through the day, ye can do no better than the traditional Talk Like A Pirate Day song. Hoist high the Jolly Roger, raise a pint of grog and sing along! Yo-ho!


08/23/07: We've been to a couple good restaurants in the last couple weeks and I've been meaning to write about them, but you know how things are when it's summer, and you just don't feel like doing anything.
     I took Stephanie to see Wings at the Portage and she loved it! She also loved this little restaurant that we found around the corner from the theater. The awning over the Meisa Cafe and Restaurant says "serving Bosnian & American Food", so we thought we would give it a try. I had the Cabbage Rolls and Stephie had the Chicken Schnitzel and Mushrooms, and both entrees were excellent. And they server a homemade bread that was fantastic! The server was very friendly, the atmosphere was simple but comfortable, and best of all, the whole meal (with dessert!) cost less than one entree at the steak place on the corner. We plan to go back, and if you find yourself anywhere near Portage Park, you owe it to yourself to stop in for a great, homemade dinner.
     And a couple weeks ago, our friends Crys and Fred called us up on a Saturday afternoon and asked if we wanted to join them for sushi. Not having any better plans, we accepted and they took us to one of their favorite places, Butterfly Sushi Bar and Thai Cuisine on Grand Ave. The place is small, but we were there early enough that we got a prime table in the front, and the food was amazing! Everything was fresh and tasty, and the specialty rolls we tried, especially the crunchy tuna roll and the "Godzilla" roll, were delicious. I had a mango smoothie that nicely complimented the meal, and was a big help when I went a little heavy on the wasabi! Best of all, we ate until we were stuffed and then were surprised at how low the bill was. Great food and a great deal! I don't know how the place is when it's busy, but we'd go back again.


07/24/07: It's that time of year again. The Silent Summer Film Festival started last Friday at the Portage Theater on North Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago. I've been going now for several years, and I have to say that it's a real treat to see a silent film on a big screen, accompanied by a person playing a real theatre organ. This Friday, they're showing Wings, which won the very first Best Picture Oscar ever given out, and Stephie and I are going to be there. Click here for more information on the festival, and the Silent Film Society of Chicago, and to see the list of other films that will be shown over the next several weeks.


07/05/07: Hope everyone had a great Fourth of July this year. We did the usual, going to visit my Mom and Dad for some grillin' and chillin' (and a bit of Scrabble as well.) But one thing we did, and you don't have to wait for next July to do yourself, was to go to Librivox.org (which is the Project Gutenburg of audiobooks) and download readings of the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address to listen to in the car on the way there. As the comment on the site says, these documents (along with the US Constitution, which is also available at the above link) are "the epitome of freedom and liberty" and "the legal backbone of the United States of America". Interesting listening on Independence Day or any day of the year.

Or if you're looking for something a little more catchy, you might want to check this out.


06/24/07: When we were in California recently for Ricky's graduation, we had a little time to do some touristy things, and Mom said that she really wanted to see the Getty Museum. So one night while we were sitting around Chris' apartment, Stephie wandered off to the computer to get directions while Mom flipped through the channels on TV and ran across a program on their local PBS station about some art restoration. Turns out that the program was about two particular pictures that were restored by, and are on display at, the Getty. The program was fascinating, and when it was over, Stephie came away from the computer with directions on how to get there, so we decided to go.
      This is a stop that I would recommend whole-heartedly to anyone visiting the Los Angeles area who has at least a passing interest in art. They charge $8 per vehicle for parking, but there is no entrance fee, and they really could charge for this because the facility and the artwork displayed there are top-notch. The view of the surrounding area is breath-taking, and the garden area is beautiful. I'll try to get some of Stephie's pictures up here once they are developed, but you really should see it in person if you can.
      Oh, and we did see the two pieces that were being restored in the PBS show, and they were more beautiful in person than in the documentary. For one thing, they are MUCH bigger than I thought. The exhibit they are part of will be on display there until September 2, 2007, so if you are in the heighborhood before then, you should go check them out. And if you can't make it in person, or would just like to see the documentary, it's available on DVD. I picked up a copy in the gift shop while we were there, so that Stephie can have a chance to see it.


06/02/07: As I've written about before, the start of summer for us is not June 21st but the week of the big Used Book Sale at the Westfield Old Orchard mall in Skokie. For many years it was a benefit for Brandeis University, but this year there's a new group benefiting from what I hope is piles of cash that people will leave there in exchange for some fine reading. The Little City Foundation in Palatine is taking up the torch and running the book sale this year, and hopefully for many years in the future. The sale starts on Saturday, June 9 through Sunday, June 17th. They will be accepting book donations during the sale, so bring the overflow from your home library pick up some fine reading at fantastic prices, and feel good about yourself for helping out a worthwhile charity. How can you go wrong? Click the picture of the flyer here for more details of the sale.

Oh, and there's more pictures and movies on our Cicada page.

05/28/07: By the way, we're having quite the cicada infestation around here. Check out our Cicada page for more information.


05/27/07: With Pirates of the Caribbean 3 opening this weekend, and Shrek 3 in its second week, we thought this would be a good time to go see Spider-Man 3. And we were right. Ten minutes before the matinée showing on Saturday at one of the local multiplexes, we were still the only people in the audience. And they didn't even bother to play any music or have that ad sideshow running while the lights were up. It was a little creepy. Ultimately, I think I counted 18 more people filter in before the trailers finished and the movie started. And the movie? Eh...
      I've been a fan of Spider-Man from way back (September of 1973 to be exact) so I've watched each of the three movies with the suspicious eye of someone who remembers the original versions of these stories. Sure, I realize that there will be liberties taken, as there always is when a concept is transferred from one media to another, and I further realize that times change and popular entertainment changes with the times, but this character is a cherished part of my childhood, and I'd love nothing more than to see them done right.
      The first movie, with its many flaws, was still an exciting time at the show. It was the origin story, so it had to contain lots of exposition to bring the viewer (who hasn't been reading the comic for almost 30 years) up to speed. The effects were good, the casting just right, and while I wasn't thrilled with the Goblin costume, the rest of the movie looked great. The second film was even better, containing one of my favorite villains as well as much of the humor and character of the comics. It seemed to be aimed more at me, the long-time Spider-Man fan, than the first. There were bits of several story lines from the sixties and seventies thrown in, and they were treated with what I thought was the proper reverence.
      Now, there's the third. I should probably have started out by saying that I absolutely loathe the Venom character. I thought that the black suit was briefly interesting when they introduced it as one of the few "long term" changes to come out of the Secret Wars series, but I could never understand the appeal of an alien being turning an uninteresting third-string character into a homicidal psychopath. They even gave this character its own comic book for a while! Venom, along with the similarly sociopathic character Carnage, were the driving forces behind the "Maximum Carnage" series that almost made me stop buying Spider-Man comics for good. I thought it was even worse then the universally reviled Clone Saga, but that's another story...
      But the movie? I thought it looked good. Thomas Hayden Church looked perfect as Flint Marko, but while the scene where we first see Sandman emerging from the sand was a great use of the CG effects that have come a long way since the first movie, I had to scratch my head when he becomes a 15-story sandstorm. I mean, how do you explain that? Sure, it's a big stretch to have a guy's cells merge with the sand under his feet and eventually become a being made of sand, but it's still sand. I'll buy that he can survive having half his face buffed off by a passing subway car, but how was he able to grow to be skyscraper size and still be solid enough to pummel our favorite web-slinger? Does he now have "mastery over all sand"? And I think it was plain wrong to change one of the foundations of the Spider-Man legend. If the guy that killed Uncle Ben wasn't the guy that Spider-Man could have stopped, to me it turns Uncle Ben's death into a random act of senseless violence instead of the catalyst of Peter's drive to right wrongs. Sorry, Pete, nothing you could have done. Move on with your life.
      One of the benefits of having a story come out in monthly bits, something you can't do when you have one shot to tell a story ever 2-3 years, is that you can have characters and plots develop over time. I think it was too soon to have Harry come back as yet another Goblin ("Goblin Junior" as Pete calls him) but I guess they wanted to wrap up that part of the storyline, in case there are no more Spider-Man movies from this creative team, which looks to be a possibility. The battle with the New Goblin early in the movie is exciting, but it's almost too fast to follow what's going on. We were initially planning to try to see this in IMAX, but after this sequence was over, I was glad we didn't because I'll bet one of us would have motion sickness from that!
      Overall, though, the movie was a little unsatisfying. It had a few laughs, especially the scenes in the Daily Bugle office with J. Jonah Jameson, and in the restaurant with Bruce Campbell as the Maître d’. I agree with one reviewer that if they make a fourth movie, it should star these two characters. But the movie is too long (I caught Stephie checking her watch at one point) and the "Parker as swingin' ladies man" scenes in particular really dragged. There were some nice scenes, like with Pete and his landlord, but they're too few and far between. It could have been better.
      Then again, it could have been much worse. Instead of Venom, they could have used the Mindworm...


04/29/07: This has been the weekend for deals. Yesterday, our friends called us and invited us to go with them to the Abbey Pub for the last night of this years' International Pop Overthrow festival. Five bands for $10! What really hooked us was that Dan and I were both fans of the two headliners, Pezband and Off Broadway, from way, WAY back.
     But the biggest surprise of the evening was the opening band, The Lackloves. They played such a great set that we spent the rest of the night comparing each band (Off Broadway, Pezband, The Handcuffs, The Greenwoods) to them, and while the rest of the bands were good to great, consensus was that the Lackloves stole the show. They have a new CD coming out this summer and I'm going to have to pick it up. And we'll have to keep an eye out for the IPO shows next year, because from the looks of the program, we missed some good music this year!
     And this morning, Kisu and I were out on a long walk when we passed one of the first garage sales of the season, and an item caught my eye. I checked it out, then went home and got some money and went back. Check out what I got!


04/15/07: What's the story with these guys? It's like the Bunny Peeps are marching on us! Actually, this is a close-up of Stephie's Edible Art Show entry for this year. Click here to check out the creative and delicious art that was on display!


04/11/07: Looking out the kitchen window. Second week in April. 6:30AM. Guess who's going to be late for work.

Gotta love Spring!


03/22/07: We let an anniversary pass yesterday and even though I was home all day, neither of us mentioned it, despite being on our minds all day. It was the fifth anniversary of the worst day of my life, at least to this point. On March 21, 2002, we lost Cheyenne, the best dog anyone could hope to have. No sleight against Kisu, who we were so lucky to find at the shelter a year later, but Cheyenne was the first dog that Stephie and I had together, and she was our best buddy. Those of you who may not know, her life story was the basis for starting this site, and it's still here to be enjoyed by all, pretty much as it was when it was my school project. If you haven't looked at it yet, click here to read about her.

We still miss you, Pookie.


02/28/07: I was craving a little music when I went out to get a sandwich at lunch today, so I turned on the Loop and found that they were in the middle of something called "Time Warp Wednesday". I knew they were reaching way back because they were playing "Rockin' Into The Night" by 38 Special, which I remember reading about as performed by Survivor, well before I was old enough to see them in a club. But the kicker was when I was on my way back and they said they were going to play "Wango Tango" by Ted Nugent. I was a Ted fan back then (more so for the first couple albums, well before the politics and the bow hunting) and I remember when the song first came out, so I thought "Yeah! That's what I need to get my day going."
     And I turned it up loud and it was great. You don't get stuff like that on the radio these days. Sure, it's rough, crude and rude, but you gotta love lyrics like:

(I was going to paste some lyrics here, but reading them on a computer screen, separate from Ted's high-speed, somewhat unintelligible delivery ... well, they're a little embarrassing. OK, a LOT embarrassing. You'll have to look them up yourself if you don't believe me, but I wouldn't recommend it.)

     It got me thinking that there are times, usually in the middle of an especially bad day, when I turn on the radio in the car and a really great song can just lift me out of my funk. It doesn't even have to be a "great" song (witness "Wango Tango") but it's really something how music can lift your spirits. The last time I remember this happening it was a sunny afternoon, I had the windows open, a cool breeze coming in, a cheeseburger and a Coke, and Cheap Trick's "Surrender" playing loud. It's like I was back in high school, cruising in my '70 Cougar with the odd-colored driver's door. I think it cheered me up for three days, just that couple minutes.
     Of course, "Time Warp Wednesday" this week was playing music from 1980, which made me also think about how music can make me feel young again, and pretty old at the same time.


02/11/07: Lots of stuff going on around here, just too busy to write about it.

      First, it's been cold. Mind-numbingly cold. So much so that we haven't had Kisu on a proper walk for a couple weeks, even with her booties. We have a little cupboard just outside the kitchen door (in like an enclosed back porch) and yesterday Stephie found that a bottle of laundry detergent and a bottle of vinegar had both frozen solid. And we also noticed that the radiator in the front room was not generating any heat. Made for some cold nights watching TV before getting it fixed.

      With the cold came a little snow and ice, and one of our neighbors took a spill, breaking her leg and ankle. While she was in the hospital, we got to watch Siggy for about a week. Pictures (and a short video of the kids playing) are on Kisu's Pictures page. We had a great time watching him, but Kisu was getting increasingly jealous at all the attention he was getting. We tried to explain that he was a boy dog and we were just keeping him occupied so he wouldn't "mark his territory", but she was not amused. We kind of looked at this as a test run to see if we could handle another dog in the house. I'd say Stephie and I would be ready, but Kisu may need some convincing.

      Speaking of Kisu, she has been having problems with her eyes recently. We noticed they were really red before Halloween and the vet gave us some drops that appeared to clear them up, but the red came back after the new year and seemed much worse. So much so that my Mom said that she was worried, since it looked like Kisu was really uncomfortable. A couple trips to the doggie opthamologist later, it turns out that she'd having a problem with her tear ducts not creating enough tears to properly lubricate her eyes. The dryness caused some crystalline build-up, which in turn caused small ulcers to form on her eyes. To make matters worse, it turns out that the stuff our regular vet gave us is probably making them sting. That would explain why she's been fighting the drops more as time went on. Some different medicine (and more fighting) and the ulcers are clearing up, and she seems a lot more comfortable.

      A couple weeks ago I picked up one of the $99-after-rebate computer specials from Tiger Direct to replace our server. I got a great deal on a 320GB hard drive a couple months ago, to hold video files to feed to the MediaMVP box, but the BIOS on the old server box was too old to recognize it (and was not upgradable) so I was only able to use about a third of the capacity. Plus, I picked up a Hauppauge tuner card so that I might try to use the server as a third VCR (or second if the one acts up again) and the old server was not fast enough to do that. So I got this barebones kit. put it together, and found that Linux really doesn't need to be reinstalled when moving drives from one machine to another. I was even able to resize the partition (using a Knoppix CD) without losing any data on the drive, so we're in business! I'll let you know how the TV recording goes once I get around to setting that up.

      Finally, February is Jack Benny month on Those Were The Days, the old-time radio show that's on Saturday afternoon on WDCB. We can't get 'DCB real clearly on the stereo, but since they stream it on the 'net, we listen to it that way. You can listen to the previous weeks' program on their web site, so if it's still February when you're reading this, you can listen in and hear why we're such big fans of Jack and his show. If we're not going to be home, I use Total Recorder to record the stream for later listening.

      WDCB is also the new home for Blues Before Sunrise, a weekly radio program that has lots of good music week after week. I've been time-shifting it for several years now, first by recording the audio on my HiFi VCR, then using Total Recorder to record off the FM tuner in my video card, but since they were dropped by WBEZ, I found WUIS, a station out of Springfield, that has it as an MP3 stream, and found this program called Streamripper that does a great job recording the show so I don't have to stay up 'till all hours of the night to hear the entire program. I like to have it on my MP3 player, because it's good music to write programs to. I always found the blues to be entertaining without being intrusive while working, and the variety on BBS is pretty good, from the early days of recorded music to the early '60s. They used to have a complete playlist on their web site, but that part of their web site has been broken for over a year now. If you're any kind of a blues fan, or just open minded about music, you should check it out.


01/14/07: Kisu's Obedience Class had its Christmas party last week, and some pictures are on Kisu's page.

01/07/07: Had a strange thing happen the other morning. When the alarm went off, I was in the middle of a dream in which I was talking on the phone. In the dream, I had answered the phone and there was a woman on the line who spoke with an accent, possibly Hispanic. Details are a little fuzzy, since it was a dream and all, but I got the impression that she worked with a buddy of mine, and I think she was inviting us to go out to socialize with a group of people from work, including my friend. She couldn't be any one that I actually know, since I don't know anyone who works with my pal.
      But when the alarm went off, I got up, shut it off, and stood there for a minute. Many times in the past I have been tempted to go back to bed to see if I could get back into a particularly good dream, but this time I actually considered going back to bed because I felt guilty that I left that woman hanging on the phone!
      What is it they say about people who can't tell their dreams from reality?

12/25/06: Oh, the heck with political correctness. Merry Christmas to everyone! Here's a picture of our little Charlie Brown tree. Stephie threw out our old tree stand last year, which served us well all these years despite getting pretty nasty looking as time went by, but when time came to buy a new stand, all the she saw were stands for your standard huge tree (at least huge compared to the ones we usually get). She just couldn't find one that would work for little trees like this guy. We tried the blanket routine (a la Linus) but finally my folks came through with a stand they weren't going to use this year, saving Christmas!


12/09/06: Today, we've revived a long-standing tradition that anyone who has read Cheyenne's Pages would probably know about. As you can see from the picture here, we took Kisu to see Santa Claus! She doesn't look really thrilled to be there (and neither does Santa for that matter) but I think that was more due to her recent aversion to slick tile floors. The last couple weeks at obedience class she has been hesitant to step off the mats onto the tile, where she has problems with traction. But today she behaved well, and so did Santa.
     And tonight I was able to use this really cool program that I installed a while back and really haven't spent any time with. When we got home from my parent's house, I noticed that there was a star or planet directly below the moon, and another one below and a little to the left. I immediately went inside and fired up the version of Stellarium that I installed several months ago, and it told me that the star below the moon was actually Saturn, and the other object was Regulus, which is apparently the brightest star in the constellation of Leo. Just another example of how computers can enhance your life. Stellarium is an open-source program, which means it's free for anyone to download and use, although it runs a little too slow to be useful on Stephie's computer. But if your system is up to it, you should check it out!

11/18/06: Hi. How have you been? I know it's been a long time since I've written, but I have been thinking about you. We've been real busy, but there's not one thing that's kept me from writing. Just a lot of little (and not so little) projects eating into our free time.
     We're all fine here. Stephie's been working on a few new art pieces, in between the administrative work she's been doing for the various art leagues she's involved in. You may have noticed that there are a few thumbnails of her pieces at the top of our home page. She asked me to do that so that anyone discovering our web site knows that there is art to see here. I've also added a piece to her page that she had given to a friend before I had a decent picture of it. And we should have some new photos of previous works now that I've bought a pretty decent digital camera.
     Kisu turned five at the end of September, and everyone at dog class sang "Happy Birthday" to her. She also recently attended the annual Halloween party, hosted by one of her classmates. It was held the week after Halloween, and like last year, it was a lot of fun. I had the new camera there and took some pictures, which I put up on her picture page. The results are decent, but I think I need to learn more about how to operate it to get the best results.
     I've been busy fooling around with video on the computer, which I'll write more about later, but I recently had a virus on my main system. It's weird, but I feel like I've had someone break into my house and do things, but I don't know what. Between that and work and some really quality shows on network TV this season, I've fallen behind in just about everything, including updating this site.
     I hope this message finds you well, and I hope it won't be so long before you hear from me again. I'm working on some fun stuff that I can't wait to tell you about, but with the holidays rapidly approaching, it will probably be tough to find the time. But I'll try to write more frequently.
     Yours, etc.

10/10/06: As many people do these days, we timeshift almost all our TV watching. Sometimes to simply postpone a show, sometimes to watch multiple-part storylines in one shot, but usually so that we can fast-forward through commercials. So it was a huge inconvenience when one of our workhorse VCRs (no DVR for us...yet) developed a problem where it would make a funny noise and then "crash". Once in a great while it would snag a tape, but most of the time it would just shut itself off, and when started up again, the counter would be at zero, as if it rebooted itself. I was beginning to worry, because if it died, I don't know if I could have replaced it. It seems all that you can get these days is a VCR/DVD combo, or some ultra-cheap no-brand box that would probably crumble under the type of use that we would put it through.
     Good thing Majer's Repair Service is still in Lombard. Scott repaired both of our previous VCRs at one time or another, as well as a few things for work when I was in the desktop support biz, and he was willing and able to fix the ailing unit quickly and for a fair price. And he's a nice guy, too. If you have any equipment that needs repair, keep him in mind. He doesn't have a web site beyond the above link from Yahoo Local, but you can reach him at 630-620-1021.


09/22/06: Sixteen is not a number that is usually recognized in society, not like multiples of five. Sure, you can usually get a drivers license at 16, and there have been some songs around the number ('Sixteen Candles", 'Sixteen Tons', 'Christine Sixteen', 'sixteen bottles of beer on the wall...') but people usually recognize and celebrate multiples of 5, whether it's years in business, years at a job, or issues of a magazine. Even those lists of traditional anniversary gifts frequently go from 1 to 15, then skip by fives: 20, 25, 30, etc. Modern lists are not much more help ("silver holloware"?)
     But a sixteen-year honeymoon is something that should be celebrated. In my case, it started on September 22, 1990, and has not ended yet. I guess that's what happens when you marry your best friend. And if I had to do it all over again, the only thing I would change is I wouldn't have waited four years to marry her!

Happy Anniversary, Sweetie!


09/19/06: Avast, ye swabs! Today be International Talk Like A Pirate Day! The day when all land lubbers can feel the pull o' the sea, though the nearest shore be thousands of leagues away. If yer be needin' a little help wit' the lingo, here's a little video ter help ye along. (Not to worry, it be work-safe.) Yo-ho!


08/30/06: Happy Birthday, R. Crumb. We're celebrating this year much like we do every year, with a quiet evening at home, featuring one of Crumb's favorite meals, accompanied with opening cards and (hopefully) presents. And then next weekend we'll be joining the rest of the family for the joint Crumb/Mom birthday celebration, going out to one of Crumb's favorite restaurants and probably having cake. When I was a kid, it was always tough looking forward to Crumb's birthday at the end of August, since it also signaled the end of summer and back-to-school time. But as I get older, without a new school year looming, it's neat that Crumb's birthday is usually followed by a three-day weekend. So Happy Birthday!


08/19/06: Because we have a world class zoo just a couple blocks away, every year our vehicle stickers always have a different animal on them. I wish I had a way of saving them from year to year, because we've had some pretty neat ones while we lived here. But this year they chose one of our favorites: a cool aardvark, complete with ants. And my sticker number is 10666, so I get to drive like a demon!

08/09/06: All the unbearably hot weather the past couple weeks reminds me of the story I like to call "The Day Snapple Saved Our Lives"
     It was 1995, a week or so after the big heat wave hit Chicago that killed all those people, and we were on vacation in Washington, D.C. Our impeccable timing meant that we were there at the tail end of what we just went through in Chicago. We also found that we really shouldn't have rented a car for the week, since the majority of the sites are best seen by shuttle, subway, or on foot. Except for trips to Baltimore and Monticello, the car stayed parked behind the hotel.
     We had a black duffel bag that we carried with us for most of the week. In it were maps, brochures, camera supplies, panchos and whatever we thought we would need. (Funny story about the panchos: at one point we got off the subway train and were approaching the long escalator that would take us to street level, and there was a large crowd around the bottom. As we reached the crowd, we saw that everyone was waiting because it was raining like mad above. "No problem" we thought and pulled out the ponchos we had carried with us all week, and triumphantly rode the escalator to the surface. What we found on the walk back to the hotel was that it wasn't such a good idea to wear heavy plastic panchos in a mid-summer downpour. We were almost as wet underneath from sweat as we would have been from walking in the rain. Fortunately that was the only rain we saw that week.)
     We had a list of things we wanted to see, and were working our way through it pretty well. One sunny day we decided to go see Arlington National Cemetery. We packed up our duffel bag, took the shuttle bus as far as we could, and walked over the bridge and down the long road to the cemetery. Near the entrance, there was parked a truck with a Snapple logo on the side, and there were several people handing out free bottles of Snapple from the back of the truck. We each got a bottle and put them in the duffel. We then entered the cemetery.
     We wandered around for a while, looking at all the major sites, like the Challenger monument, the Kennedy gravesites, and the Tomb of the Unknowns. It was a very moving and humbling experience being there. We then saw a sign pointing to another landmark, and we headed in that direction. We walked. And walked. And walked. Somewhere along the way, we lost not only the signs we were following, but our sense of direction as well. And the sun was beating down on us. And it was hot.
     Now there's a scene I know I've seen in several movies where the camera closes in on the protagonist walking across the desert. It then shows the sun, as the camera wavers back and forth. Then there's a tight close up on the sweat-drenched main character, looking uncomfortable and disoriented. That's exactly how we felt. We didn't know where we were (well, we were still in the cemetery) and we didn't know how to get out and we were starting to get thirsty, crabby and a little scared. Then, one of us remembered the Snapple that we got before we entered. We popped the caps and drank a little, and warm lemonade never tasted so good! It gave us the little refresher that we needed to go on. We went a little further, found a main path, and wound up at the exit, right by the Iwo Jima monument.
     When I sit and think about it, I don't think we were in any danger of dying there in the cemetery, but I remember thinking at the time that Snapple saved our lives.


07/05/06: Stephie has won a third-place ribbon for her new piece "Burst Of Color #2" at the LaGrange Art League. The judge said that he "enjoyed the flare and excitement of the piece." He called it "very lively and entertaining." We don't have a very good picture of it yet, but if you saw Stephie's one-person show in June, it's the picture that was in the front window. This is a shot from that show, which we will replace as soon as we get a better shot.

     Also, there are a couple new pieces on Stephie's Art Page. They may be familiar to you if you were at the one person show, but they're new here.

06/25/06: Stephanie's gallery show is only up until the end of the week, so if you want to see it, you'd better hurry. The gallery is open late on Thursday for those of you who have regular jobs!

Also, I've written up a review of the Zappa Plays Zappa show that we saw last week. Click here for my impressions.

06/11/06: It was a pretty good weekend. We had a nice crowd come out for Stephie's gallery reception on Saturday. You can see pictures of the exhibit, and some of the guests, by clicking here. And just because you couldn't make it to the gallery on Saturday doesn't mean that you missed out on the art. The display will be up until the end of June. Check out the LaGrange Art League site for hours and directions.
     And I went to the Brandeis book sale on Sunday. Every year I look at the pile of books I come home with (28 this year) to try to pick one treasure that stands out among the rest. The treasure this year was not one of the books, but a card I was handed on the way out. It seems that although this is the last year for Brandeis to put on the book sale, Little City Foundation in Palatine is going to try to carry on the tradition starting next year. The guy that was handing out the cards said that they are going to talk to the Old Orchard people about using the same site, and that some of the people that help out Brandeis have offerred to stay on and help next year. I tell ya, I was thrilled. One problem, he said, is that they can't get Brandeis' mailing list, which is why he was handing out the cards. So if you want to be on the mailing list for next year, or if you want to donate books, call 847-221-7856 or e-mail them at booksale@littlecity.org. And the Brandeis show runs until next weekend, with Saturday and Sunday being the bargain days.


06/08/06: We have a big weekend coming up. Saturday, June 10, is the reception for Stephie's big One Person art show at the LaGrange Art League. Details should be above or on her Art page. And if you can't make it to LaGrange on Saturday, you have until the end of the month to drop by the League and see her stuff. It's just going to be better on Saturday because we'll be there, and there will be refreshments and stuff...
     And also Saturday is the start of the big Brandeis Book Sale at the Westfield Old Orchard mall in Skokie. I've mentioned this before here, and told many friends about it, as something that I really look forward to every year, but it's going to be a little sad this year because they've announced that this will be the last one. I'm going on Sunday, because of the Art show, and being that it's the last one, I think I'm going to spend some extra time going through all the tables, just to make sure I don't miss any treasures, like the copy of Criswell Predicts that I picked up several years ago. Click the picture of the flyer here for more details of the sale.


05/18/06: At the other end of the floor in the office I work, there is a soda machine that has Cherry Coke, or Coca-Cola Cherry as it's now called. I don't drink a lot of pop at work, even though all the machines in the building give you a 12 oz. can for a quarter, but every once in a while I get a taste for a Cherry Coke, and the machine on my end of the building doesn't have it as a selection.
     There's another reason why I sometimes make the trek down there. There's something wrong with the machine, in that it occasionally dispenses two cans for one quarter! To be fair, it sometimes doesn't give you anything for your quarter, so I figure that I'm probably about even over the time I've worked here.
     So today, I had one quarter in my pocket, so I thought I'd take a chance. I put it in, pressed the button, and got nothing. Now, I'm not a gambling man, but I really had a taste for a Cherry Coke, so I pulled a dollar out of my wallet, fed it into the machine and pressed the button. This time, something dropped in the slot. I was disappointed when I saw that it was a plain old Coke Classic. But then I went for my change and found a dollar and a half in the tray! I guess I'm a winner this week.


05/08/06: I apologize in advance to the non-techies out there, but I got a new gadget last week, and so far, I'm thrilled with it so I had to share. If you're not interested, feel free to skip the next two paragraphs.
     I ordered a Hauppage MediaMVP device from Amazon.com after reading many positive reviews. It's basically a tiny diskless computer, like those thin-client devices that were all over the computer press a number of years ago. You plug it into your TV and network, and it will pull music, video and pictures off your computer and play them through the TV. I hoped it would let me watch video files from my computer on my TV without converting the files and burning to a DVD.
     The thing that impresses me the most is that it took all of five minutes to install and it worked the first time. After I opened the box, I installed the software on my main system, plugged the device into the TV and the network cable that is used by the MP3 Jukebox, and turned it on. It immediately found the PC running the software, and after I went back and told the software where to find the movies and music files, I was playing a movie file from my PC in the office on my TV in the front room. And it looked just fine. I could fast-forward, pause, rewind, everything! I had one problem where I was skipping around a show too much and the audio went out of sync, but other than that, it just works! Amazing! It's a little early for a whole-hearted recommendation, but at under $100, it's practically an impulse-buy!
     Stephie is hard at work getting ready for her one-woman show at the LaGrange Art League in June. While she's working hard to finish up a couple more pieces before it starts, she's also planning for the reception for the exhibit. We should have dates and times shortly.
     And Kisu's dog trainer, Dave Wieczorek, has a big event coming up in September, and he's asked me to work up a web site, since I've been helping him out with his site. It's pretty basic now, but he should be passing along more information fo me to add any day now. Check it out if you're interested!

04/20/06: Well. first the bad news. Stephie thought she was getting her braces off today, but apparently the orthodontist saw his shadow, because Stephie has six more weeks of braces.
     The good news today, though, is actually great news. Tickets went on sale today (actually, Internet pre-sales) for Zappa Plays Zappa at the Auditorium Theater on June 17, and thanks to the dubious ticketmaster.com, I scored tickets! This is the long-promised tour of Dweezil Zappa (and possibly Ahmet) playing his dad's music! According to the site: "This is the first official live concert event of Frank Zappa's Music since his untimely passing in 1993. Joining Dweezil on stage will be a hand-picked band of new, young musicians as well as some legendary Zappa alumni including Steve Vai, Terry Bozzio, and Napoleon Murphy Brock."
     Stephie never saw Frank live, as I have many times, so we're really looking forward to it! I was hoping to take her to see ProjectObject, a high-quality, nationally-touring tribute band that frequently has guest artists who had played with Zappa, but I think this might be the closest to the real thing as we're going to see since the artist left us. Get your tickets today!


04/08/06: Wow, how time flies. I've been busy with other projects, and my work schedule keeps changing, and somehow I've let almost a whole month slip without posting anything here.
     The TV-guide thing is coming along, and I'll probably write about that more when I'm done. I've installed Website Baker on our server, and I'm trying to set it up as an intranet portal. I used it to set up Kisu's trainer's site, and it's real easy to work with, whether you want something to work "out of the box" or you want to customize it to your personal needs. I'm trying to write a module to allow us access to our book database, as part of the big "home inventory" project.
    As I mentioned, I set up the WetnoseOBT site for Kisu's trainer, Dave, and I've been doing a bit of maintenance to the site. If you get a chance, check it out and let me know what you think.
     Stephie has two new art pieces completed. Go check them out on her art page. She's been very busy with her art-related volunteer work, and planning for her one-woman show, coming up in June at the LaGrange Art League. More about that as the date gets closer.
     And Kisu's been pretty busy, too, just being a dog! Walks have been getting longer with the improving weather, and she's been having a great time at her weekly obedience class. We have pictures from class on her pictures page.
     Finally, I know I never completed posting the pictures from out California trip. I promise to get that done as soon as possible!

03/09/06: I wrote once before about how I almost got tricked by one of those "phishing" e-mails that the criminals are now using to try to get your eBay or PayPal or other site logins, but I got the exact same message twice this week, so either someone has it in for me or there are more [insert you favorite plural expletive] out there using the same program. While this one looked a lot like your basic PayPal e-mail, it contained the following line that made me laugh: "If you choose to ignore our request, you leave us no choise but to temporaly suspend your account." Folks, spelling errors are one of the more obvious indicators that the message that claims to be from PayPal most likely isn't.
     I don't know if it's doing any good, but I always forward there (with full headers) to spoof@[whatever they claim to be].com. Maybe they'll be able to catch one or two of these idiots, although I'm not holding my breath.

03/06/06: I finally got the pictures from Sharon and Louis' Mardi Gras party up on Kisu's pictures page. Click here to check them out!

02/26/06: We didn't throw a birthday party for Stephie this year, but she got a really great present. She once mentioned to (Matt's) Dad that she would like to have a lazy susan for the dining room table, and Dad, being the amateur woodworker that he is, volunteered to make one for her. That was around four years ago. This year for her birthday, she got what he is calling a "dazy susan". Check it out here!


02/09/06: I've been trying to set up some kind of XMLTV-based TV guide system on my server at home, since none of the available paper TV guides are useful to me any more. I have the data download working, but I was looking for an easy way to display the information in a browser window. I would like to have it show a grid like you might get from Yahoo or Zap2It, but I also would like it to find things for me, like I understand a PVR will do. I haven't found anything that does everything I want it to do right out of the box (Whatson is pretty close) so it looks like I'll have to get off my lazy behind and write one myself.
     But I had a pleasant surprise this morning. I was checking out how Whatson displays a programs' detail, and above it on the screen there was a list of programs to pick from. I almost fell off my chair when I saw Floyd Uncorked listed. I clicked on it, and found out that our old buddy Keith Floyd is appearing weekday mornings on The Travel Channel!
     If you've never seen any of the various Floyd cooking shows, you don't know what you're missing. This is not your typical cooking show. Part food, part travelogue, with a bit of humor and a lot of drinking, the Floyd shows never fail to entertain Stephie and I. We watched him many years ago when he was on channel 11, but haven't seen much of him on TV since. One year I gave Stephie a tape of Floyd on Italy that I ordered from Amazon UK and had professionally (and expensively) converted to NTSC.
     You don't have to go through that trouble if you have the Travel Channel. Tomorrow (2/10) at 9AM CST they are showing the final two episodes of Floyd Uncorked, which we have as a boxed VHS tape. Next week they will be showing Far Flung Floyd, which I believe covers Asia, and they are following that with Floyd on Italy, which we can say from personal experience is very entertaining. I don't know if you'd necessarily want to make any of the dishes he shows you, since they probably would appeal more to the European palate, but the shows are a riot. Set up your favorite video time-shifting device today!


01/24/06: Does anyone remember Rubens Baby Factory? More to the point, does anyone remember the documentary that Channel 11 showed years ago where they traced the history of the Baby Factory and showed how the babies produced there contributed to society. Yes, it was a spoof, since they (probably) didn't actually make babies at the factory, but I remember it as being pretty funny, and I'd love to get my hands on a copy. I seem to remember it being shown on Image Union.
     Actually, there's a number of things I saw on good ol' WTTW that I'd love to see again. First and foremost is a 1978 Soundstage show featuring Martin Mull and Flo and Eddie. I know I saw it several times when it was on TV, but that was way before even VCRs were affordable. I have an old audio cassette with the show, taped off of WXRT as they stereo-simulcast the show back when TV was mono-only, but I'd pay RETAIL for a good copy of the show.
     I also would like to see some of the British comedies that they carried. Sure, Stephie bought me the complete Monty Python set, after it was shown on A&E, but where are the reruns of The Goodies, No, Honestly, Ripping Yarns, and a favorite in our household, The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin? I wouldn't mind the odd episode of Dave Allen or The Two Ronnies, either. I should probably check the 'net for import DVDs.


01/03/06: Happy New Year to all of you. We spent New Year's Eve safely tucked in the corner of the couch, watching movies. After two features, Stephie was dozing off, so she said that I could watch whatever I wanted, since she would probably sleep through it..
    Being that it was New Year's Eve, I popped in "The Cocoanuts", the very first Marx Brothers movie and the first disc in the Marx Brothers box set I picked up last year. Channel 7 used to show the Marx Brothers on New Year's eve, so I thought it would be appropriate..
    I was a little disappointed at the quality of the print they used. It goes from razor-sharp image to "do I need to clean the screen?" fuzzy (sometimes in the same scene) but the movie itself, while not one of their classics, was still pretty funny. I was amazed at how much I remembered of the verbal gymnastics between Groucho and the other characters, and how little I remembered of the supposed "plot", which I think was really just thrown in to bridge the scenes between the Marx mayhem..
    There was one thing, though. There are a few things that I remember vividly from my childhood without knowing their origin. Snippets of music or lines of dialog are so deeply embedded in my personal zeitgeist that I can rattle them off practically verbatim, but many of them I have little recollection of the source. Sure, I can tell you where I heard about the Montgolfier brothers, or why I can still recite the preamble to the Constitution, but some things, like the phrase "I remember when tea dancing was the rage", just escape me. (Jon says it's from a commercial for a record collection.).
    So it's 11:30, 12/31/2005, Margaret Dumont is throwing an engagement party for her daughter to marry some grifter, and everyone shows up dressed like they're in a Zorro movie. The house detective drops by and is promptly relieved of his shirt. He starts yelling how "He wants his shirt!" and I almost fell off the couch as the Toreador song from Carmen is sung about a missing shirt. This goes through my head any time I hear the song, but I couldn't remember where I heard it. You can hear for yourself by clicking here. I love it when this happens..
    The only problem now is I watched the scene, then ran it back and watched it again, then played it for Stephie, then played it again to record the attached clip, and now it's stuck firmly in my head and I can't get rid of it. "I found my shirt. Thank God I found my shirt..."


12/25/05: Happy Holidays to all! I feel a little funny saying that, because that's what all the "politically correct" people say when they don't want to offend anyone, but I like to say it because it's easier than saying "Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy New Year, Happy Brumalia, Happy Festivus, or whatever holiday you may celebrate".

We had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner at Matt's parents' house, and one of the grab bag gifts we brought was the Finger Nose Hair trimmer that Frank got, and was happy to demo for us. Nothing says the holidays like gag gifts!

The best to everyone in the new year!


12/01/05: If you haven't heard about Emily the Stowaway Cat, you should click here to read the story. Not only is this a great animal story with a happy ending, but it's a perfect example of why you should always have ID tags on your pets. No way this kitty would have gotten home without them!

And while we're on the subject of animal news, Stephie says you should check out the panda cub at the U.S. National Zoo. She's been watching his progress on the Panda Cam since shortly after he was born, and he's getting bigger every day.

11/28/05: Today is the 25th anniversary of the first time I saw Frank Zappa live on stage. I had been a fan for a couple years, and this was my first opportunity to see him live. He was coming to town to play four shows over two nights at the Uptown Theater. Not having lots of disposable income at the time, I got tickets to the first and last shows. I was not disappointed.
    This was the tour where he was urging the female members of the audience to toss their underwear on the stage. They said they were collecting "Underwear of the World", and that at the end of the tour they would have the underwear made into a quilt, what he said would be a "kind of a scratch-and-sniff tour of America". (The quilt was on display in a casino in Atlantic City for a while, but seems to have been moved to a Hard Rock facility in Orlando.) The show was great, with a lot of audience participation, and lots of great music.
    A couple years later I was at a record show and was able to buy a cassette tape of that concert (as well as one I saw the next year.) Nowadays, you can go to some concerts and you can buy a copy of that show as you walk out the door, and of course you can find just about anything on the Internet, but back in the early '80s, to have a tape of a show you saw was amazing! I've since made CDs of those tapes, and I think I'll be listening to them tonight.

11/07/05: Kisu's obedience class instructor has some information about a local dog that is in need of a new home. Details can be found on his web page.


11/02/05: Stephie and Kisu went to a Halloween party yesterday, hosted by one of Kisu's obedience class classmates. Kisu's uncanny portrayal of a beagle won her a ribbon for Most Original Costume! Click here for more pictures from the party, including many of the dogs and some of the crazy people who dressed them up!


10/31/05: Happy Halloween to all you Super Saiyans out there. Be safe and don't eat all your candy today! Save some for tomorrow (or if you're like me, Easter).

10/31/05: More Halloween fun! Stephie and I dressed up as Spidey and Doc Ock back in 1989, well before even the first Spider-Man movie. My costume must have been especially effective, because we attended a party at my buddies' house, and his family still sometimes refers to me as "that Octopus guy".

10/29/05: A couple more pages went up today with pictures from our California trip, but unfortunately that technical problem from last week reappeared. If you're using Firefox (and you should) the pages will look fine, but Internet Explorer has a problem with some of them. You have to scroll to the right to see all the pictures, which is a hassle but not critical, but IE has a problem with CSS, which I'm trying to use for these pages, and it seems that text disappears at random when the page is displayed. If you scroll down and back up the text seems to magically reappear. I'm working on it, so bear with me. (Better yet, get Firefox!)

10/23/05: Had a couple technical problems with the web site in the last couple weeks, but now that they're basically solved, it's full speed ahead with the California pictures. Another page went up today, with a pretty cool family picture thanks to Chris.

Also, there's two new pictures and a couple updates on Stephie's Art Page.

10/02/05: The first of the our California pictures are up! Click the "California 2005" link in the menu bar at the left or click here to begin.

Many more to come...


09/30/05: Kisu turns 4 today. Happy Birthday, pumpkin! Now the only question is: McDonald's or Wendy's for dinner tonight?


09/25/05: We're home from California! Thanks to everyone who helped make this a really special trip. We'll be posting pictures and funny stories over the next days (and weeks, and probably months!) I took 439 pictures with the digital camera, and Stephie has almost 10 full rolls of film to have developed, so we have a lot of pictures to share.


09/15/05: A couple weeks ago, when we were coming home late in the evening, something in front of the house caught our eye. There was this big spider that had built a web between the tree and the bush next to our front stairs. I don't know how it spanned the gap, because I can't reach the two with my outstreached arms, but somehow this spider did.

We had a spider a couple weeks before that wanted to build a web in our front doorway. When I opened the door, the web covered the upper corner, where there was no way to get through without disturbing it. It reminded me of the Far Side cartoon where the spiders built a web at the base of a slide, and as the kid is about to slide down, the spider says something like "If we pull this off, we'll eat like kings!"

In both cases, we relocated the spiders to areas where their webs (hopefully) won't trap any humans. (Click the picture for a better view of the spider.)

08/28/05: The Summer Eclectic exhibit is over. Thanks to the other artists and to everyone who came out to see the art. Pictures of the exhibit can still be seen here.

Also, four new pieces have been added to Stephie's Art page. Go check them out now!

08/23/05: A bunch of art news today. The Summer Eclectic exhibit runs through August 26 at the LaGrange Art League. Pictures of the opening day of the exhibit are here. Also, there are two new oil paintings on Stephanie's Art Page so you should go check it out.


08/07/05: Stephanie and three other artists have an art exhibit coming up in a couple weeks. There is a reception on Sunday, August 21, 2005 from 2-6pm at the LaGrange Art League. Come out for "an afternoon of art, music and refreshments!" Click the picture of the postcard for more information or check the League's web site for directions. And if you can't make it for the reception, make sure you stop by some time during the week, since the art will remain on display through August 26th.

07/28/05: Judging by what we see on TV and in movies, most guys will run out to the fence if they see their neighbor come home with a new lawn tractor or power tool. I couldn't care less about that stuff. But when I saw my neighbor walking slowly through his yard, holding his open laptop in front of him like a pizza box, I told Stephie "Somebody just got wireless!" and had to go out to talk to him. Yeah, it's a sickness, I know.
    I did ask him if he used the security features on his new router, and he said yes, because he "didn't want to give anyone a free ride." I've put a couple articles about wireless security on my Safe Computing page. It turns out that there are a couple relatively simple things that you can do to keep all but the most determined bad guy off of your wireless system, and these articles should get you started. I'll add more as I run across them.
    By the way, I left my neighbor sitting in his yard with his laptop on his lap, and as I walked in the house, I heard his wife at the back door ask him "Are you going to eat out there?" Boy, does that sound familiar.


07/22/05: Happy Birthday, Jon! It's a significant one this year (although I won't say why) and in keeping with your wishes, your picture will not appear with this notice. Hope you have a great day!

07/11/05: They almost got me.

    I got an e-mail this morning, supposedly from eBay, telling me that there was some suspicious activity on my account. At first, I thought maybe it's just because I put a couple items up for sale yesterday, for the first time in three months, and they were trying to verify it was me. But then I thought maybe there was a problem. I wasn't going to click the link in the message, since I still have a high level of suspicion about things on the 'net, but I passed my mouse pointer over the provided link, and noticed, via the status bar at the bottom of the browser window, that the link shown on the message did not match what the status bar says was the actual link. It was close, sure, but not exact. I looked again, and the link was supposed to be a site at "ebay.com", but it was actually "ebay.com.xxxxx.us" (the "xxxxx" was NOT related to eBay). I forwarded the message to eBay, and they confirmed that it was bogus.
    A couple months ago, my buddy's sister fell for one of these so-called "phishing" messages (a term I actually hate) and I razzed her a bit for clicking on an e-mailed link when she admitted she should have known better, but I have to say, although I've gotten these many times in the past, this one looked so legit that I went to eBay's site to check out if there was a problem. Usually the link in the message says "ebay.com" but the status bar says "aksjdhlaskdjthlasjk.com" or something else obviously suspicious, but this one was darn close. Plus, it somehow made it through SBC's junk mail filter, which has caught all the other phony eBay messages I've received in the past. That added an air of legitimacy to the message. Fortunately, as I said, I'm highly suspicious when it comes to e-mail, and I noticed the problem before my account was compromised.
    But something just occurred to me. There's been a bug in Microsoft's browser (which I'm forced to use at work) that sometimes doesn't display the status bar at the bottom of the screen. Usually it's when you click File, New, Window, but sometimes the status bar doesn't show up when I launch Internet Explorer by itself. If that bar was not there, it wouldn't have been as obvious that the message was bogus. The only way to fix this is to root around in the registry, which I can't do on my work machine. I guess that's another reason to dump IE and use Firefox.
    So the moral of this story is: Pay Attention. Don't ever click a link that you get in an e-mail, even if you're fairly sure that it's legit. If you really need to go to that link, open a small Notepad session over your browser window and hand-type the link into Notepad, then copy and paste it into your browser's Address line. DON'T copy the link from the message because if your finger slips, it could register as a click. And if you use IE, make sure the status bar is on at all times. You can turn it on by clicking View, Status Bar on the menu. Better yet, use Firefox. I've got a link, along with some other safety-related info, on my Safe Computing page. I'm not a security expert, but I read a lot, and I have some links to programs I use.
    And if you get an e-mail that's supposed to be from eBay, forward it (with full headers) to spoof@ebay.com, and they will tell you if it's legit or not.


06/29/05: Happy Birthday, Rick! Another new driver on America's highways and byways. In the words of Sgt. Esterhaus: "Let's be careful out there."

06/12/05: Well, we went to see the new Star Wars yesterday.

I've been a Star Wars fan since May 30, 1977, when Uncle Tony took us to see the first in the series. (I still have the ticket!) I was a little upset that they ended The Empire Strikes Back without resolving the Han Solo issue, knowing that I'd have to wait three years to find out what happened to him. But I loved the rest of the movie and The Return of the Jedi as well. In fact, Stephie and I watch our laserdiscs of the original trilogy (without the Lucas-tampering of recent years, thank you very much!) about once a year, usually watching all three over the course of a weekend.

I was, however, severely disappointed by Episode 1, so much so that we didn't even see Episode 2 at the theater, but waited to rent the DVD. But Stephie wanted to see the new one at the show, and considering the positive reviews that it has been getting, I agreed. And I have to say, it should be seen on the big screen. This is one of the most visually stunning films I've seen in a long time. Too bad the story didn't do anything for me.

I don't know how much money they put into the CG effects, but it was money well spent. The opening scenes of the big space battle were breathtaking, and the movements of the robotic characters, particularly General Grievous, were amazing. But during one scene where Anakin and Palpatine were walking through a room, there were four huge lamps on four end tables, and I was thinking "I wonder if those were props they built or if they were computer-generated." Later, I found myself watching the way the doors closed as the ships were taking off instead of what the characters were doing, and I was watching the actors' interaction (or lack thereof) with the surroundings, trying to figure out what was real or CG. I didn't even do that during Sky Captain, which I knew was almost all CG.

Maybe if I remembered more of the last two (of which I remember almost nothing) I would have enjoyed this one more. Maybe I've outgrown this franchise. I dunno. I just hope that these "first" three episodes haven't soured me on the rest of the series.

Oh, and Stephie really liked it. So maybe it's just me.


06/01/05: Although summer doesn't officially start until June 21st, for most people Memorial Day is the start of the summer season. Some people equate the first of June with the start of summer. For us, the marker that tells us that it's summer is the annual Brandeis Used Book Sale, which starts next weekend at the Westfield Shoppingtown at Old Orchard mall in Skokie. Their web site doesn't seem to be up as I write this, but you can click the picture of the flyer here for more details.

05/06/05:      When Stephie was going through Aunt Lois' things, she found an unmarked videotape. She thought this was odd, since Aunt Lois didn't have a VCR that we knew of. (Well, she had one, but I don't think she ever took it out of the box, and probably gave it away, since it wasn't in the apartment when it was cleared out.) From the style of the tape box, I can tell that it was several years old, but we had no idea what was on it, nor why Aunt Lois would hang onto it, with no way to play it.
     So Stephie and I were sitting down to watch TV last week, and we figured we would see what was on the tape. I asked her if I should rewind it, since it was set about halfway through, but she said to just put it in. I popped it in and hit play.
     The tape was set to the beginning of an episode of the Jenny Jones show, which went off the air in 2003. Turns out that the topic of the show that day was reincarnation! When we realized that, we stopped the tape and just looked at each other. Granted, the show started out kind of joking about reincarnation, but considering that the reincarnation episode was on a tape that we got from the apartment of Stephie's recently-departed Aunt, who didn't own a VCR, we weren't laughing.
     We took the tape out and set it aside. One of these days, when we have a couple hours where we won't be interrupted, we're going to watch the whole tape to see what else is on there. Maybe there's a message of sorts on there.


04/17/05: Big news today. Stephie has won Second Place in the 13th Annual "Best of the Best" Fine Arts Exhibit at the Elmhurst Artist Guild Gallery in the Elmhurst Art Museum for her painting "Life Behind The Haze", pictured here. The judge commented that abstract is very difficult to do, and that it had beautiful colors and was "removed from life, but very lively".

Sponsored by the West Suburban Fine Arts Alliance, the exhibit featured 85 works by members of nine art guilds in the western suburbs. Only winners in the various local guild shows were allowed to exhibit, which means that Stephie's painting is truly the "Best of the Best". Congratulations!

(And I'm going to try to take a better picture of the painting, because it looks much better in real life than it does her on the web site.)

04/11/05: Computer Security has been an interest of mine from back in the days of floppy-disk-borne viruses (remember those?) and the Internet worm of 1988. So when Chris said Ricky’s computer had become unusable because of pop-ups and other junk, I put together an e-mail with links to free or inexpensive programs that I either use or had read really good reviews, so he could try to resuscitate it. After a couple people at work asked me for the same list, I figured I'd put it here on our site for anyone who is interested.

I don’t claim to be a security expert, just a well-read enthusiast, but I do know that if you take a couple simple precautions and pay attention to what you're doing when you’re on the Internet, you can save yourself, and your favorite family tech-support person, a lot of aggravation. As I wrote on Stephanie's Computer Virus page, I’m just trying to do something as a Good Internet Citizen.


03/29/05: Happy Birthday, Jennie! And many, many more.


03/29/05: Happy Birthday, Laura! For once, we're not jealous of your California weather, because we're celebrating your birthday by having a 68-degree day! Hope you're having a great birthday.


03/23/05: Some bad news: we lost Aunt Lois last week. The funeral was today, and it was just beautiful. She would have loved it.


03/17/05: Happy St. Patrick's Day! Time to pull out your favorite Horslips album and give it a spin.

Me, I'm going to celebrate by ordering their BRAND-NEW ALBUM!!!

03/11/05: We don't go to the show as much as we'd like, and we don't have any movie cable channels, so we're usually pretty far behind in seeing new movies. We have been subscribers to Netflix for years, and find it incredibly convenient, but they have so many movies that we wind up with a mix of new and old movies on the list. Frequently we watch a movie, then look at the year it was made and remark "I didn't realize came out that long ago." We typically don't see films until they have been out a couple years. It's rare when we've seen any of the films in the running for Oscars.

But I looked at the current batch of movies from Netflix yesterday and noticed that the combined age of the three movies is 178 years! And the newest movie is almost older than me! The latest movies we have are "West Side Story" from 1961, "The Third Man" (the Criterion version) from 1949, and "Metropolis" (the Kino version!) from 1927. I think I'll have to bump some new releases up to the top of our Netflix queue!

03/05/05: I know it's been a while, but we finally have pictures from Stephanie's birthday party on-line, along with a little note from the birthday girl herself! Click the link in the menu bar on the left, or click here to check out the fun. And thanks again to everyone who came out for her special day.


02/25/05: Happy Birthday, Chris! As usual, your present is late, but it's on its way, honest! Hope you're having a great day!


02/15/05: Happy Birthday, Stephanie!

(For you out-of-towners, and anyone else who's curious, the party was a big success. She WAS surprised, and everything went off without a hitch. I'll be getting the pictures in a couple days, so I should have them up here by next weekend.)


02/15/05: Happy Birthday, Dad! You're still the greatest!

01/31/05: I am constantly amazed at the proliferation of hoax e-mails. You know the kind: Bill Gates is going to give you money, or frozen water bottles cause cancer. I'm not even talking about the ones trying to scam you, like the dead guy in Africa with the same last name as you with the large bank account, but messages that well-meaning friends send you, like the one warning about using cell phones at the gas pump (which was actually posted on the bulletin board as fact at my employer, a major petroleum company!) And don't get me started on those "send this to 20 of your friends" chain e-mails.

I understand that if you get an email about a missing child, you feel like you can't ignore it, on the off-chance that it may be legit. But when you plug some of the text into Google or Yahoo, and your search finds dozens of web sites with the same message, usually word-for-word, saying that it's been circulating on the 'net for years, the odds of the contents being true drop to almost nil. And it has the "Cry Wolf" effect, where something that is real will probably be ignored as another crackpot looking for attention.

That's why I keep a couple links in my browser's bookmarks for hoax sites. Snopes.com and Hoaxbusters contain hundreds of general purpose hoaxes, and Trend Micro, F-Secure, and Symantec have plenty of phony virus-related messages. I always check there first when I get something suspicious.

People nowadays are smart enough to use the Internet for lots of things. They should be smart enough to spot a fraud. Or at least skeptical enough to look it up.


01/05/05:     What a crummy way to start the New Year. I just found out that my favorite comic creator, Will Eisner, passed away Monday from complications after quadruple-bypass surgery. Recently (well, maybe not so recently) I mentioned here that I was going to write him a letter, to thank him for all the years of entertainment that he provided for me, but alas, I dawdled too long and now he’s gone.
    My first contact with The Spirit, probably Eisner’s most well-known creation, was in grammar school. Literally, in school. I was sitting in St. Pancratius’ library, probably daydreaming, and my pal Wesley sits down next to me and pulls out a comic book. It wasn’t like any comic book that I had ever seen. It was as big as a magazine, the cover looked a little like Famous Monsters (since all Warren magazines had a similar style), and there was no color in it, but it had this great picture on the cover with this big guy with a hat, gloves, and a mask...
    I was a little intimidated by it. I thought it was an "adult" comic, because it was Wesley’s big brother’s book, so of course it had an air of sophistication to it. Plus, I mentally grouped it with the other magazines they sold at the Music Box, which were off-limits to our little eyes for reasons that became apparent as I got older. I did flip through it a little, but the teacher came in and we had to put it away.
    Years later, after amassing quite a collection of The Spirit (and other Eisner works), I still think it’s an "adult" comic, but not in the same way. The artwork and storytelling still stands head and shoulders over most, if not all, of the stuff on the comic racks before or since. I have read these stories over and over and over and I’m always finding something new to enjoy in them. I would heartily recommend any of them to anyone, young or old. And thanks to DC’s current series of hardcovers, they’re readily available. I’m buying them again in a form that should last me well into my years when I should have lots of time to re-read them.
    I have a couple signed books, and a couple prints signed by Mr. Eisner, but I bought them already signed. Unfortunately, I was never able to meet him in person. He was supposed to be at the last Comicon I went to, but he wasn’t able to attend. I talked several times about writing him a letter to him, but I could never get started. I usually thought "He’s probably heard from thousands of fans, some people more important than me, and I had nothing new to say, other than ‘Thanks’" so I never wrote. That was stupid of me. I realize that he was in his late 80s, but I always hoped that I would be able to shake his hand and thank him personally for all the hours of joy he gave me over the years, but now I know I never will.


12/30/04: If you have Comcast Sportsnet Chicago on your cable (ours is channel 37) and you're home this Saturday morning (1/1) at 10:30am, you can see our cousin Frank on the premiere episode of his own fishing TV show "Time on the Water". Learn about fishing from one of the best!
      But Frank, where's the accompanying web site?


12/25/04: We hope everyone has a happy and safe Christmas holiday. (And click the picture to get a better look at our nativity set!)
      By the way, the painting behind the set is not one of Stephie's. It was done for us a while back by our friend Diane, of Banana project and Frog Listening fame. Don't you think it makes a perfect backdrop to the nativity? Thanks again, Diane!


12/22/04: As crude, vulgar and over-the-top the Father of the Pride can be, I still think parts of it are really funny.
    And if they made action figures of Siegfried and Roy as they are in that show, I'd buy them in a heartbeat!


12/21/04: Happy Birthday, Frank Zappa!

12/12/04: Earlier today, I finished reading Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Several months ago, a consultant at work was speaking very highly of the book when it somehow came up in conversation. I mentioned that I had it but was a little intimidated by an 1100-page paperback with tiny print, but he assured me it read fairly quickly. He went on to say that the book really influenced the way he looks at the things, particularly politics (this was before the recent election.)
  So I thought I’d give it a try. I’m not the fastest reader, and I typically only read before going to bed, which means I’m sometimes too tired to go more than a couple pages, but the book is a classic, and the guy in the office said it was a pretty good read.
  Anyway, several months later, and a lot of holding my eyelids open, and I’m done. All I can say is: Atlas Shrugged. And so did I.


11/28/04: We've been pretty busy lately, between projects and holidays and the new TV season, and I'm a little behind in updating the site. I have pictures of Stephanie's new painting, but I need to have her check them out to make sure the colors are true. In the meantime, we have some new Kisu pictures here for your browsing enjoyment. They are from her birthday back in September, which gives you some idea of how far behind on things I am.

11/11/04: I found this link on Mark Evanier's site. I wish I had found it last week, as it may have made me feel better.
(By the way, I'm referring to the entry, not necessarily the responses below it.)

11/02/04: It's Election Day! You know what they used to say in Chicago: Vote Early, Vote Often.


10/20/04: I was kind of bummed this week when I discovered that I couldn't find the Virtual Theremin on the Internet. Sure, I found the one that works with a webcam, and a shareware one that's mouse controlled, but I wanted the one where you actually control Leon Theremin's arms that I had downloaded at work a while back, as pictured here.
      Fortunately, I still have my old PC under my desk, and I was able to grab it and install it at home. It was only then that it was clear why it had all but vanished from the 'net. The guys that developed it (for the BBC) wrote it in Shockwave 8, and for some reason it doesn't work under the latest version of Shockwave, and to add insult to injury, older versions are not available at Macromedia's site!
      But you're in luck! If you have Shockwave 8 on your system, you can download the Windows version of the Virtual Theremin in a ZIP file here. And if you don't have Shockwave at all on your system, you can get version 8 here. Just keep in mind that it's not the latest-and-greatest version, but the latest-and-greatest won't run the Virtual Theremin, so how great can it be?

      Good news this week, though, is that we have a couple new pieces of art by Stephanie on her art page, which you can get to by clicking here.


10/05/04: Chalk it up to the power of childhood memories: I was heading out to do some errands the other day, and my first stop was Walgreen’s. I picked up what I needed there, and on my way to the checkout, I figured I’d get a candy bar to sustain me on the rest of my tasks.
      I don’t buy a lot of candy, but when I do, I usually gravitate towards peanut-type bars, like Snickers or Payday. But when I was scanning the rack before making my choice, one bar caught my eye. I know that there has been Wonka-oriented candy for a while, but this was the first time I remember seeing a Wonka Bar. But it wasn't the name that grabbed me. As you can see from the picture on this page, this Wonka Bar MIGHT JUST CONTAIN A GOLDEN TICKET! (You can click the picture for a better view.)
      I had that baby in my hot little hands before I knew what was happening. I had visions of peeling the wrapping back and seeing that gold leaf reflect the sun, just like in the movie. I was so excited that I had my stuff bought and was sitting in the car before thinking a) I don’t even know what kind of a candy bar a Wonka Bar is, and b) I don’t know what I would be winning if I had the Golden Ticket!
      Of course, I didn’t win, but the bar was pretty good. And for a moment on a Saturday afternoon, I felt like I was Charlie!


09/27/04: Stephie and I just got back from Indianapolis, where we saw her beloved Packers lose to the Payton Manning and the Colts. We didn't mind the loss so much, because it was a really great game, the city was great, and the Colts fans were really tolerant of the thousands of Packer fans that made the trip to see the game. We did hear of an incident in the men's room between a Packer fan and a Colts fan, but we didn't even see any pushing and shoving. It was a great time.

One thing that was funny, though, was that since this was the home opener, they were handing out these big blue foam horseshoes to everyone attending the game, a picture of which should be on this page. Some people wore it around their neck like a collar, some on their head, but more people than probably they intended wore it elsewhere. You can probably figure it out from the shape, but suffice it to say that the hard aluminum bench didn't seem that hard to a lot of fans. (And I don't mean just Packer fans!)

09/14/04: We're looking forward to going to see our neighbor Kevin's band, Johnny Justice & the Southside Railroad this Saturday, September 18th, at Hedgehogs in Stickney. Stephie saw them the last time they were there, and she said they ROCKED! You owe it to yourself to see them.


08/31/04: Happy Birthday, Moms! Matt's Mom (on the right) celebrates her birthday today, and Stephie's Mom (on the left) celebrated her birthday last week, on August 26th. We love you both.

Actually, between them, Rose (8/28), Matt (8/30), and Judy (9/2), there's lots of birthdays to celebrate around this time of year. And plenty of opportunities for CAKE!


08/26/04: According to the web site I check each day for trivia to put on my voice mail greeting at work, today is the birthday of French ballooning pioneer Joseph Montgolfier's birthday. How did I know who Joseph Montgolfier was?

Because I remember there was a Monty Python skit called "The Golden Age of Ballooning", featuring the Montgolfier brothers.

Knowledge sometimes comes from strange places.

08/17/04: Those of you who have known us for any length of time probably know that Stephie and I went to the Olympics in Atlanta in ’96. We got there the morning of the Opening Ceremonies, which we attended, and left the day of the Closing Ceremonies, which we have on tape and haven’t quite gotten around to watching yet. In between, we saw almost an event a day. (And no, we weren’t around for the bomb. We were in Tennessee that day, visiting friends.) While we weren’t able to get tickets to any swimming or gymnastics events, we did see a lot of competition that doesn’t get a lot of broadcast time, like fencing or team handball. And it was great!
I was looking through the TV listings for what will be on TV for this years’ Olympics, and I see that MSNBC in particular is scheduled to show a lot of those “other” sports that got virtually no coverage during the Sydney games. Before we went to Atlanta, my idea of the Summer Games was pretty much track & field, swimming, diving, and weightlifting. I mean, if not for Rulon Gardner beating the supposedly unbeatable Russian, would you even know that they had Greco-Roman Wrestling?
So while the evening coverage is all over the gymnastics, the pool events and the track stuff, I suggest tuning into some of the other, lesser-known events. After all, Stephie and I saw the women’s soccer team win the gold in Atlanta, but the field hockey match we attended was just as exciting, with the participants playing just as hard as in any other event. I also recommend tuning in to team handball, which was a little bizarre to watch but no less exciting, and fencing, in which I hear on the radio that there’s a chance for a US medal.

08/16/04: Chris, I took down the scans I posted last week. If you need them again, let me know

08/04/04: Stephanie has won an Honorable Mention ribbon in the August show at the LaGrange Art League. Click here to see her latest award-winning piece! And remember, you can click on the picture for a much larger view.

07/31/04: Two articles in the latest issue of Comics Buyer’s Guide are about the passing of a couple of people that I had been a fan of many years ago, but haven’t really thought about much lately. For some reason, I’m feeling a little guilty about that.

First I read that Kate Worley passed away June 6th. She was best known as the writer of Omaha, The Cat Dancer, an adults-only comic book that Stephanie and I were big fans of. I don’t remember how she started reading it (possibly by reading Chris’ copies) but I know it was early in our relationship. It was one of the first (and few) titles that Stephie really read and enjoyed, and I think we grew a lot closer because I was able to share my interest in comics with her.
The book came out fairly regularly for several years, but then the time between issues seemed to be growing, and it eventually stopped. There was a time when Reed Waller, Kate’s then-husband and collaborator, had been diagnosed with cancer, which put the book on hiatus. In fact, we met them at a convention shortly after a couple benefit comics were put out, and he was recovered enough to travel and to resume working on the comic. They signed some comics and were very friendly to the fans waiting to see them.
We lost track of the book, and now I read that they had a rather acrimonious breakup years ago, and only recently started talking again. The article in last month’s CBG said that they had started work on some new material to try to conclude the Omaha story when her cancer, that they thought was gone, had come back. It was a little shocking to read that she was resuming therapy, then putting her name in Google and seeing all the death notices. As I said, I hadn’t thought about her, or Omaha for that matter, in years, and for some reason I feel bad about that.

Then, the next article says that Rex Miller passed away on May 21. My first contact with Rex Miller was through an ad in CBG, when he was dealing collectibles under the business name of “Rex Miller Supermantiques”. I can’t remember if I sent away for his catalog, or placed an order first, but I loved looking through his catalog. It was a thick newsprint magazine with page after page of photocopied pictures of all kinds of collectibles that I had never dreamed existed. Stuff from the early days of comics was mixed in with stuff from movie serials, B-movies, comic strips. You name it, he probably had it. He’s the guy that I bought my first copy of the 1940 Shadow serial from. I paid an arm and a leg for a third- or fourth-generation VHS copy, but it was the only place to find it at the time, and I loved every minute of the three tapes it came on.
I bought several tapes from him in subsequent years, and the catalogs were always fun to read. I should scan some of them in and put them up here. One day, an article in CBG said that he had written a couple novels that were about to be published. I picked up the first one, Slob, and loved it! It was like a cross between a detective pulp and a slasher film. It was supposed to be the first of a half-dozen books featuring the detective in the story, but the bad guy got all the praise. He even starred in a short-lived comic series.
When I would order things from his catalog, I would call the number listed, and I think it was his home. Once, shortly after the first book came out, I mentioned to him that I read it, and he asked me how I liked it. It lead to a nice discussion about some of the plot points in the book, and why he did some things the way he did, and he really seemed interested in my opinion.
Over the years, I lost track of him, as I did with the Omaha comic. I had trouble finding the last couple books in the series, and he stopped advertising in CBG, so I assumed he was writing full time and gave up the collectible business.
A couple years ago, I was on the ‘net and I thought I’d see if I could find any information about him. I found out that several people were looking for him, and one finally found him living in a nursing home in St. Louis after a debilitating stroke. I briefly thought that I would send him a card, thanking him for the entertainment his novels and catalogs had given me, but it seemed, from what I read, that he was in pretty bad shape and I didn’t know if he would ever get the message, so I never sent it. Apparently, he had another stroke recently and passed away.

I don’t know why this news is lingering with me. Is it because I was a fan and just drifted away? Is it that I could have sent a card or something, but didn’t? Is it because two of the people who entertained me as a young adult left us around the same time? I dunno, but I think I’m going to send that letter that I’ve been meaning to write to Will Eisner while he’s still around to receive it.

07/17/04: Tonight: Molly Hatchet at Brookfest. 'Nuff Said!


07/10/04: What's this crazy dog doing? To be honest, we haven't the faintest idea. Sometimes when Stephie and I are occupied late at night, we lose track of Kisu. When we go looking for her, we often find her on the floor, at the foot of the bed, with just her head under the bed. During the day, she lays on the bed. When we go to bed, she's usually under the bed. What the deal is here is anyone's guess!


06/29/04: Happy Birthday, Rick! It's a good thing your Dad got that brand spankin' new vehicle, so that when he teaches you how to drive, you have something nice to ride around in! We hope you have a great day.

06/20/04: Happy Father's Day! Whether your kids have two legs or four (or any other number for that matter) I hope all you Dads have a great day today and every day because you deserve it!

06/09/04: Well, I just renewed our domain for another two years, so we’re going to be around for a while! I’ve been having a lot of fun with this site over the past year, and I hope you have enjoyed it as well. I have a couple ideas for some new stuff, but I have to make the time to do it! So stay tuned…

Stephie has been given a big honor this month. Her latest picture is in the front window of the LaGrange Art League, and it’s right in the center! It will be on display for the rest of the month, so stop by to see it. You don’t even have to go when they are open, but I would recommend it, because there is always lots of great art on display. I need to get over there to get a picture for the site.

In more art-related news, Stephie is going to be involved in an art demonstration at La Grange’s 125th birthday celebration. She’ll be at Denning Park, 4903 S. Gilbert Avenue, from 4PM until Dusk. (Dusk, you know, is when all the little fat men come out. Extra points for anyone who can identify THAT little obscure reference. But I digress….) Stop by and see Stephie in creative mode, and join in the festivities.

And don't forget that this weekend starts the Brandeis Used Book Sale 2004, running until June 18 in the west parking lot of the Westfield Shoppingtown at Old Orchard mall in Skokie. Because of the weird schedule this year, this is the only weekend that it will be there, so if you're a book reader who doesn't go out during the week, this weekend is the time to go! It's a great opportunity to stock up on your summer reading.


05/27/04: Kudos to our friend Diane, who earned a B recently in Calculus. Wow, she’s talented, funny, good-looking, can make a bra out of a coconut, and knows Calculus. She is the complete package! Congratulations, Diane! We’re proud of you!

05/15/04: I added a couple things to the site, just because I'm a computer nut. When I converted the main page to only show the articles from the last two months, I added links at the bottom to go to back to a particular month. What I didn't do was give you the opportunity to show all the articles in the database. I did that this morning.

The other thing I did was to put a simple search field at the bottom. This way, for example, if you want to find all the places I talked about Oliver Mtukudzi, you can just type in 'mtukudzi' and it would show you all the articles he was mentioned. (Just a tip: I wouldn't search for 'Stephanie'. I tend to talk about her A LOT!)

For now, the search only works for the main page articles, not for the sub-pages like Cheyenne's Pages or Stephie & Diane's Banana Project. Maybe I'll add that later.

05/07/04: We got the card in the mail this week for the Brandeis Used Book Sale 2004, happening June 10-18 in the west parking lot of the Westfield Shoppingtown at Old Orchard mall in Skokie. This is an annual event and something that we look forward to every year. This sale is one of the main reasons why we have boxes of books all over the apartment. If you’re a book-lover, you owe it to yourself to take a ride up there.

04/26/04: I’m about halfway through the 8-hour BBC Radio adaptation of the first three Foundation books by Isaac Asimov, and so far, it’s been terrific. The sound effects and the use of electronic noise make it a little cheesy in that early-‘70s Dr. Who way, but I’m finding the story to be really interesting. Much more so than my previous exposure to Foundation.

It was the mid ‘70s, I was maybe 12 or 13, and the family and I were in Hyde Park. We probably were there for lunch at that place with the peanut shells on the floor, and we wandered into a bookstore in the basement level of one of the buildings. It had rows and rows of paperbacks, and I remember my parents talking to the shop owner about me. I don’t recall the beginning of the conversation (I don’t remember much of the conversation at all, really) but I do remember them asking the guy about science fiction books, and telling him that they were looking for something a little more “mature”, now that I was getting older. Maybe they were trying to steer me away from the comic books that my brothers and I were just discovering.

Whatever the case, the guy pointed them to Foundation. He said that he thought I would really enjoy it. In fact, he said, if I didn’t like it, they could bring it back and he would refund their money. So they bought it, along with another book that I picked out, the first volume of a series starring someone called the Avenger, with the eye-catching title of "Justice, Inc."

Well, we took the books home, and I started to read Foundation. Man, what a dry book! All politics and philosophy. Not exactly the thing to hold a 12 year-olds attention. But the Avenger? Wow! Two-fisted action of the highest order. I had to get more, which led me first to Doc Savage, then The Shadow, The Spider, G-8, the Secret Six, Captain Satan, and all the rest of the pulp characters from the ‘30s and ‘40s. Maybe not classic literature, but mighty fine reading, usually with a strong sense of right and wrong. Just what a growing boy needs. And they also fostered an interest in books that manifests itself in the hundreds of books that are stored away in bookshelves and boxes around our apartment.

And Foundation? We never got around to taking it back, even though I never did finish it. I know it’s still around here somewhere. Maybe I’ll give it another try after I’m done with the radio version. Right after I finish that Doc Savage novel.

04/11/04: Happy Easter! Hope everyone has their Easter Bonnet on, except for our friends' daughter Mary, who says, "It's not a bonnet, it's a HAT!"

We have a new picture on Stephie's Art Page. It is a diptych that she did when she took an oil painting class at the Oak Park Art League.

Also, next Sunday, April 18th, we'll be at the reception and awards ceremony for the Best of the Best exhibit at the West Suburban Fine Arts Alliance at the Fine Arts Building at Triton College. The Southwest News-Herald says:
The annual "Best of the Best" exhibit of work by artists affiliated with art guilds in the west, southwest and northwest suburbs can be seen until Sunday, April 18 at Triton College, 2000 Fifth Ave., in River Grove. All of the work displayed has been judged at the local level and received an “award of excellence.” Artists will be available to discuss their work at a reception from 2 to 4:30 p.m. Sunday, April 18. The exhibit is sponsored by the West Suburban Fine Arts Alliance. For more information, call (630) 257-9027.


03/30/04: One year ago today, this silly puppy came to live with us, and our life is better for it. She was a handful at first (sometimes still is) but we couldn't do without her. Click here to see a couple new pictures, and a bunch of old classics!


03/27/04: What is this strange and wonderful landscape pictured here? Why, it's Stephanie's entry into this year's Edible Art show. If you were unable to attend, click here to see pictures of all the entries, and many more pictures of Stephie's creation. It will be just like being there, except without the eating!

03/24/04: For anyone in the LaGrange area on Friday night, there's going to be an exhibition of Edible Art at the LaGrange Art League. Stephanie is working on something beautiful and tasty, and from what we saw there the past two years, there is going to be some very creative stuff on display. And the best thing about the display is after the judging, we all get to eat the art! If you're in the neighborhood, you should stop by. Check the link above for more information and directions to the gallery.


03/22/04: Yesterday was the second anniversary of the worst day of my life: the day Cheyenne passed away, and next week is the first anniversary of our adopting Kisu, one of the best days in recent memory. It’s funny...the latter seems like it was only yesterday, yet the former seems to have been so long ago.

It's amazing how quickly, and how deeply, our pets can worm their way into our lives. There was a story on NPR's Living on Earth a couple weeks ago about pampered pets, and the quote that stuck with me was "Dogs are the world’s most effective social parasites. That is, they have brilliantly injected themselves into the social system of another species, which very few species ever do."

Don't we know it!


03/18/04: So a couple years ago, the multinational conglomerate that I worked for was bought out by a larger multinational conglomerate, and they sent us to the new home office to get our picture taken for our new ID badges. They sent us in groups, so a sizable number of us were there at the same time, lined up in the cramped office just like in high school. And just like in high school, certain people started to get silly. Well c’mon: it was getting warm in there, it was right before lunch, we had to wait a long time as they took the pictures one after another. It was a recipe for disaster.

Of course, someone said that we should make faces on the picture. Smile funny, blink as the picture was taken, hold up numbers under your chin, something! I said that I should arch my eyebrow and try to look suave. Half the people said “Yeah, Do it!” and the other half said “You’re not gonna do it!” I, of course, was up to the challenge.

Unfortunately, what was suave in my head turned out a little different when it hit my face. At least they didn’t make me take it over.

03/06/04: There's a couple new pictures on Stephanie's Art Pages. You should go check them out RIGHT NOW!

03/04/04: According to my favorite birthday and events page, on this day 80 years ago, "Happy Birthday To You" was first published by Claydon Sunny. Which raises an interesting question: What did they sing at birthday parties before 1924? Was there a different birthday song that everyone knew? And did they have those candles that keep re-igniting themselves after you blow them out?

Inquiring minds want to know...


02/25/04: Happy Birthday, Chris! Probably because we haven't lived in the same state for many years, I don't have any digital pictures of you, so I swiped this picture off of an interview site I found. Had I known you were coming in for Dad's birthday, I would have brought my camera! Anyway, I hope you had a great day, and your present is late (as usual) but it's on its way!

02/23/04: And we're back! The main page has been down since Friday, probably because of a user ID problem (I'm waiting for a follow-up message from our ISP) but it seems to be back up now. I don't know that it had inconvenienced anyone, but it bugged me. Thanks, Parcom for getting us back on-line.

Stephie and I spent a couple hours last night watching Junkyard Wars on TLC, and I have to say, it was pretty interesting. What got us to watch was the blurb in the TV Guide describing the show. They had teams from three Hollywood special effects houses (ILM, Henson, and KNB) building "the ultimate fighting robot — it must breathe fire, shoot bullets, and save the world from an alien invasion." It's being rerun Tuesday night (2/24) and next Sunday (2/29). We enjoyed it so much we watched it with the commercials! Check it out.


02/15/04: Happy Birthday, Dad! You're the best!


02/15/04: Happy Birthday, Stephie! You are the best, too!

02/09/04: I've noticed that a lot of people use their personal web sites to list what music they are listening to, what they are reading at the time, or what movies or TV shows that they like. Well, in addition to keeping up with our regular broadcast TV favorites, we've just finished The Adventures of Captain Marvel serial (which I bought for the second time: never did get the Laserdisc), and Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere (which I just recently read in paperback) that we got from Netflix.

We're now watching the late, lamented Tick TV series complete on DVD. I have to commend Fox for taking a chance on this series, but condemn them in the same breath for the way they dumped it on the market. No, it's not a series for kids (actually, neither was the hilarious Saturday-morning cartoon, really) but to delay it to mid-season, bury it on Thursday night against the last 10 minutes of the "Super-Sized Friends" nonsense, and constantly pop-up those annoying ads for "Temptation Island" over the action was just like pounding a big red "cancelled" stamp over the series before it got a chance to get going. I'm not saying that it would run longer than Gunsmoke if it had the chance, but it deserved better than it got. Just like the other program by the same producers, the criminally short-lived Maximum Bob. Quality TV like this gets dropped like a hot potato, while the networks give us the next "Who Will Survive A Fat, Obnoxious, Average Joe, Bachelor/Bachelorette Apprentice Idol Makeover?" Bah.


01/30/04: It's three degrees below zero Fahrenheit (and who knows what the wind chill is!) and Kisu wants to go outside to try out her new booties! Check out the fun.

01/28/04: I recently changed the web site to use PHP to pull these little articles from a database. Initially, this meant that I could add items without changing the page itself, which saves me some time. It also gave me the ability to make the change that I did today. As of now, the main page will show only the articles that I added in the last 60 days. This will make the page load faster, which is especially important for people with dial-up connections.

But don't worry! If you really have a burning need to read my comments about how Kisu broke the retractable leash, or anything else I posted since I started this page, just scroll to the bottom of this page and select the month that you want to see (the leash incident happened in July, by the way.) Of course, this doesn't affect any of the special pages, like the Cheyenne Story. Those are still accessible from the menu bar on the right of the screen.


01/24/04: Well, our childhood memories took a beating this week, with the loss of Ray Rayner and Bob Keeshan within a couple days. When I was a kid, I didn't know (nor did I care) that Ray Rayner was based in Chicago (as was Bozo and Frazier Thomas on the Garfield Goose show) but Captain Kangaroo and Mr. Rogers were not. They were just my TV buddies as I was growing up. And while I haven't seen either Ray or the Captain in many years, it still saddens me that they are gone.

At least Bill Jackson is still with us!

By the way, when I was trying to find if B.J. was still with us, I found this cool web site about Chicago Television that looks to have some interesting stuff about the local Chicagoland TV stations, including many of the kids programming over the years, even before my time! I'll have to spend some time going through it, even though it says I "must use Internet Explorer" and I don't as a rule.

(I wonder if they have anything on the theme music to the"All-Electric Magic Lantern Moving Picture Show")

01/18/04: Stephanie's Banana-project buddy Diane came over yesterday, and we went to the show and saw "Big Fish". We went to the matinee and got there as the coming attractions were showing, so we had to sit in the third row. Now, when I used to go to the show a lot, we always would sit in the first couple rows, but that was in the good old days of big screens in big theaters, where the screen was set back a little from the front row. Now, with these megaplexes trying to make use of every inch of real estate, sitting in the first couple rows is almost like going to see an IMAX film, where the screen fills your peripheral vision. It was the first time I can remember having to turn my head back and forth to follow a conversation on-screen. And there were a couple scenes were I couldn’t really tell if the camera angle was odd, or if it appeared that way because we were sitting so close. But the movie itself…

Wow.

It’s hard to describe the overall plot without making it sound very sad. A son receives a call that his estranged father is dying, so he and his wife return to his childhood home so that he could try to reconnect with his father, and to get some perspective on parenthood, as his wife is about to give birth to their first child. The father was a traveling salesman, so was rarely home when the son was growing up. And when he was home, he told the most fantastic stories about his travels, about enormous fish and mysterious towns and giants. The son was always embarrassed by these stories, and wants to know the truth before his father passes away.

The sad scenes, where the son stubbornly refuses to believe anything his father says, are offset by the scenes of the father’s stories, which are full of the fantastic imagery that you would expect from a Tim Burton movie. Some of the scenes are touching, some are downright hilarious, but all are entertaining as we follow the father from his birth, right up to the end. I can’t remember the last time I heard so much sniffling in the theater at the end of a movie. This was one of the best films I have seen in a long time, and I think it’s one that’s probably best seen on the big screen (just not from the first three rows.) I highly recommend it.

01/08/04: For some reason, I woke up this morning thinking about this little "game" we used to play back when I worked at Dominicks. Back in the good old days before the "bulk" style presentation of produce, everything had to be wrapped, weighed and priced. This meant that on busy days there were up to eight people working in the back room, at two tables facing each other.
    Most of us were music fans (except maybe the guy whose only record he owned was a picture disc of Rush’s "Hemispheres" that was still in the shrink-wrap), so the game consisted of someone choosing a letter, then the two tables taking turns naming bands that started with that letter. The back-and-forth continued until one "team" was stumped, at which time the "winning team" would declare victory, briefly deride the other team, then pick another letter and continue. We obviously didn’t have access to the Internet, or any other reference materials, and there was nothing at stake other than brief bragging rights, but it was a pretty good way to pass the time while trimming cases of broccoli, or traying up grapes.
    They had been playing this game before I joined the department, but the manager always counted on me as his "not-so-secret weapon". He was a music aficionado, but I was more heavily into music at the time, reading as many of the music periodicals as I could, haunting used record stores, and listening to anything I could get my hands on. As such, I knew about many obscure bands that no one else ever heard of. It was somewhat surprising that they rarely questioned me. I knew of some pretty strange band names (Ethel the Frog, Throbbing Gristle, Einsturzende Neubaten), which were real bands, but I probably could have said anything, which of course I never did.

01/06/04: Over the weekend, I was going to make breakfast, but I didn't know what I wanted to make. I really had a taste for breakfast burritos, but all we had were corn tortillas, and the last time I made them using corn tortillas, they split open as I tried to roll them.
Then I had an idea. Sure, I could have looked in one of Stephie's many cookbooks, but this is the "information age", right? So I went to Yahoo and searched on "eggs, sausage, corn tortilla, cheese, and salsa" and the first item that day was a recipe for Sausage and Cheese Chalupas. They turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. (And Stephie concurs.) Give 'em a try.

12/31/03: Happy New Year everyone! I hope 2004 will be a better year all around than 2003 turned out to be.


12/25/03: MERRY CHRISTMAS! Hope everyone's having a great day, celebrating the holiday of their choosing. We're spending the day on the couch watching movies. Considering the kind of month we've been having so far, we figure we deserve it.


12/04/03: Great News! Stephie's out of the hospital and resting comfortably at my parents' house. We figure that she will be there about a week or so to recuperate under their watchful eye, then I'll be bringing her home. Life seems to be getting back to normal (finally!) Thanks again to everyone for their support.

Also, today is the ten-year anniversary of two big events, one good memory and one bad. Ten years ago today, Frank Zappa passed away, but also ten years ago today, we adopted Cheyenne!

12/02/03: Stephanie's out of ICU as of Sunday morning, and should be done with the oxygen mask today. That means she should be coming home tomorrow morning! Thanks to everyone who has been praying for her and wishing her well. If you'd like to e-mail her any well-wishes, because she still has quite a bit of recovering to do, just click the 'Contact Us' link in the column on the left and send an e-mail. I will make sure that she gets it.

11/29/03: Surgery went well on Monday, but there were a few complications during recovery, and Stephie has been in intensive care since Tuesday night. The doctor said today that she could probably move to a regular room, but he doesn't like to move people out of ICU over the weekend. He also said that if she keeps progressing like she has, she should be coming home in a couple days.

11/23/03: It's been raining cats-and-dogs all day, they are predicting snow flurries for tomorrow, and Stephie is going into the hospital for a bit of surgery on Monday.

Yep, it's gonna be a great week.

11/05/03: It's been a couple weeks since I last updated this site, primarily because I have been working on building my new PC, which is a late graduation present to myself. I'm also thinking about changes to the layout of the site. I'm happy with the way it looks, but I think that I might be able to make it easier to maintain. I also should probably read the manual for the stupid digital camera so that I can add more pictures of Stephanie's art to her page.

And I have to admit that I don't understand the usage of the term "shout out" when one wants to single out someone for greetings or for special recognition, and I frankly am not interested enough to look up the etymology of the term, but since a co-worker gave me a "shout out" on his site, I feel compelled to respond in kind. So here's a "shout out" to Bill. And one to Jassen while I'm at it.

10/16/03: Click here to see Stephanie in the window of the LaGrange Art League, creating art!

09/23/03: Welcome to Autumn! I put up some new pictures of Kisu playing with her new best buddy Siggy! Click here to see the madness!

Also, Dave Wieczorek, our dog trainer, finally has his web site up and running. The site is www.WetNoseOBT.net. Check him out for all your dog training needs. We can't recommend him enough.

09/17/03: The scientific results from the big banana project are in, and I have added them to the page with the pictures. Check them out!

09/14/03: Stephanie helped her friend Diane with her display at the Kathy and Judy Science Fair at Hoffman Estates High School yesterday. Click here for pictures.


09/01/03: Happy Labor Day, and Happy Belated Birthday to Mom and ME! We had perfect weather Saturday, but Sunday and Monday were gray, rainy and cold. Ah, Summer in Chicago!

One of the bad things about having a birthday at the end of August is that you don't want to look forward to your birthday, because that means that summer is over. While it's good that the weather will turn cooler, and the new TV season is about to start, as a kid it always meant it was back-to-school time. Not for me this year, though!

    Mom called yesterday, so we could wish her a Happy Birthday on her actual birthday (we were there to celebrate the day before) and she said that she had a surprise waiting for her when she and Dad got home from church. There was a bag, tied closed with a knot, in front of the house, next to the front door. She figured someone must have dropped it off while they were at church, so she brought it into the house.
    She opened the bag and found a present, all right! Turns out it was a poopie bag from Saturday. Stephanie had taken Kisu out before we left, and didn't want to walk around to the back of the house in the dark, so she left the bag in front, but forgot to tell anyone about it. Mom said "Boy! Were they surprised!" I just told her that it was a present from Kisu! Good thing they have such a great sense of humor.

08/21/03: Ah, the dog days of summer! Too hot out to do much of anything.

But since viruses are on the top of the news lately, I forced myself out of my heat-related supor to write up my the story of Stephanie's Computer Virus.

08/14/03: Hello, there! I have been trying to add things weekly to this page, but I had some trouble since last week. I'm looking for a sound file on my work and home computers that is related to a funny work story, but I can't seem to find it. And I'm trying to take more pictures of Stephie's artwork, but something in the colors she uses, or in the capabilities of the camera, is screwing up the colors on the pictures, to the point that she doesn't want me to post the pictures. And I don't blame her.
So I haven't forgotten about this page; I'm just a little slow. I should have something by the weekend.

07/31/03: I added a counter at the bottom of this page, so I can see if anyone besides Stephie and I ever look at this page!

And I also put up the contents of my Grandpa's wallet.


07/25/03: So a couple days ago, Stephanie tells me that Kisu has a new "trick": she likes to bite the leash. When Stephanie takes her in the yard to play, she has Kisu on the retractable leash. That way, if Kisu goes into her "turbo dog" mode and starts running in circles, Stephanie can just hold on and let Kisu tire herself out (which actually hasn't happened yet.) She says that when she's running around, she somehow gets the cotton webbing part in her teeth. I'm not exactly sure how, because that's never happened when I have her out. The only time I've seen her bite at the leash is when she's pulling to go after a squirrel. She'll look back and try to bite the leash to let her go, but she's never actually nipped it. I did see them in the yard yesterday, and Kisu was gnawing on the leash. I went out and told her to stop. I distinctly remember saying "If you break this leash, it's coming out of your allowance!"
    Today, since I'm taking a "mental health" vacation day and the weather is beautiful, I figure that we'll take a nice long walk. Kisu's never been to "the Lost World," which is what we call the area of Brookfield north of the commuter tracks. (You have to go through a tunnel under the commuter tracks and across the train lot to get there. Hence, "the Lost World.") So we get the sunglasses, bottle of water, bag and poopie papers and we're off.
    We head towards Ogden Ave, the nearest busy street and one that we have to cross, and Kisu's pulling hard; she's so excited to be on the big adventure. Just before we get to Ogden, she stops to sniff something on the wall. I use this distraction to catch up to her and pass her by. I get about 10 feet past her, and call her. Like usual, she runs to me, and past me, and I call her name and press the thumb brake on the retractable leash to get her to stop, because the traffic is whizzing by on Ogden. The line goes taut, and the cotton webbing snaps.
    I look down at the limp leash on the ground, and look up as Kisu, who must have paused at the sudden lack of tension, starts to head toward Ogden. I run after her and shout "Kisu, Stop!" and all those evenings of obedience classes paid off in an instant when she stops, sits down and looks at me with what looks like a big grin on her face. I grab her collar, give her a big hug, and we go home to get the leather leash and continue our walk.
    Oh, and the "Lost World" was quite nice this afternoon, but Kisu still doesn't like to drink from the water bottle. We'll have to work on that.

Tonight is Poi Dog Pondering at Ridge Fest. And today is week 2 of the "Silent Summer" film festival put on by The Silent Film Society of Chicago. Tonight's feature is "Cabinet of Dr. Caligari", but I think we'll stick with Poi Dog. Next week, however, is the big "Lost World" extravaganza with full orchestra. Check their web site for more information. Stephie and I plan to be there.

07/17/03: We put up the first batch of Stephanie's art today. We're still struggling with the settings on the digital camera, so some of the pictures look a little dark. The next batch should look better.

We were able to make it down to Summerdance last Thursday to see Oliver Mtukudzi, and we had a great time. The music was great, the dancing was fun, and the location can't be beat, since it's right in Grant Park. You owe it to yourself to click here to check the schedule and try to make it down before the end of August. Hint: Thursday night is always World Music night.

Oh, and don't tell anyone, but Poi Dog Pondering is playing at Ridge Fest in Chicago Ridge next Friday, July 25. I say not to tell anyone because I want to make sure that we can get in, because Poi Dog Pondering puts on one of the most exciting stage shows that I've ever seen! The energy coming from the musicians is just unbelievable, and the music defies you to stay in your seat! When we saw them at RibFest in Naperville last year, just about everyone was up and dancing, and that's on a tummy full of ribs! Definitely recommended, as is their latest CD.

07/08/03: Hope everyone had a happy and safe Fourth of July weekend. It was pretty low-key for us, with the weather and all, but I did get going on my latest project: building a replacement for our aging, noisy MP3 jukebox. Details coming soon!

There are a couple fun things coming up in the next couple weeks that you might not know about, even if you live in the Chicago area. The 7th annual Chicago Summerdance has been going on since mid-June and will run until the end of August in Grant Park. It looks like a lot of fun, with dance lessons followed by a live concert, and it's FREE! There has been, and will be, all kinds of different bands to see, from swing bands to mambo and salsa, with ballroom dancing every Sunday. Not that I'm a big dancer, but this Thursday, July 10, they will be teaching something called African Expressions followed by a concert by a new favorite of mine: Oliver Mtukudzi. If it rains, he's playing HotHouse on Sunday. I hope to see him at least once, and I highly recommend his CDs.

Also coming up soon is The Silent Summer, the annual silent film festival sponsored by The Silent Film Society of Chicago. If you've never seen a silent movie before, or even if you have, you owe it to yourself to try to get to the Gateway Theatre on Lawrence one Friday between July 18 and August 22 to see one on the big screen. It's a real treat. Special Note: on Friday August 1st, they will be showing "The Lost World" (by Arthur Conan-Doyle, not Michael Crichton) with a 30-piece orchestra accompanying the live organist. Don't miss it!

Hope to have Stephanie's art up next weekend. Even though I'm out of school, there's still not enough hours in the day!


06/29/03: Happy Birthday, Ricky! That's him in the picture from a couple years ago with me and Cheyenne. He's the one in the hat. Don't ask about the weird point on the top of my head! Anyway, we hope you had a great day, and have a terrific summer, because before you know it, it's High School time!

Also, I set up the menu on the left as a JavaScript file, so that when I add more pages to the site (like Stephanie's pictures hopefully this week) I won't have to go in and edit each and every html file in the entire site. Maybe I should look into a program to automate this instead of hand-editing the files. Hmmm...


06/25/03: Happy Anniversary, Mom & Dad! Don't know what I would do without you. (Well, actually I wouldn't be here without you.) Hope you are out having fun.

Also, our friend Diane was on the radio last week! If you have Real Audio installed, you can listen to her do her frog imitation by clicking here.

06/17/03: Just back from the first day of Intermediate Dog Training class, and I figure I should put up some pictures of Kisu. If you got the adoption announcement via e-mail, you may have seen these before, although there are a couple new ones.

06/15/03: Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there, regardless if their "kids" have two legs or four. A special Happy Father's Day to our Dad, the best Dad in the world! We're gonna give that new grill a workout today!


06/14/03: Welcome to the first draft of our web site. This site has grown out of my final project for a web design class that I took at Elmhurst College. I was so happy with the way it turned out that I wanted to share it with the world (or at least with any relatives and friends who have computers). My sister-in-law Laura was kind enough to let me store the site temporarily on her server, but I wanted to make it a little more permanent, and expand on it, so I talked to a co-worker who recommended Parcom as an inexpensive and reliable hosting company.

I waited until Graduation was over and finally decided on a name for the site. I know that .com is supposed to be for companies, but most everyone knows web sites as .com so that's what I went with. I sat down at work (on Friday the 13th) and signed up for this site. I filled out the form on Parcom's site, entered in my credit card information, put in my site name ('mattandstephanie.com') and submitted it. The form came back with none of my information, but had my order number, and prompted me to register the domain. In the meantime, my phone rang, a co-worker asked me a question, and I was otherwise distracted for a minute. I filled out the domain form, entered in my credit card information, put in my site name ('stephanieandmatt.com') and submitted it.

Shortly after that, I received an e-mail from Parcom. It said
"You requested that Parcom register the domain name: stephanieandmatt.com (and approved the request). You requested that Parcom HOST the domain name: mattandstephanie.com Which is the correct combination for hosting and domain registration?"
They must think I'm an idiot. I replied back that they should just use stephanieandmatt.com, since I already approved it. (I later told Stephanie what happened, and she said she liked mattandstephanie.com better. Maybe I'll register that as well and point it to the same site. If I can't keep it straight, it's likely others will have the same problem.

Anyway, enjoy Cheyenne's Pages, and check back later for more stuff. I plan to put some of Stephanie's award-winning art here, as well as pictures of Kisu, and anything else that I think that you may find interesting.

By the way, the pictures on Cheyenne's Pages are randomly selected when the page loads (except for three spots), so you may see different pictures every time the page loads. Refresh often!

Thanks for looking.



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NOTE: this site was developed in nothing more than HTML and JavaScript. While there are no ads, there are a couple pop-up windows with extra content. You may have problems viewing parts of this site if you are using any kind of pop-up blocker, such as Pop-Up Blocker. I recommend disabling the blocker while viewing Cheyenne's Pages, but make sure you turn it back on before you leave! And refresh the page for more pictures!

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