I'm finally home. Whew, what a busy weekend!

Friday night was the barbecue and fireworks (with a k) in Cherry Valley, IL. I mapquested it, and the quickest and most direct route, although not the shortest, is 71.91 miles from my home. During those nearly 72 miles, I saw twelve out-of-state license plates. I'm used to seeing some, as the roads I was on are routes from Illinois to either Iowa or Wisconsin. However, I saw some plates from just about all sides of the country. To make this interesting, I found images of all plates on the net, so you can see all the states that were represented during my drive. In alphabetical order:

California plates are interesting because they stay with the car, for the life of the car. So all the really old cars from the 60's and 70's have very different plates. The most common "old" plate you see in CA is black with yellow lettering.

Obviously, this is a sample plate. This is the current style issued to passenger vehicles. As you all are aware, states now offer dozens of styles for just about anything you can think of. Colorado even offers one for Horseless Carriages.

This is the most common Florida plate I've seen. Some states still have the state nickname listed on the bottom.

I like how they put the peach for the "o" in Georgia. This state has the respective county listed at the bottom.

Iowa is one more state in the U.S. that has made their plates more representative of their state in the last few years. According to the Iowa License Plate database, when I moved to IL in 1982, the Iowa plates were dark green with white letters. Then they went to dark blue with white letters in 1986, and in 1997 switched to the image you see above.

Kansas is a plate I see commonly, since Interstate 88 in IL meets up with Interstate 80, the main route through Iowa before heading south to Kansas. They have a new design that will be coming out in 2010.

Michigan has a variety of styles available, I see several of them, so I always have to do a double take to make sure I'm reading the state correctly. In addition to this Great Lakes Splendor, they have a white one with a blue banner across the top where the state is listed, and the state's website is listed at the bottom; the other one is the Spectacular Peninsula plate, also with a picture of the Mackinac Bridge on it, with a cityscape and pine trees.

Missouri's famous state motto: The Show-Me State. According to their website, they have also had a re-design, with the new plate showing an outline of the state, with the state bird underneath it, and the motto on top underneath the state.

Mississippi is the Magnolia state, so it makes sense for them to put a big 'ole Magnolia blossom smack dab in the middle of the plate. They also include the respective county on their plates.

On the top left is Niagara Falls, and on the top right is New York City, the two most well known places to visit in New York State. And they just happen to be at opposite ends of the state. I wonder how NY got the nickname The Empire State?

Pennsylvania was the first state to include their website on their license plates. That was back when the internet was first invented by Al Gore. I remember thinking how silly it is to put their website on a license plate. Although, with all the people who have internet access these days, I bet it helps the state residents remember where to go for information about plates and registrations.

Wisconsin, America's Dairyland. Or as those in Illinois like to say, Home of the Cheeseheads. Drive through southern Wisconsin, and you see dairy farm after dairy farm after dairy farm. There's no shortage of them. I see Wisconsin plates almost every day, as my commute to and from work is on a main route between Wisconsin and Illinois.

There you have it, the 12 different license plates I saw on Friday afternoon. It was interesting looking up the history of some of these plates. I hope I didn't bore anyone.

Happy Independence Day! I'm going to a barbecue this afternoon, fireworks tonight, and will be gone all day tomorrow and most of Sunday painting with my aunt. Have a great weekend everyone, talk to you Sunday night!

This is a bit outdated, but I still thought it was weird enough to make you shake your head wondering what goes through the minds of some people.


Aldermen fear terrorists could poison gumball machines

by South Jersey News Online
Thursday October 11, 2007, 7:56 AM

DOVER, N.J. (AP) -- Fear that terrorists could poison children has led three Dover aldermen to begin inspecting gumball machines.

They've surveyed 103 machines in the Morris County town and expect to report their results on New Year's Day.

Aldermen Frank Poolas, Jack Delaney and Michael Picciallo have found 100 unlicensed machines filled with gumballs, jawbreakers and other candies. The three feel they're ripe for terrorists to lace with poisoned products.

Police Chief Harold "Butch" Valentine tells The Star-Ledger of Newark the odds are a person would win the lottery before terrorists would use the machines to launch an attack.

Delaney says their goal is to create a registration process to find out where the candy is coming from.

Last night while AliceKay was streaming, I saw some clouds moving in, so I went out onto my balcony to take a picture of them. It was raining lightly at the time, too. One picture was taken with a setting of "cloudy" and the other as either "daylight" or "auto" I can't remember.

As you can see, they both look pretty much the same. I discovered I don't have a "dusk" or "low light" setting. But I do have a "tungsten" setting, which I could use to make my pictures really freaky!

Who needs water anyway?

Right now I have no running water in my apartment. The water to my whole building has been shut off. So much for doing laundry tonight!

It all started yesterday....in a land far far away, oops wrong story. It really did start yesterday, though. I came home from work to see a note on my door that maintenance had come in during the day to fix something that was leaking. It said they replaced the tub diverter, which is the knob you pull up to switch the water from the tub to the shower head. Apparently, they said mine was leaking into the bathroom below, which is interesting because the one that was "leaking" is the tub I don't use. It's the hall bath, all I use that for is the potty, the sink, and I hang clothes to dry on the curtain rod. I shower in the master bath where all my stuff is. So how could it be leaking if I never use it???

I let it go, and went to work today. When I come home after running errands, I hurried to the potty to umm, well you know, and when I flushed, very little water came back into the toilet bowl. I checked the faucet on the sink, no water. When the toilet didn't fill back up, I suspected no water, but the faucet confirmed it. Being the curious person I am, I called the leasing office, and asked if by any chance the water had been shut off to my building. After being put on hold for a couple minutes, I received an affirmitive reply. I was also told someone from maintenance would be coming around to everyone in our building to let us know what was going on.

While on the phone checking up on my aunt, I had a knock at the door. I hung up with her, and waiting in the hallway was my good friend Jack the maintenance supervisor! Apparently, the leak they thought was coming from my bathroom, really wasn't coming from my bathroom. Duh! After working on it for most the day, they finally gave up and called a plumber. Unfortunately, he won't get here until at LEAST 8:30pm tonight. Jack said they'd be back around later to let us know when the water is turned back on, so I will probably throw a quick load in at whatever time that is. And I feel bad for the guy below me, this is the THIRD time in 2 years that he's had his bathroom torn up. I wouldn't be surprised if he moved when his lease is up. I might consider it if I were in his shoes. (Someone's working down there, I can hear them through the floor of my bathroom, lol)

What some of us go through just to watch some television:

Wednesday night I was sitting at the computer, was probably in chat, and was watching the Cubs game on the little tv next to me. About 10:30pm I think, I got off the computer to watch the rest of the game on the living room tv. I got comfy (with my right knee elevated and a cold compress on it), and watched the last three innings of baseball.

When the game was over, I was flipping through channels, when the picture and sound started going in and out. Eventually, it went out completely, and I was left with a black screen and a blue box asking me to be patient that the channel would come back shortly. It never did. Not on any channel. Since we were having some thunderstorms pass by, I chalked it up to the storms, turned the tv off and went to bed.

Thursday night, I was again at the computer, in chat, and watching the Cubs game. I was going to go to bed early so I could go in to work early on Friday morning, so about 10pm, I got off the computer. My plan was to listen to a little more of the baseball game from the tv in the living room while I got ready for bed. But, when I turned on the tv, I still had no picture or sound. Grrrrrr.

I picked up the phone to call Comcast. I dialed the 866 number, pressed 1 for English, pressed 1 for existing customer, pressed 1 to confirm the number I was calling from was the number on my acct, and waited, and waited and waited, and waited some more. I hung up to re-try it. I dialed the 866 number, pressed 1 for English, pressed 1 for existing customer, pressed 1 to confirm the number I was calling from was the number on my acct, and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited again. Grrrrrr.

I hung up and mumbled to myself that I would do it differently next time. I dialed the 866 number, pressed 1 for English, pressed 1 for existing customer, pressed 2 that I was not calling from the number on my acct. I entered my phone number, and waited and waited, and FINALLY got through to be on hold. Whew! Since I figured I would be on hold for several minutes I got the cold compress, situated myself nice and comfy on the love seat, with the phone wedged against my ear next to the pillow. I closed my eyes and waited. After about 15 minutes, I heard a ring, and thought I would be connected to a live person.

Nope! It took me back to the beginning where I had to press 1 for English, press 1 for an exisiting customer, and press 1 to confirm the number I was calling from was the one on the acct. Since I knew I'd now be on hold AGAIN, I got comfy AGAIN with the phone wedged up to my ear and relaxed for more waiting. I almost fell asleep waiting for a live person. It was only another 20 minutes, but I was tired and wanted to go to bed, lol. I finally got through to someone, explained my problem, and set up an appointment for a technician to come out today between 1 and 4pm. I would have preferred Saturday, since I'm usually not home on Sunday, but I didn't want to wait until Monday and be forced to take time off work.

Fortunately, my aunt was understanding, and since there was no new movie to see this weekend, all I needed to do was go out to vacuum and mop her floors for her. She and I also cleaned up some birdseed that had spilled in her garage and was attracting ants, and I ran a couple errands. One was to Farm & Fleet to buy some birdseed for myself. They had 20lb bags on sale for $4.99, and while there I picked up a new finch feeder for her, to match the copper-topped regular feeder I got her for Mother's Day. Then I went to Wal Mart to get her some Rocky Road ice cream she was craving, and some sourdough hard pretzels that she wanted.

So this morning I was reading emails at about 11:30am, and the door buzzes. The technician was 90 minutes early. I scrambled into jeans and a t-shirt and let him in. He determined my cable box was bad, went outside to get another one, brough it in, hooked it up, and still nothing. That one was bad too? He unhooked my vcr and connected the cable box directly to the tv, still nothing. Going back outside, he brings in ANOTHER cable box, a different model with no time/channel display, hooked it up and VOILA! I have picture and sound now!

However, he didn't re-connect what he disconnected, and I didn't watch closely enough to what he was doing to be able to re-connect it myself, so I had to call Comcast back to have him come back and hook it back up the way he found it. They gave me a hard time about it, saying they don't normally hook back up third party equipment they might disconnect during a service call, which I think is a load of crap. He did come back an hour or so later, hook it back up and everything works fine now.

The only thing left I haven't had a problem with is my phone, so that's probably next month! Calgon, take me away!

I've held onto this, off my calendar at work. A conversation in chat last week reminded me of this picture that I had sitting around waiting to be scanned.

The answer is: C, Lake Ontario. Toronto, capital of the province of Ontario, lies on the northwestern shore of the lake of the same name, the smallest of the Great Lakes.

Sunday night while chatting, my neighbors decided they were going to start their Independence Day celebration a bit early. They started shooting off fireworks from the balcony, then switched to placing them in the grass between our buildings, then ended the night lighting them right on the balcony itself. The WOODEN balcony. This was the best picture I could get, without using flash. It was midnight after all. The black vertical lines through the glow are the wooden slats of the railing.

I didn't call the police, all the guys had to do was plead innocent, and if the officer didn't actually SEE them doing it, he had no way to prove it, it would just be my word against theirs. I confirmed this with the City yesterday after work. I also found out there is no noise ordinance for the City of Naperville. Any time, day or night, if someone is too loud and is disturbing me, I can call the police. They will come and ask them to quiet down. If they don't, and I call the police back, then the officer would ask me if I want to press charges for disturbing the peace. So there is no official quiet time like 9pm or 10pm in Naperville.

So I now have a picture, which I've sent to resident relations so she could see it. And I have all the debris from the fireworks. They were lighting off Magic Crystals. You can also watch a you tube video of what they are like here. I am now armed with lots of evidence and information for the next time they decide to shoot off fireworks on a Sunday night at 12:00AM.

Step 1: Change background on blog (Done)
Step 2: Scan picture to be posted on blog (Done)
Step 3: Transfer picture from camera to computer (Done)
Step 4: Update your friends on stuff


*Updated 6/3 9:28PM completion of Step 3 before Step 2

*Updated 6/4 10:39PM completion of Step 2

Tuesday night, as American Idol time was approaching the sky got dark, the wind picked up, and I started seeing lightning out the window. The weather men said we weren't supposed to get rain until after 10pm, but obviously no one told Mother Nature. She decided to make an appearance at 6:45pm. After the first wave, a rainbow came out and I took the following pictures. Unfortunately, they don't do them justice; They were much prettier and more colorful in person.

This one looks like a double rainbow was trying to form, although it never really did.

The rainbow went clear across the sky, if the trees hadn't been in the way, I probably could have seen it touching the ground (or appear to anyway). After no more than 10 minutes, the clouds covered the sun again, the rainbow went away and the next wave of storms came through.

It was interesting watching American Idol while not at the computer talking to others while trying to listen to the songs. I haven't done it all year, and I really got a different impression by just watching and listening and not having the distraction of others. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE talking with everyone, it was just a nice change of pace to sit there and focus just on the music, performances and the judges comments.

Needless to say, didn't EVERYONE expect a David v. David finale? This is my fifth year of watching American Idol, and I can honestly say, it's the least climactic. No one has really jumped out at me enough to make me eager for a cd after all this. Yes, I might buy one or two, but this whole season has almost seemed staged from the beginning, everything being a setup for the Cookie v. Gaspy finale. Who will win? We'll have to wait and see...

Why some people shouldn't own or keep ORBA's:

Pieces of an ORBA found on the balcony.

ORBA was left outside accidentally, with the lid on right side up. Now it's upside down?

Hmmm, some chewing was going on. Perhaps the naughty Charlie was back?

More chewing along the edge. Upon closer inspection, half of the sunflower seeds inside the ORBA had been eaten, leaving only the empty shells. ORBA was taken back inside for protection. Unfortunately, nothing will heal the terrifying injuries it sustained from being left outside for just one day.

Remember my post a few days ago about the naughty birds? I determined I was entirely too quick to assume the birds did it. My aunt said maybe a squirrel did it, but I said, "No, I haven't seen a Charlie on my balcony all spring." For those of you new to my blog, Charlie is another name for any and all squirrels. Too long to go into now, besides I may have already explained this last year, so just nod your head and keep reading.

Saturday afternoon, I was sitting in the living room, next to the sliding glass door, watching tv. A movement caught my eye out on the balcony. I turned my head very slowly, and sure enough, there was a Charlie (squirrel) on my balcony, looking for all that seed he'd emptied from the bucket. When he couldn't find it, he decided he'd try getting it from the bird feeder instead. He jumped onto the railing, then leaped onto the top of the feeder.

I thought for sure there was no way he'd figure out how to lean over the side to get seed, the feeder almost isn't big enough for him to sit on, let alone lean over head first and feed.

He turned this way and that, reaching up to hold onto the cord used to hang the feeder on the hook, determined to find a way to get that seed!

Sideways didn't work too well. What will he try next?

There ya go! Use your back claws to grip the opposite edge, lean down head first and use your front feet to grab that seed and stuff your face.

It's even better if you twist your body around, so the silly humans watching you and taking stupid pictures will ooooh and aaaah at your acrobatics.

After being chased off the feeder, jumping to the bricks of the building, leaping to safety in the tree, then scurrying down to the ground, Charlie digs around in the droppings to see if there's anything good left to munch on.

My apologies to the birds for saying they were naughty. I jumped to conclusions without any hard facts. Since it appears Charlie is quite adept at getting seed from the feeder, it wouldn't surprise me if he was the culprit with the holey bucket. Bucket problem is fixed now too. I went to Home Depot on Saturday and adopted an orange round bucket alien that was willing to trade shelter for seed holding. He's an indoor bucket after all!

Because one just isn't enough.....

Supposedly, a second cougar was spotted earlier this week in the Chicago area. It was never found, and there have been no reports since of anyone seeing it. Searches were made by helicopter and foot over a forest preserve where it was see chasing deer. Here's a link to the story.

And it has also been determined the one previously shot and killed by Chicago police was in fact a wild animal that may have wandered here from the Black Hills in South Dakota.

I knew we could get a little wild here in Chicago, but this is going to extremes, lol.

Coming home after a hard day's work, I thought I'd sit and relax a bit before eating dinner and watching Survivor. But wait, I might need to fill the bird feeder outside. I'll check to see if it's empty. Yup, it's empty; before I sit down, I'll fill it so the birds have food tonight and tomorrow. After getting the step-stool from the bedroom, I open the sliding glass door, step outside and I discover I have naughty birds. Not naughty as in "they're having sex" but naughty as in, they chipped a hole in the plastic bucket I keep the birdseed in.

There's no way I'm going out tonight to Home Depot or Lowes to get another bucket, so I just taped up this one and brought it inside to keep my chippy birds away from the bucket. Not to be confused with Chipping Sparrows, which I also have.

Deena Hope
April 10, 1968 - April 16, 1998
I will always miss you in my life

Ahhhh, the warm weather is coming! It was about 62F today, and tomorrow it's supposed to be around 70F! I'm so excited! I so want to spend a little time outside in the sun, feeling and savoring the warmth.

I finally called to make a PT appointment today. My first appointment, for the consultation is April 23 at 6:45AM. It will last about an hour. Then I have two more appointments scheduled for April 29 (I think) and May 1, also at 6:45AM. It was very hard to try to make evening appointments as that's when everyone else wants them, so I figured early morning would have to do, and I can make up my lost time at work. Now my challenge will be getting up early enough to get to PT by 6:45AM! I might actually have to get up by 5:30AM now! *GASP*

Anybody looking for a unique gift to buy their loved one? I have the perfect item! It's on sale on e-bay, and there's no competition yet.

It's an eight foot tower of cars, on a spindle, and was featured in the movie Wayne's World. The Spindle, also known as the "Car Kabob" or the "Eight Car Pileup" is located in Berwyn, IL a suburb of Chicago. It was supposed to be dismantled last year to make way for a Walgreens (like there isn't one two blocks down?), but a couple of preservation groups formed to protest, and are trying to have it relocated.

How much would you pay for a rusted, bird poop covered, famous spindle of assorted cars? The full article and video are here.

This evening, a cougar or mountain lion, was shot and killed by Police in a Chicago neighborhood. Below are a couple pictures I took from the CBS website.




They don't know who the cat belonged to, they'll be searching it for tags, chips, or markings to track ownership. Cougar sitings in Chicago are rare.

Posting to let ya'll know I'm still alive. Not much has been going on here, just going to work and coming home. I still haven't called for the PT, I gotta try to get that done tomorrow. It seems every day I want to, but I get busy trying to take care of my customers, and before I know it the day's gone. It's been a cold weekend her, but it's supposed to warm up this week, up to almost 70F by Thursday. I can't wait! I'm really wanting some warmer weather.

Last week I bought three new cd's: P.O.D.' s new cd titled When Angels & Serpents Dance. Unless you're into heavy metal, you wouldn't like this, lol. I bought the new Counting Crows cd, Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings. And, I bought a cd by a new country artist, James Otto, titled Sunset Man. It has his single "Just Got Started Loving You" on it, which I love! This week another new country artist, Lady Antebellum, has a cd coming out. Their first single is called "Love Don't Live Here" and it's another one I love. They harmonize well, reminding me of Little Big Town.

James Otto's MySpace page

Lady Antebellum's MySpace page

Following is a post covering a lot of different topics, things that I've mentioned or discussed with various people over the last few weeks.

First, I finally spoke to my doctor's nurse last Thursday. I asked about the xray results from the previous Wednesday. She told me what showed up in the xray was the start of arthritis. So tomorrow, if I have time, I'm going to go ahead and try to set up an appointment to see a Physical Therapist. Not sure what six visits will get me, but perhaps I will come away with some regular exercises to do so I won't be on 800mg of Ibuprofen for the rest of my life.

Above is the waterfall across the street from my work that they started up this week. During the Christmas season, they string lights up from all the trees, making it look very festive. There's a little path behind it, where I believe you can walk, although I've never gone back there. Perhaps this summer when it's a little warmer out, I'll check it out. It's just tough crossing a six-lane road on foot.

Here is an alien I found living under my desk at work. You can see a little bit of the hoses that they have inserted into the wall. Is this a baby alien, that was left here alone, while the parent went outside to stand guard? And exactly what is it doing? Stealing important steel data from our office? Inputing viruses?

This is the difference between our old and new carpeting. The old carpeting is blue, a little lighter than sky-blue, very worn and ugly looking. During the winter, with one particular pair of shoes, I am constantly getting shocked from a build-up of static electricity. The new carpeting is actually squares of the same pattern that are being alternated to give it a checkerboard appearance. It's much darker, but it will wear better than the older carpet. And I don't get a "charge" from it, lol.

Here's my keyboard that I've had for five years. Note the keys still have all their letters and numbers. I guess I either don't use it enough, or don't rest my fingers on the keyboard like other people do.

Here is an Orange Cone-Head Alien that I think might have been a hostage to the AT&T repair van. I could almost hear it calling out to me when I pulled up behind it.

For those of you that don't get a lot of Canadian Geese where you live, here's a picture I took last November as an example of the sometimes expansive flocks I get here on my lake/pond. There could be as many as 100 geese in this picture. Right now we don't have that many, but in a few weeks, during breeding season, we could see the number increase. Usually we have several pairs all with cute little goslings running around. At least once every spring, I have to stop my car on the way out to the main road, to let the adult geese and goslings cross the road.