Advent

This morning the the first candle of the advent wreath was lit. Wednesday the boys can start opening the windows of our advent calendar. My sister bought one for them. Each day has a piece of chocolate. My Mom always had an advent calendar when we were growing up and I always wanted to open the windows ahead of time to see what was behind them. More and more houses in the neighborhood have their Christmas decorations up. Today was a pretty nice day sunny and in the forties. The Christmas tree farm near our house was really busy this morning when I drove by. It's hard to believe we have a Christmas tree farm within walking distance of the house. I took the Thanksgiving pictures in to Walgreen's http://www.walgreens.com/ to get developed. I think I'm one of the last people to still take pictures with a regular camera. One of these days I'll get a digital camera. I killed about two hours surfing blogs and added some more to my favorites. I finished reading the Sunday paper. The Chicago Tribune TV Week http://www.chicagotribune.com/ had Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer on the cover. I can't believe he's 40 years old. I really should start studying but I keep procrastinating.

Doorbuster

I was a doorbuster yesterday morning. This year is the first year I was really aware of that term and now I'm seeing it everywhere. I woke up at 4:30 a.m. so I could be at Meijer http://www.meijer.com/ before 5:00 a.m. (that's when the sale started) to buy a new 27 inch Sylvania http://www.funai-corp.com/sylvania/products/tv/tv2.html color television for $129.00. It was insane. The store is open 24 hours and the parking lot was as full as I've ever seen it and the lines were unbelievable. They had enough of the TV s and I was able to get one. Thank goodness. My wife also bought 6 Playstation http://www.us.playstation.com/ video games for the boys at buy one get 50% off the second. She is actually almost done shopping. I'm really not a shopper thank goodness I'm married. We got all the Christmas decorations out of the crawlspace and into the living room and the Christmas tree is up. The lights aren't on yet. I tested them this morning and some of them aren't working. I'll have to buy some more. I really should be studying but I'm procrastinating on my blog and checking out other blogs. I'm on Chapter 6 of 19 that I have to review before my exam. Boring. It might snow again tonight. All the snow from the other day has melted. I finished reading "Never Die Easy" Walter Payton's autobiography. I want so bad to pick up another book but I have to get this studying out of the way. Last night we watched "Mr. Deeds" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0280590/ with Adam Sandler and Winona Ryder. I had seen it before but still enjoyed it. I also stayed up to watch "Striptease" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117765/ with Demi Moore. I had never seen it but I read the book by Carl Hiaasen. I wonder if he was on the set while Demi was dancing. Wow!

General Store

"I went to a general store but they wouldn't let me buy anything specific." - Steven Wright

Television

"I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book." - Groucho Marx

Slush

We had our first snow of the year today. It was a heavy wet snow and it looks pretty deep. The weight of it broke some branches on our trees. The roads were really slushy. There's slush everywhere. What a great word. Slush. Just mix in some flavor and you can make "Slushees." It's was a short workweek, only two days and I had a vacation day today. It was a great day to have the day off with the weather. I got to sleep an extra hour. I went to the school mass at 9:00 a.m. Watching the kids is great. The choir sang an excellent Thanksgiving song at the end of mass and the final song was God Bless America. When I got home I took a nice long nap. The boys had a half day of school. My oldest son went to Culvers with a bunch of friends and I picked him up at 1:00 p.m. My youngest son went to see "The Incredibles" for the second time. I picked him and his teammates up at 4:10 p.m. and then he had basketball practice from 4:45 p.m. until 6:00 p.m. My oldest had basketball practice from 7:30 until 9:00 p.m. I spent the day driving everywhere and brushing snow/slush off the car. While my oldest was at practice I went to the library to study for my exam. There was nobody there because of the weather. I had the quiet study room all to myself. Usually when I go there there's three to five people or more studying for something. They give me some inspiration knowing I'm not the only one studying. I have a lot of studying to do. I'm a great procrastinator. I hope to take the test the last day of the year like last year. It's so hard to concentrate when there's so many other things I want to read. I picked Walter Payton's autobiography "Never Die Easy" and have started reading it. I'm about halfway through. My oldest son is doing a report on him for school and I have the book until the end of the month. Talk about an inspiration and hard worker. He was amazing. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. What a great holiday. Eat and watch football. The Bears play at 3:00 p.m. They are probably pretty worn out from their lost to the Colts. We had an excellent time at the game. The weather was beautiful. We overdressed. Too bad the Bears didn't play better. I'm gonna try and get up early to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade http://www.macys.com/campaign/parade/index.jsp?bhcp=1#. It's kind of a tradition. We have dinner at 3:00 at Shannon & Gene's. My sister invited us over for dessert. We'll have a chance to see both sides of the family. After Thanksgiving dinner, there's nothing like watching a classic movie with family and friends. Here are a few of my favorite Thanksgiving films:
* The Gizzard Of Oz* It's A Wonderful Knife* One Flew Over The Turkey's Nest* Stuffing Miss Daisy* Midnight Cranberry* Relish Tray Without A Cause* The Silence Of The Yams* Snow White And The Seven Helpings* A Streetcar Named Tryptophan * Three Men And A Baster* M*A*S*H*E*D* Close Encounters Of The Pumpkin Pie* Forrest Plump* Mutiny On The Kiddie Table* When Harry Met Salmonella* Rosemary's Gravy* The Turkeynator

Book Sale

I got up early to go to the Indian Prairie Library http://www.indianprairie.lib.il.us/ book sale. It started at 9:00 a.m. I got there about 9:02 or 9:03 a.m. and the parking lot was packed. There was all ready about 100 people grabbing books like you wouldn't believe. It was like a feeding frenzy. I didn't stick around long it was too crowded. I grabbed a couple of specially priced books in excellent condition. The guy in front of me spent over $100.00. That's a lot of used books. I was able to get a real nice National Geographic http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ book on the ancient civilizations. My youngest son has to do a three dimensional school project and it should have some good ideas for him. I got a used hard cover Calvin & Hobbes book http://www.ucomics.com/calvinandhobbes/ and a first edition of "Sacred Hoops" by former Chicago Bulls coach, Phil Jackson. I also got a VHS tape on handicapping for my Dad who is a 'broken down horseplayer.' I usually try to buy only books I think I'll read or something the boys will enjoy. It was too crazy to even take a close look at anything. People love bargains, me included. After I went to the book sale we picked up the boys basketball uniforms. One picked #4 and the other #40. One of their teammates was there when the doors opened so he could get #23 like Michael Jordan. Last night I went with my youngest son to see
"The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie." http://www.nick.com/all_nick/movies/spongebob/
He met 3 of his school friends and they really enjoyed it. Tomorrow we go the Chicago Bears game http://www.chicagobears.com/ We're leaving early to tailgate. It will be their first Bears game and my first at the "new" Soldier Field http://www.soldierfield.net/default.aspx The weather is supposed to be pretty decent for mid-November high 40's and sunny. They play the Indianapolis Colts and Peyton Manning. I hope the defense can stop him. We'll see. Next week is a short week only two days of work. Yipee!

Short Post

Getting Ready to sign off for the night. Was supposed to study two chapters and barely finished 6 pages in one. Procrastinate. Test date is planned for December 30th just like last year. 19 chapters of the boringest (is that a word?) stuff ever

A Teacher

"A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops." - Henry Adams

The Great Teacher

"The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires." - William A. Ward

Conferences

Right after school we had teacher conferences. Both boys are doing great and their teacher's love them. They both made the honor roll this quarter. We had ten minutes with each teacher. They went over their report cards which were excellent. They are so lucky to go to the school they do with all the parental involvement. I can't remember my parents having any conferences when I was in junior high. We stopped for Subway www.subway.com sandwiches afterwards. They both had basketball practice tonight. It was a busy night. I'm listening to America's Greatest Hits. I'm just about finished with "The Happy Isles of Oceania" by Paul Theroux. I think I'll wait awhile before I pick up another 600 page book. Reading it did want me to take a closer look at and read some of my National Geographics www.nationalgeographic.com . There's so many exotic places I'll never get to see. At least I can read about them. Tomorrow is Veteran's Day. Thank you very much to all our veteran's and people in the armed forces protecting our freedom. No school Friday for the boys. I'm still deciding if I should take a personal day Friday 0r save it. The big family wedding is Sunday. That should be a trip seeing all the aunts and uncles and cousins.

Design Your Own Life Plan

"If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much." - Jim Rohn

All Day

"When someone is impatient and says, "I haven't got all day," I always wonder, How can that be? How can you not have all day?" - George Carlin

You Run The Day

"Either you run the day or the day runs you." - Jim Rohn

Another Day

"Another Day." That's the title of one of my favorite Paul McCartney songs. "Woke up got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head, went a way downstairs and drank a cup, looking up I noticed I was late, grabbed my coat, grabbed my hat, made the bus in seconds flat..." It's amazing what some songs are about. Last night after I signed off and before I went to sleep I thought about some ideas for my blog. One of them was a recap of a typical day from waking up until I go to sleep. A description of everything that happens from getting out of bed, showering, eating breakfast, what kind of cereal I ate - Kellogg's Special K with strawberries. Driving to work, which route I take -Oldfield Road to Frontage Road to Cass Avenue - No traffic. What's on the way - once in a while I'll see some deer. Lately the sun has been right in my eyes. A rundown of a typical workday, answering calls, reading e-mails usually over 100 each morning, printing e-mails, listening to voicemails - usually 7 or 8. Organizing my desk for the day. Filling out all the checklists that need to be completed. You wouldn't believe all the paperwork. Getting my drink of water. A one hour lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. What I ate at lunch - usually a sandwich, chips and a Diet Pepsi except on Friday's when I grab a slice of Rosati's sausage and cheese pizza and a Diet Pepsi for $3.00 to celebrate the end of the workweek. My daily 20 minute nap. It's amazing how great those afternoon naps are. Back to work for another three hours, another hour of answering calls and then two hours working on delivery requirements which is mostly typing. Boy when you descibe it it's pretty mundane. The days usually fly by and there's always plenty of work to do - Job security. The thing that makes it interesting is the people I work with, but forget the bosses. It's a short day and unbelievably close to home. I work on a computer all day and I'm logged into the internet all day. I can sneak peeks at the news on www.chicagotribune.com and www.dailyherald.com or anything else that I want to check out. I haven't started blogging from work yet. There's always too much to do. The day is over at 3:30 p.m. and then a short drive home. I usually stop at the library a couple times a week and run errands on the way home. Even when I do I'm still home by 4:00 - 4:30 p.m. I guess I can't complain. My commute use to be 35 minutes to an hour each way depending on the traffic. When I first got out of college I took the train downtown for over ten years. I got a lot of reading done on the train. I'll save some of those memories of that routine for "Another day."

Surest Sign That Intelligent Life Exists

"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us." - Bill Watterson, from the comic strip "Calvin and Hobbes"

The Days Are Just Packed

Just like "Everyday is an adventure" I stole "The days are just packed" from Calvin & Hobbes. After working on a computer all day, hanging out with the family and watching most of Monday Night Football - Vikings versus the Colts. I don't have much energy left to surf the internet or think of things to say in my blog. There's a million things I'd like to do but because it's past 11:00 p.m. I can't start them now because I have to get up early. I'm in my office surrounded by my books and other memorabilia. I'm listening to Norah Jones while I'm typing this. The boys are asleep and I'm getting there. I think I'm getting a cold, I'll have to see how I feel tomorrow. I plan on taking this Friday off and using my last "personal" day to be with the family and maybe we will go and see "The Polar Express." That's the plan. I wish I could get on here every night to capture some thoughts and memories in my blog. I'm still reading the same two books and not making much progress. The day just flew by and it's supposed to snow later in the week. Basketball practices start tomorrow night, teacher conferences on Wednesday and a wedding on Sunday. Busy busy.

Calvin & Hobbes

Calvin and Hobbes is a comic strip which was written and illustrated by Bill Watterson, following the humorous antics of Calvin, an imaginative six-year-old boy, and Hobbes, his energetic and sardonic – albeit stuffed – tiger. Syndicated from November 18, 1985 until December 31, 1995, at its height Calvin and Hobbes was carried by over 2,400 newspapers worldwide. To date, almost 23 million copies of 17 Calvin and Hobbes books have been printed. The strip is set in the contemporary United States, in the outskirts of suburbia. Most strips avoid giving specific clues to where Calvin's home may be located, allowing readers from many regions to feel that the action takes place somewhere nearby. In one strip, Calvin's teacher asks him to name the state in which he lives, and Calvin replies "Denial". Nearly every strip features Calvin, and Hobbes also appears in most of the strips. The broad themes of the strip deal with Calvin's flights of fantasy, his friendship with Hobbes, his misadventures, and his relationships and interactions with his parents, classmates, educators, and other members of society. The series does not mention specific political figures or issues. Due to Watterson's strong anti-merchandising sentiments and his reluctance to return to the spotlight, almost no legitimate Calvin and Hobbes material exists outside of the published collections of newspaper strips.

www.calvinandhobbes.com

Profile Limits

I just realized that Blogger www.blogger.com has limits on the profile information you can have. I keep thinking of more movies I like and musicians/bands I like. I tried to edit my profile and the names didn't show up. I wanted to add U2 http://www.u2.com/. I really like their new song "Vertigo." I watched the video on Yahoo Launch http://launch.yahoo.com/ It looks like the limit is 20. I also like to click on the different names and see who else has similar interests when I blogsurf. I'll have to limit my lists to only the top-twenty. One night I kept changing my city to find people in those cities who had blogs. I haven't come across anybody I know with a blog yet. I started to tell people about it. I have no clue if anyone reads it. It doesn't matter. I like to have it to go back to and refresh my memory. I wish I could be like some of these people who blog all day whenever something comes to their mind. There's things I think of when I'm driving and sitting around at home that I think I should mention in my blog. It's amazing how the mind jumps from one thing to another. It's amazing how the internet and computer has affected my dreams. I can vividly picture one time I was napping and my index finger twitched like I was pressing my mouse. Wild. I have thought about starting a dream blog. I have some very colorful complex and vivid ones. It got me thinking about how my mind has to always be stimulated whether it's by reading listening to music, watching movies or surfing the internet. On the weekends I'll be doing all three. Not much in today's Sunday paper. All the election hoopla has died down.

The Chicago Bears were victorious over the New York Giants 28 to 21. The defense delivered. http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/bears/cs-041107bearsgamer,1,4193419.story?coll=cs-bears-headlines When I first turned on the radio I thought "oh no another blowout." The Bears were losing 14 to 0 in the first quarter. What a nice
surprise. They have all ready beaten the expections for the year with 3 victories.

Tuesday night basketball practice starts for the boys. Their first games are November 28th. The season runs through March. That should keep us busy. Next Sunday is a family wedding and the following Sunday the boys will get to go to their first Bears game at the new
Soldier Field http://www.soldierfield.net/default.aspx . I hope the weather is decent. Thursday is Veteran's Day and I plan to take a personal day Friday. The boys will be off so we will probably go see "The Polar Express."http://polarexpressmovie.warnerbros.com/

Cut Grass

This is the first time I can remember cutting my grass in November. What a beautiful day today in the mid-60's. My oldest son had a bunch of school friends over and we wanted to get the house looking nice. Thank goodness for get togethers, the house gets cleaned what motivation. My nephews birthday get together is tonight - he's 10. I took the boys to see that new movie
"The Incredibles"

http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/incredibles/index.html

by Pixar http://www.pixar.com/.

It was fantastic - excellent entertainment. Just like the others

"Finding Nemo"

http://disney.go.com/disneyvideos/animatedfilms/findingnemo/index2.html

"Monsters, Inc." http://disney.go.com/disneyvideos/animatedfilms/monstersinc/

"A Bug's Life" http://disney.go.com/disneyvideos/animatedfilms/abugslife/index.htm &

"Toy Story" http://www.pixar.com/featurefilms/ts/ Who thinks up these movies? What imaginations. Even the shorts they show as previews are excellent. I can't even imagine what the animation will be like in a couple of years. They showed a preview for a Pixar movie coming out next year "Cars" I wonder if any of the music in the movie will be by the Cars? The previews really do a great job of getting you to want to see more movies. I can't wait to see

"The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie"

http://www.nick.com/all_nick/movies/spongebob/

I'm still reading the "Happy Isles of Oceania" by Paul Theroux. I'm about half way through it. I picked up another book "So Many Books, So Little Time: A Year Of Passionate Reading" by Sara Nelson in my quest to get more reading ideas. Her book reads like a blog. Maybe at the beginning of next year I'll attempt something similar. She has some excellent observations of readers. I have an office filled with books and I still go to the library two or three times week looking for more books. My bookshelves are sagging from too many books. It won't be long and I'll have to take over another room of the house. I already envision bookshelves on all the walls.

When The Grass Looks Greener

"When the grass looks greener on the other side of the fence, it may be that they take better care of it there." - Cecil Selig