• Home Improvement

    David’s A Bike Ridin’ MACHINE – Sponsor Him in the Tour De Cure

    David’s out on a training ride for the American Diabetes Association “Tour de Cure” today. He’s committed to riding 35 miles on June 10th at the ride event in Naperville, and some of us will be volunteering that day, too. After that, we’ll be celebrating his parents’ 50th wedding anniversary (David expects to be pretty wiped out). As David has diabetes (very well controlled by diet and exercise) he’s entitled to wear a red jersey on ride day. He’ll also be riding in honor of other family members who have diabetes. Actually, David’s riding with some other team members who…

  • Episcopal - Geek Out! - Home Improvement - Music

    Happy Easter! I’m Off To Sing The Hallelujah Chorus

    It’s that time of year again – I’m singing at the Easter Vigil tonight at St Nicholas, and we’re doing the Hallelujah Chorus tonight and tomorrow. Much like in 2007, in fact, but we’re much more experienced now, and the freshening we’ve felt with Father Manny beginning his tenure has been a LOT of fun! I’m also the web and social media boffin for St Nick’s so I do the website, Twitter, Facebook, and whatever else that’s internet-y. So I’m always interested to know how people find St Nick’s. I’m also on the Welcome Committee, just  so that all makes…

  • Episcopal - Good and Joyful Things - Hawaii - Home Improvement - Parish: Holy Moly (ECUSA)

    Potential images for my banner from Hawaii trip, and Father Manny’s Purple Poncho

    Ho, well, I never post anymore, blah de blah. We had a wonderful time in Hawaii, pictures are all still on my laptop and need to be culled and copied to my desktop machine. However, I found a few on the card that was in my camera this morning when I took a picture of Father Manny in his purple Lenten poncho (okay, church purists, it’s a chausuble). Here’s one of his photo-op pictures, which will shortly be uploaded to the St Nicholas Facebook page and used on the website for the rest of Lent. I enjoy “Faddah” Manny’s sermons…

  • Home Improvement - The Life of Riley

    And Snow, It Finally Begins

    Was home Friday, had a thing I couldn’t schedule on the weekend, an errand at village hall, and other chores. Originally had a vet appointment for Riley, but pushed it to tomorrow, as I didn’t want to mess with fresh snow and traffic snarls while trying to transport him (he gets spectacularly carsick). He had a scary problem earlier this week, vet thinks he has GERD so now I get to give him the kitty dose of Pepcid AC in addition to the other stuff. He’s maintaining weight, though. And last night he entertained us with his Bowl o’ Cat…

  • Home Improvement - Hot Off The Presses

    A short trip to the basement, but all clear now (we hope)

    The tornado horns went off a while ago but stopped; we went to the basement with Riley in the cat carrier for a short time but felt unprepared… And silly. Tornado warnings in most of the Chicago area have expired, but a tornado rning remains in effect until 9:30 p.m. for easternLake County, Illinois.An earlier another tornado warning declared for northwestCook County,DuPage County, Grundy County, Kane County, Kendall County, western Will County, and eastern De Kalb County also has expired.A severe thunderstorm warning for Cook County, eastern DuPage County, northeastern Kane County,Lake County, southeastern McHenry County, eastern Will County, northern…

  • Clan: McTiVo - Home Improvement

    The Dearth of Blogging

    Who has time to blog? Not me, apparently. I think about potential blog posts all the time, but never at a time when I am both connected to the Internet and able to use it (two very different things, especially given my office’s policies). On the weekends, for months now, I’ve been shirking. Well, ya basta. I’m constantly reading news and blog posts about politics, and shaking my head with dismay at the sheer… blind arrogance exhibited by many Big Name Pundits on both sides. Truth be told, the folks on the conservative side, with a few shining exceptions, all…

  • Home Improvement - Uncategorical Weirdness

    World Mini-Cooper Raids Spotted in Illinois Nowhere Near Route 66

    As I was battling through hail and rain to get to Holy Moly last night for Good Friday services, I found myself in the middle of a column of highly decorated classic Mini-Coopers, all about half the height of my own car and mighty cute. We all drove along Arlington Heights Road in a pounding rainstorm, and then we all turned left at Landmeier Rd, which is an obscure but wide arterial road that doodles around in the back of Elk Grove Village in an area that’s partly residential, partly a confusing wasteland of commercial business parks and mostly-abandoned rail…

  • Food, Glorious Food - Home Improvement

    Shoveled and Raked and Sore and Tired, and Cooked and Ate The Whole Thing

    So yes, we went back out into bright sunshine with no wind to speak of, and David removed more snow from the bottom of the drive while I messed around digging out the walk to the front door. He put the snow “rake” together and I pulled some of the snow off the porch roof, then David raked while I dug out more of the front sidewalk to the corner. And after that, David went in and I used the big light aluminum shovel to dig toward my neighbor, who was digging out the sidewalk from his side. The snow…

  • Home Improvement

    Carnival Of Homeowner Gymnastics, OR: Why Snow Days Aren’t That Much Fun Really

    David was working from home, I wasn’t doing much except tinkering with something online. Andthen I heard an ominous tick-tick-pat-pat sound from upstairs. There was no question either of us were getting on the road this morning, especially as the street wasn’t really driveable until about 830am, and the local drivers tend to get stuck in intersections a lot because of either bad snow driving skills, or bad snowplowing methods. Either way, people tend to get hung up on big moraines of plowed snow that cross the intersections at right angles, because the municipal plows just plow the streets in…

  • Home Improvement - Hot Off The Presses

    Twas the Night Before Pogo

    Pop loved Pogo. The Christmas strips were particular favorites of his, but I don’t recall this specific one. The Russian jokes tie it to the Cold War/Space Race storyline… Somewhere I’ve got the books that introduce the two-headed dog who barks in Russian and a kind of gibberish that I find hysterically funny (pookapookapooka!). This one has St Nicholas and his reindeer (Albert the Alligator and his trusty moose), with Pogo along to make with the good cheer (oog). Walt Kelly was the greatest daily comic strip artist in American history. His Pogo strip was an uncanny mixture of laughter,…