Just Say No to $4/Gallon

There seems to be no limit to what this nation is willing to pay for gasoline and I think it's sick. The housing market is in decline more from the result of high gas prices than anything else. Two years ago, prices were about half of where they are now. Where will it stop? There seems to be no end to corporate greed these days. As long as US citizens are keeping their demand for gas stagnant or worse yet, increasing the demand, do you think that the gas prices will go down? Are you 100% sure that Exxon would like to see a dip in their multi-billion dollar quarterly profits? Hmmm.......doubtful.

On this note, my good friend Ted and I have decided that we think $4/gal for gas is ridiculous and refuse to pay for it (unless completely necessary). While our two-person boycott might seem like a futile attempt to get the message out about the need for alternative fuels, we feel that it has to start somewhere. Therefore, you can look for us everyday, starting Monday April 28th, as we ride our bikes to and from work. Each of us is anticipating an approx. 10+ miles each way. We are also going to drop in to a local Lake County Bike Club meeting and try to get more cyclists on board to start biking to work from Spring to Fall. Bike commuting is not only saving our wallets, but improving our health and is better for the environment. I sincerely hope that some of you at least appreciate the message that we are trying to get across. Maybe it will catch on.....

Word!

Do you believe in ghosts?

OK, so I normally wouldn't write about this stuff, but I think we have a ghost in my house and just typing those words make me feel like a crazy person. As some of you know, I had my first 'home alone' night last night in a long time. Since we moved into the house, I have never felt totally alone if you know what I mean. I have seen what looks like a transparent person walking down my hallway towards our bedroom and disappear before. It's like a flash, so I always think that the shadows are playing tricks on me. Anyway, it happened again last night, but it looked as though it floated towards the kitchen. Then Zoe, my cat, started going nuts in the kitchen and meowing at something that didn't exist above her - I was in the kitchen with her and saw/felt nothing. I also saw (twice) a flash of light out our back door. If you've been to my house during the day, you konw that nobody lives behind us and there are no streets. It looked like it flashed on the deck. And, this is the strangest thing, about 5 minutes after Jeff and I laid down to go to bed and I heard a voice - like a whisper. It was a woman's voice and it sounded like it was in the hallway outside of our bedroom door. It's the voice that scares me the most! It didn't sound familiar and I can't remember what it said - it hapened fast and sounded like it started with an S - perhaps "shut". I knew what she said last night, but then I forgot while sleeping terrified. Jeff said he has heard things but assumes it is just the cats. One time, he got up in the middle of the night and because he heard what he though was glass breaking, but found nothing. I feel like a crazy person.

Going to the Big D and don't mean Dallas

That's right folks - in less than 12 hours, Jeff and I will be crawling (I mean falling) out of bed to get in the car and head to O'Hare for what I hope is a nice, relaxing, sleep-filled flght to Denver. As I menioned in my About Me section, we are considering a move out there and this is our first 'trial' weekend. We are going to ski tomorrow (naturally) which rocks because Loveland just got dumped on with 18" of snow and six more expected by tomorrow. All that powder realy sucks, doesn't it?So, the plan is to ski tomorrow and perhaps go check out George Clinton at Copper Mtn. We have some plans to look around the area and meet with some people to see a few potential rentals out there. We are really just trying to scope out the area and pick out the neighborhoods we'd like to live in. We are back and forth on that right now from our online searching. I can't wait for the day when we have teleportation available. Random thought. Anyway, I will update this weekend on any new developments from our lovely little getaway.

Wordness bitches :)

(That was for you Sar)

Understanding the Title of My Swindle Sheet

So, for those of you who do not know where The Chroni-what-cles of Pastorino comes from, please watch this video. I thank my dear friend Gretchen for enlightening me....

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4663910085219139603

Worrrrrrrrd.

Some Things That Annoy Me - Volume 1

I was inspired to write this post after seeing a truth commercial called "The Magical Amount" with dancing leprechauns, unicorns and morons dancing around singing an annoying song. I'm cool with the message that smoking is bad, but come on.....

So, I have decided to mention just a couple of other things that annoy me:

1) Talking insanely loud on your cell phone while you are in the office. Lower your voice, I'm sure they can hear you, if not, use the office line.

2) People who can't drive while talking on their cell phones. Learn how to do it safely or pull off the road. Where I'm going is more important than what is distracting you. Most of the time.

3) The insanse sense of entitlement that plagues the children of central Lake County. You reside in Libertyville, not Buckingham Palace. You drive a VW Bug, not a Bentley. You have not earned any form of wealth, you parents did, so nobody owes you a thing. Thanks for being born though.

4) When people don't change the toilet paper roll. Seriously.

5) Judgements. I hate that. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but have some respect for others situations and how they have arrived at where they are if you don't approve of it. I am guilty of this at times, and it annoys me even more when I do it.

Ok, time for bed. Check back later for more :)

Word.

My 1st Blog

Ok, I guess I should say - "Welcome to my Blog" - but to be honest, I'm not even sure what a blog is or how it got it's very lame moniker. How about a cooler name than blog? Anything? Who thought up the term "weblog" anyways and decided to shorten it? Was there a vote? Things like this should really be voted on. I'm sure there are much more creative and appealing ways to describe these little online journals. In an effort to figure out the true definition of a blog, I went to http://www.dictionary.com/. This is great. Definition of web log is "see blog" and the definition of blog is "see weblog". Hmmmm......So, knowing that a blog is simply on online journal, I decided to look up "journal" in the thesaurus and came up with the most awesome synonym ever: swindle sheet. It was better than toilet paper (which was also a synonym) and more importantly, made me laugh out loud. Therefore, I will forever refer to my blog as my swindle sheet or 'Mr. Swindles' for short.

Continuing on, I'm not really sure what else I can post about at this time. I have no news, I do not have children yet (and don't plan on it until I figure what I want out of life), I have a half crazy family, I have a half crazy group of friends (sorry but it's true, but don't worry, you aren't the ones I'm talking about. Or are you?) and I coach diving in my "spare time". Anyway, I like to have a good time and I try not to take things too seriously all of the time.

So, welcome to my little world. I will try to keep it interesting!

Word.