Ford or Lexus?

My guess is that this has never happened in the auto industry, but I could be wrong. Who has ever found themselves deciding between a Lexus and a Ford? Anyone? Anyone? Well, I found just such a person last Sunday in the Home Depot parking lot.

Let me take a step back and confess that I am a firm believer in the American automobile. I feel that I should support our industry no matter how financially strained it is at the moment (Big 3 payouts to unions and CEOs, etc.) or how supposedly inferior their quality may be. I feel that the only way we, as Americans, are going to keep up with the world is to believe in our own products and buy them. I currently drive a 2005 Ford Freestyle. Before that I drove a 1994 Mercury Sable (still have it). And before that, I drove a 1985 Dodge Caravan...with wood paneling.

Back to my story in the parking lot. As Katie, Amanda and I were making our way to our typical parking space at our local big box retailer, I noticed an older gentleman attempting to cram some 4x4 wood sheets into the tail end of his Lexus RX330.



It's an extremely popular automobile and quite possibly the best-selling SUV on the market. I can't exactly say it revolutionized the segment, but it did make its presence known and I see them everywhere. The thing is, it's soft. It's not meant to go to a hardware store and bring home lumber. It's supposed to LOOK like one would bring home lumber with it (or 4x4 wood panels), but no one really DOES it! Well, I found the first guy who does do it and he was in the Home Depot parking lot on Sunday.

As I was rounding the corner and eyeing a spot next to him, I said to Katie, "I'm gonna ask this guy if he would like to swap vehicles so he can get those sheets of wood home in one piece." I mean, the guy was practically destroying the roof liner right in front of me.

I park the car and walk up to him (make a quick judgement call if he was going to snap at my conjecture) and say, "Would you like to swap veicles? I'm sure that would fit into my car..." He replies, "Ha. Ha. Good idea. Is that a Freestlye? I was seruously looking at that vehicle and bought this one instead. I should have bought the Freestyle, I don't like this one."

My mouth dropped. Did he really say that he was trying to choose between one of the world's best luxury brands and a little ol' home-grown Ford? Yep, that's what he said. It's kinda neat. I love my Freestyle.

Happy 1st Birthday

No, not to my child but rather to my blog. It was one year ago today I started this blog. Oh how time flies.

Behold...The Michigan Mountains

Where 5 minutes sets you back 60

I was getting ready to leave the office when I got rolled up into an ongoing issue. Just taking the time to assess the issue took five minutes and put me out of range to catch my perfect train departure. I said, "No big deal, I'll just take the next train". That turned out to be a fatal mistake.

As it turns out, there was a huge backup of equipment due to signaling problems and delays. Normally, the second train gets me home 25 minutes after the first. I ended up getting home over 60 minutes later on this train than if I had taken the earlier one (which was on time). See what a five-minute delay can lead to?

Here's a photo of the scene at the train station as we all waited on the platform for our trains to arrive. This photo is of an adjacent platform. Mine is equally crowded to the left of the frame.

Pain in the back

I moved a queen-sized bed from my house to my mother's; now my back hurts. Pretty stiff. Damn.

Bed time

It's 9:00 PM and I am in bed; ready to end the day. Why am I in bed, you ask? Well, it seems that no matter how early or late we put our little angel to bed she is ready to start her day anywhere between 5:00 and 5:30 AM. While this is a wonderful departure from the newborn every-two-hour-feedings that we endured for the first six months of her life, we need to have more sleep.

And now for my good news...

I've been chosen as a backup juror. November 12th. More to come on this, I'm sure...

Projectile

I just got back from picking Amanda up from daycare. She vomited just BEFORE I was about to buckle her into her car seat! How nice of her; projectile and all. So there I am, in the parking lot with a child covered in carrot vomit trying to determine where I can put her down to strip off her cloths and clean her up. It's 50 degrees outside and I decided the best course of action was to open the tailgate of the 'style and strip her bare right there. It's obvious that she was not feeling too well because she put up very little fight. I was pretty proud of myself; there was no transfer of excrement onto the interior of the car. What would I care, I have WeatherTech mats protecting my car!

Another tooth?

We see the makings of Amanda's third tooth and her first one on the top. Things are going to get real exciting.

Ride to work day

Happy Columbus Day. I rode the bike into work today. I left the house at 6:20 to make sure I got to work on time. I was almost an hour early. It's sorta nice to have some time to yourself in the 7:00 hour when no one is present in the office.

I was hoping to snag one of the coveted free street parking spots on Franklin where motorcycles, mopeds and scooters have been parking for weeks. Since today is some sort of a holiday, I was hoping to have little competition. It appears the city has become wise and I noticed some new parking signage on the street. More importantly, no other bikes were parked there today. I figured that I would get a ticket so I decided to pay the (now higher) $13 to park in the garage next to my office. What a rip. I have been looking at over 30 motorcycles and scooters parking on Franklin for months. Now that I decide to ride in to take advantage of it (and break up my boring morning commute) and cannot take advantage. Bunk!

10 months

Amanda is 10 months old today (second Sunday of the month). In the past month a few new things have happened.
-She has mastered the ability to sit up on her own. In the past, we would have to place her in the sitting position.
-She has started to make jagged maneuvers crawling. She still doesn't dart arond the house.
-She can be found standing in her crib in the wee hours of the morning - her typical wakeup call comes in at 5:30 AM. Wonder how the end of DST will impact us?
-She talks more and points a little to help communicate.
-She is fascinated with other little ones (babies, toddlers, etc.).
We look forward to all there is to come.

As Hootie would say...

Let her cry.

Milk

I reintroduced milk into my diet for the first time in seven years. As an adult who needs milk? Let me take you back a bit into why I removed milk from my diet.

Back in 2001 when I had just moved out on my own with my roommate Ross, we would eat breakfast together and gaze out our apartment windows at Lake Shore Drive; enjoying the start of another work day.

Our breakfast was made up of cereal of course and many bowls of it. Every once in a while, while riding the 136 bus crammed into the middle, my body would tell me that it did not agree with my milk/cereal decision. Panic would set in as I scanned LaSalle street for a safe haven to rescue me from the dire straights I was in. It didn't take me long to decide that milk in the morning wasn't the right thing for me.

Instead of switching to something else and eating breakfast at home, I decided to bring my breakfast with me to the office and eat something there. I switched to dry cereal, ceral bars and pop tarts. To this day, that is my morning routine. That is, it was my morning routine untile I decided to give milk a shot.

My office stocks food supplies for us - a carryover from our start-up days where we worked longer hours just to make ends meet and keep the lights on. Each month, there is a threat that this perk might be taken away. Part of the monthly food purchase is milk and cereal. I've been eating dry cereal (dry) for years now until today. I'm glad to report that all is well and my body has not rejected the dairy.

Cry baby

This middle-of-the-night crying attack has got to stop. We need some rest... Oh wait, there's my pager going off! It's going to be a good day. I'm being facetious of course. Not looking forward to my day today.

Babyproofing

The kitchen nasties are now under wraps. The chemicals under the sink (why do we all put our chemicals under the sink?) the pots and pans, our Martini glasses. All are now protected from the prying hands of a 10 month old baby.

White Sox

The White Sox are in the postseason. Chicago is excited. The team did all it could to AVOID the playoffs. The Twins did the same thing and they had to play a play-in game; sorta like the 65th place team having to play an extra game just to get into the NCAA tournament in March.

Can you beleive it's been 102 years since both Chicago baseball teams have been in the postseason at the same time? Isn't that pathetic? Go White Sox. They are currently trailing the TB Rays in the 7th...