May 2002

Finally, a recognizable picture from our little scribbler. April 2002 Speaking of art.....Art-Works Hollace's regular hang out Art-Works is on the verge of being dumped by Fox Lake. The village wants them out by June 1st and they didn't even have the guts to tell Barb or Sharon (the ladies trying to keep the place together). They found out when people from Lake Villa came by to check out the place. We knew it probably was going to happen but maybe not this soon. To prepare for the inevitable, the Art-Work ladies were trying to start an artist guild for the Chain of Lakes for families. It was planned to be a separate non-for-profit entity from ArtWork but also as a support group to help ArtWorks. I was attending meetings to get the guild started. Every week I was practically the only one (besides the Art-Work staff) attending the guild meetings when the focus sharply turned to saving Art-Works. Last weeks meeting attendance went from about 4 of us to 14. We are hoping that this mess is really just a blessing in disguise and we can continue to have Art-Works in the community, just outside villiage rule. I will keep you posted on further developments. Glasses As you might recall from my last update, I had you vote for a new pair of glasses for me. I had a little over 100 votes and it sure did look close. Something like 28 votes for #5 and #3 and 24 votes for #6. After someone commented that they couldn't decide between #3 and #6, I realized that they were the same pair! So #3/#6 won in a landslide with 51 votes. I went out and bought them and am wearing them right now. I think the right pair won. Thanks for voting. Here is the glasses voting page. The Porch and a Family of Raccoons With our tax check this year we had the bright idea to screen in our patio. It seemed like a logical thing to do. We had this cement pad and we looked forward to enjoying it bug and weather-free. RAW immediately got started. The guy at the lumber store kind of suggested we could try it without a permit when RAW asked so we did. RAW got up the frame when the county permit guy tagged us, someone turned us in. When RAW went in to get the permit they told us that we can't build it cause it is too close to the road. This is a crock if you ask me, the cement already exists there. It can't be 25' from the road (we live on a corner) but they don't measure to the road, they measure that about 10' in. We dismantled the frame. We are going to get this screened tent house shade thingamabob from JC Penneys instead. It measures exactly the size of our cement and butts up to the house. Just got to take it down in bad weather or when we go out of town. Want to get something, I don't want to return the cute patio lights I got at Target ;-) In the meantime though when RAW was working on the frame, he took off the fascia or sofit or whatever it is and apparently put up the vacancy sign for pregnant raccoons. Yes, we now have a mama coon and her 2 babies living in our attic. Dejavu I say; this happened to us 4 years ago. Last week Hollace woke up in the middle of the night and was complaining to me that she doesn't like Eloise because she is scratching in her room. I finally hear a noise but it isn't from the ceiling so I don't suspect raccoons. Besides they don't appear to hang out over that part of the house. I heard some kind of bumping in the window. I was a little afraid to see what could be since I knew I shut her window before going to bed (to avoid sounds bothering her). I send RAW in to investigate. He didn't, nor did he hear anything. He just took Hollace out of her room and they both slept in the living room. The next morning I ask him about it and he tells me he had opened her window so it was probably the shade bumping/scratching. Now our perfect, not afraid of anything sleep in the dark girl if afraid of everything at night now. She is afraid of sounds, dark and monsters now. The week before monsters were always nice and she would get upset if her room wasn't completely dark. For a week afterwards, when I would put her to bed, she had to have dad come sit and hold her hand till she fell asleep. She would wake in the middle of the night asking the same thing. She is now over that part, all she requests now if to have the hall light on and her door open. Tonight she was freaked and called me back to her room when she said something was crawling on her head! An ant she thought. I turned on the light and did a thorough inspection and told her it might of been in her imagination. She was good with that, "in my 'magination" Aww, the end of innocence. Fender Bender The first day of March, on a day I found out later that I scheduled off (and forgot about), I was driving to work when someone crashed into the back of me. Apparently I was the first car in a 3 car pile up so by the time it got to me the impact wasn't too bad. None the less it was shocking. The instigator looked down for a moment then thought traffic started to move when it hadn't. I noticed right before this happened, a car driving on the wrong side to avoid the traffic to get to the left turn lane ahead. The lady who hit us probably sensed that car and though everyone was moving. At the moment of impact, traffic did start to move which is how the guy ahead of me avoided getting hit, he moved at the very moment I would of hit him. Of course since I have my camera with me at all time, I took pictures. Everyone was shocked how my car didn't even look like it was involved, especially judging from the van behind me that got sandwiched and of course the minivan that did the initial hit. My car was about $1,000 in damage. It is all fixed now. A New Table For some reason when we needed to buy a table and chairs for the house when we first moved in, we only bought a round table and two chairs. It was definately a pain when company came and while Hollace was in a highchair for most of her life there was going to be the day when she would grow out of it. Another thing we bought with our tax money this year was a table and four chairs! We went to Ikea and bought this rectangle table. Our old one was round which didn't fit the space as nice as this shaped table does. The chairs came natural so we painted them. I wanted a splashy fun color.             The Race ...the movie I have edited my first feature film, well all 2.5 minutes of it. It is 3mbs as either a Quicktime or Windows Media movie or if you have a really fast connection, download the 9mb version. It is worth the download so go check it out. 3.4Mb QT or 3.4Mb WMV,