Merry Christmas!

I hope you have a very Merry Christmas! We got ourselves a rather LARGE gift this year. WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!!!

That's right kiddies... we're moving! 37 days and counting! I'll update you more later!

Wow... traffic school didn't suck...

If you're ever required to do Traffic School in Lake County... seek out a class headed by Lake County Probation Officer Terry Barrett!

He was a substitute teacher for my traffic school and let me tell ya... he kicked serious ass! He was so personable and dynamic the 4 hour class just sped right by (forgive the pun). The guy was such a natural he made the class... dare I say... fun?!?

Anyway.... We got to watch a video reenacting the events which lead to Princess Diana's death. It was pretty cool stuff and as expected Terry's major goal was to encourage seat belt usage. The highlight of the class was when Terry had to kick out a dude that fell asleep and was snoring! He gave him a second chance but 15-20 minutes later he was snoring again and Terry had no choice but to kick his sorry ass out.

By the time the class ended we were all hopefully wearing our seatbelts and were a little more respectful of others on the road. That's not a bad thing.

Ocean's Twelve

It hits theater's today. I absolutely LOVED the first movie and hope that the sequel is every bit as good and even better!

Apparently some of it was shot in Chicago and a few North Shore suburbs. Check out this news report here ... (This news report link may or may not work for you... if not go to... http://www.cbs2chicago.com/video and find the videos dated 12/10/2004 and look for the story named... "Chicago Suburbs 'Scene' In Upcoming 'Oceans 12' Movie")

See the trailer here.

Hopefully I'll be able to get to the theater sometime soon!

Anyone up for some traffic school?

Well... whether I like it or not.... I'm in for a 4 hour dose of it in the morning. (See original story here.)

The class runs from 8am to noon. I've got to head to an annex of the Mchenry county college located on Main Street in Crystal Lake. Pretty close to the train station. I'm gonna meet Dave at the Metra station so we can hit Best Buy before we head to Harvard.

Wish me luck because the last time I took driving school in Deerfield, he was like a crabby old coot from the Secretary of State's office. Which made for a looooooooong 4 hours!

Gonna head to Winter Wonderland this weekend...

When we were looking for a decent gaming table, Nicholas asked me, "When are we going to go to that place with all the lights?" I immediately knew he was talking about the Winter Wonderland at the Cuneo Museum in Vernon Hills. It's become a tradition to see the lights there. I only wish it wasn't so damn difficult to turn off my headlights in my Chevy Blazer!!

I urge all of you locals to check it out!

http://www.vernonhills.org/events/winterwonderland.htm

Looking for a gaming table...

So... Texas hold-em is fun... but playing on the dining room table is not. I'm on the look out for a decent 2-in-1 or 3-in-1 gaming table. You know... one of those where you can flip the top part around to change it from a regular table to a poker table top.

I found this one at F.I.M. for $599.00 (table only) The Good: Price, Solid Oak, I can see before I buy -- The Bad: Only a 2-in-1 therefore no bumper pool.


Then there's this one at Amazon.com... The Good: Price is ok, 3-in-1 so it has bumper pool. Probably free shipping. -- The Bad: I can't see it/feel it before I buy it.

Now, if any of you SERIOUS rec roomers out there have searched for a gaming table you know that these two tables are toward the bottom of the line when compared to the $1000-$2000 tables at Algonquin's The Rec Room. I absolutely LOVE that place... but it's so over priced it makes me sick! Whereas some of you will think that $600 is alot of cash for a table.

I'm looking for any and all ideas on where to buy a decent quality gaming table for as cheap as possible. Thanks!

Yes, there is a PERFECTLY good reason...

...why I didn't mention the new iPod photo... and that's because I need to maintain focus for something else I'm buying. More on that soon...