This whole blog thing...

... was easier when I was unemployed!

I've been keeping busy. I've been at my new job for about 3 1/2 months now.

Alyssa is beginning phase one of braces and just began 5th grade. Nicholas is now in 2nd grade and hasn't been feeling to well the last couple days. (fever n shit)

For the past several Fridays I've been driving up to Harvard to visit Dave & Kay. It's nice to be able to get away from it all and head up into the country. They live in a subdivision called Shadow Creek. The neighborhood isn't complete yet... they've still got construction going on... but I expect them to be done by spring.

Since the evenings have been nice and cool, we've sat on their patio and Dave & I have enjoyed a few cigars. No, I haven't started smoking again... but when I'm up there I do have a few stogies while enjoying the evening.

Because the kids aren't in the car and I don't have to listen to my nagging wife... on the way back home I've always tried to beat my previous time. Last night.... I wasn't able to break my previous record of 53 minutes because I got pulled over by a McHenry County Sheriff. 74 in a 55. I've never been pulled over by a teenie-bopper before... I'm telling you... this girl "Deputy" looked like she was on a "Take your daughter to work day!"

I consider myself lucky because had she driven my way about 2 minutes earlier.... the ticket would have been much worse... I was driving around 90 mph. And before you start giving me crap about speeding let me point out that at 1:30am on Route 14 heading south Between Harvard & Crystal Lake is COMPLETELY dead. I wasn't putting anyone at risk except myself. I wasn't driving reckless.. just quickly. Anyway... the ticket will cost me $75... but it will really cost me $105 to opt for the supervision & traffic school. It's the first ticket I've gotten since 1994!!!! It's been 10 years! I gave this little girl playing cop my AAA card (doubles as a bond card) so I could keep my license. I'll be needing to keep that for Wednesday.

I haven't mentioned it yet on the blog but for those of you who want an update on my Bell's Palsy... it's getting better... slowly but surely. My right eyebrow is moving quite a bit now and I have some more movement of the right side of my face. I'm in no pain now but back 2 months ago I had a very localized pain in the back of my head. It hurt extremely bad... to the point that the pain woke me up in the middle of the night and I had a hard time sleeping for a couple weeks. It concerned me so I went back to the ER and had a Cat Scan of my head. The doctors found no problems. The pain was the pinched nerve which caused the issue in the first place.

Valerie's birthday is coming up on the 21st. Which is the same day that the Star Wars Trilogy FINALLY comes out on DVD!

More later...