The day the dog went nuts...and other stuff

Our dog went insane Friday, temporarily I hope.

My wife and I have had a budget for many years and we use an old old method of putting money in envelopes. This actually works really well.  It is simple and effective.  But, since we didn't want all that cash laying around in envelopes, we use monopoly money instead (really) and reconcile it to our spending.  I.E. When I bought the 360, I took $400 in monopoly money out of of my spending envelope.  This way we each have our own money, and there is no negotiation for personal purchases.  If I want a new game or she wants a new outfit, it doesn't matter as long as we can "pay" for it.  This takes some time but it is worth not arguing over money.

On Friday, our Dachshund Hannah decided that she didn't care for the budget, either that or she liked it too much.

This is what we found on the office floor when we got home Friday after work. 

Now what is interesting is that she left the groceries envolope alone but trashed each of our personal spending envelopes. WTF!  Can the dog read?  Anyway, we still haven't decided how were going to figure out how much money was where.  I know I had more personal money then Terry, but I can't prove it.  Hmmm, maybe they're in this together.

Another thing you can see in the top left of the picture is 20" of a belt thet used to be about 36" long.  There was a three inch piece left downstairs, but the other foot+ was eaten, only to be horked up around the house in 1/2" x 1" pieces.

Hannah seems to have pretty much recover at this point, but she doesn't have access to the office anymore.

Chicago and the LAN, aka Red versus Blue

Many months ago I realized that I had tickets to two Cubs games for the exact same weekend as the 2o2p Chicago LAN.  I had mixed feelings on this but decided there really wasn’t a way to cram both into the same weekend.

This was a trip that some friends and I had been trying to make happen for last couple of years, and back in March we finally committed to getting tickets for 8/5 and 8/6 no matter what.  I moved to Denver a little over a year ago and I was the one pushing to make sure it happened, since it was an opportunity to get together with some old friends. 
15 years ago or so, before Cubs bleacher seats became so hard to get a hold of, we used to make a fairly regular trip from Minneapolis to see a Cubs game or two and get drunk in the bleachers (and Murphy’s and Slugger’s and El Jardin).  We were all single back then and had some wild times. 

On my final train ride in Chicago on Tuesday (Orange line to Midway) it seemed fitting that I finally realized that two of the “L” lines I had been riding the most for the last 5 days were the Red line and the Blue line.  The Red line runs North/South and is the train you catch to go to both Wrigley Field, home of the Cubs, and US Cellular Field, home of the White Sox.  The Blue line runs from O’Hare on the Northwest end, goes through downtown, then out to the near Western suburbs. 

The Red

We stayed downtown just a few blocks from Michigan Ave and took the Red line to and from the Cubs game both Friday and Saturday.  I’m not much of a sports fan anymore, but the Cubs and Bears will always be my two favorite teams, and Wrigley Field is a great place to see baseball.  The bar scene is also amazing after the game.  There’s a fair amount of people who just go to the bars and not the game, especially on Saturday afternoon.

L2R, Me, Randy, Mike and Doug

Some Bacardi girls

Ya gotta love Wrigley

The Blue

The Blue line has one end at O’Hare, and the other end is Forest Park.  The CTA station in Forest Park isn’t very far from where I grew up and just a couple of miles from where I went to High School, at Proviso East, and much of my family still lives in the area.    On Sunday afternoon I took the Blue line out to Forest Park end and we all got together for pizza.  I’m sure Home Run Inn was and a lot faster than going to Gino’s East, but I’m also pretty sure it wasn’t as good.

At dinner my sister offered me a seat at the Sox game on Monday, which was a rainout makeup with the Angels.  They were season tickets (not theirs) and the ticket holders couldn’t go, and two nephews and their friend (all teenagers) were going.  The tickets were 12th row behind the Sox dugout, so some of the best seats I’ve ever had for a game.

More Red

To get to US Cellular/Comiskey, you take the Red line south to 36th and walk to the field, almost the same type of walk to get to Wrigley from the L.  They’re both “turn of the century” ballparks, just different centuries.  After working at the conference at McCormick Place on Monday and meeting up with my Brother and his family for about an hour down by Shedd Aquarium, I hopped on the Red line down to the game.

Not enough Blue

The only direction I didn’t go on the Red and Blue lines was out towards O’Hare and the 2o2p LAN.  Based on what I’ve read in the other postings on the site, I probably walked the same ground as Tait, Scotib, BigOne and his wife when they were at Navy pier.  They were there Friday and I was there Saturday.  I probably also came close to Torture if he was out at Wrigley on Saturday, since we were there from about 3-9 before we headed down to Clark Dog, which is in, shall we say, an interesting alternative neighborhood.  Good beef and hot dogs at Clark Dog.

So I missed the LAN this year even though I was in town.  Just like the perennial cry of any Cubs fan, all I can say is “Wait until next year!”

If you made it this far, thanks for reading.  See you on Live.

Relic