Embracing One's Shortcomings and Making With The Joke-y

"Someday you will appreciate the grammar and verbal skills you learned here." (Laughter and applause.) "And if any of you wonder how far a mastery of the English language can take you, just look what it did for me." (Laughter and applause.)

-G.W.B. speaking at the commencement ceremony at Calvin College last month.

Lately I just try to tune that guy out but THAT, my friends, was a good one. (I know I'm late to the punch but I just heard the sound byte today. Like I said- I'm usually quick with the mute button.) Also good: The "dissassemble" means "not to tell the truth" line from last week.

I laugh to keep from crying.

*Sigh*

The Post Where I Am A Good Granddaughter

Today the girls and I stopped by the sales office for the condo my grandparents will be moving into and we snapped some pictures of the model they had constructed. (Grandma and Grandpa: You can click here to see a gallery of the photos I took!)

So unless you are planning on moving into the Clare Oaks Retirement Community in Bartlett, this entry is probably pretty uninteresting for you. My apologies!

Home Sweet Home

After being reminded by some of you of the fact that buying a super-cheap house in Rockford would require me to actually LIVE in Rockford, I have begun to let go of the idea of my awesome fantasy home happening any time soon. Let me be the first to say: THANK YOU FOR HELPING TO CRUSH MY DREAMS . Just kidding! Sort of. I know that I don't want to live in Rockford- and now that my grandparents will be moving into the area I don't want to leave Bartlett either. It's just sometimes I can't stop thinking about how neat it would be to live in a place that is not physically attached to another family's home. A place that has some character to it. And more bedrooms. And an awesome sun room and a pool.

ANYWAY, since I can't have that, I have decided to dedicate myself to making the home I DO have as beautiful as possible. I think I've done a pretty good job already at bringing our own personal style to a place that quite frankly had none when we moved in. But there still are a few things that I'd like to do around the house to spruce it up a bit- especially since we won't be going anywhere anytime soon. (Juli and Ava can look forward to some bunk beds when Ava outgrows that crib!) Summer is always a good time for house projects too. And having a retired Dad who is good with the tools and looking for stuff busy himself with is a nice perk.

Fate Mocks Me

Well I just put myself in a total funk. On a whim we decided to look up house prices in the Bartlett area (in hopes of possibly upgrading our current living situation), and after discovering that unless we are willing to drop down nearly 300 grand (at least) we'd better forget about it, I decided just to see what the homes were selling for in Rockford.

BIG MISTAKE.

Basically I could have my absolute dream house for around forty thousand dollars less than what we could feasibly sell our townhouse for. THAT'S FORTY THOUSAND DOLLARS CHEAPER. And did I mention the words dream house??? I'm talking a huge two-story home in a neighborhood I love with three to four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a finished basement, beautiful hardwood floors, a deck AND a swimming pool. But.....it's in Rockford. No Doubleclick offices in Rockford.

CURSES!

Hummmmmmmmmm

Well, here we are in the midst of the first week of beautiful summer weather and here I am once again THE ONLY PERSON in my neighborhood outside enjoying it- sitting in my front yard listening to the drone of everyone's air conditioners on. It's not that hot people! I never understand why people ruin awesome weather like this with air conditioning. And I love me some good air conditioning on a hot summer day, don't get me wrong.

Also, completely unrelated: In light of yesterday's big news story, would everyone else who is dying for the Deep Throat of our generation to emerge please stand up and say "AYE!"

Insert Caffeine Here.

There is plenty to report on from this weekend but I'm feeling kind of in a haze today. This is the first full week of summer vacation for Juliana so the pressure is on for me to be FUN! and ENTERTAINING! all day long. When can I get her into summer camp exactly? (I'm only sort of kidding.) Today is another beautiful day so we can expect to spend many hours outdoors getting ridiculously filthy. That is after I make a run to Costco to get more COFFEE which I am completely out of. And they don't open until ten o'clock! The horror!

Once Again, I Can Be So Easy To Please

Hot Shower. Laptop. Coffee. Open Windows. Angel Season 3 DVDs.

Jason is out seeing the latest Star Wars schlock. While I DO NOT endorse his actions, I heartily embrace the relaxing evening to myself I am currently enjoying as a result.