First Road Trip: Chicago to Denver

Jakarta to Chicago: First Summer

Summer fun.

Jakarta: The Other Side

I am fast approaching the anniversary of my first year here on the other side. My previous posts have all been related to life abroad and travel and I obviously am not doing any of the one and not too much of the other. So, the focus of the posts will simply change to ... whatever, randomness, no focus, nothing, Sienfeldesquish.

I came across some musings I had jotted down about some of my first home upkeep/"improvement" attempts a while a back. Perhaps some of you can relate - but probably not as these are quite ridiculous.....

.........Another episode – talked to the realtor the other day about some issues. At the end of the conversation he casually mentions that the previous owners kid is missing, into drugs and has keys to the house. Home Depot has a lot of door handle sets. After a few hours of raucously fun door knob/lock installation – I had all new door hardware......

......put together my new lawnmower yesterday to mow my two foot high grass. it has rained everyday for a week so no grass cutting possible. while dumping the oil into the engine i thought to myself - this mower sure takes a lot of oil - then it hit me that was the gas tank .....

...... the other day i was drilling holes in my wall to hang a knife board in the kitchen. i fired up the drill and went at the wall. the drill bit was hardly making any forward progress and smoking like crazy. so i pushed it harder and finally it burned its way through. half way through hole number two i realized i had the drill going in reverse rather than forward.......

.......successfully hung my first door a while ago. I stepped back to admire my handiwork and realized by looking at the design patterns that it was upside down - and will remain so....

Jakarta Halloween

We never got to fully experience the spectacle that is Halloween in Jakarta so this year, our first Halloween as a family in the States, we pulled out all the stops.

It started with several pumpkins being bought a few weeks before Halloween to decorate our porch and get the festive atmosphere set. It was nice except for he fact that the same squirrel tandem that has reeked havoc o by yard digging for grubs also laid waste to the pumpkins. I like animals in general but I do not like these squirrels. They are precocious and quite "cheeky" nonchalantly ignoring my verbal tirades, which forces me to get physical. Typically I end up throwing something at them which usually suffices in sending them scampering a few feet away where they, bristle and run to the backyard to dig p more grubs.

The official Halloween festivities began when we carved several pumpkins. We thought that Emmerson would be really into it but she thought it was gross and avoided the entire ritual. So Alicia carved one and I ended up carving the first pumpkin in my life and then another. I was quit proud of my tow pumpkins and kept them inside until the actual Halloween day to avid the squirrels form getting at them.

The Brookfield chamber of commerce organized "Monster o Mainstreat" where local business open their doors to trick or teeters offering Emmerson a test run of the real thing. It was funny to see Emmrson bellied up to he bar of the local tavern in her bumble bee suit loading up her pumpkin shaped satchel.

She did well in the test run and I was excited to take her out Halloween evening for the real thing. I came home from work and expected her to be waiting expectantly at the door in her bumblebee outfit ready to go - but such was not the case. She did not want to go. Eventually, I convinced her to fire up and get her suit on so we could go and get some loot.

Once we hit the firs house and she realized what this was all about - getting candy, she was full on into it. At the second house we hit the lady ladling out the goods cooed about Emmerson get up but then said "oh she must be so cold without any socks on". It was indeed a chilly night and in the rush to get going I forgot to pt socks on her. I offer Emmrson my socks but she was in the zone and flitted off to the next potential source of treats.

It took her a few run through before she got the "Trick or Treat" chant in order - at first she would ring the door bell and then say "Trick or Treat" before anyone came to he door - but eventually she go the hang of it. We loaded up, so much so that I had to carry her candy laden pumpkin bin and it was a good time overall.

These are actually the second Halloween in Brookfield as evidenced by the recycled bee suit from Emmerson the year before.

Chicago Summer 07

Getting big, little girl in front of Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park, Chicago.

Whoa Ada!!

Street fest dancing.

Krape Park duck boats

A few excerpts from some emails I recently sent. Presently too busy trying to figure out what is creating all the huge holes in my lawn to properly tend to this post. It looks like a discourteous golfer took chipping practice in my backyard.

Listen to my last 24 hours. Interrupted five minutes before school got out yesterday afternoon by an announcement - "tornado warning - this is not a drill". so we get the kids (3000) of them out into the hallways and wait fro the storm to blow over - and blow it did. trees down everywhere, power lines, etc

an hour later we are released from the building. i walk to the train line and their are branches down all up and down the tracks. after about a 3 hr train commute - i get home to a house with no electricity. so i sat around in the dark waiting for the elctricity to come back on so I could watch my newly installed cable. no dice. woke up this morning at 5:40 - 20 minutes late - because still no electricty and manual clock not obnoxious enough. no hot water in the shower due to electric hotwater heater.

walk to the train station only to see my train pull up when I was about 200 yards away - no way I could make it. turned around and walked home - and on the way realized that my car was in the garage - which has an electric garage door opener. by this time i had worked up a healthy sweat due to my brisk walks. fortunately my garage is goofy and has two big doors - but one opens up onto the lawn and is not electric - so i opened it and white trash like drove across my lawn to get to the street.

halfway into the hour drive i get a call on my hp from my father in law telling me that they called his house (where i stayed this summer) to tell me that my school is closed. so here i sit in my empty school thinking about how nice it was to hear the generator click in while i was watching tv at night during a power outage...

from the other side ...

Ian
thursday we had the stomr i told you about the other day. power out all over chicago. friday morning power still out but we had set manual alarm clock - for FIVE TWENTY - the time I now have to get up. the alarm did not work as well and I got up at 5:40. i was about 200 yrds from the train when i saw it pull up to the station - all i could do was get really sad and watch it pull away. turned around and headed back to the house to drive. my run to the train had got my sweat going - so i was prety well sturated - nothing quite like being saoked with sweat in your work clothes that you are going to be wearing for the next 10 hours. as i approached my house i realized i had quite a serious dilema ahead of me. my garage door is electric and the power was out. i could not turn on the lights in the garage to see how to do it manually so i was screwed. but fortunately our garage also has a big door facing the lawn which is manual. so i opened it up and drove across our lawn to get to the street. half way to work i get a call on my handphone - school was canceled for the day .....

i'm considering making a reality show

of my present life - my life as a clueless new homeowner.