i noticed earlier this week that one of those blue-flashing-light Chicago Police cameras was installed at the corner of Augusta and California.  I have mixed feelings about that.  I mean, there's a lot of drug running that happens there and on adjacent corners, but what does this mean?  Are they trying to "clean up" the area ( Read more... )

One couple with 6 children, two with 5 and one with just one... and that's just the geese.  my parents live in the far reaches of Milwaukee and it's so very different from where I'm used to.  The geese are unafraid.  The yards are large, the dogs are small, the size of your grill reflects on the size of your wallet, and the cars are all hidden in ( Read more... )

one of the best things about my job are the random, day-before-holiday emails.  "On behalf of myself and the other officers, I would like to wish you and your family a safe and happy Memorial Day.  The Headquarters and the Regional Offices will be closing today at 3pm local time."  i can deal with that.

unfortunately, this won't be the memorial day ( Read more... )

so, i've had this job for like 4 years.  i know what i'm doing, and i'm extremely specialized in what i'm doing, and i feel like i'm a good resource on the stuff i work on.  yet, it seems like every few months there's some new upstart, just-out-of-college kid who thinks they're super smart and tries to show me up.  it's quite frustrating ( Read more... )

lake geneva on saturday and pewaukee on sunday and milwaukee on monday and old town on monday and milwaukee on tuesday and the track tuesday night.  when i dropped off that rental car this morning, it was good riddance.  i need a moment to breathe, sit down, maybe even read last sunday's paper.  ugh ( Read more... )

So, France was pretty awesome.  We drank alot, saw alot, and the two small towns we went to were so perfectly beautiful it was Disney-esque.  Then, our TGV was delayed 2 hours and we missed our flight.  I was able to get on a KLM flight yesterday, but my parents didn't make it out till two days later.  They're still on a plane now.  My heart sinks ( Read more... )

this morning's trip to a local schmancy bicycle shop yielded some interesting results... best among them was locating the "no longer available" zefal hpX pump for the rivendell.  yea!  i tried to get the rear wheel lock that ben's been looking for, no luck.  but i picked up some other goofyness.  the shop was all Bianchi and Gitane.  The road bikes ( Read more... )

so, france.  it's so... easy.  everything is clean and well pruned and subdivided and lane-line-designated and the more i drink the better my French.  Quelle vie ( Read more... )

i leave for France today.  it's a trip that wasn't really my idea, and sorta just snuck up on me.  i'm excited to go, but apprehensive.  some of our train tickets are screwed up, my folks (whom i'm travelling with, basically as an employed translator and guide) don't seem to know what they're doing.  we'll see, i guess.  i mean, who's to complain ( Read more... )

ben and i put new cranks on the fish.  the old XT's were just sorta problematic.  so i went with the sugino xd's, an amazing value, and shiny.  i like shiny.  for some reason the bb tool we had didn't fit over the spindle, so ben had to dremel off the end of the spindle of the old bb to get it off.  RIP bb.  it was octolink, so it had it coming in ( Read more... )