Posted 8/18/2003 02:32:00 PM by Bob
A weekend in Chicago. Me. My mom. No children. Heaven! I missed Bob and the kids. I missed the dog, but it is so enjoyable to go shopping without someone(s) whining. It's nice to go to dinner whenever you want, and not even worry about a kids menu. It's nice to sleep when you want, watch TV that doesn't involve The Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon. It's also nice to come home to peace.

We stayed in downtown Chicago. 3 Blocks from Lake Michigan and about 3 blocks from Michigan Avenue. There was the constant sound of sirens and horns honking. Everyone honks their horn in Chicago. I wasn't even sure sometimes why they were honking. The sirens were non-stop. I suppose sirens are typical in an urban setting. I just didn't know how constant they were. Drivers in Chicago had no patience. I almost got hit by a car that was turning a corner as I stood on the edge of a curb near a crosswalk.

The coolest thing happened though as I was sitting in a construction zone on Interstate 90 near Rockford, Illinois. Traffic was being reduced to one lane. Signs were posted. I moved to the appropriate lane, only to have other motorists come zipping up the side to squeeze in at the last moment. I hate that! The more expensive the car, the more likely the driver is to do just that. As I'm sitting patiently in line, I looked in my rearview mirror. The barrage of drivers attempting to squeeze in at the last minute had come to a halt. I wondered why. Two semi's had placed themselves side by side. No one was getting past either one of them. They kept all of the really important people who must go ahead of the rest of us, behind them. It was awesome. Just as you absolutely had to move over to the right lane, one of the truckers let the other trucker in. It was a beautiful thing. I didn't even mind sitting in traffic after I saw what they had done. One of the trucks was from Slumberland. I know where I'm buying my next furniture.

More later....

Posted 8/13/2003 02:50:00 PM by Bob
Imagine that I found this blog at a garage sale. I dusted it off, removed the cob webs and am going to take over.

Hi! I'm Trivialbob's wife. He ran low on blogging energy. He hasn't blogged in almost 2 months. I have had ideas, but he was my creative outlet. I'm not nearly as talented a writer as he is, or his sister www.crazyweiler.com or his dad, who had a guest junket on her site. Check it out, they are both great writers. I am mediocre. While my husband and sister in law were learning about nouns and pronouns from their father during childhood, I was learning how to fish. I live with the grammar police (my husband) and he lives with someone who can't sit still. I always need to be doing something.

This summer, I have worked evenings, and hung out with my kids Matt-9, and Jack-7 during the day. Today, I learned why when I was a child, my mom couldn't wait for us to go back to school. The boys fought, whined, and whined some more. They are now in their rooms, hopefully sleeping. This mean old mom made them take a nap. We now have a "Worst mom in the world" trophy to go with Bob's "Worst dad in the world" trophy.

The good part about being home all summer, is that it really hasn't been all that bad. Actually, it's been very very good. The first two months was baseball for the boys 4 nights a week. We've been swimming, and Jack has found countless frogs, toads and other bugs. As always, he asks: "Can I keep it as a pet?" If we kept everything he caught as a pet, we'd have to move to a farm.

More later. I'm off to Chicago for the weekend.