Charlie’s Haus

Well I have been at training in Chi town since Sunday Night.  Im taking an Altiris class.  Its a basic class, but I am actually learning a few things.  Im staying at the Club Quarters.  Its a business hotel thats kinda weird.  In order to stay here you must belong to a business who is a member.  Its pretty easy to lie if you wanted.  The rooms are pretty small, but I have a “suite” which has a micro and refrigerator.  Its a great deal really compared to most of the hotels downtown.  I am about 2 blocks from the sears tower and about 5 blocks from my training site. 

I have been trying to find things to do that I didnt do with Mandi just over a month ago.  I went to the Christkindlmarket on Tuesday.  That was pretty cool.  Apparently its the largest one in the United States.  The Christkindlmarket is a German tradition.  I learned a lot about it from the Chicago web site: http://www.christkindlmarket.com/  I had some spiced wine, a bratwurst, and some sweet cheese fritters.  They were all very delicious.

We should be getting done early on Friday from training which will be nice.  Hopefully I can beat the weekend traffic rush.  Maybe I should go the long way home and go to Bass Pro

Well we figured out today that our house had been broken into on Monday =(  Its pretty hard to believe, especially in the town of Cross Plains which is pretty much comprised of upper middle class.  They broke into the patio sliding door and stole my change and 5 of Mandi’s rings.

I have been asking Mandi all week if she had taken my change and she swore she didnt.  Then today she looked in her jewelry cabinet and noticed her rings missing.  We did a quick check of windows and doors and found the patio door was pried open and was still slightly open so we called the police.  He said this is the first break in they have had since a month and a half ago at the hardware store.   I dont understand why they didnt take any of my electronics or tools.

Needless to say I screwed the door shut.  They wont get that open.  Today we are going to order the new patio door that we were going to replace next summer.  We are gonna make sure that we get one that slides on the inside so we can do more than lock it at the handle. 

Man, I wish I could carry a gun.  Would sure make me feel better when I come home at night.�

Well this marks the second time in as many months that our neighbor’s house has been hit.  The first time it was granny panties everywhere.  Now its political signs.  Whomever thought of this is pretty funny.  The signs are a mix of parties so you know it was whatever was left up still in peoples yards…lmao!

(click on the picture for a bigger view)

You lucky people you…a couple other quick things.  Bill showed me this one.  Very nice!

http://www.catsthatlooklikehitler.com/

I couldnt stop laughing at these last night.  My belly hurt so bad.

http://shadowdane.shackspace.com/cats.htm

And lastly, Kozs Mini Bowl was in Maxim Magazine!  They had a thing on the best places to go in a few cities and the mini bowling was one of them.  Good times!  <3 Mini bowling

Last Thursday Mandi and I went to the High Schools performance of the play “You Cant Take it With You.”  I have to say they did a phenomenal job.  By the end of the play you had forgotten they were high schoolers.  It was very enjoyable and I would definitely go see another play they put on. 

Saturday I finished what needed to be done on the shed for the year.  It still needs a bunch of things, like gutters, fascia, painting, etc.  But it is entirely enclosed now with a ramp.  I do have 2 more pieces of trim to put up, but I ran out of nails.  So I can finally put a done stamp on that.  It looks good.  I need to get some pics.

Sunday I went out to Scott’s property with him.  We first got my new old truck started and running.  He gave me a 2wd truck last year, but when the guy he was giving the 4wd truck to didnt want it, I told him I would be glad to have it.  It drives much better than the 4wd and the gearing is much nicer.  Plus its 4wd.  I am buying a bed he had purchased a few years ago from him for it, and I found a new cab with no rust at the junkyard.  By the time I am done I shouldnt have too much into it and it will look and drive pretty decent.  Im pretty pumped about that.

I stopped at the polls this morning and voted.  I mostly voted republican but there were a few democrats in there, for example Herb Kohl.  It seems like the longer I live in this city the more the liberals piss me off.  All their “bring our troops home” crap is whats driving me nuts lately.  For crying out loud, more people are murdered in this country every year than have died over in Iraq in the whole conflict.  Sure its a shame that they have to die, but they are doing whats right.  The same people who are holding up the troops signs also would probably be slave owners.  They are basically saying that we shouldnt help out less fortunate people.  The Iraqis now have rights they never had before.  They can say whatever they want (well not I am going to blow you up…hehe), woman can go out in public, etc.  Would we have condemned any nation who tried to help us during the civil war?  Hell no!  We would have welcomed them in to help us.  

Ok, enough ranting.  A co-worker pissed me off this morning over some stupid shit so my blood is already boiling.  LOL. 

I also have decided to build a “carputer.”  Basically when I am done I will be able to listen to my mp3 collection, radio, TV, DVD’s and any other media from a 7″ widescreen touchscreen in my dash.  I also have a GPS receiver for it and a wireless card so I can do a little wardriving   Its gonna be the ultimate stereo and wont cost over $2000 like the ones you buy in the store.  Actually it should be less than $500 since I have most of the stuff already.  The most expensive things were the touchscreen at $200 and the Amp for the speakers at $125.  The rest will be going to wires etc.  It all adds up quick.  More on that as I do it

Well nix the shed idea from Monday.  I was driving home all pumped to get it finished when I started realizing…Boy its getting awfully dark out.  Then I realized that we lost an hour of daylight!  ARGGG!  Oh well.  Guess it will become a weekend project. 

Last night I helped out the Key Club as they did their annual Trick or Treat for canned goods.  Usually I have to drive a vehicle around, but this year they didnt need me =(  I helped sort food at the food pantry for a few hours though.  They Key Clubbers brought in 3390 Lbs of food.  Not to bad.  The food pantry typically goes through 4000 Lbs of food a week though.  Pretty crazy.