Some people REALLY like Halloween

The coolest part about the below video is his bio.

"2011 Halloween Light Show -- Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO.
4 singing pumpkin faces, tombstones, hand carved pumpkins, strobes, floods and thousands of lights. Most all lights have been changed from incandescent to RGB LED so power consumption is a lot less than previous years. Also DMX added to show. All lights, faces and props are custom made (DIY) by me except for the roof line which are CCRs. Controlling channels have gone up 8X from last year. 1144 channels. Light-O-Rama. Riverside, CA"



House Light Show also can be found here.  I'd suggest going to his personal site and looking at the other videos. Very cool. :)

Who doesn't love CVS discounted Gift Cards

So heres the deal -

If you go Here you should be directed to the savemore.com website.

 Right now they have - Buy a $10 CVS gift card for only $5. I do a TON of shopping at CVS (considering there is one RIGHT by my work).


But the deal gets even better.  If you click on my link (opposed to going there by yourself) you will get $10 Voucher for SaveMore.com.  Unfortunately, you can not use it on the CVS gift card deal, but still... Its not a bad way to get a CVS gift card and some money towards a future deal!!

Amazon Price Tracker

Amazon regularly changes their prices.  So when you need to routinely get an item, its nice to know when it (unofficially) goes on sale.

Which is why camelcamelcamel.com is such a nice site. :) They list the all time highs and lows of an item you are interested in.  They also have something for Best Buy and other sites. The nice thing with camelcamelcamel.com is you do not have to register to use their service.  However, if you to register to use their service, you can sign up for notifications of a price drop.

C routinly takes Zyrtec every day, so I signed up for a notification when the 70 count drops below $19... Who knows if it will ever happen, but one can always hope!

I love Free

Who doesn't love free stuff?

There is a 4.99 rebate here - $5 Rebate

I found it for $4.99 at Amazon.  And the best thing about Amazon... in Illinois you don't have to pay tax. :)  Which means the total cost of this item is the cost of the stamp to mail in the rebate.

Very interesting blog - Exercise

Back a few weeks ago I was talking about how I think exerciser people try to trick us non-exercise folks into believing that you get addicted to exercise.  Now, unfortunately, I have not experienced this addiction yet. I have been slacking on the exercising also, which is why I probably aren't addicted yet.

But anyway, I found this blog.  Here Its called "Fit 2 Fat 2 Fit."  Its a real life journey from an "obsessed with being fit" man to a couch potato, back to an "obsessed with being fit" man.  This gentleman is a certified personal training through NASM (whatever that is).  May 7th (of this year) he weight 193 lbs.  5 months later (Oct 15th) he weighed 263 lbs.  His measuremetns increased: waist - 13 inches, chest - 4 inches, neck - 1 inch, and hips - 11.5 inches. Of course all of this is fat.  He has said that his diet is unrestricted and he wont exercise during his "fat" stage. 

I think the most interesting part of the story will begin in about 2 weeks when he starts the "fit" stage.  I can't wait to read it. My goal is to implement his "fit" plan starting January 1st. 


Personally, I think that not only will this journey help people like me (I'm not 60 lbs overweight, but I don't workout nearly as much as I should) but I think it will also help him become a better personal trainer when dealing with .... well.... (lets be blunt) fat people.

FYI - apparently this blog has gotten a LOT of press lately so his site is extremely slow. 

Dublin barks a lot during storms

Dublin is a fantastic watch dog... almost too good of a watch dog.  Last night was very windy and stormy.  C was out with friends so I was home alone.  It got to be "bed time" (haha, yes I go to bed at the same time every day) and I went to bed with Dublin.  The only problem was Dublin kept hearing the wind blowing and kept barking.  I was too afraid to turn the lights off for fear of Dublin actually barking at a burgler and not just the storm.  So, I sat in bed (with the lights on) until C got home.

During that time, Dublin barked every 5 minutes.  Sometimes Dublin would just bark once and then put his head back down.  Other times he would bark excessively and get up and run to the front door.  I could hear him walking around, barking every few minutes, checking to make sure no one was there, and then run back to bed with me. 

After doing this 2 times, I was starting to get nervous and was 1 more time away from getting up and grabbing the bat and setting it right beside me.  See, when I moved to the city, my mom gave me her metal baseball bat to use as a weapon if a burglar ever came to the house.  (I'm pretty sure this bat has lived under my parents bed for the past 20 years.)  I actually started looking around the room, if a burglar did find me, to see what I would throw at him to try to get away. 


Thankfully, after 30 minutes or so, C arrived home and saved me from the scary burglar to come.  (phew)

Chicago Protests

On Tuesday I was sitting in my office when I heard a ton of police whistles and a lot of screaming.  I looked out the window to see hundreds of people marching with signs in the middle of the street.  The police were escorting them East.

I was able to get out of work around 6 PM and I wanted to see what was up.  I walked to Monroe and Michigan and saw this.

Turns out the people were petitioning about schools.  But that's not really why I'm posting.  I was honestly surprised at how well the whole thing went.  There were dozens of cops re-directing traffic and many cops trying to make sure the riot didn't get out of control. 

I've seen petitions before, but never something on such a large scale.  To shut down Michigan Avenue is a HUGE deal.  Aside from Lake Shore Drive, Michigan Ave is probably the busiest street downtown.  Personally, I think this its pretty cool of Chicago to allow people to do something like this.

Women delivers baby after the Chicago Marathon

I'm sure everyone heard.  Somehow her stupidity made national news.  My 2 cousins ran the race on Sunday so I went to cheer them on.  They both did great by the way. :) Super proud.

But anyway, back to the stupidity.  We all saw her.  And it was an echo effect, "Is she pregnant" was heard throughout the crowd.  Supposedly her dr approved her to run half the race and walk the other half.  And all I gotta say is when I saw her, she wasn't walking, she was running. Honestly, I think she was stupid to chance her babies health like that, not to mention her own.

People die in this race and get carted off to the hospital.  It was a very warm day and she could have killed her baby. 

I don't understand why anyone would take that risk.  Especially because if you think about it: The race is in October.  The earliest you can register is February 1st.  That is 8 months between the earliest registration date and the race.  She said at the time of delivery she was 39 weeks preggo. So unless she was the first person to register, she should have already known she was pregnant.  I just don't get it.

AMAZING new "to-go" place

C has officially given up milk.  He has lactose issues.  So when we don't have any energy to make dinner, we usually are stuck with ordering Chinese (pizza is out of the question).  Usually this isn't a problem, but ya know... sometimes its nice to have something other than Chinese for take-out. 

On Friday, C found this AMAZING place called "real kitchen."  Click Here Basically, it is 3 chefs who decided to create a to-go restaurant where you buy dishes, sandwiches, salads, soups, desserts (you name it).  All you have to do is heat up the meal at home.  C had the Coq Au Vin, and I had some small things.  Twice Baked Potatoes and Greek Orzo Salad.  I can't vouch for C's food, but mine was AMAZING.  We also ordered some wonderful bread and 2 cupcakes.  C had the caramel cupcake (TO DIE FOR) and I had a cherry pistachio cupcake.  They both had creamy centers.  Honestly, while my cupcake was amazing, I had a taste of C's and his was WAAAAY better.  Jealous!

I really wanted to taste the zucchini fritters, but they were out of them that day. :*(

All I know is C and I will be back, (possibly sometime this month) because that place was amazing. :)

Denmark - Taxes fatty foods

Personally - I think this is FANTASTIC.  I've always thought that people should understand how much they are hurting themselves with obesity.  Apparently "Starting from this Saturday, Danes will pay an extra 30[pence] on each pack of butter, 8p on a pack of crisps, and an extra 13p on a pound of mince, as a result of the tax." Hopefully, people will start looking for other healthier options.

I also think that airlines should adopt this process.  Charge more for people who themselves and luggage weigh more than 220 lbs or something like that.  And less for people who themselves and luggage weight less than 220.  I mean think of the children, who only weigh 50 lbs; they have to pay the same price as the person who weighs 300 lbs.  I don't think that's fair at all.  A heavier person will end up costing the plane more gas.  Honestly... it just makes sense.

Smoking at work

First of all... smoking is nasty.  I understand that people are addicted, but its gross.  It smells bad, and it is awful for your health.  But that's besides the point, what you do on your own time, doesn't really bother me.  What does bother me, is what you do when I'm around.

I have 2 new people who arrived in my "work pod" today.  See, instead of individual cubes, we have a 4 pod system, where there are only 2 walls.  It is supposed to encourage relationships between young and old engineers.  It doesn't.  It's just annoying.

Well, the issue is, at least 1 person is a smoker.  And he REAKS like smoke.  I've heard that the other one used to be a smoker, and possibly still is a smoker.  So really, that blows.  I mean its one thing to take a break at work.  Its another to smoke during said break because you come back to the office smelling terrible.  I think its rude to smoke at work because you are subjecting everyone who comes into contact with you to that smell.  And that smell is gross.

I'm seriously considering emailing the floor coordinator to try to get these people moved.  Its just nasty.

Children at a dog park

So - I don't normally post on a Saturday, but I slacked last week.

I woke up this morning and took Dub to the dog park.  He was the very first dog to arrive (at a bright and early 8 AM) however other dogs came shortly.

Around 9, a lady brought her dog, and her 4 year old daughter to the dog park.  I immediately got nervous.  I mean, lets call a spade a spade.... Dublin is NOT good around children.  So I grabbed his leash and was ready to go, until I saw Dublin didn't even care about the kid.  He completely ignored her and just went to play with the other dogs.  I put away the leash and tried to relax.  After about 15 minutes, I grabbed Dublin and introduced him to the 4 year old.  He was a real good boy, I was thrilled!

However, 15 minutes later, they left and 3 more children came in.  They were 3 year old, 5 year old, and 3 month old.  I asked the mother if Dublin could say Hi.  Both children LOVED Dublin and they wanted to play fetch with him.  It was great for about 15 minutes.... until Dublin jumped on the 3 year old. 

So.... That brings me to the question of why bring children to a dog park.  I really don't know what I would do if I were in that situation.  Needing to take your dog for exercise and having no one to watch the children.  I talked to C about it, and I said "I would never bring..." at which point he interrupted me and said "Yes you will.  Your children will grow up around dogs and you'll want them to play with the dog." 

Its just awful, everyone always says that in order for Dublin to get over his fear of children, he needs to be around them.  Today was (overall) a positive experience for Dublin.  The young-ins were playing fetch with him.  He loved it.  I think he just loved it too much.  So frustrating... On the plus side... no one got hurt.