Happy April First

As many of you know I always have a April's Fool day post for my readers (2008, 2007, and 2006) , and this year I have vowed to be different, so I am not doing one.

I have some ideas, but this close to an election I am guessing they would all be taken poorly (do ask me what they were when you see me) because they are quite funny in a pointed sort of way.

I was disappointed to see that the comments from the three other April's fool day stories have faded away, apparently Haloscan only saves the last 2,500 or so, which is about a 10 month supply. Those comments were great!

Next year I promise a great one, that will fool all of you though I promise!

I Had a Dream

For those of you may or may not have seen me recently I have been on the Atkins Diet since January 1st and over the last 2 months I have lost 21 pounds. Needless to say I miss my old friends Mr. Pasta, his associate Mr Bread and the Red Lord (Sauce) as well as a few smaller characters in the food universe.

So imagine my surprise when yesterday morning I had a rich vivid dream about Cheez-It's. I rarely recall my dreams and the ones that I do recall are generally not complete. So this one came as quite the surprise.

I saw myself reading the nutrition label in my favorite 7-11 (the one in Hainesville) then buying the pack of Cheez-its (99 cents) as well as a Big Gulp, then driving home with the bag of Cheez-its, unopened, then getting home and going upstairs (I never eat upstairs) and locking myself in a spare bedroom and eating them. Then folding the finished bag up in squares and putting it in my pocket for later disposal.

Thats where the dream ended. The odd thing is that while I like Cheez-its I would prefer about 20 things that were on sale in the 7-11 before I got to Cheez-its. Cheese doodles would be first on that list or a bagel. The other thing is I am limiting myself to 40 carbs a day currently and the bag only has 16 carbs, so its not even like its an excessive amount of carbs.

So go ahead pyschoanalyze this one for me. The best answer gets to share a big of Cheez-its with me!

Spam I am!

In my never ending quest to give my Round Lake readers and those outside the boundaries of this fine village the best possible blogging experience possible. I have some thoughts and comments on spam.

• 1 in 10,000 Number of buyers from spam messages that spammers say they typically need in order to break even Source: The Wall Street Journal
• My spam seems to come in waves, one month its watches, the next month cigars, then sex products, ebay alerts, paypal reminders, stuff in Chinese and stuff for diets
  
• The Nigerian scams have there own bullet point I get so many of them. There is a hysterical website that details what is called a 419 scam (thats where the picture came from). This group actually responds to the scammers and counter scams them and they have a section called "The Trophy Room" that will give you hours of pleasant enjoyment.
  

Why may you ask are you writing about spam, well the reason is that I got one of the best spam's ever. I think I am a relatively sophisticated internet user but when I got this email I was like wow this is quite specific about Mayors I must read it. Plus I was reading this on my blackberry while waiting for something so it was quite entertaining to say the least.

It took me a few sconds before the incredulity meter kicked in, but it's a good one, it had me going for about 5-6 lines!

TO EMAIL INTAKE PERSON: This email relates to an emergency matter that is personal and confidential for the mayor. This email should be forwarded to only the mayor or the mayor’s attorney, and it should be forwarded immediately because of its urgent subject matter.

===============================================================

TO: MAYOR

===============================================================

THIS IS AN EMERGENCY NOTICE. PLEASE HANDLE IT ACCORDINGLY.

===============================================================

This emergency matter is personal and confidential. While personal and confidential, this matter is also mayoral and official, as you will later see. The issue of why we are notifying you by email rather than a more conventional means, will be referenced below.

This document and this emergency matter should be shared with no one except, optionally, your attorney.

===============================================================

DEADLINE: Please note that the deadline for replying to this emergency notice is two business days.

===============================================================

Now to the main point of why we have contacted you. Here goes…

Although this is a matter that an attorney can help you with, ultimately it will be you and your own sense of financial self-preservation that must make the call. You must commit to saving yourself.

You are about to become vulnerable to litigation for which you will be personally liable. This means you can lose your personal assets. Yes, government immunity normally protects you and other government officials from personal liability. However this immunity is not carte blanche. There are loopholes that will allow “non-immunity” litigation to target you personally as opposed to you as the mayor, and therefore render you liable to having damages awarded against your personal assets. These kind of cases are typically difficult to win (on in your case, lose)—in fact, the legal “stars and moon” have to be properly aligned for this to happen.

We hereby notify you that the legal “stars and moon” are now properly aligned against you, meaning that a very strong case can be developed against you now or in the future unless preventive steps are taken. Very strong urgency exists because it is critical that you seek to get a handle on this matter right now, while you’re still in office and our company’s assistance is available to you. Otherwise it is possible that the lawsuit won’t be filed against you until after you leave office (and possibly many years after you leave office), which is the worst case scenario of for you. Why? Because this is the precisely the type of matter you want to resolve while you’re still in office and you still have some power and influence. It’s the old saying: “Out of power, therefore out of luck.” The last thing in the world you will want to have to deal with as an ex-mayor is a personal liability case where your previous employer—the government—is trying to categorize the case as being a non-immunity case and is therefore taking the position that it (the government) is not responsible for representing you in your defense and that it is doesn’t have to pay your legal bills or any damages if you lose the case—that, in effect, this is “your baby” and you’re on your own.

Because of the details of this matter, the lawsuit will probably be before a jury, and the party suing you will likely be requesting (from the court) maximum compensatory and punitive damages; meaning that the party will be seeking to wipe you out and strip you of “all” your personal assets.

Remember that it is not essential that you “know about” this matter. All that it takes is for the jury to decide that this matter is something you “should have known about as mayor”—we believe that such a decision on the part of a jury is a foregone conclusion given the facts of this case. Thus it’s not likely the “I didn’t know about it” defense will work for you.

Unless you receive our assistance, this lawsuit is going to happen. Your best option and, indeed, your only reasonable option is to receive our assistance so that this matter can be averted. Without our assistance you will likely be hit and hit hard by this matter—and possibly at the most inopportune time (i.e., after you leave office and you’ve lost your official power and influence).

This is a civil, personal-liability matter that does not involve any criminality. Also note that we cannot at this time disclose the details of this legal matter due partly to the need for us to protect our company’s anonymity. The subject of our company’s anonymity is further discussed below. Additional general information about this legal matter will be provided to you later if you continue to pursue this matter with our company.

We consider this to be an emergency matter due to the need for you to act immediately, as will be further detailed below. We strongly advise you to affirmatively respond to this document—immediately—by following the instructions below. Upon our timely receipt of your affirmative response (your Reply-Proc email reply), we will email you follow-up literature containing instructions for further pursuing this matter. For example you will be instructed on how we will involve our certified public accountant (CPA) to serve as honest broker regarding your payment of the very modest fees, which are later fully and automatically refunded to you as will be described. You will be provided this automatic refund since this notification initiative is being performed by our company on a strictly non-profit basis in which our company receives absolutely zero compensation (directly or indirectly). Hence, our company is proceeding on a purely altruistic basis.

Our CPA is a trusted, respected and reputable professional who you will have no trouble dealing with.

The sole purpose of this document is to cut to the chase and give you the bottom line, which is that you are now in great financial jeopardy (despite your government immunity from personal liability) and that you must act immediately to avert this danger. For the reasons stated, this is a fight that is best engaged now instead of later.

You may optionally involve your attorney. No doubt your attorney will confirm the wisdom of dealing with this matter aggressively and proactively—right now—instead of delaying until it’s too late. This is not a case where no news is good news. In the short-term you may hear nothing about this matter. But when you do finally receive the court complaint for this matter (i.e., the official lawsuit), it will be too late for you. For then you will have lost any wiggle room since the other party will then have all the leverage. No, playing the waiting game is the worst hand to play. Act now. Find out what you’re dealing with right now. “All” your personal assets are at risk. Why have this cloud hanging over you? Why have this loose end hanging over you?

Our company is not affiliated with the party/parties that will be suing you. What we bring to the table is our ability to “intercept” news of impending litigation and then to notify all interested parties. Again, we’re doing this on a non-profit basis and we receive no compensation. The fees you pay, which of course will be very modest, will be automatically and fully refunded to you.

We hereby offer you our assistance in averting this matter. If we do not timely receive your affirmative reply, we will not email you our follow-up literature and you will never hear from us again. For this reason, if you are even mildly inclined toward not affirmatively responding to this document, you should immediately confer with your attorney since it is a foregone conclusion that he/she will emphatically advise you to vigorously pursue this matter. Attorneys are typically and rightfully cautious about such matters.

How do you affirmatively reply to this document? By simply sending us a reply email containing just the phrase “Proceed for __________” in which you replace the blank with the city/state that you are the mayor of (e.g., Proceed for Boston, MA). We refer to this “Proceed for __________” email reply as the Reply-Proc email reply.

We must receive the Reply-Proc email reply from you within two business days of your receipt of this document. Because of the urgency, we must move lightning fast. Within five business days (and often within just one business day) of our timely receipt of your Reply-Proc email reply, we will email you our follow-up literature free of charge.

Be prepared to reply quickly when you receive the follow-up literature since there might be a tight deadline(s).

It is critical that you do your part by moving quickly on this matter—meaning now!! Time is truly of the essence because as time passes, we lose more and more of our ability to manage this emergency matter.

If you want our assistance you must act now. It’s either now or never since we offer no second chances.

For the time being our company will remain anonymous and we will communicate with you strictly by email. One or both of these restrictions may be dropped as you pursue this matter. In the meantime, any attempt to determine our identity or make non-email contact with us will result in the immediate and permanent forfeiture of your opportunity to pursue this matter. In order for things to go without a hitch, for now we need you to just go with the flow. The reasons for our anonymity and email-only-for-now policies should become apparent to you as you receive additional information from us. Let us assure you now and upfront that we have built-in checks and balances that serve to protect your interests. These too should later become apparent to you.

Another reason you should maintain confidentiality is that we may later require that you sign a confidentiality agreement. You will not be able to sign this agreement in good faith if you or your attorney begin now to breach confidence.

Even though our company is the first party to approach you about this matter, do not assume that our company is the principal. Regardless of whether we are the principal or a broker, you are entitled to receive all the advantages of this opportunity if you proceed as instructed. Also note that regardless of whether we are the principal or a broker, we will forever be your sole means of dealing with this emergency matter on a preventive basis.

We are a private party and we are not associated with any government entity. Your interaction with our company and/or our agent(s) will be held in the strictest of confidence.

Our terms are not negotiable.

All Rights Reserved. Do not share this document with others unless otherwise indicated above.

The last two lines are the best, terms are not negotiable and all rights are reserved!

I feel bad about the lousy post this morning

I loved this song way back, it was the theme to a Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines, Chicago based cop movie I think, but can't be sure of that, anyway enjoy.

Worse/Best TV Show ever!

Over the years I have slowly stopped watching TV, reducing my viewing to sports, and the news. However the promos for one show caught my eye, and my daughters as well, Momma's Boys on NBC. Needless to say we Tivo'ed it and thank god we did, because some of the lines were so priceless we had to replay them a few times.

The premise of the show are three adult men who still live at home with Mommy (that's what they call their mother) are going to chose from 32 high quality young ladies, who range from doctors to convicts and all points in between. The moms live with the 32 girls in some monster mansion on the pacific coast while the three boys live in condos somewhere nearby. At some point the boys kick off the girls one by one, based I would assume on mom's orders. Talk about emasculating!

The highlights/lowlights of the show encompass the following:

• Creepy audition videos, where one mom asks her son to disrobe so everyone can see his body.
• Racist creepy audition videos, where one mom disqualifies the entire human race from being with her son.
• Mothers packing son's clothing for the trip and treating sons like they are in 2nd grade.
• A highly disturbing girl who has a compulsion to clean up everything, loves ABBA, and is actually my favorite character, she would in my humble opinion be perfect for the three boys.
  
• A young lady who has an extreme melt down over a broken shoe heel. She aspires to be a philanthropist when she grows up!
• Another young lady who has angst about being the Penthouse Pet of the Year and won't talk about it and then another who has no problem talking about herself posing in Playboy.
• This one was unable to recall what she did for a living.
• A lady who is a critical care nurse who hates men!
• Two of the moms look alike so its hard to separate the racist mom from the uber creepy domineering mom extraordinaire without having to concentrate.
• The girls have alcohol in their hands throughout the entire show, which makes for better TV, and lively interaction amongst the contestants.

Some of the classic lines are:

A female contestant says "I paid for my second boob job with my student loan."

One mom says that she "I call him at least 100 times a day and he answers 100 times a day."

I have no idea what the rules are, nor the actual point of the show, but all that's irrelevant when confronted by what I would guess is the stupidest TV show ever. Therefore highly watchable! Monday night 2 hour episode be there or be square! There is an encore of this episode tonight at 7pm by the way!

Greatest Thanksgiving Show Ever!

Question of the Weak?

What is up with the older couple resting in the bathtubs in these commercials?

I am wondering if anyone knows what is up with the older couple resting in the bathtubs at the beginning and end of the these commercials. I understand them resting, watching a sunset, but why are they sitting in separate abstinence inducing (defeating the pills purpose I would think) bathtubs rather then a beach chair or something? Why not in a gazebo or a hot tub as opposed to a regular tub?

The only people that keep major appliances outside do not appear to be the target market for the product.

Clean answers in the comment section, the best answer by next Monday gets a prize! I don't know what it is, but I will come up with something lasting!

What do you call it....Pop or Soda?

When on a hot summer’s day you buy a carbonated beverage to quench your thirst, how do you order it? Do you ask for a soda, a pop or something else? That question lay at the basis of an article in the Journal of English Linguistics (Soda or Pop?, #24, 1996) and of a map, showing the regional variation in American English of the names given to that type of drink.

The article was written by Luanne von Schneidemesser, PhD in German linguistics and philology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and senior editor of the Dictionary of American Regional English. And although there might be weightier issues in life (or even in linguistics) than the preferred terminology for a can of soft drink, there’s nothing trivial about this part of the beverage industry.

“According to an article last year in the Isthmus, Madison’s weekly newspaper, Americans drink so much of the carbonated beverages sold under such brand names as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Sprite, Mountain Dew, and 7-Up that consumption averages 43 gallons per year for every man, woman, and child in the United States,” Von Schneidemesser begins her article. “The Statistical Abstract of the United States (1994) confirms this: 44.1 gallons per person in 1992, compared to the next most consumed beverages: beer (32.7 gallons), coffee (27.8 gallons), and milk (25.3 gallons).”

It must be that ubiquity of soft drinks that has made this pop vs soda map the single-most submitted map to this blog, sent in by over 100 contributors. The map details the areas where certain usages predominate.

• coke: this generic term for soft drinks predominates throughout the South, New Mexico, central Indiana and in a few other single counties in Nevada, Utah and Wyoming. ‘Coke’ obviously derives from Coca-Cola, the brand-name of the soft drink originally manufactured in Atlanta (which explains its use as a generic term for all soft drinks in the South).
• pop: dominates the Northwest, Great Plains and Midwest. The world ‘pop’ was introduced by Robert Southey, the British Poet Laureate (1774-1843), to whom we also owe the word ‘autobiography’, among others. In 1812, he wrote: A new manufactory of a nectar, between soda-water and ginger-beer, and called pop, because ‘pop goes the cork’ when it is drawn. Even though it was introduced by a Poet Laureate, the term ‘pop’ is considered unsophisticated by some, because it is onomatopaeic.
• soda: prevalent in the Northeast, greater Miami, the area in Missouri and Illinois surrounding St Louis and parts of northern California. ‘Soda’ derives from ‘soda-water’ (also called club soda, carbonated or sparkling water or seltzer). It’s produced by dissolving carbon dioxide gas in plain water, a procedure developed by Joseph Priestly in the latter half of the 18th century. The fizziness of soda-water caused the term ‘soda’ to be associated with later, similarly carbonated soft drinks.
• Other, lesser-used terms include ‘dope’ in the Carolinas and ‘tonic’ in and around Boston, both fading in popularity. Other generic terms for soft drinks outside the US include ‘pop’ (Canada), ‘mineral’ (Ireland), ‘soft drink’ (New Zealand and Australia). The term ‘soft drink’, finally, arose to contrast said beverages with hard (i.e. alcoholic) drinks.

I got this from the fine site called Strange Maps.

Huge Cover Up in Round Lake!

I found this on the internet which is a series of tubes (according to a United States Senator) and could not help but deciding in a nano-second to post this link.

Here is how I think it all went down, there was an accident on 120 and since the aliens could not get to a hospital in time they called in a UFO Flight to Life to transport them to the Planet Gentes which is a planet in the Star Wars series in the Anorat system and it took them, owing to faster then light travel and no traffic congestion in space, less then 19 minutes to get there!

Hopefully they take Blue Cross Blue Shield there as well! For some reason pictures won't load today so no pictures.

Passenger moons speed camera

I got this from one of my favorite sites Boing Boing, and since we all seem to be tense with my last couple posts this could be funny. I warn you its mildly graphic so you have been warned adult concepts! Road rage! You could visualize this happening in some Lake County commutes!

Me with the angry protestors for heated streets!

Best April 1 Ever!

I have done three of these, but this one is the best! We are not ripping up every village street. We are not laying high voltage lines in small trenches on the roads. We are not spending millions on the project. We are not putting giant wind turbines behind the Police and Public works facility!

I moderated comments all day, and blocked all the comments that would spoil my fun! I have released all the spoiler comments and the blog now has unmoderated comments again!

I had a great day! I love my blog, and I love Round Lake! But best of all I love a laugh!

PS Devon if you are real, I am truly sorry to have ticked you off to that level, otherwise great comment!

Gnome Fever?

A town in South America is living in fear after several sightings of a 'creepy gnome' that locals claim stalks the streets at night. The midget - which wears a pointy hat and has a distinctive sideways walk - was caught on video last week by a terrified group of youngsters.

Teenager Jose Alvarez - who filmed the gnome - yesterday told national newspaper El Tribuno that they caught the creature while larking about in their hometown of General Guemes, in the province of Salta, Argentina.

He said: “We were chatting about our last fishing trip. It was one in the morning. “I began to film a bit with my mobile phone while the others were chatting and joking. "Suddenly we heard something - a weird noise as if someone was throwing stones. "We looked to one side and saw that the grass was moving.

To begin with we thought it was a dog but when we saw this gnome-like figure begin to emerge we were really afraid." Jose added that other locals had come forward to say they had spotted the gnome. He said: “This is no joke. We are still afraid to go out - just like everyone else in the neighbourhood now. "One of my friends was so scared after seeing that thing that we had to take him to the hospital.”

Leap Day is here!

A person who was born on February 29 may be called a "leapling". In non-leap years they may celebrate their birthday on 28 February or 1 March.

For legal purposes, their legal birthdays depend on how different laws count time intervals. In England and Wales the legal birthday of a leapling is 28 February in common years (see Leap Years, above). In Taiwan the legal birthday of a leapling is also February 28 in common years. In both cases, a person born on February 29, 1980 would have legally reached 18 years old on February 28, 1998.

"If a period fixed by weeks, months, and years does not commence from the beginning of a week, month, or year, it ends with the ending of the day which proceeds the day of the last week, month, or year which corresponds to that on which it began to commence. But if there is no corresponding day in the last month, the period ends with the ending of the last day of the last month.^[2]"

There are many instances in children's literature where a person's claim to be only a quarter of their actual age turns out to be based on counting their leap-year birthdays. A similar device is used in the plot of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta The Pirates of Penzance. Frederic, born on February 29, was apprenticed to a band of pirates until his 21st birthday, meaning that with all the missed birthdays, until he was 84 years old.

Separated at Birth?

My 18 year old daughter and 23 year old nephew built this for me.

Monday's Post-- Mystery Man Identified

Its longtime Round Lake resident and WRLR Radio President Bish Krywko!

Who is this Round Lake Mystery Man?

If you can identify this beloved Round Lake icon, I will come up with some suitable gift for you, guesses in the comment section of the blog.

This is a good idea for our centennial, so if anyone has some pictures of things they would like to show or ask questions about send them here and we can put them on the blog on the weekends, since I have been kind of lax recently on the weekend posts!

Talk about Media Coverage

I came across this a awhile ago, and got a big kick out of it. Plus in my never ending quest to interest my readership, plus I have no post for today readily at hand, here it is! See if you can solve the crime.

Above the fold of the newspaper appeared a photograph of Michael Millhouse, painting a sign on the window of a business. But below the fold, he appeared again, in a still taken from a convenience store where a wallet containing $600 was lifted. Due to his size, and the fact that he was wearing the same clothes, he was easily identified and caught."

Here is a link to the frontpage all blown up. Newspaper.pdf

Then there is the follow-up from the newspaper here.

Happy New Year!

This was the scene in my living room a few minutes after midnight today. I got the expanded Neumann home as you can all see.

In reality it was more like me lying on the couch plotting!

Actually it was more like me figuring out how to win the 26th, build 120 and 53 all at the same time!

Happy New Year Everyone! By the way none of the above is true! Well some of it.

LA Can't Drive

I came across this website in one of my late night surfing trips and thought it was quite funny. I know many of us can identify with whats going on here. I think that LA is a bit more extreme then some of the goofiness we see here in Lake County. Careful there is some salty language on here

This is so Funny! (Need sound to be on)

This is so funny, I can't figure out to load this on here....but check this out.

A Little Humor on a Thursday

Your House As Seen By:

Yourself...
Your Buyer...
Your Lender...

Your Appraiser...Your Tax Assessor...

Picnic for Village Employees

On Saturday we had a picnic at the Police and Public Works complex for village employees and there families. We had a very nice turnout! There were quite a few games for kids and adults, with yours truly and my daughter winning the water balloon toss! However there was a steady mist or drizzle throughout so the actual highlight of the day's events was musical chairs, there were two divisions, Child and adult, the adult version should have been called musical sumo.

Trustee Dale Multerer (he is a wee bit accident prone) went flying appearing to strike his head on a chair! After a further few rounds of roughhousing , there were the final two competitors Police Chief Cliff Metaxa, and Trustee Michael Blum who ended up circling the chair, then Trustee Blum attempted to pile drive the Chief in some form of WWE move, there was a general melee, then both ended up on the ground about 6 feet away from the chair, when the music stopped, Cliff making it to the chair first from the ground. See pictures above.

Many thanks to all who made this wonderful afternoon possible!

How's This For Some Craziness!

Badges! Badges! Does a library board need badges?

July 25, 2007

By Kristen Schorsch sun-times news group

Crestwood Public Library Board trustees have decided to keep their controversial police-like badges despite outcry from taxpayers who have accused trustees of wasting money on the credentials they rarely use.

In lieu of ditching the badges, the library board on Monday adopted new procedures for using them. Among the rules: Trustees have to keep their badges in a safe place and can't let friends borrow them.

"When we did this, we felt it was a perk," board president Clyde Petersen said, adding that he didn't think spending $600 of district money on the five-pointed stars and leather holders would create such strife. "I don't think it's wasteful."

In March, a friend of trustee Zeno Toscas was arrested for flashing Toscas' library badge to snag a better parking spot at a bar in Merrionette Park.

Crestwood library trustee's friend arrested for allegedly using police-like badge

March 15, 2007

By Kristen Schorsch Staff writer

The friend of a Crestwood Public Library District board member is in hot water after allegedly flashing the board member's police-like badge to snag a parking spot last week at 115 Bourbon Street in Merrionette Park.

Kristopher Bobb, 22, of 12557 Rail Lane, Palos Park, has been charged with impersonating a police officer, according to a Merrionette Park police report.

But Bobb, who is friends with 21-year-old library Trustee Zeno Toscas, said he isn't worried about the charges because he wasn't holding a police badge -- he was holding a library board badge.

"Just somebody who worked (at Bourbon Street) just assumed I was a cop," Bobb said Wednesday.

The Crestwood library board came under fire last year when it spent about $600 on five-pointed gold star badges that look like police badges, as well as leather badge holders, to identify board members.

Board president Clyde Petersen said at the time that trustees would not wear the badges at board meetings. They would only display them in certain situations, such as attending library conferences or other functions outside the Crestwood library. He could not be reached Wednesday for comment.

The incident that led to Bobb's arrest happened at 12:52 a.m. March 4. Toscas parked his car in a way that blocked another patron's vehicle, the police report said. Bourbon Street co-owner Nick DiNovo said Toscas parked behind a vehicle that was in a valet spot.

When a restaurant employee approached Toscas' car, Bobb yelled out that he was a cop and used several profanities, the report said. He allegedly flashed a badge and said he would do whatever he wanted.

On Wednesday, Bobb said he meant to quickly run inside the club to get his girlfriend and her friend. He said he got out of Toscas' car, which was parked in the back of the parking lot near 115th Street and Kedzie Avenue, and he was holding the badge.

"All I did was carry it," Bobb said. "I was playing with it in the car. I didn't realize it, and I walked out" of Toscas' car holding the badge.

Toscas' father, John Toscas, said four witnesses can testify that the charges against Bobb are "not anywhere near the truth." He referred questions to Bobb's attorney, Carl Evans. Evans did not return a phone call.

Toscas was not charged in the incident. He could not be reached for comment.

Crestwood Police Chief Tim Sulikowski said the incident is a "perfect example" of how the library board badges might be abused.

"I'm glad that person was arrested," he said of Bobb.

Sulikowski said it would be up to the library board whether to revoke the badges.

Triple 7's

To bad we don't have a place to play the numbers, because I bet this one get's a lot of play today ! Oh wait we do have a place....the Illinois lotto stores throughout this fine town. Gee did you think I was going to say somewhere else?

Big bath tub races tomorrow! I am racing the other Mayors it seems! Not sure how I got conned into that, anyway its at Beach Fest at 4pm.

April Fools Joke Was Played Yesterday

Okay for the 5 people who called me about it and the few who commented on it, this was a prank. I have a history of this. Last years post was here and the disclaimer is here. My apologies to the people who felt the need to post and spoil the joke I deleted your posts. I will have them up today if they still exist!

Like I could get an ordinance like that passed! Actually I did like the salary one. Nothing like an incentive contract to get some dense development going up! I think the Mayors salary should be balanced between respectability and miserliness. You don't want to pay so much that the mayor wants to keep the job forever, but you don't want to pay so little that the aggravation has zero reward. For those of you who don't I make $10,000 a year which equates to about $1.67 an hour it seems.

By the way elections cost the village nothing since they are administered by the county clerk's office as well. If I forgot to clarify anything else in the post, its a prank as well!

Attack of the Birds

Last night was quite the night. The last few years my house has suffered from an invasion of birds who fly into one of our attic vents on the side of the house and force there way through the vent and nest in the tubing up in our attic. A few years before that we had a big bee problem in the same spot. So I actually preferred the birds!

I have hoisted my self into the inferno/fiberglass hell that is our attic, and discovered that Neumann Homes did there usual shoddy job with the vent, by not installing any cover or any formal attachment which the birds pecked away in 2-3 seconds. So using my trusty roll of duct tape I reattached the vent as best I could while sweating and scratching from the heat and fiberglass.

Anyway over the last few weeks I have heard the pleasant chirping of little birds when I wake up. A nice thing? Not when you know they are in your house! Since I don't have a ladder long enough to get after the outside of the vent, I am promised myself that I would go up to the attic over the weekend and fix the vent again. Which I hate.

Well anyway, last night the birds pecked there way through the vent tube and were banging around, chirping and what sounded like (I kid you not) speaking in tounges all night long. They appeared to be having a convention right above my bathroom where the vent fan was. It also sounded like they had a kids toy that had some form of repetitive beeping noise with them.

So at 1am I am in my bathroom with all the lights on glaring at the vent where all the noise was coming from and disturbing my limited beauty rest. When I decided to turn the fan on and hopefully mulch the birds and the kids toy. Thats not what happened but it scared the crap out of the birds, which had some value, and drove them some where else in the attic, because they quieted down.

So when I get home tonight I am venturing up into the attic and duct taping the vent with 6-10 rolls of tape if I have to, and then this weekend I am going to venture up the side of the house and figure out a way of blocking the vent. Delightful!

Hansel and Gretel Come to Town!

Hansel and Gretel find themselves lost in an enchanted forest at the Round Lake Area Park District Community and Studio of Dance Presentation. Performances are Friday March 23 at 7:30 and on Saturday March 24th at 2:00 and 7:30, and then on Sunday March 25th at 2:00. The presentation is at the Round Lake High School Theater.

There are many more plays in production, among them are "Beauty and the Beast", "Enchanted Sleeping Beauty", and "The Wizard of Oz". Check your quarterly Park District Brochure for more detail.

Rumors that they are doing a special adaptation of my life are unfounded by the way! By the way the picture is of the Witch in the play, who does not look like this!

Funny Picture from Right Here in Round Lake

I know it has been quite cold, but when the air is freezing, you know its cold! This picture was taken here in the area.

Good vs. Evil in the Round Lake Blogosphere

or
While trolling late at night I discovered this site that ranks blogs on a ranking scale of 1-100 for good and evil. Since I believe I do no wrong I decided to evaluate my site from this highly scientific methodology and of course I was shocked that its only 69% good! Imagine that!

I evaluated other Round Lake Blogs as well.

Sean Gillette

Brian Brubaker

Al Villasenor

So now we know! Al's score is the biggest surprise, he just posted a tame valentine's day post, which probably dropped his evil quotient.

Number 100,000 was Mayor McCheese!

At 7:13 last night we hit unique user 100,000! It was Mayor McCheese! Since I am not on the Atkins diet right now I ate him! Mmmmmm tasty!

I am bowling tonight at Lakes Bowl with the Round Lake Queens. Last year I was the high game among all the Mayors present. I was the only Mayor present. I did manage to throw a strike left handed in the goofy bowling portion which still shocks me! I am aiming to throw more strikes this year!

Genealogy of Influence

I was a history major in college and have always been fascinated by all sorts of historical things. This gentlemen has mapped out visually a relationship map called "Genealogy of Influence" which documents a visualization of the connections between the most influential writers, artists, philosophers, scientists, and mathematicians of Western culture.
If you go to the page its a relatively large flash or Java file, but once you get there you can click on each individual and how they are interrelated. It is extremely neat to see how the screen moves let alone how some people influenced others and how they continue to 100's of years after there deaths!

Best Comment Overheard at the OTB

The six gentlemen sitting at the table next to us at the OTB, (the youngest was approximately 70 years old). One says completely out of the blue in the middle of a discussion about the merits of the upcoming race....

I need to change morticians!

Think about that for awhile. We laughed for about an hour about that one, amazing, what was the reason I wanted to ask. But didn't.

Database's Gone Wild

This is the actual address a piece of mail had on it when it arrived at the Village Hall. A few questions come to mind? How did the database program know that a person with the first name "Round" was feminine? Let alone why would they remove the "ladies" middle name of Lake and make it an "L". Overall everything else was perfect address wise, sadly when I took the picture of the piece of mail I neglected to ask what was inside, that might have added to the story.

Interesting Occurance

First of all I must preface this story with a comment on hit counters for web pages. The one I use was set to count unique visitors, and counted hits, not visitors. So needless to say I did not realize that this meant that my traffic figures were off by like a factor of 5....so if I got what I thought were 1000 users I was really getting 200. Needless to say I fixed the counter.

So I was going to casually never speak of this to anyone ever again. However something came up that's kinda interesting, and of course is to good a story to bury in my Internet shame. Over the last year my traffic has been steadily climbing and my highs (not my old highs) were around 330. Then as we got to the middle of the month my traffic which has been edging higher over the last 4-5 weeks by about 10-15 visits a day, jumped by about 10% to a high of 388, 399, 424, 528, 848, 1,808 and then 2,289. You can see the giant spike in the accompanying graphic. One hour got me 249 users, which was equal to the entire amount of visitors last Friday

The numbers made me think I had screwed something up again and of course sent me looking for a new hit counter, however Sitemeter.com has a section where I can look at where my traffic is coming from, and 50% to 70% was coming from a search for a picture I used on Thanksgiving Day 2005. The picture is shown below.

Apparently this image is appearing on the first page for google images when you search for images of Thanksgiving. So the traffic is all going to the archive page for November 2005. Not for my brilliant witty observations on the state of Round Lake but rather for a turkey!

Early Morning Walk

Went for an early morning walk in the downtown area, with Trustee Michael Blum, sort of looked for garbage and stuff. I found a few things that I will have our department heads take care of on Monday. I did however find a sign at the train station that was quite humorous and we will be taking down, but I feel the urge to reproduce it here. Imagine that June 1999, I think most people know that by now!

Challenging Test

Okay clearly I found this one on a late night insominac trip across the internet. I messed it up repeatedly becuase I am color blind. But it was clever and fun, and for that reason alone it deserves to be on this blog.

So to play...Click Here!

My Plot to Dominate the World Has Started!

Bonus points to whoever can deduce where this legitimate street sign is. This post is in honor of my sister Gaye and my neice Olivia coming to visit from Boston for the weekend, Olivia is quite simply here for the candy!

Curious Photo

Bonus prize if someone can tell what this is a picture of! Not sure what the prize is but I will find something appropriate! Hint: It is not really Round Lake related.

I am off to the Arlington Million today, I have $75 burning a hole in my pocket and I looking at Gorella in the Beverly D and I love Cacique in the Million.

The answer to the question on Saturday night!
Satellite image of crops growing in Kansas, USA. Healthy, growing crops are green. Corn would be growing into leafy stalks by late June (when this photo was taken). Sorghum, which resembles corn, grows more slowly and would be much smaller and therefore, possibly paler. Wheat is a brilliant gold as harvest occurs in June. Fields of brown have been recently harvested and plowed under or lie fallow for the year. The circular crop fields are a characteristic of center pivot irrigation. The fields shown here are 800 and 1,600 meters (0.5 and 1 mile) in diameter. The image is centered near 37.4 degrees north latitude, 100.9 degrees west longitude, and covers an area of 37.2 x 38.8 km. The 'grid' in which the fields are laid out runs North-South/West-East and the dark angled line is U.S. Route 56.

The image is aligned with the satellite orbital track, which is in a 98 degree tilted orbit. North is not "up". Rotate the image about 10 degrees clockwise to align the roads north-south. The image is a false-color presentation made to simulate natural color. The 3 bands that were used are in the green, red, and near infrared parts of the spectrum. ASTER does not have a blue channel, so any blue that can be seen was created from the other bands.

Source: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17006