My good friend Bob has a 6-year old nephew that is a real terror. They other day they had this conversation:

Rob - "Tell me a story Danny."

Danny - "Uncle Bobby dies... the end."

My wife and I have a friend that just announced her wedding date... and it's on a friday. I know the friday wedding is becoming a growing trend but I personally think it's crap. A friday wedding is nothing more than a statement saying "I'm cheap and I don't give a damn that you out-of-towners have to take a day of vacation to attend my wedding." The type of bride that has a friday wedding is the type who books a great venue and then when you go to the bar to order a beer you're told it will be $4.00. The truth is, brides focus on too much of the crap that no one cares about: the invitations, the floral arrangements, the table favors. There's really only a couple rules you have to remember to have a successful wedding: feed them well, let them drink for free, and don't have a Friday wedding (unless everyone is local). If you screw any of these three things up, people will think you're cheap no matter how nice the venue, invitations, floral arrangements and table favors are.

Today I saw something I haven't seen in a long time... a kid on a leash. I really don't understand what kind of parent would do this to their kid; and this was one those retractable leashes that are popular with dog owners nowadays. To me it says, "I'm such a bad parent that I literally need to keep my kid tied to me out of fear that they might wander off." Clearly this type of person has no shame, and even more clearly, probably shouldn't have had kids to begin with.

My father-in-law is crazy. He has five cordless telephones in a one bedroom apartment:

#1 - living room.
#2 - kitchen.
#3 - computer desk.
#4 - bathroom.
#5 - bedroom.

The real kicker though is that he never answers the phone and he never makes any calls. Never. He will call his wife on occassion and occassionally if he is expecting her call he'll answer but that's it. He never calls anyone else and never really answers for anyone else, yet despite this he has a phone in the bathroom just in case he's in there when someone he doesn't want to talk to calls.

My wife called me 3 times in my first hour of work.

Call #1 - The usual morning chat.
Call #2 - Look up things to do in Chicago for a day trip.
Call #3 - Our real estate agent sent me an email but I haven't looked at it yet so you should check it out for me.

I kind of blew up at her over the 3rd call. Our agent sends us emails every day, usually several a day, why did she feel this was important enough to warrant a phone call? I think it's a female thing. If I had my work issued cell phone taken away I wouldn't miss it at all. I seriously could go without it. If my wife lost her cell phone she'd probably have a heart attack.

I have to admit, if I worked in the Sears Tower, I'd probably start looking for a new job - preferably something closer to the ground. I'm not normally the paranoid type but this talk of terrorists and the tallest building in the country would make me damn nervous if I worked there. It's like when I lived in L.A., whenever I went in a high rise I always had this thought: "I better not linger up here too long just in case the big one hits." The few earthquakes I sat through were actually kind of fun (on the 2nd floor), however if I was riding them out on the 40th floor you bet I'd be crapping my pants.

Today I was driving behind a contractor's truck and I noticed his back window was full of bumper stickers of the likes of: "Bush Won. Deal With It." My thoughts were, considering this truck is advertising his business, does he really want to bring politics into the fray? I suppose some people might be offended but it wouldn't stop me from calling the guy... until I read his homemade bumper sticker. "Smart Democrates become Republicans." If you can't spell Democrats you won't be getting my business.

Every time I go downtown, I can't imagine what must be going through the heads of those people who paid top dollar to have a high rise condo view of the city in the brand new Kilbourn Tower only to have that view wiped away by yet another even higher condo right next door - the University Club Tower. I've seen houses on the northside that are spaced father apart than that. Even worse, the still under construction University Club Tower didn't even put windows in on their north facing side so now the tenants in Kilbourn Tower who once had the best view in town (for about a year), now have a view of a block wall. Can you say plummeting values? The funny thing is if you go on the website of either building, neither one has any photos or artist redenderings that acknowledge the presence of the other building looming right next to it. Here's what they're selling:

http://www.kilbourntower.com/views.htm

http://www.universityclubtower.com/

Here's what you get: http://www.emporis.com/en/il/im/?id=452867

If I had a south facing unit of Kilbourn Tower, I'd feel like I got played big time.

I was supposed to go golfing with a friend today but he just called to say he can't make it. Apparently a friend of his wife who was 8 months pregnant, lost her baby so they are going to go over to console her. My friend is not quite sure what his role is supposed to be. Maybe he's supposed to talk to the husband but I don't think they are all that close so it is kind of awkward and it doesn't sound like he wants to go. This sounds like more of a one on one with his wife and her friend. Apparently they still have to deliver the baby which must be very disheartening. He said they will name it and have a burial, the whole works. This kind of got me thinking. Would you still use your #1 name or would you use a lesser choice and hold on to the #1 name for a hopeful future kid? I guess it depends on how attached you are to that #1 name. Some people, like my wife, picked out a name years ago and have been holding it in secret for all this time. Other people have a couple finalists that are all essentially equal so it wouldn't be all that bad to burn up the current front-runner. I have to admit, I think I'd probably go with a secondary name, or better yet, name the kid after my mother in law.

I used to get my hair cut at Cost Cutters, Supercuts etc. I always hated going, it's not the price, rather it's just the hassle of scheduling a time to go down and then wait for an opening and then hope the stylist understands the look I was going for. After a couple years of watching them cut my hair I started to realize it didn't really look all that hard. I watched what they did, #3 blade on the sides and back with the electric trimmers and then a finger's width on top. Surely it can't be that hard. Two years ago I bought a home haircut kit from Target for $15 and I started cutting my own hair. I was actually surprised at both how easy it was and how well it turned out. There really was no discernable difference. No one ever believes me when I tell them. For some reason people think I must use a flowbee because you just can't cut your own hair. Well you can, it's really not that hard.