Happy Birthday Clare!

Clare, the love of my life, turns thirty today! Happy Birthday to the best girlfriend ever.*




* And I'm not just saying that because it's her birthday. I've been saying it for a long time!

Vote-a-rama!!

Before it gets too late to post these, here are the pictures from Katie and Kellie's election party. Above you'll see some party-goers gesticulating wildly as they no doubt discuss the issues of the day.

Lucy (a.k.a. Beth Amphetamine)keeping score.

Despite the rumors, Katie does not hate America, as proven by her festive headdress.

Matthew and Jaime take advantage of a lull in the festivities to enjoy the food table.

A close-up of the homemade capital cake.. Oh, wait or is it capitol cake... I always get that confused.

The rest of us glued to the TV from the TV's perspective.

All in all, the election turned out better than I expected. Go Democrats! Go Illinois Green Party!

The fate of the Megamall is still undetermined. However, this cryptic (and Lovecraftian) message showed up in my inbox:
I'll bet you wouldn't want to tear down the Megamall if an old hunched man with an eye patch told you a tale about the old Gods being imprisoned within its basement, their release being delayed only by the existence of a dollar store. A park would be great, but how about the release of the old gods in the process? I'll bet you never thought about that. Only concerned with your own comfort level.

I'll say this, I think I'm softening on my stance for a park in that location. After my Local Cub Foods shut it's doors, I think the Megamall land could make a nice supermarket. After it's checked for imprisoned elder gods, of course.

Get out and Vote, You Slob

...especially if you live in the 35th ward. There is a referendum on the ballot to decide the fate of the Megamall at 2500 N Milwaukee. The question is, should the mall be acquired by the city, torn down, and turned into a park. As much as it's a little bit of a pie in the sky dream, I say tear that sucker down. If you live in the 35th ward (what's the chance of that), make sure you get out and vote on this one.

Anyway, Clare and I hit the first Friday art gallery openings this weekend. This is always a lot of fun. There's free wine, free snacks, and great people watching. Every gallery has it's own crowd. This one particular gallery had a lot of extravagantly dressed old women. This lead Clare to utter this nugget of wisdom: "If you need to walk with a cane, you're probably too old for a leather mini skirt." I'll let your imaginations run with that one.

We also took a bike ride on the Skokie Channel Trail. This is a great trail that is easily accessible to city residents. I highly recommend it.

Also, as a graduate and former employee of Richard J. Daley community college, I'd like to thank MSN for publishing this list of famous people who are graduates of community college.

Birthday Update

Justin Kaufman (a.k.a. Ed Bus) was kind enough to post pictures from my party on the Schadenfreude website. They can be found here.

BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!!!

Yesterday was my Birthday and as you can probably tell form the title, it was the best birthday ever.

Clare threw me a surprise party on Monday which was outstanding. Not only did she get almost all of my friends to show up, but she also got them to wear these creepy Scott masks. I know most of the people who read my blog were actually there, but I feel like writing about it anyway.

She also got our favorite comedy group, Schadenfreude, to perform in our front room!! Hopefully, they'll post video at their website. I'll update as this develops.

Unfortunately,I was too busy having fun to take pictures. Pete has some here. I also took this one the morning after:

Did I mention this was a Monday night?

My actual birthday was on Tuesday (yes, I'm a Halloween baby) which was spent on Halloween activities with my son, Max. His school had a Halloween parade and a movie. The movie was supposed to be some Winnie the Pooh movie, but they changed it to It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. Much better. Here's a picture of Max in his Halloween costume:


There will be more updates as more pictures roll in.