Last night we were honored to be invited on an end of summer cruise out of Navy Pier. Kathe works for one of the boat companies and they put on a helluva party. Full buffet, open bar and beautiful scenery. We started off cruising the Chicago River and then out to the lake for fireworks! I love fireworks!

I got a little giddy. And I made a little video of part of the show. I thought of editing it up all cool but since I don’t really know what I am doing on I-Video and worked an 11.5 hour day today I think I will give you the raw cut. But it’s kind of fun.

After the fireworks we cruised along the lakefront. A group of teenagers started dancing to our tunes and then one of them mooned us! Oh it’s been years since I’ve been mooned. Someday I will do a whole post about moons I have seen and moons I have shone. Ah, so much to look forward to!

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And of course he is sitting next to me. And by the end of the show the ten beers he drank were leeching out of his pores and his deodorant had quit working. But other than that the show was amazing!

At one point during the show I started to realize that Sigur Ros is the perfect soundtrack for one of my favorite artists-Erik Pearson. There was a scene in the show where the band was all clustered together on stage around this instrument that looked like a wooden box and there was the guy in the crown and the other in the hat-it was just like the characters in some of Erik, aka Dr. Thunder’s work.

And there was a sing along and a clap along. It was awesome. I have confetti in my cleavage.

“Hoppípollaaaaaaaaaaa”

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Last night we went sailing on the Tall Ship Windy. God I love boats.

Here’s my niece, Tasha. She’s kind of adorable.

I would love to live on a boat and just sail around. Lilo in her life jacket, the kitties eating fresh fish that we caught. I wonder if the kitties would try to jump off the boat or if they would just chill?

Saturday is boat ride number 2. Kathe invited us to a party on a different boat. I can’t wait! I can’t believe it took me until late September to get out on Lake Michigan. Better late than never I guess.

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It’s been so long!
So much is happening but so little to really write about.
Work is hard. My new schedule (not by choice) is Monday through Friday. I have loved my Tuesday-Saturday schedule for years. John and I had two days off together and one of them was a day that the normal world worked. Now we have only one day together and both of my days off are crowded. It’s kind of bumming me out. Speaking of bumming me out…

The major storms that hit Chicago last week caused a bit of havoc on our home. The basement took in water and the ceiling decided to leak-destroying huge portions of our second floor. The water formed bubbles under the paint so we had to scrape off all of the paint so we didn’t get mold. So now our upstairs is pretty nasty looking. We will have to totally tear out my bedroom closet too. Sigh.

I have been actually reading books again! I am on a never-ending quest to declutter my home and have my eye on getting rid of a few bookcases. I am not a big book collector. I have certain writers that I love enough to keep, (Tom Robbins, Charles DeLint, Louise Erdich and some Stephen King to name a few) and a there are some cases of self help, writing books, and spiritual kind of stuff. But otherwise most items keep going out the door to my friend Midwest Melissa who reads them and passes them on. I only get books from rummage sales and thrift stores so my To Read and Get Rid Of collection is a lot of Oprah books and popular fiction. These are the books I have liberated in the last two weeks..
Trans-Sister Radio-Chris Bohjalian
Cause Celeb by Helen Fielding. Not as good as her latest book, “Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination”
The Memory of Running-Ron McLarty. The whole time I was reading this I kind of felt that maybe I had read it before. It was kind of weird.
The Wonder Spot-Melissa Bank. It was fine.
The Year of Pleasures-by Elisabeth Berg. I have read a few things by her. For some reason I kind of enjoy books about 55+ women going through life changing events.
Twighlight by Stephenie Myer. Oh my favorite. I borrowed it from my niece around 8:30pm last night and read all 500 pages by about 3pm today. I may even have to buy the Twilight t-shirt. Tonight I will move on to book 2.

And it’s hard to write when the new television season has started. “Gossip Girl”, “One Tree Hill”, “America’s Next Top Model”…I love the CW. And that “Privileged” show is pretty cute. I like that girl from “Reba”.

Speaking of Reba, we have traded in our Replay TV for TIVO. And since we don’t have cable TIVO seems to be a bit challenged in the finding suggestions for me department. So it records “Reba” and “What I Like About You”. I watch them. I wouldn’t want to insult TIVO. Except when it tries to tell me to watch “Hawaii Five-O” or “Half and Half.” Those are deal breakers.

I love the Palin name generator. I am Khaki Salmon Palin!

Now it is 9pm on Sunday night and I think I shall sort through more of my crap and watch “Baby Mama.”

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He was in my bedroom. At first I thought he was a leaf then I realized he was a giant grasshopper. We did a photo shoot and then I wondered if he would bite me. Reason was telling me that grasshoppers don’t bite but then I thought of how locusts can strip a whole country and aren’t grasshoppers the same things so theoretically couldn’t it take a bite out of me? So I asked him politely to crawl onto my bandana so I could escort him outside. He didn’t listen very well. I poked him and he jumped onto my pants which was perfect! We headed out the deck door and I tried to shake him off. Instead he started crawling up my leg at a quick pace, heading for my face.
I freaked out just a little and considered taking off my pants right there on the deck. After some frantic pant leg shaking I finally got him to crawl on my plant.
Whew.
This is the most excitement I had all week. Except for the crazy dude who was looking for his cheating wife at the show today, but you know I don’t talk much about work…

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I have become the kind of exhausted human being who doesn’t have the time or energy to devote hours a day to the internet. I barely make it through a few favorite blogs and Icanhascheezburger before passing out. I will always make time for icanhascheezburger. But sometimes I try to delay the gratification as long as possible so there are numerous LOL’s to get me through.
I have become the kind of exhausted human being who doesn’t have time to return the calls or e-mails from friends. If I am lucky I will at least listen to my voicemail or read the e-mail. If I am lucky.

Work has me on a marathon schedule with no days off until September 14th. I think this needs to be discussed.

And what was up with the Nanny Carrie “Misery” story line on One Tree Hill? I really hope they close that up quick. And the first hour of America’s Next Top Model? WTF? I can barely wait for the fourfour recap to come out on Monday. And Gossip Girl. I DO love you, XOXO. 90120. The casting person needs to be fired. And punched in the tummy.

And the whole political thing has me down. If the Republicans win we are moving to Canada. Kantowicz’s, start making room and let that landlord know we’re bringing the animals! He will have to allow us political refugee status.

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I uploaded more of the vacation photos to my Flickr account if you are looking to kill time.

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