So the nation's birthday has come and gone. The fireworks we visited were just OK. Since it had rained, the fireworks were wet in Buffalo Grove, which delayed the start by over an hour. Apparently, the rain just centered around Buffalo Grove, since it seemed like the surrounding suburbs had no problems. Someone should call the National Weather Service or the Guinness Book of World Records, because this has to be some kind of phenomena. I mean, how the water can only physically affect the fireworks in Buffalo Grove is a miracle. Maybe the Pope should be called about this.

How'd you celebrate the 4th? Submit your answer on the poll to the right.

Until next time...

Dining Discourse blog

Missy and I have started a new blog called: Dining Discourse. It's a place where we can rate restaurants we visit.

I hope you will visit that blog as well.

www.diningdiscourse.blogspot.com

Until next time...

All I have to do is dream

Dreams are funky - Funky Cold Medina (always good to get a nostalgic Tone Loc reference for those of you in your 30s). I've always remembered the urban legend that said you can't die in your dreams, because if you died in your dreams you'd die in your sleep? I've never understood that one. Their proof to that statement was that nobody can ever remember dying in their dreams. Huh?? I always liked to use their same logic right back at them: their statement could never be proven because we could never verify if those people dreamt that they died, because you know, THEY'D BE DEAD.

I tend to have this reocurring dream that I keep moving in slow motion. Missy likes to think that dreams have some hidden meaning or are a message. I even bought here a couple of dream interpreting books a few years back. Personally, I think dream interpretations are like horoscopes. They're entertaining, can be interesting, but in the grand scheme of things, just a bunch of crap. Nobody tell Freud I feel this way.

Until next time...

Planning for death?

Purchasing life insurance can be overwhelming. It should probably be called "death" insurance, but then again, nobody asked me. As someone who is a pretty confident person (my wife would say arrogant at times) this just throws me for a loop. So many questions:

* term or whole life?
* how much coverage?
* what do all the different terms mean?
* how do you plan for a family when it's just Missy and me?

So many questions and I guess the best way to answer them is just to plod on through all the info and try to make an informed decision.

Until next time...

News and notes about Brazil vs. US

As you all know, I'm a soccer guy. As I was watching the final of the Confederations Cup I just kept wondering, has US Soccer turned the corner? Sure, we started off like complete crap and got a lot of help to get into the semis, but do two great results a strong national team make? Don't kid yourself, the 2-0 victory over Spain was no fluke. They were both great goals. The team worked hard on both sides of the ball and did a good job to get a clean sheet.

Against Brazil, what a start, huh? Two goals in the first 30 mins. Howard made some great saves and again, both were good goals. But, it's the race to 3 and the second half was a completely different story. I mean, really, giving up a goal 38 seconds into the half??!! That's stuff I expect from high school soccer, not elite, national level soccer.

Hopefully these last two games will provide the spark necessary for the US MNT to play well in qualifying for the World Cup and then springboards into success in South Africa next year.

Granted, I am biased, but I thought Spector played well in the tourney. Sure, Kaka got around him for the second goal, but other than that he played well. And there's no shame in letting the 2007 world footballer of the year get by you. In some distant way, I like to think I have a closer tie-in to the national team because of Spector. Him being a Viator guy and having met him a few times and him coming to Viator and playing a bit with the team, it's pretty cool that he's getting a lot of playing time with the US MNT and now that he's recovered from his injuries, hopefully he'll get some pt at West Ham too.

I feel the same way about Elise Weber, who plays for St. Louis Athletica in the WPS. Having seen Elise day in and day out in practice and playing now making it as a pro soccer player is pretty cool. It's a great feeling as a coach.

Well, I'm rambling now, so it means it's time to shut it down for a bit.

Until next time...