The first pictures from the First Annual Stick Bus Reunion were developed yesterday. I scanned them in and they are now available for public viewing. I'll intro each pic with a quick caption...here we go! The best will be saved for last.

New winter fasions...a tie made of real MONKEY.

Call security, looks like these THUGS are waiting to rough up 6 year-olds for their Mold-A-Rama wax dinos.

JEFF says, "Hot damn, that Egypt exhibit just plum tuckered me out." Was it really the exhibit Jeff? I don't really think so...

Sometimes for fun, KYLE takes homeless women to the museum and shows them what they could be doing if they would clean their lives up.

Apparently, JEFF and CONNIE have been messing around behind Dave's back. Here's a picture of DAVE when he found them smootchin'.

Dave soon realized thought that he is no match for JEFF'S level of manliness...

FREAKS. That's exactly what Uma was thinking.

CONNIE is working very hard to be in the "Charlie's Angels" sequel. Look, she has the whole slow-motion-hair-bounce-thing goin' on!

Bru and Uma...BRUMA.

LUNCH...about as exciting as it looks.

There's no picture to this caption, but I know what everyone is waiting to see...

JEFF enjoys getting all dressed up for special occasions...like waiting for a locksmith to get his keys out of his car...

Looks like KYLE packed his ANGRY eyes!

Over yonder horizon...is where JEFF sees an Irish Pub!

CONNIE makes this face when she's tired of hearing Dave talk and would really like to go home and get away from him...

Okay...now the pics we've all been waiting for...

First in the collection of naked bronze people, was this LADY.

Then Kyle took a picture of this YOUNG MAN.

And finally, here is KYLE looking enviously at the bronze wanker...

Wow...the memories we capture on film...

Okay, this morning, I can make it official...

www.sliozis.com is online!

Thank you...

Test again...tell you why in a few...

Test...

Mario Tennis...calling...getting louder...

Occasionally, I enjoy writing lyrics to songs stuck in my head on this page but I ran into a dilema. I currently have the "Top Gun Anthem" stuck in my head and I'm not sure how to write the lyrics to that. I'm going to try...

Tuh-putt-putt-putt-putt-putt...
Tuh-putt-putt-putt-putt-putt...
Tuh-putt-putt-putt-putt-putt...
Tuh-putt-putt-putt-putt-putt...
DEE-DEE-DEE-DEE-DEE-DEE-DEE-DEE-DEE
DEE-DEE-DEE-DEE-DEE-DEE-DEE-DEE-DEE-DEE...

No, that's not working at all...

My good friend, Kyle Ford, has been placed on Friend-Probation, more commonly known (especially to Jeff) as FP. The counts against Mr. Ford that have led to his current charge on FP are the following, many of which have been taken directly from his blog:

1) Returning to LA and bringing our (those of us in the "frigid wasteland") attention to the fact that it is currently in the 70 degree range.

2) He goes to work, watches an unedited, unaired X-Files episode, declares himself on lunch and then never reappears.

3) He didn't feed the squirrel.

4) Within the week, I'll be getting photos back of a bronze wanker.

5) He already saw "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." So this instance comes more from my personal envy of the guy, but hey, I'm the FP parole officer, I can do what I want.

6) WEB SHOW! WEB SHOW! WEB SHOW! Uhh...12 hour lunch break...

7) In his most recent blog, he tells us "we're going to call it a day around 1:00, and then barbecue in the parking lot." Again, this instance is a direct result of Ford-envy. There are three things wrong with this. A) he's leaving at 1 (I know, weak argument) B) he's having a barbecue which means it's NOT SNOWING like it is here and C) he's spending time with co-workers. The only time I and some of my confidants would ever have a barbecue with co-workers was if we were barbecuing the co-workers.

8) He gets to wear tennis shoes to work and put He-Man on his desk.

9) The Sephardic Jews were expelled from Spain and Portugal in the 1490s, after Ferdinand and Isabella defeated the Muslim Moors and made Spain a militantly Catholic country, intolerant of religious minorities. The Ottoman Muslims regarded the Jews as "people of the book," part of the monotheistic tradition which led eventually to Islam. Ottoman rule offered a degree of religious freedom at this time (while it was lacking in Christian Europe), so many of the expelled Sephardic Jews migrated to the Ottoman Empire, especially to Constantinople and other large port cities like Salonika. There was a separate Jewish millet in the Ottoman system, through which Jews enjoyed some measure of self-government; some Jews became influential advisors of the sultans. When the Turks completed their conquest of the Balkans in the 1500s, Sephardic Jews followed them into the interior, settling in the larger towns. Jews eventually became the majority in Salonika (in today's northern Greece). The Greek Jewish community survived there until World War II, speaking Ladino, a Spanish dialect.

10) He won't drink Surge Slurpees and likes Captain America.

Okay, that's all I have for now. But none the less Kyle Ford, you have been placed on FP. Let it be known that barbecues, wankers and the Ottoman Muslims expelling the Sephardic Jews will not be tolerated…

That is all -
The Warden

There are a few things in my life that I was glad I was able to see. So far three moments have been in hockey. I know that may sound like a dumb thing, but hockey is a big part of my life. Tonight was the third hockey moment when Mario returned.

80''s attack! HI-YA!

A Little Respect - Erasure

I try to discover
A little something to make me sweeter
Oh baby refrain from breaking my heart
I'm so in love with you
I'll be forever blue
That you give me no reason
Why you're making me work so hard

That you give me no
That you give me no
That you give me no
That you give me no
Soul, I hear you calling
Oh baby please give a little respect to me

And if I should falter
Would you open your arms out to me
We can make love not war
And live at peace with our hearts
I'm so in love with you
I'll be forever blue
What religion or reason
Could drive a man to forsake his lover

Don't you tell me no
Don't you tell me no
Don't you tell me no
Don't you tell me no
Soul, I hear you calling
Oh baby please give a little respect to me

I'm so in love with you
I'll be forever blue
That you give me no reason
Why you're making me work so hard
That you give me no
That you give me no
That you give me no
That you give me no
Soul, I hear you calling
Oh baby please give a little respect to me
Soul, I hear you calling
Oh baby please give a little respect to me

The title of the page reads "Bruen@Stickbus.com." It should read Bruen@outofcontrolwithmysitechangesandcolorsschemes.com...

Silly Russians, space travel is for wealthy countries!

We here at MirCorp would like you to take a ride on a Soviet built tin can! Just try to get off before it crashes into an ocean in Feburary...our lawyers won't like that much....

I was digging on the Adler Planetarium website and found they have a webcam of their own. It's pretty nice, let's you pan and zoom and it's pretty good quality too. Check it out here, they call it the SKYEYE.

Looks like January could be a busy and outstanding movie month. Here's a quick list of my to-see's:

Traffic - January 5th
Antitrust - January 12th
O Brother, Where Art Thou? - January 12th
Snatch - January 19th
Shadow of the Vampire - January 29th

Hmm...no, no I don't see "Save the Last Dance" on this list...or should we call it "Center Stage 2?" Sorry Con...

Oh, and while looking for movies, I found this…people prone to heart conditions and fits of violent rage should NOT click on this LINK.

Time for a useless actor birthday announcement. Gérard Depardieu is 52. I think the picture they use to show him says it all.

I know what I'll be doing TONIGHT. How about you?

Hopefully I'll feel well enough to get to Target and drop of my film. I've got two cameras from our little excursion, one of them has the photo-mastery of Kyle Ford on it. When I get them I'll see if I can borrow Jeff's scanner and I'll put them up here. I'll probably send them to Kyle too for posting on the main Stick Bus page. Stay tuned.

I got one of the pictures back from our adventure downtown. It's of Jeff after the valet locked Jeff's keys in this truck. Take a LOOK. Jeff is the one on the right.

Hey all. I was hoping to blog alot today because my boss is gone. Unfortunately I feel like climbing in a mountain cave and dying. I think it's the flu. That's what I get for running my ass around all weekend and staying up late. Well, if I feel better, you'll be the first to know.

Today, I am a meat popsicle.

This weekend was GREAT. The 7 of us hit Chicago and really had a good time. For my entertainment and possible that of others, I'm going to post our entire expense report from this weekend or what I can remember us spending...oh, and pictures will be coming shortly.

Friday, December 22nd - Dinner at the Signature Room on the 95th Floor of the Hancock building. Needless to say, and I will, when you look out the windows and you can see the every little light in Chicago and the lights of Indiana to the south, you can only mutter, "Holy shit." We were seated in the north-east corner of the building between two panes of glass. It was a NICE view. The place was AWESOME and the food was really good. Our waiter was Survivor’s Richard Hatch. Anyway, the following list is what the 7 of us consumed and drank.

$11.50 2 Coronas
$17.25 3 Beck's Dark
$24.00 3 Jack Daniels (for the Manhattans)
$2.25 3 Manhattans
$16.00 2 Brushettas
$11.00 1 Scallops
$75.00 3 Salmon
$60.00 2 New York Strip Steaks
$24.00 1 Sautéed Chicken Breast
$26.00 1 Red Snapper
$8.00 2 Boiled Potatoes
$5.00 1 Whipped Potato
$12.00 2 Asparagus Sides
$19.00 2 Glass Merlot Rutherford
$5.00 2 Dinner Coffees
$7.00 1 Chocolate Cheesecake
$8.00 1 Ireland Coffee
$7.25 1 Seven & Seven
$8.00 1 Bailey's
$8.75 1 Cosmopolitan
SUBTOTAL $355.00
GRATUITY $63.90
TAXES $34.60
T O T A L $453.50

That's only the beginning, time to add hotel rooms...

$447.00 3 hotel rooms
$58.00 2 vehicle parking
$53.19 State tax on rooms
$13.41 City tax on rooms
$2.54 Telephone call
$4.00 Valet tip
TOTAL $578.14

Saturday afternoon, we went to the field museum…

$56.00 7 student basic admissions with Star Wars exhibit admission
$30.00 Estimated Sum of McDonald’s lunch (crap, flashback…lemme finish).
$8.00 One stuffed monkey courtesy of Uma
$4.00 Total price of 4 wax dinosaurs from Mold-A-Rama machines
TOTAL $98.00

SO, lets do the math here real quick:
TOTAL $1129.64 and $1031.64 of that is sitting comfortably on my credit card right now, and needless to say I’ll be figuring out prices per team this weekend. Nice. Of course the grand total only reflects events done as a group, a member to remain unnamed adds an additional $153.00 to the total making the ACTUAL weekend cost (not including gas) $1282.64.

And as for that flashback, Connie’s roommate Mary once had a very nice dinner prepared for her and her boyfriend Jeff. The dinner was of the romantic type and the next day, they went to McDonald’s for lunch. I made fun of Mary for that because in my eyes the romantic dinner was instantly negated by the horrid flavor combos of McDonald’s. Well, I would like to officially apologize to Mary for making fun of that situation for I seem to have done the same thing. Took Con to a really nice place for dinner…McCrapold’s for lunch the next day. Just part of bein’ a playa, yo.

So me, not being a big fan of the Christmas holidays was just thinking this morning...what would we be doing today if the Roman empire had succeeded in eliminating the Christian faith? Probably praising lions.

Kyle and Sarah are back in town...let the games begin.

This is a brief message to people will never be "involved" again. You were given more than one chance and things from here out will never change. I am not a forgiving person when it comes to something going wrong because of your stupid mistakes. It was not me doing wrong, it was you and your mistakes and habits were not to be tolerated by this group. I will not make amends, I will not let you back here.

Note to self:

I checked the United Airlines website a few minutes ago. $92 dollars from O'Hare to LAX and $89 back. If you don't think I'm taking advantage of that, I'll pay for that tattoo on your head that says, "dumbass."

I made a CD too for this weekend and I sadly remembered why I took out my CD-burner...cause I really don't make good CD's, take a look.

The Mamas and the Papas - "California Dreamin'"
Counting Crows - "Kid Games"
Travis - "Writing To Reach You"
Radiohead - "The National Anthem"
Moby - "That's When I Reach For My Revolver"
Blind Melon - "Galaxie"
Wilco - "Misunderstood"
Eels - "Packing Blankets"
Coldplay - "Shiver"
U2 - "Summer Rain"
Dogs Eye View - "Umbrella"
Elvis Costello - "Shipbuilding"
David Gray - "Please Forgive Me"
Chantal Kreviazuk - "Leaving On A Jet Plane"
The Cure - "Mint Car"
Wheatus - "A Little Respect"
Aliotta, Haynes, Jeremiah - "Lake Shore Drive"

See?

So, since I'm bored, random thoughts are popping into my head. For example. The words "inflatable" and "jesus" came together. Being an internet savvy individual, I jumped on my fav browser, Dogpile and typed in that phrase, inflatable jesus. Search results came up empty. So then I wondered why? You see big inflatable lizards, balloons and purple apes at car dealers...why not huge inflatable jesi (plural of jesus) for church functions like craft fairs and picnics. There's a market there you know, why not? The church in the last 50 years has moved from faith to fashion show. Why not make the whole thing even more absurd?

Spice Girls...playing in the halls of a major corporate business mixed with terrible Christmas songs...

...I'll be back in 5 minutes, I've gone to whoop some ass with an overhead projector...

Kyle and Sarah are coming home tomorrow night. We have to let them do the fam thing, no big deal. But then...of course, we all know what Kyle wants...SLURPEE. And of course, even though it'll be like 5 degrees out tomorrow night, we'll do it anyway.

Kyle wanted to know why I didn't blog all weekend, well...no good answer, I'll just say...

hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe.

"Hi, my name is Luka. I live on the second floor."

"I just closed my eyes again...climbed aboard the dream weaver train..."

Note to self: Add repetitive play of "Dream Weaver" to the "Proof that there is no God" file.

As some of us know, the members of Stick Bus are getting together on the 22nd of December for a night on the town. I'm still hoping to hit the Field Museum to check out the Star Wars exhibit. Just to continue to fullfil my destiny of becoming a nerd, here is a LIST of pieces in the display. Hmm...it says Rancor...

Or, we could just do THIS! That's more fun that you can shake a stick at!

Wow, the National Safety Council is just FULL of good news. Check this quality reading: NSC Statistics - What are the Odds of Dying?

In a person's lifetime, the chances of dying because of "fireworks" is 387,332 to 1. Not bad.

10,564 to 1, you'll drown in a bathtub.

77,466 to 1 that you'll die from hornets, wasps and bees. Ouch.

41,500 to 1 that you'll die due to "other injury caused by animals." Like if you're a crazy Australian who pisses off wild animals...

80 to 1 says you'll die in a car accident, 578 to 1 says you will be run down crossing the street.

3,096 to 1 says I could die right now from eating this snack mix (inhalation and ingestion of food).

Wow...good times...

I'm nominating Jeff for this. From the National Safety Council, the 2001 Youth Awards Program, sounds like fun.

Wow...back to reality. Great. I would like to apologize for the lack of blogs this weekend, it's not like I wasn't around or super busy, I just kinda...forgot.

Friday night I spent redoing my webpage and making it the way I wanted it. I was very proud of myself for coding something like that when I'm an HTML tenderfoot. Anyway, I thought she was about good to go...then Kyle brought to my attention that it doesn't load AT ALL in Netscape (love that Netscape...primates). So, back to the drawing board.

Saturday morning Bru bought the parts to his SAM site. I'm a bit envious because my computer is slowly dying I think and I'd like to upgrade a few things. But of course, upgrade = money, which I have none of. Saturday night Con and I joined up with Uma and Bruen to go see "What Women Want." Pretty good movie, I'm not a big fan of Helen Hunt (after all she did marry an Azaria, divorce noted, but still...). We didn't get to go to an early show, so we tried to grab some snackage at UNO's in Vernon Hills. Our waiter was a monkey. He took our orders on a napkin. M-O-N-K-E-Y.

Sunday, I slugged around some more. I installed The Sims which is just a horribly addictive game to build a house for these people and let them loose to do their thing. Kinda funny too. If you don't build them a bathroom, the pee their pants. If you don't feed them, they die. Nasty little game really. Later, Con came over and we watched X-Files, pretty cool episode, I was disappointed to NOT see Doggett kick ass on the alternate level of consciousness.

Should be a LONG weekend, today is the last day of school then I'm back to full time work for a while. I bet you can sense the excitement. Yip-figgin-ie.

Waiting for Friday...

This is the movie they were filming at the old Brainerd Building in Libertyville almost a year ago now. It's called New Port South and sounds like John Hughes needs to make some money so he put this together. Clever John.

My father was just baffled and easily defeated by a learning toy from 1980. Speak&Read 1 - Mike Sliozis 0.

My current favorite band, Wilco opened their new website today. Very mellow.

Okay...the line has now been drawn. Here in the building where I work, they play music through speakers near the ceiling to add "white noise" otherwise you can hear EVERYTHING in this place. Now let me say the music is chosen by secretaries here, that should tell you right away the horrors that await. About a month ago, they busted out "Dream Weaver" which was fine...when it was played in Wayne's World, NOT in a work place. So today, if officially got worse. First, I'm REALLY tired for reasons that will remain unknown to the general public. Since I'm half way to unconcious, they musical choice of "Sail Away" by goddamn Enya just TKO'ed me. I'm not sure who requested that we be subjected to musical bamboo shoots under our subconcious, but when I find them...I will make an example of the indivdual...

TEACHER
Spell..."evil plague."
STUDENT
Evil plague...evil plague...okay. C D W .

Sarah is a huge X-Files fan...so she likes it when Kyle dresses up like John Doggett...

I'm not sure if I'll make any good blogs today, I'm real tired and my brain isn't quite working the way it usually does. We'll see, maybe something will come up...

Okay, one blog for today.

Price of a one way train ticket to Chicago: $4.65
Price of a large coffee in Union Station: $0.75
Price of drycleaning slush covered pants: $1.50

Price of watching a block of ice 3 feet long by 2 feet wide by 2 inches thick tumble ten stories and crash down on the ground ten feet from where you're standing...PRICELESS.

Christ, I will die in Chicago...no more blogs for today.

no blogs today, just a picture.

no further comments today.

It's on it's way back again. 3 to 5 inches of snow...I'm so excited.

I unearthed our old Speak&Read from Mark's room this morning. I decided to have some fun seeing what it could say. Sadly, this primative machine doesn't know much outside of "DOG" and "YES" but I thought I'd humor myself...here are some pics of what I tried. 1 2 3 4

Mark just devised a measurement system based on the varying heights of woodland creatures. Interesting.

Blog ate my post, I'll start again.

Jeff blogged again last night, I'm so proud. I think he's beginning to feel the pressure from Connie's blog-splosion in the last 24 hours. I'm still dressing up Jeff's page, soon I'll make him look better that Posh Spice in leather hot pants! OOW!

Mark is coming home today. When I find my excitement, I'll tell you.

So, Friday night, drunken Tom was singing the song "Teenage Dirtbag" which was attached to the "Loser" soundtrack. However, "Loser" I did not see, so I'm behind in the awareness of this song. It's by, get this, an Australia punk bad I think called Wheatus. Now, I wouldn't run out and by this CD cause it's not my style, but that "Teenage Dirtbag" song is just...eating my brain! They also do a cover of "A Little Respect," the 80's hit from Erasure, which honestly, isn't to horrible either. I dunno, I recommend at least sampling those songs but I do not know about buying the CD. I mean, this...this is just...lyrical apple pie people!

"Oh how she rocks
in Keds and tube socks,
but she doesn't know who I am;
And she doesn't give a damn about me."

Speaking of CD's...Jeff...I want mine back...before I die...

That is all for now.

I feel pretty privilaged. I made Connie's Top Ten Super Cool moments list and I've known her only six months where other people on the list have known her for WAY longer. Way to go ace!

Action on the webcam got pretty INTENSE tonight...

Casey dug up this funny article from The Onion, a newspaper which has no real content, but is just hilarious. If you are offended by sexual humor, you may not want to read THIS article. I thought it was funny...a bit disturbing...but funny.

I put on my tired old maroon roller-hockey shirt tonight. Something clicked though, I put it on and I began thinking about the days when I wore it for a reason. That shirt is almost six years old I think and she's on the way out. She's paper thin and holes are beginning to show. That makes me feel bad and I'm not sure why, it's just a stupid shirt right?

I really miss that, senior year playing hockey. I mean I'm nothing spectacular, although I've never had the chance to play against anyone that would really test me. Wow, that was full of ego. I miss the Thursday night with Brad Lash, and Meena Kim and her brother Eddie. I miss the scrubs like Tobey and the hotshots like Justin. I even miss watching Ed clip people skating across his crease with his stick. I miss yelling and being an unspoken captain. I miss competing at something I'm good at. I miss watching that ball drop and fighting for that goal. GOD. The smell of the Mundelien roller rink, the scratching of the velcro on the shin pads against my calves, the quater-sized blisters on the inside arches of my feet. All of it, I miss all of it. The energy, the pain, the people, the fun. I'd give anything to be involved again. And I'm sure there are places I can go, sign up for a league, meet new people, but that gets back to me questioning my skills. Listening to that hockey stick slap the ground and watching that ball just rocket. I miss doing something I loved. Sure, the team I was on lost...badly...alot, but they were cool kids, all of them gone from my life. I want to be out there again, skating hard, ignoring the burning and cramping from my leges, fighting the killer ache in me side and finally finding that point where the pain quiets and you play. You play so God damn hard that you don't exist anymore. It's you and that little orange ball and you just go. I need hockey. It's such a rush for me. Like I said, I'll never be a Gretzky, but man, I've had some moments that are stuck in my head like an image burned on a projection tv that drive me when i play. blood and sweat. blood and sweat. you have to do it to win. and to win you must compete.

UGH. Chalk this up to more things I'll rave about but never do...

HEY! LISTEN UP!

I want to remind people that my little bro, DJ PlaysHisGuitarInMyFaceAndAnnoysMeWithIt, will be DJing a set tonight of techno songs on the Southern Illinois University radiostation, WIDB. Mark will begin broadcasting at about 11:00 p.m.CST and should do some good work, I highly recommend checking it out. The program will play live via RealAudio which if you don't have SHOULD be provided by the website.

WIDB WIDB WIDB WIDB WIDB WIDB WIDB WIDB WIDB WIDB

Time for me to go home and die. If by any chance, I am alive tonight, the kitchen will be open.

"so i'll be like you and do what's right
and win a love i don't deserve out on the ice tonight
teach me the bluest song you know.
the moon ain't comin' up,
and I swear to god tonight it feels like snow..."

My God. I took a peek at Connie's blog. I really can't make much commentary on it actually. And from the sounds of it (prepare for sarcasm) I'm really (sarcasm loaded) going to (sarcasm fired) enjoy her company when she comes home. She got pretty intense, but that's my girl! ...and she...barked at some girls...huh...how about that.

So now I will share with you my day from hell.

6:25 a.m. CST - My sorry ass woke up. I felt terrible, and I was so tired. The ordeal with fighting the snow Monday really took it's toll on me. With all of my strength, I rolled over...and changed my alarm to wake me up at 6:45 a.m. in hopes that I would feel better twenty minutes later. I was wrong.

7:00 a.m. CST - I got out of the shower, and my mom babbles something about Union Station...compressors...switches...not working...30 minute to one hour delay. Whatever. I slug around until it's time to leave, I had to iron a pair of pants to go get all covered in dirty Chicago snow. Great.

7:35 a.m. CST - Dad drops me off at the station in Libertyville. All trains are arriving on time to Libertyville station...good sign...right?

7:55 a.m. CST - I board my usual train, sit in my usual spot, off we go.

9:00 a.m. CST - I should be getting off the train by now and walking to class. But I'm not. I'm still on the train and looking out the window at a nice line of Metras. As you can imagine...my excitment was uncontrollable.

9:30 a.m. CST - My English class starts at 9:30, I was just walking off the train. Time to hike through slush and wet and nasty and 8 degree weather (-14 windchill).

9:45 a.m. CST - Walking into my English class, normally a class of 16 people...there were 6...including me and the teacher. It was a cool class, I like small groups like that. Eliminates the people who feel like they can hide and not talk.

12:20 p.m. CST - Left class, I knew I wouldn't make the train. Called mom to tell her so. The weather was better, the sun felt good.

12:35 p.m. CST - I get to Union Station, I know when I get to the concourse, the train will be rolling away, so I grab some CrapDonald's for lunch. I wander on down to the trains and to my surprise, the 12:35 train is still there...huh. I call my mom to tell her I will be on the train and it is running late. So I go join some people looking very impatient to see that they are changing engines on the train. Okay, whatever. I can't understand something though. Everyone was watching the engine back in and get hooked up like the either knew themselves how to hook up a train engine or it was going to fool us all and speed away. Humans are a curious creature.

1:30 p.m. CST - I'm on the train and mom calls, she asks, "Are you on the train?" I tell her yes, then my battery dies. Great.

2:00 p.m. CST - We should be near Libertyville train station...but we're not. We are sitting in Roundout which is like a train depot, a hub for commuter and freight trains. At Roundout, all the tracks narrow down to one that heads north to Fox Lake. Well apparently, another train had died between Libertyville and Roundout and because there is only one track and a dead train in our way, we must wait patiently (patience, right Kyle?).

3:00 p.m. CST - Train finally rolls into Libertyville station. Super. No sight of mom, cell phone is dead, good thing I had change for the pay phone.

3:15 p.m. CST - Mom and I roll out of the station. She says she wanted to know if I was on the train because THIS happened shortly after I left. I miss all the fun.

3:30 p.m. CST - My poor truck, she was so cold and tired. I started her once I got home and by the time I left she was ready to roll.

3:45 p.m. CST - Got to work. Tired, cold, annoyed, headache, hungry.

5:40 p.m. CST - I'm still at work. All of the mentioned above can be reapplied here. I'm going home soon to an empty house and I will eat everything.

UGH...

Well, I just found out Kyle and Connie are in cahoots working on a blogger for her. I guess all is fair in love and blog. I didn't link it cause it needs some remodeling, but I also still have the UNUSED Eichhorn site to finish. Hmm, Con with free expression on the internet...boyfriend an easy target...gulp.

Thanks Kyle...really...

Captain America...he's kinda...swishy...

I need to finish Jeff's page.

Bruen said he and Uma went to get some photos done, some official BRUMA pictures. That's cool, maybe he'll scan one and throw it on his page somewhere. "Official" pictures are nice, yet I have this rare disorder where when someone tries to take my picture, something goes wrong with the film. Although in the case of Kyle's wedding pictures, there was nothing wrong with the film, rather something wrong with the photographer. Anyway, sitting down for someone and acting civil for fifteen minutes is still something Con and I have to work on (hi baby).

While we're talking about the Bruma, Jeff said something funny. He said (and I say this with no idea of what the future holds), "If Uma marries Bruen, she would be Uma Bruen. That's like we're calling both of them."