Up until this point, I most commonly worked on the show Community Connection, as studio crew and occasional segment producer / videographer / editor. Myself and the others working on the show have created a lot of interesting segments over the years. The show has always covered a very wide spectrum of things: theatre, music, community events, cooking, non-profit organizations, fundraisers, animals, product demos, authors, fitness, etc. I’ve always thought about whether or not this much variety was a good thing or a bad thing. I always thought that a viewer that might be interested in one segment wouldn’t be interested in the rest of the show.

I always wanted to put together a more focused show with an overall theme. Spooktacular was my chance. I took on this project entirely by myself and started working on the show long before ever getting approval for it to air. I figured, if worse comes to worse, I could just air it on public access. I titled the show “Spooktacular Chicago” because I thought it rolls off the tongue a little bit better than the original title. The show would be a single program that would cover haunted houses, but also any other Halloween and horror related events happening around Chicagoland. The plan was to have it air around Halloween.

I first decided to step up the production value and shoot it all in HD this time around. The decision created an additional challenge in the production process since I could no longer use the cameras I had at my office in Waukegan. I had to reserve and pick up the HD cams from the Elmhurst office. Not convenient by any means, but well worth the picture quality.

I knew I’d be working my ass off on this show come October, since that was when all the haunted houses would be up and running. So I scoured the internet to see if there were any horror related events in the off season that I could shoot and edit in a leisurely manner. I came up with several ideas, the first being Zombie Walk 2011. This event was scheduled for a Saturday afternoon in June. Basically, hundreds of people dress up like zombies and parade around downtown Chicago. What made it particularly appealing is the fact that it was going on in June. No one expects to see someone dressed up like a zombie in the summertime.

I headed downtown with Stephanie Brooks (my field correspondent) and an HD camera package. The zombies were gathering by The Bean in Millennium Park. This event was a goldmine for video. There zombies everywhere! And a wide variety of different kinds. We did some interviews before the march started. We actually got some good ones. I loved the fact that there were zombies intermixed with tourists, and even wedding parties that had come down to the park to take pictures.

When the march began, I would say that there were at least 500 zombies, probably more. I came prepared to be very mobile on this shoot. No tripod, just a backpack with necessities: batteries, microphone, etc. And the camera of course. The HD cam was light enough to easily carry around all day. It was a pleasure to shoot with.

On this shoot, it was pretty much impossible not to get great footage. Most zombies hammed it up as soon as you pointed a camera at them. The most challenging part was keeping up with the march, and trying to get in different parts of the line, so you’re not shooting the same zombies the whole time. I did a lot of running.

I was very fun to see the reactions from the regulars on the street. The zombies seemed to catch everyone off guard. At one point we tried to take a shortcut to get back to the front of the march. We lost them for a little while because they diverted slightly from the original march route. It was kinda comical running down streets, cutting through alleys, trying to get back to the zombies.

The shoot was pretty much perfect. Lots of great footage, lots of great interviews, Stephanie had great presence on camera, and the weather was nice.

The next shoot was scheduled for September. I contacted Weird Chicago Tours about shooting a segment with them. Basically, I wanted to feature one location that could be seen on one of their tours. A place with a good story, and that we could get access to for shooting. They were excited about being involved with my show and knew the perfect place to feature. It was called Flounder’s Bar and Grill in Chicago. They actually did an investigation there, which turned up evidence of paranormal activity.

They said that no one had taped a segment there before, so we would be the first ones to tell the story. They set up the shoot with the bar owner and we were good to tape on a Tuesday afternoon. Stephanie and I cruised down there in a Comcast van, brought in our camera gear and started taping some interviews. We interviewed Ken, the owner of Weird Chicago tours, about the history of the building. A pretty crazy story I must say. He was very well spoken.

Then we interviewed Sunny, one of the Weird Chicago tour guides. She talked more about the investigation that they did at the bar. Finally, we interviewed Matt, the bar owner. He had countless stories of unexplainable things that have happened over the years. Ken and Sunny had to leave early, but we stayed at the bar for a while with Matt to get some b-roll. The bar was closed at the time, so we had a free run of the place.

At one point we ventured into the creepy basement. I really wanted to see the hidden room that was uncovered during the investigation. Matt allowed me to go back there with the camera. He and Stephanie stayed behind. It involved walking over a bunch of stuff tucked in nook, and then climbing through a small hole punched into the drywall. It was super dirty, super creepy, but super fun!

I also convinced Matt to let us explore the abandoned apartment upstairs. It also had quite the creepy vibe to it. After shooting some more video inside and outside the bar, we grabbed some Pequod’s Pizza from next door and then hit the road.

Towards the end of September, things really started rolling with the show. I got the green light to air it on CN100, which was great! Haunted houses were opening soon, so I knew things were about to get busy. The Dungeon of Doom in Zion was actually doing a special event their opening weekend. The building that they use for their haunted house is actually supposed to be haunted for real. So they were bringing in a psychic to do a late night paranormal investigation, and they were selling a limited amount of tickets to the general public to join them. I tried contacting them to get the okay to shoot the event, but never heard back. Then, reading the description of the event, I saw that they actually encourage people to bring their own cameras to record their own experiences. So I just decided to buy a couple tickets and just show up with a camera.

I went with Colleen that night. The whole event was very disappointing. They split you off into groups and took you into several rooms with the psychic. They used something called a ghost box, which supposedly turns any ghostly energy into words so you can actually communicate with the spirits. Well, in reality, it just sounded like a lot of radio interference. Kinda like turning an analog radio dial back and forth between stations. The investigators claimed to hear certain words after they asked questions to the ghosts. All I heard was a bunch of static.

After going through some rooms in smaller groups, we all gathered in one large room for the séance. Seeing the process first hand was kinda interesting. But nothing really happened. Just more ghost box BS. I was really hoping to have an experience that night. But nothing happened. I recorded video the entire time, but it was a waste. I didn’t even bother to do any interviews, because I didn’t really want to make a segment out of it since nothing really happened. A total bust.

I told the Dungeon of Doom owner that I was still interested in doing a piece on the actual haunted house and that I would contact him. Of course, no response. Whatever dude, there’s plenty more haunted houses that I could cover. If you don’t want the free advertising, then I won’t give it to ya.

A couple days later we went to the Basement of the Dead in Aurora. It was the 1^st weekend in October, so it had just opened. I headed out there with my friend Sammie Nieves who was going to be my field correspondent.

We had planned to get out there an hour before they opened, but we ran into some traffic, and then had a little trouble finding it since it was in a little bit of a strange location downtown. By the time we got in there, it was about 15 minutes until they opened. Luckily, it was a Sunday night and a little slow. So we were able to do a few interviews backstage, and then walk the haunt with the camera rolling before the general public started to go through. I decided to walk through the house with the Frezzi light on the entire time. Sure, it ruined the experience for myself, but at least I captured video that you could actually see! Haunted houses are so dark that your footage will most likely turn out like shit if don’t have some type of external light source. After the walkthrough, we interviewed one of the managers outside, got a little crowd footage, and we were done! They were very accommodating. I think it took us less than an hour.

I’m still amazed at how efficiently this shoot went. I think I learned a lot from when we did the original Spooktacular in 2007. The first haunted house we shot that year we had a crew of 4 people. We had 3 cameras going, some at the same time, so we had a lot of redundant footage. We taped way too many interviews and we were there for hours. I knew exactly what we needed to put this segment together, and what we didn’t need. My years of editing packs for Community Connection probably also contributed to my extreme efficiency.

Since we got done pretty early, we had time to grab a beer at Ballydoyle’s Irish pub, which was basically connected to the building where the haunted house was.

The next weekend we covered Psychosis Haunted House in Elgin. I could not make it out that weekend since I was standing up in my friend Alex’s wedding, so I got Fernando to be the videographer and Stephanie as the field correspondent. They did a pretty good job.

By this time I had posted an ad on Craigslist for a show host, and had many, many responses. There was a wide variety of people. You can tell that some were just models with little to no TV experience. First and foremost, I was looking for someone who had some TV experience. With limited time for this project, I needed a host that wasn’t going to have to do 15 takes of every line of script.

The front runner was a girl named Tierza. I liked her look and she had a good camera presence so I set up a meeting. At the meeting, we immediately hit it off, exchanging stories about ghosts and haunted locations. I knew she was going to be perfect for this. It’s always a plus when the host is actually into the subject matter of the show.

We made plans to shoot the wrap-arounds on a Tuesday afternoon in mid-October. For the location, I had decided on the Comcast building in Libertyville. The building used to be a customer service center and offices, but now is basically abandoned. The only thing that remains is some headend equipment and a small playback system for a government access channel. There is usually no one around.

I knew I wanted to shoot outside, and I thought that the back parking lot would work out great. It was gated off, so no one had driven on it in years. There were tall weeds growing though cracks in the pavement, rusty fences with barbed wire, etc. I thought it would make excellent ambiance.

I got Fernando on board for the wrap-around shoot, which helped me out tremendously. He ran camera, so I was able to focus on the script and make sure Tierza was getting all her lines down. It was also great to have him there as another set of creative eyes when it came to the framing and the angles of the different shots. The day would not have gone nearly as smoothly if he was not there.

What also helped too was Tierza’s ear prompter. I had never heard of such a thing before. Basically, she was able to record herself reading the lines of script onto a small digital recorder. And then she listened to them back with an earpiece while we were shooting. No memorization, no cue cards, brilliant!

I came up with the idea to call the field correspondents “Horrorspondents”. We decided that this would work fine for graphics, but it was too awkward for the host to say out loud when introducing them. It sounded too much like she was calling them whores.

We shot the wrap-arounds in six different locations; four different areas in the old parking lot, and two on the railroad tracks behind the building. I was hoping for an overcast day, but it actually started off quite sunny. Some clouds eventually rolled in, but it was back and forth between sun and shade. Every time the clouds rolled in I would roll quickly to try and capture the shot before the sun came back. There were other obstacles as well, like the horde of landscapers armed with mowers, weed whackers and leaf blowers, all taking care of the surrounding buildings in the business park. This wreaked havoc on my audio, so we actually had to alter one of the shooting locations because it was just too damn loud. We also were interrupted several times by passing trains. However, we did manage to wrap up right on schedule. The footage turned out great!

At this point, everything was shot, except for the final haunted house: The Realm of Terror in Round Lake Beach. I went out there with Sammie. This was probably my favorite haunt out of the 3. I really liked how you were almost a part of it while walking through. You had to open doors to get from room to room, and there were some rooms that you actually had to walk around props and actors just to get through the room. You really couldn’t get by without brushing up against them. They also did great with the asylum theme throughout the house. Even with my frezzi light on the entire time, I still got startled a few times.

That was it for shooting. Now for editing. I had gotten Josh Price on board to create a show intro. I knew he was skilled in After Effects, so I was confident that he could put something together pretty cool. I gave him some footage and still images, and he went to work. When I saw the completed piece, I was floored! I had never expected it to turn out that good. I was extremely happy with it.

When it came to editing, I was on my own for everything else. I had already finished the Zombie Walk segment, but I still had all the others to finish. I worked day after day editing the show, until it was perfect. As usual, I spent a lot of time trying to find the perfect music for each segment. The most challenging part was to fit everything into a 30 minute show. It was so tough! I was literally going through everything with a fine tooth comb, seeing where I could make cuts. Even doing as much as cutting out a pause or an “um” between someone’s sentences, just to save a second. In Community Connection, if we are running over on a show, we could just take a segment out and use it in the next show. But since this was a special, I did not have that luxury.

I finally got the show done and was very pleased with the result. I mastered the show in HD and burnt a blu-ray copy for myself. I had to create a standard-def version for airing though, which sucked because it looks so great in HD! It would be nice if we were able to broadcast in HD someday.

The show started airing the week before Halloween and was on once a day until November 1^st. It was supposed to go On-Demand as well, but there was some kind of “technical issue” and actually didn’t get up there until the first week of November. That kinda pissed me off, but at least it got up there.

The response from the show was good, and I felt like I spent a lot of time promoting it. It’s too bad it only aired a week though. Overall, my role as the producer of the show was a great experience. It was lots of fun, but also very time consuming. I felt like I spent entire days sending email, calling people, and searching the internet, all for Spooktacular Chicago. I was setting up shoots with haunted houses, coordinating those shoots with field correspondents, searching for a show host, securing airdates on CN100, setting up a Facebook page. Even after the show was complete, I was still hard at work promoting the show on Facebook, burning and sending out DVD’s, encoding the segments and putting them online.

It was a lot of work, but it was a labor of love. Can’t wait for next year!

There were no direct flights there from Chicago, so we had a connecting flight in Newark, NJ. The flight from Newark to Nantucket was a little scary at first. Probably the worst turbulence I’ve ever experienced. I can handle a little erratic shaking, but when the plane makes little dips, that’s when it gets scary. It was the same sensation that you have when you go down a big hill on a roller coaster, when you lift up in your seat, except it was just for a split second at random times. We only experienced this during the first 15 minutes or so, and then the ride got much smoother.

The Nantucket airport was very small and so different from what we are used to at O’Hare. There are no connecting hallways at the terminals. You exit the plane via staircase onto the runway. The baggage claim area was about the size of your average convenience store with 3 windowed garage doors on one wall. Your luggage is removed from the plane and put onto a handcart. The employee rolls the cart over to one of the garage doors, opens it up and throws the luggage through the door. You then walk 20 feet and you are outside in front of the airport to claim a taxi.  Definitely the smallest airport I’ve ever seen.

We hopped in a taxi to get into town. Paula was our driver and she was fantastic. She was very social and friendly, unlike most Chicago cab drivers. She took us on a little back alley tour of town, telling us lots of things about the town and the island. A very nice start to the trip!

Paula dropped us off at our bed & breakfast, The Brass Lantern Inn. It’s a 3 story house that was built in the late 1800’s very close to downtown. Upon our arrival, we walked in and had to search around a bit for an employee. We finally came across someone, a guy in his late teens / early 20’s. He gave us our key and showed us to our room. We were on the 2^nd floor, facing the street. Our room had several windows and was decorated very traditionally with floral wallpaper and one of those beds with the tall corner posts and the fabric draping over the top. It was quaint and charming.

After settling into our room, we decided to hit the town, which was a 2 minute walk down the street. Downtown Nantucket has tons of shops, bars and restaurants. One thing I found interesting is that there are no chain stores or restaurants on the entire island. Everything is independently owned. I think it’s the only place on earth that you’ll never pass a McDonalds or a Starbucks. Also, Nantucket is very strict about historic preservation. There are no big bright neon signs on the shops. All businesses have the old style painted wood signs that hang above the door. And pretty much every building is either old, or very very old. Additionally, several of the streets downtown are still made of cobblestones, which is great for aesthetics, not so great for biking, which I’ll cover later in this blog post.

We hit up some of the shops, the first one was called The Emporium of Nantucket. It had a lot of neat seafaring items like telescopes, sextants, compasses, etc. There were all made to look old, and were reasonably priced, which was very surprising. I ended up buying a seafarers telescope for $40. Collapsed, it was about 6 inches, but telescoped out to about 2 feet long.  I liked the “old school” focus, which you actually have to adjust the length to a perfect spot to put it in focus.

Since we both like antiques, we decided to check out an antique shop. However, this shop was like none we’ve ever experienced. This shop included a lot of glassware, silver and porcelain items. After seeing an ornate set of serving bowls for $4000, we concluded that this shop was way out of our price range and decided to leave. There were a lot of high end shops downtown. We walked through a couple of art galleries with really beautiful, but really expensive artwork.

There are also a lot of restaurants downtown, many of them quite pricey. The fact that all the restaurants had their menus posted outside their doors made choosing one a lot easier. Even with all the options, it was still a little bit of a challenge picking places to eat with Colleen being a vegetarian. The vegetarian options were a little bit limited.

The first night we decided on a place called “The Tavern” and got a table outside. I ate a stuffed flounder that was to die for! Colleen enjoyed her specialty salad and we both enjoyed several rum based drinks.

The next day we rented a two person moped.  I have never driven a 2 wheeled vehicle other than a bicycle before, so this was a new and challenging experience for me. The three minute overview of the moped with a staff member, and a quick ride around the block was hardly enough to make me comfortable riding it. But we went for it anyway. Having Colleen riding on the back made it additionally challenging. It was quite stressful leaving the rental place, since it was mid-day and there was lots of traffic in that section of downtown.

I got very discouraged at first. It felt like the first time I drove a car with stick. It was nerve racking enough to know that I’d have to keep myself from crashing and hurting myself. But to also be responsible for Colleen’s safety, that made it even more so.

After a bit of practice on some less congested streets, I started to feel a little more comfortable riding it. I eventually was able to balance better and got a better feel for accelerating and braking. The worst part was riding it on the cobblestone streets. It felt like the bike was going to fall apart into a million pieces. I did my best to avoid them, but we couldn’t avoid them entirely since our b&b was on a cobblestone street.

Our first adventure on the moped was to Surfside Beach, on the south side of the island. This was by far my favorite beach. The waves were really big! Not so big that you fear drowning, but just big enough to throw you around a little. So much fun, I could have stayed there for hours just jumping in the waves. It was pretty sunny out that day, and the path from the beach to the parking lot was all sand…very hot sand. As we walked down it in bare feet it got hotter and hotter until it was almost unbearable. It felt like walking across hot coals. I ended up sprinting down the path just so I could get off of it. I did not have sandals, just shoes, and I didn’t want to put them on with wet and sandy feet.

Getting back to the parking lot, we found that some jackass in an SUV parked in our moped. I was still able to get it out, but had to squeeze my body along one side of the car and walk the moped and maneuver it though a small opening between cars. I decided to write a profane message on the SUV’s dirty back window.

We headed back north, and explored the outer perimeter of the town. We came across a really old cemetery and decided to stop and take a look. I took tons of pictures. Within the cemetery, there were several smaller areas that were sectioned off by low fences and very ornate gates. It looked as if each family had their own section. It was very interesting.

We also checked out Jetties Beach, on the north side of the island, very close to town. We didn’t swim here, but just walked around and explored. The water was MUCH calmer here. Hardly any waves at all. One thing that was really interesting about this beach was the amount of shells on the shoreline. Thousands of tiny little shell fragments everywhere! This beach also had a nice looking restaurant / bar area overlooking the water. The food smelled great and the drink menu looked tasty, so we made it a point to go back there on another day.

After our daytime moped exploration, we hit the town later that night. We ate dinner at Cy’s Lobster Pot, where there was a really good female singer and acoustic guitarist performing. I ended up talking to her for a couple minutes during one of her breaks. She was from Ireland, and said that the economy is pretty bad in Ireland and there aren’t a lot of jobs. So a lot of young people come to places like Nantucket for the summer to work. She have us one of her demo CD’s with some original songs on it. We listened to it later that night back at our room. Pretty good!

I think by this time, Colleen realized that heels were not the best shoe choice for Nantucket. It was quite difficult for her to walk the cobblestone streets and sidewalks wearing 5 inch stilettos. Oh well. You live, you learn.

We had the moped for one more day, so we decided to take advantage the best we could. We cruised over to Sconset, on the east coast of the island. The road there was basically the expressway of the island. It was a very straight road, one lane in each direction, with a speed limit of 45 mph. I did get the moped up to 45 mph, even though technically we weren’t supposed to drive it faster than 25. But even driving 45mph, people in cars still passed us.  

Sconset is a quaint little village. All the houses are much smaller, and very old, a lot dating back to the 1700’s, some from even the 1600’s. A trend in this village is to grow roses on the walls and the roofs of your home. This made the whole village very picturesque.

Just north of the village is the Sankaty Head Lighthouse, which we went and explored. It was very foggy out that day, so you couldn’t even see the ocean. But it did give the whole place a very cool effect. We met some fellow tourists who were nice enough to take our picture by the lighthouse. One of them actually knew a little about photography, posed us and framed up the shots very well. That was probably the best “asking a stranger to take our picture” experience that I’ve ever had.

Apparently there was a steep cliff on the coastline which we could have seen by the lighthouse on a normal day, but since it was so foggy, we couldn’t see shit. One of the guys in the other group of tourists told us that we should go explore this abandoned lot back off the main road to go see the cliff. We left the lighthouse and started going back down the main road when we came across an overgrown lot with a No Trespassing sign. We figured that this had to be what the guy was taking about. We parked the bike and walked 2 steps onto the property when we heard the voice of some old lady from the house on the other side of the street. “Don’t even think about going over there!” she said in her crabby ass voice. Not wanting to piss off the locals, we aborted that mission, got back on the bike and got out of there.

It was kinda sad when we had to return the moped later that afternoon. I had gotten really comfortable riding it. I asked Colleen if she wanted to give it a try, but she declined. I think she saw my frustration trying to learn it the first day, and figured she would get equally as frustrated. She enjoyed riding on the back while I drove. And she did an excellent job of recording some video while she was back there too.

That night we went on a haunted tour of Nantucket. It was a walking tour that took you to 5 different locations around town. Our tour guide was quite the character, and he told a story at each stop. Interesting and entertaining.

Later that night, we decided to walk down to Jetties Beach to look for hermit crabs, or other signs of life. It was probably around midnight or so. It was really dark and no one was around. What started out kinda creepy turned out to be quite romantic. Just me and Colleen with the entire beach to ourselves, looking at the stars.

The following day we rented 2 bicycles. We toyed with the idea of renting a tandem bike, but I think it would just be too hard to control. Our destination this day was the west side of the island. There is a nice bike path all along Madaket Road, which leads all the way to the west coast. About halfway there, we ventured off the path to check out Dionis Beach, another beach on the north coast. It was kinda off the beaten path, so there weren’t nearly as many people there. We went for a quick swim. The water was pretty calm, similar to Jetties Beach.

Back on the bikes, I was planning our route back to the bike path. We could have gone back the way we came, but looking at the map, it seemed to backtrack a bit. With the help of Google Maps on my phone, I planned an alternate route back to the path. Well, this didn’t turn out so well. Eel Point Road went from pavement to dirt pretty quickly. I kept checking Google for alternate routes, but roads that appeared to be on the map didn’t seem to be there in real life.

We eventually turned off onto Landing Road. Why this was even labeled a road is still a mystery to me. It was nothing more than a 2 foot wide dirt path though a prairie of tall grasses and little trees. You would not be able to drive a car down it, even if you did have 4 wheel drive. It also was not marked by any kind of sign. The only reason I had any idea of where we were headed was the GPS on my phone. Thanks Sprint!

At this point, Colleen was irritated and said that she would be temporarily divorcing me. But when the shitty dirt path finally lead back to the main paved bike path, she decided to re-marry me.

We were back on track, but kinda tired and thirsty. That was when we came across some kids selling cups of Tang on the bike path. Score! It was a nice little break after the rugged and bug infested detour. We were actually their first customers. We chatted with their parents for a bit and got a picture with the kids before we left.

We finally made it to Madaket Beach on the west side of the island. Before we went swimming, we stopped for lunch at Nellie’s, which overlooked the coastline. A little over priced for lunch food, but it was tasty. I got several comments on my Goonies shirt, which seems to happen a lot when I wear it on vacation.

Down at the beach, the waves were very intense. There were a lot of people on the sand, but very few people out in the water. Most people didn’t go more than a few feet in. You could stand in an area that had no water, a wave would come, and then in an instant there was water up to your waist. It felt a little too dangerous to go much further out.

Time kinda flew by. We had to leave because we need to return our bikes by 6. I was actually worried that we wouldn’t make it back to town in time. We high tailed it back with no ridiculous detours this time and made it back to the bike shop before they closed. I was very impressed by Colleen’s biking skills. She was a trooper. She said that her rental bike was actually much easier to ride that her one at home.

That night we went to a place called The Chicken Box. It was a little bit of a grungier place on the outskirts of town. It had a college bar type atmosphere. We got there a little earlier, so there was hardly a crowd at all. This was nice, because we avoided a cover charge, and we got dibs on the shuffle board and pool tables. That night there was a classic hip hop cover band playing, who were actually really good and a lot of fun. The place got very crowded when the band went on. We took a cab home that night, but I completely forgot to close out my tab at the end of the night. This was apparently a common occurrence, because when I went to pick up my credit card a couple days later, the bartender had to find my card in a stack of 20 or 30 cards.

The next day was our “history day”. We spent a couple hours at the Whaling Museum. Very interesting and informative. We strolled around town taking lots of picture of buildings and such. It is very easy to get lost in town. The streets are laid out in no order whatsoever. Some are very narrow and not well marked. A map is your best friend when exploring Nantucket.

We made it over to a tour of the oldest operating windmill in the U.S., built in 1746. We also went for a tour of the oldest house on Nantucket, built in 1686. There was a garden in the back of the house which replicated a garden that they would have had back in those days. The tour guide was talking about all the plants and we actually got to taste a lot of the veggies and herbs right off the stems. It was an unexpected end to a great tour. We also checked out the old jail, which did not have a formal tour, but you could walk into and check out.

We also found ourselves exploring more cemeteries, including the “Colored Cemetery”. We were really intrigued by the cemeteries on Nantucket, probably because of how old they were.

One of the nights we ate dinner at a place called The Brotherhood of Thieves. I liked the décor of this place a lot. It had a very medieval feel to it. It reminded me of Lord of the Rings: when the hobbits first get to Bree and go into the pub where they first meet Aragorn. Our food was great. I also got a beer sampler of local microbrews.

The last night on Nantucket, we attempted to go out to Jetties Beach for dinner and drinks. We spent 10 bucks for a short cab ride there, only to find out that the place was closing soon and the grill was closed. Apparently, once the sun goes down, the place clears out and they close. We took too long to get ready and got out there way too late. We didn’t want to make it an entirely wasted trip there, so we ordered some drinks from the bar. They were overpriced and not that good. The trip to Jetties was a total bust. Refusing to waste money on another cab ride, we walked back to town in attempt to redeem our night.

We made it over to the Rose & Crown, and we were lucky enough to put in a food order right before the kitchen closed. Soon after getting our food, karaoke night started at the bar. I actually ended up singing a couple songs:  “Call and Answer” by Barenaked Ladies, and “Longview” by Green Day. The atmosphere was just right for karaoke. It wasn’t too crowded, and there wasn’t a whole lot of people signing up to sing. So there really wasn’t much of a wait from the time you sign up, til the time you get to sing.

The next day was a Monday, and our final day on Nantucket. Our flight wasn’t til the afternoon, so we decided we had time for one last adventure. We packed up our luggage and checked out of our room. We then headed down to the pier for a ride on a sailboat, which took you up and down the coastline. It was a very nice ending to the trip. And it gave me a chance to use my nautical telescope that I bought the first day.

Our last meal before heading to the airport was at the Even Keel Café. They had a nice little outdoor patio. I got to enjoy one last bowl of clam chowder. We actually ran into Laura Cunningham, the Irish girl who was performing in the bar several days before. Apparently her day job is a server at the Even Keel. How crazy!

We made it back to our b&b to get our luggage and call for a cab. We called the same cab company that picked us up from the airport when we arrived. We were hoping to get Paula, because it would have been a fun ending to the trip to talk to her and tell her about all of our adventures. But instead we got Chunky (at least that’s what the business cards said), a large hairy man wearing overalls who was not the least bit social. Oh well.

At the airport, it took all of about 10 minutes from the time we got out of the cab, checked in, through security, and at our gate. Freakin’ amazing!

The flight home was fine, but we were returning home to an absolute disaster. There was a huge storm in the Chicago area that morning, knocking out power to something like 800,000 homes, including ours. The power was out for the next 5 days. Anyways, that’s another story.

I have little regrets about our Nantucket trip, but I wish we would have had a better bed & breakfast experience. Don’t get me wrong, the Brass Lantern Inn was nice. I liked our room and the old style architecture. The patio was also nice….I sat out there several mornings to drink my coffee and read a magazine. The location was great (very close to downtown) and the chocolate chip cookies they put out in the afternoon were amazing!

 It’s kinda hard to compare this place with anywhere we’ve stayed in the past, since it was our first time staying in a bed and breakfast. But we didn’t feel like we really got that personal touch that we were expecting. We had little to no interaction with the staff, except when they were clearing our plates at breakfast or when we happened to say hi when passing them in the hallway. Also, their orange juice at breakfast was not good. It was usually not very cold and very pulpy. Bleh! Staying there was fine, but if we went back I would almost definitely try out another b&b.

To sum up Nantucket…it is a gorgeous place. It’s so much fun to just wander around, because everything is just so visually interesting. The architecture is really cool. There are flowers everywhere! It’s like a storybook village. I really like the historical aspect to the island. It can be relaxing, romantic and adventurous. The food options were endless. The weather was nice. I felt safe everywhere we went.  We got to know the island so well by the end that it kinda felt like home. The only downside was that it was kinda pricey.  But the whole vacation just blew us away. It was even more fun than both of us anticipated.

We loaded up Twix in the cat carrier, along with all the other stuff we had packed up for the weekend in Missourri. About 15 minutes into the trip, we noticed a smell...a bad one. After hearing some scratching coming from the cat carrier, we realized that she shit in there. We had to pull over, take her out of the carrier, and dump the shit out on the side of the road. Nasty. Twix ended up sitting on Colleen's lap the rest of the way to Adam's.

It seemed that Twix had just as much fun at Adam's as we did in Missourri that weekend. On our way home on Memorial Day, we picked her up. We decided not put her in the cat carrier on the way home. Colleen drove the hour and a half from Adam's to our house, so Twix sat on my lap the entire way home. About 2/3 of the home, Twix started getting restless. I kept having to hold her down on my lap, because I didn't want her to jump on Colleen and impair her driving abilities. That's when it happened.

A lump of shit the size of a White Castle hamburger suddenly appeared on my lap. It was all over my shirt, shorts, and the seat belt. The horrific scent soon followed, and both me and Colleen were gagging. We rolled down the windows and immediately pulled over. I threw Twix onto the floor, jumped out of the car as shit flung off of me in all directions. Completely pissed off, I grabbed a roll of paper towels and started wiping myself off the best I could. Colleen was in the car wiping off the seat belt. That is when Twix decided to jump out of the open passenger side window.

So now we are chasing Twix in pitch darkness on the side of Route 59 in the outskirts of Barrington. She had no interest in coming over to us, she just wanted to run around and explore. While chasing after her, I stepped in a muddy, watery drainage hole, soaking my right foot. Colleen was freaking out that if we didn't catch her, we would lose her forever. Somehow we managed to corner her right before she ran into an opening in a fence. I grabbed her, walked with her to the car and shoved her back in her cat carrier.

So with one wet shoe and clothes smelling of poop, we drove the rest of the way home. What an ordeal! Someone really needs to invent cat diapers.

The mall was an absolute zoo. If you ever wondered where all the high school kids are on a Saturday in winter, just walk into Gurnee Mills and you’ll have your answer. First on my agenda was to hit up JC Penney to look for the black coat I wanted. I headed down towards the butt end of the mall where no one usually goes, by Rinkside. This is where JC Penney was. Or at least, that’s where it used to be. The former entrance was completely covered up. It was almost blended in with the rest if the wall, leaving little trace that there even used to be a store there.

Just my luck. I swear, whenever I go to a store looking for a specific item, I can NEVER find what I am looking for. Not only could I not find the item, but I couldn’t even find the store itself! This, my friends, is why I try to do most of my shopping online, to avoid wasted trips to the mall.

I tried to not let it be a wasted trip, so I started browsing some stores for some other things. I’ve been on a quest for a zip up sweat shirt without a hood. I currently have a green one that I got from Old Navy many years ago. It was of those “pre-distressed” styles that looked good when I bought it. But over time and washing it, those fake worn out areas turn into gigantic holes and now the thing is falling apart! And it was my favorite! I’ve been looking for a replacement for about a year, but to no avail.

Here was my criteria: 1.) Well sewn, no fake holes! 2.) Color is some sort of earth tone 3.) Zipper goes up full length of the front  4.) No hood  5.) No large logos

I browsed several stores at the mall including the Gap, Aeropostale, American Eagle, etc. Nothing, nothing, nothing! I found a lot of cool hoodies, but I already have plenty of hoodies. I needed one without a hood. The ones I did find without a hood were pull overs. They only had a zipper going part way down. FAIL!

When I had almost given up, I decided to wander into Banana Republic. I don’t believe I have ever stepped foot in one before, but I decided, what the hell do I have to lose? This turned out  to be a really good decision. I found the exact sweatshirt I was looking for, meeting all the criteria! The original price was $50, which I would have gladly paid for such a hard to find item. But it was on sale for $15, score! I almost considered buying two, one to store away for when the first one gets destroyed. I picked up 3 other items, all on clearance. Normal priced, I would have paid $150-$200 for all my items. But my final tab was something like $52. My trip to the mall wasn’t a waste after all.



If my calculations are correct, this would be my 10^th Superbowl delivering pizzas. And it was by far the craziest I had ever seen. I showed up just before 5pm. The rush was already in full force. There were no drivers in the store, and there were about 6 or 7 orders ready to go. I was immediately out on the road. Every time I returned to the store, there were more and more people flooding the lobby, waiting for their pizzas. The phones kept ringing non-stop. The orders were backing up quick. It got so bad that the manager ordered everyone to ignore the phones…to just let them ring. Orders placed online, however, still got through. We had no control over that.

At this point we were 200 pizzas behind. We had enough staff, we just didn’t have enough oven space to cook pizzas to keep up with the demand. At the peak of the madness, delivery time was between 2 – 2 ½ hours.

I made sure to call each of my customers when I got in the car to apologize for the long wait and to let them know that I was on my way. I think people appreciated that. It was also a good idea to call, because I know a lot of these people were probably calling the store, wondering where their order was, but they couldn’t get through. It was very likely that they could have just given up and made other arrangements for food. If this was the case, it would save a lot of time if I knew this before I left the parking lot.

I was lucky enough to not have any pissed off customers. Other drivers were not so lucky. One driver reported having his shoes spit on by a customer. Hearing this story, I don’t know how he kept his cool. If I were in that situation, that customer would have probably had that pizza thrown in his fucking face.

Pickups were almost as bad. Since I was in and out the door most of the night, I didn’t get to experience the pick up customers all that much. But when I did have to walk past them, they did have the vibe of angry villagers with torches and pitch forks. One man especially got completely irate about the long wait. Apparently, he made one of the cashier girls cry. I did not witness this, since I was on a delivery at the time, but I believe it. He was a fucking asshole.

To add to the insanity of the night, I had altercation of sorts out in the parking lot. I was returning from a delivery and the parking lot was packed. I parked on the far side down by the Seven 11. I got out of my car and this guy in a pickup truck asks why I’m parking there. I noticed a plow on the front of his truck and asked him if he need to plow this area. (because I would have gladly moved my car) This is when he starts giving me an attitude “You need to park down by Papa Johns! I don’t give a shit if you have to park in the alley! I own this strip mall!”

Really, I didn’t give a shit who this guy was. I would have liked to punch him in the fucking face. But he got back in his truck and left. Maybe if the cock sucker would do a better job plowing the parking lot, we’d have more spots down by our store. But I digress…

Overall, the night was complete madness. We stopped taking orders for at least 2 hours, maybe more. There were over 300 orders taken over the course of the day. I think the only way we could have improved our service was to have another oven and make line. We just couldn’t cook pizzas fast enough. I wonder how many customers we lost today. I wonder how many Superbowl parties we ruined. It sucks that customers had to wait as long as they did. But everyone should understand that no one gets a pizza fast during the Superbowl. That’s just the way it is. If you want fast pizza for Superbowl, get DiGiorno.

            I drove down there this year with Colleen in the Prius. This was the first year in quite some time that I didn’t have a 3^rd passenger. This allowed me for more cargo space to fit some extra items like my homemade baggo boards, a badminton net, and a fold up canopy for when it rains. With the 2 coolers, box of food, and both our bags of clothes, we had a pretty packed car.

            The Glencoe pavilion (which covers all the picnic tables that we all populate with endless amounts of food and drink) is quite old and has definitely seen better days. There are several spots in the corrugated metal roof that have rusted through, and thus always leak water when it rains. You may be lucky enough to claim the one picnic table that is beneath no holes. Otherwise you’ll have to come prepared to defend your paper plates and box of cereal against a constant drip of water when it rains. I have learned to store everything in plastic containers. Nobody likes soggy hot dog buns.

            This year I decided to take it a step further and bring my folding canopy. My plan was to set it up underneath the pavilion to stop the torrential waterfall when it inevitably rains. Of course, the year I come prepared, it doesn’t rain at all. I can’t recall a Glencoe in the past 10 years in which it hasn’t rained at least one of the days down there. It was quite nice actually.

            It seems like a lot of the time down at Glencoe is spent prepping and grilling food. But we managed to fit some other activities throughout the weekend. Something new this year was an afternoon of canoeing. On Saturday, we rented 7 or 8 canoes and took a 6 miles trek down a nearby river. Before we left, the canoes were claimed, one by one. The last canoe that was left had an ant infestation. Sarah, of course, was the only person left to claim a canoe and the most likely person to complain about the ants, so it was kinda funny. The canoe people dunked the canoe under the water, and then dumped the water out, drowning all the ants.

            Colleen, who was in my canoe, was worried about not being strong enough to row the whole way. However, I thought she did surprisingly well. It was quite sunny out too and we were sure to load up with plenty of sun block. A similar length canoe trip with some friends 10 years ago, we didn’t have any sunblock. And that resulted in the worst sun burn that I’ve ever had. I didn’t want a repeat incident.

            Part way through the canoe trek, there was a cool rocky cliff off the side of the river. Brian expressed his interest in jumping off the cliff, as he went to shore to look for a way up. Before we let Brian jump, we had Jonah get out of his canoe and check the depth of the water where Brian would be jumping. It was actually pretty deep.

            Brian jumped, and Jeremiah followed. I joked with Colleen, saying, “So are you going next?” I really had no intention of either of us jumping, but Colleen thought otherwise. She actually convinced me to climb up the cliff! This involved climbing up an extremely steep and extremely muddy slope.

Colleen was grossed out by all the mud, but made it up there eventually. While on top of the cliff, various people in the river below egged us on, but we were both extremely nervous about jumping. We compromised by jumping from a slightly lower ledge (about 4 feet lower). It was still pretty high, probably about as high as a high jump diving board. I went first and Colleen followed, screaming the whole way down before she hit the water.

Sometimes I am amazed by Colleen’s adventurousness. This was definitely one of those days. I would never have jumped off the cliff if it wasn’t for her. I’m glad that we did, and it was something that we shared together.

Our caravan of canoes made one more pit stop along the river to eat our lunches and to swim for a bit. But once we got to the second half of the trip, I think a lot of us were starting to get worn out. I know Colleen and I were.

All in all, it was a very fun trip, and I think it just might be a new Glencoe tradition.

The canoeing was definitely the highlight of the trip, but we also had fun doing other things as well. On Sunday, Sarah, John, Colleen and I went to the zoo in St. Louis. We got to pet sting rays, which was pretty cool.

Back at the pavilion, it seemed like all the kids (Isaac, Caden, and Ava) always wanted me to play with them. I guess I made the mistake of letting them “beat me up” once and then for the rest of the weekend, they wanted to hang from my neck, grab my ankles, tackle me to the ground, etc. It was fun, yet exhausting. Luckily, Lizzie is still a toddler and didn’t join in the fun. She did enjoy eating our tomatoes, though.

In a rare moment, the last night there, Colleen and I probably had a 30 minute conversation with Isaac, who’s just finishing 2^nd grade. He talked about everything from the sports teams he is on, to his Justin Bieber style haircut.

Another memorable Glencoe moment this year was when Colleen found a HUGE spider in the women’s bathroom. A few of us guys went to investigate. It was, in fact, pretty freakin’ huge. It was in the process of swallowing a cricket. Russell identified it as a Brown Recluse spider, but I’ll have to take a closer look at the picture to be sure. After photographing it, we decided it was in everyone’s best interest to kill the thing. Russell gave it a swift stomp against the wall, killing it instantly, but leaving its guts splattered for all to see.

The weekend at Glencoe always seems to go by so quickly. When we woke up Monday morning, just about everyone had already hit the road. We didn’t leave til about noon or so. We did make several stops on the way home, including an antique store in Eureka, Bob Evans for breakfast / lunch, Dixie Truck Stop to go to the bathroom, Funk’s Grove for syrup, and last but not least, Coal City for pizza. We arrived home around 9, unpacked our stuff, and returned to our normal schedule on Tuesday.

In late December, we had yet another pipe freezing incident. I thought I had sufficiently insulated the pipes in the crawl space this fall, but apparently, it was not good enough. The water eventually came back, but I decided that it was necessary to do some additional insulation down there. I got suited up and crawled through the hatch into the depths of my crawl space.

I knew the problem area from previous years, so I taped some plastic garbage bags over some drafty areas in the foundation. Looking towards the far end of the crawl space (an area which I rarely venture) I noticed some sunlight coming though a vent in the foundation. I always remembered that corner to be very dark, and now there was some light over there, which I thought was strange. I crawled on my stomach to that corner.

It appeared that the vent hole used to be stuffed with insulation, but now that chunk of insulation was now lying on the uneven dirt floor of my crawlspace. Upon closer inspection, there appeared to be some type of furry object amongst the insulation. Yes, it was a dead squirrel, covered in flies.

Luckily, I had one last garbage bag in my pocket, so I carfully scooped up the dead carcass into the bag and dragged it out of the crawlspace. I was baffled that the squirrel got in there, as there doesn't appear to be any opening that would be big enough for a squirrel to get through.

I was almost glad that the pipes froze when they did, or else I would have never found the carcass and it might have started to rot and stink up the house.

I closed up the crawlspace and, in true George Bush style, I proclaimed "Mission Accomplished!" However, we soon found out that the mission was far from accomplished.

The dead squirrel was gone, but the files were left behind. Without a carcass to munch on, they started working their way up through the vents. For the next month and a half we were killing 5-10 flies a day. It was unbelievable how many flies came from that damn squirrel carcass.

It did, however, give the cat something to chase after. I guess you gotta look at the positves.

As usual, I try to horde a lot of my vacation time til the end of the year. This year, with Christmas Day, New Years Day and all my vacation days, I was able to take nearly 2 weeks off work. This may seem like a lot of time, but it actually seemed like no time at all when you add up all the time spent at holiday events and such.

Tom was in town for a bit, and even though I only got to see him one night, it was still good to see him nonetheless. We ate some damn good Thai food.

As far as Christmas shopping goes, I was super prepared this year. I did just about all my shopping online and got everything shipped to me well before Christmas. Everything was wrapped and ready to go several days before Christmas.

I spent several of the days leading up to Christmas working on a video project for Colleen’s family. I was making a DVD of old family films which Colleen’s grandpa recorded in the 70’s and 80’s. I had a rough copy that I debuted at last year’s Christmas, but the DVD decided to stop playing halfway thought the disc. This new version should play fine and includes a full scene selection and cover art. Probably the hardest part of the project was the duplication. It’s a very monotonous job to burn and print 13 of the same discs, as well as print the case insert and trim it to size.

Christmas Eve was at Jonah's this year, which is definitely one of the roomier venues. That's a good thing considering the large size of our family. Colleen and I attempted to show up a little early to avoid the overwhelming onslaught of family. Not to say that I don't enjoy the company of family. But it can be a little daunting to walk into a house full of 40 family members...getting bombarded by hugs and Christmas wishes...all while trying to figure out "Where do I put my coat? Where does the beer go? Where can I find a spoon for this cheese?"

Getting there earlier would have given us a chance to get settled in before the place got packed. However, our plan failed and we were almost the last people there. Why does my family have to be so timely?

The food spread was above average this year. The highlight for me was the special recipe Italian beef. Fantastic. Of course there’s always the old standby, Aunt Cathy’s meatballs. None of this would interest Colleen of course. We brought a batch of homemade brochette. It’s a funny thing about the brochette, since I spent so much time making it from scratch, I found myself checking on it every so often to see how much had been eaten by other people. I guess when you spend a couple hours preparing something, it’s more important to you that people are enjoying it. Because I never really cared that much when we’d bring something like chips and a jar of Tostitos salsa to a party.

At most family events I choose not to bring along a still or video camera, since most of them are overly documented. I made an exception this Christmas since I recently got my HD camera. It may be the first family event to be released on Blu-ray (and without the classic, Uncle Bill style, date and time stamp in the lower right hand corner). I recorded about 30 minutes over the course of the night which should be enough to edit together a nice little segment.

“Santa” showed up later in the night and gave some gifts to the little ones. I perched up on the staircase, a safe distance away from the living room, or better known as the “Santa Pit”. Imagine Santa sitting in a chair against a wall. Santa is surrounded by a circle of kids. That circle is surrounded by circles of moms and dads and aunts and uncles 3 rows deep…all with still cameras, video cameras, cell phones, or some other recording device. Some even had multiples with one in each hand. I captured the insanity quietly from above.

Santa came and went, and so it was time for the white elephant gift exchange amongst the middle generation. Everyone who participated put their wrapped gift in the center of the pool table, and we picked numbers. One by one, people picked their gifts at random. Some were good, some were not so good. But at least none of the gifts were a giant canvas painting of a nebula.

The rules of the gift exchange allow people to steal gifts from others, instead of picking from the pile. Matt picked from the pile and opened the game Catch Phrase. That’s a game I’ve wanted for a while, so when it was my turn, I decided to steal it. When it was Sarah’s turn, she stole it from me, which was devastating, but expected. However, when I went to the pile for another gift, it turned out to be another copy of Catch Phrase. I was so excited I did a dance of joy. The crowd went crazy, it was a good moment.

I was surprised that no one tried to steal the second copy of Catch Phrase from me. I got lucky. Colleen went home with a set of Disney Cars mugs and hot cocoa, but the gift had a pair of earrings smacked on the front of the wrapping paper, which is the main reason she chose that one.

We returned home later than night and Brian slept over. We got up on Christmas morning and dad came by for a brief gift opening around the tree. Brian and dad had to leave early to make it down to the famous feast hosted by Mrs, Neumann. Colleen and I were headed up to her parent’s house to their Christmas party.

Once again, we tried to show up a little early, but failed miserably. We were the last ones there. People started eating pretty much as soon as we showed up. It was more a buffet style than a formal sit down dinner. People ate in random rooms wherever they could find a seat. There were large bacon chunks in the potatoes, which sucked for Colleen but was fine with me. I very much enjoyed the corn, and apparently, so did everyone else. When I attempted for seconds, I found that the dish was scraped clean aside from a few kernels.

We brought another batch of brochette to this party, as well as a plate of brownies that Colleen baked (she had to show off something that she made). They were minty and delicious.

Since Christmas Eve was a beer drinking night, I decided Christmas Day would be wine drinking night. I actually got fairly buzzed for a while.

I gave out the DVD copies of the family films to various people. Everyone was grateful for the gift. A little later on we did a white elephant gift exchange. It was a little tamer than the previous night’s exchange (less stealing), but still fun for sure. Colleen and I ended up with a binocular digital camera and a “grow your own” herb kit (so I can now grow my own basil for brochette). 

We stayed at the party for a while, long after the extended family had left. Got some good play time in with Kaylee. We were considering staying the night, but ended up leaving later that night into the freezing weather.

The next day was party day number 3. Some old classmates from St. Williams organized a Class of ’94 reunion through Facebook. It wasn’t a formal reunion, just an opportunity for several old classmates to get together and drink. It was at a bar / pizza place called Bije’s on the northwest side of Chicago.

I knew that I would end up drinking a lot, so I made special transportation arrangements. I planned to stay the night at Aunt Cathy’s, so I drove down there, and got a ride to the bar from Katie. There had been a bunch of snow earlier in the day, which I expected to prolong my trip there. Amazingly, I showed up to the bar at 7:25, five minutes before the event officially started. I was the first one there. Dennis, the organizer, wasn’t even there yet.

I sat at the bar, ordered a beer, and watched a hockey game while I anxiously waited for people to arrive. It was kinda weird, because I was looking out for people, most of whom I haven’t seen in 17 years.

Eventually, people started to filter in. At the peak of the party (not including other people’s friends or significant others) there were probably 15 people or so from St. Williams. I got a chance to reconnect with some old friends, it was definitely a good time. People must have been buying me a lot of beer, because I didn’t spend nearly as much as I should have. There were also a couple shots mixed in there at the end. By last call, I was quite drunk. I hitched a ride home with a significantly more sober Dan Escobar. I was able to convince him to stop at the Taco Burrito King before dropping me off at Aunt Cathy’s.

Let’s just say that: Beer + Shots + Mexican food = An unfortunate outcome. Somehow I managed to change my clothes, take my contacts out and text Colleen before I passed out. But I awoke to an unpleasant surprise in the bathroom the next morning, which was no fun. I spent pretty much all Sunday hung over watching TV.

On that Tuesday, we had the heating guy come out for a furnace inspection. Bad news. The heat exchanger was all kinds of fucked up. I either had to pay a bunch of money to fix a 14 year old furnace, or just buy a new one.

I bought a new one. I got one of the super efficient models. It was damn expensive, but the heating guy told me about a government program that was giving huge tax credits to people who purchase energy efficient appliances. So once I get the tax credit, the overall cost on the furnace will only be a few hundred dollars more than if I were to purchase the cheaper non-efficient version.

Right before the heating guy came back to install the new furnace, my new Dell computer was delivered by UPS. That gave me plenty to do while the heating guys were working. I’ll post a separate blog about my new computer.

After the three days of partying around Christmas, I didn’t really feel like doing anything social for a while, especially if it involved drinking. I was partied out. I didn’t even pursue any plans for New Years Eve, because I just didn’t feel like doing anything.

Much of New Years Eve I spent delivering pizzas at Papa Johns. I met up with Colleen around 9 and we had a very low key night at home eating food, playing video games and watching the countdown on TV. I was able to set off some leftover 4^th of July fireworks at midnight, which was fun. But it was probably the lowest key New Years I’ve had in a long, long time.

Much of the next few days were dedicated to editing. I really needed to finish up Mel’s wedding, which I shot over the summer. I was able to finish it up Sunday night, right before returning to work the next day.

All in all, it was a pretty good vacation. When I returned to work on Monday, it was as if I never left. Except, of course, for the 40 new emails and 16 new voicemails.



When making lodging arrangements, I first looked at the town of Dixon. Dixon is about 10 miles south of White Pines State Park (the wedding location) and is the largest town within a reasonable distance. However, since I slacked off til the last minute to book a room, I found that all the hotels in Dixon were booked. I branched out to look for hotels in other towns.

Upon searching Google, I found The New Village Inn, located in the town of Polo, population 2500. It lies 6 miles west of the wedding location. When I called to reserve a room, a little old lady answered the phone. There were rooms available. To take my reservation, she merely took down my name and told me that it was $50/night. Cheap and close to White Pines...works for me!

I arrived at the New Village Inn at about 3pm. It was much smaller that I expected...a one story building consisting of 12 motel rooms. The office was in the center of the building, sitting between room 6 and 7. I entered the small office, where I was met by a red haired man in his 40's. He had a mustache, but was balding. He was neutral as far as politeness goes. Not rude, but not friendly enough to win him any customer service awards. He found my name on his paper calendar of reservations and handed me a card, so I could fill out my address, phone number, etc. No computers at this place. I also found out that it would actually be more expensive had I paid the room with a credit card, so it was in my best interest to pay with cash. I bet if I did decided to pay with a credit card, he would have swiped it in one of those carbon copy things that go "clunk clunk" when you slide it across the card. The man handed me a key to room #8, complete with one of those old school diamond shaped key chains. So far, nothing at the New Village Inn seemed to be "new". This held true when I entered my room.

I used my key to enter through the clunky metal door of room #8. It was a modest room, with a mixture of decorations and furniture from the 70’s and 80’s. It smelled like walking into the house of a grandparent. It was carpeted with a short blue and teal patterned carpet. An ultra-fake wood paneling lined most of the walls. Other items that were covered with fake wood paneling were the small air conditioner, and the RCA television that was mounted high on the wall. From first glance, I expected UHF and VHF turn knobs on the front. But surprisingly, the TV displayed the channel number on a red, alarm clock style display. However, there was also an AM/FM radio built into the TV that had a manual tuner. The TV did have a remote, probably from an era where the concept of a remote was new and exciting. It was clunky and consisted only of the following buttons: On/Off, Volume, Channel, and Mute.

Opposite the TV were two double beds, covered with very 80’s looking bed spreads. All of the other furniture including the end table, desk, and chairs were probably manufactured during the Nixon administration. Above the beds there hung a piece of framed art, uncentered on the wall. It was some type of bird in a snowy forest scene. The color was desaturated, apparently faded with age. Towards the back of the room was the sink, attacked to a plain, faded counter-top. Off to the left was the bathroom with a stained linoleum floor.

Besides the door to the outside and the door to the bathroom, there was a third door in the room. The door was on a common wall between my room and room #7. I figured that this door was a connecting door between the two rooms to make a suite. But what weirded me out was that the doorknob on my side had a key hole. So did the person in room #7 have the ability to unlock it? I had thoughts of someone entering through that door while I was sleeping. This motel was, however, a perfect setting for a horror movie.

I went off to the wedding and returned just after 11pm. As I unlocked the door to my room, I glanced into the window of the motel office. There was an old, gray-haired lady sitting down at a folding card table, doing a jigsaw puzzle. I assumed that this was the same lady who took my reservation several weeks prior.

I thought my room to be pretty clean, that is, until I went to bed that night. Mashed into the under side of the bed spread was a large piece of blue gum. Disgusted, I threw off the bed spread. This led me to inspect the rest of my bedding with a closer eye. The sheets and blanket appeared to be clean, but the pillow cases were a different story. Both of the pillows on my bed had a few white-ish spots on them. I assumed that it was from the drool of previous tenants…hopefully nothing more. I chucked those on the floor and had to harvest a pillow off the other bed. It looked to be clean, so I finally laid down and got some sleep.

I checked out the following morning and returned my key to the balding red haired man in the office. I decided not to tell him of my bedding un-cleanliness, as he did not even ask how my stay was. He just took my key and I left.

It was a beautiful day out, so I decided to ride my bike down there. I chained my bike to a light pole on Slusser St., grabbed my cloth shopping bag, and got to shopping.

It was the best thing ever! There were so many tents with so many different items. I started off getting some broccoli. Then I was offered a free sample of raspberries from another tent...amazing! So I bought a box of them.

The next tent was the mushroom man. I told him how I hated to get a package of mushrooms from the grocery store, because I don't use them fast enough and inevitably, at least half of them end up getting thrown away. He said I could buy as many or as few of his mushrooms as I wanted. So I picked out 4 mushrooms and was on to the next row of tents.

I sampled a BBQ sauce, chips and salsa. I bought all three. I grabbed some organic potatoes as well. I didn't anticipate buying this much stuff, so my one cloth bag was nearing capacity. I did all I could to avoid taking a plastic shopping bag from one of the vendors.

By this time, Colleen had called me on her way home from work. She was upset that I was experiencing this without her. So she decided to drive down there so we could meet up. Unfortunately by the time Colleen got there, only 30 minutes remained until the market closed.

Despite the time constraint, we still had enough time to sample some wine from the Glunz Winery. I thought it was cool that you can bring the empty bottle back and get a dollar. It's kinda like Oberweis milk. We bought a bottle.

After buying some apple cake mix we really like from the Tastefully Simple tent, we figured we might as well buy the other ingredients while we were here.

We visited the egg man. I asked if his eggs were available in quantities lower than 12. His answer was no. Apparantly, he did not have the same business plan as the mushroom man. But he did assure me that the eggs were freshly laid on Saturday or Sunday, and that they would last 6 weeks. I bought a dozen. My package contained white eggs, brown eggs, and one greenish colored egg. He said that the the green egg comes from an "easter egg chicken". Sweet. Now I can make green eggs and ham.

By this time we were low on cash, and only had enough for a few apples. There were many other tents that we didn't visit. Some with cheese, baked goods, pastas and pasta sauces. We thought it would be a bad idea to sample anything else if we didn't have the option to purchase it. So we called it a day.

I rode my bike home and Colleen drove. We cooked up an excellent meal of items that we purchased at the market. It was fantastic.