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.

Driving southbound on Rt. 21, we saw the Gurneez Diner sign by the road and pulled in. We were a little confused about where to go at first, since they hadn't put any signage on the building yet (which was connected to other businesses). We found the front door and entered the restaurant. The decor was very nice. Dark mahogany wood trim and tables. Slate tiles floors, decorative stone fireplaces, cool looking light fixtures. Even the bar looked to made completely of granite. It was very nice looking.

It was about 8pm or so, and there were only 1 or 2 other tables of customers. We got seated and looked over the menu. The prices were quite reasonable. Colleen ordered pasta primavera and I ordered a ham and cheese panini. We also split a ceasar salad. This is where things went somewhat sour.

The first strike against Gurneez Diner is that the meals and the salad came out at the same time. I hate when that happens, because then you feel like you have to shovel down the salad before your meal gets cold.

All the food was mediocore. The ceasar salad was kinda bland. My panini was made with plain pasty white bread. Colleen's pasta was so-so. The food wasn't bad, it just had no pizzazz. The beautiful decor of the restaurant didn't go with the sub-standard food. I would describe it as truck stop food. Nothing about the food would ever make us want to come back.

By the time we were done eating, we were the last customers left. When we were about to leave, there was another couple that entered the restaurant. The 2 servers were standing around. The couple asked the servers "Are you guys still open?" The servers didn't know, and one of them had to run in the back for 5 minutes to find her boss and ask him. Seriously? You work here, how do you not know the restaurants hours?

In conclusion, the food at Gurneez Diner is not that great. It is not up to the level that one would expect for such a nice looking restaurant. I give it one year or less before it's closed down. The amount of money they must have spent on the remodeling will never be recouped with their mediocre food.

The first place we checked out was the Lehmann Mansion in Lake Villa. We met with someone up there to get a tour. We just fell in love with the place. It's a restored 1920's mansion, it's got a lot of history to it. The cocktail hour would get use of the mansion and the outdoor patio. The only downside is that for dinner and dancing portion of the reception, we would have to use the adjoining tent since our wedding would be too large to have a sit down dinner in the mansion. The tent is not air conditioned (unless we rented one for $6,000!) The guy assured us that it stays pretty cool in there, even on a hot summer day, although I wasn't entirely convinced. Regardless, we still really liked it. We were almost positive we wanted to have our wedding there, but decided that we should at least try checking out some more places first.

Next we went to the Country Squire. This place was small potatoes after experiencing the grandness of the Lehmann Mansion. However, it was still a nice place, with a nice outdoor area. Another thing that was a huge plus was the new hotel that was just built next door. This would be super convenient for guests, who could just walk back to their rooms after the reception. I wasn't that crazy about the indoor decor, however. It felt kind of tacky, a lot of wallpaper and gold light fixtures. Also, the representative we talked to was the polar opposite of the laid back rep we talked to at the Lehmann Mansion. The Country Squire rep was more like a used car salesman. Grey slicked back hair, gold rings, and a fast talker. I didn't find him to be rude or anything, but he just kept it short and sweet. Trying to talk us into booking a wedding like it was a 1989 Oldsmobile.

Colleen and I were pretty determined that the Lehmann Mansion was it. We decided to set up a second meeting at the mansion, this time with Colleen's parents. We were scheduled to meet up with the catering lady at the mansion on a Thursday. She had another appointment at 5pm, but penciled us in at 6:30pm. Colleen's parents came down from Waukesha and we made it to the mansion by 6:30.

But there was a little problem...the front gate to the mansion grounds was locked. I attempted to call the catering lady's cell phone several times, but no answer. I left a message as well. We waited by the gate for 15 or 20 minutes until a Lake Villa cop rolled up. He asked if everything was all right. We told him that we had an appointment at the mansion, and were waiting to see if she would show up. The cop said he had a key to the gate and let us on the grounds. We drove up to the mansion and lounged on the patio area, waiting for the catering lady to show up, or at least call back. In the meantime, we went over the pricing paperwork which we acquired during our last visit.

It was now 7:20pm. We were all a little peeved by the whole situation. The catering lady FINALLY called me back. She profusely apologized for what happened. I guess her 5pm appointment cancelled, and she accidentally crossed off our name too. She did not hear us call because she was at home doing yard work. She said she would be there as soon as possible, which was about 20 or 30 minutes. The whole situation kinda sucked, but I gave her the benefit of the doubt….shit happens. So our 6:30 meeting didn’t actually start til about 8pm.

When the catering lady arrived, you can tell she was pretty flustered. She had her kid with her, since she had to rush over so quickly. But overall, the meeting went pretty well I thought. We took a tour of the place and then sat down to look at different food options. After our meeting convened, Colleen, her parents and I went out for a late dinner at the Boat House in Lake Villa.

Colleen and I were pretty convinced that the Lehmann Mansion was gonna be the place. But we had a feeling that Colleen’s parents still wanted us to look around at other options. We were so infatuated by the beauty of the mansion that we failed to see the many cons of having our wedding there.

Con #1: No A/C.. There was my original issue with the tent…it not being air conditioned. What if it’s the hottest, most humid day of the year on our wedding day? I wouldn’t want to chance an uncomfortable climate at the reception.

Con #2: Another issue with the tent is that…it’s a tent. We were paying all this money to rent out the whole mansion, but would only really get to enjoy it for an hour during cocktails. The mansion would be open throughout the night, but the main event would be in the tent, seeming to make the mansion under utilized. The tent wasn’t overly pleasing to the eye. It was all white with bland gray carpeting. Although the tent would probably look a little more jazzed up when decorated, it wasn’t anything compared to the old trim, hardwood floors and antique light fixtures in the mansion.

Con #3: It’s huge. The tent can fit up to 400 people. Our wedding will probably be less than half that. Our wedding would be swallowed by this tent. If you factor in all the rooms in the mansion and the outdoor patio, there is almost too much space for guests to roam. A smaller, more intimate venue might be a good option.

Con #4: Price. After adding up all the costs, the total was a little pricey. The food costs were pretty comparable to other caterers we looked at. But what really made the costs soar was the $2,000 for the mansion itself, and then $15.50/person for the tent rental. This made it about $5,000 just for the space.

Con #5: Staff miscommunication. I was willing to give the catering lady the benefit of the doubt about missing our appointment time. But as of writing this blog entry it’s been over 3 weeks since our meeting. She still has not contacted us with a final quote. If she’s not that good at communicating now, how is she going to be when it’s 3 days til our wedding and I need to finalize some details?

After realizing all these cons, we decided to take a look at another place: The Thunderhawk Lodge in Beach Park. Colleen’s mom came down on a Friday afternoon we met up with the catering girl to check the place out. In the center of the room is a large dance floor (twice as big as at the mansion) with a tall vaulted ceiling with cool wooden beams. The two areas for tables flank each side of the dance floor. One end of the dance floor has a stone fireplace and the other end has a wall which is all windowed. The windows look out onto the patio area which will include small tables (for cocktail hour). Beyond the patio is a patch of large trees, nicely landscaped grounds, and one of the holes of the golf course. We ended up liking this place a lot. Here are the pros of this place:

Pro #1: A/C. I like the fact that no matter what the weather is, we will be in a temperature controlled environment most of the night.

Pro #2: The look of the reception room. We really liked the vaulted ceiling and wood beams. Much more interesting than a white tent.

Pro #3: The size. This place is the perfect size to fit our wedding. We won’t be so spread out. I also really like that the patio area is connected to the room, so if people decide to hang outside during the reception, they can still see the whole dance floor through the large windows.

Pro #4: The price. The rental of the space is normally $1000, but was discounted to $750. A lot better than $5000, that’s for sure.

Pro #5: Custom menu. We really wanted to have manicotti as our reception meal. This was not on their normal menu, but they seemed very open to making it for us. The people at the Lehmann Mansion seemed slightly reluctant to do this for us.

Pro #6: Communication. Since first contacting her, Jessica, the catering girl, has been on top of things. She has always answered her phone when I called. She responded to my emails within 30 minutes. She even finished the quote within a few days of our meeting.

The Thunderhawk Lodge is the better choice for our wedding. We have it officially booked for August 28, 2010. Seems like a long time away. But I’m sure it will come quicker than expected.

My plan was to ask her at the river walk along the Fox River in Waukesha. The spot has special significance since that is where we went on our first date in 2003. I had bought the ring several weeks ago, so I was just waiting for the right opportunity to go down to the river. First of all, the weather had to be nice. And since Waukesha is over an hour away, we had to be going there for some other purpose. It would have been suspicious if I suggested that we randomly drive an hour just to walk along the river.

So on May 2, we were going to be up in Milwaukee for a Cinco de Mayo party at Mel's. That got us fairly close to Waukesha, but not close enough. I wanted to make it look like a random spur of the moment decision to go down to the river. I suggested to Colleen that we visit her mom in Waukesha since Mother's day was the next weekend. When Saturday came along, the weather was beautiful. This had to be the day.

I spent the morning and early afternoon doing yard work, Colleen fell asleep watching a movie. Needless to say we didn't leave until much later than we originally wanted to. I had called Colleen's mom earlier in the day to reveal the proposal plan and for her not to worry if we didn't get there until a little later. She said to take all the time that I needed. Right before we left, Colleen got the mail, and there was a small, hand addressed envelope for me. I opened it in front of her, and it was a thank you card from Kay Jewelers. I quickly hid it, but it was too late, she already saw it. A foreshadowing of events to come?

The only part that made me nervous was whether or not I could convince Colleen to go down to the river. We will already late to her parents house. When we arrived into the Waukesha area, I made a comment about how nice the weather was, and how we should take advantage. I suggested the river walk. Her immediate response was NO. "We don't have enough time." Then she went on to say, "Unless you have something for me..." as she brushed her hand over my right pocket. Little did she know that I actually had the ring in my left pocket. There was a moment of silence. Then I said, "Maybe we should go down to the river." She was totally on to me, but there was no turning back. I had to do it.

We parked down by the river and got out and started walking. There was a specific part of the path where I wanted to do it, but it was on the other side of the river. We had to walk down to the bridge. I didn't realize how far down the bridge actually was, so it turned into a much longer walk than expected. It was fairly breezy outside, which provided some Marilyn Monroe moments for Colleen, who was wearing a skirt. On our way to the bridge, we passed a wedding party who were taking pictures down by the river. Another foreshadowing event?

When we got to the other side of the river, it was much less windy. Me and Colleen talked and joked around just like we would on any other day. It made me much less nervous about what was going to happen. When we finally got to a good spot on the path with no one around, I stopped and turned towards her. She knew what was about to happen, and immediately began crying. I said my little spiel, got down on one knee and popped the question. The answer was yes.

The day couldn't have gone more perfect. It went down exactly how I had pictured. And now to plan the best wedding ever!

On top of that, the water pump was leaking and needed to be replaced. Luckily, my 100,000 mile warranty covered it in full. I think this is the first time in my life that an extended warranty actually benefited me. I now have about 30,000 miles for a bunch of stuff to break down before I'll have to pay for everything. I hope to have the car loan paid off by then.

Regardless, I really want to see Obama succeed. It's exciting to see him working to try and change this country for the better. It's also exciting for me to see how the administration uses technology as a means to communicate with the public so we can actually see what is going on in Washington. I like the creation of websites like recovery.gov, so we can see exactly where the money is going.  I like that his weekly address in on YouTube. Obama definitely reaches and engages a younger demographic of Americans.

It will definitely be an interesting four (or even eight) years.