End of the Summer

I can't believe Shawn returns to school next Monday. Today actually marks the first official day of cross country practice for Shawn and and it is going to be hot as hell this evening. Now we will have 6pm practice Monday thru Thursday form now until October...lucky us!

Of course, we seem to be cramming family activities into the last 3 weeks of the summer break and last weekend was no different. Lisa and I packed up the family and went for a visit to see Uncle Brad in Chicago. We arrived Friday evening and grabbed a bite to eat at Portillo's which is one of Lisa's all time favorites for hot dogs; the Italian Beef is pretty damn good as well. Then it was time for a home brewer's tasting party. To say the least, I had a bit too much and felt like it in the morning.

Saturday, we headed out to Lego Land Discovery Centre. Brad and I dropped Lisa and the kids off and headed over to Ram Brewery for a couple of cold ones while we waited for Shawn to get his Lego fix. We then headed to Fry's electronic which was pretty much an adults playground. I have purchased virus protection software for my PC a few times from Fry's but to be at the store was something else. The place had everything you can imagine as far as electronics were concerned and more! I could have spent a few hours looking around but I did enough damage in the 20 minutes of so I was there on Saturday. We ended up picking up a couple of 4 GB USB drives, a set of three cordless Panasonic phones an a couple of items I can't mention because they will end up being gifts for a couple of readers of this blog. The biggest bargain by far was the phone set...less than $50 and they seem to work great! After a stop at McDonald's to feed the kids and a stop at the Asian market (we were the only round eyes in the place) in which I picked up a spicy tuna roll and a bottle of sesame oil and a tirp to an international supermarket, we headed back to Brads. The kids were in dire need of a rest.

For Dinner, we ended up picking up some fried chicken and an order of chicken livers for dinner from Harold's Chicken Shack. The chicken and livers were great but the french fries and wonder bread were nothing spectacular. We also dropped by our favorite Mexican Bakery and picked up some tasty treats. Needless to say, Lisa and I are both on a diet beginning today. Back to calorie counting, I need to loose 50 pounds and Lisa wants to drop about 30.

Sunday we went to breakfast and stopped by Sur La Table in downtown Naperville (I love this store too). On the way back to Brads we also stopped to look around the best candy store ever; Binny's. Then we headed for home. By the way, traffic was nasty.

When we got home, my concert winnings information had finally arrive in the mail!

Here's a couple of pictures check back later, I will add the rest to the album tonight.