Happy BIrthday Dad!

Happy Birthday Dad! Here's to you! We hope you are having a fun birthday! Talk to you soon.

Love, Abby & Andrew

Literally $ down the drain

Last night after a couple of errands we stopped at the gas station. I set the pump and then sat half in the car and half out talking to Andrew while the tank filled. After a minute or so I heard a splashing sound; I turned and saw gasoline pouring out of my car with the tank still pumping it in. I grabbed the handle to shut it off and then turned to watch the gasoline on the ground running towards the building and a drain. For those of you who live in DBQ the gas stations address is on Hill Street. Something was obviously wrong with this pump, as it did not take my debit card either so I went inside and explained to the clerk what had happened. Mark, you know the girl I'm talking about, at least Andrew thinks you know her. She looked at me with with a blank stare and said, "Is there gas on the ground?" And I said, "Yes, it's all over. It poured out of my car and the handle is not working on that pump." To which she responed, "Oh, okay." With that we left. Literally, money down the drain. I guess I'm glad gasoline is only $2.18 a gallon. How much is gasoline where you live?

Unbelievable Article

Andrea posted this...it is too good not to share. I think if you click it it will enlarge.

Is this heaven?

Sometimes a situation occurs that is so memorable you can't help but to look back on it and wonder. This was the case Wednesday night. It was the river museum's minature golf outing. Now we employ all different kinds of people to fill all different types of jobs and that's a good thing. One of our staff members (not in my department) brought her significant other and he was a real treat. Picture the most stereotypical big truck muddin', nascar racin', moonshine makin' hillbilly. Shows up, buys two tallboys of Busch Lite and starts slamming beers. With a mouth slightly more vulgar then Andrew Dice Clay he goes into detail about being a truck driver, who his mom is dating, etc. Several times during the event Andrew and I looked at each other and asked, "Is this for real?" One staff member (not his S.O.) actually told him to shut up and eat. Two other staff members said, "You really need to lower your voice." I must say now that this man was not intoxicated. Anyway, we made it through the event and were walking across the parking lot to the car. Twenty feet away walked the man and his river museum date. Still talking loud enough for most to hear he slaps his date on the butt and says, "This was fun babe. I'm gonna go take a piss behind my truck." Classic. Is this heaven? No, it's Iowa.

Red Room

Okay, so it's not red exactly...the color is called Ruby Lips. After we had picked out the color and got home we opened the can and gasped. The color we were looking at was a cross between what I'll call Streetwalker Red or Hooker Hot Pink. Not the color we envisoning for our dining room at all. You can tell from the finished picture though that it dries much darker then what it appears. That was a relief! According to the Pittsburgh Paints Company, "Red symbolizes affection, courage, and power, and is the color most associated with love. Stimulating to the body and mind, red encourages bravery, passion, and enthusiasm. The most emotionally intense color, red stimulates the appetite and increase heart rate. Use red to fill any room with liveliness, excitement and affection."

Chicago Vacation Day #3

Woke up and went to the Bolingbrook IKEA. Bought a few things for the kitchen (for those of you who haven't seen it lately or at all we can't wait to show it off!) and a couple random other things. Next, headed over to Naperville to see all the progress Grammy & Grampy have made on the house. Everything looks great there. We ate lunch and Andrew got to show off his scars, G & G hadn't seen him since the accident. Drove home and ate pizza for dinner. Now I'm relaxing on the computer with a blue mouth and fingers (thanks to leftover Wrigley Field cotton candy) and Andrew is busy as can be assembling our new barstools, shelf, and storage containers downstairs. Off to bed....Thanks for reading everyone!

Chicago Vacation Day #2

Picture from the second Cubs game.


Ancient Egyptian artifact looks surprisingly like Michael Jackson.


Gotta love Baccis before the game.


Visiting Sue at the Field Museum.


Another picture from game 2.


In the morning on Wednesday we went to the Field Museum for the much anticipated King Tut exhibit. There was so much to see we kind of ran out of time. Went to the Cubs, but didn't get our covered wheelchair seats from the night before so we were a little colder. Didn't matter after Ross caught a homerun ball though, too bad it was a Dodger ball! Before we walked back home we managed to get some Wrigley Field Ivy clippings and Andrew got his beloved burrito from some greasy place (I don't know the name!)

Chicago Vacation Day #1

If you have 21 workers making $7 an hour and they stand around for 45 minutes how much money did the Cubs lose?


Don't know what kind of fish this is, but it's teeth are hilarious!


Two Bearded Dragons from Lizards and the Komodo King Exhibit.


Leaving the Shedd, outside of Soldier Field.


We left for Chicago on Tuesday and went straight to the Shedd Aquarium. After checking out a few things we went to the Lizards exhibit (new for '06) which was pretty cool. Next, we went to pick up Ross and then walked to the Cubs game. We got fantastic seats (courtesy of Andrew's wheelchair) and then sat back and watched Freddy Bynum get 3 errors before the third inning. The Cubs managed to come back from 7-0 and win in 11 innings! Lots of fun, and we didn't get rained on...much.

Happy First Birthday Zach!

We can hardly remember you as a tiny baby! Look at you now big boy! (I had to use the snake picture!) Happy 1st birthday!!
Love, Uncle Andy & Abby

Aggg!! Not Again!!

Maybe I was feeling left out, call it a sympathy visit, but yes, I too managed to make a trip up to the Finley Hospital ER. It doesn't look too bad in the fabulous picture of me, but I got a cut just under my eye at work on Tuesday morning. Our Red-tail hawk had her anklets and jesses tangled and after I got her untangled she showed her appreciation by lunging at my face. I debated about not going to the ER, but decided since it happened at work and it involved an animal I should go. Good thing I guess because I needed a couple of stitches, a tetanus shot, and some antibiotics. The ER was packed (Tues @ 7:30 a.m.-figure that out) and they had people waiting in the hallway for beds. Worst injury joke goes to our friend Nathan (works for the fire department and was bringing a patient in to the ER while I was leaving) who said, "You are now a true Hawkeye!" Boo...Oh yeah, did I mention I missed seeing Kelly Urban at the ER by like 7 hours. Seriously, can't we stay away from this place?!

This is why we don't take donations!

So, I've made a conscious effort to not write about work on this blog, (maybe because it's been such a bummer lately) but this story is pretty good. We received a Bullsnake as a donation from a person who said the snake was hit by the prop of a boat and he had kept the snake for two years. Well, the second week we had her she laid 14 eggs. We incubated the eggs, but weren't counting on them being fertile. Anyways, when I left work on Saturday the count was at 11 hatchlings. Here are a couple of "baby" pics. (The snakes will be released into the wild in a couple of weeks.)