Why I Oughta...

We get print subscriptions to both the Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times everyday.  Like most folks, the Sunday papers get the most attention in our house.  I buzz through the Trib everyday and read the S-T, but Sundays brings the circular ads.  For me, there's really only one ad that is a must-read every week:  Menard's. This week's ad brought a nice surprise on the back cover:  They now have gift registries!  Srsly.  Umm...too bad I'm married.  I would have fought tooth-n-nail to get a wedding registry at Menard's.  I would have - undoubtably lost that battle - but still would have waged it nonetheless. Who knows...maybe I can sneak a registry in for the babe's first birthday.  If that doesn't work, my birthday is coming up you know.

Most mornings, before I get out of bed, I grab my phone and check email/calendar.  Over the weekend, the babe ended up in our bed before I got up. She's as into my email as I am, eh?

Late last week, I met with the Head Football Coach and the Special Teams Coach  to go over our plan for Spring Football.  We start practice at 6 am on April 12th.  The times work out for me with work - I can get to practice in the am, then hop on the Metra and head downtown in time for work. The NCAA allows us a certain number practices this spring and we only have one kicker returning.  We'll have plenty of time to get him focused on kicking this spring.  He doesn't really love punting, but we're going to have to figure out a way to get him to fall in love with punting - my favorite part to coach.   The real reason why I like it is because you actually can "coach" a kid up in punting.  Sure...with placekicking, you can tune someone to get the ball further or more accurate, but placekicking is a lot about leg strength.  Punting, on the other hand is all about mechanics and being deliberate.  And...when you connect on a punt?  It might be the most beautiful play

I've chronicled our quest to build a garage (we have finished drawings!  and topography surveys!), but there are a few other companion projects going on at the same time.  We currently have a VERY ratty chainlink fence circling our backyard.  When the garage is done, that will change.  I've been getting bids from various fence companies on this style of fence:  board on batten.  It will be 6 feet high! I took this picture at my sister's new house.  I'll post some photos when ours is going up.  I'm pretty excited to get the fence put up - almost as excited as the garage.  In my sister's yard, the fence looks great and has a very clean look to it.   You're probably wondering why it'll be 6 feet high.  No...we don't hate our neighbors.  They're actually very nice.  We just wanted something high - for privacy and to keep the coyotes out!  Srsly.

For the past few years, I've been trying to take daily supplements to work on my blood chemistry and try to stay healthy.  I don't eat the best, so I figure a few pills a day might help.  I take both a Omega-3 Fish Oil pill and an organic Flaxseed Oil pill.  Both were of the "softgel" variety. For me, the flaxseeds pills were big, but they went down fine.  I always had trouble with the fish oil.  The smell/taste were bad, but the burps were worse.  I was always paranoid around the office that I was rocking "fish breath" so I just stopped taking them. I knew that there had to be another way around the problem.  On our last trip to Costco, I came across these L'il Critters Gummy Omega-3 chews.  They're lemonade flavored.  This was my answer. The serving is 2 gummies.  They taste pretty good - being lemonade, cherryade, and strawberry lemonade flavors.  With the 2 gummies, you get 200 mg of Fish Oils (120 mg of Omega-3 Fatty Acids - with DHA and 80

Have you heard of Jason's Deli ?  Surprisingly enough, it is the fastest growing chain restaurant in America.    They just opened one near our house on York Street in Oak Brook.  Funny location for now - being too far away from the Oak Brook Mall traffic - but it is 300 yards away from the under-construction Elmhurst Hospital.  I'm guessing that they're betting on hospital traffic plus whatever business lunches are taking place in the area. We went to the Oak Brook location last week.  We'd previously lunched at their Oak Lawn restaurant. The place is kind of like Panera without the focus on the bread and baked goods.  I took the photo above at the Oak Brook location. The menu is loaded with choices and it is somewhat intimidating.  The downside of these two factors colliding is that you order at a cash register.  That means that a line (if you go during one of the peak times - lunch or dinner) starts to back up.  I felt the pressure to step up, order and get out of

The General Election is 7+ months away, but that's no reason to not start thinking about who the Governor is going to be come 2011.  For the past year or two, I've been (in my day job) sharing some charts with various folks about using Insights for Search - a Google tool - to "predict the present". There aren't many better mechanisms to discover what is on people's minds than using what they are searching for as a barometer.  Towards that end, Google has a tool that marketers use to unearth trends and gain key insights into what their customers are buying. As a means to see what the tool can do in practice, I've decided to chronicle the Illinois Governor's race via Google Search.  Can Google "predict" the winner?  We'll see. Here's what I'm using for search terms.  I am using all searches in Illinois - not just Chicago.  (click on the image to make it bigger) As of today, it is neck-and-neck.  Following the Primary, Bill Br

I know that costs are cut being across newsrooms, but I had no idea that both the Tribune and the Sun-Times are now employing the same headline writers!  These were Tuesday's papers right after I picked them up off of our driveway (yes!  We are dinosaurs that subscribe to the print editions!).  Both had (at least a day old news) pieces on health care with matching headlines.  I don't think I've seen this before. Oh...you think it is just a coincidence?

Over the weekend, I posted my "1000th Tweet" to Twitter.  According to whendidyoujointwitter.com , I started "tweeting" on May 27, 2007 - almost 3 years ago.  I think it was just twittr.com back then, but somewhere along the line they added the "e".  I was at FeedBurner in May of 2007 - about to join Google.  I didn't have a lot to say back then, ( My first Tweet was about getting a Meatball Parm Sangwich at Venice Cafe ), and I don't have a lot to say now. You can follow along on my choice for breakfast over on Twitter @jakeparrillo .

A few weeks back when the snow was melting, I took the Rooster out for a walk (that's her in the top corner of the picture) and in our parkway was this poor thing.  Some (I'm guessing) kid dropped his ipod Touch in the snow and either couldn't find it or didn't know it slipped out of their pocket/backpack.   What a bummer. We left it in the parkway and went on our walk.  When we came back 45 minutes later it was gone.  Someone musta thought they could salvage a water-logged device?