Mishmash Musings

I’ve been checking NFL box scores to see how my fantasy players are doing, and I noticed that the Patriots blew out yet another opponent today. This time they ran up 38 points on the Buffalo Bills and won by a total of 28 points. The Pats are now 3-0 and have shown zero signs of weakness thus far. Yes, they’ve only had one real challenge through those three games (the Chargers), but at this point, I don’t think they have anyone to fear.

Unless something goes drastically wrong, the organization will be adding to their three Super Bowl trophies this year. That would be New England’s fourth championship in seven years, and would put to rest any debate as to whether the Brady-Belichick era constitutes a dynasty.

I know, I know… I’m getting way ahead of myself here, as the NFL season is just 3 weeks old. But seriously, have you watched the Pats this year? Tell me who’s going to stop them!

I pulled a (voluntary) all-nighter last night for the first time in ages! My husband has been working late for the last few weeks, which makes it really hard on me since I essentially end up taking care of my son 24/7. So yesterday Jerry agreed to let me spend the day (and night) at my friend Ann’s house. (She’s single, so we weren’t imposing on anyone.)

We went shopping, went to the spa for massages, went out to lunch, and then hit the grocery store and video store to stock up on supplies for the night. We then pigged out, drank beer, watched cheesy movies, and of course gossipped the entire time. It was a blast!!

I’m home now and will do a few things around the house before turning in to try to get some sleep before the Bears game. Luckily they don’t play until tonight, so I’ve got plenty of time.

This break from family and home was wonderful!

Forbes has just released their annual list of the 400 Richest Americans. It doesn’t surprise me to learn that every single person on the list is a billionaire, and that 82 billionaires were left off the list as being not quite rich enough. Wow.

Bill Gates is still No.1, with an estimated net worth of $59 billion. I remember just a few years ago when he was No.1 with $40 billion, so the rich certainly do get richer, huh? Investor Warren Buffet was at No.2, and Sergey Brin and Larry Page from Google are tied for 5th with $18.5 billion each.

What could anyone possibly do with a $59 billion fortune? I know Gates has a charitable foundation and gives away more than $100 million every year, but that still hasn’t even put a dent in his bottom line. Once you buy a huge mansion, fill your garage with exotic cars, have a couple of private jets at your beck and call, and purchase an Orlando vacation home or an Italian villa, then what else is there left to do?

I think it’s safe to say that the Gates family and their heirs will be financially secure for, oh, the next couple centuries or so!!

This is going to be one of those days where I’m going to be stuck at home until who-knows-when, waiting on service people to show up for appointments. First of all, we had to buy a new clothes dryer because our old one just suddenly quit working. The delivery is supposed to be for today, between 8am and 11am. I’m crossing my fingers that the people actually show up this time, as we had to reschedule from the original delivery date because of overbooking.

Then I also have to wait for a plumbing crew to come in and check out all the drains. Our homeowners’ association is really concerned about maintaining the value of everyone’s homes. So they arrange for different contractors to check things like plumbing and roofing every once in a while in an effort to nip potential problems in the bud. Homeowners are notified a couple weeks in advance, and can then sign up if they want the service. Each homeowner has to foot the inspection bill for their own house (there is a discount, at least), so it’s completely optional. I think this is a good idea, and have been participating for the last few years.

Anyway, the plumber(s) are supposed to be by in the afternoon, so after the dryer delivery, I’ll still have to wait around.

Oh, well… at least I can relax!

I’m not the kind of person who gets jealous about material possessions that my friends or neighbors have. In other words, “keeping up with the Joneses” is not something that my husband and I aspire to do. We don’t really care that our cars are more than 5 years old or that our son doesn’t go to a $1,000-a-month private preschool. As long as we’re happy and healthy, that’s all that matters to us.

But that’s not to say that we don’t dream of being able to buy luxury items every once in a while. For example, our friends Rachel and Sam purchased a boat two years ago, and ever since we went out on Lake Michigan with them, we’ve been talking about maybe buying one for ourselves someday. I think it would be cool to spend summer weekends out on the lake, enjoying the sunshine and taking in the sights.

I’ve been looking into what it takes to maintain a boat, and think that we could definitely manage the upkeep. We would need a lot of basic supplies, of course, and would likely buy them from a discount retailer like AmericanMarineSupply.com in order to save money. AmericanMarineSupply.com carries just about every kind of boating product you could think of, from engine parts and deck chairs to nautical clocks and log books. Their prices are lower than what I’ve seen advertised at local marine shops, so I know we’d end up saving money by ordering online.

Anyway, our boat purchase is still a ways off at this point, but we’re not giving up. Hopefully our dreams will come true in the near future!

As you can see, I have chosen another new wordpress theme for this blog. I don’t know why, but I’m having a lot of trouble finding something I like for this particular site. I run several other blogs, and I don’t change the themes for those nearly as much as I do for this one, so I’m not sure what the problem is.

I liked the color scheme of the last blog, which was like a pale green or something, and I liked the way everything looked — except for images. I couldn’t figure out how to add padding to my images so the text didn’t squish right up against the border of the picture. I read up on the problem and tried adding margins both in the post itself and in the stylesheet, but that didn’t work. I don’t know enough about css stuff to go beyond the tiny bit of tinkering I did, so I finally gave up and found a new theme.

But this one isn’t perfect either and I already know that I’m going to change it again as soon as I have a couple of free hours to browse through some more wordpress themes. I like the color on this theme and most the layout. Plus, I can align images and make them look pretty good here. But there are other minor annoyances that I can’t fix because of my own lack of knowledge.

For example, I don’t like the blockquote style in this theme. It’s so plain and ugly, but I don’t know how to change it. Here’s a post that has a blockquote in it — check it out.

I also would prefer having borders around the three columns — especially the main body — but again, I don’t know how to tweak the theme to accomplish this. So… it’s back to the drawing board for me.

Hopefully I can choose something this weekend!

One of my former co-workers had a baby yesterday, so I went with a group of other former co-workers to visit her at the hospital today. I was late (as usual), which meant I missed the carpool and had to get to the hospital on my own. It was at Lutheran General all the way in Park Ridge and it took me forever to drive there. Then, once I finally arrived, I couldn’t figure out where the maternity ward was. Luckily, there are information boards and reception desks all over the place, so I was able to ask a few people to help point me in the right direction.

I finally made it (about 30 minutes late), and am happy to report that both mom and baby are doing terrific at this point! I got to hold the baby (a seven-pound, six-ounce boy named Andrew) for a while, which was fantastic. I’d forgotten how tiny and delicate newborns are, and truth be told, it totally made me want another child! Unfortunately, I know that’s not going to happen anytime soon.

Anyway, Andrew and his mom should be going home in just a couple of days, so I’ll get to see the baby again at that time!

I spent nearly the entire day out today (very unusual for me), so I’m beat right now. I just had so many things to do and had put them off for so long that I really couldn’t avoid these tasks any longer. I had to go shopping, meet with friends for lunch, meet with my insurance agent, go to the bank to sign some papers, get the oil changed in my car, go to Turtle Wax for a long overdue wash, return stuff to the library, go to the video store for some DVDs… It was pretty crazy!

Anyway, all I want to do now is lounge on the couch and watch TV. I’ve already told my husband that I’m not cooking tonight, so we’ll either go out for dinner or he’ll pick something up on the way home. It’ll probably be the latter since I think I’ll be too tired to go out again in a couple of hours!