First time for everything…
So perhaps you chicagoans may have heard in the news the story about an 80 year old man on the south side that was murdered in a home robbery gone wrong... well that was Rebecca's Dad's cousin, Bob (Robert Winter if you want to google news him). Apparently, Bob was in the basement, and this dude (Darius Bailey, 20) was walking by and noticed the back door was open... so he went in and started ransacking the place... well, then Bob came up from he basement and was all wtf and they got into a struggle. Supposedly Darius grabbed an electrical cord, strangled Bob, then tied him up, and finished going through the house. He took Bob's checkbook and car.
Meanwhile, the Dolton police put out an area bulletin thing to be on the lookout for this Darius guy for an unrelated robbery, and a detective happened to notice Darius walking down the street. So he pulls up to Darius, talks to him, and finds Bob's checkbook on his person. Bob's car is also like 50 feet away. So the officer starts to take Darius in and sends another officer over to Bob's house, just to check on him. The other officer finds Bob dead in the front room, cords still around his neck, under a blanket.
So Darius confesses on videotape for the crime and bail has been denied.
Kinda nuts really. This is the first person I have ever personally known that was murdered. And over something so dumb. Bob lived in a modest home and drove an older Chevy Cavalier. He wasn't flashy or anything. It was just a fluke that this dude chose the house. And wtf why would you KILL an old man? You think you would just run when confronted like that. Now Darius, 20 years old) is going to go to prison for quite a while, over what? He didn't GET anything, a crappy car and a checkbook?
Stupid decisions abound. It is crazy. We were just there a few months ago for his 80th birthday. Messed up. His memorial service is this afternoon. I could have SWORN I had a picture from his birthday somewhere, but I can't seem to find them.
Basement Bathroom… Day 1
So I worked on the basement bathroom today.... and I am tired...
Let me step back... when we bought this townhouse/condo whatever, there was no interior decorating at all. None. Original white walls that had 13 years of crap on them. The floors were either 13 year old cheap shitty filthy carpet or crappy 13 year old vinyl flooring. Nasty. So while I have done lots in the house, this weekend I was finally going to finish the basement bathroom. It used to look like this:
awesome huh. Gotta love that floor. So I finally got the vinyl flooring all off, which was a pain to say the least. For some reason there was a lot of glue holding that floor to the concrete beneath. I found the best solution was to score the vinyl, scrap it with a floor scraper, then use heat to get the glue and cardboard up. Those butane torches worked great, although they made the room really warm and I am sure those fumes were not good for me.
We had picked up a nice shiny black granite tile from the tile outlet down the way from fireside bowl. I had always wanted to go in there since highschool, so that is where we ended up. Today I cleaned the floor, pulled the toilet out, laid out all the tiles out as I had planned (thanks sketchup) and made all the cuts required.
Tomorrow I am going to actually mix the thinset and actually lay them. Word. Then I need to grout and seal them. All thats left in that room is a new light fixture, new faucet, some finishing touches (the walls are very bare) and I can call that room done.
wow… talk about behind…
so lets play some catchup...
mason: doing great.. talkative (but just no in english) and almost always in a good mood. he is always smiling and can be so easily entertained. As I type this he is scooting around on the floor playing with a piece of paper he pulled off an empty box. Funny stuff. He is pretty social, and he still sleeps really well. We are beginning to ween him and we have started giving him formula as well as the solid foods, and he is all about that. He is also getting big enough that we need to get him into a normal car seat, as we aver overdue. He isn't crawling yet but he scoots around on the hardwood on his belly, which is fun to watch, primarily because he can only really go backwards.
house: we are making progress on the house, in preparation for mason's first birthday party, which we will be celebrating on 10/28. We have hung a bunch of stuff on the walls that we had been meaning to get up, and we got some black tile for the basement bathroom. Unfortunately, I haven't finished pulling up the glue from the linoleum yet, which is a pain, but is coming along. We have a grocery list of stuff that we need to finish though, amongst them is tile for the front entry, which will likely be a slate. Should be super nice.
cars: I have been busy enough that my free time hasn't been spent at the garage, which is too bad. the jetta is really close to ready... check out that blog for more on the project. The Audi performed very well Blackhawk Farms with the ACCCC last month and it was great being on the track. I have a short video that I stole from josh and edited down to just the part I am in, which you can watch if you want, even though it is long... check it (warning, 20mb). I have only been driving around in the city lately, not pushing the car much. I had noticed a few thunks in the rear lately, I assuming it was stuff in the back of the car rolling around. I happened to be driving the camry home the other night and as I pulled behind the audi, I noticed something hanging down. Sure enough, the swaybar was BROKEN. Kinda nuts, I'll get some pics tonight. but it is odd. Needless to say, the camry is doing fine. I'll likely buy some better tires for it next summer, as I hate these RE92s, and one has a slow leak. But whatever. I am still impressed by the gas mileage for a car of its size.
computer stuff: I still think my macbook is dope. still very happy with it. The move to the intels was a great move by apple. I also got a nice case for it that fits in my backpack, very nice.
side stuff... I have been inspired a bunch of times readin the MAKE blog and I have a few little projects I am going to work on, but I have been so busy with side web work and other shit I haven't had time to play. I finally got around to learning layout with CSS vs. tables, and that has worked out well for me. I am by no means an expert, but I am getting the hang of it. I don't know why I had such trouble figuring it out in the past, it is easy. I think I just wasn't motivated enough.
Other than that, nothing super amazing to make note off... off to hang some more stuff on the walls. or back to the basement bathroom. And I need to go to the garage to talk with dylan about websites we are working on. And I have some work to do for work work. awesome.