Today going home from work on IL 29, I was forced to stop for traffic backed up due to road construction.  No problem.  The person behind me didn’t think it was a problem either.  However, there was a woman behind them that was paying no attention and promptly ran into them pretty good – sending them into me.  I’ve was watching it unfold in my rear-view mirror and was able to release the break and start turning the wheel towards the the left lane when the impact took place, so my car has very little visible damage.  Jay was in the car with me at the time and we both were just fine.

Both passengers in the car behind me were taken to the hospital, and the woman’s car who started it all looked pretty bad.  So I spent a little while on the phone tonight with the insurance companies.  I was actually suprised that I had 0 hold time, and the process moved along quite well.

I’ve made a few changes to our household communications – I ditched my treo 600 (and relatively expensive cellular plan) and got a new, plain cellphone and joined Ana’s cell account.   So instead of my $60 cell bill, both of them together will be $60.  And that’s before Ana reimburses $50 for work.  That’s right, we’ll be paying $10 for two cellphones per month.  After that move, I signed up for Vonage so we’ll have a home phone for the first time in years.  We would have gone with a traditional land line if it weren’t for the $200 fee to get phone service hooked up to the house (new construction, has never had phone service).  We’re going with Vonage’s $14.99/month plan which should be ample.

I got rid of the Treo because it started locking up again when I received calls, and often when trying to make outbound calls it would immediately say No Service and drop it.  It would often take 8-10 attempts to get an outgoing call to take.  The last time this happened (6 months ago maybe), I purchased a new battery and the problem went away.  But, being fed up with it, and wanting to make the changes mentioned above kept me from just buying a new battery this time around.

It’ll be a little strange not carrying around a pda like I have for the past 8 years.  But I really haven’t used much of the pda functionality since graduating from college.  Now I’m like the rest of the population with a nice small cellphone.

This weekend was spent painting the bedroom and bathroom to get ready for some furniture we bought that I believe is still on a boat crossing the ocean with Columbus.  BUT in the chance that they find an engine somewhere out there and it arrives sooner than expected, we went ahead and did the painting this weekend while we had 4 days to do it and recover.  In addition to painting, Eric also installed 2 new sink faucets and a new lighted exhaust fan.  While the new faucets went in with only one run to the store to get a crescent wrench and some goo that really wasn’t required, the exhaust fan was a whole nother story.  We actually had all the pieces for that one (except for the light bulb which was harvested from my bedside lamp), but this required that Eric venture into the attic that contains drifts of blown in insulation.   He waited until evening to begin in hopes that it would cool down slightly, but it didn’t.  After probably an hour of working up there he came down entirely soaked through.  He looked as if he had been tarred and feathered with all the insulation sticking to is clothes and skin.  The only bright side to this episode was that the fan and light worked on first try and nothing was left in the attic that required him to go back in to retrieve it.  There was also going to be some additional electrical work to rewire some lights that were wired in such a way that really makes no sense, but that will wait for cooler temperatures.  After describing this whole scenario to my mother, and describing Eric as a painter, electrician and now plumber, she simply replied, no he’s a home owner. 

I’ve you’ve never been to a Coldstone Creamery, like Ana and I before tonight, and there’s one near you – get there.  We were really impressed with how good the ice cream was, and it’s pretty fun watching them make your dessert.

I have no idea when they came to Springfield, it couldn’t have been very long ago though. They have a great location, right downtown across the street from the old capital building and a block from the new Presidential Library.  On a cool evening like tonight it was very pleasant sitting outside eating the ice cream in view of the well lit capital.

Saw this today at Dick’s Sporting Goods.

Last night Ana and I traded in our bikes (yes, bought last year) for a pair of new and larger ones. When we bought them last year we didn’t realize what size we really needed and were riding ones that we are way too tall for. The bikes will arrive on Tuesday so we should be able to ride them that evening, provided the weather is nice.

We purchased them from WheelFast in Chatham which came highly recommended.  If you’re in the area and looking for a bike or bike accessories, you should check them out.

My dad has started an eBay related business, and I’ve been working on the website for him. It’s not nearly as complete as I want it to be yet, but it will gain more features over time.

For the curious (and those too lazy to click the link), he’s offering a service where you can have stuff sold on eBay, but you don’t have to do anything.  He comes to your house to take the pictures, handling packing and shipping, etc..  Basically you just decide you want to sell something and either call or send him an email.  Pretty cool, and he’s had several customers already.