Monthly Archives: August 2008

We know Michael Phelps can swim (obviously), we know what he looks like in a halter top (practically) and soon enough we’ll find out if he’s funny (seriously). What you might not have known, though, is that Michael Phelps is also one heckuva sore winner (kiddingly).

It took almost two hours and a dozen trips up and down (and up and down) the stairs from my apartment to my building’s alley, storage room and, finally, laundry room — where the cable guy was forced to pop his head through a dusty ceiling panel — but the faulty wire connection that left me with no home Internet or cable for nearly two weeks has been fixed. Turns […]

One of these days, I’ll be fully functional again when it comes to 21st Century communication at my apartment. Today, however, isn’t that day. Neither is tomorrow. Or the next day, it appears. More than a week removed from the Day Technology Died, I still don’t have a new phone (my iPhone is in some […]

In Fort Wayne, Ind., the Johnny Appleseed Festival lists a home address one one of the more peculiar — and amusing — street names that I’ve ever come across. See for yourself. The street is named after a popular former mayor who reportedly had a wife named … “Minnie.” Seriously, you can’t make this stuff up.

So, just how hard did it rain in Chicago on Monday night? So hard that my cell phone suffered catastrophic water damage when I ran from Cubby Bear to my apartment (about, oh, three-quarters of a mile) just as the late-night monsoon that finally ended the Cubs game for good began pouring down. And my […]

So, here’s my morning so far: 1.) I wake up and realize my cell phone no longer works. (Yet it worked fine at 11:30 p.m. when I made a phone call and set my alarm. What the …?) 2.) I then turn on the TV and realize my cable is not working. (And this has […]

About eight years ago, one of my buddies from high school was working for State Farm Insurance and dating a girl who worked with him at the Bloomington, Ill.-based corporation. While out with the two of them in Chicago one night, I recall my friend’s girl telling me how a recent work-related travel screw-up had […]