We're happy to announce that the Daily Herald newspaper has endorsed Peggy Babcock and Rich Bokor for seats on the Palatine District 15 School Board. "…the district is moving ahead in positive ways with a greater sense of collaboration at various levels — between the board and teachers, for example,... Continue reading

We're happy to announce that the Daily Herald newspaper has endorsed Peggy Babcock and Rich Bokor for seats on the Palatine District 15 School Board. "…the district is moving ahead in positive ways with a greater sense of collaboration at various levels — between the board and teachers, for example,... Continue reading

Peggy, her son Jake (a graduate of D15 and D211), and husband John. Rich has dedicated his life to educating our children. He has a 35 year career in both District 15 and District 211. Richard and Ann are pictured with grandchildren Quin, Tatum and Trey. Peggy has worked with... Continue reading

They are team workers with proven consensus building skills. They strive for all decisions to be within budget and have attacked the deficit, showing fiscal responsibility. They established continued stability by negotiating a solid CTC contract for the next 4 years and a Superintendent contract for the next 5 years.... Continue reading

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Peggy, her son Jake (a graduate of D15 and D211), and husband John. Rich has dedicated his life to educating our children. He has a 35 year career in both District 15 and District 211. Richard and Ann are pictured with grandchildren Quin, Tatum and Trey. Peggy has worked with... Continue reading

They are team workers with proven consensus building skills. They strive for all decisions to be within budget and have attacked the deficit, showing fiscal responsibility. They established continued stability by negotiating a solid CTC contract for the next 4 years and a Superintendent contract for the next 5 years.... Continue reading

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Yeah, weird putting this post into a Typepad window, but here it is. Soon the url will just redirect to the new site on Squarespace, but for now go here for my latest blog posts. There are a few reasons for the change but the big one is the look of this site and wanting it to be more modern and easier to read. Let me know what you think. Continue reading

When I went to pick up the limited edition Clutch sour ale the guy at the liquor store asked if I wanted to try this Halloween inspired brew. Sure enough a couple bottles came home with me. After the first sip my cheeks puckered up from the tart cranberry flavor. It was brewed with pumpkin and cranberry but all I can taste is the cran. It's overpowering to an extreme which is too bad because it is a smooth ale otherwise. 8.5% alcohol too so don't need too many to get through a game. But I wouldn't really recommend it... Continue reading

As I keep moving through my career I’m continuously encountering new technology trends in terms of getting media, thoughts and images to the public in new ways. If you’re a working journalist today you have to be using these tools to stay atop your field. As a busy dad, and avid Pearl Jam fan, I can’t focus every second on my hobby. When I have a spare moment when the kids are running around the local YMCA’s indoor maze I can sit and play on my iphone for a few moments. That’s when I finally had a few minutes to... Continue reading

Like most dads I think my kids are the cutest on earth. I mean come on. Look at them. One of my favorite joys though is running into kid-free couples in public with my cute kids in tow. The reaction we get totally depends on Evie and Carter’s moods though. But I love both versions. First Scenario: Kids are being cute/well behaved. Still child-free couple: The woman or both (rarely just the guy) react with the “aww” face and you know there will probably be a conversation later in the day when they talk about kids. Second Scenario: One or... Continue reading

One of my colleagues from my first post-college job asked me to write a blog post about my first Pearl Jam show for his new blog. Since I just got back from Pearl Jam’s 20th birthday celebration it seemed like a good time to reflect. How did I get addicted to a band so deeply that I haven’t missed a tour in 17 years? It started March 28, 1994… [Every photo in this post is from PJ20 but I picked them to correlate with parts of my recollection. Pretty eerie. Click on song titles for MP3s from the '94 concert.]... Continue reading

I had some mild reflection of my life as a Pearl Jam fanatic this weekend as the wife and I joined 20,000 or so others to celebrate the band’s 20th “birthday” at Alpine Valley. With our lives consumed by kids’ schedules we didn’t head out early and rain kept us from communing with folks during day 1. As I try to put together some of the sights and sounds I captured from our journey I’ve come across a bunch of terrific YouTube videos from the shows. And that got me to reflect much more than anything from the actual weekend.... Continue reading

Testing new filter app and what an image looks like when emailed from mobile. Continue reading

But I had a great view for the stretch and first pitch. Continue reading

At three and a half I’m not sure how much scrutiny I should be giving Carter’s likes and dislikes, but there are a few new ones that are indeed encouraging. A few weeks back I was able to test drive the Nissan GT-R which was the first car that Carter really took to. He’s always paid attention to them mind you and knows every brand out there by sight. But with the GT-R he wanted to see the engine and in every test car since he’s asked the same thing. I have to pop the hood and lift him up... Continue reading

Disclaimer: I haven’t seen the new ‘Green Lantern’ movie and I probably won’t until it’s on HBO, like every other movie that’s come out for the past three+ years since Carter was born. But I read the comics and know Ryan Reynolds stars as the iconic Hal Jordon. Reynolds is also taking up the charge to promote Nissan’s all-electric Nissan Leaf. Get it? Charge? Well as many of you know I’ve been driving a Leaf my company purchased as a long-term test car months ago. Do I feel like a green superhero when it’s plugged into my two-car garage, wedged... Continue reading

A lot of times, all the time actually, folks tell me to enjoy the kids because they’ll "grow up so fast." I don’t know how many times I’ve heard that in the three and a half years since Carter was born. Even when I’m out of town for just a few days the two kids seem bigger in size, more articulate with language and just plain cuter then when I left. So I guess that saying is apt. But this spring and summer there has definitely been a huge change. I haven’t really noticed a big growth spurt but Carter... Continue reading

Saturday I took Carter to the toy store to pick up a reward for potty training. Yep, the boy is pooping without incident for about a month now (knock on wood). We have a little chart and every time he poops he gets a new sticker for the chart. At the end of filling the chart Carter gets a prize. He has been pouring over the new Chuggington catalog (he reads them, and makes us read them to him too) for a few weeks and wanted the Musical Car that plays the Chuggington theme song music, sans lyrics. We took... Continue reading

I'd say only the Dodge Charger is indeed Dad/Family friendly but I enjoyed the Mercedes-Benz CL550...a lot. And the Lexus CT200h is more fun than I thought it would be. If you want one-on-one advice on buying a new car ask me on Facebook! Otherwise check out my work on Cars.com. Continue reading

I’m not going to review Eddie Vedder’s new solo record, Ukulele Songs, featuring the above song, a version of the Pearl Jam track "Can’t Keep". The video actually sounds like the audio was recorded right there on the rocks but I don’t see any mic. Can anyone help me out with that? Anyway, one reason I didn’t cry after being shut out of the Eddie Vedder shows later this month in Chicago was because I figured it would be heavy on the Uke. For a record it’s a neat idea, shelling out $300+ for seats via StubHub or Craigslist…probably not.... Continue reading

As we took in a wonderful, sunny Memorial Day (after two days of crap Chicago-burb weather) the cameras came out. My wife shoots with our Canon G9, which produces amazing photos. Check out one below. I whip out my iPhone when not saving kids from certain doom caused by trike/water table/every toy on the ground. In the past I’ve written about some cool photo apps for the iPhone but I rarely use them. I’ve found the one I still use the most is QuadCamera (above) because it captures the frenetic action that is living with a three and two-year-old rather... Continue reading

There have been a few things said and reported about MGD 64 Lemonade. It’s been marketed to female centric blogs and isn’t widely available for sale yet. I only just learned of it through my wife hunting for Weight Watcher friendly foods...and I guess drinks. I have a connection inside Miller Coors so I secured a single bottle to test just recently. Before all the readers assail me for reviewing such a concoction there is a history for lemonade and beer err…concoctions. A few years after moving to Chicago to marry my wife we went to a Fourth of July... Continue reading

I downloaded the HBO GO app yesterday, signed up with my DirecTV login pretty easily and was raring to go to test this new app. Then I saw the stylish menu of the available original series, basically all of them, and thought “when am I going to have time to go through all of this?” I mean I wanted this app to catch up on 'Game of Thrones', but I could also watch 'Boardwalk Empire', a show I kept meaning to watch last year. I still haven’t re-watched 'Deadwood' since it originally aired, and this summer this will likely be... Continue reading