no room and board

Who saw the picture in the paper yesterday of the semi that had basically broken apart after getting stuck under the train overpass on Springfield Avenue? I couldn’t help but crack up, although I feel sorry for the people who won’t be getting their long-sought after furniture from Room and Board.

Room and Board is an upscale furniture retailer based in the Midwest. It has two stores (at least) in Chicagoland, and they deliver to a wide area. After we bought our house a few years ago, we purchased some of our first real “adult” furniture — a new bedroom set. I had been eying the Room and Board catalog, and picked it from there. I’m sure my neighbors were thrilled when a Room and Board semi showed up in my tiny cul-de-sac at 11 p.m. on a weeknight. Sometimes delivery isn’t all it’s, ahem, cracked up to be.

I wonder if the city of Champaign has statistics on how many semis get jammed under there per year, and how much money it costs the city to bail them out. As one of my friends said, we all know how tall we are. Shouldn’t that be part of required training for semi drivers?

c-u story

The other day I decided to bring out the Betty Crocker in me, so Peanut and I made some brownies to take over to our new neighbors. Over the summer two young families moved in just around the corner from us and I was overjoyed. As much as I love my neighborhood, there are not many families with young children. If they do have a young child, then s/he is the third or fourth, with the others being school-aged. I had heard through the neighborhood grapevine that there might be a 2-year-old girl at one of the houses.

So that evening I ventured out and rang both doorbells, not quite sure what I might find. I went in with low expectations, but after returning home more than an hour and a half later, my outing was quite a success –  and quite a pleasure. I discovered, much to the luck of the draw, that we have a lot in common with both couples. As it turned out, one of the fathers even knows Mr. lbotp through a professional connection. And one of the mothers is, like me, pregnant with her second.

If you move to my neighborhood, I’ll make you brownies too — but you’ll score bonus points if you bring a potential playmate for Peanut and her future younger sibling.

that didn’t take long

I know most of you had it pegged — correctly — what I was going to write about today. Friday’s news of a puppy mill raided in our own backyard — rural Arthur, to be exact — sent chills down my spine. This news certainly wasn’t shocking. As I opined months ago, It was only a matter of time before a puppy mill was revealed in our midst.

Kudos to the Macon County Animal Control and Care Center for taking in these poor dogs, when Douglas County couldn’t handle the volume or their special needs. I called the shelter this morning and the receptionist said it would be awhile before the animals are ready to find their forever homes. She added that interested people should keep calling, and donations may be sent to the address linked on the above Web site.

I hope the local news media stays on top of this story and doesn’t let it go. I found it odd that the name and location of the alleged perpetrator was not released in the weekend stories. Why is this person(s) being protected? I will not let it go, you can bet on that.

I thought I would close this post with some good news about animal happenings in our area.

– Oskee Bow Wow, the annual fundraiser for the University of Illinois Companion Animal Memorial Fund, will be held on Sept. 4. This year companion animals are invited. Deadline for RSVP is today.

– Nip/Tuck Day on Sept. 6 — Low-income cat owners living in Champaign and Douglas County will be able to obtain spay and neuter surgeries at the Champaign County Humane Society and the Champaign County Animal Services Facility for just $10.

cheers and jeers

Cheers to the nice young student at the campus apple store for helping a huge pregnant woman to her van with her brand new MacBook.

Jeers to the City of Champaign for making you pay for an hour of parking in Lot J (on campus at Sixth and Green), when you don’t really need a whole hour.

Cheers to the University of Illinois for providing ample warning about Thursday’s move-in day.

Jeers to the University of Illinois for changing move-in day to a weekday, inconveniencing thousands of parents as well as disrupting the entire community.

Cheers to the Urbana Sweetcorn Festival for scheduling the local Lady Bugs “Kiddie Rock” band at this weekend’s event. And it’s even at a time when Peanut can go, yippee.

Jeers to the new Urbana Meijer for not opening until October — what in the world is taking so long? I’m not much of a big box girl unless thy name is Target, but there’s something about Meijer that I find intoxicating.

i know you, you know me

Sometimes, just when I wonder why I keep up this charade, something reminds me.

For the first time in forever, I happened to attend the Market at the Square with just the Killer Cockapoo in tow. Peanut was doing the toddler slow dance, and after missing the market for two weeks, I was anxious that I might miss out on some of my favorite goodies if I waited for her to come around. So off we went.

I was checking out all the animal-related booths, at the market to mark Homeless Animals Day, when a nice lady came up to me and asked me if KC was indeed a cockapoo. Why yes, I said. She then asked me — Are you lbotp? It turns out the inquisitor was none other than Golden, a frequent commenter on animal-related posts. She and I have corresponded frequently.

This site hasn’t been lucrative for me. I do it because it is fun. But if I could quantify in dollars what this blog has produced in the form of relationships, I would be a very rich woman.

Some people pick up their spouse online — I have met some of my best friends.

thanks but no thanks

When Mr. lbotp told me the other day that he got a notice about a children’s show coming to the Assembly Hall in October, I was excited about the prospect of taking Peanut to her first live stage performance of that magnitude (especially since I can actually stand the Backyardigans). Then he informed me that both Backyardigans shows will be on weeknights and will start at the oh-so-toddler friendly time of 7 p.m.

Who in their right mind schedules a show aimed at preschoolers for 7 p.m.? Obviously, the Assembly Hall. I did a brief perusal of the entire Backyardigans Tour Schedule, and discovered that most venues — even if they were hosting the performance on a weekday — had an earlier show time or times available.

That convinced me that this is clearly an AH issue, perhaps driven by the fact that its outlying parking lots are used by University employees during the week. There are occasionally events at the AH during weekdays, but those are not usually performances that require paid parking. The lone exception that I can think of is the Friday in February when the UI hosts the state high school wrestling tournament.

I imagine there will be plenty of good seats available on October 7 and 8.

supercalifragilisticexpialidoceous

I just noticed that Mary Poppins will be playing this Saturday at the Virginia Theater, as part of the News-Gazette film series there. Since I’m pretty sure that I’ve never seen this movie on the big screen, I’m planning to head over there. This is a true classic, a movie that my mother cherished sharing with me and that I in turn hope to share with Peanut someday. Of course, she won’t be old enough this time, but I wanted to give a shout out to the Virginia for the child-friendly showing at 1 p.m.

The only thing that would be better than watching Mary Poppins on the big screen would be the chance to do a Mary Poppins sing-a-long on the big screen. For some reason, those sing-along events don’t seem to get the chance to be viewed in Chambana; I recently noticed that a Little Mermaid sing-along will be shown at the end of the month at Chicago’s Music Box Theatre. Part of me would like to become the proprietor of the Art Theatre just for that very reason.

By the way, another FYI — the stage musical version of Mary Poppins will be coming to Chicago in early 2009. It will be hard to see someone other than Julie Andrews playing Mary, but I’m planning a field trip.

news of the weird

This is what I call hard news:

“Six pairs of women’s undergarments stolen from ISU sorority house”

If someone stole six pairs of my underwear, I don’t think I would even notice.

just warming up, post-vacation style

• If I didn’t have anything better to do today, I would head over to the new “I” hotel for a tour.
• I’m already counting down the days to the fall One Week Boutique sale.
• I’ve missed going to Market on the Square for the past couple Saturdays, and I’m glad to be headed back this week, especially since it will be Central Illinois Animal Welfare Coalition for Homeless Pets Day.
• If you’re headed to the Chicago area later this summer or fall, don’t miss the Model Railroad Garden at the Chicago Botanic Gardens. This is not actually in the city, but in the suburbs north of it. For kids of all ages — although Peanut loved it so much she went twice. And the Botanic Gardens themselves are spectacular.
• Yes, I went to Trader Joe’s during our vacation and spent about $53. I got a ton of stuff considering I didn’t bother with any frozen or refrigerated items. I also made sure to tell the manager that we need a store in C-U, not that he cared.
• Congrats to Mrs. Chicken on her beautiful baby boy.
• Thanks everyone for your kind wishes on our family’s new project.

coming out party

We expect baby Jellybean on New Year’s Day 2009.

With that, we will head out on vacation and posting will be on hold for a week.