Toon-Time.com

I'm at my parent's house and nobody is up yet so I am doing this forwarded e-mail bit sent to my by one of my jr/high school friends Lara Henry. I didn't really thing about doing it until I saw/read a response from another person I knew in High School who I had not heard about since High School. His response gave me a lot of insite on how much he has and has not changed since then. I wonder what people who I have not talked to in years would think about what I answer. Send your responses to greg@toon-time.com. I would love to see your answers.

1. What color are your kitchen plates? red, white, and blue IKEA special... I'm so patriotic
2. What book are you reading now? John McEnroe - You Cannot Be Serious. I got it because I needed something to read when I had jury duty a couple of weeks ago
3. What's on your mouse pad? No mouse pad today. I am on my laptop.
4. Favorite magazine? GQ and dwell.
5. Favorite smells? the Ocean

6. Least favorite smell? burnt rubber
7. What is the first thing you think of when you wake up in the morning? is it Saturday?
8. Favorite color? dark blue
9.Least favorite color? purple... Sorry Lara
10.How many rings before you answer the phone? 2 normally because that's how long caller id takes to display the name

11. Future child's name? No idea.
12. Do you sleep with a stuffed animal? Patrick the puppy (Claire's stuffed dog that I gave her) guards the bed during the day but gets the boot to the floor at night.
14. Do you like Storms? Not anymore since half of our bedroom ceiling is 4 ft sky lights. Impossible to get nights sleep when it's real bad.
15. What type was your first car? The Green Monster. '91 Mazda 626 that my parents bought me in High School. Was my only car until a week ago when we bought a new honda accord.

16. If you could meet one human, dead or alive, who would it be? Great Grand Parents and would need a translator.
17. Favorite Alcoholic drink? Jack and Coke or Killian's Red
18. What are your sign and your birthday? Taurus, 5/17
19. Do you eat the stems of Broccoli? Yes.
20. If you could have any job, what would it be? Charter Sail Boats.... Sailing is my new found love. Or professional tennis player

21. If you could have any color hair, what would it be? color doesn't matter... I would want strait non-curly/frizzy hair
22. Have you ever been in love? Yes
23. Is the glass half full or half empty? half full
24. Favorite movie? Hard to say but I think I would have to go with The Sound of Music.
25. Do you type with your fingers on the right keys? yeap. except the space bare and when I have to use the shift key

26. What's under your bed? clothes and probably some pretty big dust bunnies :-)
27. What is your favorite number? 35
28. Favorite sport to watch? Ice Hockey
29. What is your single biggest fear? That I am typing all this but nobody is reading it.
30. Say one nice thing about the person who sent this to you. I always remember Lara with a smile on her face.

31. Person most likely to respond? Claire
32. Person you sent this to who is least likely to respond? honestly... everyone else hehehe
33. Favorite CD? Mike Barrett - Pissed in Boston... check it out. Barrett's Web Site
34. Favorite TV shows? So many... West Wing, Paradise Hotel, Real World, Ozbourne's, OC, Scubs, Ed, PTI, Sports Center, Sopranos, Amazing Race... and a lot more. Tivo Rocks!
35. Ketchup or Mustard? Both but Ketchup if I had to choose one.

36. Hamburger or Hot-dog? Hamburger.
37. Favorite soft drink? COKE! nothing like a can of coke from an ice chest on a summer's day
38. The best places you have ever been? London (favorite city), Paris, Berlin, San Fran, San Diego, Seattle, NYC, Nantucket, Martha's Vinyard, Disneyworld, East/West Berlin before the wall came down, Hawaii, Boundry Waters, Newport RI, and of course Chicago where I live now.
39. What screen saver is on your computer now? Standard windows logon box
40. Burger King or McDonalds? McDonalds and super size it. Call me fat kid.

41. How ever many years I've been married? I just got married on June 7th, 2003.

Posted by Greg at 07:15 AM | Permalink

I can't say enough how much "I HATE DIAL UP!". You don't know how much you miss a high speed connection till you don't have one. I have to find a way to get broadband for my parent's house. Verizon for some reason doesn't offer it in there area. I checked on DSLreports.com and it says they are close enough to the CO. They live on Long Island in a populated area... what's the deal? Not only is it slow but you can't share the connection either or wirless. And the list goes on. I am done venting now

I'm at my parent's house today after we drove to NY from Chicago. We got in the new car around 5:30 am and arrived at my parents in Long Island at 9:30 pm. The trip seamed longer than the last time we drove out east but I think it's because we hit some bad traffic going through the NY City to get to my parents. We tried to take pictures of all the 'Welcome to (State)' signs but only managed to get two of them. Ohio and Pennsylvania. It's harder than you would think to take a picture of sign while moving in a car.

Posted by Greg at 11:28 AM | Permalink

The new addition to the Toon family (our new car) got the star treatment this morning. I gave her a good waxing because I was not going to pay the dealership to do it for me. They offered to put a protecting coat on the outside and the leather for $700 dollars. $700 dollars for a wax job and Armor All... I don't think so. We also went out on Sparini today. Since Jill was in town and it was a nice day, I asked Ryan if he would take us out on the boat. It was a great day to sail and take dip in the lake. As always, I learned a little more about sailing and we all had a great time. We can never thank Ryan enough for being so generous with Spartini. Thanks Ryan.

Posted by Greg at 10:00 PM | Permalink

Claire's sister flew into town today for a few days and couldn't have picked a nicer weekend then this. The weather was great today and is supposed to be tomorrow as well. We drove the new car (don't have a name for it yet. e-mail us any suggestions for names) to pick up Jill and had a blast. It's great to have to radio (Green Monster's was stolen twice), sunroof, and the new car smell. In the afternoon, we went to the BU Alumni Beach Volleyball event at North Ave beach. It's been ages since any of us played volleyball and it showed but we had a good time anyways. We met Sarah and Todd there but also made some new friends. Sarah was there because she went to BU at the same time I was there. However, we didn't know each other while at BU. Claire went to Westover (high school) with Sarah. Small World. We're finding that BU Alumni events are a great place to meet new friends in Chicago. After volleyball, we went to Louie's in the Park and had some drinks and food with Sarah, Todd, Sabrina, and some people we just met at volleyball. We liked all the people we meet playing volleyball that we invited people to hang out at our place later that evening if they wanted to. Almost, all the people showed up (after going home to shower, clean up, and relax) and we had a great time having everyone over.

Posted by Greg at 10:00 PM | Permalink

Claire and I made a huge purchase tonight when we bought a new 2003 Accord EX-L. We've been considering buying a new car for awhile but didn't start to seriously think about it until we drove back to the east coast earlier this month. The drive was not that bad and we figured driving would be the best way to visit the east coast because we wouldn't have to borrow my parents spare care and spend all the money on plane tickets. We also want to explore the mid-west a little more and go on some camping trips that are quite a drive outside of Chicago. The Green Monster (my old car from high school) is getting old and we don't trust it to take it farther than the suburbs. I was very nervous about having to negotiate the price but it wasn't near as bad as I thought. I was doing tons of research on the net so I would know all the tricks (yes I'll say it again, I'm a dork). In the end, we got a better price then what I had set as my top level price so I was very happy. For those of you who are wondering about the Green Monster (our old car), we are holding on to it and parking it on the street now. The extra insurance is not very much. We will use it when going to parts of the city where we don't want to have to worry about it. More pictures... front, rear, side 1, side 2, inside.

Posted by Greg at 10:00 PM | Permalink

Today, was another great Chicago summer day. Ryan invited us to go Spartini for the day and watch the Air Show. He also said we could invite our other friends Sarah and Todd. Ryan's the most generous guy I know when it comes to the boat. You couldn't ask for a better friend. Ryan is teaching me more and more about sailing every time we go out. I think his goal is to have me competent enough to turn the boat around if he falls overboard or to get back to shore if something happens to him. lol It was great to spend all day on the lake and have to planes fly over your head. The best part was when the F-15s did their 4-5 Gs turns right over our head with the afterburners going. Being on the sailboat allows you to not have to deal with the North Ave Beach crowds and you can take a swim without 15 million other people right on top of you. More pictures... Ryan, Anne, and Susan, Sarah and Todd, Claire, Greg, Thunderbirds with Skyline in Background.

Posted by Greg at 10:00 PM | Permalink

Claire and I went to the BU alumni event at the Cubs-Astros game last night and had a blast. The weather was perfect and the seats were a lot better than we expected. We were on the upper deck on the third base line. This was the first time I have ever sat on the third base line at a ball game. Usually, I always sit on the first base line (even games at Fenway) or the bleachers. After the game, we had some drinks at John Barleycorn with some other alumni we met at the game. Our new BU alumni friends were lots of fun and hopefully we'll hang out with them more in the future.

Posted by Greg at 10:00 PM | Permalink

We went on Ryan's sailboat for the first time tonight with Nick, Nora, and Ann. I think I have caught the sailing bug. Of course, it wouldn't be hard to catch on a day like today and on Ryan's boat. He just bought it from his friends family. Spartini (Ryan and his friend's Dad (previous owner) went to Michigan State) is a 36' Catalina that he grew up sailing on. The views of the city from a sailboat are amazing. To top it off, Ryan has one of the best slips in Chicago. Spartini is right in front of Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park, in the row closest to the shore and 2nd off the channel that goes out to the lake. I'll post pictures soon.

Posted by Greg at 10:00 PM | Permalink

This past weekend we drove back to the east coast to pick up all our wedding/shower gifts that we left there. We rented an SUV on Thursday and drove through the night to get CT around 10 am. I can't tell you how tired we were. Our first stop was at my cousin's Sheri's in Greenwich to meet my parents. They drove up from Long Island that morning so we would not have to drive out of our way to get the gifts that were at their house. It was great to see them and Sheri and her two kids (Alexandra and Marcus). We stayed and had lunch with Sheri when she came home from work for lunch. We were then off to Claire's parents house in CT. There house was another 1.5 hours and we couldn't wait to get their to be done with driving for awhile. I only say awhile because on Sunday morning we turned around and left Claire's parents to drive back to Chicago with all our gifts.

I still can't believe all the gifts we got. Thanks Everyone! Driving back was a lot easier because we did it during the day. We got back to Chicago about 10 pm. The trip was about 900 miles and about 14 hours of driving each way.

Posted by Greg at 10:00 PM | Permalink