Monday, September 7, 2026

Last night I went to bed at 11pm, took about an hour to fall asleep, got up once at 3:15, fell back asleep quickly, finally waking/getting up at 7am.

According to my Fitbit, I got in 8,594 steps yesterday and last night I slept for 6 hours and 13 minutes for a sleep score of 71.

Today is a holiday here – Labor Day!

After breakfast I had a 52-minute nap.

Despite my intentions to avoid it, last night I went through an Illinois Tollbooth so now I have to figure out how to pay the toll.

We left the Airbnb just after 10:30 and drove an hour to Illinois Beach State Park. There didn’t seem to be much there for us since we didn’t bring swimsuits but Teresa was impressed by the beach and the large lake. We headed back the way we came and stopped at Emily’s Pancake House where Teresa had chicken breast with hash browns and I had the steak (which I didn’t much care for) & eggs but Teresa got the steak and some hash browns to go for our supper tonight.

We returned basically the way we came but stopped in Randhurst Village mall where Teresa returned another blouse to T.J. Maxx but bought another $144 in clothes. We went next door to Skechers where I bought a very light pair of gym shoes for $68.

We stopped at The Original Rainbow Cone ice cream shop (it’s their 100^th anniversary this year) on Rand Road where I bought a small cone with the 5 standard flavors. Of course, Teresa just had a taste of each layer and I finished the rest.

We returned to the Airbnb.

ChatGPT helped me move the Stockfish 18 engine to a more secure location.

I checked the Illinois Tollway website and it looks like I have 14 days to pay the toll. I’ll wait just in case I have more.

For her 1^st birthday I made a donation to Annie James’ 529 plan.

 

RELEASE ALL THE EPSTEIN FILES NOW!

 

FUNNY

Sunday, September 6, 2026

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, didn’t fall asleep until after midnight, got up once at 4:30, finally fell back asleep, waking/getting up at 7am.

According to my Fitbit, I got in 5,002 steps yesterday and last night I slept for 7 hours and 3 minutes for a sleep score of 64.

After breakfast I returned to bed for a nap and slept for a few more minutes.

We left the Airbnb at 11:15 and drove to Randhurst Village mall where Teresa got a refund on one of the blouses she bought yesterday.

She shopped some more in T.J. Maxx, Macy’s and Old Navy but didn’t find anything.

We had lunch again in Panera Bread for $30.16 then returned to the Airbnb.

We left at 3:30 and picked up Jimmy at his condo and continued on to White Sox Park. Traffic was much heavier, now that the team is winning, as evidenced by the fact we parked in lot G instead of A like last time.

We arrived at our seats by the top of the 2^nd inning with the score still 0-0.

Jim went for a slice of pizza while Teresa and I got in a long line for hotdogs and sodas. The White Sox won, 10-1, over the Minnesota Twins with two home runs, and thus fireworks, and of course more fireworks after the win. It was a slog getting back to our car although Jimmy did a good job of guiding us.

We dropped Jimmy off at his condo and continued on to our Airbnb. We stopped at Walmart to buy another carton of eggs and a large container of half & half for our coffee.

We got to bed at 11pm.

 

RELEASE ALL THE EPSTEIN FILES NOW!

 

FUNNY

 

Saturday, September 5, 2026

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, fell asleep quickly, got up once at 4am, couldn’t fall asleep, looked at my phone from 5 to 5:30, fell back asleep, finally waking/getting up with Teresa at 8am.

According to my Fitbit, I got in 9,516 steps yesterday and last night I slept for 7 hours and 18 minutes for a sleep score of 71.

We left the apt at 10am and drove to Long Grove, IL. Not only does it have neat shops

but it was Irish Days. They had Irish dancing, Irish music (bagpipes and drums), and an Irish kilt contest.

We had lunch at the 200-year-old Village Tavern

a chicken sandwich for Teresa and a burger for me. Including Cokes it came to about $60 including tip.

Across the street we visited Olivia’s Boutique where Teresa found a blouse she loved for $74.52.

We stopped nearby at the Long Grove Confectionary where I bought a package of 6 apple spice donuts for $8.14. 

I was a little concerned they might not be fresh because they were prepackaged but they sure tasted fresh.

We took them next door to Long Grove Coffee where we ordered lattes for $10.28 to have with our donuts. (Teresa had one bite, declared they were delicious and that’s all she ate.)

We drove to Randhurst Village mall where Teresa found 3 blouses in T.J. Maxx for a total of $98.30.

 We returned to the apt and Teresa made herself an omelet and me 2 ears of sweet corn. I finally tried one of the oranges and found it was the same from Chile that we currently have in Medellin. Which I don’t like, too hard to eat and not sweet enough.

I won a game vs Troyclough increasing my rating to 1537. I tried a new opening, the Queens’s Gambit, and on my 21^st move blundered my rook and on the next move he blundered his queen.

I spent at least an hour with ChatGPT getting my Stockfish 18 engine set up correctly for game analysis. Next I will have to move it from the download folder to a place more secure.

 

RELEASE ALL THE EPSTEIN FILES NOW!

 

FUNNY

 

Friday, September 4, 2026

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, fell asleep quickly, got up once during the night, finally waking/getting up with Teresa at 7am.

According to my Fitbit, I got in 8,096 steps yesterday and last night I slept for 8 hours and 20 minutes for a sleep score of 81.

Happy Birthday Laura! Today she is 25 years old.

I was thinking maybe my mouse just somehow became unpaired with my laptop so I used ChatGPT and it suggested I start with the old battery, turn the mouse off, wait 10 seconds and turn it back on. I tried that and it worked. 😊 I’m back in business with my laptop again.

We left the Airbnb at 9:30 and first made a stop at an ATM to get more cash. At the Des Plaines train station I paid $2 for parking and bought 2 one-way tickets to downtown Chicago for $11. The next train was at 10:30 so we had a 45-minute wait. Soon there was an announcement that the train was delayed for some mechanical issue in Cary and there would be another 45-minute wait. We walked across the street to check out the stores in the area. Workers were replacing sidewalk tiles but near us a man in a wheelchair was stuck in the sand. We pushed him out and into the street as far as the next driveway which was for the police department.

We walked around the block and back to the station and a train arrived at 11:15.

We took a Wendella Water Taxi to Chinatown for $10, which included a 50% senior discount. 

When we got off at the dock a freight train was starting to come by cutting us off. I told Teresa it could be 100 cars long so she took a seat nearby. I continued to count until the train had passed and there were 122 cars.

 

It was just after noon and we were hungry so we stopped at the Veggie House for lunch for $55.83.

Teresa checked out a few stores but it was the same stuff as before and she actually commented we don’t have to return to Chinatown again. We stopped in café Tous Les Jours which is the same one in Glenview where Teresa would buy bread. We had lattes and shared some fancy pastry and used their restrooms.

We returned to the dock and a boat was just about to leave. Back at the train station I led Teresa 2 ½ blocks to the corner of Monroe & Wacker and asked her to look up so she could see the 110-story Sears Tower. 

(I worked there from 1972-1980, which seems like a lifetime ago.)

Back at the train station we caught the 5:07 local train to Des Plaines.

We went a block away to Potbelly where I ordered 2 cheese & broccoli soups and a turkey sandwich to share. I had an iced tea while Teresa just had water.

I stopped at the supermarket across the way and bought a 6-pack of English muffins before we returned to the apt.

I started my pre-sleep reading routine at 9:15 and went to bed at the usual 10pm.

 

RELEASE ALL THE EPSTEIN FILES NOW!

 

FUNNY

Thursday, September 3, 2026

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, fell asleep quickly, slept through the night, finally waking/getting up at 6:15.

According to my Fitbit, I got in 5,930 steps yesterday and last night I slept for 7 hours and 40 minutes for a sleep score of 84. Now that’s what I’m talking about!

I found the email with 2 free passes to All Seasons Orchard including ½ peck of free apples, which according to ChatGPT amounts to about 12-15 apples.

My mouse died. I changed the battery but it still doesn’t work. ☹

Mouse works again, I’ll explain later.

We had breakfast in the apt and drove up to Highland Park to meet with family. We briefly saw Jacob before he disappeared into his office/den for a telephone meeting. Annie seemed to recognize us and we watched her play for a while. Jeannie put Annie in a stroller and we took her and Rebel for a walk in the park. It was a warm muggy day and the flies were fearsome so we didn’t linger beyond 45 minutes. 

Rebel did his business and of course I had to clean it up. Back at the house Jeannie brought out a new toy, it’s a 4-tiered open stand where you put a soft ball in at the top and it rolls down the shoot and comes out the bottom. It took a couple demonstrations until Annie caught on and started doing it herself. We had a simple lunch there – a salad for Teresa and sandwich for me. They were having a new mattress delivered when we left about 4pm.

I drove us to a new mall Village Square of Northbrook and we checked out a few shops like Trader Joes, Bloomingdale’s The Outlet, Designer Shoe Warehouse, and Nordstrom Rack. Teresa seemed to like the shoe offerings in the latter but it was getting late and we were getting hungry.

I drove us to Carson’s where we shared an order of half ribs and half brisket. Teresa had a Coke Zero and I had 2 regular Cokes. The total check came to $72.53 including tip.

I drove us to another Nordstrom Rack across from Old Orchard Mall and Teresa checked out the shoes there.

We left about 7pm, we stopped at a Walgreen’s where I bought a 4-pack of AA batteries.

A new battery didn’t work either. ☹

We went to bed at our usual 10pm.

 

RELEASE ALL THE EPSTEIN FILES NOW!

 

FUNNY

Wednesday, September 2, 2026

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, took quite a while to fall asleep (after 2 Cokes I should have skipped the latte), got up twice during the night, finally waking/getting up just before 7am.

According to my Fitbit, I got in 3,854 steps yesterday and last night I slept for 5 hours and 32 minutes for a sleep score of 64.

Today we’re going apple picking so I’ll be wearing some less than clean shorts and a sleeveless t-shirt.

We left the Airbnb at 8:30 and drove to Deerfield Bakery in Buffalo Grove. Teresa had their skillet while I had their 2x2 and a pecan pastry. We both had coffee for a total of $36.05. About the same price as the other breakfasts but at least we didn’t have to leave a tip.

We continued on to Woodstock (about an hour) and arrived at an empty parking lot at All Seasons Orchard. Uh-oh! A man was just leaving in his pickup truck but he stopped to talk to us (me). He is from Idaho and assists small farmers in keeping their farms by diversifying. The farm has an apple orchard, pumpkin patch, barnyard, farmer’s market, corn maze, tractor rides, apple cider, apple cider donuts, etc. He agreed that they opened for the season last Saturday but just for last weekend. They will open during the week starting next week. It’s a long way to go for apples but it’s even further going there for no apples. He did take my email address and promised to send us free entry passes.

We continued on to downtown Woodstock which was nothing to write home about, especially in this heat. We walked through a lot of the shops and Teresa found a few things to buy – supporting local tourism.

I stopped at a local Citgo and filled the car the remaining halfway for $3.99 a gallon – a bargain these days.

We drove to Millie’s Hallmark Cards in Mount Prosect where I bought a birthday card for Annie and gift bags for her and Lucy.

We had lunch in Panera Bread, basically the same as yesterday, the You Pick Two for each of us.

We stopped in Burlington (Coat Factory) were Teresa found a few things for $25.99.

We stopped in Ross Dress for Less and bought a few things including this pair of Chicago Bears shorts I’m going to wear around the apt for a total of $37.45.

We stopped in Walmart and used their restroom and bought prunes, a package of mixed vegetables, sweet corn, and eggs.

We stopped in the Tous Les Jours bakery again where Teresa bought another small loaf of bread.

We returned to the Airbnb by 7:15 and I went to bed at 10pm.

 

RELEASE ALL THE EPSTEIN FILES NOW!

 

FUNNY

Tuesday, September 1, 2026

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, fell asleep quickly, got up once at 4:30, couldn’t fall back asleep, got up at 5 and did some work on my computer including downloading another Alex Cross book, read until 6:15, returned to bed and woke up at 8am.

According to my Fitbit, I got in 7,778 steps yesterday and last night I slept for 6 hours and 57 minutes for a sleep score of 76.

Yesterday was warm but I just about froze my tushy in the air-conditioned stores and malls. Even though there’s a heat advisory for today, I’m going with jeans since we’ll probably be in and out of stores again today.

We left the apt at 10:30 and drove a short distance to Ross Dress for Less in Golf Mill. Teresa found a number of makeup items and I bought a 6-pack of thin socks. (I should have brought more thin socks but who would have thought we would have temperatures in the 90s in September?)

Our next stop was Dollar Tree where Teresa found a couple more things.

We had lunch in Panera Bread, You Pick Two – we both had the broccoli cheddar soup and we both had differing types of chicken sandwiches. I had an iced tea and she had water from our thermos for a total of $24.50 and I stole a few packets of sugar for my morning coffee.

We returned to the apt and Teresa put on the new nail polish she bought and hated it so much she threw both (small) bottles away. I don’t think even the nail polish remover worked well.

We left the apt just after 5pm and met Jeannie with Annie James at Hackney’s on Harms. (Jacob plays in a bags (American version of Tejo) league on Tuesday nights.) Annie kept us busy entertaining her so she didn’t get bored and cranky. 

We shared a medium order of an onion loaf then Jeannie had a burger and Teresa and I the turkey plate with a couple Cokes. I was disappointed with the turkey - I think it was much better at L’Woods. The check with a 20% tip came to $91.40. The weather was so blasted hot we didn’t feel like lingering.

We’ll meet again Thursday morning before Annie goes down for her nap. Lucy (Joann’s daughter) should be there also.

We stopped at a Walgreen’s where I bought deodorant, correction fluid and a Sun-Times and Teresa bought some nail polish.

We stopped at Paris Baguette bakery/café where I had a latte but I didn’t see any pastries worthy of the calories. I can wait until tomorrow. 😊

We returned to the apt by 8pm.

 

RELEASE ALL THE EPSTEIN FILES NOW!

 

FUNNY