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

Monday, August 31, 2026

Last night I went to bed at 9:30, fell asleep quickly, got up once at 2:30, finally waking/getting up at 6:30.

According to my Fitbit, I got in 7,236 steps yesterday and last night I slept for 8 hours and 29 minutes for a sleep score of 87. 😊

It just started raining so it was probably a good decision not to go apple picking today.

I guess Teresa was still tired as she returned to bed and I joined her and slept for another 58 minutes.

My brother confirmed we will be able to meet him and my cousin David for lunch in Geneva on Monday, September 14^th.

We showered, dressed, and left the Airbnb at 10:15. We stopped first at Chase Bank where I withdrew another $200. We continued on to Chicago Fashion Outlet in Rosemont.

Teresa found a pair of sandals in Boss for $33.13 she can wear after getting pedicures.

We had 3 hours free parking and managed to complete our visit in 2 ½ hours. When we came out there had obviously been rain while we were inside and after that it rained on and off for the next few hours.

I drove us to Mr. Beef where I ordered 2 Italian beef sandwiches, a small dry with juice on the side for Teresa and a regular-size wet for me. She drank water from our thermos and I had a medium soda.

We continued on to Woodfield mall. (I got lost on the way, turning south on Arlington Heights Road.)

I bought a new pair of gym shoes in JD for $159.86.

Teresa bought some supplement in GNC for $56.36. Luckily the manager spoke Spanish which saved me from doing lots of translations.

I drove us to Morkes Chocolates on Rand Road where I had an apple cider donut and we each had a coffee.

We stopped at Potbelly in Des Plaines and bought 2 bowls of broccoli cheddar soup to go. While there I asked about our cheese clumping problem and the guy also suggested it was because we weren’t shredding the cheese enough.

We returned to our Airbnb and ate the soup with the oyster crackers (made in Vermont) that they included.

I’m not happy with my new fanny pack from L.L. Bean and I’m seriously considering returning it.

Tonight Teresa told me something about needing to get married in a church so she can legitimately get communion. ☹ I asked her what document she needs; more details forthcoming.

I finished reading James Patterson’s Cross Fire (Alex Cross #17) on my Kindle just before going to bed at 10pm. That’s the 6^th book I’ve read this month. Not sure if that’s a record for me.

An Annie James video, from last week:

 

RELEASE ALL THE EPSTEIN FILES NOW!

 

JOKE OF THE DAY

 

Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day.  Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.

Sunday, August 30, 2026

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, fell asleep quickly, slept through the night, finally waking at 6am.

According to my Fitbit, I got in 5,465 steps yesterday and last night I slept for 6 hours and 42 minutes for a sleep score of 82.

Then I fell back asleep while waiting for Teresa to get up and my total changed to 7 hours and 36 minutes for a sleep score of 84.

Teresa made a simple breakfast this morning of scrambled eggs and an English muffin for me and toast for her with instant coffee.

We had a little shower early this morning, as expected. We were planning on going to the Chicago Botanical Gardens today but Jeannie suggested we meet at Old Orchard Shopping Center around noon to do a little…wait for it… shopping.

We left the Airbnb a little late and I got lost anyway. I approached the mall from Lake Street so I was already too far north and then when I realized it wasn’t the right mall I turned north and drove further away. When I realized my error, I asked Google Maps for help and it directed me south and west to the mall. We were about 20 minutes late meeting with Jeannie and Annie.

We found them coming out of Macy’s. They helped me look for a new fanny pack (the zipper on the old one broke and it was looking well worn) and I finally found one on L.L Bean for $35.

We went to a new restaurant named Cupitol for lunch. Teresa and Jeannie had the turkey breast sandwich with a Coke and I had the crunchy chicken sandwich and a Coke and Annie had the Amy’s Chicken Sausage for $69.56 including tip.

They left just after 2pm as Annie needed a nap. We’re going to meet for supper Tuesday night at Hackney’s when their special is hot turkey plate.

We drove to Oberweis Dairy where we shared a hot fudge sundae and I started working on the crossword puzzle from Friday’s Chicago Sun-Times.

We stopped at a nearby bakery called Tous Les Jours where Teresa bought a small loaf of bread. It is also a café and I noticed hey offer strawberry matcha.

We returned to the apt and Teresa took a nap. My eyes have been feeling much better now that I’m out of Medellin’s pollution.

It looks like rain is possible tomorrow so we’ll probably stay local and go apple picking on Wednesday.

Teresa liked Portillo's chopped salad so much we went back and shared one for our supper.

On our way back I saw another bakery even closer called Paris Baguette.

 

RELEASE ALL THE EPSTEIN FILES NOW!

 

JOKE OF THE DAY

 

Sex is like air.  It isn’t important unless you aren’t getting any.

Saturday, August 29, 2026

Last night I went to bed at 9pm, fell asleep quickly, slept through the night, finally waking/getting up with Teresa at 6am.

According to my Fitbit, I got in 9,248 steps yesterday and last night I slept for 8 hours and 31 minutes for a sleep score of 89. 😊 Wow, I think that’s a new high.

We left the Airbnb at 9am and had breakfast in the Niles Diner. Teresa and I had basically had the same food as yesterday without the avocado and the check was only about $5 cheaper. The total check came to about $33 & change and I gave the waitress $40 and told her to keep the change.

I got a little turned around (I’d forgotten the names of some of the lesser streets) but found The UPS Store a few blocks away. The teenage pimply-faced girl who assisted us spoke so softly I had to ask her to speak up. She must be new because at first she quoted a price of only $7. We sent the dress to Laura and it should arrive on September 3^rd, the day before her birthday.

I also saw a plastic letter opener I haven’t seen in a while so I had to buy that and the total came to about $22.

We drove to Walmart and bought 3 new TSA locks. One was missing from my suitcase so I assumed they opened it and didn’t reclose it correctly. I hate the 2 locks on Teresa’s suitcase; we have to hold them in a specific, difficult way, in order to have any chance of seeing the numbers. ☹ We also bought some vitamins and skin cream (like Bengay but supposedly better), for Esmeralda, One-A-Day vitamins for Teresa, Payday snack-size candy bars for the kids in our building for Halloween, Afrin, Blink eyedrops, Excedrin and Dove soap for me, and eggs, muffins, bread, coffee, and cream to make breakfast. The total came to $156.19. Teresa also looked at some sunglasses on sale for $60 but in the end decided not to buy them.

We returned to the apt by 1pm and put everything away.

I set up the TSA locks with our usual number and updated my blog notes. Teresa called her mother and they chatted for a while. (I swear they can talk all day long without pause.)

My eyes feel a lot better being outside that polluted valley of Medellin. But then maybe it’s because I slept better.

With the help of ChatGPT I downloaded Stockfish 18 to analyze my chess games.

At 5pm we met jimmy at Countryside Saloon and watched the Bears defeat the Tennessee Titans 25-14. Jimmy and I shared a medium Italian sausage pizza while Teresa had a chopped salad with salmon. We all had sodas and I paid the check of $70 (tip included). Jimmy left early in the 3^rd quarter. We will meet Sunday September 6^th for a White Sox game but he’s pretty busy before that.

Teresa and I stopped at Walmart again and bought dish soap, laundry soap and strawberry preserves (for my muffins).

Tonight I brought in my packages and while I thought I ordered 7 bottles of Calendula (Marigold Flower) apparently, I ordered 14 which will last me for the next 2 years.

Annie James with Jeannie

Expat: Luckily, the 3.6% COLA is of a much higher number than my 5% rent increase.

 

RELEASE ALL THE EPSTEIN FILES NOW!

 

JOKE OF THE DAY

 

A man has six children and is very proud of his achievement. He is so proud
of himself he starts calling his wife, "Mother of Six" in spite of her
objections.
One night they go to a party. The man decides it’s time to go home and
wants to find out if his wife is ready to leave as well.  He shouts at the
top of his voice, "Shall we go home Mother of six?"
His wife irritated by her husband's lack of discretion shouts right back,
"Anytime you're ready, Father of Four."

Friday, August 28, 2026

Last night I went to bed at 2pm, fell asleep quickly, finally waking at 6:30 and getting up with Teresa at 7am.

According to my Fitbit, I got in 8,152 steps yesterday and last night I slept for 4 hours and 18 minutes for a sleep score of only 61. ☹

We drove (damn, its nice to be driving again) to The Sugar Bowl in downtown Des Plaines, parked next to the building (again parking evenly between the lines is a challenge) and took a booth inside. Teresa had her eggs sunny side up with hash browns and a side order of avocado while I had my eggs over easy with hash browns and patty sausage. We both had the endless cup of coffee with cream. The shock was the final bill of $38.47 plus another $6 for a tip.

We stopped at the T-Mobile office on Golf Road in Niles, checked in and sat at a waiting table. We waited about 20 minutes to be helped but I easily signed up for an unlimited monthly coverage package for me for $62.16. Teresa decided she would be okay with coverage in the apt and in cafes/restaurants.

We drove the 30 minutes on the Edens Expressway

Which brings up the question should I sign up for the Illinois Easy Pass program so I can drive on the Toll roads or can I avoid them?

to Jeannie & Jacob’s house. They came outside and greeted us with Annie and Rebel. We went inside and I gave them their bag of coffee and Rebel loved the pull toy (and he’s still stronger than me). I was surprised at how heavy Annie James is, not fat, just solid.

Jacob had to do some yard work so we took Annie and Rebel on a leisurely walk around their park and they showed us larger houses a block away. We continued on to downtown where Jeannie introduced us to Harmony Café where we had fancy drinks for $26.23. They had the Matcha Tea and I had the Strawberry Matcha and we took seats at a table outside.

We returned to the apt and Jeannie gave me my Amazon and Swanson packages I had forwarded to their house.

I drove to Fidelity Investments, Teresa stayed in the car and I went inside. After a short wait a rep got me started setting up a Fidelity Cash Management Account. I told him I often visit my brother living in Colombia and I confirmed they don’t charge foreign transaction fees. I gave them my brother’s cellphone number but the kicker was they need to send me an SMS confirmation message and using that phone take a photo of my Illinois Drivers license and my face. Hopefully I can take care of that when I meet later with my brother. If not, oh well, that’s life.

We drove to a Ross Store for Less in Morton Grove where Teresa found a pair of shorts, 2 small containers of skin cream, a bottle of skin cleanser, and a bottle of Vaseline skin cream and I found a short sleeve shirt and 6-pak of Fruit of the Loom underwear for a total of $56.41.

I took her to Portillo’s Hotdogs where I ordered my prepared list of a breaded whitefish sandwich for her, a cheeseburger for me, onion rings, a chocolate cake shake, chopped salad, and strawberry shortcake for $46.87. She loved her sandwich and I my burger and we shared the rest but got the last two items to go.

I stopped at a Chase Bank ATM and was unsuccessful at withdrawing $600 but it allowed me to withdraw $200 for a $4 ATM fee.

We stopped in Jewel/Osco and bought a few things.

We returned to our Airbnb and got a little better organized.

We were both exhausted and went to bed at 9pm.

 

RELEASE ALL THE EPSTEIN FILES NOW!

 

JOKE OF THE DAY

 

A husband and wife had a bitter quarrel on the day of their 40th wedding
anniversary!
The husband yells, "When you die, I'm getting you a headstone that reads,
"Here Lies My Wife - Cold as Ever.'
"Yeah?" she replies. "When you die, I'm getting you a headstone that reads,
‘Here Lies My Husband - Stiff At Last.'"

Thursday, August 27, 2026

Last night I went to bed at 9:30, fell asleep quickly, finally waking at 4am before my 4:30 alarm.

According to my Fitbit, I got in 8,152 steps yesterday and last night I slept for 5 hours and 14 minutes for a sleep score of only 63. ☹

I had set my alarm for 4:30am but woke up at 4am when Teresa got up.

I took my shower and we finished our packing and Kelly’s son picked us up at 5:45. We arrived at the airport on schedule at 6:30.

As expected, there was a line to check our bags but it moved fairly quickly. We took stools at a counter for Pergamino and ate the chicken sandwiches Teresa made with a thermos of coffee.

We went through the TSA checkpoint and that is where I discovered how impractical my belt is. It’s one of those webbed belts but where the web meets the leather tip catches on my narrow belt loops.

We had well over an hour at the gate for our flight to leave.

On the flight they offered us chicken, meat or vegetable options and silly me I chose the beef. It was very difficult to manage on such a small table and one taste of the beef convinced me not to eat more.

We arrived on time in Houston and there was a blocks long walk to a very long Immigration line but it moved fairly quickly. In the future I might consider my brother’s favorite COPA.

We picked up our bags at Baggage claim and took them through customs then to their Baggage dropoff.

We took their train from Terminal E to Terminal C.

We easily found our gate and across the aisle was a taquiera named Agave. I ordered chicken burritos for both of us and we shared a bottle of water for $61+15% tip. ☹ I messed up the touch screen order pad but they deleted my duplicate order.

Back across the aisle I found a charging station for my cellphone while I updated my blog notes. I received an email from United that our gate had changed. It was only one number but we had to walk aways and around a corner to the new gate. We just got settled there when they changed it again, this time to the gate across the aisle. They soon announced an hour delay so they could fix the fridge for the food or something. Our original 6:30 flight turned into a 7:40 departure.

We had eaten only half our burritos and we finished the remainder with the Cokes they gave us.

We landed just before 11am and went down to Baggage Claim #21 as they had told us. After seeing lots of bags going around but not ours, I talked to a rep there and she told me that our bags are at carousel 5 which is in the next building. We exited that building and it was a short walk to the next where we quickly found our bags.

We took the train to the Intermodal Facility to Budget and there was only one guy ahead of us.

 

RELEASE ALL THE EPSTEIN FILES NOW!

 

JOKE OF THE DAY

 

A typical macho man marries a typical good-looking lady and after the wedding, he laid down the following rules:
"I'll be home if I want, when I want and at what time I want - and I don't expect any hassle from you. I expect a great dinner to be on the table unless I tell you I won't be home for dinner. I'll go hunting, fishing, boozing and card-playing when I want with my buddies and don't you give me a hard time about it. Those are my rules. Do you have any comments?"
His new bride said, "No, that's fine with me. Just understand that there
will be sex here at seven o'clock every night... whether you're here or not."

 

Wednesday, August 26, 2026

Last night I went to bed at 9pm, took at least an hour to fall asleep, got up at 3:30 to pee, couldn’t fall back asleep, got up at 4:30 and read until 5:30, returned to bed, fell asleep quickly, finally waking/getting up at 7:30. 😊

According to my Fitbit, I got in 6,487 steps yesterday and last night I slept for 6 hours and 36 minutes for a sleep score of only 75. ☹ Well, I hope that makes it easier to get to sleep tonight.

The street is a little wet so we must have had a shower overnight but I didn’t hear anything.

Annie James

AJ 8-25

I left the apt just before 9am for Smartfit. I completed my usual workout including 10 minutes on the treadmill with a final heartrate of 120bpm. I did have some discomfort in my right knee.

A little work was going on outside Ganso y Castor, but nothing extensive.

I had a latte for about 45 minutes outside Los Porteños before returning to the apt.

I put on my sandals and left the apt at 2pm and stopped at the Bancolombia kiosk where I printed our Budget car confirmation.

I stopped at the Gana store to pay the Movistar (Wi-Fi) bill but the lady said I couldn’t and something about “10 days”. She recommended I return to the Bancolombia kiosk but there they wanted to send me back to Gana. I asked where else I could pay and was told, “$efecty”.

I stopped in Eduardo Madrid and purchased 2 kaiser rolls for Teresa to make sandwiches for the airport tomorrow.

I stopped in the Pasteur pharmacy to buy Hidroxicina Chlorhidrato for colds but was told, “agotado’.

I stopped at another pharmacy, Cruz Verde, but they didn’t have them either. I continued on to Gardenia where I had a cold latte and a glass of ice water. I completed another page of puzzles, getting 3 wrong. I played an online game and won that.

I left at 4:15 and walked down the hill to Centro Commercial Las Vegas where I asked at the Servientrega store but they don’t take Movistar payments either. The guy could only recommend Parque Envigado so I guess it will have to wait until we return from Chicago because I didn’t feel like running around any longer.

I stopped at 2 nearby pharmacies and finally found the cold medicine. 😊

I returned to the apt.

Today was another hot day around 88 degrees.

I watched another episode of La Brea on Netflix and went to bed at 9:30.

pre-sleep routine at 7:30 and went to bed at 9pm.

 

RELEASE ALL THE EPSTEIN FILES NOW!

 

JOKE OF THE DAY

 

A man is on his Harley riding along a California beach when suddenly the clouds cleared above his head and, in a booming voice, God said, 'because you have been faithful to me in all ways, I will grant you one wish.'
The biker pulled over and said, 'I would like you to build a bridge to Colombia so I can ride over and visit my girlfriend anytime I want.' 
God replied, 'Your request is very materialistic; think of the enormous challenges for that kind of undertaking; the supports require reaching the bottom of the Pacific and the concrete and steel it would take!  I can do it, but it is hard for me to justify your desire for such a worldly thing.   Take a little more time and think of something that could possibly be of some help to mankind.'

The biker thought about it for a long time. Finally, he said, ‘God, I wish that I, and all men, could understand women.  I want to know what she’s thinking when she won’t talk to me, why she cries for no reason, what she means when she says nothing’s wrong, why she gets mad at me and complains when I try to help, and how I can make a woman truly happy.’

God replied: 'You want two lanes for that bridge or four?"