This is a question about the game times for the NCAA mens basketball tournament.

Once you get to the Regional championships - in this case the weekend of March 28-29, 2009 - don't they stagger the games so there is an afternoon game and then an evening game?  In other words, can I most likely count on an afternoon game on March 28?

Just curious... please respond if you know!

Granted, they are just glorified slinkies, but I still found this quite amusing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1rZqw5bXb4

We found out we're having a boy!  It's very exciting, and the doctor says he looks very healthy! 

Now we have to actually come up with a name.  We had one that we liked, but now we're wavering.  Any suggestions???  =)

Just a public service announcement for the five people who read our blog.

If you live in Illinois, there will be an option on the ballot in November regarding whether or not to rewrite the Illinois state constitution. 

Please vote "no" on this issue.

There is nothing seriously wrong with our current constitution.  It protects Illinois citizens and state employees.  The only thing wrong in Illinois is the current leadership in Springfield and politicians who continue to twist and abuse our current laws.

A few more reasons to vote no:

A convention could cost up to $100 million in taxpayer money.  In this economic climate, it would be unwise to add that kind of expense to our state budget. 

The state constitution can always be altered by amendment.  In fact, Illinois voters have amended our constitution 10 times since 1970.  It's not as if we can't change things under our current set of laws.

A constitutional convention can take years, and politicians will no doubt use this as an excuse to delay important legislation on all kinds of issues that require action. 

By law, we must be given the option to vote for a convention at least every 20 years.  It's not like this is our last chance.  Given all the other issues our state is dealing with right now, the last thing we need is a drawn out convention to rewrite a document that can already be changed through the amendment process. 

Obviously you should do your own research and reach your own conclusions, but this is something that you should seriously consider before making a final decision.

So we got our new water heater installed by about 6pm last night.  There were a few hiccups in the installation process like having to add more pipe, moving the water heater location 2 feet to the right, and adding a drip pan.  But the guys did a fast and beautiful job, and we have ample hot water now.

Unfortunately we discovered a new problem after they left.  Rich had turned off the hot water to the kitchen sink yesterday afternoon, so we'd have at least one sink we could use.  Apparently these valves have not been turned in quite some time, if ever.  So turning the hot water off actually broke the valve.  So now we can't use our kitchen sink until we replace the valve underneath.  And this probably won't happen until tomorrow morning. 

In the meantime, I think we'll be washing dishes in the bathtub tonight. 

So we thought we were all set with Sears.  We placed our order at 6:30am, and we waited to hear from the installers.  When we had not heard anything by noon, we got worried.  We called Sears again, then we called the installers.  Turns out they couldn't install our particular water heater today.  It would have to wait until tomorrow.  Call me crazy, but when you're promised same-day service, I expect same day service.

So we quickly called Home Depot.  They had one that could be installed today.  And it cost $130 less than Sears!

The biggest irony of the situation is that it's the exact same installer.  They could do the Home Depot order today, but not the Sears order.

Anyway, to sum up, Sears sucks - God bless Home Depot.

This morning, we awoke to discover that our water heater failed and leaked itself out.  Since we live on the second floor, our neighbor downstairs had to bear the brunt of the leakage.  Apparently it was raining in 3 rooms in her condo this morning.  She was pleasant enough about it, given the circumstances.

All I can say is thank goodness I have today off from work (Yom Kippur) and God bless Sears because they have a 24-hour number you can call to order a new water heater and get it installed on the same day (as long as you call by 12pm). 

So within a few short hours we'll have a new water heater installed.  Now we just have to figure out whose insurance will cover the damage to our neighbor's ceiling...  stay tuned!

I know, we haven't put up Hawaii pictures yet (that's Richard's job, so you can hassle him about it all you like).

But, in the meantime, here's a picture of the little hitchhiker who came with us to Hawaii.  We hope you can all meet him/her sometime in April:

I know, everyone wants us to post Hawaii pictures.  We're working on it.  In our defense, as soon as we got back from our trip, I was back in school, and Rich started working with a new client downtown.  Neither of us is home very much these days.

But we are determined to get some pictures uploaded very soon!  Stay tuned...