September 28, 2005
Weird Crime Follow Up
The man who was arrested in Arlington Heights this weekend with fake license plates, police equipment and multiple i.d cards, was released on bail Monday. The F.B.I. did check him out. He is due in court October 24th in Rolling Meadows.
Posted by JB at 11:31 AM | Permalink | TrackBack (0)September 27, 2005
Art Highway
There is an interesting piece in Architecture Australia about the newly opened Craigieburn Bypass outside of Melbourne.
Would you trade its design for all the billboards and toll-booths we have?
Posted by JB at 5:27 PM | Permalink | TrackBack (0)September 25, 2005
Water Park Coming to Sheraton
We will be getting a water park in Arlington Heights that will supposedly rival those in Wisconsin, at the Sheraton Chicago Northwest on Euclid and Rohlwing road (next to Arlington Park). The proposed park is over 46,000 sq ft and will hold over 1100 people.
Now they will have another attraction besides the hawks living on the balcony.
Posted by JB at 10:50 PM | Permalink | TrackBack (0)Arlington Heights Weird Crime Weekend
Two weird crime stories in Arlington Heights this weekend.
First, a man wielding a 3 foot long samurai sword attacked his wife's friend as she tried to intervene in a domestic dispute on Thursday. The victim was cut several times but none of the wound were life threatening. The man fled the scene but was arrested the next morning at his work.
The second crime was on Friday as a man was pulled over for traffic violation. The car was found to have red and blue emergency lights, police scanner, cb as well as fake (homemade) New York state license plates. The driver was carrying California and Illinois drivers licenses, a Hong Kong residency card, and a passport showing recent travel to Canada, India, Hong Kong, Singapore and the United Kingdom. The driver was charged with unlawful use of red and blue flashing lights, operating a motor vehicle with a suspended registration and failure to signal turns. The F.B.I. has also been called in to check out the individual.
Posted by JB at 10:30 PM | Permalink | TrackBack (0)September 23, 2005
HarvardAvenue.com and email back up
Took longer than anticipated, but everything is back up. If you sent any emails to the harvardavenue.com or .net addresses recently, please resend them.
September 22, 2005
Arlington Park 2005 Season Review
Arlington Park issued a press release recapping the 2005 racing season.
Some of the highlights:
- $54,070,047 was wagered over the course of the season, which was a 2.8% decrease from the previous year. (2005 season was 2 days shorter than 2004)
- The average daily amount wagered was $575,213.
- Total attendance was 715,023 with an average daily attendance of 7,607.
September 21, 2005
HarvardAvenue.com temporarily down
HarvardAvenue.com is going through a server switch, so the site and .com email addresses will be down today. The .net half will be unaffected.
Posted by JB at 8:57 AM | Permalink | TrackBack (0)September 20, 2005
So Long Rapp's. Hello Paprikash.
Long time Arlington Heights seafood restaurant, Rapp's at 602 W. Northwest Highway has closed it's doors. A new eatery is already setting up shop here, as Paprikash, a Hungarian restaurant is set to open around November 1st.
Won't we all miss the big neon sign!
Posted by JB at 4:30 PM | Permalink | TrackBack (0)Water Buffalo Yogurt
Not being able to pass up anything out of the ordinary at Trader Joe's, I had no choice but to pick up some Water Buffalo yogurt from Woodstock Water Buffalo .
The taste is very much like traditional yogurt, with a little 'twang'. The big difference is the texture as Water Buffalo yogurt is very thick, closest to LaCreme yogurt by Dannon. The cup touts that this thickness comes naturally from Water Buffalo milk. The fruit or vanilla is mixed in, so stirring is optional depending on what kind of taste experience you are looking for as mentioned on the foil lid. It is true that to stir or not to stir does make a difference. Unstirred, W.B. yogurt is almost like a light cheesecake, but loosen it up a bit and it is more like traditional yogurt.
Unstirred Water Buffalo Yogurt
Stirred Water Buffalo Yogurt
Nutrition wise, water buffalo yogurt is packing 214 calories and 11g of fat into a 6 ounce cup, so it's not exactly low cal/low fat, but it has all those good yogurt bacterium and most important of all is it tastes good. Go to the Woodstock Water Buffalo site for lots of info on Water Buffalo and their Water Buffalo dairy products.
Posted by JB at 12:02 PM | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
September 17, 2005
Carlos & Carlos Now Open
A follow-up to a previous posting of Downtown Arlington Heights restaurants opening in the future, Carlos & Carlos in the Metropolis Performing Arts Centre building at 111 W. Campbell St has now opened for business. They are open for dinner every day at 5:00 p.m. From the outside, it looks very nice. Unfortunately, there was no menu posted anywhere, so there is no information to share on that subject ( just a little important ). If one goes up later, I'll pass it along.
Directus Furniture Signs Lease In Southpoint Mall
The Southpoint Shopping Center on Rand Road in Arlington Heights (the one with the Cub Foods) has a new tenant with Directus Furniture signing a lease for 80K sq. Ft.
Googling Directus furniture and their parent company, the Ou Ya Group out of China, I came up with nothing except that the owner is the second richest entrepreneur in China according to Forbes. Guess we'll see what it is like when they open their doors.
September 12, 2005
Moby Quote
"I had an epiphany a few years ago where I was out at a celebrity party and it suddenly dawned on me that I had yet to meet a celebrity who is as smart and interesting as any of my friends." -- MobyPosted by JB at 8:38 PM | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
September 10, 2005
20 Things They Don't Want You To Know
This isn't nearly as ominous as it sounds and does not involve conspiracy theories. '20 Things They Don't Want You To Know' is a neat piece from PC World that has little tips on how to get better deals on tech stuff, change annoying windows 'features' and other helpful things.
Posted by JB at 11:12 AM | PermalinkFollow Up - Mayor Mulder Elected To Metra Board
As thought would happen, Arlington Heights Mayor Arlene Mulder was voted to the Metra board.
Posted by JB at 10:00 AM | PermalinkSeptember 9, 2005
HUD Charges Arlington Park/Churchill Downs
This will probably bring the protestors out again, as HUD has charged Arlington Park with violating the Fair Housing Act. By not allowing families to occupy all the dormatories at the track, HUD says the track is descriminating against families. Arlingto Park says that some of the housing is too close to horses and heavy machinery to be safe for children. (Very simplfied)
Posted by JB at 4:58 PM | PermalinkMayor Mulder In Line for Metra Board
According to a piece in the Chicago Tribune, Arlington Heights Mayor, Arlene Mulder is a near shoe-in to fill a vacancy on the Metra board. In added drama, there is a segment of the board that wants to push out the Chairman from Lake County, Jeffrey Ladd and out a Cook County member in the lead chair. Mayor Mulder is rumored to be a candidate for the Chairperson position as well.
Note: As of this posting, you do not need a login to look at the linked story. If the Tribune puts a login on the story, do not forget to use 'BugMeNot'.
Posted by JB at 4:45 PM | PermalinkSeptember 8, 2005
Ernie's Hideaway
I put this box down in my office to see if any of the cats would enjoy it. Ernie discovered it this morning.
The Bar Katrina Can't Close
From the BBC, the story of Johnny White's bar in the French Quarter that has not closed in 17 years and is still open right now. I'm going to guess that the bathroom is starting to look like the famous scene in 'Trainspotting' of the dirtiest bathroom is Scotland.
Posted by JB at 3:11 PM | PermalinkSeptember 7, 2005
Katrina Photo Gallery / Sean Penn Sighting
There is a very good photo gallery of the Katrina from Radar Online. The gallery does contain a dead body, so they got around the FEMA censorship.
While going through the photos, I saw one rescuer who looked a lot like Sean Penn. Doing a Google search, it turns out Mr. Penn had his own ill-fated rescue effort.
Source - BoingBoing
Posted by JB at 5:59 PM | PermalinkTown and Coutry Mall Re-Do
Visited that hot spot of high school days, Town and Country Mall to see how the re-build was going. It's been empty for so long, that it's surprising it didn't go condo.
The center/movie theater section is no more.
The new retail space is taking shape.
In the new spaces will be an Ashley Furniture (don't know them and don't care), JoAnn Fabric (boring), and a Dick's Sporting Goods (ALRIGHT!!!!, A+++).
Posted by JB at 12:10 PM | PermalinkAltThai Website Revisited
A while back when I initially wrote about the excellent restaurant AltThai, I mentioned that their website stunk. Revisiting the site, it has been overhauled and has all the info you need including, most importantly, a menu.
Posted by JB at 7:59 AM | PermalinkSeptember 2, 2005
Civil Defense / Civil Reaction
Xeni Jardin has posted an interesting example of how Cuban civil defense handles hurricane situations in comparison to the U.S. Yes, Cuba is a lot smaller than the U.S., but they do get battered by a lot of hurricanes. It does show a basic difference in philosophy. Obviously with what is going on in New Orleans, we are not prepared.
Source:BoingBoing
Posted by JB at 9:25 AM | PermalinkSeptember 1, 2005
Hastert and the Herald
My ears perked up this afternoon when CNN mentioned the Daily Herald of Arlington Heights. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert is catching flak for comments he made in an interview about rebuilding New Orleans saying
“It doesn’t make sense to me,” said Hastert during an interview with the Daily Herald editorial board. “And it’s a question that certainly we should ask.”adding later
“We help replace, we help relieve disaster. That is certainly the decision the people of New Orleans are going to make. But I think federal insurance and everything goes along with it and we ought to take a second look at it,”Left out of the Daily Herald article, but picked up by the Washington Post and other news services from the Herald's transcripts of the interview is this gem which is grabbing the headlines.
"It looks like a lot of that place could be bulldozed."
Just the thing to say as a city slips into anarchy and it sure looks like everyone in government (especially higher up the ladder) dropped the ball.
Posted by JB at 6:17 PM | Permalink
Gas Prices
Last night, I went to get gas at Ken's Marathon on Northwest Highway. There was one last pump spot open, which I took and filled with $2.84 regular gas. As I pumped, a line started to form to get into Ken's; six cars by the time I left. I wondered if the possible Katrina related gas shortages were reality or if there was a run on gas. Driving on, the next gas station wasn't crowded and neither was the next. Then I realized what was going on when I looked at the gas prices. Ken's hadn't ramped up their prices, even though this station on Wilke and Campbell and Ken's are both Marathon stations.
Let the price gouging begin!!!.
Posted by JB at 9:31 AM | Permalink