Yippee! 😀 I got my Illinois driver’s license today, and it only cost $10. We got to our nearest DMV facility in Deerfield at 8:30 this morning and were the first ones in. They checked my papers at the desk, I paid $10 at the cashier, did the written test, the driving test, took a picture, my license got printed, and we were outside at 9:15!! It only took 45 minutes! More »

Just a few weeks ago it was still unseasonably hot here in northern Illinois, but the last week it has been freezing cold with lots of snow. I can’t remember ever experiencing such low temperatures. More »

Today was Black Friday and many stores were open very early with special sales. Some even as early as 4 o’clock! When we got up at 5:00 we turned on the news and they were already showing helicopter views of huge lines of people in front of stores and malls. Roads around big malls like Woodfield and Gurnee Mills were already jammed. Some Best Buy’s in the Chicagoland area had people camping out in front of their doors from 3pm in the afternoon the day before! Big stores like Best Buy and Target often have so-called ‘doorbusters’, which are things like laptops and big TV’s that are very cheap but they only have a few in each store. So people want to be the first in and grab these things. More »

Yesterday when leaving the Praxis DIY store, their security alarm went off, so they asked me to empty my pockets, and take off my jacket, shoes and belt. But the thing kept beeping. After ten minutes of walking back and forth through the damn security gate and showing them over and over again that my pockets were all empty, they decided to let me go, probably thinking I swallowed a tool from their store or something. Back home I discovered a hidden sewn-in (!) security tag in my new Old Navy jeans. More »