…and by that, I don’t mean Blagojevich! The title of my blog is a play on the word “blog,” obviously, but also on Blagojevich’s name because the guy, as many of you know, lived down the street when I started this blog. We’ve since moved but he still lives down the street — just a different one. And I live in Chicago (well, duh). Hence, “bloggo chicago.”

I would like to make it clear to the public that I did not pay anyone for use of the title.

This blog is not corrupt unless some fucking hackers have managed to infiltrate the server or whatever, because I occasionally get spam comments on old posts, on which commenting has been closed. I’ve also been getting spam users registering; apparently they just love my blog. Fuckers. They’re so obvious.

*cough* Anyways, I’ve had two relapses since August but my condition is improving, which also means I’ve been busy trying to get better, trying to spend less time online. But I miss the blog and I’m trying to find a way to manage reading your blogs again. Admittedly, Twitter is so much easier than blogging. And there’s still Crackbook. I’ve suddenly had an influx of friends and it’s hard to catch up with everyone. Etc., etc.

So here’s an overview of what’s been going on in the past month, and I may expand on them later: Brian’s paternal grandma suddenly passed away in the beginning of November; one cat was diagnosed with heart disease; another cat ate a frickin’ lily and had to be rushed to the animal ER — all of which happened in the span of a week: election week, during which I had the stomach flu! Early voting is a wonderful thing.

As for the blog itself, I’ve decided to shamelessly use Amazon Associates links for past and future book, DVD, etc. reviews. Don’t like it? Don’t read it. Still working on cutting down categories but using tags. Maybe I’ll go ahead and add the tag widget soon, even if it isn’t complete. What the hell.

Here’s a shout-out to one of my oldest blog friends, who lit the fire under my ass to get this thing going again. Hi, April!

Bernie Mac passed away of pneumonia this morning at a Chicago area hospital. He was only 50. I loved “The Bernie Mac Show.” Well, at least when I could find it on TV, and then only by channel surfing, because I never knew when it’d be on. The show was hilarious, but different in that he’d actually address the viewers, known as America. That’s what I loved most about it; I’d never seen anything like that in a TV program before (the news and talk shows don’t count). I enjoyed his performances in the Ocean’s movies, although he should have had more screen time. Admittedly, I wasn’t a die-hard fan, but I’ll still miss his future projects. To me, and I’m sure I’m not the only one, he was a Chicago comedy icon.

On our Sunday excursion yesterday, which included brunch, a walk through Lincoln Square, and then a stop at Borders for the new Star Wars book, of course, we saw the most amazing thing. As Brian and I neared the little strip mall where the Borders is located, we saw a few squad cars at the Starbucks that’s on the corner of the entryway.

As we made a right turn into the parking lot and drove slowly past the coffee shop, would you believe it? There was a car inside the frickin’ Starbucks! That’s right — INSIDE of it! The outdoor seating — well, there wasn’t any, and the glass next to the patio was gone. I mean, completely gone! The outdoor tables, the Starbucks window, and, in fact, many of the indoor tables and chairs were gone. In their place was a frickin’ CAR! I mean, WTF?!

We didn’t see the accident take place, but I swear, I am not making this shit up. You can read about it on NBC5.com under “Four Injured When Car Smashes Into Starbucks.” I’m not bothering with the direct link because it’ll eventually be archived and, therefore, dead. The article doesn’t say much, but we also saw a segment about it on the news last night, and get this: the driver had no insurance!!!!! Can you believe that?! Obviously, we didn’t see Allstate spokesman, Dennis Haysbert, there talking about any accident forgiveness for this.

No, I’m not a Celtics fan. I mean, I grew up in Chicago so by default I’m a Bulls fan. But when it comes to championship games, I root for the underdog. Although that was difficult during the 2008 Stanley Cup and I’m not going to talk about that series except for maybe the third quarter of Game 5.

Anyways, it was such a treat to see Boston totally spank the Lakers last night, but the best part for me was seeing two local guys win their first championships as a head coach and player, respectively: Doc Rivers and Kevin Garnett. That was the real treat.

(OK, so Garnett actually grew up in South Carolina, but he graduated from Farragut!)

Originally written Monday, March 12, 2007:
I’ve had a shitty day, and it’s only just after 3:00 p.m. I didn’t sleep at all last night. Planned to leave for the gym at 10:00 a.m. before my pdoc appointment at 12:40. Left at 11:00 a.m. instead, all anxious because I couldn’t find everything I needed and when I did, I kept misplacing it. Then I walk out the door, and I see that our fucking car is booted. The ironic thing is that Brian just paid all the tickets online this morning.

Those of you familiar with Neopets will know what that means. Anyway, he went to City Hall to take care of it, and when I looked out the window a few minutes ago, the car was de-booted. Except the City left their stupid stickers on the driver side window, I don’t feel like scraping them off, and I’m in no condition to drive anyway (one of the staff at the pdoc’s said he’d try to work some magic if the boot’s taken off). But I’m in no frickin’ condition to drive — I just took a Klonopin a few hours ago, and I didn’t sleep last night. Grrrrr….