I've decided to become more streamlined, so I've transferred my years of blogs and will now be using the built-in blogging software on the new version of my website. LiveJournal, you have served me well...but it's time to move on. Please visit my new site and blog: www.danheuser.com

This is Dan Heuser...signing off.

The town of Bensenville has been in the media lately due to the plans for the O'Hare Airport expansion. Their plans are to build new runways on the south side of Irving Park Road, demolishing a whole neighborhood full of homes in the process. There has been much opposition, but many homeowners have already sold off their homes. This has created an ever increasing "ghost town" feel in a once bustling neighborhood. Naturally, anything involving abandoned buildings sparks my interest. I had to go check it out for myself.

I found the neighborhood and starting driving around. It was about 3:30pm. There were hundreds of homes in this neighborhood, and from what I saw, about 90% of them were boarded up and abandoned. This was the most concentrated area of abandoned houses I've ever seen, even more than Gary, IN. There were no cars driving, no people walking their dogs or children playing, even on a beautiful summer afternoon. All that could be heard was the sound of airplanes flying overhead, a constant reminder of the neighborhood's fate. It was a very eerie feeling driving up and down these streets. I got out of the car a few times, but most of the pictures I took were out of my car window.

I came across a few homes that were still inhabited, all of them hanging huge signs of protest in their front yards. Unfortunate for them, it looks as if the battle against O'Hare has been lost.

After exploring for 20 minutes or so, I passed a man in a full size sedan who was parked in an entryway for a townhouse complex. I got the vibe that he did not want me here, but I continued down the street and took more pictures from my window. He eventually began to follow me. When I pulled over to get another picture, he pulled up behind me, got out of his car with his giant Mag-lite (for intimidation apparently). He said that he was with the O'Hare Expansion team and that there have been many arrests lately of people scoping out the area during the day, and then returning at night to break into the vacant homes to steal copper pipes and stuff like that. I told him that I was just taking pictures. He left me alone, but I didn't want any more shit from this guy, so I decided to leave.

While it will be nice to have a more efficient O'Hare airport, I couldn't help but think about all the countless families that were forced out of their homes. Some people who have probably lived most of their lives in these homes, raised their families, had many fond memories. And now they won't even be able to come back and visit the neighborhood that they called home for so long.

View more pictures here.

When purchasing a new phone, the sales rep usually asks if you want them to transfer your contacts over to your new phone. I usually say no, and this is why:

I don’t necessarily need every number that was in my old phone. Typing them in my new phone manually gives me a chance to clean them up. There’s no sense in keeping someone’s number that you will never call again. It’s actually kinda sad in a way. Friends with whom you’ve lost touch, ex-girlfriends, business contacts whose exciting opportunity never amounted to anything. When going through the numbers, I usually ask myself, “If I accidentally dialed this person and they picked up, would it be moderately to extremely awkward?” If the answer is yes, then that number will not make the transition to my new phone. In all, 21 people didn’t make the transition.

On the bright side, going through the numbers gives me a chance to think about all the people who did make the transition to the new phone. It makes me think about some of the people I haven’t talked to in a while, and that I should call. So that they make the transition to my next new phone, and many new phones to come.

I bought a new cell phone the other day. It’s the 4th cell phone I’ve owned since 1999. Up until now, I’ve always had a pretty bare bones phone. My phones have been used to make calls, and that’s about it. I haven’t gotten to enjoy all the features that have we’ve been starting to see on phones in recent years: Cameras, video, games, email, music, Bluetooth, web browsers, etc. I didn’t really even text that much because my last phone made it inconvenient to send texts, and half the time the incoming or outgoing texts would get lost in oblivion somewhere. On top of that, my sucky plan charged me 10 cents per text, which really starts to add up after a while.

But really what I’ve been doing is holding out for the next big thing. That “Big Thing” is the Sprint Instinct. It’s basically Sprint’s answer to the iPhone. I probably would have gotten an iPhone if it wasn’t exclusive to AT&T. But AT&T can blow my ass, sorry Apple.

The Sprint Instinct is an amazing phone. The more I play with it, the more I’m amazed by the features. It was a little daunting at first to have a phone this powerful. It’s like having a computer in my pocket. With the touch screen, texting is actually fun now (and unlimited with my new plan) and no longer feels like a chore, like it did with my old phone. I can receive my email, take pictures, use it as GPS navigation while driving, play some kick ass games, browse the web (ACTUAL websites, not just preset “News”, “Weather”, and “Entertainment” sites that are text only) and tons of other stuff.

My only complaint with the phone so far is the signal strength. On the first floor of my house, I only get 1 or 2 bars (out of 6). At work I only get 2 or 3 bars, and I’m directly underneath a cell tower. My phone dropped a call last night when I was driving home through Bannockburn. That was the only issue so far. I haven’t talked on it enough to see if the low signal strength will be a nuisance. I hope not, because everything else about the phone is fantastic.

I wanted to conclude my horrible travel story. I was not able to get onto the 12:45 flight out of Pheonix. I waited around even longer for the 2:30pm flight, which was delayed for over an hour. Since the flight was late, by the time I got to O'Hare, I had already missed the last Metra train going north. So I had to call someone to come pick me up. But my cell phone was dead and my charger was in my checked bag. I had to wait in the baggage customer service line to find out where by bag went. I waited about 20 minutes in this line, which is not a very fun line to be in since everyone in it is pissed off because they can't find their luggage. Luckily the woman found my bag in the back room behind the counter. I tracked down the one an only outlet in this part of the airport, which was right next to an elevator. I pretty much had to sit down in front of the elevator doors waiting for my phone to charge. I eventually called Colleen and had to explain how to get to the airport (since she's never driven there before). Because of the stupid Tri-State construction, it took over an hour for her to get there. I finally got home around midnight.

From the time I left downtown Portland, til the time I got home - 28 hours.

I am now in the Phoenix airport. My flight from Vegas took off late of course. When I arrived in Phoenix, I had roughly 20 minutes before the connecting flight took off to Chicago. This would have been okay, if the people at US Airways weren't a bunch of fucking douchbags. My connecting flight in Phoenix was, for some reason, booked on United, which was in a completely separate terminal which required a bus ride to get to. Then you had to go through the security line again. When I got to the counter, I could still see the plane outside the window, but they said it was too late. Missed it by a matter of minutes. Now I am on "Priority Standby" for a 12:45pm flight. But that is not guaranteed. If that doesn't work out, then I'm waiting around for the 2:30 flight. That is, unless the crew decides not to show up for that flight like the one last night that got canceled. My cell phone is now dead, so I can't call anyone. My cell charger is in my checked luggage. My computer is now my sole communication tool. Thank God for free public wi-fi. As for my luggage, who knows where that's going to end up. It's probably in Anchorage.

I am now laying on the floor at the Las Vegas airport. My connecting flight to Chicago got canceled. US Airways can suck my asshole. They offered no sort of monetary reimbursement for the inconvenience. They offered a hotel room, which is fucking pointless right now since it's already 2:30am and I'd have to be back here by 6am. So now I'm laying next to a window in the Check-in area. They also offered a food voucher....for $5. $5????? I can't even buy a fucking coffee for $5 nowadays. Fuck them.

I'm sitting in the airport and I thought I'd take the time to reveal some discoveries about life in Seattle, WA and Portland, OR.

1. Chicago is to hot dog stands, as Seattle/Portland is to Teriyaki and drive-thru coffee stands.

2. Rooftop moss growth seems to be a homeowner concern.

3. People out here love Barack Obama.

4. The public transportation is excellent.

5. People in Oregon love The Goonies. My Goonies shirt sprung up two conversations with random people, including one with a guy from Astoria (where the movie was filmed) who knows a girl who dated Corey Feldman while he was in Astoria for the filming of the movie.

The other day I was working out in the garage with the door open, when this man approached me. He was very short and Hispanic. He almost had the body of a child, but the face of an adult. I had never met the man before, but I knew he lived in the neighborhood since I've often seem him walking around. I already have negative feelings towards this man because a few weeks after we moved in, I witnessed him walk by our house and throw an empty Pepsi can into our yard. Ass.

Anyway, he walked up to me in the garage and said "Hey man, can I borrow your bike sometime?" He obviously saw my bike which was propped up in the back of the garage. I said "No, I don't think so." Then he rebutted with "I'll pay you." I still said no. He continued to ask about my bike, like where I got it, etc. I don't understand why he seriously thought that a complete stranger was going to let him borrow a bike. He didn't even introduce himself or tell me his name. Now I'm kinda worried that he has his eyes on my bike. Throwing Pepsi cans into people's yards can very well be a gateway to bike thievery.

I was at home this morning watching the crazy wind storm. I watched as it broke branches off our trees and flung them all over the yard. I was on the internet for a while, but then the internet went down. So I decided to get ready for work. After showering, I noticed that the lights in the bathroom were flickering. "This can't be good", I thought, as the power went completely out. With no power at the house, there wasn't much to do, so I might as well just go to work. But first I was going to call in my prescriptions to the Grayslake Walgreens. When I tried calling, it just rang and rang. The phones must have been down. I guess I would just do it the old fashioned way...stop in at the store. I walked out to the garage to pull my car out, but then realized that I've always relied on electricity to open the garage door. I wasn't quite sure how to open it manually, and I didn't want to force it and end up breaking it. I had to look through the instruction manual to figure out how to open it. It was actually pretty easy. On the way to work, there were several stop lights that were out and cops directing traffic. When I stopped at Walgreens, the employee at the entrance loudly exclaimed that they were only taking cash since the credit card machines were down. It's amazing how the lack of electricity puts a damper on your normal routine.

So our cat has had problems in recent months with being able to poop in her litter box. She almost always poops on the floor next to the box. I've read several things online about this. It can be an indicator that something is wrong with her, and that she's trying to tell us that by pooping in the wrong spot. Well, yesterday, upon closer inspection of the most current floor poop, I noticed something different about it. What I noticed was a large piece of white plastic bag mixed in with the poop. We've always known about her obsession with plastic shopping bags, but she has apparently taken her obsession too far. I can't imagine that it's too comfortable to poo out a shopping bag, which can very well be the reason for her "out of the litter box" shenanigans. From this day forward, no more shopping bags, we're cutting her off cold turkey.

I made it one of my job goals this year to direct one or more Newsmakers segments. We shot Newsmakers interviews all day Tuesday and Wednesday. They offered to let me take over directing, but I was kinda nervous. I didn't feel comfortable enough until late afternoon on the second day of taping. I directed 4 segments. I consider it my first time actually directing, since the only other thing I've directed are laid back access shows and a few newscasts in college. The fact that they will be airing on CNN puts a little more pressure on you to be perfect. While my segments were not perfect, I was pleased with them, as was the rest of the crew. It was a good experience that definitely took me out of my comfort zone of operating camera or doing graphics.

When I went into work today, I noticed that there was no power going to the printer. I took a peek in the fuse box and noticed that one of the breakers were off. I tried to flip it back on, but it would instantly just trip itself back to the off position. Upon investigation of the power outed area (the wall behind my desk, and Amy's office) I discovered that a couple of the outlets were making a strange crackling noise. Kinda like if someone was constantly opening a cellophane wrapped candy. Strange, yes, but it's a problem we've had before. I called the electrician, made an appointment for him to come out the next morning, and continued my normal day. Things got more intense, however, when I started to smell a faint smell, similar to that of melting plastic or rubber. On top of that, I started to hear loud pops coming from Amy's office, which were accompanied by the dimming of lights in other rooms. It was at this point that I realized that this was not a matter which could wait til the next day. So I called the Highland Park Fire Department non-emergency line.

A short while later, about 8 HP Firefighters came rushing into the studio in full gear. Realizing that it was overkill for the situation, only 3 of them stayed while the rest went back outside. The crackling sound baffled the firefighters, especially since there was no power going to the outlet in question. They even used their super high-tech heat camera which they pointed at the outlet. It came back negative. One of them took apart the outlet and pulled apart 2 black wires that were crimped together. The sound stopped. It was something to do with the wiring of those black wires. He separated them and capped them off. He said that I should really get that electrician out here ASAP.

So I successfully averted a possible electrical fire today. But a strange coincidence to todays events was that the circuit breakers for the fire alarm were also shut off, making the fire alarm non-functional. Now, these breakers are in a separate fuse box on the opposite side of the building than the cracking fuse. So if I wasn't there today and a fire broke out, the fire alarm would have done nothing at all.

Perhaps it was a disgruntled access producer trying to sabotage the studio? We may never know.

I finished reading "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote. I was inspired to buy the book after watching the Capote movie a couple years ago. I started reading it last summer, and just finished it this week. For me, completing a 300+ page book is quite an accomplishment.

Me and Colleen stopped by the Hollywood Video in Gurnee the other day. They are going out of business and are selling off everything in their store at a huge discount. Colleen, of course, bought a stack of DVD's. But I picked up a bunch of random items including 3 bags of popcorn, an optical audio cable, and a dustpan...all for $3.60. So several years from now, when I'm sweeping up a pile of cat hair, I'll see my dustpan and think to myself "Remember Hollywood Video? Who cares...I never rented there anyway. But this is a fine freakin' dustpan!"

Box Elder Bugs. Those little black and red bugs that you see in the fall, flying all over the place. Question: Where exactly do they go in the winter? Answer: They come to my house.

This winter I have killed an average of 5 or 6 of them a day. I find them on the wall, on the ceiling, in light fixtures. Many of them have been collecting inside an enclosed light fixture in the bathroom ceiling. There were so many bug carcasses that it was starting to block out the light. I pulled off the cover today and dumped out about 40 dead box elder bugs. I also usually find 2 or 3 dead ones on the floor every day, probably ones that the cat attacked and decided not to eat.

Hopefully soon, the box elders will move out and the spiders will move back in. At least spiders don't fly.

Since our taxes are becoming more complicated, I decided to go to our local H&R Block office with Colleen today to get it all sorted out. Since we are not married, the tax people recommended that the mortgage interest benefit get used on just one of us. I let Colleen take it. We split off with our own personal tax people to crunch some numbers.

Colleen's visit ended on a good note, getting her a roughly $500 return. Mine, unfortunately, was not so good. My unfortunate result was due to what I was claiming at Comcast, and the fact that I claimed a freelance video job that did, which basically turned me from a person into a business. When all was said and done, I owed about $500. On top of that, I thought I would at least be getting a good deal with the coupon I brought in. It said that I could file my Federal and State returns for $50. But she informed me that they were not accepting those coupons, even though the info for the Round Lake Beach location was printed right on the coupon. The manager decided "not to participate" in that promotion. She did offer me $20 off, which got the fee down to $130, a total in which I still feel I got ass raped.

So I guess when President Bush sends me one of his tax rebate checks, I might as well stamp "Return to Sender" on it and put it back in the mailbox. I won't be stimulating the economy this year, sir.

For the past month and a half, our leaky bathroom sink faucet has become worse. I've been meaning to replace it, but I keep putting it off. So one day I decided to do a test to see exactly how much water our leaky faucet was wasting. I let the water run into a measuring cup for one minute, noted the amount and did some multiplication. I figured it to be leaking 96 gallons a day. That's a lot of freakin water. So my temporary fix was to wedge a small box underneath the hot water knob, which stopped it from dripping.

Two days later, me and Colleen came home to discover that we had no running water. Due to the sub-zero temps, I suspected that our pipes might have frozen. We went to bed, hoping that the problem would correct itself. It did not. The next morning we still had no water. I broke down and called a plumber.

When the plumber arrived, he went down in the crawl space to check things out. Apparently, the two access points to the crawlspace were extremely uninsulated and drafty, and there were pipes running right along those areas. So he suspected that the pipes had frozen at one of the two areas. He prepped his blow torch and started heating up the pipe. It didn't take very long before the water started running again.

Even though the water was running again, the plumber said that if we didn't insulate those drafty areas immediately, it would freeze again. So we patched up the two openings using some old torn up insulation and carpet scraps. Good enough for now, but I'd probably install something more permanent once it got warmer out and I actually felt like working outside.

The plumber said that one thing we could do to avoid pipe freeze was to leave a faucet drip to keep water running through the pipe. This IS what were doing, just not intentionally. Our leaky faucet was a blessing in disguise. The plumber took his $125 and left. But since the crawlspace drafts were now insulated, we continued to wedge to box under the bathroom faucet knob to eliminate the drip. All was good, until the next streak of sub-zero weather.

I awoke on a Friday several weeks later to, once again, have no running water. I was pissed. I didn't want to call a plumber again, so I decided to venture into the crawlspace on my own. I was determined to thaw these pipes.

In front of the main entry point was a layer of solid ice, followed by a foot of snow, followed by a pile of gravel which was conveniently frozen together. I hacked away at this for a good 5 or 10 minutes. Then I had to remove the piece of plywood that was wedged under the siding, as well as the insulating carpet scrap.

With flashlight and hair dryer in hand, I descended into the depths of the unknown. I crawled on my stomach through the uneven bed of dirt and clay. Dead spiders suspended from webs brushed against my head. Scraps of wood, disconnected wiring and old tarps lie scattered about. It was a jungle down there. I made way to the other side of the house where the water came in from the city. This is where the plumber thawed the pipes last time. Luckily there was an outlet directly overhead, so I plugged in the hair dryer and went to town. I heated up the pipe for no more than 2 minutes before the water started running again. I wrapped another carpet scrap around the problem pipe and secured it using some lengths old wiring that I found laying around down there.

I was very muddy after being down there, but it was very satisfying to fix it on my own. I feel closer with the house now that I've been down there and I eventually plan to do a permanent fix to all the issues down there. As for the leaky faucet, I'm letting it leak until spring comes.

With my brother Tom back in town for a little bit, we decided to do some abandoned exploration. Through some internet searching, we found out about an abandoned toy factory in Algonquin. The sites we found did not disclose an exact location, however.

Using the description of the area around the factory and an outside photo, we were able to pinpoint the exact location using satellite imagery from Google and Microsoft. With the satellite images, we were also able to scope out the scene, looking for a place to park and enter the grounds with maximum cover so that people at neighboring businesses and houses would not give us any trouble. Isn’t technology great?

We headed down to Algonquin in the early afternoon and found the location very easily. After parking the car, it was time to explore.

For a pictorial tour of the old factory, go here.

When we got back outside the factory, I noticed a cop pull into the parking lot on the other side of the barbed wire fence. It was time to get the hell out of there. Luckily we were just feet from our entry point and high tailed it away the other way into the woods. The cop would have had to pursue us on foot at this point, but we continued at a very brisk pace just in case.

We got to a bike path that ran along the backside of the factory grounds and started walking down it. Looking behind us, we saw a man in black running towards us down the bike path. We were paranoid that it was a cop, but he was too far away to tell. We started power walking down the path. But the man in black got closer and closer. He was gaining on us. At this point the bike path was going over ravines and creeks and there wasn’t really anywhere for us to go off of the path unless we wanted to run down an extremely steep and muddy hill.

After looking over our shoulders every few seconds, the man in black was close enough for us to see that he was merely a jogger. He passed us without incident and we were overcome by relief. We figured that the cop was long gone by now and that we needed to get back to our car. We went down the bike path back towards the factory. We passed three teenagers who were standing on the path looking at the factory and talking about it. As we suspected, as soon as we got far enough away from them, they disappeared off the trail in the direction of the factory. This was good for us, because if that cop was still patrolling the area, we now had a diversion.

Me and Tom decided to take the long way back to the parking lot where the car was. We followed the bike trail until it came to a neighborhood side street. We walked through a park, which was on the other side of a creek that bordered the parking lot. But when we got closer, we noticed that there was a dark colored car parked close to mine, and there was a man sitting in it. This looked like the same car that I noticed through the window when we were in the factory. So we hung out in the park for a while to observe from afar.

The man eventually got out of his car and began walking around through the woods in the direction of the access point in the fence. He returned to his car a couple minutes later. During this time we noticed the kids from the bike path wandering around on the factory grounds. Was the mysterious parking lot man after these kids? Or maybe he was also there to explore but was paranoid that we were watching him? We weren’t sure, so we left the park to walk downtown for some grub.

We got some food from a small coffee shop and after a little time passed, we returned to the parking lot. The man was STILL there. At this point, I didn’t give a shit and we walked right passed his car and got into mine. The man just sat there in his car, reading something, and didn’t even glance over. He was probably as suspicious of us as we were of him. With that, we were home free with some kick ass pictures to show for it.

Highlights: Taco Dip; Turkey sandwiches; watching the "Burning of the Bush" video; another duct-taped present from Geo; Win, Lose or Draw; snow ball fight / leftover vegetable fight.

I also did not receive a cinder block this year, which is a good thing.