As I mentioned in a previous post, I visited a Seven-Eleven store that was re-branded into the fictional store in the Simpsons TV show called the Kwik-E-Mart.  Jesse, Kent and I made a special trip to our “local” Kwik-E-Mart in Chicago. Coincidentally, it was a store close to where I grew up and that I shopped at a few times. It was pretty cool. They wrapped the entire exterior of the top section of the store, covered the big sign, had character cutouts, stickers, banners, and re-branded just about everything Simpsons-related: pink donuts with sprinkles, Buzz Cola soda, Squishees, Krusty O’s cereal, gummy snacks, etc. To my dismay, they did not create Duff Beer. DOH!

Check out the Kwik-E-Mart pictures. (I’m waiting for some other ones from Jesse, too.)

My parents met us there to check it out, too.  There were no shortages of calories this day.  I ate a donut, a squishee, ½ bag of Fiery Habanero Doritos, a hot dog with everything, and about an hour later ate at Jackie’s Hot Dogs ordering a giant, delicious Italian Beef sandwich (yum, yum, yum).  The store was out of Buzz Cola in can form so we went on a mad search for them.  After running into about 4 additional Seven-Eleven stores, we started calling them instead of driving.  We managed to find one store that had 15 cans left and bought them all.  These were the LAST ones in the Chicagoland area!  Whooo Hoooo!  They were supposedly getting another shipment on Tuesday, but that’s it….it’s all gone…no more.  You can buy some on eBay if you’re that interested.

I was then dropped off at Renee’s house for Dylan’s b-day party where they had NO shortage of good food.  Erin showed up with Molly shortly after I arrived.  I entertained the kids by driving the 4-wheeler around with a trailer.  I probably had more fun than they did, though!  Then they lit off some pretty cool fireworks.  Erin was showing off her photography skills with some of these shots:

Then we borrowed Molly’s glow stick and played with more pictures:

Upon arriving home around 11pm my cell phone is ringing off the hook. Gary and Sue were having a little happy hour across the street, so we stopped over there for a little while. What a fun day…. Friends… Family… Simpsons…. Chicago food… 4 wheelers…. happy hours… does it get any better??

- Doug

If you really know me, you know that I’m an avid Simpson’s fan. Well, the first ever Simpson’s Movie is coming out on 7/27 and I’ll obviously be there that Thursday night at midnight for the first showing of the movie…at least in Bloomington.

Here’s some fun things going on as far as promotions for the movie that you may enjoy:

1. Create your own Simpson’s avatar. Here is my family in classic Simpson’s attire and form:

2. Visit your local Kwick-E-Mart (7-Eleven). They are rebranding twelve 7-Eleven stores across the nation. I’ll end up visiting one at some point during the promotion.

3. If you are into MySpace, then you can get a Simpson’s profile/theme. Why wouldn’t you? Visit my lame MySpace site. You’ll clearly notice I spend more time working on other things than MySpace.

On a complete side note….while changing my wallpaper to a Simpson’s themed picture, I happened to notice the instructions for how to set your wallpaper for Windows and for Mac. You tell me what’s easier? Which one is more user-friendly? Why pay so much more for a Mac and have to do all this stuff? I just don’t understand those people. (Ps. I love my iPod)

-Doug

I’ve been sitting here racking my brain on what to post for an entry… then it hit me!  Let’s get motivated!  Every now and then – especially in winter – I have those days where I don’t want to get out of my pj’s or wonder “what can I offer the world?”  Well, if you need some motivation, check out these sites:

Read Scott Ginsberg’s blog

Sign up for Dr. Zimmerman’s “Tuesday Tip” newsletter (recommended by Doug)

Visit http://www.motivateus.com/

Or if you’re in the mood to be “demotivated,” then check this out: http://despair.com/viewall.html (Featuring demotivational collateral, based on those inspirational “Successories” posters. Hilarious!)

If you have motivational or inspirational websites to recommend, please link to it in a comment! 

~ Erin