Welcome Back Blotter

Bad Boys, Bad Boys, whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when someone you know is in the Police Blotter? I found out from the Herald News Police Blotter the other day that my childhood neighborhood buddy was arrested (see the item about a "Shorewood man", for some reason I feel bad putting his name on the site) for possession of ecstasy, a handgun, and cocaine with intent to deliver. Six years ago he was also arrested for drug possession and maltreatment of a snake (apparently he was not in the proper climate). I have the clipping of that article somewhere, I'll post it if I remember. The ironic thing about the whole situation is that when we were little, Neighborhood Buddy and I once took a can of powdered Kool-Aid Mix and sold the powder to various neighborhood residents. Sixteen years later, he's arrested for intent to deliver a different kind of powder. Luckily I still like Kool-Aid, who can resist the Kool-Aid Man? Speaking of the good old days in my neighborhood, I realize now that for some reason wayward children would randomly show up at our house. Exhibit one: a little boy once danced his way into our backyard. . .and Venus was his nay-ame (actually it was Vincent, but we thought it was Venus for some reason; his family room was viewable from our family room, and a favorite game that we used to play when we were bored was "What's Venus Watching?" in which we would try to change the channels on our TV to whatever "Venus" was watching). This was the same day that the aforementioned Neighborhood Buddy's identical twin little sisters (Exhibit two) escaped from their home and showed up on the top of our van. And, finally, exhibit three, a previously unknown little girl showed up at our house, unsure of where she came from. We first thought her name was Mary Anne Pumpkin Poo, later amended to Mary Ann Ponthenpoom (I don't think that was her real name either). Somehow we returned "Pumpkin Poo" to her rightful owners, and a couple years later we ran into Mary Anne and her mom at Service Merchandise. They informed us that they were moving to Pekin, and Mary Anne promised (threatened?) to ride her Big Wheel back to Joliet from Pekin to visit us. Unsurprisingly, the Big Wheel has never shown up at our house.

Also in this week's Blotter. . . an incident involved the return visit of a peeping Tom (rest assured, not the Nightcrawler) to a Joliet woman. The highlights:

The 25-year-old woman told police she spotted the man with his face up against a window to her Mississippi Avenue apartment just after midnight Monday.
She then spoke with the man, who asked her about "Dude" upstairs, police said. The man then began to walk upstairs to the apartment of the woman's brother.

"Dude?" Apparently Mr. Peepers must have a great relationship with this woman's brother. And finally, one more Blotter entry:

Meneleo Manoza, 34, of 1290 Santa Fe Drive, was arrested at 5:31 p.m. June 12 in the 500 block of Fairmeadows Drive. He was charged with public indecency, disorderly conduct and criminal trespassing of property. Lt. Bill Denny, of the Romeoville Police Department, said the man was found naked in a hot tub at an apartment complex. He was released on bond.

I'm hoping they get that hot tub checked out for Brsaniotes before it's open to public use again. Melanie, make sure that you have good security on your hot tub, you never know who might pop up.

In other weekday news. . .we went to Shogun in Aurora last night for Joe's birthday, a Benihana type place where they cook the food at the table. Our chef chopped a lot of vegetables, but unfortunately he wasn't "choppin' Broccoli." He did a lot of fun tricks with his knifes, and accented each move with a "Cha Cha Cha!" I was having a hard time trying to contain myself because all I could think about are those commercials for that new show on Fox, "Banzai!" I have a feeling that show is going to be awesome, especially who can fetch a stick faster, a dog or Willis from Different Strokes. Todd Bridges, how can you subject yourself to such treatment?

The only other odd thing that happened to me this week was during a trip to the mall on Tuesday. I've decided some day I really need to do an indepth analysis of the Louis Joliet Mall on this website (slogan: All This Crap and Stilll No Gap), but we'll save that for a rainy day. Anyway, I was at Wet Seal (aka Wet Walrus), and I'm convinced I saw a guy trying on the flashiest of Wet Seal's gear. I could have been wrong and it may have just been a very boyish female, but dude (perhaps "Dude upstairs") looked like a dude. I didn't want to look too closely, I thought staring might be inappropriate and the Wet Seal employees didn't appear too fazed. I kind of wish I had checked out the situation a bit more closely, but perhaps the Mystery Man will be trying on more newsboy hats and shiny halters the next time I stop by. I'll update tomorrow with the stories of our Thursday night. The Jackhammers are away tonight, so entertainment will most likely come from less athletic sources. Oh and in a side note, I heard the funniest toast ever last night from Bug-Eyed Toni on Paradise Hotel: "Champagne for my real friends, and real pain for my sham friends!" I really don't know of an appropriate occasion to use this toast ,but I'll try to think of one. Adios!