As of 6:11 p.m. Tuesday night, more than 31,000 people had voted in our daily Web poll – "Who do you want to win the 14th Congressional District Republican primary?" If this sounds like an extraordinarily high number to you, well, it is. One might even say it's an extraordinarily unlikely high number.

We average about 100 votes with our Web polls. Interesting questions sometimes pull in as many as 200 votes. In a one minute span from 6:07 to 6:08 p.m., Tuesday's Web poll reported 94 votes. From 6:09 to 6:10 p.m., it reported 80 votes. And as much as I would love to believe that many people are visiting and voting in our Web poll, it's simply not true.

So, I can conclude that either candidates Ethan Hastert and Mark Vargas – the biggest beneficiaries of the votes so far – were getting finger cramps from pressing the vote button multiple times (unlikely – and I certainly hope not) or that some supporter or bored college kid figured out a way to manipulate our Web poll.

Who knows what happened. All I know is it's now 6:20 and there are more than 31,500 votes. Five hundred votes in eight minutes. I've heard of Chicago politics and dead people voting, but non-existent, invisible Web people? I just hope they don't let them into the polls in February. As do candidates Jeff Danklefsen, Randall M. Hultgren and Jim Purcell, who seem to have a ways to go in courting the non-existent, invisible Web people bloc.

UPDATE – It's now 7:58 p.m. We just reached 37,250 votes. I'm hoping by the end of the night we have more votes than 14th District voters. It could happen. Maybe this is how hurt sports athletes make All-Star teams.

FINAL UPDATE – It's 12:30 a.m. on Wednesday. I took a screen shot of the final vote before I took it down and put up a new Web poll. Final tally: 62,037 votes. We didn't even have that many page views on Tuesday. And our page views on Tuesday showed that it was a fairly average day for us. Craziest thing I've ever seen with one of our Web polls.

I sometimes am jealous of the hermit lifestyle – the solitude, the peace, the lack of technology. Just you and your mountaintop. There are certain days when I have way too much going on at once, days when that sounds like just about the most wonderful existence on Earth.

But as much as that lifestyle might appeal to me from time to time, I have to admit that technology has me in its talons, and it's not letting me go.

Let's review the notes.

I'm typing this column on a computer. I'm listening to my iPod while I'm typing this column on a computer. I'm listening to electronic music on my iPod while I'm typing this column on a computer. I'm surfing the Web while listening to electronic music on my iPod while I'm procrastinating from typing my column on a computer.

If I lived on a mountaintop, I could do none of these things. (Except for procrastinate, of course – "I'll get to meditating in a second. I just need to look at this rock for a little longer.")

We live in an age when we're surrounded by lighted monitors, blinking lights, honking horns, ringing cell phones, all demanding our attention throughout the day. But going off to a mountaintop simply isn't an option for many of us, especially in Illinois, which is much more adept at making mountains out of molehills rather than giant boulders.

But while we can't retreat to a mountaintop, there certainly still are places to get away from it – a golf course, a nature preserve, a decent reading room in a library. They might not be mountaintops, but at least they're close to home. Just remember to leave your cell phones in your car.

After years of resisting, I recently gave in and bought a daily planner.

Admittedly, there isn't a terribly good reason to resist owning a planner. There are far more important things in life to resist – such as temptation, peer pressure and the Borg. I simply never saw the need for one.

However, it turns out I did need a planner. Rather badly, in fact.

Being an editor of a newspaper means there is a lot to remember in a day. There are meetings to have. Stories to plan for. Stories to edit. Web sites to update. Phone calls to return. E-mails to respond to. More meetings to have. Letters to confirm. And so on and so on. And my memory isn't the best to begin with. Not only would I lose my head if it wasn't screwed on tight, as my mother used to tell me, I probably would forget that I had one in the first place.

Through most of my life, my method of memory enhancement has consisted of little notes – usually scattered across my desk and organized by distance. The closer the note was to me, the sooner it needed to be taken care of.

Despite this seemingly foolproof system, I found that I would forget to do things from time to time – as if the note had never existed. A few days ago, while trying to recover a pen that I accidentally knocked behind my desk, I found that it had discovered a number of buddies in the space between my desk and the wall. And all of those buddies, strangely enough, were shaped like little notes.

It was time to buy a professional planner.

And, as much as I hate to admit this, it has been wonderful. I wake up in the morning. I construct my day in the planner – writing down everything I need to accomplish. Also, I get that satisfying moment when I check something off. "Finish editing video for football show." Check. "Take care of thing for Chris." (Yes, that is the actual wording of the note. No, it did not involve a "Sopranos"-type crime.) Check. There's just something satisfying in penning a check mark.

Of course, I'm still working on the system.

During a recent late afternoon – hours after I had made a list of things to do – my planner instructed me to "e-mail Kevin." Good thing I had my planner. If I hadn't written that, I very well might have forgotten all about Kevin.

There was just one problem.

"Who do I know named Kevin?" I asked the person sitting next to me at the time. "And while we're on the subject, why do I need to e-mail him?"

Better organization 1, Clarity 0.

(I did eventually figure it out after racking my brain for a few minutes. I will use last names in the future. At least I didn't have to "take care of thing for Kevin." Then I never would have figured it out.)

So, if it ever took me too long to return a call or an e-mail, I'd like to take this opportunity to apologize. The little note reminding me to do so very well might have been partying it up behind my desk with the little note reminding me to buy more little notes.

But with my new planner in tow, less things will slip through the cracks – both literally and figuratively – and my memory can focus on important things at home such as wedding anniversaries (which I did remember) and taking out the recycling (which I did not). And, maybe best of all, I get to make a little check mark after finishing this column.


• Joe Grace is the editor of The Chronicle. Write to him at jgrace@kcchronicle.com or call him at 630-845-5368.

The photos of the Elburn Lions youth football team that wore pink socks this season to raise awareness for breast cancer now are posted. The team wore the socks in honor of teammate Tanner Robertsen's mother and grandmother, who both have breast cancer.

You can see the photos by clicking here.

Twelve-year-old Tanner Robertsen dashed toward the end zone in his muddy green football uniform on Saturday, flanked by his Elburn Lions teammates, adding the final touch to what was to be a victory that propelled the Lions to a first-place finish in the Aurora Superstars Youth Tackle Football League.

But, in the long run, the touchdown wasn’t nearly as important as what Tanner and his teammates were wearing with their green uniforms as they rushed toward that end zone – pink socks.

Tanner has a good reason for his apparel. He has two close family members battling breast cancer – his mom, Donna Robertsen, and grandma, Loretta Jobin of Sandwich. Donna was diagnosed two years ago in the summer of 2007. Jobin was diagnosed this April. Tanner wore the pink socks to honor them.

“[Donna] is doing as well as a cancer patient can do,” said Donna’s husband and Tanner’s father, Mike Robertsen. “It never leaves your mind. It’s an up-and-down swing. It’s a challenge every day, and she’s met the challenge very well.”

Tanner, a sixth-grade student at Kaneland Middle School, first asked Elburn Lions head coach Jay Strang if he could wear the socks four weeks ago, the first week of October, which is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

“You bet you can wear pink socks,” Strang told him.

His mom remembers that first game well.

“I cried the first time he came out with his on,” Donna said. “The fact that he wanted to do it – it’s an emotional thing, anyway. And then to have to have your kids go through it. It’s hard, too. It was emotional for me and my mom.”

The next week, Mike and Donna were in for another surprise. Tanner’s teammates had asked Strang if they could wear pinks socks, as well.

“We’ll all wear pink socks,” Strang told them.

And the team would continue to wear the pink socks through the rest of the season.

“To see these kids support him,” Mike said, “that’s where the beauty of this is.”

“It was really overwhelming as far as feelings go,” Donna said. “I was overwhelmed with the support he got from his other teammates.”

Tanner, who plays quarterback, has been in youth football for four years. Mike said he has never seen anything like this.

“Every time I see it, to me, it’s wonderful to see that kids of this age care about these kinds of things,” Mike said, “and it’s great to see that my son is not alone with his feelings. They are there by his side.”

Donna then e-mailed me after our talk:

“This has not been about our family only. It just started out that way. It’s for everyone who has either had someone they know battle cancer or lost someone to cancer. Because if we find a cure for one cancer there will be other cures to follow. In the time that you read this article, two more women have been diagnosed with breast cancer. So if our story touches one person, then we have done our job making people aware the need for a cure. Imagine a world without breast cancer. I can!”

• To see photos of the team, please click here.

I celebrated Halloween sporadically as a kid.

My brother and I weren’t allowed to celebrate Halloween through much of our childhood because of religious reasons. And I stood by that decision 364 days of the year.

(To clarify, we did celebrate Halloween before the family started going to church. We have pictures of me as a toddler in the creepiest clown costume ever conjured. My brother was dressed as a cowboy. My mother loved him best.)

But while I agreed in principle with the decision not to celebrate Halloween, it became a much tougher candy bar to chew on when the actual day rolled around and we had to watch other kids 1) get to wear awesome costumes and 2) get free candy for wearing awesome costumes.

Our mother could sense this some years, though, and would let us throw together a quick costume – usually an old sheet with holes cut out for the eyes or a cowboy hat – and go on a quick tour of the neighborhood gathering as much candy as we could in as short of a time as possible – the theory, I guess, being that if we hurried, God wouldn’t catch on to what we were doing.

As the years went by, though, I began to see Halloween less as a time for devils and demons and more as a time for fun costumes and sweets.

And by the time I reached my junior and senior years of college at Indiana University, I was ready to join in the costume fun.

My junior year, I went to my classes as John Cusack from “Better Off Dead.” My senior year, I went to my classes as Peter Pan. (College does strange things to your mind.)

I’ve dressed up just twice since then. The year after college, I wore a hastily put-together cowboy costume for a church Halloween party – or, as the church called it, a harvest festival party – that was a pull-string away from being a dynamite Woody from “Toy Story” costume.

And then a few years ago I wore an even more hastily put-together Bruce Springsteen costume after realizing that all I had clean in my closet was a red bandanna, a white T-shirt and jeans. (Ah, the pre-marriage days.)

While my own opinion of the holiday has changed since childhood, I certainly don’t condemn anyone who chooses not to celebrate Halloween. My mother still doesn’t, and neither do some of my friends. Everybody has the right to decide which holidays they wish to celebrate.

But I’ve come to enjoy the simple pleasures of Halloween – eating candy that’s not been grabbed by the hordes of costumed children sifting through town and carving pumpkins (or – in my case – thinking about a cool design and never getting around to carving it).

And, maybe more importantly, what other day would it be OK for me to dress like Bruce Springsteen?

• Joe Grace is the editor of The Chronicle. Write to him at jgrace@kcchronicle.com or call him at 630-845-5368.

We've all heard of day-old pizza – a wonderful treat, especially cold – but year-old cake?

My wife and I decided to save the top part of our wedding cake for our first anniversary, which we celebrated on Sunday.

It had been sitting in our freezer since last October, wrapped in a box and a plastic bag, idling by while frozen dinner roommates came and went.

When we finally removed it from its frozen home on Sunday and opened the box, we quickly saw that it had developed a mild case of freezer burn. Easy enough. Butter knife, stat. A cut here, a cut there, and the cake was all better. We dug out a piece for both of us and sat down to enjoy it.

Before I go any further, though, I should mention that I have issues with food and expiration dates. I don't eat anything after its expiration day. As soon as that date passes, the food might as well be poison as far as I'm concerned. That's right. One minute past midnight, perfectly edible food suddenly becomes an invitation to death's door in my mind. That milk just became spoiled. Sorry.

So, I wasn't exactly looking forward to year-old wedding cake despite the lovely symbolism of it. Symbolism is no substitute for preservatives. Cake should be eaten within a day or two after baking. I might have a piece after three days, but only after convincing a family member to taste it first.

I had to try this, though. It was our wedding cake, after all. I forked out a piece of cake – carefully avoiding the buttercream frosting (I have my limits) – and carefully put it into my mouth.

I'd love to tell you it tasted as good as I remembered it. (This would be a lie in any case. My wedding day is a complete blur. I'm fairly sure I said "I do" at some point in the festivities, but the rest is a little hazy.)

It tasted like year-old wedding cake. I took one more bite and gave the rest a proper burial in the trash can.

My wife didn't mind, and the rest of her cake joined its brethren not too long afterward.

After all, while we said "in sickness and in health," nothing was mentioned about year-old wedding cake.

I'm fairly sure, at least.

Anna Wright, 10, a fourth-grade student at Davis Elementary in St. Charles, is collecting cleaned and gently used coats and winter accessories for Hesed House in Aurora. This is the second year in a row that Anna is collecting winter apparel for Hesed House.

Anyone interested in donating to Anna’s coat drive should send an e-mail to her mother, Mary Beth Wright, at mbwright1@yahoo.com.

Last week, Chronicle photo editor Sandy Bressner headed out to the Crypts of Campana Haunted House in Batavia to see how a haunted house comes together.

I'm glad it was her and not me. I hate haunted houses.

Why? It's simple. I don't like people jumping out at me, especially high school students who – as we learned last week at St. Charles East – can pass around a sickness faster than mosquitoes in a swamp.

And, if you take a look at the pictures Sandy took last week by clicking here, it seems that while these students might not have the swine flu, the zombiefication process certainly has begun in some of them. And that's communicable, too, folks.

I just want to take the opportunity to congratulate everybody here at The Chronicle who won an award this year. Listed below are all of the winners.

The following are the awards The Chronicle received from the Northern Illinois Newspaper Association:

Best Features Section:

Third – Inger Koch, Laura Bussie, Eric Schelkopf – "Spark!"

Best Single General Feature Photo:

Third – Joe Grace – "Cupcakes make people happy"

Best Single Sports Photo

First – Rob Winner – “Barnes scores 10 points off the bench for Bulldogs”

Third – H. Rick Bamman – “Knights sophomore Serpa leaves game early”

Best Single Sports Column

Third – Jay Schwab – “Bitter-sweet in this field of dreams”

Best News Story Series

Second – Kate Thayer – “Kane County’s Treatment Alternative Court”

Best Single Technology/Medical Story

Second – Brenda Schory –  “ ‘He’s our top DUI officer’ ”

The following are the awards The Chronicle received from the Illinois Press Association:

Illinois State Bar Association Lincoln Media Award for Best Legal Media Coverage

Honorable Mention – Kate Thayer

Personality Photo

Second – H. Rick Bamman

Feature Writing

First – Brenda Schory – "Family upset over burial cost, 'teddy bear' suggestion"

Sports Section

First – Jay Schwab, Kevin Druley, Nick Gerts

The following are the awards The Chronicle recieved from the Illinois Associated Press Editors Association

Best Newspaper Web site

First – Staff

Business Story

Second – Jonathan Bilyk – "Harnessing the Wind"

Third – Jonathan Bilyk – "Bond Market Hits Cities Hard"

Enterprise Reporting

Second – Bethany Krajelis – "Still A Burning Issue"

General Excellence

First – Staff

Headlines

Third – Jarrod Rice

Sports Columns

Third – Jay Schwab

Sports News Story

Third – Kevin Druley – "No Crying As Cougars Delayed"

Features Photo

Second – Rob Winner – "Flip"

Third – H. Rick Bamman – "Road House"

Sports Action Photo

Second – Rob Winner – "Vault"

Sports Feature Photo

Second – Rob Winner – "Celebrate"

Spot News Photo

Second – H. Rick Bamman – "Traffic Stop"