I Didn't Know It Was Disgusting Until I Was Knee Deep

I learned something interesting about the beaches in Chicago - and I use the term beach loosely because it's actually just sandy ground touching Lake Michigan. Anyway, the water around the beach occasionally becomes infested/saturated/covered in E. coli.

Emily and I discovered this as we began wading into the water. Lifeguards were staring at us from a distance as if to say, "Stop. But we don't really care." After plenty of time for the germs to infect all of our open wounds and pores, a lady came over and kindly told us that we should not be in the water... it was an E. coli day.

Apparently it is common place to actually check the news before swimming to get an E. coli report. Imagining how silly this is, I created a meter that could be in the corner of your TV (or even a Firefox Plug-in) to warn you about the daily bacteria.