Monthly Archives: July 2009

Crazy Times in Dogtown

Work work work…yeah, it’s been that kind of week (and weekend).

Most of last week was spent wrapping up the latest Big Project at work – still some stuff to do on that but we’re very close to getting things into production by the end of the week. genet stopped by for dinner on Tuesday, which was a nice break in the routine and her company is always a pleasure.

Friday night we were joined by Genet and linnaeus (roho was stuck with workstuff) for dinner at Jimmy John’s. takaza, Genet, and Linnaeus went off to see Harry Potter and the Giant Wads of Money; I wasn’t really feeling it so I decided to chill out at home. It sounds like I probably made the correct choice 🙂

Saturday was Bingo Day! It was once again Dan’s employer’s Summer Picnic and once again we got drafted to run bingo. It went OK, and we gave out about $900 in gift cards as prizes. When we wrapped up there, we drove over to Trader Joe’s in Lake Zurich and splurged on a few things, then back home. For dinner, we decided to try Smokin’ T’s BBQ in Long Grove, which darkwolph had recommended a while back. The pulled pork was extremely tasty, the short ribs only so-so, and the sauces were a little underwhelming (though the Alabama White BBQ sauce was very tasty). We had a lovely walk through the area and enjoyed the sunset afterwards, then headed home.

Unfortunately, it appears that something Dan ate, either at the picnic or at the restaurant, caused something akin to food poisoning because he was up all night. I woke up on Saturday and saw that Dan was already up, which worried me. I came downstairs to find him in the middle of making me breakfast in bed, which was incredibly sweet of him. He finished making breakfast then headed off to bed himself. I came in to work and spent a few hours finishing up some testing that had to be done during the off-hours of production. I was home by noon, though. Later in the afternoon I went over to Remington Pointe in Volo and signed the papers to start the process of purchasing our new home.

The whole process has been too complicated to get into and to be honest it’s stressing me out a lot, but the upshot of it is that we are on to buy a new townhouse and close the sale on Friday, August 7. Moving day is slated for August 22. The new place is fabulous – a really nice place, backs up to woods, and not in a terribly crowded neighborhood like where we live now. I’ll feel better once we work out the details of the sale, but I definitely like this place better than the one we were originally going to purchase. The only drawback is a kitchen smaller than I would like, but the open floor plan makes up for it. It’s very beige right now, but I suspect we’re going to be applying some paint and changing that up a bit.

As for this week: besides the ongoing home purchasing trials, we’re going on a little trip on Thursday. Many of you already know the details, but shhhh! Don’t tell Linnaeus 😉 I’ll have a lot more to talk about when we get back.

What a Great Weekend…

And we didn’t really even do that much!

Last weekend, fordshepherd came up to visit. We were, of course, mostly selfish and kept the sheppie hidden away, enjoying a quiet weekend at home. We’re mean that way 🙂

Ford didn’t get in until late Friday night, which is how we found ourselves sitting down to dinner at Tramonto’s Steak and Seafood with linnaeus at 10:30 PM. They were quite gracious, though, and the meal was delicious. We left there around midnight, and spent the next few hours chatting and unwinding.

Saturday started predictably late. We shared an excellent lunch with roho, genet, and Roho’s mom, who I really enjoyed seeing again. Afterward, plans for a semi-fancy dinner sort of fell apart in a fit of laziness and contentment as we relaxed at home, watched some stuff off the Tivo, and enjoyed Ford’s company. Pizza was ordered, some truly amazing white port was enjoyed (thanks again, baja_hyena!), and we closed out the evening with a viewing of The Lion in Winter. Wonderful!

Sunday came all too soon. I enjoyed an excellent lunch at Cooper’s Hawk Restaurant and Winery with woodychitwn, ramalion, Ford, and Linnaeus (the peach bellini was yummy, the raspberry sangria not so much). The Midwest FurFest Board meeting followed shortly thereafter. The one item of note is that Midwest FurFest has a chairman for next year and that would be…Takaza! Yep, it all comes ’round again 🙂 The staff meeting was mercifully short, and then we took our leave of the merry crowd, dispatching Ford back Columbus-ward with his crew in tow. We spent the evening unwinding and making plans for our trip next week.

After such an excellent weekend, it’s tough to get back into the grind. Things were OK at work today, though, and the balance of the week should be busy, but no late nights will be needed.

Oh, and we’re working on the real estate front, but nothing new to report there just yet. Sorry, Mom 😉

Oy, What a Week

12 hours at work yesterday, 11 hours the day before, and working most of the day last Saturday. The best thing to say is that we’re just about done with the equipment testing and that I will not have to work this weekend. It’s mighty draining, though.

As you may have seen on Twitter, we got a call on Monday from our real estate agent. We’re supposed to close on the new place August 7th, but there’s a snag – the house appraised for about $20,000 less than the selling price, which means that the bank will only finance the appraised amount. Our lawyer is talking with their lawyer, and one of three things will happen: They’ll walk away from the deal (most likely, though we know the seller is relocating and in a rush), they’ll try to meet us in the middle (no luck there, since we don’t have that much cash on hand), or they’ll agree to the appraised amount (yeah, I doubt it). No word yet from the lawyers, but hopefully we’ll have something today. We’re already researching new properties to look at, and the good news is that we’ve got a place to live at least through November or December.

Oh, and just to add to the fun: yesterday morning while we were getting ready for work, takaza and I saw a quick brown flash along the baseboards – yep, we had a mouse in the house. One quick trip to Ace Hardware later and a few traps spread around, that is an ex-mouse. It is passed on, is no more, has ceased to be…well, you get the picture. I’m certain that was an isolated incident, but just in case we’re leaving a few traps down in case he had any buddies along with him.

Anthrocon 2009 Con Report, Part 1

I’ve mentioned this before, but some folks have asked why I write up such long and detailed convention reports. The biggest reason is so that I have something to look back on in future years to remind me of what went wrong, what went right, and how to make each year better than the last. Granted, as some might have gathered this year’s Anthrocon wasn’t as great for me as past years have been. I’ll come to that in a bit, but let’s start with:

Monday

We’re Home from Anthrocon

What a long, strange trip it’s been. Well, long, strange, stressful, at times unpleasant, and physically painful. With a few pleasant times thrown in, though not nearly enough.

But after all that, we’re home, safe and sound. The house is cooling down so I’ll likely be up for a while yet. Dan doesn’t have to work tomorrow, the lucky sod, but I’ll be up at 5 AM. Egad. Lots to talk about, but it’ll have to wait a few days.