Category Archives: Uncategorized

Unpleasant Surprises

Dear Tom and Dan,

I wanted to write to you to let you know that you may be contacted about your home being under foreclosure. I am working to resolve this situation and I will keep you apprised of events.

Signed,
$landlord

I can’t say that this comes as too much of a surprise. There had been indications of difficulties over the last two months, so we were prepared for this eventuality. The good news is that, depending on where things are in the foreclosure process, we have between four and eleven months before we have to move. We had planned on moving out and buying a home when our lease was up in January, anyway, so this actually isn’t too much of a hardship.

Yeah. Interesting times ahead.

End of the Week Wrapup Before the Week Ends!

Right. Friday. Where did the week go?

We’ve got a busy weekend ahead, but before that happens I wanted to post about the past week. On Saturday, we were joined for dinner by linnaeus, hegdish, drakeduck, and baconcoyote. We grilled up some very tasty bacon cheeseburgers and had a lovely evening of chatting and catching up. We don’t get to see the Milwaukee folks too often so it was a lot of fun to hang out with them!

On Sunday we did some work around the house, though takaza was feeling a bit iffy. I wound up going up to roho and genet‘s for dinner and The Amazing Race by myself. Unfortunately, Dan’s illness carried over into the next day, when his boss sent him home because he was running a mild fever and had a slight cough (OMG SWINE FLU!). Even after he saw a doctor (who diagnosed it as your basic virus-caused upper respiratory ick), he didn’t go back to work until Wednesday.

My week at work has been pretty busy, wrapping up a final report and starting in on my next project. It has kept me hopping (and extremely stressed on Monday), but it hasn’t be too bad.

Last night was a fun change to the usual routine; we met up with aureth, jenwolf, and moryssa for dinner in McHenry at the decidedly pedestrian Bambino’s (so-so pizza and $5 bottles of Guinness? Seriously?) before walking down to see Star Trek. On a scale of 0 to 100, I’d give it about an 85. Entertaining, pretty to look at (though as Dan and I said on Twitter, you can make a drinking game out of counting the lens flares, and be very drunk by the end of the movie), though ultimately lacking in…something. It was amusing to see them follow the “Star Trek checklist”, though: Bones says “Dammit Jim, I’m a doctor, not a *”, Scotty says he’s “giving her all he’s got”, etc. I absolutely got my six dollars’ worth, so I have no complaints.

As for this weekend, we’re going to stop by Anime Central briefly tomorrow, then either go for some tasty BBQ or a wine tasting for a great cause, the German Shepherd Search and Rescue Dog Association. As for Sunday, I have a list with a lot of tasks to complete before we open up our house for Memorial Day, mostly stuff that no one would notice if we didn’t do them, like cleaning the windows in the stairwell and such, but I’ll feel better once they’re done. Hmm, Sunday is also the finale for The Amazing Race. We (or someone) should do something for that. We’ll have to work on that 🙂

The Countdown Is On!

In two and a half hours I’m out of here, and ready to start our vacation. I’m so ready for it, too.

Last night I re-torqued my back (I had hurt it earlier in the week) and just couldn’t get comfortable in bed. I wound up getting up to take some Ibuprofen and didn’t get back to bed until a little before 1 AM. Couple that with the alarm going off at 5 AM and yeah, I’m dragging a bit today. If this is a problem tonight, I’m absolutely hitting the Flexeril.

Speaking of tonight, it’s going to be busy. takaza and I are packing the car for Furry Connection North when we get home from work, then it’s over to the movie theater at Gurnee Mills to see This American Life Live! with roho and genet. After that wraps up at around 9 PM, we’ll be driving to Mishawaka, Indiana, spend the night, then head up to the hotel in Novi, Michigan on Friday. We expe

We’ll be at FCN until mid-Sunday afternoon, and should be leaving for home at around 3 PM. I’m looking forward to a fun convention, some great company, good food, and entertaining parties. Rumor has it they’re looking at around 650 folks this year, and I’m not surprised – it’s a great convention, and I know the whole staff has worked really hard to live up to the great reputation they earned their first year, last year. It’s going to be a blast!

…And sometimes you roll snake eyes.

I’ve been trying to expand our menu a bit lately, and investigating interesting recipes we find online. We’ve had good luck with a couple of different cuisines and dishes, so I was really hopeful. Tonight’s candidate was Shredded Chicken Red Curry with Rice Noodles. And it was…a bust. I was hoping cooking the onion and garlic down would make it more palatable to Dan, but it wound up driving him upstairs to get away from the strong smell. The deal-killer for me was the relatively large amount of fish sauce – the finished product tasted spicy, slightly onion-garlicky, which devolved into a strange, fishy flavor that came out of nowhere. Maybe 1/2 tablespoon of fish sauce instead to two tablespoons? Ah well. Live and learn…

Beer, Naan, and Easter!

Busy times over the past few days. Last Thursday we met with perro and darkwolph for some MFF stuff, followed by a thoroughly unpleasant dinner at Ram Brewery (stupidly crowded, stupidly loud, and mediocre food). Friday night we joined linnaeus for a delightful dinner at roho and genet‘s featuring chicken tikka masala and homemade naan – yummy! Saturday I worked in the morning, then takaza and I did some shopping, including finally ordering a console for our sectional sofa – hopefully that’ll be here by Memorial Day! And on Sunday, we spent the day with Dan’s family.

Not much going on this week, though. I’m dabbling with possible hotels and restaurants for our trip out to Iowa (in early June, maybe?). On various people’s advice, I’m looking at Iowa City, but we’ll see how that works out. Also, last night we nailed down our travel plans next week for Furry Connection North. After going to see This American Life Live! on Thursday night in Gurnee, we’ll be driving down to scenic Mishawaka, IN, where we’ll arrive way late and spend the night (yay free hotel room!). Then on Friday we’ll hit the road at a reasonable hour and arrive in Ann Arbor just in time to pick up lunch at Zingerman’s Deli. From there we’ll head over to the FCN hotel in Novi.

Dan and I will both be working Security, so we’ll be all over the place during the convention. Depending on our security scheduling, I’m hoping to be able to hit Zingerman’s Roadhouse for dinner on Saturday, perhaps followed by a celebration of libations (look for a more specific posting about that soon).

Then there’s Memorial Day coming up – we’re expecting a house full of people, and we have a lot of projects that we want to get done before then. You know, all those cleaning projects that normal people wouldn’t worry about but I actually fret about (“floss between cracks in banister”) 🙂 Lots of stuff to do!