Now Accepting Oaths of Fealty

10 people elected me as president of the condo association board last night. I shall now accept oaths of fealty.

Snowpocolypse! II

I'm taking off Snow Day II. I got to the Addison stop about 7:50 this morning. 45 minutes and 4 packed red lines later I called it off. The platform was completely full of people the entire time I was up there. After the 1st train the a CTA worker announced
\the next train was an express from Bryn Mawr and we would "all be able to get on the train." Nope! Completely packed. Maybe9 or 10 people per car boarded.

In that time 3 Purple lines cruised by. Everyone of them had open seats. I'm sure there's logistician out there that could tell me why it would be a bad idea but any one of those trains could have emptied the platform by pulling in for a stop.

Here's a couple of pics from my 'hood.

Buried Cars



All the sidewalks on my street were cleared. There are a couple houses that never shovel but they were even done. Either the people there decided the snow passed some threshold that they needed to shovel or the neighbors did the work. I'd assume the latter


Team shoveling.

Another Anniversary

The Redecorated Deck

The 2010 Major League Baseball All-Star Game is getting underway. That means 24 months ago I signed my life away and became a home owner. July 15 was the actual date but in 2008 that was All-Star Tuesday.

Deckorating

PHASE ZERO.
An ugly deck.


From the Door


Angle From Doorway


From the bedroom window.



PHASE ONE.
An improved deck.


From the door.


Angled from doorway.


From bedroom window.


Phase 2 will involve a step to raise the flowers up off the deck floor about 1/2 foot.

Phase 3 will be a storm door.

Phase 4 will be replacing those rotted boards. This phase and phase 3 may occur at the same time.

You Can't Take It With You

I didn't need all that money burning a whole hole* in my bank account anyway.

• My laptop is dying. The fan went out a week or two ago and I think it has cooked itself. Any application I open up periodically and frequently freezes up. A new laptop is in order.
  
• When I moved into the condo 18 months ago the clothes drier's timer only worked on a single setting. The drier would run but the timer never counts down and it runs on forever. As of this weekend none of the settings work. Repairman will have to be scheduled.
  
• And the biggie... because of grout and tile problems water is leaking into the walls behind the tub. I've been putting off the project of remodeling the bathroom but I can't do that for much longer. I'll put in some temporary repair but the big project is going to have to happen soon.
  

UPDATE


Bob was describing something grander than my condo when he wrote this but it's about how I feel at the moment.

* My proof reading skills only take a day to kick in.

Christmas At The New Condo

My roommate, Joe, and I decided we were going to cook Christmas dinner at the condo. We did a little bit of planning. I considered a couple different options but Joe got a $15 off coupon for a turkey from his job so we decided to do the standard turkey dinner. Over the 10 days before Christmas the guest list went from Joe, his GF, me, Mom, brother and sister-in-law to also include Kincades Sean and The Lawyer.

Dinner was planned for 5PM and we got the bird ready about 11AM. We made a marinade of butter, garlic, pepper and oregano. Doused the bird, put in the pot and into the oven. Now it was time to sit and wait.

As the time neared and everyone had arrive I made some beef fillet and cheese springrolls from Omaha Steaks. Yum! Those were served as we were baking the sweet potatoes, boiling the red potatoes for mashed and prepping the other stuff. I served some seared green beans and crescent rolls and cranberries rounded out the meal.

Timing was everything. We nailed it!

Everything was ready at about the same time. The rolls were the only things running behind and those were ready before everyone had served up their first plate. Everyone enjoyed the meal. Sean later commented that he didn't think we could pull off that big a meal for that many people in my kitchen. I have to say I was a little impressed with us myself.

Joe took and mom took some pictures. If they ever get those uploaded I may put them up. I was busy cooking and the nerves of Mom meeting the girl so I only got one picture. It was of the ninth guest.