And even though I do, I would like to not blog from my work laptop. So until I can set up a less cluttered version of my BIL office, I will have to make do.
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
More excuses
So i haven't been writing as much here or here. I started off August good at ChicagoNow but then lost steam. Part of the problem is I don't have a good place to write at home. When I get home I usually have my afterwork chores and then once those are finished, I just want to sit outside and drink wine on the deck with my wife. Also, my iPad isn't conducive to blogging what with the awkward keyboard and user unfriendly software.
And even though I do, I would like to not blog from my work laptop. So until I can set up a less cluttered version of my BIL office, I will have to make do.
And even though I do, I would like to not blog from my work laptop. So until I can set up a less cluttered version of my BIL office, I will have to make do.
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
My extra super shortcut thwarted
I'm probably not the only one who does this:
Sometimes when driving home instead of dealing with the parking lot that
is the tollway, I get off at Balmoral and take River Road to Irving
Park Rd. On average it saves me 15 minutes though usually more since
the Kennedy can sometimes be backed up.
I like to cut through the
parking lot of the Rosemont Theatre to avoid the idiots who cannot
figure out how to make a right turn from Balmoral to River Road.
Apparently the legal turn on red or the green right turn arrow confuse
them and they must grind to a halt and consult the great traffic gods
for permission to proceed. It really drives me crazy to miss a light
because the moron in front of me is afraid to drive the speed limit. It
also drives me crazy to not be able to enter the turn lane and miss my
turn arrow because the dickless guido in the sports car won't move his
penis-compensator up half a car length closer to the next vehicle, thus blocking the lane.
Apparently this venue caught on to my shortcut because the gates have been locked the last several times I've gone this way.
Incidentally, can anyone tell me why the center lane of the toll booth is always closed? Furthermore, considering that the cars coming from 90 and I-290 are trying to get over to the pay lanes and cars coming from I-294 are trying to get to the I-Pass lane, wouldn't it make sense to have I-Pass lanes on just one side of the toll booth?
Apparently this venue caught on to my shortcut because the gates have been locked the last several times I've gone this way.
Incidentally, can anyone tell me why the center lane of the toll booth is always closed? Furthermore, considering that the cars coming from 90 and I-290 are trying to get over to the pay lanes and cars coming from I-294 are trying to get to the I-Pass lane, wouldn't it make sense to have I-Pass lanes on just one side of the toll booth?
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| I want all lanes open dammit |
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Well balanced Weekend, I thought
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| Summer = Grilling |
In 2011 when we were planning a wedding and I was changing jobs, it felt like we were cut off from everyone. So in the summer I always want to take advantage of things the city has to offer like ballgames, street fests and outdoor seating.
Even last year when we were house-hunting ever weekend I still felt like I had a better connection with everyone. Of course had I simply signed on to lead a pace group, I might not have felt so isolated. of course my knee was in no condition to run that many miles.
On to the recap....Friday we went to our first Sox game of the year with K&J. After the game we tried to go to new trendy Mexican restaurant in Pilsen but it was packed (hence the trendy). So we ended up at Morgan's in the "new" University Village area. It's strange to me because that exact location is where I would probably have bought hubcaps when I was at UIC (if I had owned a car at the time).
We sat outside and there was an interesting mini-drama going on with a girl on the cell phone kinda upset and her friend trying to console her. In my mind, it was Jenny from CribChatter upset on the phone and her nice guy friend was angling for sympathy sex.
It was a late night so I didn't get up and run with the CARA group. Even though I still woke up right at 5am without setting the alarm, I went right back to sleep. I don't feel guilty because I don't have a group to lead and am not training for a marathon. In fact, right now I'm just trying to see if I can ease back into running without causing any problems to my knee.
Sidenote: I've managed two dreadmill runs this week and the tweakiness isn't there, just some stiffness in the knee. If I can make a pre-work run tomorrow I will go on Saturday and run a few miles with the group though not the entire 13 scheduled miles.
Saturday evening we met up with SHB and her husband at Retro on Roscoe. Nightingale thought it was strange that I wanted to get out of the house since we had just been out the night before, but hey Summer.
We had fun at the fest even though the door "donation" was $10 and it wasn't suggested, it was expected. Nightingale tends to pay what they ask and I tend to protest. In all fairness the strong arm guy they had at this booth at this particular time didn't object when i gave him $12 for two people.
Once we cleared that hurdle, I sent SHB a text that we were there but before I could watch for a response, we got drawn in by one of the vendor booths. It was for the spa they were in front of and
They were offering massages. Nightingale and I could both use one so we jumped on the opportunity. I was thinking a quick 10 minute chair but they had two tables ready if we were willing to do 20 minutes. Easiest. Sale. Ever.
On Sunday we went for a bike ride in the morning. We went all the way to Devon so I was able to show Nightingale the entrance to the forest preserve and the path that heads up to Botanic Gardens. On the way back we stopped at The Garage and had a quick bite on the roof. Fortunately they have seating up there or it would have been weird.
Unfortunately, that is one of the few places were smoking is permitted and we happened to be next to a table of smokers. I was quickly reminded of why I loathe smokers, at least this particular variety. First, they absent-mindedly hold their smokes away from their group because why would you want the smoke to irritate other smokers when you can send it toward the non-smokers. Second, and I know they are doing this one on purpose, they take turns smoking. First one person has a smoke. Then, just as she is finishing, another person lights up. I guess they just cannot co-ordinate sucking their cancer sticks.
But hey they have the right to smoke especially if The Garage is zoned for it and all I can do is make fun of them on this blog. Aside from that, the food was yummie. The service was a tad slow because there was only one waitress on staff and they do not have a dumb waiter pulley system to bring food and drinks up from the first floor. We didn't really care except we wanted to hit the Farmer's Market at Jefferson Park before it ended and we had to get to New-DrDrea's cookout.
New-DrDrea's place has access to a great rooftop above Riverfront restaurant on Roscoe and Damen, the perfect spot for a young single thirtysomething. We hung out for a little bit but couldn't quite
cross-pollinate with her friends. We were able to get a good talk with her BF and her mom, but otherwise couldn't break the wall. Even DrDrea's EX, whom I at least know and have the IT/Polish thing in common didn't stay around to chat with us.
So after putting in our time, we took our leave and went to Mariano's to get our weekly shopping out of the way. We got home and were pleased to find we still had a few hours before we had to go to bed so we prepared lunches for the week.
Even last year when we were house-hunting ever weekend I still felt like I had a better connection with everyone. Of course had I simply signed on to lead a pace group, I might not have felt so isolated. of course my knee was in no condition to run that many miles.
On to the recap....Friday we went to our first Sox game of the year with K&J. After the game we tried to go to new trendy Mexican restaurant in Pilsen but it was packed (hence the trendy). So we ended up at Morgan's in the "new" University Village area. It's strange to me because that exact location is where I would probably have bought hubcaps when I was at UIC (if I had owned a car at the time).
We sat outside and there was an interesting mini-drama going on with a girl on the cell phone kinda upset and her friend trying to console her. In my mind, it was Jenny from CribChatter upset on the phone and her nice guy friend was angling for sympathy sex.
It was a late night so I didn't get up and run with the CARA group. Even though I still woke up right at 5am without setting the alarm, I went right back to sleep. I don't feel guilty because I don't have a group to lead and am not training for a marathon. In fact, right now I'm just trying to see if I can ease back into running without causing any problems to my knee.
Sidenote: I've managed two dreadmill runs this week and the tweakiness isn't there, just some stiffness in the knee. If I can make a pre-work run tomorrow I will go on Saturday and run a few miles with the group though not the entire 13 scheduled miles.
Saturday evening we met up with SHB and her husband at Retro on Roscoe. Nightingale thought it was strange that I wanted to get out of the house since we had just been out the night before, but hey Summer.
We had fun at the fest even though the door "donation" was $10 and it wasn't suggested, it was expected. Nightingale tends to pay what they ask and I tend to protest. In all fairness the strong arm guy they had at this booth at this particular time didn't object when i gave him $12 for two people.
Once we cleared that hurdle, I sent SHB a text that we were there but before I could watch for a response, we got drawn in by one of the vendor booths. It was for the spa they were in front of and
They were offering massages. Nightingale and I could both use one so we jumped on the opportunity. I was thinking a quick 10 minute chair but they had two tables ready if we were willing to do 20 minutes. Easiest. Sale. Ever.
On Sunday we went for a bike ride in the morning. We went all the way to Devon so I was able to show Nightingale the entrance to the forest preserve and the path that heads up to Botanic Gardens. On the way back we stopped at The Garage and had a quick bite on the roof. Fortunately they have seating up there or it would have been weird.
Unfortunately, that is one of the few places were smoking is permitted and we happened to be next to a table of smokers. I was quickly reminded of why I loathe smokers, at least this particular variety. First, they absent-mindedly hold their smokes away from their group because why would you want the smoke to irritate other smokers when you can send it toward the non-smokers. Second, and I know they are doing this one on purpose, they take turns smoking. First one person has a smoke. Then, just as she is finishing, another person lights up. I guess they just cannot co-ordinate sucking their cancer sticks.
But hey they have the right to smoke especially if The Garage is zoned for it and all I can do is make fun of them on this blog. Aside from that, the food was yummie. The service was a tad slow because there was only one waitress on staff and they do not have a dumb waiter pulley system to bring food and drinks up from the first floor. We didn't really care except we wanted to hit the Farmer's Market at Jefferson Park before it ended and we had to get to New-DrDrea's cookout.
New-DrDrea's place has access to a great rooftop above Riverfront restaurant on Roscoe and Damen, the perfect spot for a young single thirtysomething. We hung out for a little bit but couldn't quite
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| The View from NewDrDrea's rooftop |
cross-pollinate with her friends. We were able to get a good talk with her BF and her mom, but otherwise couldn't break the wall. Even DrDrea's EX, whom I at least know and have the IT/Polish thing in common didn't stay around to chat with us.
So after putting in our time, we took our leave and went to Mariano's to get our weekly shopping out of the way. We got home and were pleased to find we still had a few hours before we had to go to bed so we prepared lunches for the week.
Friday, August 9, 2013
Saved myself $46
Like everyone else, I get these alerts from amazon based on something I bout once upon a time. Today I got this. I thought it was something I could use but the price tag seems too high.
Lo and behold! While out bike riding, I happened upon this on curb. It was apparent that they were getting rid of it and I had to make quick decision. Do I go home and get the Element and hope this is still here? Instead I grabbed it and rode home, carrying it one-handed while steering my bike with the other hand.
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| The yard is starting to get a little White Trashy |
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Knees, Double Dates and Headboards
Couple Dates have to be special to make them happen: Now and then I
get a "request" from a friend who wants to do a double date with
Nightingale and me. It's not an unusual thing in and of itself. Many
married or coupled peeps want to do things with other couples.
Especially if they've been banished from the Realm of Singles.
The weirdness comes when the request is from someone I either know only casually or barely know outside the context of some group or organization. Or even someone I've never really hung out with when I was flying solo. These things have to occur organically, you cannot force them.
**************************
A group leader without a group: I volunteered to be a CARA group leader again, this time for a half Marathon group. Alas, there is no one in my group. It seems people who run at 8:30 mm or faster do not sign up for formal training and those that do, run a tad slower. So this just gives me the option to show up or not in August when it is hot, hot, humid hot.
Of course I might not last that long. After Saturday's run my knee felt tweaky* the rest of the afternoon. I'm not sure if it was because I had only run once last week and three times in the last two weeks or if I had bothered my poor long dormant miniscus. The tweakiness* felt like it did in the years preceding my lascerated miniscus and so the mind convinces you something is up.
Update: ran on the dreadmill yesterday and my knee was fine until I was in the locker room changing and then putting weight on the knee made it hurt. The pain bothered me most of the evening and today it seems to only act up when i transition from sitting to standing.
Bonus Story: We ordered a headboard for the King bed we bought when we first moved in. I wrote a little post about getting the Queen headboard to attach to our King frame.
The weirdness comes when the request is from someone I either know only casually or barely know outside the context of some group or organization. Or even someone I've never really hung out with when I was flying solo. These things have to occur organically, you cannot force them.
**************************
A group leader without a group: I volunteered to be a CARA group leader again, this time for a half Marathon group. Alas, there is no one in my group. It seems people who run at 8:30 mm or faster do not sign up for formal training and those that do, run a tad slower. So this just gives me the option to show up or not in August when it is hot, hot, humid hot.
Of course I might not last that long. After Saturday's run my knee felt tweaky* the rest of the afternoon. I'm not sure if it was because I had only run once last week and three times in the last two weeks or if I had bothered my poor long dormant miniscus. The tweakiness* felt like it did in the years preceding my lascerated miniscus and so the mind convinces you something is up.
When
I work up Sunday, my knee felt stiff but after I walked around on it
for a bit, it kinda loosened up, Throughout the day it felt fine and I
even biked on it. 24
hours after that it seems to be its usual self, as a good as a 44 year
old knee that has been scoped can be. Having said that, I will skip
this Saturday's Long Run and be back the following Saturday for the
cutback week.
Update: ran on the dreadmill yesterday and my knee was fine until I was in the locker room changing and then putting weight on the knee made it hurt. The pain bothered me most of the evening and today it seems to only act up when i transition from sitting to standing.
*(sorry for the formal medical jargon)
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| Bonus Story below |
Bonus Story: We ordered a headboard for the King bed we bought when we first moved in. I wrote a little post about getting the Queen headboard to attach to our King frame.
Monday, July 29, 2013
My former life as a Paralegal
Every so often I think about my first post-college job as a Project Assistant at BigName Law Firm 1.0. This position was created by the paralegals because they wanted someone to offload the non-billable work they had to do so they could focus on the more substantive legal work they were given by the attorneys. There are a lot of problems with that last sentence.
The first is that the firm was so growing so large that the substantive legal work rarely trickled down to the paralegal level. Maybe it did before the Project-Assistant-Era, but it certainly didn't after that.
The second problem was that there wasn't a lot of up front training investment in PAs. Most of the non-billable work was not the repeatable, learn it once and do it every day type of stuff. There was some of that of course, but most of the things they wanted to give us required more time to explain it than to do it yourself. And if it was something you weren't going to do again for six months, it almost didn't make sense to teach a PA because they were not gonna remember it in six months and you'll have to teach it again.
The paralegals were so busy with their real work that they didn't have time to train us, and that wasn't baked into their job descriptions. Even if it was, I’m sure the threshold for catching on would be very small.
On top of that, the position didn't pay very well yet they got either fresh out of college, or still students as job candidates. In other words, you put fairly smart people into a mind numbing job with no chance of advancement and eventually entropy takes place. Now I will be the first to admit that I had the wrong attitude and outlook for a position like this. Beside my own personal issues and shortcomings, I just didn't understand how Corporate America worked.
I think I was from the future because I really liked to leverage technology to make life easier and I worked with people who feared technology because it was new and scary. Looking back, I acknowledge that I did have what would be perceived as a bad attitude. I think my intentions were good but my execution and communication were poor, which is always a bad combination.
The era of PAs being non-billable didn't last long. Someone figured that since we were billing for some of our work, why not give us a billing requirement and have us bill for all of our work. In a way this was good because it made the PA position evolve into more of a junior paralegal position. But in many other ways it was bad. Remember the substantive legal work mythical unicorn beast I mentioned. If very little trickled down from attorneys to paralegals, how much do you think trickled down to PAs?
In hindsight I wish I had been smart enough to keep my head down, use the paralegals as Attorney Shields and go to g-school a few years sooner.
The first is that the firm was so growing so large that the substantive legal work rarely trickled down to the paralegal level. Maybe it did before the Project-Assistant-Era, but it certainly didn't after that.
The second problem was that there wasn't a lot of up front training investment in PAs. Most of the non-billable work was not the repeatable, learn it once and do it every day type of stuff. There was some of that of course, but most of the things they wanted to give us required more time to explain it than to do it yourself. And if it was something you weren't going to do again for six months, it almost didn't make sense to teach a PA because they were not gonna remember it in six months and you'll have to teach it again.
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| Quite a bump from two decades ago |
The paralegals were so busy with their real work that they didn't have time to train us, and that wasn't baked into their job descriptions. Even if it was, I’m sure the threshold for catching on would be very small.
On top of that, the position didn't pay very well yet they got either fresh out of college, or still students as job candidates. In other words, you put fairly smart people into a mind numbing job with no chance of advancement and eventually entropy takes place. Now I will be the first to admit that I had the wrong attitude and outlook for a position like this. Beside my own personal issues and shortcomings, I just didn't understand how Corporate America worked.
I think I was from the future because I really liked to leverage technology to make life easier and I worked with people who feared technology because it was new and scary. Looking back, I acknowledge that I did have what would be perceived as a bad attitude. I think my intentions were good but my execution and communication were poor, which is always a bad combination.
The era of PAs being non-billable didn't last long. Someone figured that since we were billing for some of our work, why not give us a billing requirement and have us bill for all of our work. In a way this was good because it made the PA position evolve into more of a junior paralegal position. But in many other ways it was bad. Remember the substantive legal work mythical unicorn beast I mentioned. If very little trickled down from attorneys to paralegals, how much do you think trickled down to PAs?
In hindsight I wish I had been smart enough to keep my head down, use the paralegals as Attorney Shields and go to g-school a few years sooner.
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
As it should be
The other night Nightingale and I were out with some new friends. We were at PitchFork, the restaurant, not the festival, and we accumulated a decent tab. Silent-Eric only had a sandwich and one, maybe two drinks. He put in a twenty which was sufficient to cover his part of the bill.
The rest of us agreed to split the rest of the bill evenly. Somehow I was out in charge of figuring all this out and I had no shame in using my iPhone calculator. I basically took our bill, multiplied by 1.2, subtracted silent Eddie $20, and divided that by 6. Yes, I know that the tip should be on the pretax amount but I figured we out our waitress through a little more work than her average table.
It basically came out to $40 a person (38 really) and everyone peeled off two yuppie food stamps and seemed okay with that. Since we didn't have much cash, I did the Polish ATM Thing and charge everything to my credit card. Keeping the cash for ourselves.
Whenever possible I prefer to go with this method (unless I'm the one who only had a sandwich and one drink) because it's easier. I work on the theory that over the course of a lifetime, there will be times when I'm paying a little too much and there will be times when I'm paying too little and it will all balance out. There were probably a few times in my poorer past when I put in less than I probably should have and I'm not proud of that.
Whenever possible I prefer to go with this method (unless I'm the one who only had a sandwich and one drink) because it's easier. I work on the theory that over the course of a lifetime, there will be times when I'm paying a little too much and there will be times when I'm paying too little and it will all balance out. There were probably a few times in my poorer past when I put in less than I probably should have and I'm not proud of that.
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