Checking in post

Not much content here these days from me.  It's a combination of relatively unrelated events that share the common denonminator of me.  I have the attention span of a litter of concussed kittens these days.  This blogs identity keeps changing and thats my fault. At first is was just an online journal to record my thoughts on life.  Then I decided to try and increase readership, which is hard because you have to be funny and/or interesting 100% of the time.  Half the time I don't give a sh*t so why should anyone else?   I've also spent a lot more time and energy working on the ChicagoNow blog.  I get more hits there on a bad day then I do here in a month.  Of course that comes with it's own drama, see below.

We went to Vegas to celebrate our 2nd anniversary.  That is to say, Nightingale had a work conference so we were able to piggyback a mini vacation on it.  On the plus side we got to see Hoover Dam and got to see Jersey Boys for free. On the down side, we didn't plan the trip well and spent a lot of money at a time when we really shouldn't be spending money.

Nightingale's condo has been unrented since Sept.  We finally got a renter as of last Wednesday in fact. 

This year we both had issues with our condo renters.  My first renter was a PITA who pissed my neighbors off and left the place a mess.  Now I have a lady who is quiet but high maintenance.  My downstairs neighbor who ironically bought his unit (a foreclosure) the year I tried to sell my condo, sold his this summer for about what I currently owe today.  My hope is that I can sell it next year for what I owe plus transaction costs and simply get it off the books.  My little corner of Albany Park/Irving Park is improving but it will be a long time before it is Lincoln Square West and I don't have the patience to wait it out.

For Nightingale's condo, since we are still underwater on it, we need to rent it for another year or two.  The South Loop is improving every day.  They just got a Mariano's and more and more stores are opening in that mall structure on Roosevelt.  If DePaul builds its stadium next to McCormack Center, I think that will be the final piece that solidifies the no-man zone between Chinatown and the South Loop.  That won't happen if we don't sell it, but if we do sell it, I'm sure we will one day look back and say "damn we should have held onto that South Loop Condo!"


Chicago Now:   As I've mentioned, I'm blogging on Chicago Now.  Recently I wrote something about the Bartman event and it not only generated the most pageviews I've ever gotten (placed 3rd for that day in all of CN content) but I actually got comments.  And by comments I mean nitpicky trolls.   It's my fault for mis-using a common phrase that I copied and pasted from somewhere without checking the correct spelling, and also for having one of my factoids incorrect.  Neither were germane to the story but based on the comments, you'd think that would invalidate the entire post.  Oh and I also have to explain what germane means to those commentors.


Future of this blog   I still intend to post here from time to time.  If you like enjoy any of the content here I suggest you use the email subscribe above so you don't have to keep coming back to check for new content.   I suppose the RSS feeds are an option too even though Google Reader has gone away.  If you can, google connect will make it look like I have an audience or at least engage me in the comments.