Mysteries of Life

It's hard to pimp out a blog

2012-02-01T18:30:00.000-06:00

So last week I played around with expanding my readership. First I created a post that was sure to interest the Chatterati on Crib Chatter. And it did increase the page hit count. I even got a few of them to click through the ads to help the car buying fund. Unfortunately, I don't think that trick will work too often and it can be exhausting writing something that draw that crowd in. Twitter

Losing the Battle but Winning the War

2012-01-31T06:08:00.000-06:00

My kind of Luck: so I'm walking to the bus stop one morning and decide to make a phone call. The street is desserted except for one guy about two blocks away pushing a snow blower. I dial the number and switch the phone to my gloved hand while trying to get the other glove back on my dialing hand. There is no answer but I get a voice mail greeting. A long voice mail greeting. The greeting finally

Here Thar be Dragons

2012-01-27T05:41:00.000-06:00

Outside the Green Zone thar are lots of Dragons! When I worked at the No-Name Software company, one of my coworkers really truly believed that the city limits were only downtown and that anywhere else had to be the suburbs. He honestly believed once you left the Loop, you were no longer in "The City". Many of my friends who grew up in the suburbs and other transplants who have relocated to

Stag Guests may get short end of Wedding Invite

2012-01-26T07:30:00.000-06:00

One of more stressful points of wedding planning is the wedding invitation. Unlike the STD, these have to be a bit more formal. To be sure, your marriage is not going to last one minute longer if your invitations are addressed as: Mr. and Mrs. Charles and Lorne Johnson 1234 Jackson Street Nowhere, IL 60119 or Mr. & Mrs. Charles Johnson 1234 Jackson St Nowhere, IL 60119 The biggest risk is

I still speak Single, but I'm learning the Language of Couples

2012-01-24T07:30:00.000-06:00

The plot relies on a lot of impossible coincidences There's an old Star Trek episode (Mirror, Mirror) where a problem with the transporter puts some of the crew in a parallel world. In this parallel world the Federation was run by barbarians. Never mind that it was an impossible coincidence that the same set of enterprise crew would be beaming up from the same planet at the same time --

Because Protocol demanded it!

2012-01-22T20:26:00.000-06:00

The other night Nightingale and I were at a dinner party with two other couples. Rosa had brought a bottle of vodka as a gift because she is not a big fan of wine. At least twice the host and hostess asked if they should open the bottle and Rosa politely refused. As Nightingale and Rosa work together, I later learned that Rosa had desperately wanted a vodka drink -- since we were all

Car repairs and the Housing Blues

2012-01-16T10:45:00.000-06:00

My wife and I plan to look for and hopefully purchase a house this year. Although we are looking now, current inventory is lacking and we feel the week following SuperBowl Sunday, which traditionally kicks off the Spring Real Estate Season, will yield more desirable inventory. With the market being what it is, we are determined to find a house that we can easily live in for at least a decade

That's Armoire -ay

2012-01-15T12:32:00.000-06:00

Entertainment Armoire A long time ago, I bought this armoire from a gay couple who lived near Loyola University. I mention this to shatter stereotypes; these guys were not only slobs, but they let a fine piece of furniture like this get scratched. The door has a key which when opened, rubs against the side. Somehow over the years, this had carved a small line across the side panel.

The Quintessential Definition of a Chick

2012-01-13T07:52:00.000-06:00

So I have this neighbor friend whom I've known casually for years. She and I run into each other from time to time and recently, we discovered we could help each other with a mutually beneficial financial transaction. Get thee mind out of the gutter --Nothing like that. She has a parking spot that we could rent, albeit only until she finds a renter who in all likelihood will require that parking

Is that how they do it on your Planet?

2012-01-11T09:16:00.000-06:00

So the following email arrived in my inbox the other morning: Hey Icarus, you haven't responded to any of my invitations lately. Let me know if you want me to stop sending them to you. When you don't reply, it gives me the impression that you don't see any value in my invitations, and it that's true, then I'd rather save you the time and me the effort and just not include you on the

Let me know if you have any questions...

2012-01-09T06:39:00.000-06:00

As a byproduct of following the real estate market since 2008, I know a lot of realtors. Some I know through friends and other social outlets. Some i met at open houses and they latch on to me. Often, I get an email from one like this one: Dear Mr. and Mrs. Icarus: I saw your note in Crib Chatter that you're thinking of finding something in the near-northwest suburbs. Like one of these?

The Balancing Act between Darkness and Light

2011-12-22T16:16:00.000-06:00

Today is the December Solstice, a.k.a. the official beginning of Winter. The earth tilts 23.5 degrees and all sorts of shenanigans are set in motion at speeds never before imagined. Since ancient times many cultures and civilizations – is there a difference? – celebrated this time of year. They welcomed the ‘return of the Sun’ because today is the the day with the shortest amount of daylight in

Buffet that was once a Desk that was once a Buffet

2011-12-14T11:59:00.000-06:00

Thanks to an overwhelming amount of generosity, we have received a lot of item from our registry. This also means we have quickly run out of room to store things in our cramped condo. Nightingale suggested we could use a buffet for our dining room. As it would happen, my mom has two buffets she is not using. The first is an Old World antique looking buffet. As I love more traditional looking

Cut Throat Island

2011-11-10T10:53:00.000-06:00

So Thursday came and it was to be our Big Day of Fun. We had scheduled parasailing in the morning, a half day sail and snorkel tour in the afternoon, and a couples massage in the early evening. One of the contradictions of being on vacation is the tug of war between structure and unstructured. You're supposed to be on your honeymoon without a care in the world. At the same time, you want to

Hotel Amenities and wrist band blues

2011-10-31T16:21:00.000-05:00

Even though it was a long day of flying, my lovely bride -who shall heretofore be known as Nightingale -- arranged our flight times so that we would arrive at the resort in time to actually make some use of it. We arrived late afternoon which gave us enough time to get a late lunch, take a swim in the pool and enjoy many a tropical drink. Our only other option would be to arrive so late that

Learning Curve and Long Day of Travel

2011-10-27T07:00:00.000-05:00

Well it's official: The months, weeks and days have dwindled down and now Icarus is married! My blogging was rather infrequent to begin with and now because of some events over the last year, or so, I've become even more inconsistent. Because Mrs. Icarus had schedule issues with work and school, our original plan was to take a minimoon after our wedding followed by a longer honeymoon next

Screens do more than just keep out the sun

2011-10-01T10:48:00.000-05:00

Even though I'm getting married today, I thought I'd take a quick break to post an update since I have some time to kill. One of the projects I had to work on this summer at my mom's crapshack was to build some custom screens for her basement windows. Cedar 1x2 So with some of these (left) and one of these (below): Miter Saw These screens

Looking Busy

2011-08-28T12:50:00.000-05:00

A long time ago in a law firm far, far away, I was a Litigation Paralegal. Many of my fellow paralegals would talk about how busy they were. They would eat lunch at their desk and always have some papers with them. They may have been creating a deposition abstract or proof-reading an index of a document production. They would work on these on their Metra train rides home. This was in the

We're All a Little Screwed Up

2011-08-24T01:05:00.000-05:00

What I learned this summer: A couple months ago I got one of those calls you hear about and hope you never personally get. A friend was dead and the circumstances were not known. A few hours later it was learned, or shared, that Craig took a bunch of sleeping pills and washed them down with vodka, one of the hard liquors he wasn't very fond of. Sometime this year, I also learned that a friend

I know this much about weddings

2011-08-13T10:31:00.000-05:00

The Wedding is one day, the Marriage is, hopefully, forever. This is the mantra that gets many a bride and groom through the planning stages of a wedding. The Wedding Report, an industry publication, reports that the average wedding costs $29,000 in the U.S: http://www.theweddingreport.com/bz/index.php/weddings-and-average-wedding-cost-1945-to-2010/ Here's what I've learned about planning a

Bathroom Shelf - Part Two

2011-07-18T20:36:00.000-05:00

In Part One, I talked about how I sanded and stained the wood portion of this shelf. Then I made it sound like I went right out and bought a can of spray paint. The truth is, I did this project over a week's time,doing a little bit here and a little bit there. For instance, I sanded the shelf with the belt sander and then removed a layer of sawdust with Mineral Spirits, then went out to run

Bathroom Shelf - Part One

2011-07-18T19:46:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago, we picked up this shelf at a yard sale. I neglected to snap a before picture but essentially the wood shelf was attached to a metal frame. The frame had some rust and the shelf certainly needed sanding, but otherwise it was a solid piece. The metal rack had some hooks which made me think it would be a nice addition to our storage challenged bathroom. I figured we could hang wet

Jumping through hoops

2011-07-13T09:47:00.000-05:00

A guy and a girl can have sex and end up getting pregnant. Assuming they opt to keep the child, no one disputes that they are going to conceive another life form. However, if they participate in some style of wedding ritual, there is a chance they could go through the entire process and ceremony, only to have someone say the whole thing is invalid. Someone might come along and say "well your

Marathon Training and Wedding Planning

2011-06-17T10:45:00.000-05:00

I am not spending my summer training for a marathon. It's not the first time I've taken a summer off, but this is certainly a rarity for me. Instead I'm using the time to pursue some long shelved hobbies, oh and plan a wedding. At first glance, weddings and marathons have little to do with each other. One is a 26.2 mile race and the other is a celebration that launches (hopefully) a lifetime

Save The Dates are transmitted

2011-04-21T17:12:00.000-05:00

So this week's wedding related project is getting our Save-The-Date (STD) information out the door. Since you have to pay your financially responsible for every guest that shows up, giving them a six month head start not to make other plans seems kinda self defeating. But protocol demands it. Wedding invitations and the accompaning STDs are the last vestigates of snail mail. If it were up to me,