Sunday, October 9, 2011

Insults

The people didn't accept my offer on the house.  That is in no way a bad thing though.  I had intentionally low balled them.  The only problem is that I went so low that I insulted them and they didn't come back with a counter offer.  I feel like it is such a buyer's market right now though that they should have at least come back with an offer.  Meh, there's a bunch of homes in that area with similar, if not the same, layouts.  In fact, my plan was that if I couldn't get this home I would go for a short sell home across the street.  I would have gone for the short sale first except it take about 3-6 months to finally close on a short sale.  Stupid banks.

I made the trip out to Evanston yesterday with a couple of my buddies.  We met Andre there and "tailgated" in the parking garage we were at before the Michigan/Northwestern game.  We weren't exactly being social butterflies but we were having a good time.  Evanston (I was born in a hospital there) was a lot different than what I would have expected.  I knew it was relatively close to Chicago, so I could expect a strong bar scene.  This turned out not to be the case.  That apparently have 3 bars there, 2 of which we went to.  The first one, Bar Louie, you all know is actually a chain.  It was closed to the public that day with a $35 cover charge for 2 hours of unlimited drinks.  We opted out of that but we had to stop by there to pick up our tickets.  The other bar was called Delvin's (?) and it really wasn't anything special, they some outdoor seating I guess...So it was basically similar to my experience at U of I where I just kind of compared everything to AA and probably prematurely passed judgement on a lot of the campus life.  Next place I visit I need to make sure I have a tour guide that knows the area.  I imagine that if I never had been to AA and went to a football game I would probably end up at Packard Pub or something, not a true reflection of what we really have to offer.  Side note, did any of you read the article that everyone on FB was posting about 36 hours in AA?  I can't believe the writer said to avoid South U and State St, I mean, we're Alums and we still go there, haha.  So the game was cool, we got to meet and talk with David Terrell (former #1 Michigan jersey wearer and mediocre Bears receiver).  Here's the picture Moran and I got with him (check out the new kind of Mich colored Oakley's by the way):



So I am sensing that some of us are getting the itch to reunite or something, I can count 3 events that some of us have thought of:

1. Late October - Stev has hinted that he will be coming through to AA and Chicago.
2. Late November - Sweeney was thinking of having a reunion for the Mich/OSU game.
3. New Year's Eve - I think we should do NYE in Chicago.

Now, 2 of those occur in Chicago, at least partially, and I am probably down for driving out for the OSU weekend.  So I will go ahead and say that I am in for all 3 (don't hold me to it though).  However, I do propose that perhaps we consolidate and go for maybe just one event that all of us can do.  Example, Stev in Chicago will probably just be Stev and me.  OSU weekend might just be Cassie, Mike O, Sweeney and I (I can imagine Stev might not be too keen on spending all that time travelling to AA after having roadtripped there a month ago). NYE, weather pending, could have promise, but if there snow it might make the commute out from AA a little difficult.  I'm just laying these thoughts out here now as I type and I think it would be great if we could all make all 3 events, but that would be extremely unlikely.  I will let you guys think about it and please feel free to comment on what you think, as long as these reunions occur on weekends or major holidays (days where I will probably not have work, extended weekends would be best) I am down for anything.

Last thought, today I went to my company's new building where I helped strip carpet.  The previous owners of the building used the wrong glue (ceramic instead of carpet glue) so it was extremely difficult to remove.  I did have to laugh at the fact that the machine we used to remove the carpet was called "The Stripper" and when powered on, it vibrated incredibly fast and you really needed to lay into it with your hips to keep it under control and make it effective.  Should have taken a picture...next time.

Here's to a Bear's win tomorrow night,

Chin

Sunday, October 2, 2011

High Ball or Sling

A Manhattan Cocktail is either a High Ball or a Sling if it does not contain bitters.  It's kind of funny how with drinks, there's a new name for it if one thing is changed, left out or added.  When you order an Italian sub with no tomatoes, it's still an Italian.  Imagine if you had to come up with a new name for that.  Thoughts of a software engineer, alright!

This weekend was pretty good, I can't say I went to any predominantly Asian parties, I can't say I would ever have an interest in that, save for family reunions.  I also can't say that I went to McDonald's while hungover and ordered a McChicken while watching daytime programming.

Nope, this weekend was very very low key.  A great change of pace for all of you who have been thinking about doing it.  Friday I just went to Muldoon's and hung out with some of my buddies, my friend John Ryan was in town for a little.  Now, John is a good friend of Ebbert's, or as Stev would call him, Evert's.  When I got into that fight with Ebbert in Milwaukee (did I write about that?), John had Ebbert's back and it left me wondering if I still enjoyed hanging out with John.  Well, as it is, time heals all wounds and John and I were able to still have a good time.  Then last night was Muldoon's again, but I'll spare you any of the details, nothing too interesting there.  Oh actually one thing.  A bunch of my buddies and I were drinking in my basement with Ron and Maya's new dog, "Yoda".  I completely abhor the name.  In fact, his name before they adopted him was "Bo".  Yes, as in Schembechler.  I wanted to keep that name but they changed it.  Anyways, we were hanging with the dog and we were all calling him Bo and I think he was loving it.  We also were letting him jump on the furniture, something Ron doesn't want him to do.  So Bo is going to be pretty confused as long as I'm still living at home.  He won't know his name or right from wrong, demn!



I got a wedding invite in the mail the other day.  It was for Nicole's wedding.  Nicole is that Taylor girl who I really liked in the past.  I always told Drabik that I was not going to go to the wedding, but when I got that invite I couldn't help but think that I actually do want to go.  The problem is, I would not be going to be happy for her, on the surface I would appear that way, but I would be going to critique everything about her fiance.  So before I could get the chance to second guess myself, I marked "No" on the RSVP.  Now, I don't have to buy a wedding gift either, and a penny saved is a penny earned.

Speaking of saving, I'm thinking I'm going to make an offer on my first home this week.  I found some nice town homes in Bartlett.  They will be very close to where my company is moving and they are extremely affordable right now.  Basically, the place is a 2 story, 2 bedroom, and 2.5 bathroom unit.  There's a big loft that could fit a third person, too.  I have a few friends who seem interested in moving in, but I made sure that I can afford this place on my own too.  So big week for me on that front!

For another thought, I was wondering the other day, which of the following is better?  First, here's the scenario:  You hang out with some girl for a night, be it with a group of friends or one on one.  You end up exchanging numbers because you see interest in this girl, sober or drunk.  She sends the follow up text in the following days but you find that your attraction to them has faded and it was really just a one night kind of thing.  So here's the options. a) Do you respond to the texts but continue with excuses as to why you can't hang out again? Or, b) do you ignore the texts completely and wait out the storm?  I ask this because I have had a girl do 'b' to me and I was pretty pissed off about it.  Granted, she did respond, but usually it was days later.  However, I have come to agree and think that 'b' is the better choice.  I mean, with my case, it took me about two texts until I realized that it wasn't going anywhere.  In my most recent case, I was the other member of the party, I was the one that they were interested in.  I actually took the 'a' approach, thinking "well, it'd be mean if I just ignored her".  So I responded with excuse after excuse.  Eventually, I did just stop and I think it probably pissed her off more than it would have if I just ignored her in the first place.  Hopefully I don't find myself in situations like these anymore though because I'm really wanting to not even have to think about things like this.

Here's to them accepting my offer,

Chin