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