TheProtagonist5

Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova

2009-12-04T07:51:53Z

Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova
Originally uploaded by Yateski

Video of the Swell Season concert in Chicago at the Auditorium Theater last night. Click through to Flickr for more details. An amazing concert all around. They are stellar singers, musicians, writers and performers. And they seem like cool people too.

"Objectified" - Jonathan Ive talks about Mac design & Unibody MacBook manufacture

2009-11-08T22:07:53Z

Interesting clip from an industrial design documentary where they talk to Apple about their designs.

Log Book Entry

2009-11-06T15:52:54Z

Since this is the longest running blog/log I have I thought I should post an update of what is happening as of late.

It's november already? October flew by fast and so did Halloween. We didn't do the costume thing this year as we were too busy working. Steve has had a lot of work to do (that only he can do) for clients despite the market being so slow and his pay cut for himself and his employees due to the costs of the business. I have had more to do since we lost 2 analysts here and I now have 13 clients. That is an average of 2 days I can spend with each client and most take 3-4 days to complete a report and present it. We both have been working weekends and the work around the house has come to a standstill.

The bathroom is not finished, it hasn't been worked on in about a month due to our day jobs taking over our lives. We did talk with someone who wanted to quote the cabinet refacing job but they wanted $12,000. (Quality kitchens from Geneva, IL ) Um, no. Its a small kitchen, a bathroom cabinet and a small wet bar. The doors, laminate and granite don't cost that much. We have to go back to HomeDepot's service and see if they can do a detailed quote and get the project done right for less money. They originally quoted $6,000 but it did not include the upstairs wet bar or bathroom. I'd like to do this soon but I am not sure we will find someone both competent and affordable. We can't do it ourselves, it would take 3 years.

I also found out I have a thyroid nodule. It is 1.2 CM wide and sits under my thyroid on the esopagus on the right side. I have seen a regular Dr, an endocrineologist and now have to go to a surgeon and have it removed. (all the thyroid blood tests were normal) There is a biopsy they do to try and see if it is cancer, but after 3 tries, nothing was able to be extracted, just fluid, no cells to analyze. This could be good or bad. One of the 4 types of thyroid cancer is not detectable with the FNA biopsy and I may have that. Who knows how far it has spread too, since the first doctor to say that my thyroid looked big was back in 2006. I could have cancer everywhere by now, who knows. I see the surgeon on Nov 25th to plan out when to remove the tumor.

The holidays are approaching fast and although I would like a happy time with the family I am not so much into the gifts this year. With the wedding we have more stuff than we could possibly need and our family/parents are pretty happy too. Maybe this year is a no-gift year? It would save a ton of time too.

I am trying to learn to cook, but all the results have been me getting fatter thus far. I eat more when I cook, which sux. Steve is the easiest to please ever with food, as long as it doesn't involve a tomato you can put it in front of him and he will eat it. I need to find more low fat recipies too since my cholesterol is still sky high and blood pressure also. It is startling to see how much fat is in all meats, even fish like salmon and other common pre-made foods. About the only thing that is low fat that I like so far is instant oatmeal.

Cyberpolice Eyes Blinking Page

2009-10-06T16:18:03Z

Cyberpolice Eyes Blinking Page
Originally uploaded by Yateski

How cultures clash in the business world. I hope I don't annoy thecyber police by viewing Chinese web pages from the US. they are watching, Yikes!

autumn's early adopters

2009-09-24T14:14:40Z

autumn's early adopters
Originally uploaded by slight clutter

Happy Fall. The sugar maples are turning orange a few weeks early in Chicago right now due to the early cold weather. I am enjoying the color yet not looking forward to my daily commute this winter.

Slowest Bathroom Remodel Ever

2009-09-23T16:37:19Z

We have been trying to attempt to remodel our downstairs powder bathroom over the last month. It is going very slowly and may eventually end up being the slowest remodel on record ever. I don't know how these remodel shows do these things in a few days.

Week 1 - We took down the wallpaper with water, it came off reasonably well. We had to remove the toilet to get behind there to remove that portion.

Week 2 - We removed the wallpaper glue. This involved a lot of scubbing.

Week 3 - We removed the old vanity cabinet, sink and faucet combo and bought the counter top, a faucet and some paint. We also spackled some nail holes.

Week 4 - We hope to paint the walls a mocha color in one or two coats this weekend

Week 5 - We might actually install the new vanity cabinet

Week 6 - Maybe install the plumbing, faucet and put the toilet back in the bathroom

Week 7 - Maybe hang the accessories like the toilet bowl holder and the towel bar

Part of the problem is that we have no idea what we are doing. We took like an hour to figure out what kinds of paint there are and that we wanted satin finish on the woodwork and eggshell for the walls and we wanted the primer in the paint. It took us at least an hour to match the paint swatches in beige with the counter top and wood color also. The faucet was easier, we just looked at the demo photo for the vanity and got one that was bronze like that.

Another problem is during the week we get home somewhere between 8 and 9 pm and by the time we eat dinner its 10. If we get home any earlier Steve has a required TV time of at least an hour. Then he manages his fantasy football team online for at least another hour. Why he can't just take the Yahoo ratings and do what they suggest I have no idea. And I am not really able to do most of this myself because I am not very mechanically inclined. So the only day we can do anything is Saturday. (Sunday I have to go to my parents to visit so that creates issues too)

Maybe I will do the painting this weekend just to get it done. Plus, Steve is a bit of a perfectionist so he is very slow. It took him like 3 hours to remove the cabinet. Its a bit nauseating but at least its getting done slowly. We can't seem to get much more done on weekends either. A max of about 4-5 hours a week is all we have to spend on this so it will continue to go slow.

I suppose the good news is that for the cabinet, mirror, faucet, paint and counter top it will be just under $1,000 to remodel the bathroom. We are keeping the plain white toilet and the oak flooring and may re-use the light fixture if I can spray paint it bronze. My parents just remodeled their 2 bathrooms with new tile floors, vanities, faucets, mirrors and light fixtures. Their's cost about $4,000 each because they hired someone to do it. They kept the original aqua blue tub, toilet and tile in the shower. They also re-usd the aqua sink. ( It may look kitchy to some, but we like our aqua tile. ) So I feel like Steve and I are at least doing this for less money since we just really want to sell the place.

I can't wait until we start remodeling the kitchen and the other bathroom! At this rate we will be remodeling well into the spring.

Is it me, or is everyone really stressed out right now?

2009-09-10T18:05:46Z

I thought I was going crazy for the last few weeks with more going on than I could keep up with at work and home but now I am noticing a lot of other people around me are saying the same thing. I think it is a combination of the economy, the jobs we're all in at the moment and the amount of things we're all expected to do and yet have expectations for ourselves to handle as well.

On top of it all I still have health problems. Not the oh no its dire kind, but annoying ones that just linger around and complicate your day, schedule and life with a lot of doctor visits tests and changes to your routine:

The HPV is back, LGSIL again on the last test, new doc in Wheaton now, yet same results and opinion that I need a huge amount of vitamins each day. Blech.

I have high bloodpressure and high cholesterol (243) at the age of 33. Mostly because of my sedentary job (sitting by a computer all day and sitting commuting by train/bus) and my sedentary lifestyle (being gone for work from 7 am to 7 pm and then trying to finish things yet from wedding thank yous or a badly neglected blog, not to mention 1,000's of RSS feed items) plus my living with Steve meant I didn't have the luxury of eating what I want anymore and I tried to adapt to his food/eating style and its all man food. (pizza, burgers, steaks, bratwurst eaten in frot of the TV) So, I have to revamp things, go grocery shopping alone and make different food than Steve eats. Oh yea, I also can't go back to swing dance for exercise because of the schedule conflict grrr.

I also have a thyroid they don't like. I had 3 doctors tell me my thyroid looked like it might have an issue before one actualy ordered tests. The blood test came back negative. They did an ultrasound yesterday, we will see what that says next.

I also have rosacea taking over my face. That is what led to the doctor visit that discovered the BP, Cholesterol and Thyroid. I really just want to be normal again and not have to worry about how bad this is going to look every day. The cream they have me on heals the rosacea well but doesn't prevent it from happening again and I have no clue why this is happening or what the stimulus is. Rosacea is defined as "adult acne" which is really weird because I have never had acne, not even in high school or college.

So all that added to my allergies still being a mess and I'm not a happy camper trying to run around and get everything done when I don't know what the status of my health is.

And we decided not to buy a house, so I am sad about that too. I really wanted a chance to get a place we both liked and could have family/friends over in. Steve had the opportunity to buy a profitable part of a business from a company going out of business and he did it. So, there goes some chunks of the house down payment in favor of longevity for the company.

Instead we are starting to dip our cautious toes in the water of remodeling the townhouse. We removed the wallpaper in the bathroom on Monday. We have to replace the cabinet and mirror and repaint. Luckilly its just a few things in the bathroom that need replacing from some old water damage and not everything. Next is the upstairs bathroom and finally we will have to do the kitchen. All more stress yet when its done we will probably be happier at home with stuf/a layout we actually chose ourselves.

If I seem like I am taking my new marriage for granted, I'm not. Steve is great and he puts up with all of this pretty well. I think he and I are great together it's just the rest of my life that is a shambles right now. I promise I am not whining about him in any way.

So, what's new with everyone out there?

2008 Did You Know 3.0 Statistics

2009-08-28T02:36:18Z

This is a cool infographic video about population statistics, technology and the internet. Its a few months out of date but the information is still presented well and has some interesting facts.

VMAs 2009 Katy Perry Taylor Swift Cobra Starship Ne-Yo & Russell Brand Full-Length Side Story Video

2009-08-25T20:20:51Z

An interesting omage to West Side Story for MTV VMA Awards in New York City. Clever and contemporary yet still somewhat captures the vintage feel. I am not sure who all the people are in this video commerical but it's fun.

Budweiser: Lyrics (The Beatles) Commercial Chicago EL

2009-08-25T17:08:40Z

This is an ad I haven't seen on TV for Budweiser but apparently was filmed using the chicago EL system. I See several brown line and green line views as well as the loop itself. Very creative.

Before & After: Purple Wedding Bouquets

2009-08-20T17:19:14Z

Before & After: Purple Wedding Bouquets
Originally uploaded by Yateski

Just getting to looking at some of the wedding photos now a month and a half later. This is how the bouquet of flowers turned out. The one on the left is what we copied. The one on the right was how mine actually turned out.

Weekly Update

2009-08-17T15:57:12Z

It seems that the weeks are passing faster now that we have passed a month of being married. Things are less about congrats and thank you notes and more about keeping up with cleaning the litterbox and the demands of work. Luckilly we get to the point where we're both so exhausted that we don't even mind sleeping next to someone who wheezes with allergies at night.

We had a bunch of scares with the cats latley and everything seems to be fine but it's never fun. First Zeus was walking on 3 legs. Not a good start to a Sunday. Steve's mom thought it was likley a common sprain so we waited to see if it got better and confined him to the bedroom to lessen the chance of him jumping on it. In 2 days it got a lot worse. By the time we managed to get him to the vet Tuesday evening he somehow cut his paw also and it was bleeding in the carrier. When we got to the vet he was not letting the vet touch it to see it and they couldn't give him anything to make him sedated because it was so late in the day and he couldn't stay overnight. So they put a muzzle on him that covered his eyes and then tried to trim the fur on the paw. That didn't go well. Luckilly after all that trauma he got an antibiotic shot that lasts 10 days instead of having to be fed medicine 2x per day for 10 days, of which cats always hate. The thing was, we could find a cut on his paw and it was evry swolen but we couldn't see if anything was in the cut causing it and the vet things he got this from a fight with the other cats. (that have no claws and are half his size?) So we never did figure things out. But we thought that the health issues was over when he was noticeable better the next day and improved back to normal within the next 3 but we were wrong.

The next thing that came up was that Zeus was sneezing. Its an odd sound to hear a cat sneeze. On Zeus it is a high pitched sound that could only come from some kind of child's toy not a cat. We started hearing it about the time the paw issue came up but it got worse every day after that. Again we were told to wait by the vet because the antibiotic was supposed to help him get better and could address many different things at once. He didn't get better, he seemed to get worse to the point on Saturday that he wasn't eating or doing much of anything. On Monday I took him back to the vet again with his runny eye and compulsive licking and cleaning his face so that he was clean even though he was a pretty sneezy-slimy cat at that point. The vet looked at him and noted that his fever was down to 102 from 104 the last time he was in and the snot was clear not yellow or green. That combined with the one eye running determined that he thought Zeus had a common upper respratory infection from cat herpes. I was floored, how is that even possible? Apparently its common in shelter cats, not really like the human form and brought on by stress. The paw was the stress and he lived in a shelter for 6 months before I adopted him so there was the way he probably got it. Or by us bringing it home on our clothing from one of the Yates foster cats (Lincoln) that was sneezing and had a runny evey about a month ago. Ether way, he got his lyzene amino acid treats and we went about our daily routine.

Zeus is better now even though he does favor his right paw over the left and he is back to stalking cinnamon every chance he gets.

Pogo on the other hand had to get his teeth cleaned and they found that he has lost over 1 lb since December. We had them do a senior cat blood screen and everything came back normal. So we are trying to get him to eat kitten food to see if that adds some weight because it is a richer food. We don't know why he would be loosing weight, so this is another mystery left unanswered.

I love having the cats around, they are so entertaining and affectionate but the health problems can get expensive and take a full time job to figure out what is going on and how to get them to the vet to treat it. I am usually gone from 7 amd to 7 pm so it usually takes me getting a day off when a client isn't needing something urgently and taking him in. Steve always just thinks they're fine and doesn't think they need to go in to the vet. I hope he isn't that way when the hypothetical kids are sneezing and have a fever of 102. Anyway it's been a learning experience.

This weekend we decided to loaf around because Steve was in a crappy mood because he had to lay off an employee due to their business being really low for the year. This is the peril of being a business owner. So we just tried to go to Carmen & Sam's birthday picnic BBQ thing at the forest preserve (I had never done this before) and it rained most of the time. We came late so we missed the first 2 rain bursts but we got the third one. I thought I was going to get soaked as I saw the tent/awning thing fly up off its scafolding in the wind. After that in the next lull in rain we spent the rest of the storm in the car. What was weird was that about 1/2 the people bailed and went home and about half stayed, soaking wet because they had planned on spending the day there. Needless to say Steve stayed. I left and Simon drove him home at 8 pm. It was an exausting and soaking wet day.

Simon's Cat 'Fly Guy' Video New

2009-08-14T14:49:08Z

Another funny cat video from the guy that brought us the "how my cat wakes me up in the morning" cartoon. Very funny as usual and also true. cats are such funny animals.

James May rides in a U2 spy plane

2009-08-07T20:45:42Z

This is a great video to see if you appreciate aviation or space travel. from one of James May's shows in the UK.

Jeremy Clarkson Beatbox - Swede Mason

2009-08-03T22:24:52Z

Oh yes, someone with a lot of video and sound editing equipment has made a techno song out of Jeremy Clarkson's commentary noises. Very entertaining since he is so animated. Its also nice to see the Vauxall Minaro (Pontiac GTO) in the powerslide-powerslide-powerslide-powerslide bit. Its catchy, you can get it stuck in your head if you listen to it 2-3 times.

Worldwide AIR TRAFFIC 24 hour Time span

2009-07-31T17:09:41Z

This was pretty cool. I am always interested in data visualizations and this one is neater than most. The music is slightly annoying, but you get the point.

One More Thing

2009-07-30T17:24:45Z

The only weird part of being married so far has been the slight differences in how we spend money. Steve is all about big houses and quality cookware but he is also about 12 dollar haircuts and wearing 1993 jeans. I did go with him to the place where he gets his haircut because I was desperate for one and did not have time to drive all the way out to Mario Tricoci for an appointment anytime soon. It cost all of $16 plus $2 tip.

So, I somewhat fear becoming the stereotypical frumpy suburban woman who shops sales at Kohls and gets $16 haircuts at former Fantastic Sams salons. Which is kinda scary for someone who decided that appearances matter in Agency work and has tried to maintain a level of style (not high style by any means though) that looks "ok" in those settings. I worry that with a big house payment I won't be able to afford quality stuff anymore and we will be "house poor" like they say. But then again, we drive 11 and 8 yr old cars, we brown bag our lunches and do a lot of other cost savings things, so maybe shopping at Kohls and getting $16 haircuts is more our style than Banana Republic anyway. Maybe we're more SmartMoney Magazine than Martha Stewart Living? At least we know where our means are, so we stay beneath them and we'll probably buy a smaller house too.

Almost a month Married!

2009-07-30T16:55:42Z

I know I run the risk of alienating a lot of people if I only blog about my wedding and being married, but its kind of what's happening in my life right now. It has been a busy 3 weeks since the wedding. The initial shock of having to open all the cards, the gifts and then open some joint bank accounts to deposit things in 3 days before going back to work was fast. Since then we have gotten more into a normal schedule not having to stay up till 2 am every night making sure people's names are spelled correctly on place cards and seating charts and making sure all the wedding vendor bills are paid.

We now stay up late trying to figure out what our finances will look like in a year or more and if we can afford to buy a house and get settled somewhere. We're a bit full in Steve's 2 br townhouse, and all my furniture is in his parent's basement, which we would like to get out of there as soon as we can. The bottom line is we can afford to buy some kind of house, but not quite what we would like. It is actually possible on 2 incomes, but on 1 income if we decide to have a kid or 2, my income goes down to 1/2 or less and all of that money goes back into child care when I would be working. So, its really a game of planning on one income. And we aren't rolling in it by any means since we both make a little more than the national average, and almost the same amount.

You would think buying a house at a discount would be easy right now, with all the home sales stagnant for the last year. And we could have gotten a deal if we would have been ready to buy a few months ago but now things are selling fast. The homes with the re-done kitchens and bathrooms are no longer sitting on the market and dropping their prices. 4 of the 9 houses I have tried to look at in the last week have sold. And that is just Naperville-Wheaton-Lisle, IL. There are plenty of old run down properties on the market that have 1960-70-80s kitchens and baths and need a ton of work, but they aren't really any cheaper than the ones that have been re-done so you just have to spend another 25K+ on top of buying those houses. So what's the point of buying one of those?

So, although I would like to wait to buy until 2010, I think prices will jump by then. We probably have to find something this fall and start looking at something soon. The good news is that between the 2 of us we can put down a sizeable down payment, even after paying all the wedding bills. (especially thanks to the generosity of both of our parents in their wedding gifts) So there is hope for having a low enough monthly payment that we can still handle it on one salary someday.

Everything else about being married is great. Its just this financial decision making that seems to keep us anxious. And we don't fight about it at all, it is just that the perspective we each bring to the table is different. Steve is more about finding something in the right location and that has a lot of space, I am more about having perfect kitchen/bath spaces and a low monthly payment. The 2.5x your salary rule isn't helping a lot either because what it says on 2 salaries is way different than on 1 and that isn't near the size of what Steve wants in a house.

The things that have been going well since the wedding are that our schedules are better and getting up in the morning is much easier when you actually get sleep. The cooking is good since we have some new pots and pans to try out and we actually have time to cook! I even did some cooking myself last night. We are finding places for everything from the wedding slowly, or it gets put in Steve's parent's basement. We are even visiting both sets of parents a bit more equally, since his mom has been fostering Kittens and we go to visit them too. We also started the process of making Steve's house more sell-able with installing a new dishwasher and a new lighting fixture in the bathroom. There are more lights and more things to come there in the next few months. Steve even squeezes in some TV every night since he really missed that when we were so busy. I'm not sure why he is so into his TV but it is important to him and harmless so its ok by me.

Everything else is really the same as before the wedding, the biggest change is trying to figure out how to merge finances. We really tackled a lot of the merging household stuff in February/March and it was a little bit stressfull sometimes then but we seem to have merged into a daily routine and know what eachother needs on that level now so it isn't much different except we both get to wear rings now. I still haven't done the official name change documents but hopefully I will in a few weeks when I can take a day off work. I am coming up on the beginning of the month with a ton of reports due so this probably won't be possible for a while yet.

My Wedding Day A Summary

2009-07-16T20:46:03Z

I wanted to write an archive summary of my wedding day because these moments are forgotten all too fast. I got married to Steve on July 11, 2009 in Wheaton, IL.

We had the rehersal on Friday at 5:30 pm at the church and then a laid back buffet style dinner at Steve's parent's house in Glen Ellyn after. A lot of relatives from across the country came in to see the wedding and the rehersal dinner was the first chance I had to meet them. Steve's Aunt Evie and Aunt Carol were visiting as well as his Aunt Ruth and Uncle John (JR). He also had some cousins in town, Daniela and Ryan with their kids. All three bridesmaids and groomsmen were there also at the dinner. It seemed like there were a lot of people to talk with and catch up with in conversations.

The actual wedding day started early. Steve set the alarm for 7:30 knowing I had to be at the hair/makeup place at 9am. Yes, we were in the same house, we felt like we didn't need to be elaborate and spend days apart beforehand. I think I rolled out of bed at 8am and left at 9:00ish. I got there at 9:15 thinking I was late and was suprised they were not really even ready for me. Susan was already half done with her hair by that time and Amy was getting started. Both had very cute styles they were doing. I ended up sitting around until 9:30 and not getting my hair completed until 10:30am. Then I had to wait another 1/2 hour for the makeup lady since she was working on someone at the time. I started makeup at 11am and was finished at 12pm. I was supposed to have been done at 10:30 am or 11am. I was supposed to be at the church at 11:30 and was way late.

The makeup looked ok but the hair was a bit weird for me. They decided without asking me that I should have a bunch of fake hair extensions shoved in my head to make it look like I had a ton of hair and a beehive in the back of my head. Yes the end result did get a lot of compliments but it did freak me out to have alien head behind me all day and hitting the seat in the car. Why don't they ask the person who's hair they are actually doing? It was too late by the time I realized what they were doing to make them re-do it and make us even later than we were.

I actually got there at 12:30pm and was just jumping into my dress when the photographer found us and asked for the dress to take pictures of it hanging. Ugh. I know we have to do the picture thing but this was making us even later. I would find out later that this was a critical scheduling mistake and making sure you have vendors that will listen to you about scheduling things is very important. If things are behind schedule people have to be willing to cut stuff off the plans to make up time when dinners are concerned. this is about the time the Florist walked in with the flowers. They were amazing. Purple mokara and vanda orchids everywhere with some purple stock, black callas and pink roses scattered throughout. (And some rhinestones suspended on wires.)

Anyway, we finally got my dress back and she then wanted to do pix of me in the dress in a small chapel there, and in front of a large mirror in the main room of the church house. Then we had the "reveal" as they call it where Steve and I get to see eachother for the first time that day. This took longer than expected also, and I was not able to keep them on schedule because they said I was not allowed to wear my watch because it looked bad in pictures. (if you can, wear your watch!) The photos may end up being nice but involved a lot of posing for a long time when they would change all the settings on the camera for like 5 minutes before taking the shots, I am pretty sure no natural smiles were captured during the entire day. After Steve and I saw eachother and realized hey, we're the same people we always are, we went to the church for the group/family pictures. There again we took too long and didn't get them all in because of how long it took to stage the setup of people, the setup of lighting equipment and the camera itself. Also we blinked sometimes at the flash, and had to do this close our eyes until she counted to 3 and then open them when the picture was flashing thing which doesn't get a decent smile because we have our eyes closed. I am afraid these pics will also look weird and everyone will look tired.

The most frustrating thing was that we asked everyone (both sets of parents, bridesmaids, groomsmen and 2 ushers) to be there for the pictures at 1 pm. We didn't start until 1:45 and then didn't do group shots until the last 10 minutes or so. Basically it looked like I just wasted all those people's time and told them to come when they weren't needed. I wish the Photographer would have done the group ones first and then ours later when we had time or whenever other people weren't standing around waiting. How come photographers never realize this?

So then we had to go back to our seperate areas again at 2:30 because people were arriving and entering the church. And the ushers (MIke and Simon) went off to greet them) We used some of that time to take some interesting pictures on a staircase in the church house and to eat because we didn't have any other opportunity to eat until like 7:30 pm that night. We joked that bagels were the only food that could not ruin a dress, so that was what we had to bring in. I also tried to fix my dress which seemed to not want to stay up quite right. I would find out later that sitting in a dress with a full corset is not a good idea, it breaks the structure and shoves my bustline upwards and out of the dress innapropriatley.

You might think by this point that I was pissed, and annoyed by how things were going, but really I was just trying to make it through all these prescribed set events that had to happen, per tradition, per the church and per the photographer and we never quite made it to everything. Every once in a while I would get a glimpse in the mirror of the flowers or the dress and think it didn't really look like me. I'm nowhere near this girly. It was kind of like playing a part in a movie, with a lot of staging and sets and scripts. Steve and I decided on a hollywood wedding not quite knowing it at the time. The videographer was also tailing us through the entire day. I did know that both moms liked how things looked and turned out, so that was good. At least someone thought this was going well.

The ceremony had an odd start too. I got there just as they were starting the mothers walk down the isle escorted by my brother Scott and Steve's brother Brian. They lit the unity candle and then waited for the rest of us. The guests were still arriving late (as people do in my family) and the organist started early throwing us off. Then the pastor and groomsmen missed their 3 chime queue to walk out and the coordinator had to sprint under the church in the secret hallway to tell them to get out there. Then the organist also started into the main processional too early and we were late starting that as well. Oh, well at least we all got down the isle. Even with a rehersal this never goes perfectly. Too many requirements for staging things means something is bound to go wrong. I walked down with my dad and was a bit teary with all the people there that I saw. Steve's mom slipped a kleenex in my dad's hand while we were stopped at the end of the isle and he passed it to me. Nobody noticed. (I think) Then my dad gave me a kiss on the cheek and passed me on to Steve. Steve jumped the gun and tried to do the same kiss and the pastor said he had to wait, it wasn't time to do that yet, and everyone laughed.

The ceremony was nice and not too long. It involved a welcoming statement, a statement of intent from us, a statement from the parents and a statement of support from the entire congregation. Then Pastor Jay went into some descriptions of why we were here today and what all this really means. Then we moved further up on the steps and he talked more about us specifically and read from some emails we sent to him earlier in the week. I had no idea that he would read them verbatim. I liked that one of the things Steve wrote was that he loved the way she loves me. Pastor Jay thought that would make a great Lionel Richey song. Then we did the vows repeating after the pastor and I think Steve's microphone for the videographer picked up most of that from both of us. When it was all over I asked Steve if that was his car stereo in his front pocket and he said it was the microphone and I get that was all on tape.

We kissed at the top steps of the altar and walked back down the isle with the wedding party following us. Then we walked up the side isle to come back up front to greet everyone as they exited the isles. It was nice to see everyone in person at this point and have an informal recieveing line of sorts but what I did not know is that about 15% of the people did not come to the church so they were not greeted and we missed them until I randomly ran into them at the reception. Then we walked back to the altar to take some pictures with the pastor and lastly we walked out into a sea of bubbles on the front steps of the church and into the car. Those sale price Target champagne bubbles did actually work out ok. We did have a delay though since the photographer said 5 min to pack up stuff and leave again and then took pictures of a bunch of people including the bridesmaids and some guests. We ended up standing around looking out of place for a while and poor brian was holding the door to my dad's white buick for a while like he was a limo driver and everyone wondered what was going on.

After that was all settled we did get to Cantigny and I will write more about that later since this is a ginormous post.

20090711-153747 My Wedding Ceremony

2009-07-16T04:10:13Z

20090711-153747
Originally uploaded by alforque

Another fave from Andre's photos of the wedding.

20090711-194544 Wedding Photos

2009-07-14T04:13:15Z

20090711-194544
Originally uploaded by alforque

One of the many wedding photos to come, this one courtesy of Andre.

desk roses sprite

2009-06-28T08:37:45Z

desk roses sprite
Originally uploaded by Yateski

some pretty roses on my desk

Closing Time

2009-06-23T04:39:11Z

Warning - long post, skip if you like...

I closed on the sale of my condo this past Friday. I lived there for just over 7 years. From March 02 through June 09. (technically I moved out in Feb, but sold in June) It was an interesting day as most are these days when I am encountering all kinds of new things I have not had contact with before.

First off I had forgotten that Steve's place is next to the tornado siren until it went off as I was trying to gather everything and leave. I didn't know whether to grab the cats and go hide in the downstairs bathroom or to leave because the sky really didn't look like a tornado was possible. Later I found out it was in the next county.

Then I had to go to Oak Park to get a transfer sale tax stamp in order to allow the process to complete. What it seems is that Oak Park wants its sales tax up front for the deal, charged to my credit card. $8 per 1K in sale price. Yea, that adds up fast.

That process didn't take as long as I had anticipated so I decided to go see the condo one last time and get any last mail that was in the mailbox. I got there and found most of my mail had been forwarded properly and the new buyers were doing their walk through of the place. A married couple was buying it and I couldn't see how they were going to stay in that small space while married, but they wanted a 1 br, so I was happy to sell it to them. I didn't want to crash the walk through or anything but I did want to see my place one last time. They were in the kitchen chatting when I walked in, the place I used to like to hang out the most too. I remarked about how large the space felt without all the furniture in it, and they remarked at how small it felt to them. I mentioned that I couldn't change the space even if I wanted to. I showed them a few last things and then got out of their way. It was the last time I will ever be there and yet I was ok with it. I have been ready to move on for a while.

I then headed over to the closing title company a bit early which was a good thing since it was pouring rain and I had no change for the parking meters. I went to get a bottle of water from starbucks and pay the meter and the sky in the north was just black/purple. If there was going to be a tornado it was going to be here.

In the elevator going up to the title company I met my lawyer by chance, one of Steve's scout friend's dad. We were greeted by another forner resident of my building who happened to work there. (surprise) Then when they buyers arived with their lawyer we all got seated in an office/conference room with the buyers and their lawyer and realtor on one side of the table and me and my lawyer on the other. I thought it was a bit silly from a strategic perspective but I can see that you do have to pass a lot of paperwork down the line.

My realtor was running late because she had to go pick up the lock box at the condo. When she arrived at least we had 3 people on my side of the table. I did not have very much paperwork to do compared to the buyers. They had about double. I had to sign a bunch of papers confirming that I had not sold it to anyone else and that nothing had happened to the property since the offer was made. We also had to go through all the line items of fees. It ended up costing 11K in fees to sell. That was 8.5% of the selling price. Ouch. When you calculate how much you will make selling your place, remember the 8.5% in costs, even with our realtors doing the minimum commissions thing, not 5%.

Then we realized that there was something missing. My property management company had not written the first right of refusal approval in the letter they sent over. So we had to call them and have them fax it over again, and then things were pretty complete. It took a while to get through everything, we arrived at 11 am and I left at about 2:30 pm. Luckilly they had cookies there. We tried to keep it light in conversation between forms and share good restaurants and places to go in Oak Park. The lawyer and realtor both lived there too.

Then very quickly it was over. Everyone was eager to get out of there and move on so we went. I got my check and so did the lawyers and realtors. We didn't even have a chance to shake hands or anything. I was ok with it though. I had some cash back, more than I had originally put down as a deposit (because I overpaid regularly).

Then I ran over to the florist in Forest Park, Tulipia and finailized a few things and then ran home. Steve and I had to get our marriage licence in DuPage that day too. I can't get a day off work very often with this crazy workload so we combined a bunch of things into one day. We found the licence process to be very quick and only $30 dollars. A lot less expensive than selling a house. We also got father's day gifts taken care of that afternoon and a trip to the bank for that condo money. We even snuck in a trip to target to finally get a full length mirror, I have needed one for 7 years and not had any space for it.

So it is finally over, the whole condo phase. I look back and think that the buying-moving in process seems like faded sketchy memories now, so I wanted to write it down. I do remember how excited I was at the time and how much I really liked the design of the condo. I also remember many of the rude awakenings as I discovered things like the window air conditioners, traffic, radiators and sirens are pretty loud at times as well as the neighbors in the beginning. I also found out how hard it was to carry groceries up 3 flights of stairs and find a place to park without getting a ticket. I solved most of those issues or adjusted over the years and even managed to make it a comfy place to live.

Looking back these are the few things I would have done differently:

1. Have people over more often - or stayed home and enjoyed my space
2. Pay more off on the principle monthly instead of buying clothing/decorating stuff that didn't last
3. I should have gotten a place with parking from the get-go, but it worked out in the end when I did get one.
4. I should have cleaned more often, since my allergies got a lot worse living there.

Otherwise I am pretty happy with my time there. I got engaged there. I had a lot of work experience while living there. I learned a lot about public transportation and walked more than I had ever before that point. I indulged in the things that a single girl can do and a married one might not. I indulged in vintage stuff collecting, in blogging, improv classes, flickr and internet fun. I also indulged in my own personal space and style, which will always be a combination now with Steve's. I got a cat and I slept in late and went to bed whenever I wanted. I read a ton of books and occasionally tried to cook. I was free of a lot of responsibility yet it seemed like a ton at some points. Mostly because of work. It was where I decided I wanted to be a marketer and really dug into my craft. It also really set in that I was flying without a net and my parents were not going to be there to "save" me if I screwed up. And this was the beginning of the rest of my life where I kind of had to start taking care of my parents and seeing how long I would still have them around.

All these things have changed now. The single city girl phase is over and it's time to learn to be "wifey". (joking) It is about trying to meld together living styles and families and goals. Yes, it is about giving up some of what I want, but I get so much happiness in return in general just being where I am that some of those nit picky things seem silly. Life is also a lot about trying to stay ahead of the curve with work even though doing new things gets harder and harder with the larger workload I keep getting. Sometimes with all the wedding planning and insane workload, I think being human instead of a robot is really holding me back. I should really be a robot for the job I have. It would work so much better. I will have to look into that. After the wedding in 3 weeks.

Bridal Shower

2009-06-09T18:34:42Z

I have been to a lot of bridal showers, just by the age that I am, because so many people are married already. They are always fun and interesting to see. The thing is you usually think the bride is just beaming with happiness and I was sure that everyone who had this experience was over the moon in this etherial experience. And yes it was fun but nobody knows what stress is going on undernealth the happy demeanor. When the bridal shower happens it is usually pretty close to the wedding and the amount of things you are juggling is a lot higher than you want to. I don't think I was really totally able to appreciate the event nor the tradition that surrounds it. Everything was wonderful but I was so worried about making sure people didn't think I was asking for rediculous things and makings sure they knew how much I appreciated it that I probably missed some of the fun of the event.

Steve was nice and he came along too. I wanted him to meet some new people in the family that he had not met yet. And it was nice also since it was at his mom's house. I do feel bad that Steve's mom got stuck with a lot of the work though. She didn't initially want to do the event because there has been a faux-pas about mother's giving showers being like asking for things for their kids and not proper. But that has changed in recent years. All the showers I have been to in recent years have either been at the mother's house or hosted by the moms. Plus my mom started freaking me out about 2 months ago because she couldn't do the shower at her house or pay to have it at a restaurant. My parents have seperate finances for all sorts of reasons so she felt bad asking him to do it and so it was becoming an issue with her asking about how to do it in weird cheap ways. So I bit the bullet and asked if Mrs Yates would be able to help/host. She was gracious about it and after some conference calling about what foods/schedule a shower entailed between the moms we had one set. Not too overdone or fancy per the Yates and not too small or un-classy per my mom. (I know , the irony) My friend Susan from work (who is standing up) also offered to host it but she lives in the city and nobody that I knew would be able to attend there.

In the end, I hope it was fun for people to attend. I know I was suprised at what people brought. Some of the interesting gifts were a vintage tablecloth used as wrapping on a gift, 2 waterford champaigne glasses with Champagne and my mom somehow got my dad to buy the entire crystal set of 12 wine glasses, 12 water goblets and 12 champagne flutes from Macy's on sale. I am still not sure how she got him to do that. Steve's parents got us the set of stainless flatware that we picked out to go with the vintage China I have. So it is a lot like my parent's wedding shower where they got all those sets from family too. Although with fewer family members.

It makes me miss those times when more family was around. Some of the great aunts that were there for my parent's wedding and through my childhood aren't around anymore and I know they would have liked to be there. Only one is still around and could come. My Aunt Dorothy. The rest of the people enjoyed her humor, of which I didn't remember since she used to live in Florida and I rarely saw her. It is only because now that she lives back here because of her health and to be located near family that she could come.

I wasn't sure I got to talk enough to everyone who came out to the shower or that people weren't bored at times. Some family was there but looked like they didn't know many people and were a bit bored. I was trying to speed things along because people had to leave at certain times. But hopefully people still had fun.

Then when it was all over (which was quicker than you think when you're in the center of it all) we were left in the center of a pile of boxes. Somehow Steve packed most of it into the car and we ended up with a pile of boxes on our kitchen table along with boxes still unopened from my final move of stuff from my condo. It was a bit of a mess. After a few days we have managed to tame the moving boxes and the tupperware in them as well as some of the wedding related gifts. Everybody was very generous and gave things either from the registry or really nice gifts. Not at all the variance i have seen at other wedding showers. I guess we got lucky.

There is still a ton to do with the rehersal dinner, Sunday brunch and a whole host of wedding vendors. Who knows if we will get through it all without a glitch.

Moving Day Complete - Anyone want to buy a sofa?

2009-06-03T15:30:34Z

We hired movers to do the last leg of the move out of my condo and they completed this yesterday. There were 10 pieces of furniture and 3 mirrors that had to be moved down 3 flights of stairs, into the moving truck driven to Glen Ellyn and then loaded in Steve's parent's basement for storage. All this took about 4 hours and cost $719.00. I think it was worth every penny.

Three guys from All American United Moving in Elmhurst showed up on time and got going quickly. They were very good at this and made moving large furniture look easy. They did seem to have trouble with looking at the best way to fit furniture through tight doorways based on the shape because they would back in and out a few times before they got things through, but other than that it was really happening quite quickly. They wrapped the sofas in burlap wraps and then added a wide plastic wrap over it to protect them. Then they also used a long fabric strap to hold pieces when one person was higher on the stairs than the other or to hold it up on their back. It was quite humerous that the smallest of the 3 guys had my piano roll cabinet srapped to his back and walked it down like a backpack. I took some pictures, I may make a collage and post to flickr later this week.

The thing about moving is that it is so exhausting with all the time it takes and the trips back and forth. We initially packed up a lot of clutter and some small furniture to stage the condo back in November, these items are stored in Steve's parent's basement. Next, we probably made 4 trips to my place to bring things over initially in February that were essentials (like Zeus' litterbox and my clothes). We also probably have made at least 6 trips with both Steve's car and mine with a lot of other things that can be integrated in to his house (plates, pots, pans, books, small furniture) and my parents and brother helped pack and move a large load last weekend to storage in the basement too. All in all, we're tired out and nobody wanted to move anything else. So, we got movers for the big empty furniture and Steve and I carried the drawers to the bedroom set in our cars (because the bakelite handles are brittle and easy to break).

There were some tricky moments, where the sofa and the buffet didn't want to fit through doorways or around corners of the stairway. The guys couldn't believe that Mike and my brother got that sofa upstairs and that my uncle got the 7 ft long buffet up the stairs strapped to a hand cart. They asked if any of them wanted to work for them based on that knowledge. They also agreed that my "small" move was about as difficult as the baby grand piano that they moved the day before. The truck also was tricky to get in the driveway of Steve's parent's house. It almost hit the power lines and was hitting the tree a lot too. The narrow one lane driveway was also tricky because they had to back in and the truck almost took the entire width. Steve's mom's flowers were dangerously close to being run over.

And now it's done, the basment is full and everyone is happy. My place looks a lot bigger when it is empty but it also looks cold and sterile. I am suprised how much the furniture in the warm tones really changed the feel of the place. How much it changed from a box on the 3rd floor to a home when my furniture was there. I especially like that even though people said it could not happen, the large formerly built in buffet survived the trip out and into the basement. It will hopefully get refinished when we find a house to buy and be put in place permanently, but it is beating all odds already. It is such a neat piece of furniture that my great grandparents had and might get to live on in a modern setting someday. If nothing else it is a conversation piece and a historical artifact. It is really only still around because of the generosity of several people helping move it and the movers willing to move it again now.

The Sofa on the other hand is still something I would like to sell. It is oversized with large arm rests which are pretty but not practical. I am sure that it would fit better in someone's house than it does in their basement. And the matching chair can go with it.

But...I am not looking forward to moving it, or anything else again.

Later in the evening Steve and his dad strapped the mattress/inner spring to the top of the SUV and drove that over to our place. His old mattress was like sleeping on a marshmallow. Mine is a lot newer and more supportive. With that in place, I think I had the best night's sleep in a long time.