APARTMENT!!!

Erin and I have found an apartment. We had to see some lemons before we found a place that felt right, but we finally found it. Before seeing the place that we settled on, we saw a high rise near Broadway, Sheridan, & Montrose. It was a nice place with some lake views and many amenities so we were in good spirits when we went to see the place in Lincoln Square.

The apartment in Lincoln square is at 2655 Leland. It's a garden apartment (partially underground) but still has good light and good airflow. It has 3 bedrooms, one bath, a living room, eat-in kitchen, laundry room directly outside our kitchen door, and attached storage room. The closets are plenty big enough for Erin's needs, and I can use the storage room as a bike room. While the apartment is in descent condition now, Pat, the land lord is going to make some updates before we move. We also are going to be able to pick paint colors for the rooms. We also have a back yard with patio and a small patch of grass. This all, not to mention an inexpensive rent for the area, 1/2 block from the CTA Brown Line, and another break on rent if we mow the lawn in the summer and shovel snow in the winter. I have some more pictures of the neighborhood on Flickr.

I think we're going to go out and celebrate the find.

Erin has a Job!!!

Today Erin accepted a job offer from Edelman, Combs, Latturner & Goodwin LLC. It's a consumer rights law firm in the Chicago Loop. I'm excited for her. The program is designed for ambitious college grads who are interested in going to law school. She'll basically be a paralegal for one of the partners. This is very exciting.

I once again rode my bike to work. The problem today is that it rained heavily right before I got out of work. It let up for my ride home, but it was still raining in spots. I'm still glad I rode to work.

Pond Cat

Before we get to Pond Cat, I have to commend Gene in his skillful maneuvering to avoid crashing during the Judson ride this morning. A rider next to him sank into the cracks between pavement and hit Gene while freeing his bike. Gene was pushed into a cross street where he saved himself from a curb-collision. I mention this because Gene's a Turin riders (and employee) and is going to do well this cross season.

Now for Pond Cat. Toby came back into the house today meowing very loudly. I wasn't quite sure what was wrong till I got a good look at him. It appears that he fell or took a dip? into/in the pond in the backyard. I know for a fact that Toby doesn't like water. I suppose he was just curious.

Stole From

On Thursday I started riding my track bike to work. It was nice to be able to ride before and after work. Today when I came out of work I found that the rear wheel had been stolen. It's was bolted on, so someone had to wrench it off. It was locked up outside my office, on the corner of Michigan & Lake. There's got to be at least 100 people walking by there per minute. I can't believe somebody got away with that. I had to call dad to come pick me up.

I was supposed to meet Erin to see a couple apartments in Lakeview at 5, but that plan was shot. She called me around 6 and said that I had to come in the city and see a few of the better apartments that she'd seen. There was one near Roscoe and Seminary that was pretty nice, but we decided not to take it because we weren't thrilled with it. Since we're going to be living in the apartment for a few years we want to make sure it's what we want.

Work has been good, but a bit frustrating. There's a lot of things to learn to be up to full speed, but everyone is so busy that I feel like I'm annoying people. It'll get better when I have actual tasks.

Happy 4th

Relaxed 4th. Spent the morning relaxin' with Erin. We have plans to go to Barb & Chris's later. They're the family friends through whom we got the house sitting gig. It's my first paid day of vacation ever!!!

Second Day at CM

We had a bit more down time at work today than we did yesterday. Two of the other new hires got pulled out of orientation to start working. I'm glad I get another day of adjustment. Here's a few more facts: One of the people used to work at Harpo Studios where Oprah is filmed. The office receptionist made it to the final 70 people on American Idol. It's a really relaxed, open, and fun office. The big summer party is coming up in a few weeks, so I'll get to meet many others in the office then. I took a picture out the window of the office. The view is north, straight up the Magnificent Mile of Michigan Avenue. The river you see is the Chicago River.

We got out of work early, so I headed over to the Taste again where Tom's band, Cobalt, was playing the second stage. Tom's come a long way since we played in Decoy together in high school.

First Day at Critical Mass

My first day at Critical Mass was pretty exciting. We didn't actually do any work, but I went through orientation with 4 other new hires. I found out that 4 months ago, there were about 40 people in the office. There's about 95 now. I learned lots of other cool facts, but my fact retention rate isn't that high. Erin met me at the end of the day so that we could go to the Taste of Chicago. After using our tickets, we stopped by the Petrillo Band Shell to see Tomlin, who's assistant stage managing for the Taste.

Sad Weekend for Cycling

A Cat 4 woman died during the Proctor Road Race this weekend. She crashed and was almost immediately stuck by oncoming traffic. Her name was Beth Kobeszka, a recent grad of Northwestern and a member of the xXx Racing-AthletiCo team. I will say no more than that it is a tragedy.

On the lighter side, John and I got 5th and 9th in the road race. We decided to donate our winnings to Beth's family. Today John got in the winning breakaway and finished 5th. The race got a bit out of hand near the end, so no one else did particularly well, but John was able to finish fifth again.

Critical Mass Package

I got a package from Critical Mass today. It was a Nalgene-style bottle with a Critical Mass branded bracelet, notepad, pen, refrigerator magnet, and necklace-badge holder. It was very cool. Erin and I got stuffed spinach Carmen's Pizza before going to You Kill Me. The movie was really good. Very funny, in a sad way at times, but still very funny. Erin and I leave tomorrow morning at eight o'clock for Proctor.

BMC to the rescue

Cyclingnews reported that the BMC team came to the aid of Navigators soigneur Janis Burns the night after the fourth stage of Nature Valley. The article can be found in the first edition news. Apparently a large man broke into the soigneur's room in a burglary attempt. She chased the man to the parking lot where the BMC team had just arrived. "Dan Schmatz body-slammed him and his teammates held him down until the police cruisers arrived," Burns said.

Let me just say, way to go Dan.