tfl: The Flatiron Life

Joscelynn and I had a very long day today. Last night she received a call from Dick’s Sporting Goods in Lafayette where she interviewed for an administrative job she was really hoping to land. They wanted her to come in for another interview in the morning (Saturday morning) at 9. Fine, but we were in Chicago.

So this morning we woke up at 5. Readied ourselves, and after a quick pit at Dunkin Donuts we were on the highway by 6. Hit Brookston for her to change clothes and made it to Dick’s about 5 min early. Perfect timing.

The interview was over by 9:30. Stopped at Target to change back into weekend clothes and started making the return trip on scenic I-65. The return trip took longer than the down trip, but not too much and we were home by 1.

Back in Chicago we acted like liberals/cityfolk/20-somethings having a good time/whatever and headed for the Bucktown Arts Fair in the nearwesthoods, where every third person wore a John-John sticker. Before going to the fair we lunched at a Cuban restaurant, where I stupidly looked for an imported Cuban beer. The food was good. The arts were good.

Back home at around 5 on the other side of the meridian, watching some TV the phone rings. It is Dick’s, she is hired! This is great, and about 5 days earlier than she expected to hear back! She starts Friday.

We are excited, and I splurge for a celebratory dinner at KFC. After enjoying our potato wedges, the phone rings again. It is the boss at International Sports Club, who is assigning instructors for their new Pilates and Yoga studio. She has a couple classes for Jos to teach. More good news!

I am very happy for Joscelynn. I love you, babe.

Now it is time to sleep. Only been up 19 hours.

Last month I made my final payment on my car, Contique. After a little trouble with the Post Office and Ford, I arrived home this weekend to find my title waiting for me. It is kind of empowering. I have never owned anything of this great of value. My computers are worth more than a grand, but there is no official state document saying you own it.

There are only two problems.
First it was folded crooked in the envelope and I accidentally ripped off just a little of the border at the bottom left corner. I hope this does not constitute a mutilation.

Second, there is some Vicky Barker woman on the title. Other than that she is all mine!

I should have posted this a long time ago.

My good friend Nina’s cousin has been missing for 6 weeks. Please take a look here, just to keep an eye out. Thanks.

Teachers accross American are switching from red pens to purple pens for grading. Purple is seen as a friendlier color than red. I doubt the cause of the red pens harshness is natural. The effect more likly comes from generations of students being taught to do well and avoid red marks.

If teachers want students to not be tramatized by being wrong, maybe they should teach them better.

A couple southenders have been charged with misappropriation of funds from the Clinton City Water Department. The elder woman, Paula Maurice Shoaff, is accused of improperly altering the water bills of her kids resulting in a loss of less than $1,500. However, Amanda Anderson is suspected of changing her mom’s account and embezzling $67,894.15. That is in just the span of a single year. It appears that Anderson has admitted to taking money, but does not think she took that much.

The Tribune Star has done a very good job with this story. Although there is one thing that jumped out at me, I have noticed often that ?about? and ?almost? are used before what seem to me to be very specific amounts, times, and counts. It is reported that Anderson may have taken “about $67,894.15.” $67,894.15 is pretty specific; it is about $68,000 though.

Also you should take a look at how the Terre Haute TV stations’ fear of crossing the river affects their coverage. Compare the story from WTWO, in Terre Haute 30 miles away, to WANE’s, in Fort Wayne 220 miles away.

Sen. Kerry has been claiming to have been Vice Chairman on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Turns out no one can find evidence that this was the case. It may be a minor thing, but it is a piece of the puzzle that Kerry has created for himself.

It is also interesting how hard it is to find out who actually has the Vice Chairman of a Senate committee.

Sunday Prince Hans-Adam invited everyone in the principality, all 33,000 of them, to a party where he handed control to his son. Leichtenstein is this amazing little bit of truly old Europe where the monarch has recently increased its power. It also stands determined to not become ensnared with the trappings of modern Europe.

Julia Child has died two days before her 92nd birthday. She was a powerful woman that brought the joy of cooking to American and fought against the forces wanting us to fear our food.

She was a lot like my Grandma Tomaw, who was a powerful woman and brought the joy of cooking to me. Some of my final memories of Grandma are Dana and I sitting with her in the hospital watching Julia make something delicious. Dana will remember that at least once it was Crumpets.

Bon appetit!

City officials want to put some more pressure on the beat cops to write more parking tickets. The police are down 60,000 tickets for the year. The police point out that it is now legal to park near Wacker Drive and the museum campus because their construction projects are over. They also point out that there may be fewer tickets being written but real crime is down. There have been 82 fewer murders so far this year and shootings are down 845.

Also, my car has been out of town and TOMAW1 is a big target for police tickets.

This site, the very one you are looking at right now, is number one when you google Tomaw. This may not be surprising because this is www.tomaw.com. However in the last 2 years of randomly googling my name from time to time it has never been number 1. Sometimes it is not even in the first 20 results!

I relatives sometimes have done random stuff that beats me out sometimes, like:
Jim Tomaw shows up a lot because is was a lawyer for CTA Acoustics when it exploded last year.
I am happy that Joseph C., Harold, and D. W. Tomaw where on their churches honor roll.
And, I just learned my stepmom’s mom died a couple weeks ago.