tfl: The Flatiron Life

Jonah is coming soon and the family keeps asking where they should stay. I would love to have everyone stay at our place, but that would be uncomfortable for everyone. Also, when you look for hotels in Chicago they are going to mostly be inconviniantly located downtown or by O’Hare.

Below are 3 options that should be close enough to our house and transport to the hospital:

1) Chicago Lodge http://chicagonorthlodge.com/ 773-334-5600
This is walking distance from our house and also right by a bus route that can take you to the hospital. Jos and I checked it out this weekend. Joscelynn was not terribly impressed, but it is a clean and safe place to lay your head. Might be the kind of place you would feel more comfortable bringing your own pillows.

2) Days Inn of Lincoln Park http://www.lpndaysinn.com/ 773.525.7010
It looks like one of the problems with Jonah coming around Thanksgiving is a lot of the hotels have limited availability. This is near where we used to live. It looks nice and would be easy to get to our house and to the hospital.

3) The Inn at Lincoln Park http://www.innlp.com/ 866.774.PARK
This is located just down the street from the Das Inn and looks like it might have more availability.

Finally, if none of these work look at Orbitz and see what is available and in your price range. I can tell you how far away it is. However, you probably want to stick with places that say they are in Chicago or Evanston and away from places that say O’Hare. Also, we are fine with people still wanting to sleep on our couch, air mattress, and floor, if this is what you want.

If you live in Chicago, what are some other options?

This week we had California Closets come and remodel our closets. We had started stacking stuff on more stuff. Then we saw our neighbor’s closets and were quite impressed.

We have now been able to add a lot more stuff to our closets. We are also going to be able to get rid of one of our dressers AND have room for Jonah’s things. Here you can find photos of before, after construction, and after putting our stuff back in. Another advantage is we have been forced to do fall cleaning and throw away.

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For the record, I was in Chicago in November today and the high was approximately 50, not 80. While I understand your desperate attempts to remain relevant, I find this whole “NBC Goes Green” thing plain insulting. If I have to roll my eyes one more time at a contrived environmentally aware sub-plot, I might go blind. We’re not five years old, NBC.

In 1998, The State of Indiana and I teamed up for what has continued to be the most important projects of my life. Until, I bought my home it was the most expensive project I had ever undertaken. As time passes, I know that it will likely decline in importance as other recently undertaken projects will actually grow in importance.

What is this project?

My Bachelor of Science of Computer Science with Minor in Physics.

I know I have this degree and did pretty well getting it. Can I prove this?

My Family went to Assembly Hall in 2002 and saw me graduate.
The IU Alumni Association continues to send me mail as if i am an Alumni.
I also have a crimson and cream colored embossed piece of paper that I probably could have bought online.

None of this is proof. The only proof I can produce is by paying $10 to IU for an official transcript. This requires me to snail mail a request to them and then they will snail mail the transcript to me.

Why is this coming up? Recently I needed to know my GPA. I don’t know my GPA. I did not write it down because I used to be able to log into a system at IU. Then they changed systems and 2002 grads are not in the new system.

$10 is not huge, it is the snail mail that bothers me most. However, it does rub me the wrong way that I need to pay to prove I went to school, after all the money I paid to the folks in Bloomington.

Did you consider transcript costs when you looked at schools? How should this factor into your decision? Should it factor in?

…just like everything else I do.

I am latecomer to Scott Adams’ Dilbert Blog. I am reading the recent post and came across this post about being spontaneous.

As you know, you can fake most character traits if you need to. You can fake sincerity, kindness, compassion, optimism, and all sorts of things. But you can’t fake spontaneity. I know because I’ve tried, and it always comes out sounding crazy. I’ll blurt out something like “Let’s walk to Cuba,” and look at my wife to see if I nailed the spontaneous thing. So far, no luck. It’s an elusive concept.

I love learning that I am not alone. For me, it confirms that I am normal and you all are strange.

Amelie Sign in Tabac des Deux Moulins, originally uploaded by flatiron32.

This is (and has been for a while) the most interesting photo I have on flickr. The algorithm for “interestingness” is not clear to me, but it must be based off of views and the fact the 6 (SIX) people have picked this as one of their favorites.

I think the picture is ok and think Amelie is a great movie, but I doing think it is very interesting.

Why do you put a task on your list to look at 5 of my pictures every day ad find the best one? Thanks!

…now that your dog is dead, I can help you.

And armed Social Security Administration agent, that’s right they are armed, shot a man’s dog.

(HT: TheAgitator via Zach’s shared items)