tfl: The Flatiron Life

Includes Corporal Cuddling. George is quite familiar with this form of discipline.

Here is the police blotter for the last 50 crimes within an 8 block radius of our condo. The 50th one took place on April 6th (as of this posting.)

Here is the police blotter for the last 50 crimes within an 8 block radius of our new apartment. The 50th one took place on March 6th (as of this posting.)

15 days vs 45 days. I don’t like the crime in Uptown, but I don’t generally feel it amazingly unsafe. I do find it less safe than when we lived in Lincoln Park. However, there have also been 50 crimes in the last 15 days there too. This also validates the niceness I feeling Lincoln Square/North Center.

Much of the crimes in Uptown are drug related or between gang members. The others could just be the difference in enforcement, but I don’t think so. Either way, more evidence of a good move that will decrease our exposure to it. I hope the CPD can clean up Uptown while we are gone ahead of us selling our condo in a few years.

The sound of frustration is echoing throughout our home these days. A very loud, but very cute, baby version of frustration.

When your car just won’t start, what do you do? Yell at the car and hit something?
When an application just won’t do what it is supposed to do, what do you do? Yell at the computer and hit something?
When your TV stops working, what do you do? Yell at the TV and hit something?

Yelling and banging seem to be universal. As adults the things we respond to in this way are few and often the things we understand the least. For Jonah, the boundary of things he does not understand is right in front of his face. Literally.

He can easily spend an hour firmly gripping his pacifier, staring intently at it, and just yelling. Not crying, just a frustrated “GET IN MY MOUTH!” We will put the pacifier in and he will suck joyfully away. Then he pulls it out. When he tries to put it back in he usually puts it in the wrong way. The frustration begins and it is loud.

I think it is a aggravated because his front bottom teeth have poked through and when he puts the hard part of the pacifier in it hurts a little.

He is learning though. I have seen him put it in correctly a few times.

Chicago is nowhere near the front runner for the 2016 Olympics. Good news.

I noticed one of the other cities in the running is Baku. I had never heard of Baku, so that makes it my pick or the 2016 Olympics. The Olympics seem like a great way for cities to get there name on the map.

Baku is so unknown, I could tell you it is the capital of Azerbaijan, but most people have never even heard of Azerbaijan. Double Bonus!

If you wanted to prove your sibling is your sibling, how would you do it? I am not talking about CSI: Perrysville, mom-has-been-lying-for-3-decades, I-am-your-uncle-and-brother style DNA testing. Just through public and credit records, could you prove it?

Today, I was filling out a form to run a credit check on our prespective tenant. After filling out the information, I was told I had 2 minutes to answer the next 5 questions correctly.

The first one was matching a previous address to its city, simple.

The next 3 blew me away. They were about “Danielle Gray.” WTF! I had not entered information about Dana. I have never had any financial transaction on record with my sister, as far as I know.

I don’t think these questions were just BS. One wanted me to confirm where she owns property and they had the correct town. One was age range, so that could be BS. I don’t remember the third, but it was a non-BS question.

So, how are Dana and I linked? In a fully digitized and easily accessible world, you could find my mom’s name on my Birth Certificate. Search for all Birth Certificates where she is the mother. Search for Dana’s SSN and then run a check on her. However, this is not the world we live in. At least I don’t think so. Also, there are lots of people estranged from their families. Heck, I have a general knowledge of my step-half-sister’s life, but could not answer many questions about her.

A cougar was shot by the CPD this afternoon in Roscoe Village. That is what out-of-towners would call “downtown”, so it is defiantly urban.

“It was turning on the officers,” [Capt. Mike] Ryan said, adding that no officers were hurt. “There was no way to take it into custody.” Greene said he agreed with the police decision to kill the cougar.

Is arresting the couger really a viable option? Are they not allowed to taze cougars because it is not humane? Had the cougar left its cubs in a van, while it made a donation at Wal-mart?

So many questions.

It is probably no surprise that with Jonah we were planning to move out of our 1 bedroom condo. However, we were planning do this in the next year or two.

Why are we moving sooner?

I have mentioned before the rental cap our association is proposing. With this cap, if your unit is below the cap you can rent forever as long as there is not a break of leases larger than 4 months. When the cap is met, no one can rent. Our plan has always been to rent when we moved out. We want to insure we can rent as long as we need to before selling our condo. This means renting now while the cap is not full.

Where are we going?

Lincoln Square (technically North Center) This is where we thought we would move next. We are renting from a family that has connections back to Joscelynn’s family in Brookston. They seem like they will be good landlords. This is a 2 bedroom about twice the square footage with a little back yard and garage.

Our plan now is to rent for at least a couple to few years while we wait to find nice large home we can afford and grow into. We are sad to leave out first home, but I know we are going to make the next place a great home for young Jonah.

We will miss our condo, but we are looking for someone nice to make it their home at a reasonable rate. If you know anyone looking to rent on the North Side, let me know.

If I think about a lot of people I know in Indiana, Indiana Democrats specifically, I agree with what Sen. Obama says. Am I out of touch, too?

People might not be able to retire at 59!
Home ownership has declined by 1% and is at the lowest level in a couple of years!
In the first quarter, the S&P 500 declined 9.9%, less than 3 other losses in my lifetime that did not result in recession!

Oh, wait! That does not sound so bad.

George Will puts things in perspective.

But then my employee ID is orb7395008corp38857399shyrk2s2uurmch7490