Sweet Home Chicago

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We’ve been in Chicago a week now, and I swear it must snow every day. Not the kind of heavy snow Virginian’s see (on the rare occasion it actually snows there), but rather a light snow which blows about for hours but hardly sticks to anything. And although 20 degrees here certainly feels colder than in Virginia (perhaps because I’m walking in it for 15 minutes to work instead of the short jaunt from the car to the house or office), I think I rather like this fourth season people seem to be calling “winter”.

I started my new job on Monday and have been pleasantly surprised. The recruiter made CIG out to be a mad house where everyone works 18 hour days and sells their soul to the company. Although I can’t speak for the hours their front office personnel put in, it seems as though their IT department runs like any other hard working IT department. The company seems to care less about titles and management and far more about getting things done, and as such, I’m looking forward to what lies ahead.
To make things even busier, we put a contract on a house in Evanston on Sunday, and negotiated a final price of $527,500 by 11pm Tuesday. We have a home inspection slated for 10am Saturday morning and are still working on loan approval (since our house in Virginia is still for sale). Here’s to hoping that by Saturday everything will have worked itself out so that we can close on March 13.

Late Posting (Part 3)

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I’m very, very sad to be back from our third trip to Hawaii. After getting back last time I swore next time would be a one way trip. Every time we go I ponder what it would be like to open a bed and breakfast or just sell everything and buy a hut on the beach. This trip was no exception.

This time we stayed in a condo in Keauhou; ate at the Hapuna Prince Resort and Ke’ei Cafe (among other places); visited the Pololu Lookout, numerous waterfalls near Hilo, and Kilauea (the volcano), snorkeled, hiked, swam, and still found time to relax.

The trip was definitely more challenging with a one year old, both getting to and from the island and getting around while there. Nonetheless, she was a champ with the 15 hours of travel each way and 5 hour time change, as well as the lack of naps as we shuttled here from place to place. It was also more challenging to find food with both my parents and sister in tow, but we happily managed to eat well.

And sadly I broke my promise to not return next time we made the trip. Oh well, there’s always next time.

Late Posting (Part 2)

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Back from Massanutten, and just a few days to start planning for the move and new job before we’re off to Chicago to look at homes. We spent 3 days “neighborhood hunting”; because the Chicagoland area is so huge, we didn’t even know where to being looking for a home. City, close in, or far out suburbs? So we used our first trip out there to look at a few houses, but primarily at neighborhoods. Going around with a few different realtors, we settled on the downtown areas of Oak Park, Evanston, and Glen Ellyn. We’ll be off to Hawaii in a few days on vacation, and then moving to Chicago a few days after we get back. Once we get there, we’ll start our search for a house in one of those areas.

Late Posting (Part 1)

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Before I left AOL I was sure that I’d blog every day until I started my new job. Ha ha! Instead, I’ve been busier since I left than I was all last year. As such, I’m now going to back log the last month of chaos in several parts. Here goes.

We spent New Years in Massanutten, VA, visiting with our friends Karin and Eric, and Karin’s family. For the uninitiated, Virginia, even in the higher elevations, really doesn’t get much snow. So it’s surprising that some businessman would bother to build a ski resort there. We didn’t ski (I’m not terribly good at it, and with a 1 year old who can’t stand, skiing was pretty much out of the question), though Karin’s father skied (or mudded) the slopes.

What we did do was hike and otherwise relax – making the weekend far more enjoyable for us than I think skiing could have.

No Time Left For…

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Since even before we left for our neighborhood hunting trip in Chicago, I kept thinking to myself, “I need to spend 5 minutes and blog.”  I promptly thought the same thing on Wednesday morning after our return.  And now it’s Friday night, and I really want to pull the photos off the camera, but I have yet more to do before I attempt such a daring feat.  A month off between jobs, and yet I’m busier now than I have been in months.  Go figure, and stay tuned.

Wouldn’t be a Party Without You

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Last night I had one big final get-together with a bunch of my current and former AOL coworkers at Breaker’s Billiards in Herndon. Beer, pool, food, and friends. Now I remember why it was such a hard decision to leave.

A big thanks to everyone who came out, and to everyone who pitched in for the really really cool schwag. And a huge thanks to Jill for putting it all together. You guys rock, and I’m definitely going to miss you.