The end is nigh!!

I am sitting in my new, expensive condo watching the rain POUR DOWN wondering WHY THE HELL I CHOSE TO SETTLE IN CHICAGO!

Now granted, the city I left, Denver, was just slammed by a terrible snow storm (I'll tell you this since our affiliate in Denver, J, is apparently dead or drunk or hung over or something... are you now too good for this blog?!) so apparently there is no escaping the crappy weather right now.

But seriously! I haven't seen the sun in what feels like weeks. (Irony alert: I used to complain about too much sun in Denver... oh well!)

Last night, on my way home from one of my last-ever PM shifts, I got caught in a DOWNPOUR. At one point I was trying to avoid big puddles on the the sidewalk and went into the street (bad idea) and got caught in a flash flood! Seriously, I was ankle-deep in water. I had to put my shoes in the drier this morning (YES, D, I did and NO, D, the drier didn't break!) Now today... we are again in a freakin' flood watch.

Oh NBC Thursday... j'adore!

I'll freely admit it... I have no life. I look forward to days of the week based on what TV is on. I should do something about that someday, right? Meh...

In the meantime, let me just gush about the comedic genius that can now be found on NBC Thursday night (note to NBC Universal / GE: please send my commission for this plug in the form of high-end GE appliances at your earliest convenience).

The new lineup trimmed out the show that I didn't watch, namely "My Name Is Earl" and added "Community" which I'm starting to love. Joel McHale... you had me at... whatever you first said in the pilot of your new show. "Parks & Recreation"? Who doesn't love Amy Poehler? No, seriously... who doesn't love Amy Poehler? I want to know because you, sir/madame, are someone that I don't know if I can trust!! And if you missed the wedding episode of "The Office"... well, I'm sorry for you. But there will always be a special place in my heart for "30 Rock". Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, Tracy Morgan, Jane Krakowski... never has such an amazing ensemble cast been put together.

Now I know what some of you are saying: "damn, if you have such a hard-on for NBC why don't you just... do it!" Well, smarty-ass... you can just... suck it or something. How can you not love the writing on a show that contains a sequence such as this which takes place while Liz and Jack are driving to Stone Mountain, Georgia looking for a new cast member who will speak to "Middle America"?:

Liz: Jack, for the eightieth time no part of America is more American than any other part.

Jack: You are wrong. Small towns are where you see the kindness and goodness and courage of everyday Americans. The folks who are teaching our kids, running our prisons, growing our cigarettes. People who are still living by core American values.

Liz: There are plenty of core American values in New York. [spots garish fast-food joint on the side of the highway] But there are NOT restaurants called "Fatty Fat's Sandwich Ranch"! Turn here TURN HERE!! [grabs wheel to force Jack to make the turn]

Jack: Ah, Lemon if this is going to play out like lunch I suggest you crack your window now and save yourself the embarrassment in twenty minutes. Now... they have hush puppies here which you might know better as a knish or beniet.

Thank you, DVR!! This same episode also featured Tracy Morgan freaking out that he would be the 3rd celebrity to die (they always die in 3) and in an effort to avoid that fate he crank calls Betty White with "Boo!" trying to scare her to death. OMG, who comes up with this! And props to Betty White on that fabulous cameo.

Okay, I'm done...

How about this??

These colors are called "tyler taupe" and "tawny rose". Ehh?

P. D. and J.: Color Correction

P. D. and J.: Color Correction

So, I know we had this whole discussion before in our old apartment, but here we go again. P and I can't decide on colors for the condo. Basically everything in the place is green. Living room/kitchen, hallway, master bedroom, master bath. We aren't green people.



Clearly, we're contemplating color in this shot. Also, it should be noted that this was the final walk-through before we actually owned it. There's a LOT more crap crammed in it right now, which is why you can't see any "live" shots just yet. The living room and kitchen are both in one space. You can see the cabinets in the picture, and that's black granite countertops. No backsplash (yet). At the other end of the room is the fireplace, also granite.



So, smarties, what would you suggest?

Hair today...

...more hair tomorrow? I'm doing it. I threaten it every year, but I'm growing my hair out. This is what I'm thinking, though honestly, I can't see myself as wearing it THAT messy. Thoughts? Feelings? Concerns? Discuss. Via the blog comments.

And condos!

So the condo is really great. We have a mile-long list of improvements we'd like to make (and no money to do ANY of them). Slow and steady wins the race, I suppose. I'd post pictures, but the condo is still primping. In anticipation of the pictures, some of my favorite highlights include:

1. The incredibly clean and sparkly bathrooms. We came from a vintage apartment with a very old bathroom. The hot water didn't work until my brother fixed it. And even after it started working, the water would leak all over the top of the sink. Plus, there was only one bathroom, and it smelled like mildew. I bet if you tore the tile off the walls of the shower, you'd find a metropolis of mold.

Our new bathrooms are all tiley and granitey. My new Sunday ritual is to scour them both from top to bottom. My sick secret is that I enjoy it.

2. The incredibly clean and sparkly kitchen. Our old kitchen can be described in one word: sick. It was about the size of a shoe box, and there was about one foot of counter space. The cabinets (all four of them) didn't match, the counter didn't fit, and I had to scrape an inch of grease off the stove when we first moved in.

Our new kitchen has TONS of cabinets and appliances that work. Well, except I hate the dishwasher. It's the most awkward appliance I've ever seen, and none of our dishes really fit. But the REST of the kitchen is wonderful. Our pantry cabinet holds more than all of the cabinets combined in our old kitchen.

3. The closet space. If I was good at html, I'd insert one of those heavenly "ahhhhh!" sounds here. We had no closet space in the old apartment. What we did have was crammed full of my "old lady Christmas village" (P's words, not mine) and miscellaneous other Christmas decorations.

We have a full wall of closets in each bedroom (which badly need organization -- #3 on our list of wants), a coat closet, a linen closet and a full storage room. *sigh* Also, have I mentioned all of our kitchen cabinet space?!

We're definitely still unpacking -- we're also still getting used to where things are. Example: Last night, at about 3:30am, I woke up to a very loud boom. I yelled something like, "holy shit!" and got up to turn on the light. I found P on the floor holding his knee. The poor guy had hit his knee on the corner of the chest at the foot of our bed. As soon as he did, he hit the floor. Hard. He was ok, but I'm pretty sure the cats are scarred for life. Think low to the ground and wild-eyed.

I have these grand ideas that I'll come home from work and completely organize one room each night. What actually happens is that I come home from work, make dinner or clean up after dinner (depending on who is cooking), and sit on my ass watching tv for the rest of the night. If good intentions were dollar bills, I'd have enough to buy numbers 1 through 3 on our wants list. Well, gotta go! "Real Estate Intervention" is on!

Just rip it off quickly...

Hello loyal blog fan(s). It's me, P. Who am I, you ask? Good question. I have been absent from this blog for far too long. I'm guessing few people even bother checking in on PD&J anymore. But hopefully we can get this blog goin' once again.

I thought I would blog today about why it has been so terribly long since you've heard from me. It has been the absolute worst 3 months of my life. This summer was hellaciously busy and now we are halfway into October and I'm all, "Hey... wha' happened?" (QUICK, NAME THAT MOVIE REFERENCE!)

So why, you ask (or not... but I'll tell you anyhow...) have you been so MIA? Well, over the summer I (we) was (were):

1. Studying for boards. I will (HOPEFULLY) soon find out that I am a board-certified pharmacotherapy specialist. I studied starting in August and took the test in early October. It was a hard test and I spent all of my free time studying. Now that it's over I can finally enjoy my free time (for a little while). You know, leisure reading? I don't remember the last time I finished a book.

2. Preparing for / interviewing for a faculty position at hospital above. I had my interview just about 1 week before my boards. Oh, and I had to prepare a 45-minute presentation for that. And FYI I got the position. More on that later.

3. Some of you might have also seen the last post about how we moved and how much of a nightmare that was. So we were SUPPOSED to close originally only 3 days after my 2-day interview (!!) but that got delayed. As did our move.

In the span of 12 days, during which I worked every single day (yes, the weekend included), I had this job interviewed, closed on a condo, moved (I didn't help as much with that... shout out to D and my mom) and sat for my boards. Ask D: I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Now I'm free and still feel exhausted from the last few months. I could use a long vacation. But alas I work this weekend. But the new job is no evenings, weekends or holidays so just a little bit longer and I'm free!

OMFG: Home Edition

Where. To. Begin.

So today was supposed to be our closing date. But that's not really where I should begin.

We've been looking for a condo. In this whole process, we've put in four different offers:

1. 2 bed, 1 bath condo. Owners were totally unrealistic re: price of that condo. While it was nice, it didn't have a parking spot, had only 1 bath, had tiny bedrooms and had a back patio off the master bedroom *grimace* In the end, it was one of the first condos we were really interested in, and it's a good thing we didn't get it.
2. 2 bed, 2 bath condo with gobs of counter space. This was a gorgeous unit with everything we could have ever hoped for (including a gigantic walk-in closet). In the end, the sellers wouldn't come down to our price (and it had high-ish assessments).
3. Short-sale (aka Dream Condo). Seller is a nightmare and hasn't even submitted all of his financials yet to the bank. Our offer had been sitting for one full month waiting for him so the bank could review our offer. We have since backed out of the deal.
4. 2 bed, 2 bath condo with parking spot and great assessments. This is our condo and the one we were supposed to close on today. At 3pm.

We knew on Friday that there was an issue with the appraisal. We had an approval with bank #1, but the underwriter wanted more comps for "like properties". Turns out, s/he wanted comps for new construction (even though our building was built in 2001 and, therefore, not "new" and even though there really isn't all that much new construction anywhere close to where we are buying, except for properties well above our price point). So, the broker submitted our application with another lender as a back-up (thank God).

Today at 1pm, we learned that we weren't going to be able to close today, at least with a loan and money changing hands. Some other important bits that go along with this news -- P's Mom is in town to help us coordinate all of this and is (was) leaving Wednesday evening, I took today and Tuesday off to close and work with the movers (who were scheduled to move us at 8am Tuesday morning), and P had to move mountains to get off work early to go to closing. At 2pm, I got a call from our agent who said that we were going to close (yay!), but that it would be a "dry" closing. That means that no money would change hands today, but we would get all the crappy paperwork out of the way so that closing (from our end) was over. The money would change hands tomorrow behind the scenes, and we would get the keys early enough so that moving day wasn't impacted. P's Mom and I picked P up downtown and made our way to the 'burbs to close only to learn that our loan docs weren't there. We waited around (with our lawyer, our agent, the seller's agent and the seller's lawyer) for over an hour only to learn that the loan docs weren't going to be there. Lender 2 approved our loan (conditionally) but is requiring our tax transcripts from the IRS. They won't get the transcripts until 4 or 5 hours into the business day tomorrow, after our lawyer will leave town for the day.

By this point, all of our heads were ready to explode. The end result is this:

1. I am now going to work on Tuesday (which is hard to wrap my mind around, having expected to be off).
2. I am taking Wednesday and Thursday off instead (which has caused me to have to clear my calendar completely at work).
3. Wednesday at 1pm is our new closing, which I will believe when I see it.
4. We had to reschedule our movers for Thursday afternoon.
5. We had to ask for a day's extension in our current apartment.
6. P's Mom had to reschedule her flight for the weekend, which cost her $200
7. Aaaaaaand I'm spent.

Buying a house, from this first-time home buyer's perspective, is exhausting and emotionally taxing. I'm sure that when this is all over, we'll be super happy and won't remember all of this crap. But right now it sucks. And I'm over it.

A Blog About Socks

Long story short: I bought a brown sweater dress and brown boots and realized I'm not going to wear any of it until I get me some leggings. But I can't just get brown leggings, or I'll look like a turd. So, have been using my workday to browse the internets for colorful leggings. Harder than you might think. Seriously--they're all tacky and too panty-hose like. Or they are way too wild (i.e., leopard print, pleather) and I wouldn't wear THAT to work...

So then I found a blog called Sock Dreams. I loved the socks--more specifically, the pictures of the socks make them look like they could change your life or lead you on an amazing adventure! Since most of them are knit, I was afraid I'd have to make my own (which, actually, since I am a Knitter and have been contemplating a fall project, was getting kind of excited about (after the initial annoyance)), but turns out--it's an online boutique!! WHEEE!

Girls' Weekend, Redux

J and The Sisters McDowell came to town for the U2 concert last weekend. We had a blast! Where to begin? Well, I guess with what they came to town for: The Concert™.

I wouldn't classify myself as a "U2 Fan", but I had never seen them before, and I can fake my way through the choruses of a couple of their songs. Plus, the company I would be keeping that day was top notch, so. My excitement was tamped down a bit when I learned that we would have to get to the concert to stand in line (the crazy ladies had GA tickets so they could get as close to the sweaty band members as possible. Meantime, P and I had seats) half a day before it was even to start. But, as it turned out, J and Sisters decided they were going to try to cut into line at the last second. In their defense (as horrible as that sounded to me at the time), I have to say that I was skeptical that the whole line system they had a Soldier Field would even work. I wish I had taken pictures of the holding areas. The only ones that truly looked like a refugee camps were the ones closest to the start of the line. Those sections were crammed with sweaty and stinky bodies of the weirdos who had traveled great distances to see Bono and Co. The holding pens farther back had next to no one in them. They looked like VIP cattle yards with just a few people sprinkled around for show.

So, we decided to explore a bit. We found a couple of interesting items, like...

An inflatable pub! Which I managed not to get a picture of. Well, except for this one. This is what was left on said pub after I got up. It looked like I had peed. (I didn't.)



The pub was sponsored by Guinness, which sounds exciting, especially since I love Guinness. But the mix was off, and it ended up just tasting like thick water. I still managed to drink my entire beer, for the record. They also had these crazy people walking around having their pictures taken with people. Much to my dismay, they didn't stop anywhere near us. I took this picture out the pub window. I call it "Bubble Boy's Dashed Hopes".



After this, we went to the Blackberry booth where we all got free cell phone screen cleaners. Speaking of, I can't find mine. At the ONE booth, I signed up for annoying email alerts so I can feel like an activist and send harassing emails to my Congressperson. Oh, I also got a bracelet. We also stopped at the Amnesty International booth and spend $25 (each!!!) on a t-shirt. A t-shirt that has already shrunk and can only be worn to bed now. *sigh*

After all of this, we still had several hours to kill. I bought a U2 t-shirt, mostly because I felt like I hadn't spent enough on t-shirts. This one also shrunk, but I learned from the seller that it would, so I planned ahead and got the next size up.



Then, the line theatrics started. Turns out, what appeared to be a system that would leave holes all over the place for sneaking people to... well, sneak... wasn't that sneakable. This is what the line looked like.



This is what everyone else looked like watching this line.



Note the teeth-shattering, tooth-chipping, stressed out grin above.



Note the look of annoyance above. Well, he looks annoyed a lot, so this could have been for pretty much anything.



You can tell that Heather (above) is stressed because she's not looking like a deranged turtle in this picture.



You can't really see Megan's stress level, mostly because she's always smiling. But trust me... there were times when I thought she was going to kill J.

Well, more specifically when I thought they were going to gang up on J and kill her. See, J wasn't so much into the whole "sneaking" thing. She kept saying things like, "You guys are small and can just squeeze in anywhere" (like she was some sort of giantess) and "You guys just go ahead without me. I'll meet up with you on the floor" (which we all knew was a lie. She would have been angry at the end of the concert). Lucky for all of us, they managed to sneak into the line farther back and avoided detection entirely.

The concert was pretty good (coming from a non-fan)! My camera battery died soon into the concert, but here are a couple of neato pictures.





The rest of the time we (1) ate a lot, (2) went to a gay bar (where we were pretty much the only patrons) and (3) took a whirlwind 1 hour trip of Shedd Aquarium.

I have videos from both 2 and 3 above, but am having issues loading them. In any event, that was our weekend. And P and I are ready for everyone to come visit again already!

Yet Another Time-Waster

Sometimes, the sites I waste time on during my work day help me find OTHER sites. See, for example, this on Huffington Post:

7 Sites You Should Be Wasting Time On Right Now: Choose Your Favorite! (SLIDESHOW, POLL)

Including such gems as:

I'mma Let You Finish with funny captions to pictures about Kanye West interrupting a bunch of people.

Why the F Do You Have A Kid??

Cheese or Font? A game you can play!

and, finally:

A Bad Case of the Dates: Bad Dates. Good Stories.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/17/7-sites-you-should-be-was_n_289233.html

Tomato Pie

Granted, I'm STARVING bc all I've eaten today is an egg mcmuffin (made at home) and a packet of instant oatmeal, but DOESN'T THIS SOUND DELICIOUS???



Tomato Pie

WTF happened to the blog?

I logged in and SOMEONE had changed the layout of the blog. Which is fine, it's just... I didn't recognize it, and you know how I get anxious when I don't recognize something. It makes me think of having to talk to new people, and having to gossip at parties *grimace*. I changed it to something more pleasing (to me). Minimalist, I am not.

A few quick notes on The Life and Times of David:

1. My niece is hella-cute. S, L and C came to visit last weekend. We had a blast. And then I promptly got depressed when they left, and refused to leave the house for a full 24 hours. We did lots of eating and (other) touristy things. This is one of my favorite pictures of C and me, mostly because I think it's funny how different our expressions are. Plus, she looks totally annoyed, which I expect she will be with me when she's a teenager and I'm no longer cool. Which is why I plan to spoil her rotten and offer her free trips to Chicago.



2. WE MIGHT HAVE A CONDO!!!! More on that later, as I don't want to jinx it. But, !!!

Another Thing To Do On A Computer

Okay, I am having a love affair with Google, obv. (Am also thinking of getting the MyTouch--thoughts?)

The Image Labeler is like a game and it's pretty fun, except when I got paired with a dumb-ass teammate who would only guess the main color of each image.

You can also check out Google Reader. It has featured reading lists of journalists, foodies, and techies. Once I run out of my go-to sites, my boredom tends to increase seven-fold.

For example:

Thomas Friedman

Foreign-affairs Columnist, NY Times

New York Times

Thomas L. Friedman is The New York Times's foreign-affairs columnist and the recipient of three Pulitzer Prizes. He previously served as the Times's chief economic correspondent and chief White House correspondent. His latest book is “Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution – and How It Can Renew America."

Subscribe to all of Thomas Friedman's picks

• Subscribe NY Times Home Page
• Subscribe Climate Progress
• Subscribe Dot Earth
• Subscribe Foreign Policy
• Subscribe Grist
• Subscribe Haaretz.com - News
• Subscribe James Fallows

• Subscribe Jeffrey Goldberg
• Subscribe Newsweek Columnists - Fareed Zakaria
• Subscribe Real Clear Politics - TIME.com
• Subscribe Slate Magazine
• Subscribe The Daily Beast
• Subscribe The Daily Dish - Andrew Sullivan
• Subscribe The Huffington Post: News
• Subscribe The New Republic TOC
• Subscribe TIME: Joe Klein
• Subscribe WSJ.com: US News

Show all of Thomas Friedman’s picks

Nicholas Kristof

Op-ed Columnist, NY Times

New York Times

Nicholas D. Kristof has been a columnist for The Times since 2001 and is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner. He has lived on four continents, reported on six, and traveled to more than 140 countries, every Chinese province and every main Japanese island. In 1990 Mr. Kristof and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, then also a Times journalist, won a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of China's Tiananmen Square democracy movement.

Subscribe to all of Nicholas Kristof's picks

• Subscribe The Lede
• Subscribe On the Ground
• Subscribe Aid Watch
• Subscribe First Read
• Subscribe Informed Comment
• Subscribe NY Times Opinion
• Subscribe RealClimate
• Subscribe Talking Points Memo
• Subscribe Top of the Ticket
• Subscribe TPMCafe

New Series: Things to Do on the Computer When You're Bored

I decided to start a new series in order to revive our blog. it's called "Things to do on the Computer When You're Bored". I was going to call it "Things to do at Work When You're Bored", but I know not everyone sits in front of a computer like I do and not everyone is actually bored at work.

Today's segment: Google Image Labeler

How does it work? You'll be randomly paired with a partner who's online and using the feature. Over a two-minute period, you and your partner will: View the same set of images. Provide as many labels as possible to describe each image you see. Receive points when your label matches your partner's label. The number of points will depend on how specific your label is. See more images until time runs out. After time expires, you can explore the images you've seen and the websites where those images were found. And we'll show you the points you've earned throughout the session. Tips: You may click the "pass" button if you can't think of any more labels for an image. If you and your partner both click "pass," you'll see the next image but receive no points for the passed image You'll receive more points for matches with more descriptive labels. For example, this image can be described by the labels: sky (50 points), bird (60 points), soaring (120 points), or frigate bird (150 points).

What do you need to participate? Just an interest in helping Google improve the relevance of image search for users like yourself. If you log in to your Google account, we will keep track of your points for you. You may also enter a nickname, but we do not require either a nickname or a login to use Google Image Labeler.

I Think I'm Starting to Understand Twitter

You can follow me on Twitter, but I wouldn't recommend it.

But, if you're intrigued, you might start with the most popular tweeters (Twitterholic)

And I swore I recently saw some article about the best Twitter accounts, but will have to post that later since I can't seem to find it.

But, I was just recently sent this guy's Twitter link: Shit My Dad Says The tweets are written by Justin: "I'm 28. I live with my 73-year-old dad. He is awesome. I just write down shit that he says"

Like:

"How the fuck should I know if it's still good? Eat it. You get sick, it wasn't good. You people, you think I got microscopic fucking eyes."

"Your mother made a batch of meatballs last night. Some are for you, some are for me, but more are for me. Remember that. More. Me."

"Love this Mrs. Dash. The bitch can make spices... Jesus, Joni (my mom) it's a joke. I was making a joke! Mrs. Dash isn't even real dammit!"

"I didn't live to be 73 years old so I could eat kale. Don't fix me your breakfast and pretend you're fixing mine."

Remember that drag queen?

When we lived in Denver, one night we went to a gay bar (Bricks) and there was a drag show. In this show was a drag queen who performed two different Pink (or "P!nk" as she apparently goes by now) songs. This queen had natural cleavage (and I don't mean implants. Man boobs -- moobs) and really knew none of the words except the choruses. I happen to have both of these songs on my iPod. Every single time I hear them, I think of that queen. Well, more specifically I think of the moobs, which were disturbing. In that same show was a drag queen that fancied herself a taller, manlier version (if that's even possible) of Celine Dion. She did what I call "Celine Dion arms". If I wasn't on the train, I'd do a video on my phone and post it to the blog to show you what I mean. But then, I suppose that leaves something for later, doesn't it?

Big Chicks = where I am

*drunk again*

House Hunting Update

As previously mentioned, P and I are condo shopping. We found what we thought was the perfect condo, and even made an offer. The sellers were in way over their heads and wanted too much -- much more than it was even worth. So, we walked away. In the end, it was a good thing. It was a 2 bedroom, 1 bath condo, and probably a bit smaller than what we really need. But it was pretty. I tend to focus on the negatives (since we didn't get it), which include:

1. Balcony was off the bedroom, which is awkward for entertaining.
2. Bedrooms were small. In fact, there was only one possible placement of the bedroom in the master, and if you'd shifted the bed just one inch, you'd have blocked the door to the balcony.
3. Did I mention it had only 1 bath?

Our new favorite condo (which we're going to see for a second time on Sunday) is beautiful. Here, I will focus on the positives!

1. 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms -- Lord knows we need 2 bathrooms as that is one of the biggest bicker points of our current apartment.
2. The master is H-U-G-E! My dream is to build a walk-in closet in that bedroom. And doing that, it would still be bigger than what we have now!
3. Laundry room. That's right, a laundry ROOM. In the unit, with storage and everything.
4. Balcony off the kitchen.
5. Very bright.
6. Very modern.
7. 18' x 30' storage unit in the basement.
8. Gas fireplace (only unit in the building with a fireplace).

So, we'll see where this all takes us. We're going to see this unit and a few others on Sunday.