It's Been A While

I know, I know. I have not written in over a week on this thing I call my blog, but again, I have been busy.

I went to Chicago two weekends ago and experienced both Pizzeria Uno and Pizzeria Due. The latter is across the street from the former. Apparently, early on, Uno's just got too darn crowded. So the owner opened up a second restaurant across the street. Brilliant! And because not as many people seem to know about Pizzeria Due, it appears to be less crowded and easier to get a table there. We went to Uno's on a whim, saying well, while their pizza is often a little too greasy, we are in Chicago and we should at east try it to say that we tried it before we leave. Oh my God. Forget Giordano's. Forget Gino's East. No, no, no, my friend. Pizzeria Uno and Due is where it is at. Uno's was so good we went to Due the next day for more. And even today, I wake up with a desire to go back and have some more. Certainly, the best deep dish pizza I have ever had. I wish the franchised stores could make it as well as those two places do.

I discovered a new Web-based financial management site. It was written up in a number of places and got some stellar reviews. In fact, the reviews were so good, the company was inundated with new customers wanting to use their product, and their servers couldn't keep up with the demand. It took them several days to install additional servers and get everything running smoothly but they appear to have accomplished it. What is so cool about this site, is you enter your username and password for all of your credit card and bank accounts and it automatically goes there and pulls all your transaction data and keeps it up to date on an ongoing basis, so you do not have to keep entering your transactions as you go. It also categorizes your transactions, and keeps track of your debt to cash ratio and your interest rates and gives you a comparative analysis, based upon national averages, makes suggestions of you could save additional money, and gives you charts as to how much of your budget goes to what - travel, entertainment, gas, groceries, etc. In short, it's exactly what I always wanted. The site is called Mint, and it's completely free. How is it free you may ask because I sure know I did. Well, remember how I said it figures out ways for you to save money, like it pointed out to me that I could open an ING checking account and earn over 4% on my money. 4% in a checking account with no minimum balance! Insane. Well, ING pays them for that ad placement recommendation, as do other companies that offer cool programs and offers that can save or earn you extra money. Is it safe? Well, they sound pretty safe, and their security practices have been approved by e-Trust and Verisign.

As to the trip planning for Costa Rica, because Kate asked. The planning is going great. I have mostly figured out all the logistics of the trip and have selected hotels that we could probably stay at and how much most of all of that will cost. I eliminated one city and possibly added a different one, as it was just logistically easier. Our trip will probably not involve most of the beaches in Costa Rica, which we are mostly ok with, as we live in Florida and can go to the beach whenever we want. We were more interested in the rafting, kayaking, volcanoes and rain forest exploration than the beaches. Maybe if we go back, we will try to take in more beach areas. Overall, though, the trip sounds like it is going to be amazing. Absolutely everyone I know who has been says it is just an amazing place and as more and more retired foreigners and speculators are settling there and trying to make it even more of a tourist destination, I feel fairly sure that if I do not get there soon, I will lose almost any chance I have of seeing it as something other than Disneyland. And that's the story on Costa Rica. If you have any individual questions, let me know. I have looked through about eight travel books on the country and have a couple of favorites so far, but we will see how I feel about them after I get back. I have also done research on other areas of the country and the beaches, but my predominant focus has been elsewhere.

Ok, now off to being busy again.

I Blame Harry Potter

Ok, so this time I was called out by both Amber and Kate for not carrying out my Blogger duty of writing at least a single post per week. It's not my fault, though. It's that boy's. That Harry Potter lad. Last week, I spent all my free time, and I didn't have a lot of it, finishing the book. Then last weekend, through the beginning of this week, I was in Chicago. Since I got back, I have been insanely busy at work and have been having terrible trouble sleeping. I often have reasonable difficulties sleeping, but it was getting really bad. So bad that when I would finally be able to go home, I didn't actually have the energy to do much of anything, let alone compose a coherent thought for my blog. It was as though dementors had surrounded my house. Ok, ok. It wasn't all that bad, but it wasn't good.

The good news is that it's Friday. Friday, people! How cool is that?

As to Harry Potter, Book 7. I thought the book was good. There were parts of it that annoyed me, much like there are parts of her other books that I find a little boring or annoying, at times. However, I think I found at least one complete plot hole in this book, possibly two. I was particularly disappointed with the last couple of chapters of the book. It felt like her editors had made Rowling (or whoever the author actually is) write it. I can't go into too much detail here about it, of course, so as not to give away too many spoilers. It was pretty funny, though, to see people reading it wherever I went over the past two weeks. I kept asking my girlfriend if I should just walk up to someone I would see reading it and tell them how it ended, but she was firmly convinced that this was a entirely bad idea. Go figure.

Chicago was warm, finally. We're talking 80 and 90 degree weather. Not that cold that hits you in the face and knocks you on your ass that I have come to know and expect from the Windy City. I even got to spend some time walking along Lake Michigan, which has been preserved no better than the Atlantic Ocean, I am sorry to say. However, I hear it is improving. Maybe. I got to see two shows - one of them at Second City. It was such a great show. Not only were the performers funny, but they bring you copious amounts of alcohol, for a small fee. It was really a lot of fun. The other show ... was not exactly what I had in mind.

The concept of the second show seemed to be that the performers attempted to completely knock down the fourth wall, and allow their audience unfettered access to, and participate in, the actual performance. This approach gave rise to such exciting things as an audience member's personal details from her blog being exposed to the entire audience and a performer and an audience member getting into a brawl on stage. Again, it was not what I had in mind, but my girlfriend loved it and my mind grew as a result of it, so no harm done. Finally, I got to eat some wonderful food, again. It was sort of typical Chicago fare this time. Not really any fancy restaurants, mostly local spots that average people there would go to everyday. For example, we went to a well known local spot that serves some delicious chili, pizzas, and blue margaritas. Yum.

I am becoming a big fan of Southwest Airlines for a number of reasons. First, their flights to and from Chicago seem faster than any other airline, by at least 15 minutes - up to one half hour. Second, their people seem genuinely nice. It is often just such a pleasure to fly with them. Third, their frequent flier program is based upon number of flights, not number of miles. I think you get rewards as of your twelfth flight, that is only six trips. Plus, they now have a pretty nifty tool on their Website that lets you know all their available fares for every day of any month between two cities. Very cool.

I guess that about brings us up to date. My work here is done.

Sidewalks

The thing that I think I noticed the most about Chicago while I was there this time, other than how amazingly warm it was compared to the last time I was there (it was in the 80s, people) was the city layout and its amazing sidewalks. I do not think there are many places that I can think of in South Florida that have sidewalks as big as they have there. It is so pedestrian friendly, and encourages people to walk and explore the city, without too much fear of being knocked into oncoming traffic. I love that. It makes me want to live in Chicago, and if it was not for the bitter, bitter cold and the wind that rips right through you and strips anyvestige of warmth your body may have otherwise been able to hide away, ignoring any articles of clothing you might have thought would insulate you from its cold icy grasp, I would be planning on moving there before the year was out. On the bright side, planes seem to enjoy flying to the Windy City like addicts returning to their dealers, so I should have no problem returning there in the future for their gorgeous sidewalks and, if I plan correctly, I may be able to avoid its cold icy grasp.

While I was there this time, I went to The Field Museum, took a water taxi to The Navy Pier, sampled a cheezeburger at The Billy Goat Tavern, and another, an hour later, at The Weber Grill Restaurant. (I do not think I have consumed that much red meat in at least a year and my body is still trying to figure out what to make of the experience.) I also got to taste the glorious cinnamon buns at Ann Sather's, enjoy many fine libations at Charlie's Ale House, and stroll over to The John Hancock Building, and that was just on Saturday. There really is just so much to see and do in that city. So much so that even after you run out of all the typical tourist things that one might do, there are enough additional activities to keep you occupied for at least a few years, I imagine. (I've posted pictures of some of my experiences on my Flickr page, which I have added a link to in my sidebar, in case any of you are interested.)

I really had a tremendous time while I was there. Unfortunately, my flight got back so late (which in many ways was incredibly fortunate, as I was running extremely late and would have most likely missed my plane entirely if it had not been completely delayed in its arrival to - and hence, its departure from - Midway), and I am still trying to recover. However, I have to think that a little fatigue is a fine price to pay for seeing an enchanting woman and a beautiful city.

Update

Some of you may have noticed that I have been a little lax in updating - not that I was ever terribly good at posting more than a few times per week, but there have certainly been fewer posts coming out of me since my surgery. To all those people that noticed, I'd like to say two things: First, thank you; and, second, it's not my fault.

Surgery certainly did not help my ability to type blog posts on a regular basis, but neither did my laptop crashing, and having to wait for a new one to arrive. Yes, that's right kids - I'm running Vista and it really is just about as annoying as you've heard. (I have to approve practically everything my computer does now, and a lot of things seem to be incompatible with it - including the Internet security suite that shipped with the system. Brilliant. I spent a lot of time trying to remove Vista and replace it with XP but my computer doesn't play as nicely with XP and it seems to with Vista so it looks like I'll need to take some time and learn to love it.) Then I went on a trip to Chicago, and spent this past weekend with the lovely and talented Violet. (You can see photos from my excursion on Flickr.)

My weekend in Chicago was amazing. Not only was the company fantastic and special but the city itself is amazing. If it hadn't been so fucking cold, I would have simply stayed there and found a new job for me to utilize my legally trained mind. However, it was very cold. Most of my time was spent either indoors or walking outside, yearning for the next place that I would be able to feel the warmth of artificial heat, as the sun surely was not going offer me any relief. I got to see a great exhibit at The Art Institute of Chicago, sample delicious pizza at Giordano's and take in the downtown city sites - not to mention a fantastic brunch, and that was just the first day. The people there are really friendly and nice, the food is phenomenal, and the public transit system is quite impressive. Just a fantastic city to be in and I was sad to leave, but that likely more had to do with the company.

My laptop and I are still learning to get along. It finally got me to surrender last night and reinstall Vista. I do have to say that the system resumes from sleep much more efficiently in Vista than any other Windows OS I have used in the past, and I am going to try and run Open Office as my default Office program, as I see no reason to pay for a Microsoft office suite when I can get a perfectly good one for free, as can anyone else I want to share documents with. It has the inter-portability functionality of Adobe pdf, without the pdf. I may, however, lose my electronic journal, as the journal I was told would be compatible with Vista before I downloaded it, doesn't appear to be compatible with Vista now that I've downloaded it - go figure. I'll have to wait and hope that they release a patch, but until then, something else will have to be found.

My arm is still recovering. It's still really difficult to move in many ways, but it has certainly improved when compared to a month ago. Occasionally, I catch myself accidentally reaching for the car door with my left arm and it doesn't cause me nearly as much pain anymore. I have been doing stretching exercises for it - my arm, not the car door. These are, generally, some of the same physical therapy exercises I did before ever having surgery but now they really hurt when I do them, whereas before they only caused mild discomfort.

So far, my year seems to be off to an eventful and exciting start. I cannot wait to see what it looks like by the end of this year.