Nice and Rough

Remember how Ike and Tina Turner used to sing "Proud Mary"? "We never do ANYTHING nice and easy...we do it nice and ROUGH!"

Well, Ike and Tina ain't got nothin' on us.

We just returned from a whirlwind tour of Chicago. We arrived late late late Sunday night, then spent all day Monday being shuttled around town by a real estate agent we only knew via email and a phone call or two, visiting 13 (count 'em) different properties that had piqued our interest. That night we collapsed after mulling over the choices with the help of some chianti.

Tuesday morning (that's today) we made an offer on our top choice. The Rev. and I took the "L" over to the neighborhood to walk around and try to get a feel for the area, then came back to our hotel, packed up and checked out, grabbed a quick bite, hauled our stuff to the "L" and made off for the airport. We arrived in St. Louis, had dinner with the Rev.'s parents, and got back in the car. No sooner after we merged on to the highway, our agent called us back with a counteroffer from the developer, which we accepted. Closing is tentatively scheduled in late January.

Time to take a breath. Ahhhhhh.....

Here's a picture of what may be our new home, in the Chicago neighborhood of Albany Park.



It's a single-floor 3-bedroom, 2-bath condo (we would be on the floor that has the sign hanging on it). The neighborhood may be one of the most ethnically diverse places on the planet - there are supposedly at least 40 different languages spoken by the residents, and it includes a thriving Korean business community (one of the main drags of the area is nicknamed "Seoul Drive"). There is also a concentration of immigrants from the Mexican state of Michoacán.

Needless to say, it will be very different than mid-Missouri. But we're up for the adventure!

Let it Snow!

May you live in interesting times...

OK, time for a newsflash:

We're moving to Chicago!

This will happen in February sometime. I was approached by a Big 4 accounting firm in Chicago (who I used to work for) with an offer we couldn't refuse. The Rev. will go on family leave from the ministry and get to be a stay-at-home mom for Zane. I get a job with lots of promise and potential and get to put my degree to work again.

There are some bittersweet feelings that come with this move. We will miss terribly the friends we've made in Columbia, but we will be living in an exciting place. We're not sure exactly where in Chicago we'll be living (either in the city proper or very close suburbs), but Zane's going to be an urban boy.

Life will be crazier than usual during the holidays as we try to add house-hunting and house packing (and a myriad of other to-dos) to our already full plates. I hope the stress won't rub off on Zane. We try to make his world as calm, loving and care-free as possible.

For a change, I'm the one taking our family on a wild ride by choice.

Some Eye Candy

Recent photos of the Z-man.
Enjoy.



I like to spend just as much time under the exersauser as in it.
Mom says I'm just trying to decide if I want to be an auto mechanic.



All bundled up for a walk with Daddy.




Looking at this morning picture, the prospect of having a good hair day is questionable at best




MIZ ZOU!
His shirt reads: "Tiger, not just a name, but a lifestyle"
My question: Can YOU believe they are no 1 in the country?

Making readers smarter since 2005!

Hat tip to The Rev. for digging up this gem:



Yay for us! Granted, this tester isn't that sophisticated (the Rev. found something on how it works but I can't place my grimy paws on it). So I ran the blog through some more comprehensive tests at readability.info and got these results:

Kincaid: 4.7
ARI: 4.4
Coleman-Liau: 8.0
Flesch Index: 85.9
Fog Index: 7.6
Lix: 29.3 = below school year 5
SMOG-Grading: 7.6

These results are very different (ranging somewhere between 4th and 8th grade level). You can get more info about the underlying algorithms here. Then I ran it through Juicystudio's tests and got these results:

Gunning Fog Index 15.83
Flesch Reading Ease 16.35
Flesch-Kincaid Grade 12.00

Since only recent posts are displayed when you call up the main URL of the blog, it's hard to get an overall score for the entire blog (when I tested the archives, the scores varied wildly from month-to-month). Faced with such inconsistent results, I'll just stick with the original "genius" moniker - it sounds cooler anyway. And I'm a firm believer of osmosis learning and intelligence, so you, gentle readers, should feel smarter too!

Author! Author!

Some of you may remember my escapade in the clouds shortly after I was able to start flying post-chemo. Well, I did some editing and submitted the story to AOPA (Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association), and the editors there said they would look at it. Many months later, I hadn't heard anything, so I figured they decided not to use my submission, but I asked anyway. Much to my surprise, I was told that AOPA intended to publish my story.

I was slightly disappointed that it wouldn't be published in their print magazine, but it was featured in this week's email newsletter to members. Here's the published version of the story. For the record, I was paid, so I guess that technically makes me a professional published author. That and three bucks can buy me a latte at Starbucks.

Toro!

It was inevitable. No sooner had we been deemed to be "state approved permanent parents" for Zane, he promptly caught a GI bug and treated us to several days of vomiting and diarrhea! It brought to mind what my mother-in-law told me in the middle of Sarah's and my wedding service: "It's too late now." Ah, the joys of family living!

Anyway, on to the topic of this post. For some reason, our son has started this odd behavior of screwing up his face to look like a troll, flaring his nostrils and breathing heavily through his nose. We've postulated as to where and how he picked up this trick, but since it gives him something like the countenance of a bull, we offer this for your entertainment:



Oh, did I mention that Zane is crawling?