Thanks, Chicago

So I got notice in the mail at my dad's house of a parking violation here in Chicago from back in December. The violation was for rush hour parking on a street where no such restrictions exist. I never received a physical ticket on my car, and the notice in the mail did not have any photos attached. I could not find any photos online either. I decided to contest the ticket naturally, but I'm pissed that I can find no proof that I was even parked there. Truth be told, I was likely parked here on this day, but I didn't break any rules. The worst part is the amount of time I have spent on this matter and how it frustrates me. Since I wasted a lot of time researching and writing a letter contesting the ticket, I thought I would share in the hopes of making myself feel better ;-)

My letter to the city is below (i find it interesting that I have to appeal to the department of revenue...):

City of Chicago
Department of Revenue
P.O. Box 88292
Chicago, IL 60680-1292

To Whom It May Concern:

On February 7, 2009, I received notice via US Mail of parking ticket number [redacted] The ticket was issued on December 2, 2008 to a vehicle with Kentucky license plate number [redacted]. The violation description provided on the ticket is “Rush hour parking.” As a registered owner of the vehicle in question, I am contesting this ticket under provisions of the Municipal Code of Chicago found in the “Contesting by Mail” area of the City of Chicago Website.

Item 6 of the list of allowable defenses for parking and compliance tickets reads:
“The illegal condition described in the compliance violation notice did not exist at the time the notice was issued”

The address specified on the ticket, 754 W. Wilson Ave, is located between Clarendon Ave and Marine Dr. There are no rush hour parking restrictions on this area of Wilson Avenue on either side of the street. Pictures have been enclosed of the block and the signage on the block. The only known parking restrictions on this area of Wilson are street cleaning restrictions as evidenced by one of the attached photographs.

If there are rush hour parking restrictions on this section of Wilson Avenue, the signage does not indicate this and therefore would meet the qualifications of item 3 on the list of allowable defenses by the Municipal code of Chicago.

If there are no rush hour parking restrictions in this area of Wilson Avenue, then the illegal condition described in the ticket did not exist on the date it was issued. Therefore the ticket should be dismissed.

If there are rush hour parking restrictions, but no signage indicating such, then the relevant signs prohibiting or restricting parking were missing and the ticket should be dismissed.
This ticket seems like a simple mistake and hopefully it can be resolved quickly. Thank you for your time in reviewing this matter.

Regards,

H. Andrew Goss

Save Money, Eat Better

One of my goals for 2009 is to save money and dovetailing with that is my ongoing goal to eat better. I have not set any crazy weight loss goals, or anything like that. However, too often my meals are dictated by my schedule and my mood and I would like to get beyond that.

Background:

I live in an expensive city and thus I would like to save money any way that I can to free up money for other things that I enjoy such as video games, bourbon, travel, charitable causes, and entertainment. I would also like to build up my savings account and work towards becoming debt-free.

I have what doctors call a little bit of a weight problem (yes, I am plagiarizing Tommy Boy). It is no secret that I could stand to lose a few pounds. I grew up in a house where I was expected to clean my plate, and so I occasionally find myself with a compulsion to eat what is left on my plate. I also hate the idea of wasting food as it is expensive.

Plan:

I have a few ideas for working towards these goals. Or perhaps a better way of putting it is that I have smaller goals to work towards these themes:

• Cook more meals at home, keep better options for snacks and meals around the house.
• Eat out and order in less
• Put smaller amounts of food on my plate
• Eat slow and stop when I feel satisfied
• Walk more frequently

I realize that this is vague (and that I just ordered Jimmy Johns about 10 minutes ago), however it segues in to the real reason why I am blogging today. Food.

I like to cook and I am fairly competent at it. I can make complicated meals, meals to feed a lot of people, etc. However, I am often not motivated to make a meal, especially just for myself. I think that one thing that would help me is to make a menu on a weekly basis, make foods with 1-2 leftover portions for when I dont want to cook, and to keep a variety of stuff on hand that I can mix and match if I want to.

These are my thoughts for now. I'd be interested to hear what any of you all think. Later today perhaps I will work on a menu for this week or next.

--Andy

Christmas in Review

Chicago. It gets cold here, but it really hasn't been that bad. It gets windy here, but according to things I read it is not particularly more windy here than anywhere else. The "Windy City" moniker originated elsewhere, but where is a bit of a debate.

Nevertheless, this is where I live now. Over Christmas I joked, "Home is where your stuff is" as a play on the old saying. It got a lot of laughs, but for the most part this is true. Moving here was a huge leap out of my comfort zone, but as stupid as this sounds, having some things stay the same (i.e. my stuff) makes it more manageable.

Christmas was good, but it really snuck up on me this year. I did not send any Christmas cards and didn't do any real shopping until the 23rd when we got to Louisville. For me, the hardest part about Christmas shopping is not the lines or the crowds (though I am wont to bitch about them while shopping) it is not knowing what people want. My dad never wants anything, my mom will never give me a good idea, and my brothers and I seldom exchange gifts.

Before leaving Chicago, I bought some spices for my mom at The Spice House. So I had her gift covered. We had to dig my car out of two previous snow events before leaving, so it took us a couple of hours longer than we figured to hit the road. Then I had to find a place to air up my tires. This caused a lot more stress than it should have. I also needed gas, so in my mind, I was looking for a place that gave free air for customers. Maybe they don't exist in Chicago. Even still, I was willing to pay the 50 cents or whatever (seemed reasonable) but the first station we went do didn't have any change. Still not being intimately familiar with the city, I had no idea where to go next. It was 7 degrees, a little breezy, and my tires were at least 10 pounds low on air. We eventually found a place.

We stayed with my mom on the evening of the 22nd and exchanged gifts on the morning of the 23rd after breakfast. Then it was shopping time. I saw my grandma and then I saw my dad and he gave me an incredibly nice gift. Then we drove to southeastern KY.

On the return trip, we stayed with my dad for a day.

I think I used to take living in Louisville for granted. This trip forced me to think more about my medium to poor relationship with my family and how I had to do time sharing with everyone to make it all work. I used to just avoid some of my family knowing that I would see them at some event that I didn't avoid. Now that I live here, its much harder to do that. I had to make the most of my trip to Louisville and that meant a lot of time sharing, driving, etc.

In the end, the trip was a good thing. We got to see everyone, relax some, drink some, eat a lot, and we brought back a Camry full of stuff. I didn't know you could fit so much stuff into a Camry.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from the Family - Robert Earl Keen Jr.

Mom got drunk and Dad got drunk at our Christmas party
We were drinking champagne punch and homemade eggnog
Little sister brought her new boyfriend
He was a Mexican
We didn't know what to think of him until he sang
Felis Navidad, Felis Navidad

Brother Ken brought his kids with him
The three from his first wife Lynn
And the two identical twins from his second wife Mary Nell
Of course he brought his new wife Kay
Who talks all about AA
Chain smoking while the stereo plays Noel, Noel
The First Noel

Carve the Turkey
Turn the ball game on
Mix margaritas when the eggnog's gone
Send somebody to the Quickpak Store
We need some ice and an extension chord
A can of bean dip and some Diet Rites
A box of tampons, Marlboro Lights
Haleluja everybody say Cheese
Merry Christmas from the family

Fred and Rita drove from Harlingen
I can't remember how I'm kin to them
But when they tried to plug their motor home in
They blew our Christmas lights
Cousin David knew just what went wrong
So we all waited out on our front lawn
He threw a breaker and the lights came on
And we sang Silent Night, Oh Silent Night, Oh Holy Night

Carve the turkey turn the ball game on
Make Bloody Mary's
Cause We All Want One!
Send somebody to the Stop 'N Go
We need some celery and a can of fake snow
A bag of lemons and some Diet Sprites
A box of tampons, some Salem Lights
Haleluja, everybody say cheese
Merry Christmas from the Family

Ramen Hot Dog Lunch

Every day when I work from home I have the great lunch debate. Should I go out? Order in? Make something homemade? Leftovers? Regardless of my options, I never seem to be able to make a decision.

I enjoy going out of my apartment to eat, but today its very slushy out and I decided to save some money by eating in. My options were limited as I haven't been to the grocery in almost two weeks. So, I whipped up something that many will scoff at but you can't argue with its frugality. So here it is, my recipe of the day:

Ingredients:
2 hot dogs, I use Oscar Meyer Weiners
1 pckg. Ramen Noodle (I use chicken flavor)
water

Directions:
Carefully crush the ramen noodles in the package before opening and placing in a bowl. Cut hot dogs into bite sized pieces, about 1/4-1/3" thick. However you want to cut them is fine. Add the hot dogs to the dry noodles and add water to cover, stirring the noodles to mix the hot dogs in. Microwave on high for about two minutes, or until the noodles are done. Add seasoning packet to taste, I never use the whole thing.

This may not be the healthiest option, but it is certainly cheap. Ramen noodle is often less than 50 cents a pack and hot dogs are about .30 cents each. Water doesn't cost me anything extra.

I reccomend consuming at least 2 glasses of water on top of what you would normally drink since this is a very salty dish. I have a similar recipe called Ramen Noodle Delight. Ingredients are a package of ramen and a six pack of beer. Prepare ramen according to package directions, eat, and drink your beer. ;-)

--Andy

Visiting Louisville

Hi everyone, I just wanted you to know that I will be visiting Louisville starting Wednesday November 19 in the evening and returning on Sunday, November 30. I will not be around for thanksgiving, however all the days leading up to it (about 6 days I guess) I will be available. Please let me know if you want to meet up.

Fall Reprise

Its been a beautiful Fall weekend in Chicago. Temperatures have been cold at night, but daytime highs have been in the high 50s and 60s. I was originally supposed to go see Neil Diamond today in St. Louis, however, plans were foiled again. Its interesting, this concert was rescheduled from August when I couldn't go because of my friend Bobby's wedding. Today I have a conference call at 7pm and the concert is at 8. Its unfortunate, but perhaps it is just meant to be that I am not going to see him. I hope Jeremy, Jessica, and whoever they get to use my ticket (D-Lo?) have a great time.

I spent over a hundred bucks yesterday at Target. I got some much needed lamps for my bedroom as well as a few other items.

My bread baking continues to be mediocre, though yesterday's loaves were markedly better than my previous attempts. I just needed to use some more dough, and I think they may have turned out perfectly.

Fortunately for me, Merle has an extra ticket to today's Bear's game at Soldier Field. I will be meeting him in about an hour and fifteen minutes to go to the game and hopefully have some fun. The game should be over by 3:30-4pm.

Austin in 24 hours

Thursday morning I woke up around 4:30-4:45 to catch a 8:10 am flight to Austin, TX for work. Seems early, but here was how I broke down the time budget:

1.0 hours to get ready (finish packing, shower, shave, etc.)

1.5 hours to walk to the train, catch the train, transfer to the orange line, walk to the terminal.

0.25 hours to get through security, get breakfast, and get to the gate.

This adds up to 2.75 hours, which, waking up at 4:45 would put me at the gate by 7:30 am. This would give me about an hour before the departure. TSA recommends, last I checked, arriving at the airport 1.5 - 2 hours before your flight departs. My actual numbers were more like this:

wake up at 4:45.

leave apartment building front door at 5:42

arrive at train platform at 5:53-5:56

board southbound Red train at 5:59

departing Fullerton station at ~6:10 (i put this in here because I think its the fastest I have ever gotten from Wilson to Fullerton.

in Roosevelt station at 6:28

board Midway bound Orange Line train at 6:33

arrive at Midway about 7 am

make it to the gate by 7:25 am

on board the plane at 8:03 am

so, I was pretty successful getting out the door in under an hour. By my calculations, it took me 46 minutes to get from my front door to the Orange Line transfer at Roosevelt and another 30 minutes to get from there to Midway, so about 1 hour and 15 minutes. I should note that my times could not get much more optimal. I waited less than 5 minutes for a train at both stations, its often times a longer wait.
I spent about 25 minutes in the airport getting to the gate. So, rounding up, it took me about what I budgeted, or, 2 hours and 45 minutes. I think in the future I should build in an extra 15 minute buffer or, have a bailout plan if I reach a point where the timing isn't going to work. If it would have taken me 10-20 minutes longer on the train, I would have been cutting it close at the airport had I had to get inspected or anything like that.

In Austin, I met up with Craig who landed about the same time as me, and then we waited for Todd. We drove into Austin and had a quick lunch at KFC and then headed to our meeting. The meeting was short, but I think it went pretty well. We covered the basics and got the intangible benefit of a face to face meeting.

After the meeting, we checked in at the hotel and I made a quick shirt change and headed to the hospital to visit Ward and David. Ward and David are two Triangle's from Houston who were involved in a serious car wreck last Friday night. They have both been in the ICU at Austin's Brackenridge Hospital since then. They are both recovering well it seems, though I am sure it was a traumatic experience. Despite the fact that they are still in the ICU, the spirits among the families were high. Ward's dad is funny and was trying to get me to stay another day and David was soon to be extubated and would hopefully be able to wake up more and finally get to talk to his family. Ward was feeling so good that while I was out of the room, he made a request for the left side of his head that was about to get shaved to match the right side that a delta-T be carved in his hair and that we get a picture. It made me laugh. Ward was very talkative, all things considered, and after I had made my introduction and was a little at loss for words, he spoke very quietly and deliberately (his throat is still tender from the tubes) and asked me "so...when did you join Triangle?" and a hodgepodge of other questions. I was very happy to see that both David and Ward are making progress in their recovery.

I left the hospital and drove back to the hotel where I picked up Craig and Todd and we went to dinner at El Arroyo in Austin. The food was good, the music was good, and the margarita was also tasty. After dinner, we were all pretty much beat, and we headed back to the hotel. I stayed up until almost 11 working on stuff and then went to bed. woke up at 4:30 this morning to catch the 5 am shuttle to the airport for a 6:30 flight home. 24 hours and 40 minutes later, I stepped off the plane into the airport. It was quite the long day.

--Andy

A Couple of Pictures

Not Now Brain, I'm Trying to Think

It is very rare for me to go a night without dreaming. Often times, my dreams are very stressful. Last night's dream was no exception, except, it was so odd that when it woke me up I felt compelled to write down the key facts and commit it to memory.

The dream went like this:

I was in school, perhaps even high school, and I had to take a bus home. The bus appeared to be a school bus. The weirdness started right away because while it looked like I was in Louisville, and it looked like we were driving on what I think were Louisville streets, I had gotten on the wrong bus. The bus I was on was the 147, a Chicago route designation, and for some reason I knew that I was supposed to be on the 146. I was sitting in the very back of the bus, which like a school bus, had the narrow back seats and I was sitting by myself. I was panicking because I was on the wrong bus, but I could not figure out how to make the bus stop and let me off (it was a school bus, and we were getting in I-64 in Louisville.) This was part one of the stress.

Part two came when I got off the bus. I think I was at a gas station, but I had left my bag on the bus. The bag contained my laptop, a camera, and a camera that did not belong to me. in the dream I estimated the value of my bag and its contents at $5,000. I have no idea what I based that dream number on. Anyhow, I started trying to call people on the bus or off the bus to help me get my stuff back. I was unsuccessful, and then I woke up.

Its not really my most stressful dream, but I thought the smash up between Louisville and Chicago was interesting. The 146 is actually one of the bus routes I would take to get home if I were downtown, and the 147 would in fact be the wrong bus.

Kentucky Should Want a Piece of this

The Chicago Tribune reported today, October 6, 2008 that Chicago would be the hub of a nine-state high speed rail network under legislation that has just passed both the house and senate and will soon be signed into law by the president. The Federal Railroad Safety Improvement Act, among the various safety minded items also authorizes up to 3.4 billion dollars for the creation of these high speed rail corridors and grants to states.

Among Kentucky borders four of the states in the bill: Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, and Ohio. It should only make sense then that Kentucky should want to be a part of this network. Imagine what a high speed connection to Indianapolis, Chicago, Cincinnati, and St. Louis would do for our economy. It would provide competition to the airlines, reduce traffic on our roads, and would encourage tourism between the states.

In most cases, the tracks and right-of-ways are already there...they just need improvements.

I think it would behoove Kentucky to get on board, so to speak, with this plan and work hard to get connected to this high speed system.

Funny Image from Today's News

Salmonella Outbreak News Story

A few updates

Greetings everyone! I've made it through yet another day in the windy city. In the spirit of keeping things interesting and fresh, here are a few updates:

1. Blogs now importing to Facebook - I debated doing this for a while because generally I don't like aggregation of the things I read (sorry, Jeff), preferring to read them in their original presentation. Therefore, it should make sense that I have always desired others to read my posts as I displayed them. However selfish this might be, it was probably the reason why my rss feed was set up to only give previews of my posts rather than the full thing. Its a trade off though as now more people will probably have the opportunity to read what I have to say. The only thing I think I won't like though is that comments on the blogs I import will remain on facebook and will not go back on my website with the original posts...unless my admiring fans all click to the original post at the bottom of the note and then leave a comment ;-)

2. Walking - I have to say that I enjoy walking around my neighborhood and down to the lake. I am trying to enjoy the nice weather while it lasts, as I am sure this winter walking will be less appealing. Today I have probably walked around 4 miles. over half of that was deliberate exercise this morning. Yesterday I don't think I walked quite 4 miles, but at least there has been exercise. You can see more pictures from my morning walk on facebook.

3. Aldi's - I am not sure I like this place, but it does have some cheap, generic shit.

4. Gigio's Pizza in Uptown - This establishment located between wilson and leland on broadway intimidated me the first time I walked past, despite the glowing reviews I read on google. I have since visited there twice, once yesterday before going to Aldi's and once this evening with Darrell.

I may have just found my favorite NY Style pizza restaurant. The pizza is wide flat and with a tasty crust. The place itself is certainly unassuming, but the pizza is superb. I found this review on centerstage to be almost exactly in line with how I feel about the place. I wish I could pronounce the name, I keep wanting to say Gigolo's. Two people eating for less than 8 bucks, not bad.


5. Twilight - A novel by Stephenie Meyer. I have never been into Vampires or Vampire stories, but this was a book like few others that I have read. Truly captivating. It inspires me to want to write fiction, again, or pretty much anything really. The book itself was interesting to me because it is told from the point of view of a woman, something I am not accustomed to. But more than that I guess is the fact it is a love story told from the point of view of a woman.

I breezed through it, which isn't uncommon for me when I find a book I like. If you haven't read it and can find it at the library, go to the library and read it. If you can't find it at the library, ask to borrow it from me or go get it at Borders.

Sunny Day

Today was very nice compared to yesterday, but this isn't a blog about the weather. I'm sure there are plenty of those. I was, though, happy to see the sun this morning when I woke up. I decided to do my walk first thing this morning, so I walked with Darrell to the train sometime around 7:30 AM. I left him at Wilson and continued on around the neighborhood.



It was a great morning for a walk. It was cool, probably about 55 degrees, it was sunny, and the air had a very crisp smell to it which is common after a day of rain. I ended up walking about a mile and a half.

I worked hard to day on a lot of Java code that keeps getting more and more complex. I can't wait to be done with this interface.

Finally, I ate dinner with Sheryll, Mehera, and Darrell tonight at Crew. We ordered all appetizers, and they were pretty good. After dinner, we went to Borders before walking home. My total mileage for the day was about 3 or so miles.

Rainy Day

I didn't know it was going to rain today until I was preparing to take my morning walk. I meant to go early this morning while it was sunny, but we had a house guest and I was unable to get properly ready to venture outdoors. It was overcast. I saw that rain was approaching, but I figured I had 15 minutes which would be time for a quick walk and I could handle a light rain.

It turns out that it was a little cooler outside than I anticipated and the rain was a little heavier than light rain. I did a very quick walk up the block and then decided it would be best to turn back. Instead of venturing out in the rain, I decided to order some Thai delivery from a place that delivered a menu to our apartment. The Duck Walk advertises delivery service, so I decided to try their Pad Khee Mao. It was very spicy, and good, but not nearly as yummy as the dish from Sala Thai in Louisville. If I ever order it again, I would request a few changes. However, I will probably try something from there again such as the Pad Thai or the Cashew Chicken.

I may be going out to a place tonight with Sheryl, Darrell, and some other friends but this is to be determined. Anything we do will me minimal as I don't have a lot of time for gallivanting all over town.