north shore: Oh the places you will go, Oh the things you will see...
- 12/13/08 04:45 AM
As a parent, you always hope for wonderful things for your children. That's the dream of a parent. That your children will far exceed anything that you have done, and will have wonderful adventures, and live fabulous awe-inspiring lives. None of those "lives of quiet desperation" that gloomy authors write about.
Well, my newly married daughter is well on her way with a great beginning. Sarah was newly married in July of this year, and in just handful of days will be jetting off on a wonderful adventure (by way of a gift from a fabulous benefactor who shall remain unamed... … (4 comments)
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north shore: Victoria & Her trashy cousin Vicki
- 12/12/08 03:14 AM
I recently told you about my clients who took me out to dinner. And that they'd purchased an old Victorian to rehab. I promised photos, and they were kind enough to foward a couple... so here they are.
The vintage photo is dated 1892... you can see that he's got his work cut out for him. This once, elegant home has been used as an apartment house, and divided into 5 separate apartments.... so five of everything... 5 baths, 5 kitchens, 5 LR's, 5 BR's... you get the idea. All the character and charm has been removed from the house....well, maybe … (8 comments)
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north shore: Thank you Mr., Ms., and Mrs. First-Five-Subscriber dudes!
- 12/11/08 03:46 AM
It has been suggested by Elizabeth Nieves that we give some love and a public virtual hug to our first five subscribers, a public virtual-hug.
This makes the presumption that we actually HAVE at least five subscribers. Five people who have read, and continue to read your ongoing blog... Five people who liked what you have to say, and have found it entertaining enough to click on that "subscribe" button so they can easily find you.
Five people who aren't, yet, bored enough to click on that UNsubscribe button.
So to these people... we'll call them Mr., Mr. and Mrs. First-Five-Subscriber … (2 comments)
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north shore: The Twelve Months of Listing
- 12/10/08 11:33 PM
On the first month of Listing, my Realtor sent to meA showing on my property.
On the second month of Listing, my Realtor sent to meTwo open housesand a showing on my property
On the third month of Listing, my Realtor sent to meThree French doors, Two open housesand a showing on my property
On the fourth month of Listing, my Realtor sent to meFour broker's tours, Three French Doors, Two open housesand a showing on my property.
On the fifth month of Listing, my Realtor sent to meLOW INTEREST RATES!!Four broker's tours,Three French Doors, Two open … (12 comments)
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north shore: it's bad enough...
- 12/10/08 02:42 AM
It was bad enough, that Rod Blagojevich was arrested in the wee hours of the morning on Tuesday December 10th, and taken away from his home and family in handcuffs on the day before his birthday (that's right... today is his 53rd birthday... Happy Birthday Rod!)...
He's since been released on only $4,500 bond. (You know, if this had been you or I, the bond would have been $100,000!)
But additionally, Yesterday was International Anti-Corruption Day! Seriously... Rod was arrested on International Anti-Corruption Day!
How do you spell Irony?
… (14 comments)
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north shore: the Rod Squad - the Blagojevich Saga
- 12/09/08 01:35 AM
Welcome to Politics, as usual, here in Illinois.
It was just announced this morning, that sitting Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevic (pronounced Blah-Goy-Oh-Vich) has been arrested (Along with his chief of staff, John Harris) as part of a probe into charges that he conspired to benefit financially (as the Governor) in the appointment of a U.S. Senator to fill the vacancy left by Barack Obama as he left to become president elect.
Yes, that's right... arrested in the wee hours of the morning at the Governor's mansion, and taken away in handcuffs. The chief executive of the state of Illinois
As per … (12 comments)
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north shore: Dinner with Clients
- 12/08/08 01:24 AM
One of my favourite clients, whose home I'd helped sell earlier in the year, contacted me recently and asked if they could take me and my wife out to dinner. I was delighted, as when they sold their home, they'd moved out of the immediate area. This couple was charming and adorable, and I admit, I was experiencing a bit of withdrawal when they left town.
Not only did they take us out to a lovely dinner, but they brought us a bottle of French wine... wasn't that nice?
As most of you know, when you get into a listing-relationship with … (3 comments)
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north shore: Pearl Harbor Day
- 12/07/08 01:01 AM
Today is the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor that drew the U.S. into world war II.. (it's also my father's birthday... Happy birthday dad)
Here is Franklin Delano Roosevelt's speech to Congress, after the attack... it's worth reviewing, especially today.
For those who haven't heard or read it before... it was an impassioned speech... given shortly after the surprise attack on the American fleet in Hawaii. It came as a major surprise, since Japan had not declared war on the U.S., in fact they were still in active diplomatic talks. Japan hoped to catch all of the U.S. aircraft … (11 comments)
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north shore: Clutch Cargo... do you remember him?
- 12/06/08 01:16 PM
Who, if any of you, remember Clutch Cargo... with Spinner and his dog Paddlefoot? Click Here to relive your childhood.
This was a children's cartoon that used Synchro-Vox limited animation (the same type of animation that Conan O'Brien uses on his late night program to make a photo of a person's lips appear to move). The animators super-imposed "real mouths" over the cartoon images to show lip-syncing... saving thousand and thousands of dollars in animation costs. They also saved money by never showing anybody walking... walking was always shown from the waist up, eliminating the need for complicated leg animation.
Clutch's … (5 comments)
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north shore: Mattresses per day?
- 12/06/08 07:52 AM
I don't know if your area, is the same as our area.
Here, we have the ubiquitous Antique stores, rug stores, ipods, mattress stores.... yes, that's right I said Mattress Stores.
There seems to be a mattress store on each corner, of each and every block. Some strip malls seem to have two mattress stores. Some of them are made from space-age polymers, some have numbers, some aquafied, and some are pillow-topped. They always seem to be having a sale... and they're sold in the style of used-cars. The prices marked on the mattresses have little, if anything to do with … (8 comments)
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north shore: who was born on December 5th?
- 12/05/08 01:04 AM
Today is the birthday of a famous American, born on December 5, 1901.
Who could it be... don't know??
I'll give you a few choices:
1. Gary Cooper (famous actor - High Noon)
2. Marlene Dietrich (famous actress - Falling in luff again...)
3. Walt Disney (famous businessman - Disney Empire)
4. Clark Gable (famous actor - Frankly my dear...)
or
5. Zeppo Marx (famous straight man - the Marx Brothers)
And I know, I haven't made it easy... all five of the above choices were born in 1901... so they're all around … (6 comments)
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north shore: Drop in on your own listings, now and then.
- 12/04/08 07:30 AM
I showed a property yesterday (yes... I do have live and active buyers, thank you very much)... and the property was not in showing quality condition, in my opinion, and in danger of major damage.
I work in the Chicago area, and the temperature yesterday was around 19 degrees. The home was vacant, and the furnace was not working. Something had happened... it kept trying to light, but was unsuccessful. You could see your breath in this house.
Fortunately, the home had been winterized (water drained from pipes and fixtures... including toilets... and anti-freeze pumped into the pipes... the water meter … (7 comments)
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north shore: Hello, I love you, won't you tell me your name?
- 12/02/08 01:09 AM
My father used to make relentless fun of the music I chose to listen to. It's not that he didn't care for the music itself (although often he didn't), it's that he didn't like the names of the groups, and the lyrics in the songs.
My father followed in the steps of a well known local disc jockey on one of the popular radio stations (Barney Pip) who one day a week, had a segment where he would read, monotone, lyrics to the most popular songs. When read monotone, with no feeling whatsoever, they often sounded pretty funny.
My father thought … (15 comments)
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north shore: Just Over the Next Ridge, Men!!
- 12/01/08 10:15 AM
I lived in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania as a kid. And over the summer, my parents sent me to day camp at Camp Retnec... (my father, not coincidentally, was the director of the camp, which was operated by the Bethlehem Jewish Community Center... (get it? camp RETNEC... spells CENTER backwards!... gosh my father was a clever man!?).
Camp Retnec had property right in the heart of the Pocono mountains, making use of the Hellertown pool (those of you near Bethlehem will know the Hellertown pool). Gorgeous rugged woodland in a very hilly region. Not something I truly appreciated at the time, but I … (8 comments)
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north shore: SnowDog
- 12/01/08 01:02 AM
Well, our little Gus Gus, awoke this morning to Chicago's first measureable snowfall for the season (and the first measurable snowfall in his little lifetime). He's almost a year old (born Dec. 20th), but was so tiny last year, at under two pounds, that he didn't really have any interest in doing anything outside except shivering.
This morning, he's a lot more interested in the snow. Gus is a Havanese (you know, like from Havana) where this breed was designed to herd Chickens. There were no chickens in the snow, but it sure seemed like he was trying to herd invisible … (10 comments)
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north shore: Our Lady of the Angels
- 11/30/08 07:05 AM
The Chicago Tribune reminded me, this morning, that tomorrow (December 1) is the anniversary of one of the worst tragedies in Chicago's recent history.
On December 1, 1958 a fire started in the parochial school of Our Lady of the Angels on the west side of Chicago.
By the time the fire was over, 92 children and 3 nuns would be dead.
Many of the young students were buried in the "Shrine of the Holy Innocents" plot at Queen of Heaven Cemetery in Hillside (the monument is shown here), which is adjacent to Mount Carmel Cemetery. This monument there … (2 comments)
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north shore: the Return of the wayward scarf
- 11/30/08 02:30 AM
Last night my wife, my daughter and I went to see Slumdog Millionaire. It was not the uplifting feel-good movie of the year, but it was incredibly well done, well acted... etc... great photography and music. I highly recommend it... but that's not the intent of this post.
After I left the theatre, and had arrived home... I realized that I must have left my scarf in the theatre. Dang... I really liked that scarf... it was 100% cashmere... soft and warm on my neck. I figured it was too late, I'm sure the scarf was long gone. My wife and … (8 comments)
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north shore: History on our streets
- 11/29/08 11:30 AM
Today, I took my daughter to view an apartment. She's almost done with her graduate degree in Occupational Therapy from the University of Illinois Chicago campus, and is readying to do her Fieldwork.
Her 6 months of fieldwork, brings her further north in the city. A little closer to her parents (a happy circumstance for her mother and I)... so we were helping her locate an apartment in Andersonville. One of the apartments we looked at was directly across the street from the old Essanay studios. This small, nondescript building was once known as the FIRST of the Hollywood studios (located … (5 comments)
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north shore: Post Traumatic Turkey Syndrome
- 11/28/08 02:19 AM
Okay... we had a small turkey-day, yesterday. Tryptophan-induced comas, yes, but only a handful of people. Fewer dishes to wash, but not less food to eat.
And yet, after the meal was over, and we were cleaning up... my wife discovered that the stuffing was still in the fridge. She hadn't made her patented (well, actually Rachel Ray's patented) Stuffin' Muffins (Stuffing put into a muffin tin, then you can eat stuffing like an apple.... ain't technology grand?).
So we only had squash, mashed potatoes, green beans almondine, turkey, home-made cranberry sauce, two kinds of pie (pumpking and chocolate)... and nobody … (11 comments)
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north shore: T'was the Night Before Thursday
- 11/26/08 03:08 AM
THE NIGHT BEFORE THURSDAYWith apologies to Clement Clarke Moore'Twas the night before Thursday, when all through the rainNot a blogger was stirring, they’d all gone insane;Their stockings were twirled in a bunch by the chair,In hopes that Active Brad would soon clear the air;The posters were reading the blogs in their heads,Unable to answer and comment on threads;And Jason near his ‘puter, and I with my Mac,While Greg challenged Crouch some baby-talk Smack,He said that his baby would be longer and stronger,And Crouch didn’t mind, nor did Mr. Belonger.Brad opened Windows and downloaded Flash,He’d fix HTML, and then had to dash.He … (10 comments)
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As a parent, you always hope for wonderful things for your children. That's the dream of a parent. That your children will far exceed anything that you have done, and will have wonderful adventures, and live fabulous awe-inspiring lives. None of those "lives of quiet desperation" that gloomy authors write about.
;)
;)
;)
