My New Saab 9-5

I moved up my schedule a bit and bought a car a month early because of a fantastic deal being offered on this here 9-5. The picture is from the dealership's website (I haven't gotten new pictures off of my phone just yet), but that's my car!

I'm really happy with the car and with the deal. There were a few suprises along the way, some good and some bad:

The Good
*This thing is fast. The effect is certianly greatly enhanced by the fact that I'm coming from the pickup truck, but I actually have to be careful not to speed on the freeway.
*The car is uber smart - for example, it detects if you park in a dark area and does this cool thing where the interior lights fade on as soon as you turn off the ignition.
*Because the car is under Saab warranty for another 2.5 years, I get free roadside assistance during that time. Free tow to the nearest Saab dealer, or a jumpstart or whatever.
*After it was all said and done I ended up spending almost $2k under what I was expecting. You can't beat that!

The Bad
*The car is covered in scratches of varying depth and a couple of very minor dents. The previous owner leased the car, and clearly didn't care about it at all. However, those scratches saved me thousands of dollars, so I actually love them.
*The dealership tried to pull all the normal dealership BS. I'd been referred to them as an honest dealership where they didn't do that crap, but I guess you can't really avoid it.
*I constantly think there are people in the back seat. I'm not used to having a seat behind me, and driving home last night shadows would play off the rear head rests and make me think someone was back there. (Axe murderers.)
*And finally, the most ridiculous thing ever - while detailing my car after I bought it, they cracked my windshield. They're going to replace it on Saturday, but that's a three hour round trip and a two hour repair to fix it. I'm trying not to get too hung up on it, but honestly; what the fuck.

UPDATE: Gartner Saab (the place I bought it from) arranged to have the windshield replace at my house, rather than having me drive back out there. Thumbs up.

Anyways, I'm very happy with the car. I think it's going to be a great car for many years to come, and it was a steal of a deal. And just think, next time we drive up to Evanston to see a movie no one will have to sit on anyone's lap!

Shut up at Movies!

I want to become the guy with this pager:
http://wcbstv.com/local/local_story_149181017.html

How to have your Mind Blown

1. Go to Google Maps
2. Zoom out so you can see the whole US
3. Click on the 'Street View' button at the top-right of the map
4. Click on one of the cameras that shows up
5. Drag the little guy onto an outlined street so you can see it at street level
6. Click on the arrows that point up and down the street to 'drive' around the city

This is some cool stuff.

Finales (one tiny firework)

There have been a few big finales in the last week or so: Lost, Heroes and Gilmore Girls. The season/series finale is tough; it has to be more than just an episode. It has to answer questions, ask new ones, leave us wanting more and yet let us feel fulfilled. It's hard to strike that balance between eagerly awaiting next season and not feeling cheated. But on top of all that, it still has to be a good episode of the show. It seems that finales are far more often a let down than a triumph.

Do NOT keep reading if you haven't seen any of these finales and want to watch them.

Lost
The Lost finale was a great episode of Lost, I thought. And really, it was a pretty great season finale too, but I'm still not sure about the flash-forward idea. I'm not sure why, but the instant they showed Jack with his big beard I knew it was a flash forward (probably just because it's such an obvious twist). The problem I think I have with the flashforward is that they just took the emphasis off of the island. The show was always just about the island - tons of crazy stuff happened there and we were given all these looks at people's pasts, but everything came together and ended on the island. All of the lines ended in this quagmire of crazy shit, but that was the fun; the entire point of three seasons has been trying to figure out what's going on with the island. But now we're suddenly wondering what happens after the island - who gets off, who just died in that flashforward, who is Kate dating, etc, etc. And really, did the island just become the flashback? Is big beard druggie Jack the present now?

After discussion, Maria and I are thinking that they'll still be on the island for quite a while (maybe the whole series). They're not getting off with this boat, and we'll spend lots of time answering questions before they actually get off, making that flashforward a couple of years in the future, not just a few months. I'm very curious to see how this affects the structure of the show, though. Are we done with flashbacks and will now get flashforwards? Will it be a mix? Or is the show about to become more about life after the island, with the island being flashbacks? All scary ideas, as they change the show so much. Or was this just a one-off flashforward that we won't get back to until the end of the last season?

So I'm nervous about what they just did, but like I said - great episode. Everything was awesome - and I loved Hurley (the best character on television) being the hero.

Heroes
Leeeeet dowwwwwwn. That final fight with Sylar was so lame! It sort of got going when the Heroes ran in one by one to try to kill him, each getting stopped one after the other, but then it just ended. Hiro's killing Sylar should have been the most amazing thing ever, but very much was not. I was always expecting the end of the season to be this really tight sequence where everyone comes together and plays a part, but it was a lot looser than I was hoping for. People were just sort of there, the fight sucked, and Hiro ended up in feudal Japan? But hey, those kids were cute, right?..

I thought it was cool that they started volume 2 right there, and I'd heard that next season will have a lot of the same characters in a different situtation & story, but it probably shouldn't be about 17th century Japan, right? I mean, Hiro's got to be just stopping off there I assume. It is neat to think how if Hiro hadn't killed Sylar he'd end up this badass in post-apocalyptic New York, but because he killed him he's in ancient Japan. But still, could we get back to Peter, please?

Gilmore Girls
I thought this was fantastic for the first 90% and still quite good after that. It's nearly impossible to end this show, but I thought they did a pretty damn good job. I wish Loreli and Luke had ended with a bit more razz-a-ma-tazz, but I can't really complain. At the time I didn't really like the last shot of the Gilmores in the diner, but in retrospect it was great. There's a lot less to nerd out about with this one, so I'll just leave it at good job.

What do You Pay for Gas?

I just paid $3.85 for regular gas this morning and I also saw that same price at another station in the area. Then I got back in my car and heard a radio story about how Chicago has the highest gas prices in the country because of some refinery problem.

How much do you pay where you live?

The Cicadas are Coming

If you live within a few hundred miles of me, just a heads up - they're supposed to wake up this week. Get ready for some gross, gross shit.

This past weekend was very good - Maria graduated, got her first story published, and we spent some quality time hanging out with the usual crowd. It's time to check in on my big summer to do list!

1) New Apartment
The apartment has been found and signed on, and we move in July 1. The meeting to sign our lease also included a pretty entertaining lesson on how to take care of the marble in our bathroom, the metal chimney for our fireplace, the furnace, etc, etc, etc. I'm pretty excited to get into the new place. One of the rules there is no charcoal grills, so I'm planning on upgrading to a decent propane unit, and I figure I might as well do it now so I can use it all summer. Two things make me think twice about just buying one right now: cash is tight with the impending car purchase and the cicadas may make grilling not so fun for the next month. We'll see.

2) Maria's post-MFA life
The day after Maria's graduation she recieved notice that her first story is going to be published! It's in what sounds like a smaller writer's magazine, but I don't have the details yet. She's also spending today on her first temp gig, so things are definitely off to a great start.

3) The Office Move
We're still on schedule to move June 8. I've yet to see the new place, as it's still being used by the current tennants and they don't want us wandering through all the time. I'll probably get to check it out in a couple of weeks, as our lease starts June 1.

4) New Car
If I was ready to buy one right now I know the exact two or three cars I'd go check out. The one I'm most hopeful for is this 2002 Saab 9-5 Aero that's up north of the city. It has 75k miles and needs a couple of cosmetic fixes, but a good service history and it's right around what I want to spend. It's also been on their lot for at least three months, so that price should have some wiggle room. I'm still planning on waiting until after we move into the new apartment.

Lots of stuff going on - most of it good. Plus there's a long weekend coming up. Cicada barbeque!

Oh my god.

Go here. watch the "Exclusive Trailer". You may want a pillow hand to SCREAM INTO UNCONTROLLABLY. DID YOU HEAR THE NOISE?!?! WHEN OPTIMUS TRANSFORMS?!?!?

July 4 will from now on be known as Transformers day.

The End of an Era

Sure, it sucked for an entire season, but Gilmore Girls has been doing everything it possibly can to setup a satisfying searies finale, which airs tonight.

I know it's hard to have any faith in the show after such a rocky stretch, but if you haven't been watching, I swear it's back on track. If you're one of the few who suffered through last season, this season has provided some payoff. It's nearly impossible to think it may actually happen, but I'm holding out hope for one last Dan-screams-into-a-pillow moment tonight. If you used to watch but let it go when times got tough, I offer this quick recap so you can watch tonight and hopefully enjoy it.

If you recall, this season picked up after the shipwreck that was the 2005-2006 season - Loreli and Luke had already come together and fizzled, Rory was thankfully back to normal, but in general all of the things we'd waited six years for had happened and been ruined. Way to go, Amy Sherman whatever. But this season did some things right:

Luke and Loreli seperated back to their respective corners and the writers got their shit together. There was basically no contact between the two for the first half of the season. Eventually they had them run into each other here and there, and after some inital fights they have become friends again. In the last couple of episodes they have begun almost flirting again - and I actually care. It's wonderful. There was an episode where Taylor (the mayor) built a giant hay maze through the entire town. Loreli got lost in there (SYMBOLISM), and Luke found her and told her how to get out (SYMBOLIZM). In the last episode Luke bought Loreli a necklace, but barely didn't give it to her. We, the viewers, screamed.

Rory and Logan have been completely restructured. First, they had Logan leave his Dad's company and strike out on his own. He failed and had a relapse into his jackass college days, but pulled himself together and has since (in the last couple of episodes) reemerged as a respectable young man, now with work ethic. He recently asked Rory to marry him and move to San Fransisco, but she said no. I don't care about this one nearly as much as Loreli and Luke, but they have managed to get this couple to a point where I'm at least interested to see what happens. We no longer hate Logan (I mean, he's a dot com entrepreneur, for goodness sake).

Every other pot line on the show has been settled and put into a nice little box. Zach and Lane are good (Zach is going to play guitar for some band that's touring this summer while Lane takes care of the kids). Grandma and Grandpa are happy and proud, Sookie and Michel are fine. Paris and her boyfriend are off living together. This finale will be all about Rory and Loreli, as it should be.

I have lots of predictions of what will happen and what should, but won't happen. But I don't really feel like doing any of that - just sit back and enjoy the ride. And just remember, if it sucks, it'll be over at 8 and you can go watch the Heroes special.

Gilmore Girls Series Finale
Tonight (Tuesday), 7pm central

Wonderful News

Pat recently emailed me about a hidden gem that we'd both somehow overlooked over on Harry's blog. Harry's blog, for those of you who don't know, is the one that up and moved to imaginary-lines.blogspot.com WITHOUT TELLING ME. It's rediscovered, though, and Pat pointed out this post. Go there, and listen to the song at the end. If you missed it too, thank Pat for that gift. And Harry? Get working on the rest of that album!!

Tonight Maria and I are signing the lease / handing over massive sums of cash to finalize our new apartment. I'm pretty excited about the place - we checked out the new neighborhodo a bit over the weekend and discovered some really nice areas close by, including a very promising grocery store. A good grocery store is worth 500 great video rental stores. We're also about a half mile from a Best Buy. Can you say late night videogame impulse buys?

Pfeiffer and I are just starting to get a little serious about this project we're going to work on together. I don't want to get all specific in public yet, but suffice to say I'm pretty excited. Just a general question: would you object to being referred to as an "Outzie"? Leave your answer in the comments.

And finally, Maria has had her last school-thing except for her graduation ceremony, and on Saturday will offically become Maria, MFA! If you see her, give her a series of high-fives and exploding fists.

Apartment Found

Just this morning Maria got the call that we've been approved for a new place that we'll move into July 1. Here are all the important details:

LOCATION
It's much closer to downtown, on the west edge of a great neighborhood called Lincoln Park. For those of you in the city, it's just north of Ashland and Fullerton. The walk from the red line Fullerton stop is under a mile through a fantastic neighborhood, probably around exactly 12 minutes. Here's how videogame constituents are expected to arrive:

Pat & Ben - five minute drive straight down Ashland.
Paul - I'm not sure exactly where your new place is. You could probably walk it, or maybe take the train one stop south.
Ted - Train down to Fullerton / get picked up by Ben (he volunteered)

In addition to videogames, we also have a park just behind our house which features basketball courts. So we could hoop it up following some NBA Jam.

We're also straight down Ashland from Laura, though still too far to easily walk. However, I'm guessing there are places between us and her that could be easily walked to for a meet-up. I'm excited for the neighborhood, and a shorter drive to work is always a good thing.

INSIDE
The apartment is a two-story duplex on the 2nd and 3rd floor of a 3 story, older building. The bottom floor of our apartment is a nice kitchen and a smallish den with a wood burning fire place. There are double doors that open onto our front deck that should make for great grill outs. The den is a lot smaller than our current place, but there'll be a lot less in it, too. The kitchen has lots of natural light from a sky light and glass blocks lining the wall under the cabinets. I foresee some really world-class grilled cheese being made there.

The second floor has a sort of landing/hallway area with another skylight and a big window. Off of that hallway is two bedrooms and a big bathroom. The bathroom is all new tile with a big whirlpool tub (which may very well never be used). One bedroom is huge and the other is pretty small with a slanted ceiling. The smaller one also has a second deck off of it. That smaller room will likely be Maria's office / guest bedroom. Also on the second floor is our very own washer/drier, a back exit and a utility closet.

An fascinating note: the 'front' entrance into the den with the double doors is actually on the back of the house. The house is just east of Ashland and north of Altgeld, but it's oriented so it looks into a wide alley, facing away from Ashland. It's not a normal, closed in alley, though. The park means there's only one big building behind us, and there's a Car-X's parking lot just south of us, so it's a relatively open space.

RAMIFICATIONS REGARDING AUTOS
I have a reserved parking spot, but no garage, with the new place. This is unfortunate, but not a big deal. It does, however, mean I'm not going to spend much money on a nice car just to park it outside and have it get scratched and dinged by the weather / other drivers. The plan has shifted to a slightly older, out of warranty Saab 9-5 on which I'll stomach the occasional scratch much more easily. Because we are not entering the inevitable time span where we have to write checks for a security deposit before getting our other security deposit back and also a check for our first month's rent before we move it, the car will have to wait until July unless an amazing deal surfaces. The good news is that you guys will get to read car posts for the next two months!

HELP ME MOVE, GET BEER
The standard among actuarial communities is that when you help someone move you get to play Edward 40-Hands. For those of us who are not hard-drinking, hard-swearing actuaries, the tradition is beer and pizza (or maybe grilling out). You can expect any combination of these things you wish for if you're willing to help me carry couches and tables and such.

If your name is on the list below, you're both too good of friends with me and too local to get out of this for any reason other than death:
-Pat
-Ben
-Ted
-Paul

However, you and your girlfriends are all welcome over for a fantastic Fourth of July grill out extravaganza!

BAD STUFF
I'll finish up with a couple of hard luck comments, mostly so the rest of you will take pity and send me $$$CASH$$$. There's very little bad to say about this place. The corner of Ashland & Fullerton is one of the last pockets in this neighborhood to get updated in the latest round of construction, so there are some really old building and run down stretches. I didn't feel like any parts of it were unsafe (it's still surrounded by great neighborhoods), but some of it is just uninspiring and crappy. Our house is actually one of these old buildings, but the interior feels well built (no creaky floors or anything), so whatever. Odds are we'll never really go into these suck-ass areas anyways.

Then there's the back exit, with it's pink carpet. I opened the 'back' door (the one on the second floor) when we were looking at the place and the landlord was like "Oh, that's just the emergency exit, I wouldn't recommend using it otherwise". That makes me 80% sure there's a monster in that hallway. Monsters in your emergency exit go in the cons list.

That's all I can really come up with right now. You can help pay our security deposit by sending cash and checks to Maria.

0-3 Thus Far

We saw two more apartments on Saturday; one that was very nice but in a bad location and one in a great location but it was a crap hole. Hunting continues this afternoon, with a lunch hour visit to a promising duplex on the west edge of Lincoln Park. The pictures online look nice, it has most of the amenities we want, and a decent price tag. The biggest downside to this one is the fact that it's out by Fullerton and Ashland, which is pretty far west of the heart of Lincoln Park. It'd be a 10-15 minute walk to the train, but through a really nice neighborhood, so it's about what we have now.

We checked out the neighborhood last night but didn't have the exact address. The area seems to be the last remaining pocket of the neighborhood to be upgraded in the current swing of development, so there are some rough looking corners and some not-so-nice buildings. Nothing that feels unsafe or anything, just old. There's a huge difference between the nice new condo developments and the run down little houses; we'll have to see which category this apartment falls into. One block off of Ashland it's all beautiful and there's a nice park right there, so hopefully things work out.

I also took a spin in a Saab 9-5 Aero this weekend to try and decide if the Aero is worth the extra money (usually around $3k more). The car was an absolute blast to drive, but I never really go to open up with the 9-5 Arc that I drove, so I'm still not sure how big the difference is. At some point I'll have to drive the two back to back.

Apartments

Alright, so the apartment last night was sort of a bust. The location was amazing and it was nice, but basically not nice enough to justify the price. Also, the guy renting it had a family with several daughters, one of whom came along when he showed us the place. She was in fifth grade and very excited. At one point she ran up to the bedroom and proudly declared that, "This is [so-and-so]'s room, and she has a lot of shoes, and I like the yellow ones, but they're not very comfortable." Or something along those lines. The thought of this little kid popping in for a visit to try on our shoes didn't help the sale either.

So the hunt continues this weekend. We're going to check out a couple of places on Saturday, hopefully including a very promising duplex in the Lincoln Park area.

Joe and I are killing Machines

Joe and I spent most of last night dealing with some real scum: Mexican terrorists. They're especially deadly because of their Mexican-polka music and the way they all drive the same blue car and brown pickup truck. I'm crazy, you say? No I'm not; I'm talking about videogames! Hooray! After dispatching the hideous scourge of the Locust from our shiny goo mines and our father's house in Gears of War, Joe and I have moved on to battling nondescript terrorists in Mexico city in Rainbow Six: Vegas (ironically we have yet to see any part of Nevada, let alone Las Vegas). We spend most of our time riding around in helicopters just chatting about whatever, but then once in a while we jump out and pop some bad guys in the head with an AK-47. Good times.

Looking forward, there are basically four large events looming in my life that will all take place inside the next couple of months:

1) Maria and I are moving to a new apartment in Chicago/Evanston
2) Maria is going to look for her first post-MFA job
3) My office is moving to a new location (just like a block away)
4) I am buying a car

That's what you can expect to read about on the 'ol blog for a while, and I'm excited to say we're already taking a stab at #1 this evening. We're going to check out a coach house in Evanston which appears (thanks for Google Maps) to be on a block of absolutely massive mansions. We won't know until we actually see it, but this appears to be an actual coach house, built for the help, located in the big backyard of some multi million dollar mansion. I'm hoping it's as awesome as is potential inherent with living in a rich guy's back yard. Anyone remember The OC? Eh? How about The Fresh Prince, when Will and Carlton moved into the pool house? Good times all around, and I don't see why this should be any different.

Seriously, though, my biggest concern is that the house stands apart as it's own entity somewhat. If the big house feels like our neighbors, I think we're in business. Here's hoping we have a new place to live twelve hours from now.

Wow, almost a Month

That was an epic lapse in blogging - you can all remember the time you survived over three weeks without your spanishturtle fix. Basically I've been busy and sick. Busy because of trips out of town, Maria's impending graduation, lots to do at work and God of War 2 (more on that later). Sick because I got a cold over a month ago and have had a cough ever since that comes and goes, often sending me to the recliner to sleep so I can (sometimes) make it through a night without waking myself up in a coughing fit. I've recently been put on various medications and scheduled for a chest x-ray by my doctor, so hopefully I'm on the mend. Here are a few quick hits just to get the ball rolling again:

Videogames
God of War 2 is a spectacular game. It's not my favorite genre, so I wasn't sure I'd like it that much, but I'm floored by how much fun it is. I'm going to have to get my hands on God of War 1 sometime soon. The game play is very linear, but it allows them to setup these incredibly cinematic moments where you swing from column to column while they collapse or do battle with griffins high above an island or countless other things. It's great, go play it.

Joe and I recently beat Gears of War on insane (or whatever they call the hardest difficulty), and that was a blast. We're going to try Rainbow 6 Vegas next - first session is tomorrow night.

Finally, I just heard that a new Katamari game is coming out for the 360!

Driving
I've been driving to work for a few weeks now and I love it. Every once in a while someone mentions the train or I see it passing and I'm reminded how lucky I am not to be on there anymore. The commute seems to be around a half hour typically (compared to an hour on the train), though it can vary by ten minutes in either direction based on traffic. I'm still stuck on a Saab 9-5 as my new car come this summer, and I'm pretty sure that's going to stick.

I've also been interested in learning how to ride a motorcycle for a while, and I recently found out that there's a motorcycle school right next to where we live that will teach you to ride and license you in one package for $300. It sounds like a lot of fun, and after the new car someday I think I'll sign up for that and try it out.

The Summer
Leaves are out, jackets are packed away and I have sun burn. It's always good when spring finally arrives in earnest. This summer is going to be a weird time when Maria will be graduating and looking for a job and we move out of our apartment. We're trying to hold off on the move until we know where Maria needs to be, but our landlord told us last year that he's planning on selling or razing the house we live in, so we have to go sometime very soon. I'm really hoping we can improve our living space considerably in this move; the apartment is very nice, but we want things like central air, a washer/dryer and a garage. I'm excited to get out there and start looking (and already search Craigslist obsessively every evening). It's crazy to think that, come August, Maria will be working, we'll be living in a new place and I'll be driving a new car. It should be an exciting season - I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly.