Day 138

We had a great weekend with my in-laws. Max and Stacey came in town, as did Scott and Lauren. Scott and Lauren stayed here, much to the dismay of Casey who really wanted to sleep with her grandparents this weekend! Friday was a strange and long day for me. I had a sales meeting in Effingham, IL, which is 215 miles south of Chicago. This isn't even close to any sort of major airport, so I had to drive pretty much 3 and a half hours for a 40 minute presentation and then drive 3 and a half hours back. When I got to Effingham, it was 70 degrees and sunny. Absolutely beautiful. By the time I drove back to Chicago, it was cloudy, windy, and 45 degrees. I was in the same state. Very strange. Anyways, the drive was MADE by my Sirius radio and listening to the Howard Stern show. Also, nothing better than getting home, turning on the Tribe home opener, and seeing the first batter, the dreaded Casey Blake, hit a 2 out grand slam. The Tribe has won 5 in a row, you gotta love that. Friday night we went to the Athenian Room (I know, I was just there). Seriously, that place is the best. Its such a tough call when going there between the Chicken Kalamata, the Skirt Steak, and the Gyros. I went with the Gyros since I was going to Wildfire the next night.

Saturday was interesting. As you all know, I am not one who likes to go down to Michigan Avenue shopping. On top of that, I don't like shopping in Michigan Avenue when it is cold and windy. The summer is one thing. You are outside, you throw on the shades and people watch. It is all good. The wind was particularity strong, but the sun was out. We had to be down on Oak by 10:30 for Stacey's dress fitting, and we actually got a street spot, right on Oak and Michigan. It was the spot of a lifetime. It was like George Costanza, I spent all day talking about how exciting I was about this parking spot. I fed the meter every two hours, since we were down there until 4 PM. I know what you are thinking right now - Todd spent almost 6 hours down on Michigan Avenue on a cold Saturday. Well, with everyone in town, it was family day and Lauren had never been to Chicago so we wanted to show her around. That and the fact that the Tribe game was not on TV. hahahahaha. I think I was pretty good if I do say so myself. I just wasn't made for a long day of shopping. Although, you give me a comfortable chair in a department store and I am fine. We went to Wildfire for dinner Saturday night and you cant have a bad meal there. I went with one of my go to's - the filet medallion trio, Parmesan, blue cheese, and horseradish crusted separately. I also buried a cookie skillet with ice cream and chocolate sauce.

Yesterday, after a brunch at the best brunch place in the city (in my opinion), Southport Grocer, Leah and I did a super clean up job of the condo and prepared for our open house. We are not putting our place up on MLS because really in our building there is no need to. The only place I put it up was on Craig's List, http://chicago.craigslist.org/rfs/148875315.html, and we put a flier in the front window of our condo building. We were scheduled from 1-3, but there was another showing on our same floor from 1-5, so we extended it. All I know is that it worked. We got all of the traffic from that showing and everyone who came in here said that our place showed so much better. Since the other one is a 2 bed with only 1 bath, is empty, and has nothing but white walls, we have the advantage. I was hoping we would get 5 people in here. We ended up having 14 groups who signed in. Nobody did a walk in and leave move. Everyone who was here asked questions and walked around for a while. I had at least two groups ask for move dates, which was a good sign I think. Overall, it was a success. The only casualty was that I broke one of our three candlestick holders.

As for our house offer. I'm sure you are curious to know what happened with that. Essentially, our offer was countered with a price that we won't go to, but our realtor seems to think that we are the ones holding the cards and the longer we wait, the better position we are in. They haven't had an offer yet and have been on the market for 5 months because they are priced too high (according to our realtor). She seems to think if we wait them out, we will get the house. So that is the plan for right now. We already came in with our best offer and won't budge from it. I'll keep you posted. If it is meant to be, we will get the house. If not, its on to the next one.
We will be back in Cleveland in two weeks for Sean's wedding, so if need be, we can see more houses on that Friday.

Song of the Day: "One to Grow On" by UMC's