I need some chocolate and a nap

So far today I have set up a time for carpet measurements to be taken at the new house and also scheduled with the realtor to let us in. I have gone to the city hall where we're moving to set up water and buy tax stamps (which I couldn't do and will have to make a return trip later). I have then set up the rest of our utilities and scheduled stop dates for our current utilities. I have had the moving company come to the house to give us an estimate of our move, have made it to the post office, out to buy groceries, scheduled my "office hours" for the rest of the week and talked to our insurance agent about our home owner's insurance. Now to work on homework and packing...we close on our house one week from tomorrow!

Yays and Nays

Does the paperwork ever end when it comes to buying a house? Our closing is just a week and a half away and I'm so excited but also keep thinking I'm going to miss something with emails going back and forth between our mortgage people, real estate attorney, etc. It's so overwhelming. Also, we're moving to a town that makes you pay a special tax just to move into their city (isn't that nice?) so I'm trying to understand what paperwork that involves which has so far required several emails and phone calls. I keep thinking that it shouldn't be this hard. I. Can't. Wait. For. This. To. End. Soon.

My good news of the day is that the hospital I'm volunteering with is paying me to work on a special project. So until it's completed, I am billing them and getting paid. It's not much but it certainly makes me feel appreciated and is giving me a small ego boost.

Odds and Ends

It's Monday and I am pleased to say that I have finally started packing for our impending move. Four boxes so far filled with cookbooks; hopefully I can keep at it. A few boxes a day and I'll be in good shape. My problem is that I usually have a hard time judging what exactly I will "need" before the move which we don't even have scheduled at this point. We're going this week to look at carpet samples and our closing is scheduled in two weeks. Also, looking at a few pieces of furniture. We finally decided on a dining table and chairs and, of course, it's on back order until the end of May. So if anyone visits us, we may be tableless for a couple months.

As for our weekend, it was pretty quiet but we had two wonderful dinners. The first was at a gourmet taco place not too far away and it was fantastic. We were told that we'd have to get there early and stand in line before they opened. We did not believe it since the restaurant is in the suburbs but - lo and behold - there was a line of people waiting to get in before noon on Saturday. The food was really good so we'll definitely be back but hopefully on a warmer day.

Our other wonderful meal was with family members, Terrie and Kirk. We went to a restaurant literally in the middle of Lincoln Park - it was beautiful. Originally built as a warming shelter for ice skaters, we had it all - city skyline, frozen pond outside, delicious food and wonderful company. We always have the best time with Terrie and Kirk. Joe said it might have been his most "civilized" meal ever.

Our weekend

Last night was event number one (a "work" event for Joe) and tonight we'll be attending event number two. (The photo is from last night.) Tomorrow night is our Valentine's dinner as Joe's photography class is Monday night. The reservations were made before I knew about event one and two so we have a full weekend of dressing up. Also on the agenda is a visit from our landlords to look at the house before we move out next month. They want to assess what they need to do in terms of carpet and paint when we move. I don't know why this is completely stressing me out but it is so off to do more cleaning.

My favorites

Okay, I am not too happy about having to DVR the Oscars this year (although I am still really excited about the David Gray concert) but thought I would compile my list of favorite movies. We watched, "The Kids Are All Right," last week which means we've seen all ten nominated movies. And while that movie was good, it was in no way an Oscar contender in my opinion. Here's my top five favorite movies from last year in no particular order:

• 127 Hours - James Franco is amazing. If he won Best Actor, he would totally deserve it. The movie wasn't all gory, boring or depressing either like you might expect. It was so well done and afterwards Joe and I both commented on how motivating it was to watch. It totally makes you want to do something with yourself or, if nothing else, get off the couch and get outdoors. Also, Joe did NOT want to go see this movie but he went anyway and ended up loving it, too.
• Toy Story 3 - I did not expect that this would be one of the best movies that I saw this year but it was awesome. I also didn't expect to sit in the theatre and bawl through most of it but I did. Several days later, I was still thinking about this movie.
• Winter's Bone - This is Joe's number one movie of the year. I found it so suspenseful that I was on the edge of my seat throughout most of it.
• Social Network - I love Jesse Eisenberg (Zombieland and Adventureland pretty much rock my socks off and I highly recommend them both) and Justin Timberlake and they were both expectedly fabulous. Unexpectedly fabulous was Andrew Garfield. He just may have been my favorite character in the movie. Also fun to watch was Armie Hamer - what a great cast!
• The King's Speech - I will admit that Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter both typically "bug" me but not in this movie. Not only were they great but this is a drama that is anything but boring. Also, I love Colin Firth and we share the same birthday. 'Nuff said.

UPDATE: I just realized that I didn't add Catfish to the list. It was for sure one of my most favorite movies of the year...I'm going to have to say that this documentary was definitely a fav...guess I now have a "Top Six" list.

Snowpocalypse

Our driveway got plowed around 9 pm last night and now our neighborhood looks a little eerie with snow piled up everywhere. Joe is still off work but I volunteered today. Most of the roads are down to one and a half lanes on each side but I think things are slowly getting back to normal.

Welcome to our house

Okay, I promise that I will eventually stop boring everyone with blizzard photos but I can't promise when. Our neighborhood association finally sent someone to dig us out (God bless them!) and now we can leave out the front door. Hoping our driveway is plowed soon.

Snowed in

Here's a picture of my grandma's apartment in Missouri. It apparently made it onto a local news site.



Blizzard 2011

I'm hearing that we had around 17.3 inches of snow where I live last night (much more downtown at the Lake) and the drifts are unbelievable, too. The crazy part is that it's still coming down outside so I'm not sure what the total will be. Here's what we woke up to this morning.

UPDATE: I'm now hearing we got a little over 20 inches of snow but who knows what is accurate.  Chicago had the third largest snowfall in the city's history since they started keeping track in the late 1800s. More snow to come this afternoon!



This is the view from our patio door. We have patio furniture out there somewhere under all that snow. 



This is what it looks like when you open our front door. Since we live in a townhouse and have neighboors next door we can't really just push the snow over to the side. Not sure who is going to tackle this but it's not me!




This is what it looks like when you open our garage door. Joe's poor car! My old thing is safe inside the garage.