On the move...

Good news all around.
1) Our loan has been approved.  We are ready to close on the 18th.
2) Rachel's doctor did not say, "looks like we need to schedule an induction for the 17th."
3) The Redwings beat Chicago in what turned out to be a meaningless hockey game to close out the regular season.
4) I have only 2 days of classes left until spring break!
5) We won $25 off a tub reglazing service at the Bungalow Expo.

Time to finish working on my lab instructions for tomorrow!

-alan

Bungalow Expo!

Today was an eventful day, from start to finish. 

First, we spruced up the house.  The landlord was letting some potential tenants in to view the apartment.  We are asking to get out of our lease a month early, so we figure we should make the place as hospitable as possible to attract tenants.  The landlord did not raise rent, and with our paint job adding value I think this place is a darn good deal.  There has already been a lot of interest so I am optimistic that the place will go for June 1.

The bulk of the day was spent downtown at the Merchandise Mart, a giant art-deco building bordering the Chicago River.  We attended the Chicago Bungalow and Green Home Expo, which is more or less a priceless opportunity for contractors to get their business cards out to the yuppies of Chicago.  We did pick up a few flyers - we will be in the market for hardwood floor restoration and electrical work in the coming month - but spent more time listening in on a variety of interesting seminars.  Splitting up to maximize our information gathering, we learned about grants for energy improvements, plastering, redesigning our second floor, and that vinyl windows are universally despised by home preservationists.  It was a good place for us to begin thinking about the material aspects to our new home; both the good - upgrading, restoring, and personalizing our first place - and the bad - permits, bills, and never ending "to do" lists. 

This evening, we attended a college performance of Hairspray.  A friend from church is in a production, and we ventured out to go support his endeavors.  He said he was nervous when he saw us in the audience.  So cute!  And I have never actually seen the musical (other than snippets of the movie), so that was a plus. 

We close on the house in a week; and the baby is due in two.  Oh my!

-alan

Fattening me up

While I have been busy getting things ready for baby, Alan has been relishing in the opportunity to be lighter than me.  Yes, I think I officially surpassed him a week or so ago but he isn't letting up.  Look at the goodies he made this week!

 Homemade cinnamon rolls with delicious cream cheese icing!!!!

Chocolate chip muffins that I've been eating at a 2 to his 1 ratio....


Keep them coming Alan, I'm eating for two!!!!


-rachel

A little bit of China right here at Target

When in China, we developed a hypersensitivity to anything "Western."  Language, food, cultural icons - you name it.  When walking through the night market, our eyes would feast on illegal copies of second rate American movies and T-shirts with non-sensical English phrases.  In our neighborhood, there was very little that we could legitimately call Western, because most imported items would be found in the fancy shopping centers downtown.

However, one guilty pleasure that was in the local convenience stores (during the winter months only) was the Magnum Bar - a surprisingly high quality ice cream bar, akin to the Dove bar in the US.  I never paid too much attention to where it came from, until last week at Target, I saw it:

A whole freezer case full of the ice cream bars on display.  Turns out they are made by Nestle, which obviously has a huge international footprint.  But it is kind of funny that we ate this in China before it was ever available in the US!

I have also been wondering how our taste buds have changed since returning.  If I were able to transport myself to one of the Western restaurants in Chengdu, would I still think the food there was good?  Or did my tastes simply adjust with time? 

Last night, I ate some awesome Tiramisu at Franco's; while the version we ate at Ikea's cafeteria in Chengdu certainly would not compare.  Every couple of weeks at lunch, my taste buds would tingle for a McDonald's double cheeseburger meal, while nowadays the Golden Arches are the furthest thing from my mind.  On the other hand, the peanut butter oreo blizzard at Peter's (made by special request only) would probably kick the pants off the cookies and cream ice cream from Target in our freezer.  So in some cases I think my likes were legit.  But it simply is too hard to objectively verify if my mental inklings are correct...

And about those Magnum bars?  We did not buy any.  Granted it is still in the 40s here, and Rachel is more of an ice cream person than me anyway!

-alan

Welcome to April!

April - what a month this should be!

As this solidly spring month rolls in with uncharacteristically chilly weather, we naturally look ahead at events to come.

This is HUGE month for the Allmens, because we are likely to become first time parents before April is done.  At the doctor last week, Rachel heard that her OB/GYN would not let her go more than a week past her due date of April 25th.  So, the chance of a May delivery is slim. 

 

Today Rachel spent a lot of energy getting the baby's clothes washed.  We packed up a few things (6 month old clothes, heavy blankets) that we will not need immediately, which has cleared up some space in the nursery.  We have gotten some criticism from others for not fully decorating our nursery, and for not putting the crib together yet.  But with a move likely in the next two months, I feel that energy would be better spent in prepping the baby's room in our permanent home.  The baby will be sleeping with us until that point anyway!!

We also got the car seat out today, and tried it out.  The LATCH system works much easier than using the seat belts, which is what Rachel remembers using with her siblings.  The base was secured with little trouble in a few minutes.  We just need to get Rachel's hospital bag packed, and we will be all set in case the baby decided to come a little early!

Because dates will be harder to come by in few weeks, we went out to Franco's, the nice little Italian place on the corner, for dinner.  I had veal and Rachel had the stuffed manicotti.  Of course we had the giagantic slice of extra creamy homemade Tiramisu to top it off.  I like this place (and its Tiramisu) but there is a well known Italian place down the street from our new digs as well. 

The other big transition for April will be the pending close on our new house.  We have told some more people, but honestly the excitement has waned somewhat.  After last week's flurry of activity - viewing the house, putting in an offer, submitting documents to the lender, having the inspection - this week has been peaceful and quiet.  The seller's Realtor and lawyer are both out of town, and our Realtor is sick so the lines of communication have been off.  Hopefully this does not impact the closing date.  We have still not heard back about out list of repair items.

I am also having trouble getting us signed up for TaxSmart.  This is a city of Chicago program that offers federal income tax credits for 20% of the interest paid on a mortgage - for the life of the loan, up to $2000 in credits per year.  That could make for some nice tex refunds year after year.  Problem is, eligibility for the program is based on household income.  And though our income will be well under the limit in a few weeks, right now we are classified as a DINK home (double income no kids) and our eligibility is questionable.  We are perfect for this program in principle, but the timing might have thrown things off just enough.  Sigh. 

In other news, last Friday I was out of school on college visits with our sophomores.  We visited the Illinois Institute of Technology (we passed by our house on the bus ride there), Northeastern Illinois (I did not travel with the group that went there) and to Depaul.  I took a few pictures, but will not post them here (a Chicago teacher got in big trouble for questionable taste in this area last week).  However, you can check them out on my modest class website if you are curious. 

-alan

"Normalcy"

In high school, I wrote a paper for one of my AP classes on Warren Harding and the Teapot Dome scandal.  One of the Harding pieces of trivia - other than the fact he was one of the more corrupt and inept presidents in history - is that he coined the term normalcy during his presidency.  I feel that Stephen Colbert's penchant for making up words has its roots in that rather sad period in American history.

It comes to mind, because I feel that some regular routines are returning to our lives.  For the first time in awhile, I was able to read the Sunday paper.  We watched some TV on Saturday night.  We have spent time socially with friends and volunteered our services to babysit for others.  These are all things that during the "Great Allmen House Hunt 2011" did not happen with regularity.

Which is good.  We have a baby coming and still have more to prepare.  There is schoolwork to catch up on - we both have some grading piled up that needs to be dealt with before maternity / paternity begins.

That being said, we are going to be negotiating this week about repairs that need to be made to the house. We had our inspection on Friday afternoon, and have a list of repair requests ready to send to the sellers.

Our inspector patiently walked through each part of the house and pointed out various trouble areas to me.  We have a 34 page document now that I am sure will be useful for the next year, at least.  Major areas of concern are updating the electrical and some of the appliances - some things in use that are now obsolete.  We did not really negotiate with the sellers on the price of the house, so I am interested to know how this process will go.

Next step will be deciding when to move, and what work to do before we do.  We may paint, and tear up some of the carpeting before anything else.  And take down the aluminum window coverings.

A big question - what to do with our pink bathroom??

Anybody in the market for a pink toilet??

-alan

Little guy update

35 weeks, and all is well!  Though Rachel has discovered the magic of Tums (she did not know what heartburn was until recently) she is still spry and relatively energetic.  And oh yeah, we think we have the name picked out.  More or less.  Ever since Rachel vetoed Zerubbabel.  

Here is the latest shot of my wife and the little parasite baby-to-be:

She made her 35 week sign with some extra artwork this week.  I am only the photographer; I do what I am told.  My best guess is that she drew that as a subliminal message to us all: she wants us to say she looks as big as a house!  I will let you try it on her first; let me know how it goes.

Rachel's 34 week picture was under special circumstances - we were super booked all week, so she decided to have her profile taken following Northwestern's win in the first round of the NIT.

The win was big, and we actually had decent seats (unlike our season tickets this year).  The men's team takes on Washington State in the NIT quarterfinals tonight; the game is on very late so I will likely watch it tomorrow.  

A few funny lines from students, unsolicited, as of late:

"Mr. Allmen, remember how before I told you that you look small for your age?  Well, I wanted to give you this tiny pen because it reminds me of you."

"You should wear the lab coat more often.  You actually look smart!"

"Will any of the people near the nuclear plant in Japan get super powers?"

"Woah, you mean there is actually some logic to drawing molecular structures?  I thought you were just making it up as you go along."

Oh kids.

-alan