Hello booger butts. Just a quick update to let you all know I received approval from the bank’s appraiser to close. He’s got a final walkthrough a week from today to make sure they finished all the things they said they’d finish, but essentially I’m golden. As such, a closing place and time has been confirmed. I’m giving Kristy G some business as we’re closing with Chicago Title. Unfortunately its not her office where the closing is occuring. And its happening in the morning, so I should have all my little stuffs moved by the time everyone gets off work and maybe even have a new bed frame procured and ready to receive the ole mattress once the boy gets off work. Color me excited! I think its time to stop worrying and start loving the bomb. Err…
Things are moving along swimingly with the condo. I was able to get a sneak peek this past Friday evening and boy-oh-boy does it look like its gonna be nice when its finished. The timing of a few items still concerns me, but they claim to be on schedule for a July 25th completion - just in time for the appraiser and the inspector to do their final walk-throughs before closing!
Laundry list of items that were incomplete as of last Friday evening:
1. Kitchen cabinets, countertops, appliances - all doable in a single day.
2. Shower doors, and vanity in the bathroom need to be installed - half day at most.
3. French door installation - depending on any complications from framing the door, this shouldn’t take more than a day or two. Even with complications, there shouldn’t be problems getting this wrapped by close.
4. Pocket door installation on front bedroom - again, this is a half day at most.
5. Trim needs to be finished. Most rooms are done. Half day at most with only one guy working on it.
6. Entire place needs to be painted - a pro crew can do this in a couple hours.
7. Floor needs to be stained and sealed. Three days at most with a dedicated crew.
This of course does not include the clean-up they’ll have to do. There’s a shit ton of that as well, but its all coming along great. Pics pics pics!
I’ve got most of my stuff packed away now, which is good. Last night I started tackling the kitchen items I won’t need for the next two weeks. Here’s hoping everything continues to go so smoothly!
Lately things have been going rather smoothly with my life, and I’m avoiding the temptation to feel as though the other shoe is going to drop. There were a few tense moments with the condo where I thought there was a chance I wouldn’t be able to land it. However, I have received good news from my mortgage broker.
Apparently I’ll be able to work the loan(s) so that I don’t get hit with PMI. That’s pretty hot, as even though its tax-deductible now, its a waste of cash. The second, and this is fucking HUGE, is that because I’m buying in a “target area” (i.e., the ever-gentrifying barrio which is the western side of the Ukrainian Village) I’m eligible for Chicago’s TaxSmart program. Essentially I’ll be able to claim an additional tax deduction of 20% of the interest I’ve paid on my mortgage come next spring. So, not only am I getting a kick ass place in a kick ass neighborhood, I’ll also be applying an additional 20% of my payments to my principal. At least that’s what I’m telling myself now. Depending on how the finances are looking after closing, I may be forced to wait on new furniture until I get that deal squared away.
Not only this, but I’ve been informed that the former tenant has vacated the premises and construction has begun ahead of schedule. This is good since I had my kick-ass lawyer put a contingency in the contract that I could freely backout without penalty if the closing did not happen before September 1st. Basically, I don’t have to worry about the unit not being done in the time frame specified. The cabinets were already ordered like a month ago and the flooring is on hand and ready to be installed.
My downstairs neighbors have also informed me that one of them will be subletting my current apartment from me as well as the half garage space. They’re geared up and ready for a 9/1 move date, so I’ll have to eat at most a single month’s rent. Maybe less, depending when the closing actually occurs. I can move everything I own in less than 4 hours total, so it shouldn’t be a huge deal at all. In fact, I may pack up the truck on my way to the closing.
Now if I could just sell that damn dining room table before I move…
A.K.A. the introduction of the terms “frak” and “frakking” into the common vernacular.
Most people peg me, rather correctly, as a nerd within a short amount of time knowing me. I won’t deny it. I watch Sci Fi television shows, geek out on computers and video games, and have done my fair share of nerdy things in my lifetime. That said, I don’t know how to feel about a term from a science fiction show entering into everyday language.
Lately I’ve noticed more and more individuals using the word “frak” in lieu of fuck. The term originates, as far as I’m aware, from the new incarnation of Battlestar Galactica - which is in its fourth and final season. Don’t get me wrong. I love the show (even if the pace is a tad bit slow this season), but I’m not entirely sure how to feel about this growing switch in verbiage. On one hand, using “frak” instead of fuck is more polite in everyday conversation. Its great for an office situation when something goes horribly awry and you need a good four letter word substitute so the boss does chew you a new one for swearing on the job.
On the other hand, it makes me think “if you are using this instead of the actual word ‘fuck’ and everyone knows what you mean by it when you say it, then doesn’t the word carry the same weight and hence can be considered inpolite?” I can say scheiße instead of shit, but anyone who knows what it means knows that I’m just saying shit in German. The word carries the same weight in my mind and is no more polite or acceptable in polite conversation than saying shit.
Not five minutes after my last post I received a phone call from La Fruiteria informing me that my iMac was ready for pick up. My only explanation beyond this being purely coincidence is that Steve-a-reno subscribes to the all important emoticocks RSS feed to check on my levels of satisfaction with his computers. He used his newly acquired knowledge of my upset with the lag in return of my precious fruit along with the red phone in his office (complimented with brushed aluminum, of course) which is hard-wired to the Fruiteria on North Michigan to inform them to step up the pace, which resulted in the return of my newly repaired (hopefully for the last time) fruit computer. Bravo, Steve! Good show, mate!
For those not in the loop, I had to take my iMac into the Fruiteria to get serviced due to random shutdowns at varying intervals. I could be checking my e-mail or doing something equally non-intensive as hitting www.google.com and BLAMMO it just shuts down. It could happen anywhere from 5 minutes to 5 hours of use, so it was a bit pesky of an issue and definitely not software related.
So it was in the shop for 4 days the week before last to get the issue resolved. Bring it home, have it on for 5 minutes and KABLOOIE! Shuts down out of nowhere. Back to the Fruiteria with you, dear iMac. Its been almost a week now and I’ve not heard a single word. I’m guessing they are taking their time to properly repair the machine. Or perhaps archiving my porn collection for future review by Apple Geniuses.
At any rate, I would like my machine back soonish. Hopefully they cannot resolve the issue and I’ll be forced to take a brand new iMac with marginally better specs. At any rate, I want my computer back (which is really to say that I want my porn back)!
So the ALA is having a blood drive this Friday. Awesome! I will happily donate blood. OOPS! I CAN’T! Why? Because I’ve had sexual contact with a man, even just once, since 1977.
So obviously I haven’t donated blood in a long time, but I don’t ever recall there being a restriction on donating due to being a gay male. The FDA enacted this rule in 1985 during the height of the AIDS scare. If all blood is properly tested (as it should be) after it is donated, why then is there this arbitrary ban on gay men donating their blood?
I can understand a rule coming into play out of fear, but the perpetuation of this archaic rule is nothing short of discriminatory. Its not like you’re going to get a mad case of the gay from receiving my perfectly healthy blood or something equally ridiculous. Hopefully this ruling will be overturned as its nothing short of ignorant discrimination based solely off the fear that the blood may be infected. If you are testing each donation as thoroughly as you should be, this would not be an issue. From Wikipedia:
Blood testing
Most blood is later tested for diseases, including STDs. If the test is positive, the donor will be notified and their blood discarded. The tests used are high-sensitivity screening tests and no actual diagnosis is made. Some of the test results are later found to be false positives using more specific testing. False negatives are rare, but donors are discouraged from using blood donation for the purpose of anonymous STD screening because a false negative could mean a contaminated unit.
Donated blood is tested by many methods, but the core tests used globally are these four:
Hepatitis B Surface Antigen
Antibody to Hepatitis C
Antibody to HIV, usually both subtypes 1 and 2
Serologic test for syphilis
The WHO reported in 2006 that 56 out of 124 countries surveyed did not use these basic tests on all blood donations.[13] Other tests are performed before a transfusion can take place, typically a crossmatch and blood typing and screening for atypical blood antigens.
A variety of other tests are often used based on local requirements. Additional testing is expensive, and in some cases the tests are not implemented because of the cost[14]. These additional tests include other infectious diseases such as West Nile Virus.[15] Sometimes multiple tests are used for a single disease to cover the limitations of each test. For example, the HIV antibody test will not detect a recently infected donor, so some blood banks use a p24 antigen or HIV nucleic acid test to detect donors during that period.
Ok, admittedly reading this makes it a little more understandable in modern times, but seriously why are they not thoroughly testing the blood they are receiving through donations? I know its costly, but there’s absolutely no reason to not expend the money on this as a method of stemming the transmission of serious diseases. It actually makes me think twice about willingly receiving blood if I ever need it. “Oh hey someone cut corners on this blood donation testing and now I’ve got HIV. THANKS AMERICAN MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS!”
So perhaps discrimination isn’t really the term I should use here, but rather cheap and lazy.
This past weekend was the annual Internation Mister Leather competition in Chicago. As always, the weekend is over-the-top gay with crazy happenings going on. I participated in next to none of the activities this time around. Sorry, kids. No funny videos of the various parties this year. I found myself otherwise occupied with my mister.
I don’t know if its the fact that I have a boyfriend again or if I am just over the gay scene on the whole, but there’s not really much that appealed to me as far as events to attend - for humor or other reasons. Thursday night I met up with some of the guys from the neighborhood for the opening ceremonies meet and greet at the hotel. Aside from that, Greg and I went to the leather market a couple of times. Saturday on our own and then again on Monday with Jenny and Richard who were in town visiting. Jenny was underwhelmed with the leather market, and I’m not entirely surprised by this. It seemed like there were more outlandish selections last year than this year. Still, some very cool things for sale but very little I pulled the trigger on.
I found some awesome leather chaps that fit decently over my jeans (just a little snug, but that’s the way they’re supposed to be when you buy them) so I could actually wear them on the motorcycle - ie, they weren’t just fetish gear, which only has niche appeal to me anyway. Northbound Leather makes them and they had chains up the side in a lacing pattern. Very sexy, but they were asking ~$400 for them and I have to buy a new bed frame thanks to my hand-me-down frame finally meeting its demise this weekend. I feel the money is better spent on getting my mattress off the floor than on leather chaps.
So nothing crazy or outlandish to report this year. Just a good, solid memorial day weekend largely spent hanging out with friends, which is exactly what I was looking for.
