brettsing

My house is a mess!

We’re quite deep into the process of getting rid of things so we can begin packing for the move. Actually, Harold has already packed a few boxes on his own.

We’ve uprooted most of the furniture that we are selling, cleaned, and photographed it. We’re not getting a lot of bites on craigslist yet though.

In addition to the pieces we are selling, we’ve already given away three full carloads of stuff… and we’ve only gone through two rooms! (The two worst rooms) We definitely did have a closet in the office that looked more like a room from clean-house than anything else. Two entire carloads of stuff came out of it and were donated. We also went through all of the furniture and the built-ins in the dining room. (another car load)

The next step in the process of streamlining, sloughing and organizing—basically condensing, is the DVDs and CDs. Harold is making the jump and getting rid of all the CD and DVD cases. They are going the way of my DVD collection and being placed into flip-books.

At the moment the house is a huge mess, and it probably will be for a while, and while that is very difficult for me to live in, I’m having to deal with it. However, in the end, it will be worth it. We’re definitely on our way to fitting our current apartment, into our new apartment. I’m glad we were able to get started so soon.

We are actually getting rid of 10 pieces of furniture. We are adding 5 back in, but smaller and/or better suited to the use of the space we will have. We purchased four of those already, and the store is holding delivery until we move to our new place.

Exhausted & excited,
Brett Patrick Casey :o)

Ends, Beginnings, & Purchases.

What a busy week I had last week. Its Monday and I’m only now getting around to blogging about it. Don’t you love how I say that like I update with some semblance of regularity? Right.

Anyway. Last Tuesday Harold and I drove down to Hannibal for the funeral of a friend. My friend Jason, who was the musical director of our Cabaret show, died on January, 28th. He was such a fun person, and he did so many cool things. He was so much to so many people. A co-writer, a friend, a director, a teacher, a partner… suffice to say I won’t be the only one missing him. It was nice to see everyone else, though the circumstances were really unfortunate. I wish I would have been able to spend more time with them. I miss those kids! If any of you are readers: Come up to Chicago and be fat with me!

We are on the search at work for a new designer. I reviewed about 300 portfolios and about 20 resumes. Unless their portfolio is pretty good, I don’t even look at the resume. I’m bringing two people in for interviews on Wednesday. I hope one of them works out. I think they probably will. They had great portfolios. I’m excited to meet them, and at the prospect of adding one to our team.

I decided I might try to benefit from the unfortunate demise of Circuit City, and decided I would keep an eye on their HD TiVos and purchase one when the price got low enough. (I know I could get an HD DVR from Comast for cheaper but… fuck Comcast/Medicomm/EveryOtherCableCompany and their shitty ass version of DVR… I want, love, and NEED TiVo. It’s just the way it is. Its like the Apple of the DVR world. Its just better. Seriously.) Anyway, they have refurb TiVo’s HDs on the TiVo website shipped for free, for a total of 199.00. Regular price (online, or at Best Buy is 299.00) I don’t buy refurb stuff, I also don’t buy things online so much to Harold’s annoyance, that was out.

Over the past couple weeks I’ve been driving to the Circuit City on Elston and checking them out. (I have bought a couple of things after milling around the store, and had my taste in movies insulted by a clerk. I hadn’t seen “40 Days and 40 Nights” in years…. and after watching it, decided he was right to be insulting. Anyway…) This week the TiVo HD’s dropped down to 239.00. I decided to get serious about buying one. I drove from one store to another trying to find one IN a box. (They only had the floor models (I found out later that they sent all of the boxed ones back.) I was thinking of purchasing the floor model anyway until they didn’t have the original warranty card (they told me I could do it online) nor anything else that was supposed to come with it. Finally I decided the gods of shopping did NOT feel the need for me to have a TiVo HD at this time. An hour later, Harold receives an e-mail that Sears is having a sale–he checks the website and they have them (New, in the store, and in boxes) for 199.00! There is a sears about 12 blocks (1.5 miles) down the street from us, so we hopped in the car and drove over. We purchased our TiVo, and decided that since we were there, and if we spent $300 or more, we had a year to pay it off with no interest… we would also purchase a 22″ flat panel (Which I later saw (while looking for a swivel mount for our new TV) at Circuit City for $100 dollars more (even with the 30% off) than we paid for it full price at Sears.) for the bedroom and to stick our old TiVo on it. The best parts: 1. TiVo has to be connected to the internet. The NEW TiVo has an eithernet cable, and will live right next to the router, so we don’t have to purchase another wireless TiVo access thing. ($40 saved) Because its TiVo, and not Comcast, the two TiVos are able to talk to each over our home network, and we can watch programs recorded on one, in the other room. Additionally, we can use the instant Netflix thing to watch movies on it. TiVo is Genius. I love it. I’m SO excited about THAT.

Also, Tomorrow (Feb 10) is Harold’s and my 1 year anniversary (from our first date) !!!

Brett Patrick Casey :o)

A little bit of re-working.

Okay, a lot.

Apparently my site had a virus. Google has been telling me it is an attack site for quite some time. I’m not sure if I was confused about that or what…. anyway… I have deleted my entire web site, everything on my server.

Wordpress was the first thing I put back, however, I didn’t back up my images (because apparently images can contain viruses much more easily than text files)

That means right now we are imageless.

I do have previous back-ups of most of them, and will return those to the site whenever I get a chance.

Brett :o)

New Pictures of Chase

Yes We Carve.

Did you carve a Barack-O-Lantern ?

Brett :o)

The Brunch

How about a little OCD with your coffee?

The Brunch is genius.

Chicago Marathon Weekend

Now you know the story of Manon.

Harold and I are having a big carb-loading party for all of the people we know who are running the Chicago Marathon next weekend. This weekend we’re readying the house. I fixed the closet in the guest bedroom (the shelf fell down shortly after I FINALLY got it organized after moving in spilling EVERYTHING back onto the floor) We’ve got company for the next two weekends in a row. This coming weekend, two of Harold’s friends (I think from College) are coming to stay with us, the following weekend his mom. Next weekend we’re also inviting anyone who wants to come to the party over. A few people from my work are confirmed, etc. Its going to be fun.

Last weekend we got a new couch from the Crate & Barrel outlet, that was SUPER cheap. It has a really small tear in the back, but we picked it up for 450 (including the cost of the rental car to drive it home) when the original price is 1,300. That was incredibly exciting, especially since its really nice. We also got some bookcases from IKEA two weeks ago because they were on sale. We got the glass doors for the bottom halves of them. The living room is looking really nice. With the new furniture I was able to open up the layout. Its no longer separated into the sort of cramped smaller room with the tv, couch and chairs vs. the larger room with nothing in it. I set up a long furniture arrangement that runs diagonally through both rooms from the northwest corner to the southeast corner. Its nice because the tv is visible from anywhere, but the furniture looks more like a furniture grouping meant for conversation. The TV is more of a secondary feature. Its really cool. We also got new lamps. All of the dark mission and/or older style furniture with the new modern elements works well and the juxtaposition is making the whole thing look really nice.

Last night Harold received a phone call from his friend Kim informing him that she and her husband would be unable to use their subscriber tickets to the Opera today. Harold and I went instead. It was downtown at the Civic Opera House, put on by the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

We went to see Manon. Manon is kind of a whore, not really… but yeah. It was in French, which I don’t speak or understand. It was is in five acts, with two intermissions, totaling 3 hours and 40 minutes. Luckily, they put the translation of EVERYTHING in English above the stage so that I can know what the hell was going on. From reading the supertitles, this is what I understood of the story:

So Manon is on her way to go live in a convent. (her family thinks she likes pleasure a bit too much) There is this old ass man (Guillot) who is stricken by her beauty and wants to take her off in his carriage, which is waiting. Manon meets this other man (The Chevalier des Grieux) and he is instantly in love with her, so in love with her in fact that (after some quick convincing by her) steals the waiting carriage and takes her to his apartment in Paris.

They are SO happy and in love. The Chevalier writes a letter to his father explaining his decision to him. They read it together. Manon’s cousin shows up and isn’t pleased. They read him the letter and he blesses them. Manon is warned that the Chevalier’s father is sending people tonight to take him away from her, and back to the church (that he was on his way to, when they met) where he is to become a catholic priest, she is told (by her cousin) that she can tell him and become miserable, or let this happen and have a pleasurable life. She worries about what to do, but ultimately doesn’t tell him. Men show up and abscond with him.

Now at a festival, Manon shows up with some admirers and sings a song to the people about what a joy it is to be blessed with beauty and youth. The old ass man (Guillot) hearing a tale that Manon once asked for an the opera to come to her living room but was denied, shows up and has the opera come and perform a ballet just for her (in order to woo her.) She ignores the ballet completely and doesn’t watch because she is too concerned over the fate of the Chevalier. She hears that he is no longer a Chevalier, but now a priest. She begins asking people if he’s ever spoken of her… friend, or if he ever got over her… friend. She is informed that time has healed his heart, but he does not speak of her.

The Chevalier (des Grieux) has become a priest who is greatly loved by the churchgoers. This makes the mans father very happy, and he comments that its nice to be able to add the title of priest to the family, because it is good for the family name. Manon’s ass is in the congregation and she recognizes the priest as her former lover. She shows up and begs his forgiveness, proclaiming that she will die right here and now if he will not forgive her. He does, and he leaves the church to be with her.

At the gambling room of a hotel. After spending almost all of his money on her grand lifestyle, she begs him to play cards with the old ass man and several others. Eventually, he agrees and wins much money (Guillot keeps doubling the bets). Manon decides they have won enough and is ready to leave. The old ass man accuses him of cheating and leaves, but quickly returns with the police and accuses des Grieux of being a cheat.

Des Grieux’s father shows up and says that he will take care of the situation with him, but will not do anything to help Manon. Des Grieux swears he will defend her and the two are taken away by the police. Upon question of what would happen to Manon, Guillot says that she would go to a place where they deal with people like this.

On a road, we find Manon being transported as a prostitute (described as half-dead by the man doing the transporting.) Des Grieux (out b/c of his father) and Manon’s cousin show up. A bunch of soldiers show up with their prisoners, and Des Grieux and Lescaut (Manon’s cousin) persuade all the the guards and people to leave her until later. Manon falls to the ground (her one night in prison has apparently left her all-but-dead) She recalls with Des Grieux the good times which are now over. He says they can have them again, but she knows it is too late and says “Now you know the story of Manon.” Then she dies.

All in all, I have to say it was pretty entertaining. I really enjoyed the experience. The set was pretty grandiose, the singers and orchestra were quite nice. There were a LOT of people there. I was kind of surprised how many, actually, it being a Saturday afternoon and all. Apparently, Opera is big.

Brett Patrick Casey :o)

The Blog.

Rob, a guy I work with frequently tells me I should have a blog. My answer, of course, is that I already do. He then suggests I write in it more.

This is his straight boy way of saying that I am opinionated, or that I complain a lot. Perhaps both. Either way, he is correct… I should write in it more.

This is going to sound dumb, but the reason I don’t write in it more is because I’ve felt a re-design is necessary for some time, but haven’t had the time or energy to do that. I think its going to happen soon though.

So watch out.

Very Long Time… No Entry.

Hmm… that was a long breath.

Today at work I’ve actually just begun the process of re-doing our website. I guess it put me in a web-site-updatey mood. Actually, it put me in a mood to re-design my site, especially because I’ve never gone nearly this long without a redesign. I also don’t think I’ve ever gone this long without a post before, so there’s that.

Work is great, things with Harold are good –I’ve no real complaints of any kind.

This weekend I spent a lot of time working on detail things around the house. Harold and I finished painting the hallway, we built some shelves (well, assembled from IKEA is more like it) I hung a bunch of pictures, some blinds and the last set of curtains, etc. The list goes on and on, all in all, it was a pretty productive Sunday. (We didn’t go to church b/c Harold wasn’t feeling well)

I hope everyone, everywhere is doing well. I can’t even say “everyone back home” because people are becoming so spread out.

Its weird how accustomed I’ve become to having all kinds of retail stores and restaurants within such close reach. We actually eat at the same places a lot though, which sort of surprises me. It went from “we’ve been everywhere before a million times” in Jefferson City to “Should we go somewhere we know will be relatively inexpensive and we’ll like the food” or “Should we really go somewhere in THAT neighborhood, parking is a bitch there?”

Our new apartment isn’t especially close to the train, I guess its about six blocks from the Irving Park blue line stop (Irving Park Rd & I-90/I-94), which is almost a mile. (Eight blocks is a mile– I can never remember that because blocks here aren’t street-to-street they are 100 numbers in Addresses, and I think that’s fucking stupid. Blocks should run street to street, and addresses should follow suit. Clearly they didn’t ask me, though perhaps they should have.) Sometimes it seems like a good idea to go downtown on the train (b/c most of the time there’s certainly nowhere to park down there) but it just seems a little far away. Work isn’t anywhere near the train either. To take transit to work I can take the Irving Park bus to the Harlem bus and it takes me down to work, but by train it’d be kind of ridiculous.

Sometimes Harold is busy or at work and I’d like to get out and do something, but I’m not one to enjoy doing things all on my own very much, and I really don’t have a lot of friends here, so I usually just won’t.

Well, we’re going home now I think, so I’m off.

Brett Patrick Casey :o)