Chicago MMXII

Nick do u want to buy a big ac for ¢heap? 100% hassle-free money back guarantee thru this summer. Also selling an Ikea shelf unit w glass frosted door. ¢heap.

O mine heavenly father, this concourse is hot as hell. The counter attendant said it got way worse every afternoon.

I create an Unattended Package today. I forgot my bag at Argo Tea where it stayed for about 15 minutes. No one noticed.

Flying is awesome. Airports are great. Planes are awesome.

Nick buy Jesse's big AC. The thought of how hot your apartment must be is stressing me out.

Good window units are wondrous.

seriously, so glad we invested in a big new window unit last summer. Before that, all we had was a rinky-dink tiny unit that was falling apart and kind-of-sort-of cooled the bedroom.

No good sense in holding out -- Move that unit into your home today.

Hopleaf is open for lunch now btw, and the extra room next door is ooooopen.

I highly recommend one with a thermostat, too.

AC unit, not a Hop Leaf lunch.

I recommend a hopleaf lunch. I just had one and it was top notch!

Cool, we may go to the hopleaf for dinner to-nite.

Ah Charlotte Douglas Interracial Airport, the memories: my first time seeing an automatic toilet, being worried about the toilets bc my dad warned me that the south is the armpit of the nation and if I wasn't careful I'd get crabs from the toilet or urinal.

Holy what the hell they have bathroom attendants??!?

#CLTtoilets

On land 28 minutes, wished a blessed day twice.

This is great bc since I stopped taking the Red Line to work I hardly ever get the Blessed Train and I have been out of credits for blessed days for months. Gonna stock up down here.

where are you going?

Dirt's red with the blood of Yankees.

Gas is $3.20 a gallon!!!!!!!!!!! Wowwwwza!

North Carolina. Raise up.

Are you going to live blog your whole trip?

dammit i wish the weather could wait to be hellish til after i get a new a/c. my old one was limping along reasonably before, but today it's 87 in my apartment.

jesse did you get a new a/c and what brand and is it quiet and etc?

87??!?!? eek!

I don't know what size you need, but we have a Kenmore (two - smaller one for the bedroom, and a larger one for the living room/office room) like the ones pictured in the first two row of search results here - http://www.sears.com/shc/s/s_10153_12605_Appliances_Air%20Conditioners_Window%20Air%20Conditioners

The living room unit rattles a little bit sometimes, but all we have to do to stop it is move the vents a little bit. (It was rattling earlier today but that's because I had cleaned the filter and not shut the cover firmly.)

ALTHOUGH the very first window unit we bought from Sears a few years ago broke shortly after we got it and getting them to come out and take it back required me to yell at them on the phone for about an hour. So while I've been very happy with the two we have now (second summer for the bedroom unit, third summer for the living room unit), it was kind of a rough start so it's hard to enthusiastically recommend buying something from Sears.

my current one is your old kenmore. it was good while it lasted--it's old.

my new one will be whatever my parents are willing to buy at costco, which i will research when it's no longer a holiday.

I think ours in the living room is the 15100 BTU unit. Basically the biggest one you can put on a normal outlet.

whoa. that's big. my now-uninstalled new one, which was wonderfully cool but rattled/squeaked like a mofo, was 12k, so i'll prob get another 12k. dunno about getting the same one tho, after having such a neg experience. it was defective! it would be great if not defective. but i dunno.

We also have a kenmore a/c and I fully endorse them. My mom has all kenmore and has had them for more than 10 years. Tanks.

We finally put ours in just now. It's a Kenmore as well -- no issues in the ~5 yrs we've had it.

Our two doors down neighbors are drunkenly singing the national anthem in the back yard.

Julia- no, I did not get a new one. I have two last summer, one of which I got for free, but the one I bought new is keeping up even in the worst heat so far and I decided to sell the free one on CL. I didn't think to tell you since you were exchanging your new one. But if you want we can discuss via email. I am selling it with a summer long guarantee to friends, but full disclosure: I have barely used it and while it was cold, I haven't had a chance to learn any quirks or squeaks.

I had the most infuriating encounter with a stereotypically rude, power mad, petty airline guy today. My shaving kit fell out of my bag on the plane, which I discovered as I got in my rental car.

The bastard at baggage management was a bastard all around, eg when I begged, harassed, and begged again if he could make another call to ask the gate staff to check my seat specifically. He said numerous times, "No sir. I told you they already. cleaned. the plane. and didn't find anything."

He finally called and said, "Yeh this is Angelo calling back. This customer wants me to ask you, when y'all cleaned that plane, you checked it pretty good, right? All right i figured you did. Okay, thank you." and hung up.

We yelled at each other, then suddenly out of nowhere* he completely changed. He became polite and helpful. He actually said, "Aw, who knows, maybe the cleaners missed your bag. Everybody makes mistakes," and voluntarily called the gate a third time and asked the attendant to check seat 3F, but lol the plane had left the gate.

* I think that he saw that i was broken and he'd won.

Then someone texted me: "I found your bag and checked it and it will be waiting for you in baggage claim at Frankfort." After a round of Who's On First texts, the person texting called me. Seems that on his report, Angelo mixed up my phone number with the number of the girl from St. Louis who lost her bag on her way to the gate for her flight to Germany.

please give me the most icy A/C'd bar on the Blue Line.

The Blue Line bar is likely to be icy and fully A/C'd -- it's directly to the right when you exit at the Damen stop. (I've never been there myself and it's likely to be full of tools but you can truly crawl there from the el stop exit)

I'll probably wind up at the Chi Diner and Big Chicks tonight, but may enter that bar as soon as it opens tomorrow.

Blue Line is okay, another option is the Green Eye at Western. You might even se Chicago Kevin there.

much better idea

NC has hills. Chicago does not.

Hot guy at the consulate: baby-faced gringo meatwad with jeans up past his navel and giant Texas belt buckle who spoke Spanish with his wife and staff in a Deep South drawl and who had a lot to say about ignorant xenophobes. His Spanish consonants were dead on - impressive "r" and "rr" sounds - but he worked every vowel over like by damn bubble gum.

Violet Hour is also an option if you're into fancy cocktails.

Is Morbs still in town, or did I miss him completely?

I feel bad because I totally stood him up on the 4th. He called, and I didn't call back. But then again, I wanted to go to Big Chicks with him, but he declined because he didn't want to "straight up the place," so on second thought, fuck him.

something must be wrong with me, it's so hot out but i am craving pho or ramen

something must be wrong with me, it's so hot out that i am considering going to see magic mike

Nick, you're missing some salt, clearly.

Magic Mike is probably the movie currently in theaters that I am most interested in seeing. Kind of doubt I'll end up seeing it, though.

(Mostly b/c Kr's not interested, and I don't want to see it ~so bad~ that I'd go by myself.)

jesse and i saw it, it was decent

Nick, you're missing some salt, clearly.

That sounds very OTM.

I have lunch paralysis. I'm really hungry! I'm willing to *shudder* go outside! I don't want any food that I can think of!

me too. actually asian food sounds good but i can't decide where to go.

wow bao is really close but i always feel kind of cheated when i eat there. maybe siam rice, but it's further.

That's kooky because I was thinking of Wow Bao but I want something sturdier.