Aaaaahhhhh!!!! Runs screaming from the open house...

Even though we are still feeling the affect of the recession, Chicago open houses are on my calendar this weekend. My husband and I have decided that its time to find a house to settle down in and move from our small 2 br townhouse. We spend a lot of evenings searching through hundreds of real estate listings in the Chicago area to find a diamond in the rough. (and there is a lot of rough!) We probably look at more homes online than most people because the area we are searching to buy in is pretty large. (most of the western suburbs) We also end up rejecting a lot of homes for a lot of reasons that are probably pretty common in this economy.

Something’s gotta give though, and the economy isn’t going  to move forward until all of the people like us (with a 20% down payment ready to go) are able to get past at least one of these barriers and buy a house sometime soon. If you are trying to sell your home these things we’re running up against may provide some insight into why your home isn’t selling yet.

1. Not close enough to the METRA train. Parking is notoriously difficult to get in most west suburban metra stations (like 7 year waiting list long) so a lot of pressure is put on the homes within walking distance to the train, and not just the tracks, the station itself. Homes with 4 bedrooms or more within 6 blocks of the Naperville train station go for $600,000 to $1.5 million. Sometimes I wonder why we even try to find a house in these areas… What is less than that is usually painfully small, painfully out of date or demolished or earmarked for demolition so a McMansion can be built for some rich executive that needs to travel downtown every day.

If we only had the skills of these guys...

2. Kitchens/Baths not recently updated and we’re not Bob Vila or Norm Abrams. (we wish we were though) We can update some things, but a full house rehab is not our cup of tea. We’re going on 2 months on a simple Vanity/Paint/Sink bathroom remodel at home now. We also aren’t Richy-Rich enough to afford someone else doing the renovation either. I think if one room needs an overhaul that is ok, if the entire house needs it, the house gets rejected. (about 90% of what I see online is in this category)  Everyone knows that once you have kids you won’t ever have any money to renovate again, so it’s either included when you buy the house or it never happens and you have a lifetime of relatives trying to politely avoid Christmas Eve invitations. This is why there is so much pressure to get a recently updated house. Just watch HGTV’s suite of 12 million shows on how to quickly and cheaply update and stage a home to sell. They’re actually very good at it. Just don’t believe how fast its done in. That part is not true. (and a test: if your kitchen cabinets have hinges on the outside of the door that are visible OR have an oak strip across the bottom of a white laminate cabinet door, you need to get them replaced or refaced before selling. And Advice: all wood tones go out of style within a few years, get white instead! Likewise, if you have flourescent tube lights in the celing with a fake window pane cover, they need to go now!)

3. Pre-Recession home pricing. I have switched from using Realtor.com’s site listings to using Redfin.com. There you can see the past sale history of the home you are looking at if it is publicly available. (it usually is if its been sold within the last 15 years) If we see that the home was purchased at the top of the real estate bubble in 2006-2007 and they want the same price for it now, no-way-Jose. The entire Chicagoland metropolitan area has declined in value about 20% from then and the people who price accordingly are the ones selling. If your home is not updated, take off the mandatory 20% plus the cost of renovating the rooms that need it. I had to sell my condo at 20% less than the value, how can I go pay a premium for someone else’s home?

The holy grail of kitchens, celing height cabinets, lots of storage, an island and white cabinets!!!

4. Its already contingent on a sale. You would be surprised how fast a home sells if it’s had the kitchens/baths recently updated (within the last 10 years)  and its price is about 20% lower than the peak. Maybe a week and its sold. So if your goal is to move out of town and loose that mortgage payment to start your new job and life somewhere else, this is how to do it. And by recently updated we don’t mean super fancy, just nice basic stuff is way better than a 1972 kitchen. (and there are surprisingly still thousands of 1972, 1961 and 1985 kitchens out there. It’s been a trend lately that as soon as we find a house that has dropped the price with the market and it looks like its in good working shape, it’s contingent. One loophole we are hopeful about is possibly finding Foreclosed Homes or Short Sales. We know some are in bad shape, but a lot of the homes being foreclosed on are recently renovated or built when the bubble was high and are still in nice shape. One thing that makes this difficult is the length of time it takes to close with the bank that owns them.

5. Near water and/or has a pool. (hot tubs are not great either, and why on earth do you have a professional Bowling Alley in your basement of a 4 bedroom ranch?) I am not a swimmer so pools, lakes, rivers, retention ponds, hot tubs and bowling alley’s scare me. Ok not the last one. I just don’t have extra cash to maintain these water works (waterfalls in the backyard are also a bad idea, difficult to maintain) so remove them if possible. Plus, who wants to sit in a Hot Tub where the last owners got-it-on anyway???

6. Sometimes the home has been discounted but the Property Taxes are still too high. This is difficult because some homes are discounted heavily and the taxes are almost as much as the mortgage payment from 2007 levels. No county or town is going to lower them without a serious fight either. They are short on budgets and cash also. So, these usually are excluded too. If you can re-negotiate your property taxes before you sell this will be a huge help to getting it sold faster.

So, I will not be spending my weekend frolicking in the leaves at Morton Arboretum where I would like to be. It is very likely we will be walking through open homes for sale and trying to find one that is affordable, nice and in a good location, but judging from the last month or so it may be a while…

Have you been thinking of some home improvement projects but are afraid to spend the money in the current economy? Tax Credits for Energy Efficiency Products can help. It is scary not knowing if all our jobs will be around in 6 months, but if you have some savings to use for these projects and really need new windows, doors, more efficient electric appliances, new attic insulation or a new furnace or air conditioner there are some Tax Credits that may help you save 30% more  than you can get discounted at the store.

I recently got an email from my realtor about making these home improvements that are tax deductible. You can’t get all the money back that you spend on the energy efficient appliances, windows or alternative energy sources like solar and thermal heat, but you can get up to 30% back. If you need these things anyway now is the time to buy before the end of 2010 because the Tax credits may not all be available beyond then. Here are the details from the home buyer email:

Energy efficiency Tax Credits offered by the federal government could be even more useful for the average homeowner.

You may be eligible for a tax credit equal to 30 percent of the cost of materials (up to $1,500) for certain products purchased between January 1, 2009 and December 31st, 2010.

Below are the rating specifications for eligible energy efficiency products:

Product Category Product Type Tax Credit Specification

Insulation Meets 2009 IECC & Amendments

Windows & Doors Windows, Doors, and Skylights Before June 1, 2009: Must meet ENERGY STAR criteria After June 1, 2009: U factor <= 0.30 SHGC <= 0.30

Storm Windows & Storm Doors In combination with the exterior window over which it is installed: has a U-factor and SHGC of 0.30 or below Meets the IECC

Roofing Metal Roofs, Asphalt Roofs All ENERGY STAR qualified metal and reflective asphalt shingles HVAC Central A/C Split Systems: SEER >= 16, EER >=13 Package systems: SEER >= 14, EER >= 12

Air Source Heat Pumps Split Systems: HSPF >= 8.5, EER >= 12.5, SEER >= 15 Package systems: HSPF >= 8, EER >= 12, SEER >= 14

Natural Gas or Propane Furnace AFUE >= 95

Oil Furnace AFUE >= 90 Gas, Propane, or Oil Hot Water Boiler AFUE >= 90

Advanced Main Air Circulating Fan No more than 2% of furnace total energy use.

Water Heaters Gas, Oil, Propane Water Heater Energy Factor >= 0.82 or a thermal efficiency of at least 90%.

Electric Heat Pump Water Heater Same criteria as ENERGY STAR: Energy Factor >= 2.0

Biomass Stove Biomass Stove Stove which burns biomass fuel to heat a home or heat water. Thermal efficiency rating of at least 75% as measured using a lower heating value.

Extended Opportunities: The following upgrades are eligible for a 30% of cost tac credit (without an upper limit) if placed into service before December 31st, 2016:

Geo-Thermal Heat Pump Geo-Thermal Heat Pump Same criteria as ENERGY STAR: Closed Loop: EER >= 14.1, COP >= 3.3 Open Loop: EER >= 16.2, COP >= 3.6 Direct Expansion: EER >= 15, COP >= 3.5

Solar Energy Systems Solar Water Heating At least half of the energy generated by the “qualifying property” must come from the sun.

Homeowners may only claim spending on the solar water heating system property, not the entire water heating system of the household. The credit is not available for expenses for swimming pools or hot tubs. The water must be used in the dwelling.

The system must be certified by the Solar Rating and Certification Corporation (SRCC). Photovoltaic Systems Photovoltaic systems must provide electricity for the residence, and must meet applicable fire and electrical code requirement.

Small Wind Energy Systems Residential Small Wind Turbines (windmills) Has nameplate capacity of not more than 100 kilowatts.

Fuel Cells Residential Fuel Celland microturbine system Efficiency of at least 30% and must have a capacity of at least 0.5 kW.

It’s August and all the stores in Chicago would like a share of your pocketbook this season in back to school supplies, clothes, shoes and college dorm necessities. Some have great sales starting already, other stores will start the back to school sales in Chicago this week. Most kids start school in a few weeks and want new backpacks, lunchboxes, supplies and of course jeans, gym shoes and stylish accessories.  Kids don’t care very much about whether there is a back to school sale running or not, but they do need some new stuff.

Yet, this year we are still in a recession and the economic activity is restrained, so how much new stuff will people really buy? Or can you get more use out of last year’s backpack and lunchbox? Maybe it’s not the time for a cell phone for the kids just yet? This year’s back to school buying season may be more about sales than ever.

If you want to afford the things you need for the lowest prices check out these tips for saving money and stores and where to find Chicago back to school sales and discounts.

1. Skip the non-necessities.I don’t think it’s the year for coach purses, 7 for mankind jeans or new iphones. I think most families are looking for back to school sales in Chicago this year on back to school items and are more likley to re-use things they have around the house. If you can get some life out of cleaning up last year’s backpack, lunchbox, gym shoes or get by with last year’s calculator, people are doing that.

2. Look for the back to school sales. You need to look around at all the sales to get a feel for the best prices. The best way to do this is to research online first, but beware some stores can charge different prices for items online than they do in the store. Look for fliers online to check store prices before you drive all over town. Target, Walmart and most department stores like Carson’s and Macy’slist the flyer online in image format to view. Getting the Sunday paper is also a good deal this year because those back to school sale flyers are delivered to your doorstep. Many office supply stores have school supplies on sale, check Office Max and Office Depot and Staples flyers.

3. Consider unusual stores for even more discounts. Maybe the dollar store has more value than you might think? Sometimes general items like notebooks, folders, markers and glue can be found cheaper at a dollar store and if you don’t like the brand label, cover it with stickers or remove it all together and decorate the bottle with a sharpie.  The worst place to buy school supplies is usually the grocery store, they never have sales, have very little selection and always have high prices. Sometimes you can find daily deals on the wise bead blog for office supplies at stores you would not expect.

4. Buy used expensive itemslike computers and cell phones instead of new if possible. You can buy unlocked cell phones on ebay or sign a contract to get a cell phone for free with a plan. Computers last longer than you might think, and with some refreshing of the software and cleaning of the hard drive many used desktop and laptop computers are perfectly good for a few more years after someone sells them. Look for deals on ebay or with a friend that does IT work.  IT guys always know when companies are getting new computers and selling the old ones cheap. They also know how to refurbish them. Good friends to have.

5. If in doubt, wait on buying new back to school clothes. If you need some quick shiny new clothes to get into the first month of school with check out Old Navy’s sales and H&M for teens. The styles are hip and the prices are low. Plus the long sleeve stuff isn’t really wearable yet because it’s too warm. In September and October all the fall stuff will be on more discount and even cheaper than the 10-25% offnow. Plus most discounts are listed as “specially marked items only” anway. Also, for teens buying gently used clothes at Plato’s Closet is always a good idea. They charge less than half the original price for some very cool brands.

6. Stick to the back to school list. Don’t deviate from the list and let the kids get extra stuff, or buy extra stuff for yourself! It is easy to toss extra cool new stuff in the cart, but if you have a budget to stick to, the list is the best guide.

It is Fall TV Season Premiertime again in Chicago. Yet few of the listings I see on the internet are in local Chicago time zone time. So, I have taken the eastern standard time zone listings and converted them below into the new fall season schedules for Channels ABC 7, NBC 5, CBS 2 and Fox 32 in Chicago. (and the suburbs)

Every year this is the time new TV shows start popping up on TV and unfortunately within a month about half of them fail on average. I hope you enjoy all of the new TV season premiers this year in 2009. I also hope you find some good shows to watch this season and I hope your favorite premiers become long running series shows. Sometimes you can find recaps and episodes of the season premiers on the web also, on the network websites within a week before the launch date. I usually watch everything once and then whittle it down to the shows I want to watch and its usually 2-3 per year.

ABC New Fall TV Series Premiere Dates: Channel 7 in Chicago

Saturday Night Football: Saturday, September 5, 7 pm CST
20/20: Friday, September 11, 9 pm CST
Dancing With the Stars: Monday, September 21, 7 pm CST
Castle: Monday, September 21, 9 pm CST
The Forgotten: Tuesday, September 22, 9 pm CST
Dancing With the Stars Results Show: Wednesday, September 23, 7 pm, (special day and time)
Modern Family: Wednesday, September. 23, 9 pm CST
Cougar Town: Wednesday, September 23, 8:30 pm CST
Eastwick: Wednesday, September 23, 9 pm CST
FlashFoward: Thursday, September 24, 7 pm CST
Grey’s Anatomy: Thursday, September 24, 8 pm CST
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition: Sunday, September 27, 6 pm CST (two hours)
Desperate Housewives: Sunday, September 27, 8 pm CST
Brothers & Sisters: Sunday, September 27, 9 pm CST
Shark Tank: Tuesday, September 29, 7 pm CST (summer run began on Sunday, Aug. 9)
Hank: Wednesday, September 30, 7 pm CST
The Middle: Wednesday, September 30, 7:30 pm CST
America’s Funniest Home Videos: Sunday, October 4, 6 pm CST
Ugly Betty: Friday, October 9, 8 pm CST (two hours)
Supernanny: Friday, October 16, 8 pm CST

NBC Series Premiere Dates: Channel 5 in Chicago

Sunday Night Football (Chicago Bears at Green Bay Packers): Sunday, September 13, 8:15 pm CST
The Jay Leno Show: Monday, September 14, 10 pm CST (series premiere, every weeknight)
The Biggest Loser: Tuesday, September 15, 8 pm CST (two hours)
Saturday Night Live Weekend Thursday Update: Thursday, September 17, 8 pm CST
Parks and Recreations: Thursday, September 17, 8:30 pm CST
The Office: Thursday, September 17, 9 pm CST
Community: Thursday, September 17, 9:30 pm CST (series premiere); moves to Thursday 8 p.m. six weeks later
Heroes: Monday, September 21, 8 pm CST (new time, two hours)
Mercy: Wednesday, September 23, 8 pm CST (series premiere)
Law & Order: SVU: Wednesday, September 23, 9 pm CST (new day and time)
Law & Order: Friday, September 25, 8 pm CST (new day and time)
Southland: Friday, September 25, 9 pm CST (new time)
Dateline: Saturday, September 26, 8 pm CST
Trauma: Monday, September 28, 9 pm CST (series premiere)
Community: Thursday, October 8, 8 pm CST (new time period)
30 Rock: Thursday, October 15, 9:30 pm CST

CBS Series Premiere Dates: Channel CBS 2 in Chicago

Survivor: Samoa: Thursday, September 17, 7 pm CST (18th edition premiere)
How I Met Your Mother: Monday, September 21, 7 pm CST (5th season premiere)
Accidentally on Purpose: Monday, September 21, 7:30 pm CST
Two and a Half Men: Monday, September 21, 8 pm CST  (7th season premiere)
The Big Bang Theory: Monday, September 21, 8:30 pm CST  (3rd season premiere)
CSI: Miami: Monday, September21, 9 pm CST (8th season premiere)
NCIS: Tuesday, September 22, 7 pm CST (7th season premiere)
NCIS: Los Angeles: Tuesday, September 22, 8 pm CST
The Good Wife: Tuesday, September 22, 9 pm CST
The New Adventures of Old Christine: Wednesday, September 23, 9 pm CST (5th season premiere)
Gary Unmarried: Wednesday, September 23, 7:30 pm CST (2nd season premiere)
Criminal Minds: Wednesday, September 23, 8 pm CST (5th season premiere)
CSI: NY: Wednesday, September 23, 9 pm CST  (6th season premiere)
CSI: Thursday, Sept. 24: Thursday, September 24: 8 pm CST (10th season premiere)
The Mentalist: Thursday, September 24: Thursday, Sept. 24: 9 pm CST (2nd season premiere)
Ghost Whisperer: Friday, September 25, 7 pm CST (5th season premiere)
Medium: Friday, September 25, 8 pm CST  (6th season premiere, new network)
Numbers: Friday, September 25, 9 pm CST  (5th season premiere)
48 Hours Mystery: Saturday, September 26, 9 pm CST
60 Minutes: Sunday, September 27, 6 pm CST  (42nd season premiere)
The Amazing Race: Sunday, September 27, 7 pm CST (15th edition premiere, two hours)
Cold Case: Sunday,  September 27, 9 pm CST (7th season premiere)
Three Rivers: Sunday, October. 4, 8 pm CST

Fox Series Premiere Dates: Chicago Channel 32

Cops: Saturday, September 12, 7 pm CST
America’s Most Wanted: Saturday, Sept. 12, 8 pm CST
So You Think You Can Dance: Wednesday, Sept. 16, 7 pm CST
Glee: Wednesday, September 16, 8 pm CST (new)
Bones: Thursday, September 17, 7 pm CST
Fringe: Thursday, September 17, 8 pm CST
Brothers: Friday, September 18, 7 pm CST(new)
‘Til Death: Friday, September 18, 7:30 pm CST
Dollhouse: Friday, September 18, 8 pm CST
House: Monday, September 21, 7 pm CST (two hours)
The Simpsons: Sunday, September 27, 7 pm CST
The Cleveland Show: Sunday, September 27, 7:30 pm CST (new)
Family Guy: Sunday, September 27, 8 pm CST
American Dad: Sunday, September 27, 8:30 pm CST
Lie To Me: Monday, September 28, 8 pm CST
The Wanda Sykes Show: Saturday, November 7, 10 pm CST

I always like to recommend the best events around Chicago to attend and plan your weekends and vacations with but sometimes I have to call out the details about Chicago that are less than ideal. Today’s complaint is about the Chicago CTA bus service.

I have a love hate relationship with public transportation to begin with so lately when the 121 bus is nowhere to be found I become even more frustrated with the system that is supposed to move 3 million people around the city every day.

I have taken the Metra in from the suburbs to work every day since I moved out there a few months ago. The Metra Trains only run 3 times per hour so you don’t have any choice about when they run or when you arrive in downtown Chicago. This combined with the bus issues pushes my commute to Naperville to 2 hours each way regularly.

There is only one bus going to Michigan Avenue from Union Station, the 121 bus and it only runs 3 times an hour as far as I can find on any schedule. I don’t have a smart-phone so I can’t use the CTA bus tracker, I just expect that the CTA knows that there is a BNSF train with about 1,000 people on it that gets in every 20 minutes at Union Station and they would want to coordinate the busesthat stop there around those times. The BNSF line has more riders than any other Metra line in Chicagoland and runs the most people in and out of the city each day, it is well worth coordinating with.

Yet, they don’t.

No matter if I take the 7:00, 7:20, 7:40, 8:00, or 8:25 BNSF Metra Train, there is never a 121 bus available when I walk out of the station. Granted, the walk from the basement core of the station up 2 levels and out to the street level takes about 6-7 minutes as a bunch of trains unload and converge with Amtrak passengers with luggage and a bunch of luggage moving vehicles.

Why the last batch of AM trains come in at 9 am and the buses pick up and leave at 9:03 AM exactly I have no idea. You can’t possibly get out there fast enough.

There is nothing more frustrating than to be on the first car of the train, standing by the doors to get off first and then by the time I get to street level, the last 121 bus has left or the latest one is leaving and it will be 15-25 min before another one arrives and 15 minutes on that bus if it does eventually arrive. (and after 9 am sometimes they just don’t even though there is a 9:15 bus on the schedule). 

Likewise for getting back to the station. I spend a small fortune in cab fare to get to Union Station in less than 20 minutes. It is obsurd that they don’t know and coordinate busses picking people up and dropping off at the station with when the most crowded trains leave.It seems like you have to leave work and hour before your train in order to get the bus to Union Station. If I leave at 5:15 or 6:15 there are never busses to be found to get to the 5:45 or 6:50 trains, yet it only takes 10 minutes to get there.

I am not the only one with this problem. I see dozens of people arrive at the bus stop under Michigan Ave notice that nobody is there and leave to catch a cab. This is at totally different times every day too. There is no consistency to the schedule either. People also arrive at the stop, wait for 15-20 minutes and then abandon the bus to pay $8-9 for a cab to make the last express train home so they can actually see their kids before they fall asleep. 

In the AM people stand around at the 121 bus stop hoping there is another bus as promised and the 9:15 never shows and they never make it to work by 9:30 am as expected. Some give up and take cabs, others walk, but it isn’t fair either way.

There should be some digital communication between Metra, BNSF and CTA for these kinds of trip planner transfers to note when packed trains are coming in and leaving with thousandsof people and how to get them routed to the appropriate next leg of their journey. During peak hours this is 3 trains an hour per line and during off-prak times this is only 1 train per hour! (How much simpler does it get?)

I am not sure they have any interest in this since they still get my flat fee monthly fare payment even though I end up walking for a 1/2 hr most mornings now and get to work before the next bus would get me there. An equal opportunity rant for Metra would be appropriate since bringing in the trains at 8:50 rather than 9am would help a lot of people catch that 9:03 am 121 bus.

I was checking out the Taste of Chicago 2009 map of vendors and restaurants and there is more to choose from this year at the taste than ever. The Taste of Chicago 2009 offers everything from classic Chicago hot dogs and pizza to vegetarian dishes, to international specialties from all over the world to luscious sweets and deserts.

The Taste of Chicago is an annual event for many people who live in the city so be aware of the crowds that you will be working with. Don’t bring a lot of stuff to carry and wear comfortable shoes for the long walk from the Bus, El, Cab, Metra or Parking Garage. the taste of Chicago isn’t cheap either. There is no admission fee, but all the food costs you in “tickets”. Expect to spend $20-$40 in tickets per person including appetizers, drinks, main dishes and deserts.  

This is the full list of tents and foods available at the Taste of Chicago 2009 from explorechicago.org:

Taste of Chicago Food Booths – ¢¢¢ indicates a “Taste Of” portion and is priced lower for a smaller sample portion

9 – Abbey Pub – Address 3420 West Grace Street – Irish Classics
Roasted Corn on the Cob; Fish and Chips(Fries); Irish Egg Rolls; Oreo® Bailey’s® Irish Custard
¢¢¢ Irish Egg Roll; Fries with Irish Curry

54 – Adobo Grill – 2005 West Division Street
Guacamole and Chips; Cochinita Pibil (Pork) Tacos; Chicken Tamale; Churros
¢¢¢ Churros; Cheese Empanada

51 – Arya Bhavan – 2508 West Devon Avenue
Samosa (Crisp Patties with Potatoes, Peas, Coriander and Spices); Chana Masala with Bread/Nan; Pav Bhaji with Bread/Nan (Vegetarian Stew with Cauliflower, Peas, Eggplant, Tomatoes and Spices); Bhel (Puffed Rice, Sev and Puri mixed with diced Potatoes, Onions, Cilantro, Garlic, and Hot and Sweet Chutney Sauces)
¢¢¢ Samosa; Bhel

17 – Aunt Diana’s Candy Makers- 29 East Burlington Road in Riverside
Chocolate Covered Strawberry; Chocolate Dipped Frozen Banana; Combo: Strawberry, Fudge and Baby Banana
¢¢¢ Chocolate Dipped Frozen Baby Banana; Chocolate Fudge

8 – Bacino’s Pizza of Lincoln Park - 2204 North Lincoln Avenue
Stuffed Spinach Pizza; Stuffed Sausage Pizza; Thin Crust Cheese Pizza; Thin Crust Sausage Pizza
¢¢¢ Stuffed Spinach Pizza; Stuffed Sausage Pizza

6 – Billy Goat Tavern and Grill - 1535 West Madison Avenue – A Chicago Classic
Rib Eye Steak Sandwich; Cheeseburger; Double Cheeseburger
¢¢¢ ½ Cheeseburger; Potato Chips

33 – BJ’s Market and Bakery – 8734 South Stony Island Avenue
Mustard-Fried Catfish; Turkey Burger; Barbecue Chicken Tenders; Sweet Potato Chips
¢¢¢ Mustard-Fried Catfish; Peach Cobbler [yummm]

14 – Blue Bayou -3734 North Southport Ave.
Muffalletta Sandwich; Jambalaya; Cornbread with Honey Chili Butter; Gator Sausage on a Stick
¢¢¢ Jambalaya; Bananas Foster Bites

25 – Buona - Many Chicagoland Locations – A Chicago Classic
Italian Beef Sandwich; Beef and Sausage Combo Sandwich; Italian Sausage Sandwich
¢¢¢ Italian Sausage Sandwich; Mini Cannoli

15 – Canady Le Chocolatier – 824 S. Wabash Ave.
Chocolate Gelato; Blueberry Yogurt Gelato; Tiramisu Gelato; Peanut Butter Gelato
¢¢¢ Fruiti di Bosco Sorbet [healthy diet option]; Chocolate Gelato

24 – Celebration Creamery - 286 Golf Mill Center, Niles
Funnel Cake; Brownie with Vanilla Ice Cream and Chocolate Topping; Vanilla Ice Cream with Chocolate Topping; One Scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream on a Waffle Cone
¢¢¢ Vanilla Ice Cream with Chocolate Topping; Strawberry Cheesecake Frozen Yogurt Sandwich

19 – C’est Si Bon! – 5225 South Harper Avenue
Sweet Potato Cheesecake; Collard Green Egg Rolls; Firecracker Chicken Wingettes with Biscuit; Fresh Fruit Cup
¢¢¢ Cajun Meatballs; Firecracker Wingettes

5 – Chicago Joe’s - 2256 West Irving Park Road
Breaded Buffalo Popcorn Shrimp with Fries; Beer Battered Butterfly Coconut Shrimp with Fries; Homemade Seasoned Fries; Breaded Calamari Rings with Fries
¢¢¢ Homemade Chili; Homemade Seasoned Fries

38 – Connie’s Pizza - 2373 South Archer Avenue
Deep Dish Cheese Pizza; Deep Dish Sausage Pizza; Meatball Sandwich; Thin Beer Crust Pepperoni Pizza
¢¢¢ Mini Meatball Sandwich; All Natural Vegetarian Panzerotti

45 – Costa’s -Address 340 South Halsted Street
Gyros; Greek Chicken on Pita; Loukaniko(Greek Sausage)
¢¢¢ Loukaniko; Baklava (super sweet Filo, Honey and Nut Pastry)

37 – Dominick’s -Chicagoland Locations – healthiest options at the taste!
Red/Green Seedless Grapes; Cherries; Watermelon Slice; Roasted Ultra Sweet Corn on the Cob
¢¢¢ ½ Watermelon Slice; Pineapple Bites

22 – Eli’s Cheesecake – 6701 West Forest Preserve Drive – A Chicago Classic
Frozen Chocolate Chip Toffee Crunch; Oreo® Cookie Cheesecake with Vanilla Ice Cream; Turtle Cheesecake; Plain Cheesecake (with or without strawberries) [personally I think their cheesecake is a bit dry]
¢¢¢ Plain Cheesecake; No-Sugar-Added Key Lime Cheesecake (made with Equal)

42 – Fireplace Inn - 1448 North Wells Street
BBQ Baby Back Ribs; BBQ Boneless Rib Sandwich; Mozzarella Sticks; BBQ Meatballs
¢¢¢ Mozzarella Sticks; Tropical Fruit Salad Bowl [heart healthy low cal option]

44 – Franco’s Ristorante – 300 West 31st Street
Lemon Italian Ice; Watermelon Italian Ice; Stracciatella Gelato (Vanilla with Chocolate Shavings); Chocolate Hazelnut Gelato (Giunduia)
¢¢¢ Lemon Italian Ice; Watermelon Italian Ice

52 – Garrett Popcorn Shops - Chicagoland and O’Hare Locations – A Chicago Classic
Popcornsicle (Caramel and Cheese Corn Mix, flash frozen on a stick); Chocolate Covered Caramel Corn; ½ lb. Mixed Nuts [careful of the popcorn and carmel if you have dental work]
¢¢¢ Caramel and Cheese Corn Mix; Chocolate Covered Caramel Corn

12 – The Grill on the Alley – Address: 909 North Michigan Avenue
Prime Rib Quesadilla; Gazpacho with Chopped Avocado and Chives; Rice Pudding with Mango and Dried Cranberries
¢¢¢ Gazpacho with Chopped Avocado and Chives; Grilled Anjou Pear Salad with Walnuts and Maytag Blue Cheese

7 – Guey Lon – 3968 North Elston Avenue
Shrimp and Vegetable Tempura; Orange Chicken with Vegetable Fried Rice; Mongolian Beef with Noodles; “Crab” Rangoon
¢¢¢ Egg Roll; Vegetable Tempura

39 – Harold’s Chicken #71 – 2109 South Wabash Avenue
Chicken Wings; Chicken Nuggets; Fried Okra; Fries
¢¢¢ Chicken Wings; Hush Puppies

28 – Harry Caray’s - 33 West Kinzie Street
Homemade Potato Chips; Fried Dough; Toasted Cheese Ravioli; Chocolate Chip Cookie
¢¢¢ Toasted Cheese Ravioli; Whole Wheat Oatmeal Raisin Cookie

16 – Hashbrowns – 731 West. Maxwell Street
Maxwell Street Burger (Burger Patty Topped with Pork Chop, Polish Sausage and Grilled Onions)[heart attack city]; Sweet Potato Fries [yummy]; Mini Waffle Topped with Whipped Cream, Chocolate Syrup and a Strawberry; Sweet Potato Hashbrowns ¢¢¢ Sweet Potato Fries; Sweet Potato Hashbrowns

23 – Home Run Inn Pizza - 4254 West 31st Street – A Chicago Classic
Cheese Pizza; Sausage Pizza; Ultra Thin Sausage and Pepperoni Pizza; Strawberry Pecan Salad
¢¢¢ Small Strawberry Pecan Salad; Mozzarella Stuffed Bread Stick

46 – JR Dessert Bakery - 2841 West Howard Street
Plain Cheesecake with Fresh Strawberry or Caramel Pecan Sauce; Frozen Chocolate Dipped Cheesecake Bar; Key Lime Pie; Apple Pie with Ice Cream
¢¢¢ Plain Cheesecake; Ice Cream with Fresh Strawberry Sauce

47 – Kasia’s Deli - 2101 W. Chicago Ave.
Pierogi (Potato, Spinach, Chicken) with Sour Cream [recommended based on all Perogi are great and a polish staple]; Grilled Polish Sausage Sandwich with Sauteed Onions; Chicken Kabob with Vegetable Rice and Honey Mustard [healthier dinner option]; Potato Pancakes with Sour Cream and Pico de Gallo or Apple Sauce {mmmmm}
¢¢¢ Cheese Blintz with Raspberry Sauce; Potato and Cheese Pierogi

3 – La Justicia - 3901 West 26th Street
Enchiladas; Steak Tacos; Chicken Tacos; Combo: Taco, Enchilada and Quesadilla
¢¢¢ Enchilada; Chicken Taco

49 – Lagniappe-Creole Cajun Joynt - 1525 West 79th Street
Catfish Po’Boy; Crawfish, Corn and Potatoes; Beignets; Chicken and Waffles
¢¢¢ Praline Ice Cream; Beignets

48 – Las Tablas Colombian Steakhouse – 2942 North Lincoln Avenue
Empanadas (Beef, Chicken, or Cheese); Entraña Skirt Steak with Sweet Plantain Wedges; Marinated Grilled Chicken with Sweet Plantain Wedges; Verdes y Maduros (Crunchy Plantain Chips and Sweet Plantain Wedges)
¢¢¢ Verdes (Crunchy Plantain Chips); Maduros (Sweet Plantain Wedges)

40 – Los Dos Laredos – 3120 West 26th Street
Carne Asada Tacos (Steak); Tamales (Cheese and Green Pepper); Steak Gordita ala Mexican; Cheese Nachos
¢¢¢ Carne Asada Taco (Steak); Steak Gordita

30 – Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria - 958 West Wrightwood Avenue [A Chicago Classic]
Cheese Pizza; Cheese and Sausage Pizza; Chopped Salad; Bruschetta
¢¢¢ Chopped Salad; Bruschetta

1 – Manny’s Cafeteria & Delicatessen - 1141 South Jefferson Street
Barbequed Turkey Leg [you have to try this once] ; BarbequeBeef Brisket Sandwich; Cherry Pie Square; Potato Pancakes [potato pancakes are not really a summer food, but they are so good it might be worth the calories/fat since they are from an authentic Jewish Deli, share with a friend]
¢¢¢ Potato Pancake; Macaroni and Cheese

29 – Mazzone’s Italian Ice – At Chicagoland Retailers [italian ice is fat free, a heart healthy treat, but skip the nuttela unless your a marathon runner]
3 Scoops Italian Ice (Lemon, Strawberry, Blue Raspberry or Mango); 2 Scoops Italian Ice; Nuttella® Crepe with Whipped Cream; Chocolate Covered Rice Krispies® Treat
¢¢¢ 1 Scoop Blue Raspberry Italian Ice; Scoop Lemon Italian Ice

18 – The Noodle Vietnamese Cuisine - 2336 South Wentworth Avenue
Sesame Beef on a Stick; Crab Rangoon; Shrimp Rolls; Curry Chicken on Rice
¢¢¢ Sesame Beef on a Stick; Shrimp Rolls

41 – Oak Street Beach Café - 5700 South Cicero Avenue
Grilled Slipper Tail Lobster with Garlic Potato; Grilled Shrimp on a Skewer with Garlic Potato; Grilled Spicy Chicken Wings with Garlic Potato; Grilled Cajun Turkey Link with Garlic Potato
¢¢¢ Garlic Potatoes; Spicy Wings

43 – O’Brien’s Pub - 1528 North Wells Street by the Chicago River.
Celtic Corn on the Cob; Loaded Baked Potato; Smoked Pulled Pork Sandwich; Buffalo Shrimp
¢¢¢ Baked Potato; Onion Coated Green Beans

36 – Original Rainbow Cone – 9233 South Western Avenue
Cool off with the Rainbow Ice Cream (Chocolate, Strawberry, Palmer and Pistachio Ice Cream with Orange Sherbet) in a Cake or Waffle Cone; Cookie Dough or Cookies and Cream Cone; Waffle Cone Sundae (Vanilla Yogurt, Blueberries and Strawberries); Strawberry Shortcake Parfait (Vanilla Yogurt)
¢¢¢ Taster Cup of Rainbow Ice Cream; Dream Cup (Vanilla Yogurt and Orange Sherbet)

13 – Polka Sausage and Deli - 8753 South Commercial Avenue
Polish Sausage Sandwich with Kraut; Bratwurst Sandwich with Kraut; Grilled Breast of Chicken with Grilled Onions; Pierogi with Sour Cream (Potato, Cheese, Kraut) [perogi with kraut is also good]
¢¢¢ 1 Pierogi; Polish Sausage Sandwich with Kraut

31 – Polo Café and Catering Bridgeport U.S.A. - 3322 South Morgan Street
Shark Veracruz (Oven-Baked); Crispy Noodle Shrimp; Crab Cake Nuggets(Oven-Baked); Southern Fried Tilapia Filet
¢¢¢ Garlic-Mozzarella Cheese Bread; Crispy Noodle Shrimp

35 – Reggio’s Pizza - 1339 South Halsted Street
Turkey Sausage Deep Dish Pizza; Cheese Deep Dish Pizza; Sausage Thin Crust Pizza; Pepperoni Thin Crust Pizza
¢¢¢ Italian Ice; Sausage Thin Crust Pizza

4 – Ricobene’s - 252 West 26th Street
Italian Breaded Steak Sandwich; Beef and Sausage Combo Sandwich; Fresh Cut Fries with Cheese; Boneless Buffalo Wings [another vendor that is not diet friendly]
¢¢¢ Italian Breaded Steak Sandwich; Breaded Eggplant Parmesan Sandwich

21 – Robinson’s No. 1 Ribs - 225 South Canal Street and in Oak Park
BBQ Rib Tips; BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich; Boneless Rib Sandwich; Turkey Wings
¢¢¢ Hot Link; BBQ Rib Tips

50 – Sabor Latino - 3810 West North Avenue
Spanish Steak, Onions and Rice with Pigeon Peas; Puerto RicanSteak and Onion Sandwich on Homemade Criollo Bread; Steak Jibarito (Farmer Sandwich)
¢¢¢ Steak Jibarito; Pork Filled Banana Dumpling

2 – Soul Vegetarian East – 205 East 75th Street
Veggie Gyros [new?]; Vegetarian BBQ Twist on a Stick; Corn on the Cob; Vegetarian Tamales
¢¢¢ Sweet Potato Pie; BBQ Twist on a Stick

26 – Star of Siam - 11 East Illinois Street
Tempura Shrimp and Vegetables; Satay Chicken with Peanut Sauce and Cucumber Salad; Pad Thai Noodles (Vegetarian); Pot Stickers (Chicken and Vegetable Dumplings)
¢¢¢ Pad Thai Noodles; Pot Stickers

11 – Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ Sauce- Jewel and Dominick’s Chicagoland Retailers
Hickory Smoked BBQ Ribs; BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich; BBQ Boneless Rib Sandwich; BBQ Chicken Sandwich [not heart healthy options, not for someone with IBS, I speak from experience]
¢¢¢ Mini Boneless Rib Sandwich; BBQ Meatballs

53 – Tamarind - address 614 South Wabash Avenue
Orange Chicken with Rice; Thai Red Curry with Chicken; Taiwan Shining Noodles; Banana Chocolate Egg Roll [yummy desert!!]
¢¢¢ Taiwan Shining Noodles; Taro French Fries

34 – Tuscany Italian food at 1014 West Taylor Street
Italian Beef Sandwich; Italian Sausage Sandwich; Italian Turkey Meatballs; Toasted Cheese Ravioli
¢¢¢ Italian Turkey Meatballs; Toasted Cheese Ravioli

32 – Tutto Italiano- Located at 501 Sputh Wells Street
Pasta and Chicken Salad; Fried Ravioli Marinara; Steak Burger with Blue Cheese
¢¢¢ Italian Fries; Fried Ravioli Marinara

20 – Vee-Vee’s African Cuisine – 6232 N. Broadway St.
Jerk Chicken with Red Beans and Rice; Sauteed Goat Meat with Plantain; Jollof Rice and Goat; Red Beans and Rice with Plantain (Vegetarian menu option)
¢¢¢ Jerk Chicken with Red Beans and Rice; Jollof Rice with Goat

10 – Vermilion - 10 W. Hubbard St.
Char-Grilled Chicken Kabob with Mango-Mint Chutney; BBQ Tamarind Pepper Boneless Rib Sandwich (Plain or with Grilled Onions); Chimchurri Masala Chicken Wings; Mango-Cumin Dusted Fries with Date Chutney
¢¢¢ Chimchurri Masala Chicken Wings; Mango-Cumin Dusted Fries

27 – Vienna Beef/Gold Coast Dogs- various Chicagoland Locations – a Chicago Classic
Hot Dog (Plain or Chicago-Style) and Potato Chips; Polish Sausage (with Mustard and Grilled Onions) and Potato Chips; Fire Dog (with Mustard and Grilled Onions)
¢¢¢ Whole Pickle on a Stick [the only fat free option]; ½ Hot Dog

Dominick’s has a Gourmet Grocer located on Buckingham Fountain Plaza, east of the Chef’s Table.
Also, Bobtail Ice Cream and The Fountain Cafe are located at Buckingham Fountain Plaza.

These are the updates I just got about Memorial Day Parade and Street Closures in Chicago. If you are planning on attending the Chicago Memorial Day Parade, The JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge Race, The Memorial March, or the Bike the Drive event, check this list first to find out where the streets are closed and where/when the events happen. I hope eveyone had a great Memorial Day Weekend and have a burger from the grill for me!

J. P. MORGAN CHASE CORPORATE CHALLENGE (3.5 miles) on Thursday, 21 May 09, 6pm – 10pm:

This event site will be in Grant Park, Lower Hutchinson Field.

The run will take place on Columbus Drive from Roosevelt Rd to Wacker Drive.

Start time for the run is at 7:10 pm.

Columbus will close at 6:30 pm – 10:30 pm from Roosevelt Rd to Balbo.

Columbus from Balbo to Wacker Drive, as well as the east west streets in this area will remain open for as long as possible to allow for the end of rush hour traffic.

The on site CPD Commander will give the order to close the streets shortly before the race begins.

At the end of the race, as soon as it is safe to do so, Columbus from Balbo to Wacker Drive and the east west streets in the area will be opened.

MEMORIAL DAY PARADE on Saturday, 23 May 09:

The parade route is from Wacker Drive to Van Buren on State Street, step off 12 noon.

State Street and the east west streets along the route will close at 11:30 am.

Wacker Drive will be closed for staging from Wabash to Lake Street at 8:00 am.

Van Buren will be closed for vehicles and disbanding from Michigan to Franklin at 8:00 am.

The parade will last approximately 2 hours and streets will be opened to traffic as soon as it is safe.

BIKE THE DRIVE on Sunday, 24 May 09:

The event site will be in Grant Park, Butler Field the bike route is on Lake Shore Drive.

Lake Shore Drive will be closed to vehicle traffic from 5:00 am to 10:30 am from Hollywood to 63rd Street.

AMERICANS FOR LIFE, LIFE MEMORIAL MARCH on Friday, 22 May 09:

This group will meet at the Thompson Center Plaza; the march will step off at 11:30 am.

A group of 2000 to 3000 people will march south on Clark St to Adams, east on Adams into Federal Plaza.

The group will hold a rally at Federal plaza until approximately 2:30 pm.

During the march traffic will be affected from Wacker Drive to Jackson and State to LaSalle.

As soon as it is safe, streets will be opened to traffic.

some produce at the organic farmer's market

The Chicago Green City Market will be moving outside to Lincoln Park (1750 North Clark Street Chicago, IL 60614) on Wednesday, May 6, with a kick off rally for the 2009 season on Saturday, May 9!

the Chicago Green City Market is known for having great locally grown and organic produce. If you believe in the 100 mile rule for buying food and consumables or just like the idea of fresh locally grown items this is the place to go in the city. The market grows to a larger size in the summer with the produce that is seasonally available then. The prices are very reasonable and usually lower than

The Chicago Green City Market will continue in the park Wednesdays and Saturdays (except 4th of July) from 7 am to 1 pm.

Until then, the Chicago Green City Market will continue in their winter home at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum on Saturdays from 8 am to 1 pm, April 18th and April 25th.

Green, Yellow, Red, Orange and Purple Peppers

Alice Waters makes a special visit to the market on the 25th for her book signing of The Edible Schoolyard, from 10:30 am to 11:30 am.

Check out the Green City Market to find some great locally grown fruit and vegetables this year to improve your diet and your health.

This outdoor produce market near Lake Michigan in Lincoln Park Chicago is noteworthy because it’s usually a whole-day event to do with shopping as well as chef demonstrations and local vendors selling prepared food from products sold at the market. They focus on sustainable and organic agriculture where ever they can, and in Chicago that is a challenge. The City of Chicago farmers markets also open in May. Get your baskets, bags and bicycles ready. You can find out more about the schedules and locations of the farmer’s market in your neighborhood here at: explorechicago.org/city/en/supporting_narrative/events___special_events/special_events/mose/chicago_farmers_markets.html

Spring is the time that most people look for an apartment in Chicago. Rental Leases are up and it is the first time for the year that it is warm enough that you can actually move furniture our of one apartment and into a new apartment without freezing. April-June are the high points for most apartment rental searches so that means most people start looking in February, March and April in order to see enough places to make a decision on which lease to sign and where to move to in Chicago by May or June.

There are many ways to start your search for a new apartment in Chicago. If you are moving here from out of town most people find that making an appointment with an apartment rentals listing/finder service is an efficient way to see a lot of apartments over one or two weekends (with a guide) that they visit and then they can make their decisions within a few weeks. This way of searching for a new apartment in Chicago has a higher price though because there is always a finder’s fee involved in the cost of the apartment.

Lots of vintage buildings have apartments available that have charm and character you won't find in new apartment rentals.

Other people prefer to go it alone looking at craigslist or other apartment rentals listing sites (like apartments.com) for individual apartment listings and see the units on their own time schedule. This is more convenient if you already live in the neighborhood and generally you find better deals this way,but it may take 2-3 months to find the right apartment unit. Craigslist has many search options and ways to filter the search results and RSS feeds so you only see what you can afford and most listings have some photos that help you weed out the seedy/gross places. 

A lot of people consider the night life and amenities in a particular Chicago neighborhood to be a large part of their decision on where to find an apartment. Getting around in Chicago with 9.5 million other people isn’t easy, so being as close to work, friends and convenient places to hang out is definitely an asset. The problem is that the places closest to downtown are the most expensive and the places closest to a lot of bars and trendy hangouts in Lincoln Park and Lakeview are also in high demand and therefore cost a lot also.

A typical 1 bedroom apartment floorplan in Chicago

Sometimes you can find better prices on rent for apartments further north in the city like Buena Park, Uptown and Lincoln Square. These neighborhoods have a longer commute if you work downtown, but you can save $200-$300 per month on your rent. Another option may be to rent a condo that someone can’t sell in this bad real estate economy. Many condo owners who have moved or gotten married just want to recoup some of the cash they are paying in monthly mortgage payments so they are usually very negotiable on rental prices. You also get someones home that was probably taken care of much better than a rental unit. A lot of newly rehabbed condos with luxury details are available for rent from individual owners listed on craigslist or other classified sites.  

How much does it cost to rent an apartment in Chicago?

I know people in Lakeview/Lincoln park that pay $750 per month for a 500 sq ft studio apartment without parking, and the price goes up from there. A 1 bedroom might be around $1,200 per month and a 2 bedroom might be around $1,800 especially if you want parking. Extra parking rental spaces can run from $150 – $300 per month depending on where it is located and if it is a garage or not.

A modern apartment that would be typical in Lakeview or Wicker Park neighborhoods in Chicago.

If you go further north the prices drop a few hundred dollars per unit. Also, Oak Park is a convenient alternative where a 1 bedroom might only be $850 per month and the parking is free. Oak Park apartments are still walking distance to the el for commuting to work downtown every day and the suburb is right next to the city so you can enjoy all the nightlife. Other people have found Evanston to be an alternative to living in Chicago and paying high apartment rentals prices. Evanston prices are very comparable to Oak Park and the buildings there are very similar also. The only difference is which train line you take to work. The Purple line instead of the Green line.  

Even cheaper apartment rent yet is available the south side of the city or some of the near west neighborhoods like Humboldt Park in Chicago.These neighborhoods may have lower rent rates for a reason though and it is always important to feel safe in the area that you decide to rent an apartment and live for a few years. Checking the crime reports through the local newspapers online is a good way to assess the situation and decide. 

How much of your income should you spend on rent each month?

A typical starter apartment where someone brings their bikes in because in Chicago cutting the locks & stealing bikes is all too common.

I think the guide to getting approved for a lease is around 25-30% of your monthly after tax income.Don’t forget you have to figure in the cost of utilities, parking, food and transportation also each month on top of rent. Some apartments come with heat or water included in the rent price, but not all of them do. If you find one that does, it is rare. The cost of food and utilities is about 25% more in the city than in the suburbs also. Finding roommates can help share the costs of rent but finding someone you can live with and share a bathroom with can be a serious challenge.

Wherever you decide to live in Chicago I hope this information helps you find the best deal on cheap apartment rent while finding a place you really like to live in. After you find your new apartment that you love you may want to check out whitefence.com for finding the cheapest utilities in your area also.

Ira Glass ready for the show.

This American Life has gone on the road again to produce 2 live stage shows, one in Chicago at the Chicago Theater and one in New York City which will be taped and beamed live via some fancy newfangled satellites to a bunch of movie theaters (400!) across the country so you can see the show as it happens from where ever you live. The two live shows have sold out instantly so if you want to get tickets to this yearly event you can only get tickets to the movie theater beamed shows now. See full list of This American Life Live Movie Theaters below.

I like that even though This American Life has gotten more popular and more widely known in the last 10 years they haven’t forgotten that people still like live shows on stage and seeing the personalities firsthand. I am also glad that  they haven’t forgotten their Chicago peeps since they went out and made it big in NYC, and are willing to still do a show in the Chicago Theater as a dress rehearsal of sorts.

The Chicago Theater from a past This American Life Show Live.

The show is said to include a radio show taped live with Ira Glass (as we would expect from past live shows) and include their local contributors: Dan Savage, Starlee Kine, Mike Birbiglia, David Rakoff and Dave Hill. They also mentioned an appearance by Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer?? (am I msising something?) The live show should last around two hours.  I am planning on attending one of the movie theater beamed shows in Illinois, since that is what is available. If you get tickets to the Chicago Theater version of the show, let me know how it goes. Things are rather unpredictable in live shows.

If you would like to find out which cities the live This American Life Show will be instantly beamed, here is the list that I found: (hopefully they won’t be pissed that I copied it from their site, but I like info to be all in one place when I’m researching it, and it was a few pages buried into the site. It seems like all the states are represented, way to go!

Illinois: 7 PM Tickets are $20.00 each.

Addison – Addison 21
Barrington – AMC South Barrington 30
Batavia – Randall 15 with IMAX
Bloomingdale – Century @ Stratford Square
Carbondale – Carbondale Showplace
Chicago – AMC River East 21
Chicago – Chicago City North
Chicago – Chicago Webster Place
Crystal Lake – Showplace 16
Deer Park – Century 16 Deer Park
Edwardsville – Edwardsville Stadium 12
Elgin – Elgin Fox Theatre
Evanston – Evanston 18
Gurnee – Gurnee Cinemas 20
Lincolnshire – Lincolnshire 20 plus IMAX
Lombard – AMC Yorktown 17
Naperville – Naperville Showplace
New Lenox – New Lenox Showplace
Niles – Niles Showplace
Orland Park – Orland Park Cinemas 14
Pekin – Pekin Showplace
Peoria – Willow Knolls 14
Rockford – Rockford Showplace
Savoy – Savoy 16
Springfield – Springfield West Showplace
Warrenville – AMC Cantera 30
Woodridge – Cinemark Woodridge 17 with IMAX
——————————————————————————–
Alabama: Birmingham – Trussville 16
Gulf Shores – Cobb Pinnacle 14
Huntsville – Hollywood 18 – Huntsville
Mobile – Stadium 18
Tuscaloosa – Hollywood 16
——————————————————————————–
Arksansas: Little Rock – Breckenridge Village
——————————————————————————–
Arizona: Glendale – AMC Arrowhead Town Center 14
Glendale – AMC Westgate 20
Mesa – AMC Mesa Grande 24
Mesa – Cinemark 16 – Mesa
Oro Valley – Century – Oro Valley Marketplace
Phoenix – AMC Ahwatukee 24
Phoenix – AMC Desert Ridge 18
Scottsdale – Sonora Village 10
Tucson – El Con 20
Tucson – Park Place 20
——————————————————————————–
California: Alhambra – Alhambra Renaissance 14
Arcadia – AMC Santa Anita
Bakersfield – Bakersfield Stadium 14
Burbank – AMC Burbank 16
Chico – Cinemark Chico
Chula Vista – AMC Otay Ranch 12
Cupertino – AMC Cupertino 16
Daly City – Daly City 20
Dublin – Hacienda Crossings 20 plus IMAX
El Centro – Cinemark Imperial Valley Mall 14
Elk Grove – Laguna 16
Emeryville – AMC Bay Street 16
Fresno – Fresno Stadium 21 plus IMAX
Hayward – Century – Hayward
Huntington Beach – Huntington Beach 20
Irvine – Irvine Spectrum 20 plus IMAX
La Jolla – AMC La Jolla Village 12
Long Beach – Long Beach 26
Los Angeles – AMC Century City 15
Los Angeles – The Bridge
Manteca – Showplace 16
Merced – Mainplace Stadium Cinema
Mill Valley – Mill Valley Cinearts Sequoia 2
Milpitas – Milpitas Great Mall 20
Monterey – Monterey 13
Mountain View – Mountain View Cinemas 16
Ontario – AMC Ontario Mills 30
Orange – AMC The Block 30 @ Orange
Orange – Orange Stadium Promenade 25
Palm Springs – Palm Springs Courtyard Stadium 9
Pleasant Hill – Pleasant Hill Downtown 16
Redding – Movies 10
Redwood City – Century 20 Downtown Redwood City
Riverside – AMC Galleria at Tyler 16
Roseville – Roseville 14
Rowland Heights – AMC Puente Hills 20
Sacramento – Natomas Marketplace
Sacramento – Sacramento Downtown Plaza 7
Sacramento – Sacramento Greenback Lane 16
Sacramento – Sacramento Stadium 14
San Bruno – Century Theatres at Tanforan
San Diego – AMC Mission Valley 20
San Diego – Horton Plaza
San Diego – Mira Mesa 18 with IMAX
San Francisco – Century 9 San Francisco Centre
San Jose – AMC Eastridge Mall 15
San Jose – Cinearts Santana Row 6
San Jose – San Jose Oakridge 20
San Mateo – San Mateo Downtown
San Rafael – San Rafael Regency 6
Santa Barbara – Arlington Theatre
Santa Clarita – Valencia Stadium 12
Santa Rosa – Rialto Cinemas Lakeside
Stockton – Stockton City Center Stadium 16
Tracy – Movies 14
Tustin – AMC Tustin Legacy 14
Union City – Union City Union Landing 25
Ventura – Ventura Stadium 16
Walnut Creek – Walnut Creek 14
Woodland Hills – AMC Promenade 16
——————————————————————————–
Colorado: Aurora – Southlands 16
Boulder – Southlands 16
Broomfield – AMC Westminster Promenade 24
Castle Rock – Castle Rock Stadium 12
Colorado Springs – Cinemark Carefree Circle with IMAX
Colorado Springs – Hollywood Theaters 14
Colorado Springs – Tinseltown
Denver – Pavilions 15
Englewood – Greenwood Plaza 12
Fort Collins – Cinemark Fort Collins
Greeley – Cinemark Greeley Mall
Highlands Ranch – AMC Highlands Ranch 24
Lakewood – Bel Mar 16
Lakewood – Colorado Mills Stadium 16
——————————————————————————–
Connecticut: Branford – Branford 12
Fairfield – Quick Center for the Performing Arts
Manchester – Buckland Hills Showcase Cinema
——————————————————————————–
DC: Washington – AMC Mazza Gallerie 7
——————————————————————————–
Wilmington – Brandywine Town Center 16
——————————————————————————–
Florida: Altamonte Springs – AMC Altamonte Mall 18 with IMAX
Aventura – AMC Aventura Mall 24
Boca Raton – Shadowood 16
Brandon – AMC Regency 20
Coral Springs – Magnolia Place 16
Delray Beach – Delray Beach 18
Fort Myers – Belltower 20
Ft Lauderdale – Cypress Creek Station 16
Gainesville – Gainesville Cinema 14
Jacksonville – AMC Regency Square 24
Jacksonville – Tinseltown USA
Lake Buena Vista – AMC Pleasure Island 24
Lakeland – Lakeside 18 Cinemas
Merritt Island – Merritt Square 16
Miami – Dolphin Cinebistro
Miami – Movies @ The Falls 12
Miami Beach – South Beach Stadium 18
Miami Lakes – Miami Lake 17 Cinemas
Naples – Hollywood Stadium 20-Naples
Oldsmar – AMC Woodland Square 20
Orange Park – AMC Orange Park 24
Orlando – Pointe Orlando with IMAX
Orlando – Waterford Stadium 20
Palm Beach Gardens – Downtown At The Gardens 16 Cinemas
Royal Palm Beach – Royal Palm Stadium 18
Sarasota – AMC Sarasota 12
Sarasota – Hollywood Stadium 20-Sarasota
South Miami – AMC Sunset Place 24
Tampa – Citrus Stadium Park Mall 20
Vero Beach – The Majestic
Wesley Chapel – Grove 16 Cinemas
——————————————————————————–
Georgia:Alpharetta – North Point 8
Atlanta – Perimeter Pointe 10
Augusta – Augusta Exchange 20
Chamblee – Hollywood 24 @ North I-85
Kennesaw – AMC Barrett Commons 24
Lawrenceville – AMC Discover Mills 18
Lithonia – AMC Stonecrest Megastar 16
Morrow – AMC Southlake Pavilion 24
Savannah – Savannah Stadium 10
——————————————————————————–
Hawaii: Honolulu – Dole Cannery 18
——————————————————————————–
Iowa: Ames – Movies 12
Cedar Falls – College Square 12 Theatre
Council Bluffs – Star Cinema 17 with IMAX
Davenport – Davenport 53 Showcase Cinemas
Dubuque – Star Cinema 14
Iowa City – Sycamore 12 Theatre
West Des Moines – Jordan Creek 20
——————————————————————————–
Idaho: Boise – Boise 21 plus IMAX
——————————————————————————–
Indiana: Bloomington – Bloomington Showplace East
Evansville – Evansville Stadium 16
Fort Wayne – Coldwater Crossing
Indianapolis – AMC Castleton Square 14
Indianapolis – Galaxy 14
Indianapolis – Indianapolis Showplace with IMAX
Lafayette – Eastside 9
Michigan City – Michigan City Showplace
Mishawaka – Movies 14
Muncie – Muncie Showplace
Noblesville – Hamilton 16 with IMAX
Portage – Portage 16 with IMAX
Schererville – Schererville Showplace 16
Terre Haute – Terre Haute Showplace
Valparaiso – Valparaiso Commons
——————————————————————————–
Kansas: Lawrence – Southwind 12
Leawood – AMC Town Center 20
Merriam – Cinemark 20 (Merriam)
Olathe – AMC Olathe Studio 29 with IMAX
Topeka – Hollywood Stadium 14
——————————————————————————–
Kentucky: Florence – Showcase Cinemas De Lux Florence
Lexington – Hamburg Pavilions 16
Lexington – Lexington Green Movies
Louisville – Stonybrook Cinemas
Louisville – Tinseltown Louisville
——————————————————————————–
Louisiana: Baton Rouge – Citiplace 11
Baton Rouge – Perkins Row
Covington – Hollywood Stadium 14
Harahan – AMC Elmwood Palace 20
Harvey – AMC Westbank Palace 16
Shreveport – Tinseltown
——————————————————————————–
Massachusetts: Boston – Fenway 13
Braintree – AMC Braintree 10
Burlington – AMC Burlington 10
Dennis – The Cape Cinema
Foxboro – Patriot Place
Framingham – AMC Framingham 15
Great Barrington – The Mahaiwe Theatre
Hadley – Hampshire Mall 12
Lowell – Lowell Showcase Cinemas
Marlborough – Solomon Pond Mall 15
Millbury – Blackstone Valley
Randolph – Randolph Showcase Cinemas
Revere – Revere Showcase Cinemas
Swansea – Swansea
Wellfleet – Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre
West Springfield – West Springfield Showcase Cinemas
——————————————————————————–
Maryland: Abingdon – Bel Air Cinema 14
Bowie – Bowie Crossing 14
Columbia – AMC Columbia Mall 14
Columbia – Snowden Square 14
Germantown – Germantown 14
Owings Mills – AMC Owings Mills 17
——————————————————————————–
Maine: Brunswick – Brunswick 10
Ellsworth – The Grand
Rockland – The Strand Theatre
——————————————————————————–
Michigan: Ann Arbor – Quality 16
Battle Creek – West Columbia 7
Canton – Canton Cinema
Flint – Flint West Showcase Cinemas
Grand Rapids – Celebration Cinema – Grand Rapids North
Holland – Holland 7
Jackson – Jackson 10
Kalamazoo – Kalamazoo 10
Lansing – Celebration Cinemas Lansing
Lansing – Lansing Mall Cinemas
Livonia – AMC Livonia 20
Mount Pleasant – Celebration Cinema Mt Pleasant
Oxford – Oxford 7
Port Huron – Krafft 8
Saginaw – Saginaw 8 / Quad
Sterling Heights – AMC Forum 30 with IMAX
Traverse City – State Theatre – Traverse City
Walled Lake – Commerce Township 14
Ypsilanti – Ann Arbor Showcase Cinemas
——————————————————————————–
Minnesota: Duluth – Duluth 10 Theatre
Eagan – Eagan 16
Eden Prairie – AMC Eden Prairie 18
Mankato – Movies 8
Maple Grove – AMC Arbor Lakes Megastar 16
Minneapolis – Brooklyn Center 20
Minneapolis – Kerasotes Block E
Oakdale – Oakdale Cinema
Roseville – AMC Rosedale 14
Waite Park – Parkwood 18 Theatre
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Missouri: Cape Girardeau – Cape Girardeau Town Plaza
Chesterfield – AMC Chesterfield 14
Columbia – Forum 8
Hazelwood – St. Louis Mills 18
Joplin – Northstar 14
Kansas City – AMC Barrywoods 24
Kansas City – Cinemark 14, The Palace
Kansas City – Kansas City 18 Cinemas
Saint Joseph – Hollywood Theaters 10
Saint Louis – AMC Esquire 7
Springfield – College Station
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Mississippi: Pearl – Tinseltown Jackson
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Montana: Bozeman – Gallatin Mall Cinema 11
Helena – Great Northern 8
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North Carolina: Asheville – Hollywood 14 Asheville
Charlotte – Stonecrest 22 @ Piper Glen
Concord – AMC Concord Mills 24
Raleigh – Brier Creek Stadium 14
Raleigh – North Hills Stadium 14
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North Dakota: Bismarck – Grand Theatre
Fargo – Century 10 Theatre
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Nebraska: Lincoln – South Pointe Cinemas
Omaha – AMC Oakview 24
Omaha – Village Pointe Cinemas
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New Hampshire: Portsmouth – The Music Hall
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New Jersey: Clifton – AMC Clifton Commons 16
Edgewater – Edgewater 16 Multiple Cinemas
Hamilton – AMC Hamilton 24
North Brunswick – Commerce Center 18
Paramus – AMC Garden State 16
Parsippany – Parsippany Cinema 12
Rockaway – AMC Rockaway 16
Voorhees – Showcase at the Ritz Center
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New Mexico: Albuquerque – Albuquerque Downtown 14
Albuquerque – Cottonwood 16
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Nevada: Las Vegas – Century 16 South Point
Las Vegas – Colonnade 14
Las Vegas – Orleans 18
Las Vegas – Sams Town 18
Las Vegas – Village Square 18
Reno – Riverside 12
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New York: Albany – Crossgates Stadium 18 – Albany
Bronx – AMC Bay Plaza 13
Brooklyn – BAM – Brooklyn Academy of Music
Buffalo – Elmwood Center 16
Farmingdale – Farmingdale Multiplex Cinemas
Holtsville – Island 16 Cinema De Lux
Hudson – Time and Space
Ithaca – Ithaca Mall 14
Loch Sheldrake – Sullivan County Community College
New Rochelle – New Roc Stadium 18 plus IMAX
New York – Chelsea Cinema
New York – First and 62nd Cinemas
New York – Union Square Stadium 14
Port Washington – Port Washington Cinemas
Potsdam – Roxy Theatre
Rochester – Tinseltown 17 with IMAX
Syracuse – Carousel Mall Stadium 17
Victor – Eastview Mall 13
Westbury – Westbury Stadium 12
White Plains – City Center 15 Cinema Delux
Whitestone – College Point Multiplex
Williamsville – Transit Center Stadium 18 plus IMAX
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Ohio: Akron – Montrose Movies 12
Cleveland Heights – Severance Stadium 14
Columbus – AMC Easton Town Center 30 with IMAX
Columbus – AMC Lennox Town Center 24
Columbus – Crosswoods Cinema 17
Columbus – Georgesville Stadium 16
Dayton – Hollywood Stadium 20 @ Fairfield Commons
Mason – Deerfield Town Center
Maumee – Maumee Showcase Cinemas
North Canton – Tinseltown USA 290
Pickerington – Pickerington Cinemas 16
Springdale – Springdale Showcase Cinemas
Valley View – Cinemark 24 Cleveland
West Carrollton – Dayton South Showcase Cinemas
Westlake – Crocker Park Stadium 16
Zanesville – Colony Square Mall
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Oklahoma: Norman – Spotlight 14
Oklahoma City – AMC Quail Springs 24
Oklahoma City – Tinseltown USA
Tulsa – Cinemark Tulsa 17 with IMAX
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Oregon: Beaverton – Cedar Hills Crossing 16
Bend – Old Mill Stadium 16
Happy Valley – Clackamas Town Center
Medford – Tinseltown
Portland – Lloyd Center 10
Springfield – Cinemark 17 (Springfield)
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Pennsylvania: Bensalem – AMC Neshaminy 24
Erie – Movies 17
Harrisburg – Susquehanna 14 Harrisburg
King Of Prussia – King of Prussia 15 plus IMAX
Lititz – The Penn Cinema
Moosic – Cinemark 20 Moosic
Philadelphia – Riverview Plaza
Philadelphia – The Bridge – UPenn
Pittsburgh – Pittsburgh West Showcase Cinemas
Plymouth Meeting – AMC Plymouth Meeting 12
Reading – R/C Reading Movies 11 & IMAX
Tarentum – Cinemark 17 Pittsburgh Mills
Warrington – Warrington Crossing 22
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Rhode Island: Warwick – Warwick Showcase Cinemas
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South Carolina: Columbia – Sandhill Stadium 16
Greenville – Hollywood 20-Greenville
Myrtle Beach – Cinemark 14 at Coastal Grand
Summerville – Azalea Square Stadium 16
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South Dakota: Sioux Falls – Sioux Falls Stadium 14
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Tennessee: Knoxville – West Town Mall 9
Nashville – Green Hills 16
Nashville – Opry Mills 20 plus IMAX
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Texas: Amarillo – Hollywood USA
Arlington – AMC Parks At Arlington 18
Austin – Cinemark Southpark Meadows
Austin – Metropolitan 14
Bee Cave – Cinemark Hill Country Galleria
Burleson – Movies 14
Cedar Park – Cinemark Cedar Park
Dallas – AMC Northpark Center 15
Dallas – Cinemark 17 with IMAX
Dallas – Galaxy Theatre
El Paso – Cinemark Cielo Vista
Fort Worth – Fossil Creek
Grapevine – Tinseltown Movies 17
Harker Heights – Harker Heights
Highland Village – AMC Highland Village 12
Houston – AMC Gulf Pointe 30
Houston – AMC Willowbrook 24
Houston – Houston Marq*E Stadium 22
Houston – Memorial City Mall
Humble – AMC Deerbrook 24
Killeen – Stadium 14
Lewisville – Vista Ridge Mall
Longview – Hollywood Stadium 14 Theatres
Lubbock – Movies 16
Mesquite – AMC Mesquite 30
Midland – Tall City
Pflugerville – Tinseltown USA Pflugerville
Plano – Cinemark 24 (The Legacy)
Plano – Tinseltown USA Plano
San Antonio – Cielo Vista 18
San Antonio – Fiesta 16 Theatres
Spring – Cinemark at Market Street
Sugar Land – AMC First Colony 24

Waco – Jewel 16
Webster – Cinemark 18 Webster
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Utah: Midvale – Union Heights 16
Ogden – Tinseltown Newgate
Provo – Cinemark 16 Provo
Salt Lake City – Salt Lake City 16
West Jordan – Cinemark 24 W. Jordan
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Virginia: Alexandria – AMC Hoffman 22
Arlington – Ballston Commons 12
Fairfax – Fairfax Towne Center
Glen Allen – Virginia Center 20
Hampton – AMC Hampton Towne Centre 24
Mclean – AMC Tyson’s Corner 16
Norfolk – Mac Arthur Center 18
Virginia Beach – AMC Lynnhaven 18
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Vermont: South Burlington – Palace Cinema 9
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Washington: Auburn – Auburn 17 Theatres
Federal Way – Century Theatres Federal Way 16
Kent – AMC Kent Station 14
Lynnwood – Alderwood 7 Theatres
Olympia – Capital Mall 14
Port Townsend – The Rose Theatre
Redmond – Bella Bottega 11 Cinema
Seattle – AMC Pacific Place 11
Spokane – Northtown 12
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Wisconsin: Appleton – College Avenue 16
Appleton – Hollywood Cinemas 14
Ashwaubenon – Bay Park Cinemas
Brookfield – The Majestic – Brookfield
Kenosha – Tinseltown Kenosha
Madison – Point Cinemas 16
Mequon – North Shore Cinemas 11
Oak Creek – South Shore Cinemas 16
Oshkosh – Oshkosh Cinemas 12
Sheboygan – Sheboygan Cinemas 13
Sturtevant – Cinema at the Renaissance
This show is one night only. Thursday, April 23rd, on these select movie screens nationwide.

Delaware:

The city of Chicago is shocked and saddened right now by the news that the Sears Tower is going to be renamed the Willis Tower for the new company renting/leasing the major quantity of office space there. The Willis Group is from London and they plan on leasing 140,000 sq feet of space according to Crain’s Chicago Business.

The building at 233 S Wacker Drive in Chicago IL, 60606 may have a new name and signs soon but the people of Chicago will take a while to stop calling it the Sears Tower and going to the Sears Tower Skydeck. (How many years has it been and I still call Macy’s Marshall Fields?) 

The traditional Chicago Skyline Shot with the iconic Sears Tower now the Willis Tower.

I don’t think Chicagoans have a particular affinity to the Sears company, (judging by how poorly Sears has done in this market in the past 10 years) I just think they knew the Sears Tower building as an icon and point of pride for a city that was second or third place for everything else. 

The Architecture Firm Skidmore Owings and Merrill designed and built the building over 3 years for SEARS which was the largest retailer in the world then. From 1970-1973 the city watched and waited as this new modern design changed the way the world saw Chicago.

The image and pride was somewhat lessened when the Sears Tower was no longer the tallest building in the world and now with the name change it seems like it might eventually just be destined to become another tall building in a world of metropolises.

This also lessens the novelty of the Chicago Olympic Bid. Seriously, what did we ever offer the Olympics anyway?

The Sears Tower was sold from SEARS to AEW Holdings in 1995 and since 2001 the building has been low on tenants and had a lot of space available. I understand that the owners need to sell space and if changing the name gets them a better sq footage rate and closes the deal, we really don’t have any say about it.

In this recession economy the companies and the people in Chicago are really just trying to get by. Live and work smarter, more efficiently and see if we can survive this mess. We really can’t be too worried about iconography of any kind right now. We’re really in much more of a practical mood right now.

I hope the insurance brokers at the Willis Group understand that you can change all the signage quickly but it’s just going to be a long time before most people refer to your building as the Willis Tower rather than the Sears Tower. After all Marshall Fields still got searches on Google for years after it was folded into Macy’s.

Image Credits to Flickr.com wallyg and paulmcdee and glenharper and celkins. Seeing their photos reminds me of how many people see that building every day and how visible is it from every part of the city. I am also so impressed by the quality of photos on flickr of the Sears Tower from all over town.

Many of us know Tesla Motors because of the news involving either:

1. High Gas Prices and alternative fuel vehicles talked about by magazines like WIRED.

2. The CEO of the Tesla Motors Company being removed by the board because of lots of personal differences and internal conflict which have led to the Tesla Roadster being behind on it’s delivery schedule and having engineering problems in getting the product to market.

3. The BBC UK show Top Gear reviewed the Tesla roadster this past season and it quit on them several times. They generally liked it when the batteries were running though.

The Chicago Tesla Dealership and Showroom will be located at 1053 West Grand Ave in Chicago, IL this spring near the Kennedy Expressway in the River West neighborhood. (kind of a desolate location from the looks of Google Street View) The dealership will be Tesla’s first electric car sales showroom and service center outside of California. I am also excited about this new Tesla Dealership in Chicago because this is the first fully electric car to be commercially available in Chicago that I know of.

I was a fan of the GM EV1 back in the day and they never even offered them here in Chicago since the test never expanded that far. Now Tesla will be the first company the test out battery powered electric cars (green cars) in this climate. Many people think that the cold winters will reduce the performance of the batteries that power the cars since batteries generally don’t do well here with out below zero temperatures.

Tesla is offering one couple model of their electric car for $109,000.00 ($55K down payment) at this time and have plans to offer another one at a lower price ($60K) in the future and maybe adding seats for more passengers. Right now Chicago is thrilled that we had enough people and interest to support an electric car dealership and we welcome Tesla to the Chicagoland area.

No word on how these little 2 seater Tesla roadsters will fare in the snow and cold, but we plan on enjoying them in traffic, emissions free, in the other season: construction.

While most people are aware of the Mardi Gras side of Fat Tuesday but in Chicago there are probably more people who celebrate Punchki Day (p?czek or Paczki day) than Mardi Gras. Punchki Day is a Catholic (eastern European) tradition where you eat decadent fruit filled or cream filled doughnut like cakes to splurge before Ash Wednesday and the fasting and depravity required by Lent. Most Polish or Ukrainian bakeries will have Punchki available a week before Punchki Day and you can splurge all week.

Yes, I ate some of these Punchki last year.

Punchki come in a variety of incarnations. There are the doughnut style Punchki which are really the same as Jelly filled Doughnuts. These are good, but unless they are different than the regular doughnuts you can buy, what’s the point/novelty?

There is also a more cake-like type where the round baked/fried dough cakes are sliced in 1/2 and filled with fresh fruit fillings and sauces. There are other fillings like Boston cream, whipped cream, chocolate and cheesecake. I personally think the fruit is always the best way to go. You may find punchki available in these fruit flavors: Strawberry, Cherry, Peach, Apricot, Blueberry, Pineapple, Cinnamon Apples, Raspberry and Plum. (maybe even more flavors, these are just what I have tried) Most of these doughnut like mini cakes have around 400+ calories though, so this isn’t healthy by any means.

They sell them by the dozen.

I have had Punchki from Busy Bee Bakery in Downers Grove and they are pretty good. But the best Punchki I have had were from the Central Continental Bakery up north in Mount Prospect, IL. My dad works near by and places an order for a few boxes (dozens) of Punchki a week or 2 before the big day. They have a huge sign out advertising the countdown to Punchki day, so you can save up your calories. Then the crowds emerge and pick up all the punchki to take home and everyone shares them with family and friends since they are so good.

The prices range from $2.00 – $4.00 per punchki because they are huge and some are very elaborate to make. Plus they are so filling, you can’t really eat more than one in a sitting anyway. You can find the Central Continental Bakery in Mount Prispect at 101 S Main Street and call them at 847-870-9500 for ordering your Punchki or to just have them set some aside for you before they’re all gone!

Everyone loves a good party and this year the recession has compelled more people to stay home and party for the Oscars with their neighbors and TV than in years past. The superbowl was a great example of people staying in, having a house party, bringing pot -luck dining items and enjoying the evening spectacle on DVR. The Oscars are always a very entertaining telecast and this year with Hugh Jackman hosting there will likely be lots of singing and dancing as well.

I think the Oscars will be entertaining whether you go out or stay in this year. Watching the Oscars at a posh party in Chicago is nice, although you will have a hard time justifying $150 ticket prices in the recession. Chicago Oscars house parties will be very popular this year and here are some tips for making yours fun. Remember that creativity is what really makes your Oscar party fun and not necessarily how much money you spend.

Chocolate Oscar Candy for guests.

Chicago Weekend Fun’s Oscar House Party Tips

:

1. Dress up. Seriously. Don’t buy anything new, just raid the closet and dress up fancy as if you were attending a formal Oscar party. Some people also take more of a character theme to party costumes and tell guests to dress up as their favorite movie character.

2. Champagne, or in most cases, use the champagne glasses with ginger ale soda and voila, it’s a lot cheaper and nobody gets drunk before the end of the loooong Oscars broadcast and has to figure out how to drive home.

3. Liveblog the telecast on your blog, or twitter your reactions to what is happening on the Oscars telecast online. Some snark may make that pretty popular with guests and your online friends if it is a “virtual” party.

4. Invite the neighbors, friends, family. People enjoy getting together the more people the merrier. It proves that just sticking together helps in a recession like this. Pull all the chairs into the TV room for seating to watch the Oscars and put the food in another room so people don’t chat in the room where people are actually watching the show. Interesting mixes of people from different areas of your life make the most interesting parties.

If you really can afford a $100+ ticket to an Oscar Party in Chicago here is one of the local Chicago Oscars Events you may be interested in:

The Gene Siskel Film Center Oscar Party @ 6pm till Midnight downtown at the Gene Siskel Film Center. “Oscar Night in America”. $150 or VIP $250. This is a formal black tie event, but you get to watch the most well known awards for movies with some of the most influential movie personalities in Chicago, making this a truly unique experience if you can afford it this year. CALL 312-846-2072 for your tickets.

It is that time of year again, Tax Preparation Season in Chicago. (it can ruin many weekends before April 15th) You get through Christmas and the Super Bowl and very quietly your 1099’s sneak up on you when you aren’t looking. Tax Preparation in Chicago can be just as challenging as any other location in the US and it is a lot harder to make the trek out to an accountant when it is below zero here.

The tax season is a different process for everyone. Whether you use a paper form 1040 EZ, an online form, TurboTax, H&R Block TaxCut, go to a tax preparing service like Jackson Hewitt or H&R Block or have your own personal accountant, there are deductions your should know about.

Personally I got to use the energy credit for new energy star windows last year which was thrilling considering how much they cost up front. I also started using TurboTax a few years ago and have enjoyed doing my taxes online with their Q & A format. I actually don’t dread doing my taxes anymore thanks to TurboTax.

I actually think the ads that say an accountant will find you thousands of dollars in refunds is a bit misleading. The people who own businesses and have complicated situations may find more deductions with H&R Block or Jackson Hewitt, but someone single and uncomplicated like me does just fine with an online tax preparation program.

Here are some tips and resources to help you through the tax season in Chicago for 2008 in 2009. I do need to state that I am not a tax professional by any means, but through some research I was able to find these tips that I wanted to share.

This is a helpful list of green tax credits you can claim in 2009.

$150 for some Energy Star furnaces/boilers
$200 for all Energy Star windows
$300 for some Energy Star heat pumps and central AC
$500 for insulation and sealing that meets model building code
$3,150 for the purchase of a hybrid car or SUV

Also, the federal limit in tax credits for home improvements is $500. More information on state tax credits can be found at the Database of State Incentives for Renewable and Efficiency.

This is also a list of common income tax deductions that are often missed:

1. State sales taxes as a deductions.This only applies if you live in a state without income tax like Oregon but work in a state that does have it like Washington. Keep track of these expenses during the year by saving receipts or logging them in Excel.
2. Reinvested dividends. This is more of a tax break since those dividends never got taxed. Bonus!
3. Out-of-pocket deductible charitable contributions. This includes mileage driven for charity and cash donations.
4. Deductible Student loan interest paid by parents. Since the IRS treats student loan repayments by parents as a gift to their child, students that aren’t claimed as dependents can actually deduct up to $2,500 of the loan interest paid by their parents.
5. Moving expense to take your first job. As long as you move more than 50 miles, you can deduct the cost of getting yourself and your stuff to the new locale. You can even deduct mileage.
6. Military reservists travel expenses. Members of the National Guard or military reserve can deduct travel expenses related to drills or meetings as long as they travel over 100 miles and are away overnight. The deduction covers the cost of lodging plus half the cost of your meals. You can also deduct mileage, parking fees, and tolls.
7. Child-care credits. If you pay someone to take care of your kids such that you can work, you might qualify for a tax credit. Note that this is true even if you claim your childcare-related expenses through a tax-favored reimbursement account at work because such accounts are capped at $5,000 while expenses up to $6,000 can qualify for the credit.
8. Estate tax on income in respect of a decedent. You can get an income-tax deduction for the amount of estate tax paid on an IRA the you inherit from someone else.
9. Any State tax you paid last spring. If you owed state taxes when you filed your 2007 return, you can deduct that amount along with the state income taxes that were withheld during 2008.
10. Deductible Mortgage Refinancing points. Any points that you pay when you refinance can be deducted (on a monthly basis) over the life of the new loan. Moreover, all unamortized mortgage points left over from prior years are deducted all at once if you end up refinancing your mortgage in any particular year.
11. Jury pay paid to employer. Some employers continue to pay their employees’ full salary when they’re on jury duty, but require that the employees turn over their jury pay. Since the IRS views this as taxable income, you need to be sure to deduct it. If you don’t, you’ll end up paying double taxes on a portion of your income.
     

President’s Day is observed on February 16. I won’t be at work that day, like most people who have the day off, I will be honoring our first presidents by shopping at the President’s Day Sales around Chicagoland. Wouldn’t they be proud?

All the local Chicago stores are starting their ramp up of ads for that holiday and if you are holding off on buying something because of the recession, you may want to go shopping on President’s Day because the stores are cutting prices and have everything on sale.

President’s Day is much like Christmas this year where Chicago retailers just want to make sales so they are cutting prices and discounting everything in the store. You can get great deals on clothing, furniture, housewares, carpet, mattresses and even cars. GM, Ford, Toyota and Honda are trying to talk anyone into buying a car off their lot. One dealer even advertised a buy one get one free sale. (it was a Chrysler dealer)

Here are some of the President’s Day Sales around Chicago that I have heard about. If these are national stores you may find they have the same deals in other locations also.

Kohl’s - the home of all holiday sales. Kohl’s has a lot marked down on sale this President’s day both online and in stores. Look for great Bonus Buys (Expires 2/18/09) like:
15-50% ENTIRE STOCK Kitchen Electrics
50% Off Chaps and axcess Suit Separates for Men
Athletic Shoes on sale from $28.99 
40-70% Off Bedding Collections & Accessories, Sheet Sets and Down Comforters 

The general sale includes some great deals like:
30-40% Off Men’s Dress Shoes & Casual Shoes
50% Off Bed Pillows, Mattress Pads, Feather Beds & Fiber Beds

Take an additional 10% off your order with coupon code: NEW3988 Expires on 2/22/09.

Kohl’s Charge Card holders save up to 30% off with the following coupons:
15% Off: MVCCHARGE15 (Exp 2/17/09)
20% Off: SAVE20FEB (Exp 2/29/09)
30% Off: PRESIDENT30 (Exp 2/18/09)  

Kohl’s also has all Dana Buchanan women’s seperates are 30% off on President’s day.

Plus there are bonus coupons you might get in your mail box if you are a Kohl’s credit card user. They always send 10%, 15% or 30% off coupons in the mail and this is inaddition to the sale prices already in the store.

Macy’s – Macy’s Department Stores also like having sales for all the Holidays. I would expect a lot to be on sale from their clothing departments to clear out the last of the winter clothes since spring merchandise is coming in soon and Jewelry will be on sale since Macy’s just took over the jewelry section of the store from a jeweler that was leasing it at the State Street Store. This may have been the case at other former Marshall Field’s Stores also.

Furniture – Ashley Furniture, Harlem Furniture and LaZBoy all have sales planned. If you have lots of savings and a good job while you have a ratty old sofa, it might be time to go looking. IKEA Chicago also has a $150 cash back deal going on mattresses in their Schaumburg and Bolingbrook locations.

Update: As I find out more details I will update this post. Check back and bookmark this page to see the updates as they happen closer to the President’s Day Sale Date. 

Photo credit goes to alykat on Flickr.

Chicago has had some comic shows rotate through town every so often but it has been a while since local comic fans had a large scale event here to attend locally. It is exciting to know that the majority of web and tech workers in the Chicago area will be happy to know that the Chicago Comic Book and Entertainment Show is coming to McCormick Place in Chicago in 2010. (or C2E2 as they call it)

It is more than a full year off, but all geeks rejoice because they will be able to bring out their costumes and partay in 2010. Ok, not everyone who likes comics has a costume, but several people I know do.

I am also surprised at how mainstream comic books are these days and how not-geeky this has become since the popularity of Spider man movies, BatMan movies and especially the Iron Man movie this past summer. There is a huge audience for this event in Chicago and I may even be going myself with my fiance since he and all his friends are big fans also.

The Chicago Comic Book & Entertainment Show details are:

April 16-18, 2010, at McCormick Place’s Lakeside Center

Hopefully this will be as good a show as the New York comicon shows since it is being organized by the same trade show company Reed Exhibitons. They can start by inviting the entire improv community at IO and Second City’s training centers. Then they can hang out at the comic shops and recruit more attendees there. I just know there are probably several hundred thousand people in Chicagoland (out of 9 million) who are comic book fans and collectors. When I find more details I will update this page. More info can also be found at chicagocomicandentertainmentexpo.com.

So, you still want to go to the Chicago Auto Show even in the recession? A lot pf people do actually. There were a lot of people there even though people aren’t really buying cars right now.

Here is your guide to leaving your checkbook at home and still having an entertaining afternoon at the Chicago Auto Show 2009.

Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to be in the market for a new car to go to the Chicago Auto Show and have a good time. The only requirement is that you like cars. Period.

The Chicago Auto Show has no salespeople pressuring you into buying anything so why not go learn about cars when you aren’t buying so you can be more informed when you need to buy a car later? Plus, it’s fun to sit in, and try out all the cars whether they are in your price range or not.

Learning the brands, models and options available on the cars now gives you some time to think about what you want in a car and why you would buy it. And it’s one of the most expensive things you will ever pay for (minus houses, college and possibly a wedding) so you might need a few years to really mull it over. (that is how I usually handle it)

If you can, go to the Chicago Auto Show with someone who knows a lot about cars. You can have a lively discussion about the engine cutaways and the performance stats of the cars if you’re there with someone that can explain it to you. If not, you’re reduced to “that one looks fast” and it is slightly less interesting.

Here are some tips for going to the Chicago Auto Show:

1. Arrive early in the day for several reasons: Better parking spots are available in the morning before the parking lots fill up and that matters a lot when it is -5 degrees outside and considering how far away the parking is from the building. Parking is usually $20. (tickets are only $10) Also, the Chicago Auto Show floor is less crowded in the AM so you won’t get cut off by a group of  14 year olds trying to sit in all the Lexus and BMW cars as often earlier in the day. Traffic, like parking also gets worse as the day goes on.

2. Wear something lightweight but still warm.That walk from the car may freeze your nose off but the Chicago Auto Show convention itself is actually very warm. There might be some key lockers you can buy access to for coats in McCormick Place, but I have not found them yet. A turtleneck or sweater with a light coat, and gloves might do the trick.  And wear walking shoes. The floor is an astounding amount of square footage, any-one’s feet would seriously hurt by the end of the show.

3. Don’t bring anything to carry. I know this is hard if you have kids, but carrying something (even a purse) for 3 hours is seriously annoying. Small cameras that fit in your pocket are also ok but not anything that requires a bag. If you have kids you may want to bring a stroller since this is more walking than they will want to do and you don’t want to end up carrying them either.

4. Look for brochures of cars you might buy or you just want to dream about. Most car companies give out free booklets with glossy photos of their new cars. Keep them in a file and when you need to buy one, you have your research done already. Most people know 2-3 brands that they like so this isn’t as much paperwork as you think. I personally keep a historical archive from all the years but that is just me. 

5. Stop for a snack if you need to. It won’t be cheap, but a pretzel and a soda go a long way for giving your feet a rest while you sit down and letting your recharge.

6. If you have limited time, just plan on stopping to see the cars you want to look at rather than everything. Sometimes you can discover something new you love but that is only if you have the energy and time to find it. I typically look at everything which can last 3-4 hours and is somewhat exhausting. You don’t have to know about all the cars, just the ones you really like. Keep track of the costs including options so you know what you want when the time comes to shop for a new car. Sit in the cars you like and see if it lives up to the hype. Maybe even rent one from a rental company to try it out first before buying.  

Got any other tips? Post them in the comments below.

Concept cars are usually on most people’s short list of things to see at the Chicago Auto Show . Some of the concept cars that will be at the Chicago Auto Show this year will be:

Cadillac Converj- A relative of the Evoq but with sharper sweeping triangular lines and a hardtop. It’s one of those kid pleasing concept cars that is just over the top.

Cadillac CTS Sport Wagon- This isn’t really a dream concept car. It’s a station wagon all glitzed up. I guess they are testing the market for luxury sport wagons since BMW and Mercedes have them.

Chevrolet Orlando- This looks like a cross between the Honda Element and the Pontiac Aztec and the boxy shape of the Scion Xb. (seen at left: do you love it or hate it?) The front end works but the back end is oddly higher than the front. Basically a small SUV with a turbo diesel engine. The diesel is a mainstay in Europe and more will be coming to the US because of 50 mpg standards.

Chrysler 200c EV- This looks like an Audi from the preview photos and takes Chrysler design in a whole new direction. It also has an electric engine that has 40 miles on battery power possible much like GM’s Volt. After those 40 miles there is a gas motor that kicks in. I am not sure what the social networking component of this car is really good for, but they have it anyway.

Dodge Circuit EV- Where were all these EV’s 2 years ago? This car looks like a sport super car but runs on electricity only. Sports car fans will be happy to find that electric vehicles get awesome torque and have really great 0-60 times. Somehow this car reminds me of the Dodge Stealth and Viper combined.

The stingray concept used in the Transformers 2 movie.

Stingray Concept -

  Wow what a car. This is a great example of how GM can design an amazing fun supercar with cues from past cars but a very modern look. Too bad there are no plans to actually produce it for sale.

Kia Soulster- is an experimental micro SUV. This is somehow a throwback to the 80’s Geo Tracker but I am not sure how. Nobody really wants a convertible mini suv to drive on the beach like Baywatch. (in Yellow)  

Lincoln C – This is a very different direction for Lincoln. The C is a smaller Lincoln than I have seen i a while. It also takes the interior functions to a futuristic level. I like cars that really push boundaries like this.

And enjoy the Chicago Auto Show 2009!

After being absent for 2 years the Flower and Garden show is back this spring in Chicago. The Chicago Flower and Garden Show will be running between March 7 and 15 in 2009. This is a great show if you have a yard or garden area around your home that you enjoy spending time in or plan on renovating or improving this spring/summer.

The Chicago Flower and Garden Show is amazing for anyone to see because they have so many example gardens there that are inspiring for what you can really do with your space, even if you have a very small space to work with like urban dwellers do. There are usually a lot of vendors of plants, patios, decks, pools, hot tubs, landscape and design companies as well as lawn care companies exhibiting that can help. There are usually how-to talks also that help you find the right info if you want to do the work on your yard and garden yourself.

Tickets are $12 during the week and $14 on weekends for Adults and $5 for kids. This does not include the Navy Pier $23 parking fee. So, this is a fun family event if you want to take the time to drive downtown and don’t mind the parking costs. There are a lot of restaurants and shops at Navy Pier that are also fun to stop and see if you bring the family down to the Flower and Garden Show.

More details can be found at chicagoflower.com

Back before America went through 2 world wars and weathered the Great Depression, there was an annual National Thrift Week that people participated in. I had never heard of this trend before and none of my relatives had ever mentioned it in their stories about the times when they grew up. National Thrift Week was usually on January 17-24.

Now that the US is in an economic recession and has more unemployment and economic decline looming the idea of National Thrift Week has caught the interest of many bloggers on the Internet. I heard about it from the Get Rich Slowly Blog last week and was interested in the idea of National Thrift Week enough to peruse their website at bringbackthriftweek.org. And while I don’t know if it will ever come back as an unofficial holiday or anything, I do think that it is a compelling idea with principles to consider.

The spending that the consumers, businesses and government has been doing in the last 3 decades is astounding. I don’t think any of us can truly appreciate that much money the government or business has spent over the years or will be spending in this stimulus plan because it is so far removed from the amount of money we are personally responsible for on a daily basis. I do think we have a concept for what our own spending patterns have grown to over the last decade and seeing the current crisis makes me thing a check in on how to scale that back is needed.

National Thrift Week gives us a chance to get back to our roots so to speak and remember what it is that we really need and not focus so much on wants. The basic principles are outlined in each day’s focus of the week: Have a Bank Account Day, Invest Safely Day, Carry Life Insurance Day, Keep a Budget Day, Pay Bills Promptly Day, Own Your Home Day, and Share with Others Day. Most of these days may have also been educational in nature because we were a country going through a transition in lifestyle and money management as we changed from a rural economy to an industrial one.

Personally I think these days might be good to revisit yearly to re-examine each of these areas in your life and with your family’s budget/expenses. Having a family meeting about the bank accounts and interest, investment choices, insurance needs and adjustments, budgeting, bills, how close you are to owning the home outright and sharing with others/charity are all relevant topics today too.

I know that these National Thrift Week ideas and possibly making changes in all of our lives to spend less and save/invest more wisely won’t miraculously fix the economy or make things any better for the overall situation, but it will help you individually. Knowing what is going on in your financial life down to the details is important and re-examining the details in order to make changes is usually helpful in making you less likely to fall into the traps that land people in bankruptcy, foreclosure or serious debt. Considering how hard it is to get a job right now, none of those financial problems will be easy to fix if someone lands in them today.

So, consider participating in National Thrift Week for your familyand look at where you can streamline your budget, save more, invest it wisely, pay off our homes, have the right amount of insurance coverage and share resources with family and friends. It will make all of us less prey to the shifts in the world markets and more confident that things will be ok no matter what happens economically in America.

In the past I have been very anti-valentine’s day, but now that I am engaged I am more ambivalent about it. If people want to get together on Valentine’s Day in Chicago and make love rather than war or money, it is probably a good thing. Those who don’t really want to bother with all the V-Day hullabaloo are always welcome to celebrate anti-valentine’s day too.

In Chicago it is cold in February and the options for celebrating Valentine’s Day with your special one are limited to the indoors and maybe someplace with a cozy fireplace. That said, there is a range of price to which you can celebrate this day of love.

If you have endless funds available the Trump Tower Hotel is offering a special Valentine’s Day package with a view of the Chicago River, a Dozen Roses, Champagne, Chocolate and a premium suite for $900. Yes, that is the cost for one night. That puts a lot of pressure on both parties for it to be a “spectacular” night at that price. At least at home you don’t loose $900 if things don’t work out. Plus in this economy who wants to spend a mortgage payment on one night in a hotel room? (just the room)

I have always liked the more simple ways to show someone you love them on Valentine’s Day. Nobody enjoys paying $100 for a dozen red roses at the Chicago FTD Florist so why not send something else? Believe me, pink roses can be just as romantic, white roses are elegant, and there are so many beautiful flowers, why limit it to just roses? (orchids, lilies and Gerber daisies are all great alternatives that get ignored by florists on Valentine’s day) Don’t all the flowers really say something beautiful? There is no reason that you have to be exactly like 9 million other people in Chicago. Originality gets you brownie points and wins over hearts big time.

Check out the little local Chicago FTD florists a week or 2 before Valentine’s day to see what they plan to have on hand. Ask about what else they will have besides 12 tons of red roses from Chile. I try to avoid large florist chains like Phillips because there is so little creativity there, but in a pinch they have a lot of stock. You have to tell them what you want though. Jewel and Dominicks have great low cost deals on flowers but they usually wilt in 24-48 hours. (Which is so dissapointing) I like Tulipia in River Forest for my fresh flowers and they usually last a week.

Chocolate is also a typical Valentine’s Day gift but I don’t know any woman that says she needs Chocolate when most women always complain that they are on a diet. (talk about passive aggressive) I know a few women who crave it, but I wonder if there is really something else going on there.

I think most women really want to be loved and appreciated. I think doing something to show you love them in a non-traditional way might be the best Valentine’s Day gift of all. Sure, an elegant dinner at the restaurant of her choice or a new pair of earrings would be great but save the big flower/chocolate/hotel room money for something else.

My fiance got me some flowers last year and new windshield wipers for my car. And yes, he even installed them for me. This year he is upgrading the memory in my laptop, very thoughtful of him. It was sweet and I do appreciate his thoughtfulness every time I am driving in the pouring rain in Chicago. Think different this Valentine’s Day and you will have a much better time with the holiday than all your friends and coworkers that do the same thing they do every year.

Update: 2 More events happening around Chicago if you really do want to brave the cold and go out to do something special on Valentine’s day:

The Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago Troupe makes its official company debut at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie, 9501 Skokie Blvd., on Valentine’s Day. This event features performances from the company repertoire (including the jet propelled “Pyrokinesis”) …Plus, as the $46 ticket price includes a post-performance champagne and cheesecake reception and parking is free…this makes the event a great way to treat your honey to a great evening out without breaking the bank. For more info call 847.673.6300.

These local fine Restaurants have specially prices dinners available on Valentine’s Day with unique menu’s and Valentine’s Day details. Call for more information and details.

BIRCH RIVER GRILL – AN AMERICAN KITCHEN 75 W. Algonquin Road, Arlington Heights, IL (847) 427-4242
DINE at 733 W. Madison Street in Chicago, IL (312) 602- 2100
GLEN PRAIRIE at 1250 Roosevelt Road in Glen Ellyn, IL (630) 613-1250
KARMA – ASIAN FOOD & WINE 510 E. Route 83 in Mundelein, IL (847) 970-6900
Kinzie Chophouse at 400 North Wells Street in Chicago, IL 60654 312.822.0191
MAMBO GRILL at 412 North Clark Street in Chicago, IL 60654 312.467.9797

With the Fed lowering the interest rate to effectively 0% a few weeks back we have all been waiting to see how the consumer mortgage rates will be affected in Chicago. Both the city and suburbs have been affected by the real estate housing bubble and many people who have 6-7% mortgage rates on their homes and condos would love to refinance their mortgage and save some money in this economy.

Just this week Jan 12th, marketwatch reported that 30 year fixed rate mortgage rates went below 5% and down to the lowest rate ever. I am surprised that they have gotten so low and see that marketwatch lists the average mortgage rate for a 30 year fixed rate loan at 4.62% now. Wow that is low. A 300K mortgage with 20% down and a 30 year fixed rate loan at 4.62% is $1,333.00 a month.

If that rate was 5.62% it would be $1,481.00. Low rates save you a lot of money and allow you to use those savings to make extra principle payments and pay the loan off faster which saves a lot on interest paid to the bank over the life of the loan. (remember interest is calculated on the entire loan amount each year, so the amount you really pay for your house over 30 years is usually about 3x the value)

I am not sure which mortgage companies in Chicago can offer these rates though because so many of the banks are in trouble financially right now. Taking in less profit on loans would hurt their chance of recovery. Citigroup Banks is one that is giving higher interest rates like 5.5% on a 30 year fixed loan because of their current financial situation.

I hope that people living in Chicago can refinance their loans at the lowest rate possible and pay off their mortgage home loans quickly and own them outright. It is a difficult thing to do but owning your own home without a mortgage is one of the most rewarding things you can do and gives you so much financial freedom and saves a lot of stress. Look into how you can lower your interest rate and pay off your loan in a shorter time and get freedom from mortgage payments.

Chicago has some of the richest museums and cultural attractions in the country and because of the generosity of some sponsors and the city of Chicago, you can visit and enjoy them for free on these days in 2009.This is a great opportunity for kids and families to enjoy these museums, cultural institutions and artwork the way they were intended: accessible for everyone, not just the privileged people.

If you have kids and don’t want to pay a lot of money for the whole family to go to Chicago Museums, this is the time to go. You still have parking costs and you may also have some costs for food and/or souvenirs but it is a lot cheaper and more affordable to visit Chicago Museums on a free sponsored day. And in this economy free things to do are better than sitting at home one more day with that TV and all those commercials.

The Art Institute of Chicago is Free on Thursday evenings from 5-8 pm after work. This is a great free date night for couples or anyone dating. Remember you can say that a painting or photograph means anything, it is whatever you want to interpret it as.  The Art Institute of Chicago has so many rare pieces of art that people come from all over the world to see our collection here. If you are a Chicago Tourist, you can enjoy the free evenings too. Special exhibits are usually not included in the free admission though.

The Adler Planetarium is Free and open to the public on these days in 2009. The planetarium does not have much parking and the Museum Campus in general has few parking spots available close to the buildings. Be prepared for a long walk and bundle up accordingly in the cold this winter. The y have some cool 3-D movies and space shows running now that the kids will be inspired by. Plus space is such an inspiring curious subject for kids and adults of all ages.

January 5,12-16, 20, & 27th
February 3, 9-13, 17, 24 & 26th
March 3, 10 & 17th
April 21 & 28th
May 5, 12, 19 & 26th
June 7-12th
September 1, 8, 14-18, 22, & 29th
October 6, 13, 20, & 27th
November 3, 10, 17, & 24th
December 1, 8, 15, & 22th 

See the adlerplanetarium.org for more details. 

Chicago Children’s Museum is open for Free every 1st Monday of the month. There is also free admission for children 15 and under every day. And Free Thursdays 5 to 8pm for everyone

Chicago History Museum is open for Free every Monday!

The Chicago Field Museum is open for Free on:  
The 2nd Monday of every month as well as:
January: 14, 15, 21, 22, 28, 29
February: 1 – 6, 11, 12, 18, 19, 25, 26
September: 2, 3, 9, 10, 16, 17, 23, 24, 30
October: 1, 7, 8, 14, 15
November: 11, 12, 18, 19
December: 2, 3, 9, 10 

The Museum of Science and Industry is open for Free on:

Jan. 5 – 31
Apr. 22 (Earth Day)
June 1 – 5
June 19 (MSI birthday)
Oct. 8 – 30 (Weekdays only)
Nov. 11 (Veteran’s Day) 

The Museum of Science and Industry is undergoing a large renovation in addition to the U-Boat Submarine that has already been renovated. This was a badly needed renovation, so you can go once now for free and once again when the revamp is done in a year or two. Feel free to skip the wildly out of date Internet exhibit and the automotive exhibit with all the cars covered. This used to be my favorite museum when I was a kid. I hope they can bring it back to it’s former splendor.

Nickelback is coming to Chicago for a concert at AllState Arena on March 12, 2009.

Nickelback is a popular Canadian Rock band that crosses over the genre boundaries into several different music categories. I enjoy Nickelback musicand so does my fiance. The interesting thing is that Steve really likes heavy metal music and I am more of a pop/rock listener. Nickelback is a cross breed of both. (and I thank them for that, because we actually have something we can both listen to in the car now) Some people have actually officially classified Nickelback as an Alternative Rock band or Alternative Metal band. Call them anything you want, they are very good.

I like their music because it has a lot of movement and feeling. Usually hard rock and alternative groups loose the clarity of the singing and vocals to the power of the guitars and drums. Nickelback provides a more lyrical emotional ballad with a rock background and setting. Some of the songs they are well known for are “Hero” from the first Spiderman movie, a top 10 hit “Photograph” and “Rockstar”. There is a lot of depth to their albums beyond the top 10 hits on the CDs though, and it’s worth a trip to AllState Arena to fully appreciate.

When is the Nickelback Concert? Mar 12, 2009 7:00 pm (Thursday)

Where is the Nickelback Concert?  Allstate Arena (map) 6920 North Mannheim Road in Des Plaines, IL 60018

Where can I get Tickets?  Through Ticketmaster.com they are $46.50, $55.00 or $75.00 each.The Nickelback tickets are about 1/2 sold at the time I am writing this post, I would expect that they will get close to selling out closer to the concert date. If there aren’t any left on Ticketmaster you can always check ebay and stubhub.com.

There are fan group packages and discounts available at Ticketmaster.com if you are a citi card holder. The AllState Arena (formerly the Rosemont Horizon if you are from the 80’s) is built so that even the seats in the balcony have a clear view of the stage (unless you are behind the stage. Plus many bands usually travel with huge digital/projection screens for showing a closeup of the band for the people sitting far up in the stands, so you would be able to see that way too. Otherwise you can always bring binoculars with the earplugs. (earplugs are always recommended for large concerts since the volume is so high, regardless of what type of music it is)

If you work downtown like I do, you may have noticed that theMichigan Avenue Bridge over the Chicago river has the sidewalk on the west side of the street closed and barricaded off today. I knew they were continuing improvements on the Michigan Avenue Bridge and saw the signs and TV trucks recording it but in my non-coffee blur this morning I was surprised anyway.

The Michigan Avenue Bridge has been going though a face lift/renovations since late summer that began with the dismantling of the entire masonry staircase at the corner of the Wrigley Building almost brick by brick. The redevelopment includes the towers that are at each corner of the bridge also. The Michigan Avenue Bridge work seems to be timed in conjunction with the Chicago River walkway expansion project that started this fall. (although this project hasn’t been on fire yet)

It is being reported by the Chicago Tribune that this work will cost $3.5 million dollars and hopefully be complete by June 2009. The west side of the bridge will be closed for pedestrians until March and then the East side will be under construction until June.

I think it is agreed that even within the current economic recession and city budget shortfall, the Michigan Avenue Bridge was in need of repair. (especially being so visible) The sidewalk/walkways on both sides of the bridge are quite a scary experience for most suburbanites/tourists/business people who come downtown for the day. You walk only inches from full speed traffic flying by with only a small rusty metal rail a few inches high between the sidewalk and the street while vehicle/bus exhaust chokes off your air.

As if this wasn’t scary enough on its own, there is a river in view down on the other side and also sometimes below your feet if you look down in between the bridge sidewalk panels you are walking over. Then to top it all off, you are usually walking with 100 other people, while the bridge bounces with the weight of vehicles, and some people insist on trying to cut in front of people by shoving, others asking/begging for change and more people almost stopped, blocking the flow of commuters completley.

You also may notice that the Michigan Avenue Bridge sidewalk isn’t concrete like most sidewalks are. It is a plastic-rubberized material that is a cross between tar paper and rubber galoshes. The bridge surface is slippery in the winter (I almost fall once a week while wearing snow boots) and bubbles up to trip people in the sweltering hot sunny summers.

I am hoping that the new surface is less slippery/bubbly and maybe more weatherproof. (a non-slip fiberglass?) I also hope that they can do the work properly in this cold and wet weather. If nothing else it will hopefully be worth a few years of looking and performing better, but we never know how much longer things will last beyond that.

Trader Joe’s opened their new Oak Park Store location on December 5, 2008.Trader Joe’s is a great store for Oak Park because it is all about organics, low cost gourmet and foods from around the world. They have a great selection of interesting foods plus a Trader Joes House Brand that offers just about everything for less. The new Oak Park store is located at 483 N Harlem Ave in Oak Park, IL 60301. Parking is available in a garage near by but beware the elevators don’t always work, so if you plan to buy a cart full, park on the ground floor.

Oak Parkers are a unique breed. (I know, I live there) We appreciate the local delicacies but want to experience the best the world has to offer. We like the close availability of the city of Chicago and mass transit but want to live green and earth friendly lifestyles at the same time. We want really tasty enjoyable food but we want it to be good-for-us at the same time. We also like elegant new products but don’t want to spend an arm and a leg in a recession.

Somehow Trader Joe’s Food Stores cover this entire list of contradictions. Not everything in Trader Joe’s fits all the requirements, but everything hits at least 2 or 3 of them. I am not a vegetarian or someone who eats only Organics so I may not know as much about those foods as I should, but I know that a lot of people have applauded Trader Joe’s alternative foods that are vegitarian, vegan and organic friendly.

Others applaud Trader Joe’s for clear labeling and dating of their products that are perishable like deli meats, cheeses and breads. Some people contrast this honesty policy with whole foods no-date-labels on anything in a refrigerated case so you don’t know how long it has been there. (a day or a week?) I think the only complaint I have heard about Trader Joe’s is that sometimes products are discontinued and people can’t get them anymore. It causes a freakout situation because it is usually something that wasn’t available from other stores in the first place, and TJs was the only source locally for that item. (a balsalmic reduction is frequently mentioned) But this may be a result of that product not being available from the manufacturer or it not selling enough in the stores. Neither are much fun, but both are a factor of doing business globally.

I have been shopping at the downtown Trader Joe’s location lately since I work nearby and it is closer to walk over after work than it is to drive to the other locations in Lombard, Glen Ellyn or Downers Grove.  (or on the North Side) To celebrate having a new Trader Joe’s within walking distance from my house I came up with a list of my top 10 foods to buy at Trader Joe’s that I think you should check out:

10. Potato Pancakes – Latkes- I love potato pancakes because I am Ukrainian and they are part of my heritage and since I am no cook, I really enjoy the latkes that Trader Joe’s sells frozen. Just pop them in the oven to warm them up crispy, add a dollop of sour cream and voila, yumminess.

9. Quiche- There are 2 kinds of quiche, with crust and without. They are both wonderful for no mess one plate dinners. It might not be rocket science to whip up a quiche myself but sometimes during the work week I couldn’t be bothered to run the dishwasher let alone cook something. Microwaving the bacon-feta crust-less quiche or the crusted spinach or ham & cheese quiche and you have a hearty dinner with rich flavors.

8. Scones – the fresh baked scones aren’t always available but they are luscious.

7. Tiramisu- the boxed frozen tiramisu is just like at the fancy restaurants but half the price. I like to use Trader Joe’s tiramisu as a birthday cake for small groups (because it isn’t very large) and you can keep it frozen for several months just in case something comes up to celebrate.

6. Two Buck Chuck- this wine is good, but don’t overlook all the other unique wines that Trader Joe’s carries. I have found many good wines here to compliment my meals.

5. European Style Yogurt- I first tried this in France where this was the only style of yogurt they had and they sold it in small glass containers that got re-cycled. I found that this slightly tart but sweet thick yogurt is available at Trader Joe’s in a few flavors. I like the coffee and the chocolate. After tasting the richness of the European style yogurt, Dannon will taste too sugary sticky sweet and simple. 

4. Individual Chocolate Lava cakes – These are beyond decadent, and sometimes can take the edge off a particularly bad/frustrating day. I don’t recommend buying them all the time though because I would eat them all the time then. I have to make sure I consume some healthy food too after all!

3. Kashi Products- Now you can get Kashi everywhere (including Jewel and Target) but Trader Joe’s was the first place I saw the Tasty Little Crackers and the Go Lean cereals. You can still get great Kashi Products at Trader Joe’s and they are usually priced lower than most other grocery stores. Likewise Trader Joe’s was also one of the first places you could find organic/natural cleaning products, soaps and shampoos. They still stock a great selection of those also.

2. Organic Milk- They charge far less for the organic and hormone free milks than most grocery stores (Whole Foods) do. I have friends that only drank hormone free or Organic milk while pregnant and also use that kind of milk for their kids, and it saves them a lot of money to get it at Trader Joe’s. The organic meats (beef, chicken, fish)are also a good deal if you can buy them on sale and freeze them until needed. Most meat is ok frozen for up to a year.

1. Mochi- Trader Joe’s is the only place I have been able to find these yummy ice cream treats for sale in a grocery store in Chicago. They come in Chocolate (the best), Strawberry, Mango and Green Tea. I found the Green Tea flavor to be a bit odd at first but it grows on you. The best thing is that each ice cream ball wrapped in a rice flour dough is only 100 calories.

Let me know if you have any other Trader Joe’s favorites that you can recommend in the comments below.

It is freezing cold out side, what better time to look at summertime recreational equipment at the Chicago Boat and RV show. Maybe we will feel warmer looking at the boats and campers? McCormick place holds a lot of the local conventions and is the only location large enough to hold all these huge boats and RVs.

Although we are close to a metropolis like Chicago many people still enjoy nature by going camping, sailing, boating, fishing or traveling by RV during the summers in the Midwest. (and some rich people have boats docked in the downtown harbors of Lake Michigan) Many people make a yearly family trip to a summer home this way or rent a place on a lake to retreat from the hectic daily work life in the woods. This is the one show that you can look at (and dream about) all the newest innovations in recreational vehicles.

Some of the fun features they have brought to this year’s Chicago Boat and RV show are:

GEICO the world’s fastest offshore racing boat (speedboat), a power boat docking challenge, a Shedd Aquarium display about taking care of Lake Michigan, Green Boating Zone with environmentally friendly boating products, the Texas Bass tank where you can see many kinds of fish up close and personal, the affordability pavilionwhere you can find modestly priced boats to fit your budget, the State Farm Experience challenges with prizes, the Huck Finn Trout Pond where kids can learn to fish and the Loop Rock Girl. And don’t forget the RV’s! All the local RV and Marine shops will be there to answer questions and show their latest new products.

The Chicago Boat and RV Show dates and times are:

Dates: January 14-18, 2009

Location:
McCormick Place in the North Building
2301 South Lake Shore Drive
Chicago, Illinois 60616

Show Hours:
Wednesday: 11:00 am – 9:00 pm
Thursday: 11:00 am – 9:00 pm
Friday: 11:00 am – 9:00 pm
Saturday: 10:00 am – 9:00 pm
Sunday: 10:00 am – 5:00 pm

Check out chicagoboatshow.com for tickets and maps of the convention floor.

Tickets are $10 (just like the auto show) and teens are $4 and kids under 12 can attend for free.

Five Guys Burgers in Oak Park is a restaurant that originates from DC and has brought their brand of big juicy burgers to do the Chicagoland area. I went to Five Guys Burger Restaurant on a Friday night around 9pm and found a packed restaurant full of a mixture of both families having a late dinner and young people on date night. I was excited that a new restaurant was finally moving into the space that Five Guys has on Lake Street in Oak Park. That space seemed vacant all 7 years that I have lived there. The downtown area of Oak Park is always in constant renewal so this new restaurant is a fitting addition to the scene.

Five Guys has a small menu of basic items but they are made with high quality fresh ingredients. The menu consists of Hamburgers (Regular and Junior size with or without cheese or bacon (or both) and a whole list of toppings), fresh cut potatoes french fries (with or without spicy seasoning) Hot Dogs (with or without bacon and cheese), Grilled cheese sandwiches, Veggie burgers (not as popular) and fountain drinks. I have listed the Five Guys menu items, prices and nutrition calories below for easy reference. (Chicago / Oak Park Prices)

Hamburger $4.39 (700 calories)

Cheeseburger $4.99 (840 calories)

Bacon Burger $5.19 (780 calories)

Bacon Cheeseburger $5.79 (920 calories)

Little Hamburger $3.29 (480 calories)

Little Cheeseburger $3.59 (550 calories)

Little Bacon Burger $3.99 (560 calories)

Little Bacon Cheeseburger $4.29 (630 calories)

Kosher Hot Dog $2.99 (545 calories) (not really Chicago style)

Cheese Dog or Bacon Dog $3.69 (625 calories)

Bacon Cheese Dog $3.99 (695 calories)

Veggie or Grilled Cheese $2.29 (440/430 calories)

Reg Fries $2.59 (620 calories)

Large Fries $4.19 (1464 calories)

Reg Drinks $1.59

Large Drinks $1.79

Five Guys Address: 1115 Lake Street, Oak Park, IL

Phone (708) 358-0856 Fax (708) 358-0906

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the stacks of potato sacks in the lobby were not only for show when one of the employees came out and got one to go make into the fresh cut fries. I was also very happy with the burgers and the beef was very good. A burger here is much better than any fast food place and you don’t have to pay a lot more for the extra quality. They do distract you from all the calories by saying that all the potatoes are fresh cut from Idaho and they don’t use frozen processed meats. So, beware of the calories when you enjoy their food in moderation. (but it is good!)

The Five Guys restaurant decor is simple. They have a red and white checkerboard theme to the restaurant and the walls are dominated by their Zagat reviews and quotes from restaurant reviewers over the years. The place to get in line to order is a bit confusing because of where the door is, but most people figure it out within a minute or two.

I found out that a regular hamburger from Five Guys is really a double burger and in my case a double cheeseburger. The Jr is a regular hamburger, I would order that next time. The fresh cut fries are very good and I would go order fries there as a meal alone since they give you so many. I ended up not able to finish either the double cheeseburger or the fries but luckily I brought my fiance along and he did.

If you are on a diet or watching your fat and cholesterol intake this is not the place for you to go. The menu at Five Guys is fresh and made from great real ingredients without preservatives but the portions are large and the calorie quantity is huge. If you go to Five Guys Burger Restaurant and want to watch the calories I recommend thee small little hamburger and splitting a fri with someone you are with. Then you would end up with a total of 790 calories, which is a lot but far less than I consumed that day during my visit. If you don’t have to watch calories this is a great place to go enjoy fresh juicy burgers in Chicago.  

I got my Digital TV converter box this summer (with the $40 credit coupon) and I love it. Here is how to get your TV Converter Box Coupon and get your signal converter box hooked up to your TV before the transition happens on February 17th, 2009.

First though you may not need a digital converter box for your TV if you fit into these situations: 1. Over half of the population gets Cable so those people don’t have to worry about the Broadcast TV Signals changing over from Analog to Digital on February 17, 2009. The rest of us still do!(Some people might first object to the fact that I don’t get cable, but in this internet age why do I need it? The basics of free TV are just fine for me.) 2. If you bought your TV in the last year and a half it probably already accepts a digital signal with nothing new to add to it. (HDTV qualifies) (Personally, I did not want to replace my 2002 edition TV with a new digital TV since it really works fine and I don’t watch TV that much to warrant a $500 purchase anyway.)

So in summary, if you don’t have a digital TV, or cable TV, you will need to buy a very simple signal converter box before February 17, 2009. I recommend getting one now before they are sold out. These Digital TV converter Boxes are sold at most appliance and electronics stores, I got mine at Best Buy. (also be available at bestbuy.com)  

The trick is not to pay full price for the digital converter box and get one using the government sponsored coupon. After the $40 discount from this coupon I paid $25 for my box. That seemed like an affordable price to me for a small digital black box that is about 10 inches x 10 inches x 2 inches tall. You can go to dtv2009.govand sign up for a coupon to be mailed to you within a few weeks. I got mine in about a month. It looked like a credit card or a gift card and it was easy to swipe it like a credit card when I made the purchase at Best Buy.

Connecting the digital converter box to my TV was easy too. Dtvanswers.com has a great FAQ section that can help if you get stuck but the basic idea is that the digital signal converter box goes between your existing TV antenna and your TV. Yes, the same old antenna works to receive the digital signal, my parent’s attic antenna from 1968 works as does my 2002 rabbit ears antenna, it’s just the TVs that can’t receiver the signal, so we get converter boxes to help.

Take the Antenna cable from the TV and plug it into the converter box and then use the converter box cable to connect it to the TV. (the VCR goes in between the TV and the converter box if you still use one, see diagram) There is also a power cord to plug in. When you get your converter box it will also come with a new remote for the box. I have to leave my TV on channel 3 now and use the converter box remote to change channels there to get the digital channels. The new remote turns on the TV and the converter box and can adjust volume too.

I like the digital channels better than the old analog ones because there are more of them and there are more programs available now. I also have no problem with signal reception now although my parents live way out in the suburbs and have some trouble getting digital signals in bad weather or just at random times. When the signal is low the screen gets all pixelated and computer like. Which is kinda sci-fi future movie creepy but it doesn’t happen very often for me. It happens once or twice a week for my parents in Downers Grove though.

So, instead of watching ABC Channel 7 in Chicago I can now see 7.1, 7.2 or 7.3. Same for NBC 5, it is 5.1, 5.2 or 5.3 with widescreen and cropped screen views as well as a 24/7 weather and news summary channel. Sometimes 5 and 7 also re-run the noon or 10 pm news on the .2 channels or run other programs from other regions which are interesting.

WTTW Channel 11 has used the digital signals to diversify the most with the regular programming on 11.1, digital wide screen on 11.2, a new content channel called Create of all cooking and “how-to” shows on 11.3 and a spanish language versions of their shows on 11.4. Channel 20 has also diversified quite a bit the same way too. Channel 2 is the laggard here with only turning on it’s digital signal in the last month and I still don’t get it most of the time.

One last thing I want to mention about this digital TV conversion process. It is easy to do for most people but it may not be easy for older people who are not tech savvy. If you have a grandparent, aunt, uncle or neighbor that doesn’t understand how to get a converter box or the coupon for one, help them out and order one and get the box for them. You should also help install it for them so they don’t loose their link to news and information every day.

TV is much more important to the people who are in their homes a lot and either can’t or don’t, go out much. It is important for weather updates and alerts and general news. With newspaper delivery going by the wayside eventually (I predict) the TV and Radio may be the ways to find out what is happening in the world for people who are older, retired and don’t use a computer.  I read that 20% of the US does not use the internet, so there are still a great number of people in this group who might need some help.

Update 1/9/08: the Government has been reporting that they are out of money from the budget they had set aside for sending out discount cupons to citizens. This is not suprising since less than half of the cupons send out to date have not been redeemed. So, if you want one, still go to the site and get on the waiting list anyway. Then they are looking at also extending the analog signal for a while longer and pushing the cut of date back a month or two to help with this transition. I hope that happens also, since a lot of people would loose their link to information and updates if they have not converted.  

Update: Congress has decided to give people four more months to prepare for the upcoming transition from analog to digital TV broadcasting. The House voted Wednesday to postpone the end of analog TV signals until June 12, 2009. The move is meant to address concerns that more than 6.5 million Americans with older TVs would not be ready by Feb. 17, the originally mandated deadline.

This is a friendly reminder that the CTA train and bus fares will increase on January 1, 2009. Even though the state of Illinois approved the budget increases last year that prevented a fare increase then, the state revenues from sales and income taxes is down in 2008 and 2009 due to the current economic recession.

So, the CTA isn’t able to get the full amount of the funding and most estimates show that CTA public transit use it still up year over year even though the price of a gallon of gas has gone back down to about $1.70 in most areas of the suburbs and just under $2.00 in Chicago.

This means that the CTA fares have to increase to cover the gap between what the expenses are and what funding is provided from the state. Plus somebody has to pay for all those station improvements they started and the shiny new website design. Most people should be highly annoyed by the increase in CTA fares but it probably won’t keep people from going to work.

My daily commute is going from $3.50 to $4.50 per day. (still far less than driving and paying $25-$35 per day to park plus gas) My CTA Chicago Card Plus monthly unlimited pass will also go from $75.00 to $86.00. Most people pay for them pre-tax through companies like Wageworks though so you do save something on not paying taxes. (in an odd twist of fate keeping the CTA from getting more state funding) All of this will seem cheap someday when I have to take both Metra AND the CTA to work.

The people hardest hit are usually low income hourly workers that make around minimum wage. ($7.75) After the taxes and health insurance fees are deducted from a paycheck (if health insurance is even available) and they buy CTA fares and possibly buy lunch at work they are left with a very small amount of money each day.  I would guess about $800 per month is left for everything else from rent to utilities after “work costs” are considered. (plus uniforms are usually required to purchase) It is a meager life.

CTA Fare Types Current Fare Structure and Increases in January 2009

Full Fare Transit Card (TC) Bus Now: $1.75 January 2009: $2.00
Full Fare TC Rail Now: $2.00 January 2009: $2.25
Full Fare Chicago Card (CC) Bus Now: $1.75 January 2009: $2.00
Full Fare CC Rail Now: $1.75 January 2009: $2.25
Full Fare Cash (bus only) Now: $2.00 January 2009: $2.25
TC or CC Transfer Note #1 Now: $0.25 January 2009: $0.25
Chicago Card Bonus Note #2 10% Eliminated

1-Day Pass5 Now: $5.00 January 2009: $5.75
2-Day Visitor Pass Note #5 $9.00 Eliminated
3-Day Visitor Pass Note #5 Now: $12.00 January 2009: $14.00
5-Day Visitor Pass Note #5 $18.00 Eliminated
7-Day CTA Pass5 Now: $20.00 January 2009: $23.00
7-Day CTA/Pace Pass5 Now:  Did not exist, January 2009: $28.00

Full Fare 30-Day Pass Now: $75.00 January 2009: $86.00

U-Pass Note #3 15% Increase
Reduced Fare Note #4 TC or CC Now: $0.85 January 2009: Unchanged
Reduced Fare Cash (bus only) Now: $1.00 January 2009: Unchanged
Reduced Fare TC or CC Transfer Now:$0.15 January 2009: Unchanged
Reduced Fare 30-Day Pass Now:  $35.00 January 2009: Unchanged

Notes:
1 Transfer fare allows two additional rides within two hours of the first boarding
2 For every $20 purchase of pay-per-use fares, $22 of value is added to the card
3 Available through participating universities only; price change effective 2009 Fall Term
4 Reduced fares offered to eligible customers only
5 Only the 30-Day and the new CTA/Pace 7-Day passes will be valid on Pace beginning January 1, 2009. 

Happy New Year…

2008 was a busy and eventful year in Chicago. People started off on edge about the war in Iraq and ended with more hope for the future even amidst more problems with the economy. 

Chicago had it’s fair share of events, news, trends, buzz and history made in 2008. The biggest most popular news and events in Chicago happened in the last few months with Barack Obama winning the presidential election and Rod Blagojevich being arrested and then released with corruption charges. 

Chicago also remained in the bid process for the 2016 Olympics ( despite my disagreeing about it’s appropriateness here) and we got monsoons of rain in June and Snow in December, January, February and March. The precipitation levels in Chicago have been on the rise in 2007 and 2008, nobody seems to know why. Bernie Mac passing away was big news in Chicago because it was so unexpected and he was (and is) so popular here. Politics is always new in Chicago but I haven’t gotten into the fray there. We try to keep things clean on the Chicago Weekend Fun Blog.

Not all of these topics are things we can post about here with our main focus being about entertainment, events and fun things to do in Chicago. It is also a secondary goal that we cover any other issues that people living in Chicago have to deal with and try and always remain open minded about all different people, cultures and ideas.

The trends in 2008 news coverage popularity by topic: (from the Pew Trust)

Some of the most popular posts we had on Chicago Weekend Fun in 2008 are listed below in no particular order.  I was happy that these posts got a lot of comments and seemed popular with readers. There were many more posts that were well received but too long a list to include here and I always appreciate the comments, emails and contact form submissions about the blog. All comments are welcome, even the ones about my spelling errors. (I am human like anyone else, and sometimes forget the spellcheck) I also appreciate the people who comment with additional information that I did not have at the time of the post, after all this is a blog and a news/events/information conversation.

Our goal in 2009 is to write more posts and provide even more information about the topics that are requested and commented on. We enjoy working on this blog immensely and would like to continue doing so for a long time. I never thought that writing or running a web site would be this enjoyable as work, but I find that we always have something to say so the topics and words come quickly. We also know that this is a learning process so if there are revisions and changes along the way it is because we are doing our best to provide the best site possible and work out the kinks as they come at us.

Your readership is always appreciated as is your feedback. If you would like to help out the Chicago Weekend Fun blog in 2009 you could send us a note in our feedback form, add a link to us in your blogroll, send a link to the site to your friends, bookmark us or advertise your company in ad words in the content network that runs on the blog. Any or all of those things would be greatly appreciated.

Top Topics, News and Post Trends for 2008 – comments and views – in no particular order

 Chicago Area Cook County and DuPage Sales Tax Increase

 Chicago Magnificent Mile Lights Festival

 Apple Orchards Autumn Apple Picking

 Top 5 Chicago Tourist Attractions

 Chicago now has 2 Christmas Music Radio Stations

 Naperville Ribfest Festival July 4th Weekend

 Chicago Black Friday Sales and CyberMonday Deals

 Fogo De Chao Brazilian Steakhouse Restaurant

 Chicago Neighborhood and Suburbs Zip Codes

 Chicago Halloween Haunted House

 Chicago Street Closures for Barack Obama Rally

 Taste of Chicago

 Big New Year’s Eve in Chicago 2008  

 Tommy Hillfiger Lighting Christmas Tree at Macy’s 

The emails are arriving in my inbox already for Day After Christmas Sales at stores in Chicago. It wasn’t even Christmas day yet and the stores had already planned out how they will discount the merchandise to help you find a great deal on anything you did not already get this Christmas. The day after Christmas sales are also a common destination of you really need to return those purple socks or snake print sweater you got as a gift this Christmas. Some of the after Christmas sales I have gotten info about are:

JC Penny has a big after Christmas Sale and Clearance starting at 5:30 am Friday December 26th and Saturday December 27th. There are special door buster deals available from 5:30 am to 1 pm if you are an early bird. There is also a store wide 60% off clearance sale. This does not mean everything is on sale in the store but a lot of the seasonal items like clothing or home decor should be marked down. There are 2 printable coupons on their site you can use to get an extra $15 off $75 or $10 off $50. AND there is 50%-70% off at JCP.com.

Kohl’sis going head to head with JC Penny to capture that middle class market and they also have big sales planned for Friday December 26th and Saturday December 27. Almost everything from clothing and apparel for the entire family and all holiday home decor is 50%-80% off at Kohl’s after Christmas sale and clearance. The items may be subject to availability though since we didn’t have an easy time finding boots this winter at Kohl’s they seem to frequently sell out of popular items.

Best Buyhas a very merry Christmas sale going all weekend long from Friday December 26 through Sunday December 28. Check Best Buy for their Christmas sale items like TVs, dvds, wireless digital photo frames and home appliances. This is not a sale in stores though. Check bestbuy.com for details.

Crate and Barrelhas a day after Christmas sale going with 70% off on all of their holiday decor and many specialty items for the season. See here for a link to the Crate and Barrel sale page. I am a big fan of Crate and Barrel Christmas ornaments, home decor and wrapping. If you can get these holiday decorations or housewares (glasses, baking equipment, pillows, candle holders, festive swags, rugs) at a large discount now and save them for next year you might just come out ahead in your 2009 budget.

Old Navy also has a lot of great clothing, sweaters, jeans and t-shirts on sale at 75% off. Old Navyis one of my favorite stores for getting the same basic clothes as more expensive stores, and half the cost. And when the clothing is on sale, it is the most affordable time of the year to buy. So, if you have birthdays in the next 2 months or so to buy for or need anything yourself that you didn’t get to buy before Christmas, check them out online or in the stores. (personally I think clothing is better to shop for in person since it is so dependent on fit and you have to try everything on to know it will work before you buy) They have women’s cashmere cardigans on sale for $35.00 right now. That is a great deal.

Lastly, check out Macy’s for some additional discounts (15%) on purchases made online with the promo code SAVEMORE. There are already discounts of 20%-6% on a lot of clothing and merchandise. I have found that Macy’s does have good deals if you hunt for them. I got some great women’s turtleneck sweaters as gifts last week at 1/2 price of $20. You just have to be careful because there are a lot of items not on sale mixed in too. Macy’s has done a lot of business this holiday with promo codes, discounts and free shipping deals, so make sure that if you shop there you are getting to take advantage of them.

Happy Holidays and happy after Christmas Day sale shopping!

Since I will have the week off next week and many kids are off from school I thought some Christmas Craft Ideas might be helpful and useful to the readers of Chicago Weekend Fun. (cat toys, origami snowflakes ornaments, garlands and chocolate covered strawberries) 

I am not an expert crafter like Martha Stewart but I have enjoyed my fair share of craft projects over the years. I think the fascination starts when you are a young girl in Brownies and Indian Princesses and all the projects are crafts. Popsicle sticks, rick rack, origami and felt come together with sequins and glue to make some great christmas ornaments and kid masterpieces.

Right now crafts are also popular because you can make decorations and gifts at home for less money that you would buying in stores. The use what you have philosophy is big right now with the recession and economic troubles. That said, I enjoy a good craft project whether it is a recession or not. Here are some recent craft projects I have done that you may enjoy too.

1. Catnip Felt Cat Toys- This is an easy inexpensive gift for people who have cats and want the kitty to get something for Christmas too. Felt is cheap and available for $.25 or $.50 per 8 x 11 inch at most craft or fabric stores. I got mine at Blick art supply and Hancock Fabrics because I wanted a lot of different colors.

You can be as elaborate or as simple as you would like with the shape of the cat nip pouch you are making. I made fortune cookie shaped catnip toys this Christmas and then sent them in Chinese food container boxes. A fortune cookie cat toy is made from a simple circle of felt folded over and sewn in 1/2. Before you close up the end, stuff it full of catnip and pack it down well. Then close up the end and fold the half circle in half again like a fortune cookie and stitch a few loops to hold it closed. Ta-da Cheap inexpensive cat fun. .

The cats don’t care what the shape is so if I am just using the 1/2 circles I call them catnip perogi. Otherwise a plain square pouch is ok too. Sewing doesn’t have to be super neat either, the simple over under stitch works well and I don’t bother to turn it inside out to hide the stitching either. The cat’s just want the catnip.

2. Wrapping paper scrap snowflakes – I hate always having small scraps of wrapping paper left over. It seems like such a waste. I read a few years ago about a way to make snowflakes from them in Martha Stewart Magazine and the instructions are actually pretty easy. It is like origami, but easier.

First take a scrap and make sure it is a perfect square. Then accordion fold the paper in 1/2 inch accordion folds. Then take a stapler and staple across the center of that thin folded bunch of paper. Next, take scissors and cut a pattern in the edges of the paper where the folds are. A pattern that cuts off some of the folded edges on both sides on the ends is always good, it lets the snowflake open more. Then unfold the snowflake ends and tape them together so the flake makes an accordion folded circle. See picture at left.

You can hang small stars or snowflakes on thechristmas tree as ornaments or hang larger ones in the window as a decoration. If you don’t like the white back to the star snowflake just make 2 and tape them together before hanging.

If you want 2 kinds of paper snowflakes, got to wikihow.com/Make-a-3D-Paper-Snowflake and they have another “how to” article that I liked although I haven’t tried this yet. A home full of hanging paper stars and snowflakes is a very festive place to have a party.

3. Home made garlands – I know this reminds people of the 70’s, but if you have that cheap basic ribbon around the house that is kind of shiny, just cut it into 2-3 inch strips and tape or glue the ends together. This can also be done with paper cut into 1 inch by 3 inch strips. It is also fun to pop popcorn and string it with a needle and thread and then decorate the trees outside with it and the birds come eat it. You have to get the string or thread out of the tree eventually but it is cute and functional for a while.

4. Ok food itn’t technically a craft. But with all the baking going on people sometimes forget how easy it is to make chocolate candy type gifts. I once used baking chocolate and some chocolate molds to make a chess set as a gift. It was a popular gift and it was not that expensive. The only thing is that baker’s chocolate isn’t quite as sweet as the milk chocolate most people are used to, so finding another brand to melt down and use might be better.

Another great easy food to make is Fudge and everyone likes getting that as a tasty gift. The basic ingredients of fudge are chocolate chips, butter and condensed sweetened milk. Some people add marshmallows or nuts to the mix and a pinch of salt but it is basically just melted and then mixed together and then put into a baking dish in the fridge to harden. Here is an easy Fudge recipe for kids to make in the microwave. fudge-recipe.com/microwave-fudge-recipe.html

Also, chocolate covered strawberries are always a big hit. Chocolate is easy to melt in the microwave (or double boiler if you happen to have one) And you just dip the strawberries in and put them on a wax paper lined cookie sheet. Then drizzle with white chocolate or nuts to finish them off before putting them in the fridge for a few hours. These only keep a few days, so make the same day as the party if possible and don’t layer on the chocolate too thick, or it is difficult to eat. This is also a yummy treat for Valentine’s Day.

5. If you like the look of crafts and like giving hand made gifts without the hours of work you can always check out Etsy.com for hand made in the USA crafts that make great gifts. They have a full range of items available that are so well done that they look just as professional as the things you would buy in stores.

We only have a few shopping days left before Christmas and this is crunch time. It is the exact point where most women finish their shopping and the the men begin their shopping. (at least it is in my house) So, is it too late to get great gifts on sale for Christmas in Chicago? 

The selection is getting low, but there are a lot of great sales at most of the major stores in Chicago at 50% or more off most gifts.  This is probably the only time of year that it pays to be on the email marketing lists for online stores. They keep sending out coupon codes daily for free shipping and extra discounts and promotions to help people feel like they are getting a good deal this year with the recession, and so that they still buy all the stock in the stores that won’t be wanted at all after December 25th.

The stores that have promotional coupon codes going out all the time that you can sign up by email for are:

Macy’s – a wide variety of items are marked down, but not everything. If your favorites are not marked down, skip it. Daily emails let you know what the free shipping or discount code are today.

Old Navy – their clothing is really low priced to begin with and with extra sales and discounts, it is really affordable to stock up if you have kids.

JCrew, The Gap & Banana Republic - They mark down certain colors only, so if you want the tricky colors to coordinate like yellow, orange or purple you are in luck. If you want black or navy blue, it’s still full price. This is seriously annoying and I feel like boycotting these stores sometimes because it is so unfair.

Crate and Barrel & CB2- home furnishings aren’t as important to buy in a recession, and C&B knows that. They have had more on sale than usual but everything is still expensive. C&B is still good for those gifts you really have to impress with, like bosses and in-laws.

Kohl’s & JC Penny - get 50-60% off on most clothing right now but some items are already sold out. Like winter boots. Have fun trying to find any of those. And those portable outdoor wireless speaker sets. Really popular this year and sold out everywhere.

Sears (they even have layaway like the old days) check out the deal of the day and the 70% off sale. Craftsman tools still make great gifts for dad, grandpa and brothers.

Best Buy – Some electronics are marked down, but not everything. Get grandma and grandpa that converter box they need for the digital TV signal coming in February if they haven’t already gotten one.

The Premium Outlets in Aurora, IL also have sales offering discounts on their already low outlet merchandise prices. The trick is to go in the morning though since the afternoons are really crowded and there is no parking. Maybe go as a group and carpool so you only have to bring one car? Or have dad drop you off and pick you up?

I just read on Chicago Breaking News Blog that the Cook County Assessor’s office is issuing 9.8 Million dollars in property tax refunds to 8,500 home owners in the next few weeks of 2008. Will I be one of the lucky few?

I am not holding my breath, this happens about once a year as estimations and real dollar amounts don’t always match up and I have never been on the receiving end of a refund check from Cook County in 8 years of owning a condo there. If you can’t wait to know if you will be getting an average amount (it’s never distributed that way) of $1,140 back in a property tax refund you can go look online at the Cook County Assessor’s office web site.  

Go to the link on the upper right hand side of the page for refunds and enter your tax-id number (nobody has that at work though) and see if you won the lottery, er, refunds. Property taxes are high in Cook County and even higher in areas like Oak Park where the municipality adds on a ton of extra high taxes too.  It is nice though that when they find an accounting error like this they actually give the money back to the tax-paying public in a tax refund check. It almost restores my hope of honesty in Chicago government a little tiny bit.

With the end of the year just around the corner, my mind has shifted from entertainment and events to the New Year’s Resolutions 2009 that we all plan to make.  I am thinking there are some New Year’s Resolutions in 2009 that Chicago should try this year too. Not just government and officials but all of us collectively as people. Well, ok some are specifically for government and elected officials since this whole Rod Blagojevich thing is out of control and so opposite how most people really are in Chicago. So, after all the New Year’s parties sit down and think about if these ideas could really improve your life and those of everyone like you in Chicago.

1. Resolve to share the power and redistribute wealth. Enough of this you pay me to do something I am legally not supposed to do bullshit. Yes, Rod Blagojevich I am looking at you, and Former Illinois Governor Ryan you too. I am guessing that Mayor Daley does this stuff ALL the time but he has enough clout that people won’t cooperate in catching him at it.

For god’s sake, if you know (work with) someone who does this kind of pay for play stuff, out them. Tell someone, tell the Tribune, Sun Times or NPR. Copy documents that verify it and send them anonymously to the press if you have to. Publish them on an anonymous blog. The only way that this behavior will stop is if people stand up to it and say no, I am not going along with this and make sure people know about it. It is your responsibility as a citizen and there are a whole lot more of us little people than there are powerful ones you know. And this was the whole point behind rallying for Barack Obama and Change. (and not just so people stopped knowing Chicago only for Al Capone, Oprah and Michael Jordan)

2. Get some more exercise. All of us, myself included could benefit from more exercise. This means walking rather than driving sometimes, going out to run once a week and generally doing things around the house to clean and fix it up. You would be surprised how much cleaning and fixing up the house can do for exercise. Walking every day to public transportation is also a great way to get exercise without knowing it. (which is pretty much the only way computer based people like me can do this) Laying off the deep dish pizza, foot long hot dogs and cold stone ice cream is probably a good idea too.

3. Save some money. Forget the economy and how 70% of the activity is from consumer spending. Just do what you need to do in order to be ready for layoffs since this is so common these days. Have 1 year of reserves in savings for daily expenses should you loose your job.

It takes a year or more for most people right now to find a new job since so many more people are looking than there are jobs. Also, have your vacation days saved up so that if they do lay you off they have to pay them out. It is the law. Most companies don’t offer any severance packages when they lay off people so your 2-3 weeks vacation time is your severance package now. Save it wisely.

4. Learn something new. This is harder the older we all get. I find it harder every year to learn something new that is an actual functional skill or knowledge useful on the job. It is just so much easier to do things the old way. It uses less energy and fewer brain cells. But you become obsolete so much faster, and in this economy that could mean a lot less money if and when you can find another job. So, whether it is community college courses, web research or just asking someone who knows cool stuff on the job if you could help out and get into a new project, it always benefits you in the long run.

What other resolutions do you have for yourself? And for Chicago?

I don’t know anyone who isn’t resolving to loose some extra weight for their New Year’s Resolutions in 2009, and if you want to see how long your resolution lasts, why not try out this offer from the Chicago Park District Gyms: Free membership to the city’s gym facilities from January 2-16. That is a 2 week free to the public membership to over 60 Chicago Park District Gym facilities. It is also a chance for you to get a free gym bag from Nike if you end up starting a membership during this free trial period.

The Chicago Park District Gyms have low rates to begin with and are usually always a better deal than health clubs so why not check out your local Chicago Park District Gym and look at the facility? You might find that they have been recently updated and all kinds of people in the community come to use them. It is a way to get fit for your New Year’s Resolutions in 2009 and get to know your neighbors at the same time. It only costs $40-$75 for 3 months depending on the gym and location. It is a cheaper way to stay in shape than all those pushy salesy big gyms that cost 2-3x as much.

The Chicago Park District Gyms have the same equipment and classes as many of the popular health clubs in the area (Bally’s, Equinox, Total Fitness)They all have computerized treadmills, upright and recumbent bicycles, cross trainers, free weights and benches, multi-station weight machines, cable cross-overs machines and core-focused weight equipment.  The gyms also offer a variety of fitness classes such as circuit training, kickboxing, conditioning, Pilates, spinning, yoga and aerobics.  Some of the facilities also have lap pools. 

If you need a list of the Chicago Park District Gyms, here is one for you with their phone numbers included:
1. Altgeld Park District Gym, 515 South Washtenaw Ave., 312.746.5001
2. Amundsen Park District Gym, 6200 West Bloomingdale Ave., 312.746.5003
3. Archer Park District Gym, 4901 South Kilbourn Ave., 773.284.7029
4. Armour Square Park District Gym, 3309 South. Shields Ave., 312.747.6012
5. Austin Town Hall Park District Gym, 5610 West Lake St., 773.287.7658
6. Avalon Park District Gym, 1215 E. 83rd Street, 312.747.2545
7. Broadway Armory Park District Gym, 5917 North Broadway St., 312.742.7502
8. Calumet Park District Gym, 9801 South Avenue G, 312.747.6039
9. Carver Park District Gym, 939 East 132nd Street, 312.747.6047
10. Clarendon Park Community Center, 4501 North Clarendon Ave., 312.742.7512
11. Columbus Park District Gym, 500 South Central Ave., 773.287.7641
12. Daley Bicentennial Plaza, 337 East Randolph St., 312.742.7648
13. Davis Square Park District Gym, 4430 South Marshfield Ave., 312.747.6107
14. Don Nash Community Center, 1833 East. 71st St., 773.256.0904
15. Eckhart Park District Gym, 1330 W. Chicago Avenue, 312.746.5490
16. Fernwood Park District Gym, 10436 South Wallace Street, 312.747.6132
17. Fosco Park, 1312 S. Racine Avenue, 312.746.5086
18. Foster Park, 1440 West 84th Street, 312.747.6135
19. Fuller Park, 331 West 45th, 312.747.6144
20. Garfield Park, 100 N. Central Park Avenue, 312.746.5092
21. Gage Park, 2411 W. 55th Street, 312.747.6147
22. Gale School Park, 7631 North Ashland Avenue, 773.262.5051
23. Gill Park, 825 West Sheridan, 312.742.7802
24. Grand Crossing Park, 7655 S. Ingleside Avenue, 312.747.6158
25. Harris Recreational Center, 6200 South Drexel Boulevard, 312.747.2706
26. Harrison Park, 1824 West Wood, 312.746.5491
27. Hayes Park, 2936 West 85th Street, 312.747.6177
28. Hiawatha Park, 8029 West Forest Preserve Drive, 312.746.5559
29. Homan Square Park, 3559 West Arlington Street, 312.746.6650
30. Humboldt Park, 1440 North Sacramento Avenue, 312.742.7549
31. Independence Park, 3945 North Springfield Ave., 773.478.3538
32. Jackson Park, 6401 Street Stony Island Ave., 773.256.0903
33. Kelvyn Park, 4438 West Wrightwood Ave., 312.742.7547
34. Kennicott Park, 4434 South Lake Park Ave., 312.747.7138
35. LaFollette Park, 1333 North Laramie Ave., 773.287.0541
36. Lake Shore Park, 808 North Lake Shore Drive, 312.742.7891
37. Lindblom Park, 6054 South Damen Ave., 312.747.6443
38. Margate Park, 4921 North Marine Drive, 312.742.7522
39. McFetridge Sports Center, 3843 N. California Ave., 773.478.2609
40. McGuane Park, 2901 South Poplar Ave., 312.747.6497
41. Mozart Park, 2036 North Avers St., 312.742.7535
42. Norwood Park, 5801 North Natoma Ave., 773.631.4893
43. Ogden Park, 6500 South Racine Avenue, 312.747.6572
44. Palmer Park, 201 East 111th Street, 312.747.6576
45. Peterson Park, 5801 N. Pulaski Rd., 312.742.7584
46. Piotrowski Park, 4247 W. 31st St., 312.747.6608
47. Pottawattomie Park, 7340 N. Rogers Ave., 773.262.5835
48. Rainbow Beach & Park, 3111 E. 77th St., 773.745.1479
49. Ridge Park, 9625 S. Longwood Drive, 312.747.6639
50. Russell Square Park, 3045 E. 83rd St., 312.747.6651
51. Rutherford Sayre Park, 6871 W. Belden Ave., 312.746.5368
52. Scottsdale Park, 4637 W. 83rd St., 773.284.1826
53. Sherman Park, 1301 W. 52nd St., 312.747.6672
54. Sherwood Park, 5701 S. Sheilds Ave., 773.256.0926
55. Taylor Park in Bronzeville, 39 W. 47th St., 312.747.6728
56. Trumbull Park, 2400 E. 105th St., 312.747.6759
57. Union Park, 1501 W. Randolph St., 312.746.5494
58. Washington Park, 5531 S. Martin Luther King Drive, 773.256.1248
59. Welles Park, 2333 W. Sunnyside Ave., 312.742.7511
60. West Lawn Park, 4233 W. 65th St., 773.284.2803

Visit the park district’s official Web site chicagoparkdistrict.org or call 312.742.PLAY, 312.747.2001. Or see the website for more info: cpdit.com/resources/fitness_centers/ And have fun getting more exercise in 2009 while your work on your New Year’s Resolutions.

I have been on a hunt trying to find where to buy Mochi ice cream balls in Chicago for about 6 months now. I have been checking all the grocery stores and food stores I live near and asking around to no avail. Until this week when I found that they sell boxes of 6 mochi for $3.50 at Trader Joes food stores. Ah-Hah! I can enjoy the goey sweet goodness of Mochi that you find at sushi and Japanese restaurants whenever I want now.

Trader Joes sells 4 flavors of these Mochi 6 packs: Chocolate, Vanilla, Strawberry and Green Tea. A serving of Mochi ice cream is 2 mochis and they have 210 calories per serving. That is great news, a Mochi only has around 100 calories. Chicago needs more sweet treats like that with low calories and perfect portion sizes. We love our desserts and most people love Mochi when I bring them over for the first time. Chicago and the suburbs will fall in love with Mochi as soon as everyone knows where to buy them. Trader Joes seems to have Mochi in the Downers Grove store and the Downtown stores I have been to.

They can seem difficult to eat at firstbecause they take about 4 bites to eat and the ice cream starts coming out of the rice coating. I like the idea of cutting them in 1/2 and using a spoon or fork because if you eat them with your fingers it gets messy. Other people cut Mochi into quarters and use toothpicks for gusts to eat them with at parties. Mochi do make good party food since people will be interested in something new if they haven’t seen or tried them before. Plus, who doesn’t like ice cream? 

So this Christmas, New Years or other holiday try some Mochi and bring them to your holiday parties to add some new tastes to the event. Your guests will thank you.

This Christmas everyone is cutting back on how much money they spend on holiday gifts, festive food and Christmas decorations. I know I am looking at cheaper Christmas gift ideas when I go shopping in Chicago and plan on spending about 50% of what I normally do on Christmas Gifts. (we all need new Christmas gift ideas this year) It is a necessity with the economic crisis and the credit/liquidity crisis that is happening right now. In fact, I think spending into debt may have gotten us to expect all that constant growth so this is going to be a big adjustment over the next few years.

So as for those Christmas Gift Ideas, what gives? or what is there to buy that says Happy Holidays without breaking the bank? I think setting a budget for Christmas gift buying, per gift is the easiest way to achieve this. Then doing some research online helps you get an idea of what you would pay for a variety of items. It is free to search and look around at online stores, even to put the gift ideas in a shopping basket, but don’t check out yet! Do some comparison shopping or visit the Chicago stores in person to look at items and make sure you are getting the best deals on what you buy. Only plunk down the payment if it is a great gift at a great price.

Another element to great Christmas Gift Ideas this holiday season is to give gifts that are really useful and relevant. Some people may think this is boring, but I think it says that you care about that person and want them to really like and use the gift. There is nothing wrong with socks if they really need new socks, it is a gift that cares.

Here are some of my non-traditional Christmas Gift Ideas. Some people like them and other’s don’t but I wanted to share the info in case it was a help to your Christmas gift ideas gathering or shopping this year.

1. Hand Made Gifts- At the Renegade Craft Fair or from Etsy.com. I like hand made gifts because these days they look professionally made and they are unique unlike the millions of things shipped in from China. If you buy locally made handmade gifts you also support local businesses and artists, which is another good idea. There are so many christmas gift ideas to choose from, jewelry, home decor, knitted items and lots of artwork. This also may include food items you bake or make yourself.

2. Car Safety Kits – This is a useful gift for guys or women, it is basically a safety and get out of snow kit for your car. You buy all the pieces and put them into a Rubbermaid container to keep in the trunk of the car. You can customize it how ever you like but the main components are: A portable battery jump station, blanket, flashlight, shovel, ice scraper/brush, extra batteries for the flashlight, a crank cell phone charger if you can find one and a bag of road salt. Also a great Christmas gift idea for dads who are hard to shop for and own a less than reliable car at the moment and don’t feel like this is the right time to buy another car.

3. Warm accessories- Hats, gloves, scarves, ear muffs, boots and anything else that can keep you warm when you have to be out in the cold is a good Christmas gift idea this year. It looks to me like it is going to be a super snowy winter again by the amount of snow we have gotten already. Hats and accessories should run between $5 and $25 depending on the item and style.

4. Subscriptions & Calendars- a low cost gift idea is always subscriptions to magazines within the interests that the person has. Everyone has some interests and the magazines usually cost between $10 and $20 per year. Personally I recommend TIME magazine because it is so useful but a car guy might like HotRod better and dad might like the Chicago Tribune delivered. Likewise for theme ideas and calendars. They usually cost between $10 and $20 also and are exactly what someone needs in January. Very practical and useful.

5. Books – A great idea for Christmas gifts and kids is to share the gift of stories. You can get a lot of children’s books online at a small discount but check second hand book shops for really cheap children’s books. If you plan really early you can pick up a box of children’s books in the summer at garage sales for a few bucks. Children need to learn to read so starting by reading stories to them when they are as young as 2 really helps them get pre-reading skills and they like the stories and humor too. Regular books are good finds in used book shops too although you have to know the interests that the person has to find things. For older teens and kids a lot of 2nd hand game shops have popped up so computer and video games can be found for less. (gamestop)

6. Your Time- the ultimate gift idea is to give someone your time. Some people write out IOUs others just write in a card that they will spend 2 days off work helping with your bathroom remodel. (or clean out the pantry or clean the garage) This is always appreciated and worth a lot actually because it helps them save a lot of money on projects they need to do.  

Chicago Restaurant Week is back again for 2009. This is a great winter festival type event for gourmet foodies (and the rest of us too). Chicago Restaurant Week is unique because it is an event where 42 130 local fine Chicago restaurants offer three-course prix-fixe menu lunches for $21.95 $22and three-course prix-fixe menu dinners for $31.95 $32 just during that week. (February 20-27) It works well because you go online and reserve your meal at the Chicago Convention & Tourism Site (or Opentable.com) for Restaurant Week and then just go enjoy your reservation and experiment with some new restaurants.

UPDATE: The Chicago Restaurant Week promotion has been extended to March 6th!

Chicago Restaurant Week is a promotional time to get people out to try new restaurants with lower prices and also liven up the bitter cold winter with some great food and wine in Chicago. This type of event program is popular in other areas of the country and the  Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau decided to launch one here in the city in 2008. It was a huge success and all the media coverage for the restaurants and the city of Chicago made it a sure thing for 2009. The restaurant list and pricing have not been released yet for the 2009 Chicago Restaurant Week but as soon as I find out I will post them here.

A full list of the 2009 participating restaurants can be found at choosechicago.com/eatitup. The restaurants listed below from 2008 have returned and many more from the suburbs have been added also. One dissapointing note was that I searched for restaurants located in the loop and there were only 2 even though there were many more if you page through the listings yorself. So the search sin’t working properly. The menus are also listed online although they are burried several clicks into the site and hard to find.

This is the list of downtown loop restaurants that participated in last year’s 2008 Chicago Restaurant Week and some items they offered on their prix-fixe menus last year:

• 17 West at the Berghoff, 17. W. Adams Street Chicago, IL Phone: 312 427-3170
• Aigre Doux Restaurant & Bakery, 230 W. Kinzie Street Chicago, IL Phone: 312 329-9400 Lunch: Choice of Slow baked salmon with curried parsnip puree, braised endive and citrus emulsion or Butternut squash veloute with black trumpet mushrooms Dinner: Slow-baked salmon with artichoke barigoule and crispy polenta or Sweet and sour braised short rib with sweet potato puree and sautéed swiss chard.
• Alhambra Palace, 1240 W. Randolph Street Chicago, IL Phone: 312 666-9555
• Aria,200 N. Columbus Chicago, IL Phone: 312 444-9494 Lunch: Shrimp and chicken pad thai with thai basil, bean sprouts, peanuts and sweet citrus Dinner: Pan-seared filet of walleye pike with herb gnocchi, wilted greens, capers and brown butter-memon sauce
• Atwood Café,1 W. Washington Chicago, IL Phone: 312 368-1900 Lunch and Dinner: Gunthorp Farms organic chicken breast with mashed sweet potatoes, brussels sprouts, bacon and chicken jus or Pan-roasted market fish with saffron risotto, swiss chard, sherry vinegar gastrique and bacon lardons or Moroccan-braised lamb shank with golden raisin and pistachio couscous, minted yogurt and baby carrots
• Bistro 110, 110 E. Pearson, Chicago, IL Phone: 312 266-3110
• Blue Water Grill, 520 N. Dearborn, Chicago, IL Phone: 312 777-1400 Lunch: Black Angus tataki roll with piquillo pepper, asparagus, arugala and ginger soy, Smoked potato soup with lobster croutons and braised leeks, Mesclun green salad with duck confit, roasted forelle pear and banyuls vinaigrette Dinner: Sauteed mahi mahi with lobster and shrimp dumplings, bok choy and lobster miso broth
  Bento box with spicy tuna roll, Asian soba noodle salad, Thai lobster soup and tropical fruit bubble tea
  Garlic roasted amish chicken with goat cheese potato croquette, haricot verts and chicken jus
• Brazzaz, 539 N. Dearborn, Chicago, IL Phone: 312 595-9000
• Buca di Beppo, 521 N. Rush, Chicago, IL Phone: 312 396-0001 Lunch and Dinner: Chicken with lemon, Chicken parmigiana, Eggplant parmigiana, Veal parmigiana, Fresh salmon with pesto, Chicken saltimbocca, Fetuccine alfredo, Fettucine supremo, Lasagna, Spaghetti with meatballs, Spaghetti marinara, Ravioli al pomodoro or Penne arrabbiata 
• Café des Architectes, Sofitel Water Tower, 20 E. Chestnut, Chicago, IL Phone: 312 324-4063 Dinner: Lobster and mango salad with organic avocado tian, citrus cream and black caviar, Corn gnocchi with winter black truffle and cheese sabayon, Crispy duck breast with butternut squash puree, pearl onions and cardamom red wine sauce and Dark chocolate raspberry and cinnamon cake
• Carnivale, 702 W. Fulton Market, Chicago, IL Phone: 312 850-5005Lunch or Dinner: Gunthorp Farms pork shoulder with red beans and rice and winter vegetable escabeche, Arctic char with quinoa and Meyer lemon chile broth
• China Grill, 230 N. Michigan, Chicago, IL Phone: 312 334-6700 Lunch or Dinner: Grilled szechuan beef with sake, spicy soy, shallots and cilantro, Grilled garlic shrimp with black fettucini and red curry coconut sauce, Wok-sauteed vegetables with choice of wasabi mashed potatoes or five vegetable fried rice
• David Burke’s Primehouse, 616 N. Rush, Chicago, IL Phone: 312 660-6000 Lunch: Prime dry-aged ribeye sandwich with smoked mozzarella, caramelized onions, wild mushrooms, tomato tapenade and herb frites or Rock shrimp pasta with cavatappi, peas, mint and sweet butter or Aged 207L marinated filet salad with arugala, maytag blue cheese, baby tomatoes, red onion and balsamic vinaigrette  Dinner: Petite southside bone-in filet with basil-whipped potatoes and tempura green beans or Baby delmonico steak with truffle asiago skins, asparagus and shallots or Bacon-wrapped shrimp benedict with a potato cake, quail eggs and chili oil tapenade
• Devon Seafood, 39 E. Chicago, Chicago, IL Phone: 312 440-8660 Lunch: Pan-roasted chicken breast, Veggie or shrimp ravioli, Grilled salmon salad, Almond-crusted tilapia, Maryland-style crab cakes Dinner: Pan-roasted chicken breast, 6 oz. center cut filet, Veggie or shrimp ravioli, Maryland-style crab cakes, Seared George’s Bank scallops
• Dine Crowne Plaza Chicago Metro, 733 W. Madison, Chicago, IL Phone: 312 602-2100
• The Drawing Room at Le Passage, 937 N. Rush, Chicago, IL Phone: 312 255-0022 Dinner: Lemon risotto with mascarpone, meyer lemon and lavender gremolata or Skate with sauteed skate wing, baby arugala, roasted sunchoke, sultanas and caper emulsion or Verjus braised pork belly, shaved spicy pecans, smoked eggplant puree and apricot
• Fogo de Chao, 661 N. LaSalle, Chicago, IL Phone: 312 932-9330 Argentinian Beef!
• Fulton’s on the River, 315 N. LaSalle, Chicago, IL Phone: 312 822-0100
• Kiki’s Bistro, 900 N. Franklin St Chicago, IL Phone: 312 335-5454  Lunch: Duck leg confit with green lentils, Steak frites with mâitre de beurre, Grilled salmon with hollandaise sauce or Lamb brochette with couscous and lamb jus or Duo of duck breast and duck confit with green peppercorn sauce or Poached king salmon with hollandaise sauce Dinner: Lamb brochette with couscous and lamb jus
  Duo of duck breast and duck confit with green peppercorn sauce or Poached king salmon with hollandaise sauce
• Landmark Grill & Lounge, 1633 N. Halsted St Chicago, IL Phone: 312 587-1600 Dinner: Barbecue-glazed swan creek heirloom pork chop with white cheddar grits and sweet onion marmalade or Wood-grilled mahi mahi with braised red cabbage, Northern Spy apple and cippolini onion
• The Lobby at The Peninsula Chicago, 108 E. Superior St Chicago, IL Phone: 312 337-2888 Dinner: Roasted organic chicken breast with wild mushrooms, brussels sprouts, bacon and chicken jus or Grilled king salmon with ricotta gnocchi, basil sauce and tomato confit
• The Melting Pot, 609 N. Dearborn st Chicago, IL Phone: 312 573-0011
• NAHA at 500 N. Clark Street Chicago, IL Phone: 312 321-6242  Dinner: Wild Great Lakes whitefish with a warm salad of hoop house spinach, wood-grilled bermuda onions, roasted turnips, chervil and red wine lobster sauce or Roast quail with a fondue of Anson Mills soft corn polenta, North Country slab bacon, cavolo nero greens, confit garlic, cured tomatoes and tarragon or Organic carnaroli risotto, butternut squash, hen of the woods mushrooms and wilted beet greens
• Nick’s Fishmarket Grill at 51 S. Clark street Chicago, IL Phone: 312 621-0200
• one sixtyblue 1400 W. Randolph street Chicago, IL Phone: 312 850.0303 Dinner: Lake Superior whitefish with suckling pig, brussels sprout, baby carrot, leek puree and red wine reduction or Hudson Valley magret duck breast with fuyu persimmon, fennel seed crust, Chicago co-op honey, manzanilla olive and licorice emulsioin or Korubuta pork tenderloin with crispy pork belly, red cabbage confit, Carolina Ruby sweet potato, Seedling apple salad and juniper berry sauce
• Park Grill at Millennium Park 11 N. Michigan Avenue Chicago, IL Phone: 312 521-PARK Dinner: Rushing Waters rainbow trout with celery leaf salad, preserved lemon, pumpernickel croutons, crème fraiche and american caviar or Hand-cut papardelle pasta with slow-cooked rabbit ragout, parmesan and chives or Slow-cooked Berkshire pork with annatto seeds, smoked cheddar grits and caper-raisin relish
• Phil Stefani’s 437 Rush at 437 N. Rush street Chicago, IL Phone: 312 222-0101  Dinner: homemade tortellini of ground veal with brown butter, parmigiano and sage or Grilled chicken mattone, marinated whole-grilled chicken under a brick with mixed greens and chianti vinaigrette or Grilled Lake Superior whitefish
• Prosecco 710 N. Wells street Chicago, IL Phone: 312 951-9500 Dinner: Cavatelli pomodori pesto, housemade ricotta dumpling with tomato, pesto and goat cheese or Petto di pollo gratinato, balsamic-marinated chicken breast with grilled portabello mushroom, fresh mozzarella, dolcetta d’alba reduction and grilled asparagus or Rigatoni norcina, grooved tube of pasta with pancetta, mild sausage and light tomato cream sauce or Tilapia with Sicilian cherry tomatoes, spinach, cremini mushrooms and marinara broth or Melanzane griglia e forno, grilled and baked eggplant with fresh and smoked mozzarella and tomato sauce
• The Pump Room 1301 N. State Street Chicago, IL Phone: 312 266-0360 Lunch menu selections: Roasted Amish chicken with boudins, cabbage, caramelized shallots and sherry chicken jus or Apple-scented risotto with roasted apples, fennel and almond emulsion or Braised beef shortrib panini with grilled red onions, whole grain mustard on potato-rosemary bread and fries or chips Dinner menu selections: Roasted Amish chicken with boudins, cabbage, caramelized shallots and sherry chicken jus or Roasted line-caught codfish with white bean cassoulet, crispy berkshire bacon and chicken-scented nage or Braised beef shortrib with carrot soubise, shitake mushrooms and braising liquid
• Republic Pan Asian Restaurant & Lounge 58 E. Ontario Chicago, IL Phone: 312 440-1818 Dinner: Hong Kong steak, Shiro miso salmon, Fried garlic prawns, Sushi and sashimi melange Lunch menu selections: Sesame sauce with tofu, chicken, beef and shrimp, Orange sauce with tofu, chicken, beef and shrimp, Lemongrass grill of tofu, chicken, beef and shrimp, Sushi combo of tuna, salmon, yellowtail, ebi, unagi and california maki, Sushi combo of tuna, salmon, yellowtail and dragon maki
• Riva 700 E. Grand Avenue Chicago, IL Phone: 312 644-7482 Lunch menu selections: Whitefish with haricot verts and lemon caper butter sauce or Pistachio and cheese ravioli with brown butter and sage or Lemon chicken breast with mashed potatoes and pan jus Dinner menu selections: Atlantic salmon with haricot verts and lemon caper butter sauce or Pistachio and cheese ravioli with brown butter and sage or Blue cheese-crusted sirloin with steamed broccoli and mashed potatoes
• Roy’s Restaurant 720 N. State Street Chicago, IL Phone: 312 787-7599
• Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse 431 N. Dearborn Street Chicago, IL Phone: 312 321-2725
• Seasons Café, Lounge, and Restaurant Four Seasons Hotel 120 E. Delaware Chicago, IL Phone: 312 649-2349 Dinner: Plum snapper with crisp calamari winter citrus salad, roasted garlic and saffron aioli
  or Kurobuta pork shank with parmesan polenta, swiss chard and red pepper coulis
• Seasons Restaurant participating and the Seasons Café and Lounge Chicago, IL Phone: 312-649-2349
• Shor Restaurant at the Hyatt Regency in McCormick Place 2233 Martin Luther King Drive Chicago, IL Phone: 312 528-4140
• Shula’s Steak House 301 E. North Water Street Chicago, IL Phone: 312 670-0788
• Smith & Wollensky 318 N. State Street Chicago, IL Phone: 312 670-9900 Dinner: Sliced steak sandwich or Atlantic salmon or Lemon pepper chicken breast with choice of whipped potatoes, fresh cut french fries or vegetables
• Sullivan’s Steakhouse 415 N. Dearborn Street Chicago, IL Phone: 312 527-3510 Dinner menu selections: 8oz. filet, Stuffed shrimp, Garlic lemon chicken breast
• SUSHISAMBA rio 504 N. Wells Street Chicago, IL Phone: 312 595-2300 Lunch: Hanger steak teriyaki or Pan-seared scallops Dinner: Black bass or Kurobuta pork chop
• Viand 155 E.Ontario Street Chicago, IL Phone: 312 255-8505 Lunch or Dinner menu: Any sandwich on menu or Any pasta on menu
• Zest Restaurant in the Intercontinental Hotel at 505 N. Michigan Avenue Chicago, IL Phone: 312 321-8766  Dinner menu selections: Thai mint gravlox on yellow corn pancake with with mango sour cream or Cajun-crusted New York strip with horseradish-baked potato, yellow beans, bacon and homemade barbeque sauce

The Chicago Premium Outlets Mall in Aurora, ILis the hot place to shop for Christmas gifts this season. I keep hearing about it all the time from people at work, friends and family so I had to write about it. My last trip to the premium outlets mall in Aurora was back in 2006 but it looks like they haven’t changed much except for adding more outlet stores. I have been doing more of my Christmas shopping online this year but when I really don’t have any idea what to get someone for a Christmas gift, a trip to the Premium Outlets Mall helps because you can see so many items in person in one place with all the outlet stores.

If you don’t have kids in tow, you can pretty much knock off your remaining Christmas gift list in one afternoon at the mall. That is a lot of progress in a short time, which is what people like me (who have no time) need this season. The premium outlet stores at the mall in Aurora also have the benefit of being discount stores. You have all the major brands that have premium clothing, shoes, handbags and kids clothes at 25%-50% off most all of the time.

The Premium Outlets Mall in Aurora, IL is located at: 1650 Premium Outlets Boulevard in Aurora, IL 60502, phone: (630) 585-2200

The Hours are: Extended Holiday Hours 

Mon, Dec 1 – Tue, Dec 23 
Mon-Sat: 9am-9pm, Sun 10am-7pm

Christmas Eve Wed, Dec 24: 9am-6pm

Christmas Day Thu, Dec 25: Closed

After Holiday Sale Fri, Dec 26: 8am-9pm
Sat, Dec 27: 9am-9pm
Sun, Dec 28: 10am-7pm
Mon, Dec 29 & Tue, Dec 30: 9am-9pm

New Year’s Eve Wed, Dec 31: 9am-6pm

New Year’s Day Thu, Jan 1: 10am-9pm
 
The last time I was at the premium outlets mall in Aurora I got a black Kate spade purse at 1/2 off. I was happy! My friend who I was with got a bunch of kids clothing at 75% off and since they grow out of it so quickly, and it makes sense to always buy a few sizes to big and put it away in the drawer if it is on a deep discount sale like that. It saves a lot of money in the long run. Plus the clothing, shoes and handbags you find at the premium outlet mall are not last year’s styles, they are this year’s styles and current items just at a discount.

All these retailers found out a long time ago that in certain areas outlet malls make more sales so just mark things down from the beginning and they sell better. That is why outlet malls are always in far out locations, they don’t want them near the high regularly priced stores because then they would never sell anything at full price again. So, consider the Premium Outlets Mall in Aurora, IL your secret this holiday season for getting the same type of gifts everyone else buys but at 25%-50% off.

So, here is a list of stores I found that are at the Premium Outlets Mall in Aurora, IL and if you see a bunch of brands you like and are in the chicagoland area, check out the mall and see if you can get ahead of the game and get your Christmas shopping done this weekend!

A|X Armani Exchange   
Adidas   
Adidas   
Aeropostale   
Aerosoles   
Aldo   
Ann Taylor Factory Store   
Anne Klein   
Ashworth Golf   
Asian Chao   
Auntie Anne’s Soft Pretzels   
Banana Republic Factory Store   
Bass   
BCBG Max Azria   
Benetton   
Bose   
Brooks Brothers Factory Store   
Cafe Seattle   
Calvin Klein   
Calvin Klein Underwear   
Carter’s Children’s Clothing
Chico’s Women’s Clothing
Claire’s Accessories   
Clarks Bostonian   
Coach   
Cold Stone Creamery   
Converse   
Crabtree & Evelyn   
Crocs   
Designer Fragrances   
Diesel   
DKNY   
Dooney & Bourke   
Dressbarn   
Dressbarn Woman   
Easy Spirit   
Ecko Unltd   
Eddie Bauer Outlet   
Elie Tahari   
Factory Brand Shoes   
Fossil   
Gap Outlet – Kids & Baby   
Gap Outlet   
Geoffrey Beene   
Giorgio Armani   
Guess   
Guess Accessories   
Gymboree Outlet   
Izod   
J.Crew   
Jockey   
Johnston & Murphy   
Jones New York   
Journeys   
Juicy Couture   
Kasper   
Kate Spade     
Kenneth Cole      
Kitchen Collection   
Lacoste   
Lancôme – The Company Outlet   
Lane Bryant Outlet   
Le Creuset   
Le Gourmet Chef   
L’eggs Hanes Bali Playtex   
Lids for Less   
Limited Too   
Lindt Chocolate   
Liz Claiborne   
Liz Claiborne Shoes   
Lucky Brand Jeans   
Maidenform   
Maki of Japan   
Maternity Works   
MaxMara   
Michael Kors     
Mrs. Fields/TCBY   
Naturalizer   
Nautica   
Nike Factory Store     
Nine West   
Oakley Vault   
OshKosh B’Gosh   
PacSun   
Pearl Izumi   
Perfumania   
Perry Ellis   
Petite Sophisticate Outlet   
Polo Ralph Lauren Factory Store   
Puma   
Ranch 1   
Rave    
Reebok   
Rockford Footwear Depot   
Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory   
Rue21   
Salvatore Ferragamo   
Samsonite Company Store   
Sarar   
Skechers   
Sony   
Spyder   
Starbucks Coffee   
Strasburg Children   
Stride Rite Keds Sperry     
Sunglass Hut International   
Sunglass Icon   
Sunglass Shop/International Watch Station   
Swarovski   
The Children’s Place Outlet   
The Cosmetics Company Store   
The Fudgery   
The Great Steak & Potato Co.   
Theory   
Timberland   
Time Factory Watch Outlet   
Tommy Hilfiger   
Totes/Sunglass World   
Ultra Diamonds   
Van Heusen   
Villa Pizza   
Villeroy & Boch   
Vitamin World   
Waterford Wedgwood   
Wilsons Leather Outlet   
Zales Outlet   
Zumiez   

I was just viewing this video from Leigh Hanlon on ChicagoCareless.com about how this year’s Macy’s window decorations suck since the company let go their former window designer Amy Meadows and cut the costs to produce the motorized diorama type Christmas holiday displays. In fact they imply that they are so sucky and cheap this year that it’s not worth making the trek from the suburbs or other parts of Chicago to see them. Ouch!

I have been going to see the Marshall Field’s and now Macy’s Christmas window displays for about 5 years now. (since I have worked downtown) and I have to say that every year along the way they have gotten cheaper or re-used displays from past years to save money. Guess why? The department store business isn’t very good these days. People don’t really want to shop at a store that they can get everything in one place for some reason, and favor specialty niche retailers now. So, Macy’s like Marshall Fields, is not selling as much merchandise or making as much profit so they have to keep cutting costs.  (and the recession really isn’t helping)

Plus, in another criticism of Macy’s is that they must pay a boatload of royalties to all the celebs they licence names from to promote their house brand products. (Martha Stewart, we’re looking at you) So, there goes the profits that would have been there in other years.

Personally I don’t know if I would go as far as saying the window displays ”suck” this year but they aren’t near the glory they once had. The designs look much less traditional and rely on a lot of cardboard cut outs and less of the dolls and actual moving parts. (this has been the trend for a while though) I have posted some pictures of the windows now and some from 2005 that I took before Macy’s bought Marshall Fields here.

So, if you want to go see the window decorations at Macy’s downtown in Chicago this winter with the kids or maybe haven’t seen their windows in the past, it is ok but not wow kind of work. If you used to love the attention to detail in the old traditional windows, you won’t be happy with these, and it is probably worth saving yourself the trip unless you really like going to the walnut room.

Chicago gets really cold in the winter so having an outdoor ice rink is no problem downtown. Millennium Park’s ice skating rink opened in 2004 after Skate on State was closed down to accommodate a new building being built across from what was then Marshall Fields.

McCormick Tribune Ice Rink at Millennium Park is located at N. Michigan Avenue in Chicago, IL 60602 Phone: 312-742-5222

Millennium Park’s Ice Skating Rink is smaller than a usual ice arena rink but it is plenty of fun for kids and the family to go skating all winter. The rink is right next to the bean (cloud’s gate) in Millennium Park and it is free to ice skate there. (Skate Rental is not free, $10) Both figure skates and hockey skates are allowed on the ice rink. The ice rink is open from 10 am to 10 pm from Thanksgiving through March 15. The main benefit of the rink is some exercise for most of us that sit behind desks all day long and it is also a pretty picture to see people skating at holiday time.

The Millennium Park Outdoor Ice Skating Rink is a fun thing to do for free downtown if you own your own skates. (or if you want to rent skates) The public is welcome to try out their ice skating skills anytime of the week and have some fun. No lessons are currently available but many local ice skating rinks offer lessons if you want to learn to skate from a professional. Millennium park is a great place for a cheap romantic date though and after you skate you can go to dinner at the Park Grill restaurant there.

If you go skating in Millennium Park remember a few tips:

1. Always ice skate in the same direction as traffic. (far less people get hurt this way)

2. If you are not confident of your ice skating skills stay close to the boards.

3. Bend your knees and keep your butt under you for balance while skating with your feet shoulder width apart. Push outward with the insides of the blades rather than pushing with the toe pick of the skates. Or swizzle your feet in and out while doing a 2 foot glide.

4. If you feel yourself start to fall, letting yourself sit down naturally without struggling usually hurts less than trying to save it. You may want to bring extra gloves or extra pants for kids if they get wet falling a lot. You can change the kids for the ride home in the washrooms after they are done mopping up the ice.

5. They don’t resurface the ice often so expect it to be bumpy, full of snow and basically slow ice because of all the blades cutting it up in traffic. If you do know how to skate this is not really the place to practice or show off. Plus it is kid of rude to cut people off doing all your USFSA stuff when you are on a public skate.

And that is my best Millennium Park Ice Skating advice since I haven’t taught ISIA (ISI) lessons in about 15 years or skated USFSA in even longer. Have a great time skating and getting some good cardio exercise. 

I just read that the City of Chicago received a winning bid to hand over the management of the 35,000 parking meters to a private company from the department of revenue in Chicago. The new (privatization of) parking meter prices will likely have to be higher because they think this will close the $150 Million dollar budget gap (in a total of a $469 Million dollar budget shortfall) we have for 2008 and 2009 from several years of leasing. Yikes! The Chicago parking meter revenue was estimated at 19.5 million dollars in 2007. So, I am guessing this might be 10 years? More is due to be released in a press conference on Tuesday.

As if we needed another cost increase in the price of living in Chicago amidst a global recession.

UPDATE: The cost of the parking meters will quadruple from $0.50 per hour now to $1.00 per hour in 2009 and $2.00 per hour in 2013. The most competitive parking spot meters in the loop will go from $3.00 per hour now to $6.50 an hour in 2013. Holy cats, we will all have to sell our cars. The parking lease is also for 75 Years!  (and no free parking on Sundays) So Chicago has lost all future revenue from this area of the budget for the next 75 years. That will contribute to future budget shortfalls.

I think this privatization change may turn out like London or other crowded commuter cities where the parking rates are dramatically higher for peak usage times and the prices in general are raised anytime without any citizen or voter approval. Basically it just got a lot more difficult, expensive and exclusive to own a car in Chicago or to drive one downtown. (what’s next a congestion tax?) The higher meter rates will most likely influence paid parking garage rates to go up also and higher parking ticket rates if you fail to pay the meters. What I hope it improves is the way you have to pay for your parking meter. We really would like to see a pay by cell phone or pay by credit card swipe on the meters if they can get a high level of security with your private credit card data.

What they haven’t said is how long this private parking meter contract agreement is for with this un-named company Chicago Parking Meter LLC (which is made up of two Morgan Stanley infrastructure funds.) and the City of Chicago and how long we will have to endure even higher fees. (forever!) I am thinking the jump in Chicago private parking meter fees will most likely just push more people and commuters on to the already overburdened public transit bus and el train system. The rates for one time use CTA tickets and monthly CTA passes have also gone up in 2009, but it is far less that what people will see at the privatized parking meters.  Yuck!

There are so many great photos of the Barack Obama election night celebration on Flickr it is near impossible to process and see them all. I have linked to some here that show how amazingly the event went and how excited all the people were all over the country. I have never seen people out in the streets celebrating all over the world like this before. I have seen pictures of people outside on the streets cheering and celebrating Barack Obama’s election win in Las Vegas, LA, New York, Chicago and San Francisco. It is amazing to see people so excited and electrified by this election and so many people voting for a candidate that they believe in.

I have also never seen people watch the news and process this information in so many ways. People were online, watching TV, watching the internet on their mobile phones and mashing their own creations together with photos, screen shots, videos and their own t-shirt designs to cover the event themselves. It really is a user generated world in combination with the established media now. I sincerely hope that the change and hope we feel can be maintained and that we all do our part to pitch in and help this country rebuild and fix it’s problems. See the Obama celebration pictures below:

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All the polling places are closed across the entire US now and the ABC news organization is projecting that Barack Obama has won the election with 333 electorate votes and John McCain only has 155. This is only the preliminary projected result but people are thrilled. John McCain has just made a very eloquent and sportsmanlike concession speech praising Barack Obama and the historic nature of an African American being president. He also pledged his full cooperation in working with Senator Obama on fixing the problems that this country faces right now. I was very impressed by this speech. I did not expect John McCain to be that emotionally accepting of the projected loss that quickly or that complimentary of Barack Obama. It gives me great hope for the future that John McCain is willing to let this pass and still be an active member of the senate working together with both parties and the president to find real solutions to the issues we face as a country. I am also thrilled that race and ethnicity did not stop Barack Obama from becoming thefirst African Amercan President as the 44th president of our country.

I also want to mention to everyone that while this election outcome is worth jumping on your sofa and shooting off fireworks in the alley (as I just saw here in Oak Park) it is also a time to be patient with our new president. First off, he won’t take office until January 20th 2009. Second, Barack Obama doesn’t have a magic wand that fixes everything automatically any more than any other candidate does. He will face many long discussions with many people in government and the civilian public before any of the answers to the issues emerge and it may take even longer to make those changes that are needed.

We all need to be patient, understanding and supportive so we can help rather than make things more difficult. I still think in addition to Barack Obama’s leadership, this country needs each one of us to pitch in and make the right decisions in our own personal lives, our jobs and our local government to help. This may mean keeping people employed longer even if businesses aren’t as profitable as a result, keeping costs low for customers even if profits aren’t as high as before and not leveraging ourselves or our businesses to the hilt. We all need to save more money, be less statusy and consumption oriented and help each other out more often. We all need to be more like family in lending a hand and offering help and less like sales people over charging for everything and trying to swindle each other. We also need to seriously make changes with how we treat the environment.

So, that is my short list of how you, the general citizen, can help Barack Obama be a great president of the United States of America and be supportive of the changes we need. Other than that we should do some serious celebrating tonight. Whoop it up since Chicago is at the center of this celebration and the movement that made it happen. All we need now is to maintain this positivity and momentum and start working on making changes that we all can benefit from. And now I am going to go drink my champagne and enjoy the TV coverage since I cast my vote earlier this evening and can relax now.

I got the same pamphlet in the mail about a month ago asking about a Constitutional Convention in Illinois that everyone got. I put it aside thinking, I should read that, and never got back to it. Now it is November 3rd, the day before the 2008 presidential election and there is all this Buzz about voting in Illinois on the idea of holding a Constitutional Convention. I thought that was something we did back in the 1800’s or something? I had no idea that there were provisions in the Illinois Constitution that allowed people to call a convention to make changes to it.  Or as Wikipedia states is possible, to call in the old constitution and write a whole new one.

What I was not sure about was what is on the table for change?  What were some people so upset about in the Illinois Constitution that they have done all this work to get it on the ballot and are now rallying people to vote for it? Well I listened to NPR this morning and they had no details whatsoever on what was up for change. The coverage by other media outlets seems just as vauge and confusing. I am not sure what the real reasons are for this proposed convention and rewriting of the Illinois Constitution but here is a rumor I heard about yesterday.

Apparently, while I have been busy working (like every other average American) and building this non-political blog, Governor Blagojevich has been indicted like 20 times for a range of things from illiegal hiring practices to who knows what. Someone said that his biggest achievement as Governor has been not being arrested yet. (and seeing that our last Governor, Ryan is in jail right now I suppose that is an improvement) What I didn’t know was that some people who are opposing him (and potentially just as corrupt) are trying to impeach him and making his life hell by following him around and trying to write him up for every move he makes. So, I heard that this constitutional convention initiative is related. I heard that the big initiative driving this convention thing is that these opposing people want to add provisions for removing a Governor from Office while they are still in Office.

Basically it wouldn’t have killed Blagojevich to have made some friends and not been so sleazy in his Governorship and choice of friends and colleagues. He is making Illinois Politics look as bad as it really is. So, how does this relate to Barack Obama? I wouldn’t have guessed this, but another rumor states that to avoid being Impeached or removed from office after this Constitutional Convention he is going to pull a fast one. Apparently if Barack Obama wins the presidential election, the Governor of Illinois gets to appoint the Senator from Illinois to complete Obama’s term. The rumor states that Governor Blagojevich is going to appoint himself as the Illinois Senator to complete Obama’s term to escape this onslaught of protesters chasing him and give himself a big promotion at the same time. Then this convention thing won’t really matter to him and he will be gone to be corrupt with others of his kind in Washington. 

So, in light of all that gossip that may or may not be true, would you vote for a constitutional convention in Illinois and Chicago? I am not sure it matters anymore since it seems that the machines are just working the system either way it goes so the regular average people like us have no say in what really goes on anyway.

Every year millions of consumers flood the shopping malls on Black Friday the day after Thanksgiving Christmas sales and buy as many of their Christmas gifts on sale as possible. The point to this 5am madness is that there are special deals and sales only on that day and sometimes only on that morning of Black Friday that help you save money on your yearly Christmas gifts bill. This year in Chicago will probably have even more emphasis on cost savings, sales, deals and discounts since we are in the middle of a economic recession and everyone I know is cutting back on their holiday budget this year. With holiday spending budgets getting smaller and the same number of people to shop for gifts for, parents will be even more willing to get up early for Black Friday sales all over Chicagoland and save an extra 20% or 30% on the toys their kids want for Christmas. Cyber Sales on the Monday after Thanksgiving have also become more popular in the last few years leading CyberMonday to also be a big day for sales and black friday ads. (as well as Green Monday, the second Monday in December)

The Stores that participate in this Black Friday Sale tradition each year change and you never really know what the sales will be until the week before or maybe the last few days before Thanksgiving. Then there is a flurry of TV commercials, newspaper flyers and internet posts on a BlackFriday site on the internet. Why these retailers don’t run Google ads for the term Black Friday Sales and CyberMonday Sales, I have no idea. It would be much more efficient in search and content networks online.

Some great Sales going on for Black Friday and Cyber Monday:

WalMart is opening at 5AM in Chicago! They have a lot of flat screen HDTVs on sale but you have to go online to one of those dumb interactive flyers where you have to click to turn the page rather than just listing them in one long page. I hate interactive flyers online. The deals are in store only. 

MicroCenter has 2 Laptops each for $299.00. A MSI Wind Netbook with an Intel® Atom Processor N270, Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition, a 120GB Serial ATA Hard Drive, a 1GB DDR2-667 RAM and a 2.6 lbs; 802.11b/g Wireless Network. (Price after $50 instant savings / REG. $349.99 / 857565 / IN-STORE ONLY) OR a Acer Aspire Notebook with a Intel® Dual-Core Processor, Microsoft® Windows® Vista® software, 160GB 5400RPM Serial ATA Hard Drive and a 802.11b/g/Draft-N Wi-Fi Certified Wireless Network. (Price after instant savings / 860361 IN-STORE ONLY) Pretty cool deals on some very functional laptops. The stores open at 8am on Friday. Be in line at 6am if you want these deals!

Dell also has laptops on Sale and they have a deal where some are $530 off. That still isn’t as cheap as Microcenter though.

BestBuy’s sales don’t look that great, maybe because their largest competitor Circuit City is going out of business and they don’t really have anyone to force them into offering really good deals anymore.

MACY’s has a special sale going now before Thanksgiving that includes free shipping online and an additional 15-20% off when you use the checkout coupon code “PERK” and buy more than $99 worth of stuff before tax. They say over 25,000 items are on sale too. MACY’s actually has a pretty cool website and a lot of your Christmas shopping can be done online very efficiently. They also have a second coupon discount code for free shipping “GOBBLE” that is good through Saturday Night. And a third for Monday only “ONEDAY” that is good for free shipping on orders over $75. They also have a special deal on buy one get one free women’s sweaters. And for Tuesday through the end of the week Macy’s has another free shipping code of “MERRY” running on the site. It seems that they change their marketing programs daily.

Fancy housewares retailer Crate and Barrel is even getting into the Black Friday – Cyber Monday sales this year offerin free standard shipping on all orders over $100 (excluding furniture). They also have started to mark down some items which they never used to do until they hit the outlet. I still think Crate and Barrel has great gifts for coworkers, family and friends if you need to impress.

And of all the times of year to make upgrades to the site Hallmark.com is not available this weekend. At least they recognize that people will be upset about this and go elsewhere for cards and creative stuff so they are offering a $2 off on $10 purchase cupon right now and they are offering a discount coupon code “SORRY25″ for when you come back to order your cards later from the site. I am not sure though if it will make much of a difference. First Hallmark looses it’s real estate in all the Jewel food stores in Chicago (to American Greetings) and now they can’t get their web retail distribution right either. Not a good sign for this company.

JCREW also has some sales online offering an additiional 30% off all markdowns today on Monday using the promocode EXTRA30 at checkout but only through Wednesday December 3rd. JCREW always has the best sweaters for work and in great colors. See if you can find something great there online if the site is back up. It was crashed when I checked. Maybe there was a really great deal?

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The stores in Chicagoland that I have gone to or seen sale flyers for on Black Friday for sales have been: ToysRUS, Kohl’s Macy’s Department Stores, WalMart, Target, BestBuy and Carson’s. Amazon.com also has a lot on sale for that day only. That doesn’t mean there won’t be more stores around Chicago that will have special door-buster sales or early bird deals. When I find out what some of the sales are about, the times, locations and %off I will add that information to this early bird post. I come back and edit and add info to posts like this to help get the word out. Gift giving is an American tradition at this point and even if we give smaller cheaper gifts this season, we still mean the best things from the heart. 

I do see a few trends continuing this year despite the credit crunch. I think video game systems will be hot and computers and electronics will continue to be popular too. Kids are just to dependent on them now for so much of their time and the systems have all evolved to do so much more than Duck Hunt. (Wii, XBox, PS3) Anything related to Rock Band, Guitar Hero and Wii is just going to sell off the shelves, so get them early or pay a lot more on ebay than you want.

I hope your Christmas season is bright this year and that we all will be able to make a happy holiday with family and friends with 1/2 the money it used to take in this sluggish world economy. I think focusing on good food and good times with family is more important than a pile of gifts anyway. Check back later to find out what is on sale near you in Chicago and get the best local deals to save money.

I have been a technophile for many years. In fact I often say I am addicted to the internet in a good way. In Chicago this is not unusual though. This city of former livestock, fire and manufacturing glory is metamorphisizing into a midwestern technological oasis. More young people are living and working the digital dream in Chicago than ever before. I might just be one of them.

I have always been fascinated by discovering what information is out there online, how I can learn more about the interests I am passionate about and what all this information means. This means I spend an enormous of time online. Sometimes between my day job and my blogging habit I am online 12+ hours a day. The national average is about 3 hours.

This means that all my computers and my internet connection are very important to me. Luckily both are pretty stable and some cloud computing helps bridge the gap between places I am located. Yes, I have several computers and between work, home and my Fiance’s place there are too many to count. We are looking at setting up a network in our home at some point too. My dell laptop has been a faithful companion over the last 2 years and is still going strong.

Keeping up with the events in Chicago was something that I tried to do personally and then started this blog to write about and the tools I use for it are all online. I sometimes hear about something on the radio or TV and blog about it but usually I am doing all my research online. In this day and age most people research everything from home purchases to their next job online with the help of the Google guys. The affordability of personal computers made all this possible and I am always surprised to see them advertised for as low as they are these days. ($500 now vs $2000 when I was in HS)  And with free wordpress software everyone can have a voice on the internet.

I am also inspired by the new developments that come out every year in gadgets and computers too. I am really wanting a new smart phone that can photograph things I see as they happen in Chicago and then post it directly to the blog online, but I am not quite ready for the financial committment when I am in the middle of planing a wedding. Maybe someone will be kind enough to get us a smartphone for our wedding gift?
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