Angus MacDonald, my dad

After I first heard Dad died, I went home and wrote down some notes. A thank you of sorts, jotting down the influence he had on me and my life. As I wrote and cried, I realized there were big gaps. It's funny. We think we know our parents. No one spends as much time with a parent as their own child, right? But the truth is, we, the offspring, so often just take our parents for granted. They're there for us after all, and they've always been there. From a child, teen or even a young adult point of view, if our parents are not existing for us, then they're likely just being annoying.

On our wall at home we have an engraving of an old fable – "the Blind Men and the Elephant." One man holds the trunk, another a leg. A third man stretches both hands out to touch the animals broad rough side and a fourth holds the tail. What each man perceives of the elephant is vey different. Our tail holder thinks he's got a rope. The man at his side feels a wall. The leg man feels a tree. The man at the trunk thinks he has a snake. They each come away thinking they know what they've encountered. They can't see that they're wrong, that their story is incomplete. The truth is, only together can they create the whole picture of what they have before them.

With that old fable in mind, I started piecing together my Dad's story. I sent out an announcement through my dad's rarely used Facebook page and my own Facebook page. I made phone calls and sent emails. I connected with dad's old school friends - a really wonderful group of men with a strong network. I had such fun talking with them. They gave me glimpses into my dad – in ancient times really – before I even existed. He had a whole life then – 26 years of life before I came around.

Sadly, those who knew him in his earliest days are all gone. I have birth dates, albums of pictures and some stories he told me, to help me retell of his very Scottish childhood. With 2 parents who played and taught the bagpipes and a Mother who taught highland dancing, his Scottishness was omnipresent in his upbringing. He and his sister were both proficient dancers, winning dozens and dozens of medals from their many, many competitions. In those days, you wore your medals as you danced. I remember watching the dancers, in the hot summer sun, in their heavy woolen kilts, thick argyle socks and black velvet jackets, hearing ca-ching, ca-ching with every step. It was beautiful and inspiring to see but it also seemed very hot and heavy. My dad's dad, also Angus MacDonald, immigrated here to the USA when he was 21. He died when I was just 10, but I remember his thick Scottish brogue. When my dad was a kid, he and his dad (Janice and I called him Papa) went fishing from time to time. I remember my dad trying to teach me how to say it like Papa did. "We'rrrre going to go get some Worrrrrms." I'd try and try, but I never got that RRRR, right. Dad could do it of course. We never heard him use that talent otherwise. Who wanted to hear a Scottish accent in those days? But it was his birthright.

Like his Mom and Dad, Dad learned to play the bagpipes and got to be quite good. A well reputed private school, Northwestern Military and Naval Academy in Lake Geneva had a military band that featured bagpipes. Go figure. Dad's talents as a piper combined with my grandmother driving all that way from Chicago to teach, got him a scholarship and that's where he spent his teen years. Most of my childhood, he'd never said a good thing about his time at Northwestern. The nicest thing I remember him saying was that his parents "thought they were doing what was best." It was a good school with a tremendous reputation after all. He was not a military minded guy, my dad, so what they did there – the hazing, the strict discipline – much of it rubbed him the wrong way. He told me with distaste that he never participated in the hazing. Only much later in 1996 when he went to his 50 year reunion, did he come to look back at his years a NMNA with any fondness. He had such a great time at that reunion, reconnected with some old classmates and kept in touch through the years after. In talking to these sweet men, I learned that most of his classmates had similar ambivalence about their alma mater and I got some terrific stories of my dad's teenage years.

Several talked of his piping as they all paraded around the school grounds. Music always makes the march more pleasant. According to classmate Ed Siebel:
Angus was a leader of the Field Music at Northwestern Military & Naval Academy and I knew him as a class mate, though we were in competing companies.  I well remember him wailing on the bagpipes as we marched around the parade ground. 

One told of his surprising grace as a dancer. Dad always struggled with his weight, but he was at his chunkiest his first years at NMNA. Thomas Kruse (not the actor) said this:
I went to NMNA with Angus. I started as a junior and he was a senior so only acquainted for a year. Angus was well respected and highly thought of. The field music was such a part of our every day lives. I still think of his piping quite frequently. Angus was certainly not skinny and I was amazed when he performed the sword dance. It was marvelous. 

Here's one of my favorite stories, from classmate Bob Mack:

Angus and His Gift of Three Tunes   

My name is Bob, but there were lots of Bobs that Angus gifted. In 1954 my single mother was finding it difficult to keep an eye on me and to provide for life’s essentials when she heard of Northwestern Military and Naval Academy.  I was sent to the Lake Geneva academy and was informed that the school would provide a scholarship if I, a son of Polish-English parents, played the bagpipes with the academy’s band. Despite my lack of a musical gift, Angus persisted on a daily basis and  eventually by the end of nine months I played three tunes and could drone through the longest of parades. Unfortunately, he never shared the ‘Bunny Hop’ with me which he reserved for Academy dances. The three tunes were sufficient for me to retain the scholarship for the final three years of high school. Those three years on scholarship prepared me for college. Angus’ Gift of Three Tunes started me on a path of personal and professional fulfillment.   There were a number of us ‘ungifted’ students who played in that rag-tailed band because Angus shared his gift. He did his best with that which he was given.   Angus, save a place for me in your Big Band Above.  

Bob, NMNA ‘57

They had a sailing and a flight program at the school and I found that a couple of his old classmates are also sailors, one even joined the Navy, and one became a professional pilot. Some say that our adult personality is formed in these teen years and that may be true. We all know that dad rekindled his interest in flying and sailing after his kids were finally completely out of the nest.

After the academy he did a year of college and met my mom. They got married had Janice and later (and more importantly) me. He worked at CNA, the insurance company in Chicago where he made some lifelong friends. I was lucky enough to get some more stories from his CNA buddies. He met Ed Bapple there. Ed sent a nice story, he said:

I first met Angus when we were coworkers at CNA in Chicago, sometime around 1970. There was a restaurant/bar on the ground floor of our building called the Bowl and Bottle. I can't recall anyone actually eating there but we certainly availed ourselves of the bar. We would gather there, particularly on Friday nights, and consume as much beer as our meager salaries would permit. There was much talk, laughter and trashing of management. Angus was always popular because he was a fun person to be around. Angus didn't always subscribe to conventional ways. Therefore, it was always interesting to get his viewpoint. As an example, I recall Angus telling us that he was buying some property. Since it was going to be a week or two before the closing he needed to park his down payment somewhere until he needed it. Now the average person would put it in their savings account. Angus said that he was buying some stock, which he said would provide a better return. Myself and others kept pointing out that stock has been known to lose value. Angus just laughed and brushed us off. Ultimately, he was right. To this day, I don't know if he was lucky or perhaps he knew something that we did not. We started a chess club at CNA and Angus was an enthusiastic member. We also put together a team to play against the other companies in the area. Angus showed up every week at the club and participated in team play. This did generate some funny stories but unfortunately they don't mean much if you don't play chess. I can sum it up by saying that we labored hard to make Angus a serious chess player but in the end he succeeded in teaching _us_ that "If it's not fun, what's the point".

I remember him teaching me chess. We'd play once in a while when I was 8, 9, 10 and he'd coach me through the whole game. Once in a while I'd win and I'd get so pumped, "I am the chess master!" I'd forget that my opponent was also my coach. Maybe, just maybe, he let me win. His pal Frank said, We shared a lot of good times going to hear bands at a lot of Chicago places that had regular jazz groups, mostly in "old town" and the Lincoln Park area. We also shared a love of exotic eating in Phillipine, Vietnamese and other far-east restaurants. Andies jazz club was a favorite. I remember going there with him once when I was in college. Larry Combs, then principal clarinetist in the CSO was playing and Dad thought I would have fun. I've never been a clubber but it was a good night. Larry Combs is an excellent clarinetist, but not so much a jazz player. Dad talked of Holstein's too, the folk club up in Lincoln Park, which became one of my favorite college haunts. I'm sure the Scottish influence was what started him in his love for folk music. That's the style of music he'd sing and play himself. He liked all genres of American, Scotch and even Irish music and folk rock too. Like me, he loved those few years when the whole family would get together and jam. We learned new instruments, grabbed guitars, harmonicas, dancing wooden men on sticks, even spoons. Anything you could make noise with was welcome. He was happy to show you what he knew. He sat at the heart of things then, his guitar in his lap, singing loud and strong. I loved those times too. I still have the songbook! Yes, purple mimeographed pages and all.

Even earlier in my memory is the image of him singing and strumming on his old Martin double O guitar – Froggy Went a Courtin' was my favorite. Janice, Dad and I sat on the bed and I listened rapt to his husky voice and watched his fingers make those strings dance. He rarely got out the bagpipes but it was always fun and a bit house rattling when he did. He left the pipes sitting in their case long enough that he had a lot of prep work to do. He'd lovingly condition the bag with some concoction involving molasses. Once he showed me how the pieces fit together, how string wrapped around the ends to keep the wooden pipes fit tight into the bag. Nowadays, I suppose they use cork, like they do on on other instruments. He let me learn some tunes on the chanter, showed me how all the notes in a tune were separated by doublings and triplings – little grace notes. (With a bag full of air between you and your fingers, you can't articulate with your tongue.)

And the food. How he loved the food – especially travel through food. He'd say, "Lets go to India" or "Let's go to China." The middle East, the far east, Mexico – the spicier the better. If it didn't make your nose run and your eyes water, what good was it? And travel. He dreamed of travel to faraway places or to his ancestral homeland. Of sailing trips, of motorcycle trips, he even once planned on driving a school bus down to central America. Most of these trips never happened. It's always more fun with a companion and very few were interested in his unconventional schemes, but we got lots of local travel in. He'd host us on short sails on Lake Michigan, trips to the Air Show in Oshkosh. He sailed up to Mackinac a few year ago. And in 2006, we had our family trip to the British Virgin Islands, fulfilling one of his lifelong dreams and having a blast in the process.

So there you have it. A few more pieces of the puzzle that was Angus. Maybe the elephant has a leg or two and a trunk now. I hope that you will join us in filling in the gaps in our story, so that we can step back and see the whole picture of my dad, a quiet man, full of dreams and ideas, with a lot of love in his heart and music in his soul.

What's in a Calorie?

Is maintaining a good, healthy weight a calories in calories out calculation? Sounds good, but many think that the body is more complicated than that. I have to agree. The body is complicated. We try to eat fewer calories, and our metabolisms slows down. If we're successful, we reduce calories in and lose weight for a while, 6 months maybe, only to hit a plateau. Even though we're still eating a reduced amount, our bodies hang on to that fat. We're in starvation mode. A reduced calorie diet actually convinces the body that it needs to store more fat as soon as it gets a chance. The metabolism slows down and becomes super efficient, ready for any opportunity to layer on some fat. If god forbid, we give up the diet, "Boing!" Fat cells fill up and we end up fatter than we were when we started. You know, the famed yoyo dieting problem. Diet, lose weight, lose control, eat more, gain weight, end up fatter than you started. Repeat. Gradually we get bigger and bigger.

We may know in our conscious minds that we will never have to deal with a famine, but our bodies have the wisdom of generations, and without our conscious mind's permission, the body stocks up on fat, just in case. If one day we do have to face real hunger, we've got the stores to pull us through. We should be glad that our bodies are so good at survival, so efficient. It's why we thrive as a species. But we've survived so well, we now live in a world of plenty. Now we're less than thrilled with our bodies' resourcefulness. We want to eat and eat and enjoy and never feel uncomfortable or have to work at being fit.

Another problem with the calories in calories out equation is that the only way to judge how many calories you burn is to make some educated guesses. You can calculate your baseline and maybe it's even close to the amount you actually burn. Then you have to count every calorie, monitor every morsel of food that goes into your mouth to be sure it's total is under the number of calories you're supposed to burn on average every day. Skipping over the idea of how crazy making living life calculating every calorie is and how impossible it is to maintain that kind of control over a lifetime, we still come up with a problem -- the amount of energy we use every day changes according to how active we are, how well we feel, how much we do. It fluctuates. Some days, we sit around and watch movies all day, barely burning more calories than if we were fast asleep. Other days, we go for a run or help a friend move. We're going all day. We certainly burn more calories on those days. But how do we know? We don't have a gauge to tell us how many calories we can burn in a day.

Or do we?

OK, we don't have a gauge sticking out of our abdomens, saying empty, full, 3/4… but our bodies do have a very effective way of telling us we need food. It's called hunger.

Sadly, we spend most of our time avoiding the sensation. The very thing that tells you clearly "Yes, you need food now!" and we cower in fear of it. I've seen plenty of magazines advertising weight loss programs and far too many claim "Lose Weight Without Ever Feeling Hungry!" Huh? How is that possible? If you never feel hungry, you're eating more than your body needs. End of story.

So here I will make a case for feeling hungry. It takes patience. If you've eaten too much, you may have to wait a long time before you feel it. If you give in and eat before you're hungry, you may never feel it. In order to lose weight, get and stay slim, you need to know hunger, feel it, maybe even enjoy it a little bit. Every day, ideally before every meal, you should feel hungry. Not peckish. Not feeling like having a little something'. Not craving. Genuinely hungry.

How is that different from dieting? You're listening to your body. Instead of forcing yourself to scrape by with the measly calories you think you're supposed to eat, you eat what your body asks for, so your body won't go into starvation mode. The body gets hungry; it gets fed. No need to panic and prepare for a famine. The food is there when it asks.

My daughter read my "be hungry before you eat rule" and said, "But it sounds like you have to be hungry all the time!" Not so. If you eat 3 meals a day and a snack, you need only feel hungry for 4 minutes a day - 1 minute, right before you eat each time. That's a minimum, but if you've not been hungry in a while, try it. Even if you're eating your favorite foods each meal, if you wait until you're hungry before you eat, you will shave off some pounds.

Don't do it! Diets BAD!

Don't do it! You made that resolution to get healthy and lose weight. Good plan! Kudos for that. But wait! Don't pick up the Weight Watchers, SlimFast, Jenny Craig, Cambridge Diet or whatever packaged product and line that company's pockets with your hard earned cash. Don't spend days eating weird cabbage stew, eliminating carbs, counting fat grams or stuffing down grapefruits by the dozen. If you've dieted before and you are starting another diet today, you know the truth. Admit it to yourself. Diets don't work.

Not in the long term anyway. You may lose some weight over a few weeks, or a year if you're on a roll, but the truth is that most people gain some the weight back and then some in 1-5 years. You may stick with it for a while, months even. You lose some weight, but at the same time, you think about food more and more. You want it every second. It's like you have a little food thought balloon following you around all day, flashing images of treats you're denying your poor starving self. Eventually, you snap. You may start innocently enough, maybe a tiny sample of a forbidden favorite. Just a taste, you tell yourself. Next thing you know, the whole package - Oreos, double stuff, 2 lb size… or Peanut Butter M&Ms (drool)… or Fig Newton's. Maybe a juicy burger if you're into that - it's all gone. Inside you. Now you're stuffed, feeling guilty and miserable. You know that soon those treats will set up permanent camp padding your hips, thighs, belly -- wherever you need it least. Worst of all, you still want more.

So don't start.

"But what should I do!?" you wail. You're champing at the bit. You want to get started NOW.

OK, OK. One step at a time. You need an attitude adjustment is all. Change your attitude about food and think thin. If you fail, you get a big F. F in attitude = Fattitude. Get it? FAT-titude. (I know, I know. )

It's really not so hard. If I can go from slightly plump to plain old regular, you can too. Breaking old habits is tough, but creating new one's is easy. (Too easy sometimes.) You just need to go step by step. Here's your first habit. Step 1. Detach from food. This is your assignment: Every time, every meal from now on. (OK, most of the time is good too) leave something on your plate. No clean plate club for you. Eat all the sandwich, except for 1 bite. Leave 1 cookie in the 2 lb pack of Oreo's you're about to scarf down. Eat the cake, but not the frosting, or vice versa. Just leave something there.

And if you like to read and research, I highly recommend a book called "Diet's Don't Work" by Bob Schwartz. Make sure it's the one by Bob Schwartz, not the lady with the long hair. Her book may be good. I don't know. Never read it. Bob Schwartz's book is. It's probably at your local library. Go get it.

Huge Real Estate Sale!

Huge markdowns! Buy now and save thousands!

That's what I want to say, anyway. I'm looking at all the post holiday frenzy with all the retailers out there clamouring for your attention (and dollars) and I'm thinkin', "Hey! Why not advertise the real estate the same way?" It's the same story, after all. Just like the retailers, there's too much inventory! Sellers are desperate for some liquid cash. And they're out there practically begging you to take their properties off their hands. Check out these extreme numbers for the third quarter in Chicago. (Percentages compared to 3rd quarter 07. These numbers don't even include the precipitous drop of the 4th quarter!)

Biggest price drops in Chicago real estate
3rd quarter, 2008

Multi units:
West Garfield Park -59%, (11 units sold,) East Garield Park -55% (15 units sold,) Forest Glen -55% (1 unit sold,) Humbolt Park -51% (28 units sold,) Hermosa -50% (10 units sold,) North Lawndale -50% (23 units sold,) Austin -43% (45 units sold,) Logan Square -41% (21 units sold,) West Ridge -40% (15 units sold,) Belmont Cragin -40% (19 units sold.)

Condos/townhomes--
Biggest price drop in Beverly -40%

Single family homes
West Garfield Park -93% and East Garfield Park -77%

(gleaned from the Chicago Association of Realtors® quarterly statistics)

Before you start imagining the end of the world and the demise of real estate and all of us living in shacks made of twigs and leaves, I want to point out that some prices have gone up. Believe it or not they've gone up significantly too:

Multi units --
Morgan Park +85% (1 unit sold,) Archer heights +33% (1 unit sold,) Near North Side +18% (2 units sold,) Norwood Park +18% ( 2 units sold,) North Park up + 18% (3 units sold,) Washington Heights +15% (1 unit sold.)

Condos/townhomes--
Hermosa had a 46% increase in average price.
Closest Runner up - Morgan Park with 33%.

Single family homes --
Washington Park's +194% on 1 unit sold.
Runners up are the Near North Side's +100%
and Douglas +49%.

Now most of these just reflect a couple of high end units in a not so high end neighborhood, but it does show that there are some positive trends. These are just slices of data. I've got numbers going back 10 years. For the big picture, contact me!

Looking at these stats is killing me. If you're one of those people who like me has been watching these prices drop and is just itching to buy, but you're hearing horror stories about financing -- They are true! Money is tough to borrow right now. If you're credit score is under the mid 700's you'll have a tough time getting conventional financing. But there are still options out there. Rent to own and owner financing are on the rise. Please, please, please be sure to get an attorney and read the fine print! There are big pitfalls you can and should avoid. The sellers will try to take advantage if they can. In this market there is no reason to sell your soul.

And things are changing fast! Every day it seems the mortgage rates change. Like just before Christmas when they dropped to an insanely low 4.5% on a 30 year fixed. The moment was ever so brief. Rates were all over the map that week. A lot of us our holding our collective breath as we wait for the Obama administration to step in and rescue us all. More change is coming for sure. We just have to be ready to take what comes and grab the opportunities we can when we can. They may be fleeting.

(To see what I mean about the insanely low rates, take a look at this chart put out by Freddie Mac for a glimpse of what mortgage rates have been over the past 30 years, http://www.freddiemac.com/pmms/pmms30.htm

As Warren Buffet says, When everyone's fearful, it's time to get greedy. Think about your future and how you're going to make yourself secure and happy down the road. You could be like Dave, who I met last summer. He bought up properties in Ukrainian Village in the eighty's. Together with his properties in other parts of the wold, he's now making enough money to spend his mornings reading the paper and sipping coffee, his winters in sunny Florida.

Here's to a prosperous New Year!

Go Green, Team!

Forgive me readers, for I have neglected you! It's been a ...ahem... well, it's been a long time since my last post. If you've been waiting -- sorry!

Remember that busiest I've ever been in my life thing I mentioned in my first post? Just as bad now. I'm done with my courses. What a relief! And they seem to be working because now more and more clients have joined me in searching for homes. My calendar is so full now that the little boxes on my iCal seem to warp and bulge to hold all the appointments. I'm glad for the work! And of course the market's slow, so I have to hoof it a lot to get the paycheck at close. Clients who are seriously looking to buy or sell are always welcome no matter how strained my calendar gets. I've gotten good at juggling by now, even juggling while standing on one foot with one arm behind my back. If I need to learn to fly at the same time then that's what I'll do.

Today I'm motivated to cram in some blogging time cause I have great news! I'm part of a new green focused real estate team! A sign of the times. Someone - not me! - started the ball rolling and now we are 5. (Team name still subject to much debate and still TBD. We are a bunch of independent minded real estate folk after all.) I'm thrilled to be a part of a group who are as excited about the future of green building as I am.

All 5 of us see that green is the future of real estate. Housing is going to have to be green, eco friendly, sustainable, energy and resource conserving -- whatever you want to call it. I imagine in a couple of decades, practically all housing will be green, but for now while everyone learns the ropes, we'll need guidance. That's where my team comes in. We plan to stay at the bleeding edge of green housing. And each of us brings unique talents to the job. We've got Laura who is decisive and fearless about speaking her mind, Bryan, who's got sales ability and confidence that rubs off onto his clients. Dan's the mediator with business and marketing savvy. Mike is the networker who gets things happening and me, I'm the researcher. The combination of skills will make us unstoppable!

We've each got green experience to bring to the mix too. 2 of the team have already completed the EcoBroker courses and stay on top of things through membership there. Eventually all of us will become EcoBrokers. If you've read my posts before, you know I've completed the Chicago Conservation Corps leadership training. What a terrific way of learning the needs specific to the Chicago area and an opportunity to begin helping friends and neighbors go green on the local level. Before that, I remodeled a north side 2 flat using the three Rs - the new ones, that is - reduce, reuse, recycle. Renovation remains the ultimate in reduce and reuse in the real estate world. From the buyer perspective, you can't match the energy efficiency of high quality new construction, but in a carefully remodeled home, you can come close and you can save a whole house full of landfill space. (More developers are taking on the issue of what to do with the building they just tore down and are recycling much of it. The city of Chicago is now requires that construction waste is recycled to some degree. The potential here is great)

Our team wants to walk the walk, not just talk the talk, so on the local level, we've focused on greening our 3 current Chicago offices in Lincoln Square, Roscoe Village and West Loop and our suburban office in Wheaton. A full 50% of the United States per capita CO2 emmissions come from our places of work. Greening our workplaces has a much bigger impact than any of us recycling at home. I'm thrilled to have found the powers that be at the company to be not only cooperative, but enthusiastic. Our managing broker, Glen, has been extremely supportive and encouraging, has met with us several times and has taken decisive action to get things going. He ordered the new recycling bins for all offices this week and they should be in place in no time. Thanks, Glen. We couldn't do it without you.

We're thrilled that our offices are 90% CFL compliant already, so we just have a few bulbs to add. Our next quick easy step is to get rid of the disposable cups in each office and replace them with mugs. In a few weeks our offices will be not be green with envy, but enviably green.

And the best is yet to come - Our team will have a chance to advise Sussex & Reilly in green construction soon, as we're building a new office space. That will be a lot of fun. I let you all know when we're under way, so you can come have a look!

What's a Short Sale Anyway?

If you're out shopping for a home these days, you're likely to come across something called a "short sale." These homes are being offered for sale for less than the amount owed on the mortgage. Banks will accept short sales because foreclosure is expensive, risky and time consuming for them. Such sales can take a bit longer than a typical sale as the offer needs to be sent to and accepted by the bank. The loss mitigation department has to work it's way through a giant stack of these offers lately, so getting a yes or no on your offer can take a month or more.

If you've got the time and patience, this can be a great way to get a home for a great price. Quite often the person on the selling end is just as happy to have the problem of selling their home solved. Unlike foreclosure, short sales cause little damage to their credit, so you can feel good about buying the home and also unlike foreclosure, you get a chance to see inside the home before you buy. It really can be a purchase to feel good about.

If you know anyone who is worried about facing foreclosure, or is afraid that they won't be able to make their next mortgage payment, please do them a favor and tell them to contact their bank right away. They have many options if they are proactive and start the conversation before they are overdue with a payment. A knowledgeable Realtor® can be a terrific resource even if they want to keep their home. Feel free to send friends with questions my way. I'll do all I can to find the answers for them.

If you'd like to learn more, go to http://rismedia.com/wp/2007-12-18/top-three-short-sale-trends/

Baby It's Cold Outside!

I have to say that being in Chicago in the era of global warming leads to some cognitive dissonance. You know it's bad. You read about even worse things coming in the future and ice caps melting and New York and LA sinking into the ocean... well as a Chicagoan it's hard to think that's all that bad.... But at what cost? They predictions vary, but I recently learned that we 2nd city folk can expect to have a summer climate like Texas in about ten years time. Sounds a bit too hot and dry for my tastes.

But lately, on warm, sunny October days, hanging out in the playground after school watching the kids run around in t-shirts with a backdrop of leaves just starting to show shades of red and yellow, it's hard not to just enjoy it. Here in Chicago the last few years we've had milder weather overall. Warmer winters, springs and autumns and summers that aren't so hot. This summer we didn't even have our requisite heat wave of 100+ degrees. People seemed to complain just as much at the 90+ days. I thought that was funny. I guess it's always relative to what you're used to. When I lived in Luxembourg, oh so many years ago, temperatures in the mid seventies brought complaints from my wool sweater clad friends.

Even the beginning of this November was balmy, so when the weather turned cold all of a sudden, I found myself spending a lot of time bundled up in long underwear, jeans, wool socks, three layers of shirts and a couple of jackets and still shivering... even in the house. At first our furnace was on the fritz. (Isn't that always the way? You find out that something doesn't work because you need it all of a sudden. Maybe there are people out there who test the furnace out in September, but not most of the folks I know.)

Now that the furnace is going again and the weather's been a bit warmer, I can pass on the long underwear and just wear a light fleece to be cozy, but all these factors together have me thinking about preparing for winter. I live in a vintage condo building, so like many folks out there, there's a lot we can do to winterize our homes. Our windows are old and drafty, so we can be sure to pull down our storms and seal out any more air leaks. For windows that still feel cool even with the storms down or if the storms are missing, like in our sun porch, we'll be putting up window film. The drawback to this is that you can't open the windows, but they do a lot to seal leaks and add an extra warm cushion of air between indoors and the great out doors Outlets on exterior walls are another source of drafts. You can pull the covers and pop a little piece of insulation in there. (Make sure it's fire safe!) Doors are also leaky air spots, but we'll add some weather stripping around the edges and a door sweep on the bottom.

Even if air isn't leaking, all these spots - doors windows, outlets -- can transfer cold through. (Try touching the windows to feel how cold they get!) The temperature difference between the cool spots and warmer spots in the room keep that air moving and mixing so that the whole room cools off a lot faster. If you can get the cold spots insulated better, then your whole room will stay warmer longer. Fewer heating cylces also save money and energy.

As a Chicago Conservation Corp leader, I'm happy to promote the city's Winter Preparedness Fairs. Check these out. Drop by and you walk away with a free winterization kit with things like window film and weather stripping all in a nifty canvas bag. For more info call 311 or go to the city of Chicago's gargantuan web site and find the department of the environment for a schedule: http://egov.cityofchicago.org

Stay warm!

Identity Crisis!

When I got my real estate salesperson license a year ago, I have to admit the label made me squirm. That day I became a licensed "salesperson." Visions of dismal failure danced in my head (singing, "Nanny, nanny boo-boo," no less.) Life was not looking up. I just laid out a few hundred bucks for the course, a couple hundred more for exam and license, several hundred more to come with membership in the necessary associations and I was already doomed to fail. After five years of booming, the real estate market was really, really slow. Still is. On top of that, I'm not a sales kind of person. Never have been. Given the chance, I will point out every little flaw and talk you out of almost any purchase. So what in the heck was I thinking becoming a real estate salesperson? Long story.

Over the past dozen years or so, I've been a struggling artist. Thankfully not a starving artist, but not because I was making gobs of money with my art. I got jobs, sure and lots of compliments on my work, but this amounted to egg money. Go out to movies money. Maybe a couple of fancy dinners money. Not pay the mortgage and put food on the table and clothes on the kids kind of money. I gradually realized that the main reason the kids and I weren't starving was that ten years ago I managed to get myself some real estate investment property. The occasional sale or refi provided me with the necessary cash and then some. I also realized that this had been a terrific way to earn my keep doing something I really enjoyed. I love buildings, land, houses. For me, watching the markets change, following what's going on in the varied Chicago neighborhoods and nearby suburbs, even other spots across the country and around the world, was so much fun. When it comes to clothes, I am not a shopper. Going to malls wears me out. I avoid them like the plague, but shopping for houses? Now that I can do.

When you read the manual, the Real Estate Salesperson Study Guide explains agency. The guide is far from a work of literature and has definitely never, ever been on the New York Times Bestseller list, but everyone who wants to make a living helping people buy and sell real estate has to slog through it. The guide tells you that as a real estate salesperson, you're acting as your client's agent. I like to think it's like being a secret agent -- without all the drama or the gunplay. But like James Bond, you're serving your boss's (i.e. your client's) needs and their needs come first. So while I may not have to take a bullet for you, I am required to help you buy or sell your property without constantly checking my own bottom line. And if I find myself on a luxury cruise surrounded by handsome men catering to my every whim and you call me, I jump onto the nearest helicopter and I'm ready to work for you.

Hey, it could happen.

Alright I'll admit what it really boils down to is that real estate agents are service people. Less james Bond, more "Have it your way" a la Burger King. Not so glamorous, but then I'm not a glamour girl anyway. And much as I've always wanted to somehow make my mark on the world, leave a legacy, become famous, etc. etc., I've discovered over and over again that service is what I'm all about. I like to help people, to connect people, to research and dig up information for people. And that is what a real estate agent really should be. If I can do that, if I don't have to be a cut throat salesperson, then I should do just great.

Wish me luck!

Money and Kids

One of the fun things about being a real estate agent is helping people figure out what they need and want in a home. Unlike most things you buy, your house influences almost every aspect of your lifestyle. Since this is the kind of purchase that, statistically speaking, you're going to live in for several years, plans for the future become a big part of the discussion. Right now, you may be single and just need a 1 bedroom, but wait, you're engaged and planning to marry in a year and what if you have kids? Will two bedrooms work? Do I need a yard? Gosh what about schools? That's a lot of planning to think about. And it comes down to style. Some people are real planners and like to think things through and get a home that will last them for decades. Others live in the moment. They'll jump on something now, knowing they can always move if they need to adjust their lives.

The question of kids comes up. And that's a tough one because kids are so hard to plan for. You think you've got it all set, but when you actually have them, you start to realize that you're likely to make some big changes that you didn't anticipate. What if you decide to work at home? You'll probably need an office. The spare bedroom is supposed to be a nursery. Can you really work out of the kitchen?

And then there's the cost. Kids are expensive, so you may be buying based on two salaries, only to find that one of you will be staying home, or by the time you pay the nanny, you're not going to be able to pay all your bills.

So what is it about kids that make them so darned expensive anyway? Before I had kids, I thought that people must be exaggerating somehow, and now that I have kids, I'm hard pressed to answer that question on the spot. Recently emailing back and forth with a client who may have children down the road the question came up again. He's willing to accept that what everyone says is true, but why? What is it that makes kids cost so much?

Inspired by the question, I came up with a partial list of stuff you'll need when kids jump into your life. See what you think:

Medical care for pregnancy and birth and
Well baby doctor visits and
Health insurance and
Dental care, once they get teeth.
Emergency care for things like broken arms and cuts requiring stitches which always come when you least expect it and are particularly broke. (My older one had hernia surgery at 3 months, stitches in her forehead at 1 1/2, broke her elbow at 4 and needed an anesthesiologist for dental work at 5. My younger one thankfully has not had these troubles. So far. She's only 4. She's got time.)
Baby clothes & shoes: 2 - 3 outfits a day due to leaky diapers and spit up and food spills. New clothes every 3 months the first year, then again at 18 months. From 2 years old on, at least once a year. In this time shoe sizes go from 0 to about 8. That's a lot of shoes!
Double or triple laundry bills because of the above.
Toiletries: Special baby (and kid) lotions creams, shampoos, soaps
Dishware: unbreakable cups and plates, sippy cups of different sorts, baby sized forks and spoons.
Car seats: rear facing for up to 1 year old and 20 lbs. Front facing from then up to 2 years old and 30-40 lbs, then boosters for 2-4 years, 4-8 years or 80 lbs.
Transportation: back and forth to well baby check ups, sitters, daycare, preschool. You may discover that you need a car if you don't have one, or another car if you have only one or a bigger car if your car is small. (It's possible to resist. I drove a 4 passenger New Beetle until this summer. There's a story there, maybe for another post.)
More car seats: If you have more than one car you'll likely want car seats for each. One experience of your partner driving off with the car seats and being stuck with somewhere to go and no car seats will be enough to convince.
Childcare: bare minimum babysitting if you ever want to go out together again. Just double however much dinner and a movie is costing you these days. Nannies run about $12 hour. Daycare/preschool in this area costs $900/ month and up.
Birthday presents for friend's babies birthday parties!
Birthday parties! Do the math. You will come out ahead if you skip these and just buy your kid the presents they'd get.
Grandma and Grandpa will want to visit -- a lot, so you'll need extra food for them. They may make up for it by providing babysitting, but there are no guarantees!
Learning and enrichment supplies: toys, books, musical instruments, and -- dare I say it ?-- DVDs
Furniture: for sleeping you'll likely want a bassinet for 0-6 months, a crib for 6-2 1/2 ish, some go for a toddler bed (crib size), then a twin size bed, (plus sheets and blankets for each size). Then you'll want a high chair, booster, toy chest, bookshelves chest of drawers, changing table, and potty chair at some point.
Classes: Parent/tot classes like wiggle worms, music together, tumbling.

And don't forget the Halloween costumes! Did I ever spend a fortune of time and effort on making costumes. I may even think it was worth it once I catch up on some sleep. Happy Halloween!

My Pet Worm

Right away I'll admit I'm into unconventional pets. I have allergies, see. I spent my entire childhood with pet cats and a constant stuffy nose. Age has not made those allergies any better. As much as I love my kitties, I love breathing even more, so cats are out.

Dogs though, dogs are so much work with dependence on you for multiple daily walks and potty breaks on the lawn. Until recently, I haven't had the lifestyle that would make having a dog a possibility. And the trouble is, my favorite breeds are the short coated, shedding, allergy causing kinds.

But then I'm a committed animal lover, so I have to have pets. I solve this problem by having pets that are 1) out of the house, like the horse and pony, or 2) not furry, like the bird, the fish, the turtles and the lizard or 3) keep their furry allergen covered bodies in a contained area, like our pet rats. Dogs and cats usually get free run of the house, so if I start having allergy issues, I've got nowhere to go but outside. With the rats, as long as they're in the kids' bedroom, I can pop in for a quick snuggle and leave the room for some breathable air.

Now I have to admit that, technically, many of the pets are my daughters', but since I'm the one that does oh, roughly 90% of the pet care, I feel I can claim some ownership. I guess the truth is that I'm just an unpaid hired hand. Or is that slave? Do they have that in the Webster's Dictionary definition of "mother?"

And then there's the green living issue. Pets make a lot of waste. There's pet bedding and of course the... um... excrement. You have to get rid of that. The rats I've got recycled newspaper pellets for bedding. You can flush that, so much as it wastes water, at least it doesn't end up in a landfill somewhere. The lizard lives on a bed of ground walnut shells. That can go in the compost pile. The bird cage is a problem. I line that with old newspaper. At least I'm reusing something, but then I just roll the paper up, seed hulls, bits of fruit and veggies, excrement and all and toss it in the garbage.

That's got to change.

This brings me to my first project as a Chicago Conservation Corp leader: Vermiculture. I want to get the neighborhood doing vermiculture.

"What -i- culture?" you may ask. Vermi = Worms. You can create a composter where worms do the work for you. They work faster that traditional compost, you keep them in the basement where they don't freeze so they can work year 'round and the worms can eat things that you can't (or shouldn't) put in the backyard composter like newspaper and meat scraps.

Yuck, I know, but so easy and that yuck factor is something kids can get into. All you do is shred up some newspaper toss in some worms and some food scraps and the little wigglers eat it all up. In return you get worm castings (another word for manure... but we like to call it compost.) That's a terrific a terrific fertilizer for your garden.

I'll be pulling together a group to spread the word. Any takers?

Sleep Deprivation as Art

I did it! I lost some sleep -- OK, I lost a lot of sleep, but I made my kids' halloween costumes. Yes, it's a little early, thank goodness, or my kids would probably go out in painted paper bags. I like when I have a pre-deadline deadline. In this case, it was a costume party at my horse stable. (Well, it's not mine exactly. It's where my horse lives. I know! I know! That needs some explaining, but I'll have to get to that another day.)

I mentioned before that I'm an artist, right? Yes, I'm a Realtor® too, which is an art in a way, or at least you can bring a lot of creativity to it. I have no choice. I live and breathe art and it slips into everything I do. I've always drawn, painted, or sculpted using various paints on paper or canvas, paper mache, clay -- anything I could get my hands on. I even did a winter scene out of toilet paper and glue when I was 9. Embarrassing but true. Adult artists call this using "found materials." I became a professional about 15 years ago, and since then have been doing freelance illustration for children's publication's and, when I'm lucky, advertising. I did a really fun job for IKEA 2 years ago. My art appeared on a full page in the newspaper in four North American cities. I still freelance a few jobs a year. I got started in real estate with mural painting, then investing and remodeling, so adding agent to the mix was a logical step.

So what does that have to do with Halloween costumes? To me sewing is an art form. Way back when I was a kid I got into "soft sculpture." My first project as a 12 year old was an alligator. In high school I made an 4 foot tall ogre out of woolly tan fabric with wiggly, foam rubber stuffing, beady metallic eyes and big pointy clay teeth. He was very popular with the boys. They liked tossing him around on the bus or walking with his arms over their shoulders. I made my first kid's costume before I even had kids of my own. My little then 4 year old cousin made an adorable frog with big bulgy eyes coming out of the top of his head... OK it looked better than it sounds. Little kids have such great stuffed animal like proportions they can make just about anything look cute.

After that my costumes helped my daughter turn into a kangaroo, the classic witch with pointy foam rubber hat, a brown mouse and, last year, she was Eowyn from the Lord of the Rings. Making the helmet was great fun. I even made leather like gauntlets and epaulets out of fun foam. She looked very cool. My younger one wore the hand me down costumes until last year when I made her a dolphin. This year it was husky dogs. Both girls wanted to be husky dogs.

I get a bit carried away. I can't just use a pattern that I find... no. I have to start with sketches and draw pattern pieces on old newspaper. So 'round the clock from Friday afternoon through the wee hours of Saturday morning, covered in flying fluffs of faux fur, I cut and adjusted and reshaped first newspaper, then doll sized, then people sized pieces of fabric. Sculpting is what I was doing. It was fun and exhausting. Working like that is such a mixed bag. You're tired and having trouble thinking straight, but hours of uninterrupted work time are so refreshing. Once you have little kids, through the night is often the only way you can get that kind of time.

As the dark of night brightened to the light of dawn, I sat hunched over the sewing machine making curly tails. My partner brought me some breakfast -- tea and toast -- which sat untouched as I pinned and stitched. I looked up and realized I only had an hour to go. I had to leave to host an open house in Lincoln Park. A busy one too it turned out. So I whipped that last few pieces together, threw them into a pile with a supply of safety pins for attaching things that didn't get sewn on, cleaned up, changed my clothes and headed to that open.

I made it to the open house with just a few minor struggles with parking. Lincoln Park, has to be the most popular neighborhood in all of Chicago and parking is a nightmare! I decompressed as I sat in a beautiful condo in a vintage high rise for two hours, hopefully not babbling incoherently at the poor innocent people who came by to see the place. They were there to see the condo, not me, so they seemed happy enough.

After the open I headed home through traffic that reflected the huge numbers of people out enjoying yet another unseasonably warm October Saturday. I stopped home, grabbed the costumes and the kids, making sure I had the safety pins, and flew back into the car to enjoy more 'let's get out and enjoy this unseasonably warm Saturday' traffic.

By the time I got there, I only had fifteen minutes to get the kids and the pony into their costumes. Safety pins and fur flew in all directions as I attached tails and ears and hustled the kids over to the barn, only to find the pony soaking wet. Another girl had given her a bath for the horse show. What can you do? I popped on the bridle, stuffed her tail into the dog tail I'd sewn for her, sat the kids on her back, popped big fur dog ears over her little pony ears and off we went. They won 'cutest,' got a big blue sparkly ribbon and a bucket of candy and prizes. Life is good.

When we got home, I went straight to bed.

Sleepless in Chicago

I may be losing a lot of sleep this week. As I mentioned in the last post, I'm about as busy as I've ever been, so if I'm going to fit this in, it's going to be during the sleeping hours. You see it's Halloween time and I've got to make some costumes. Not just any costumes, mind you. No! I've got to spend hours and hours designing and modifying patterns and discovering the best fabrics and materials to make my kids into the dog or the mouse or the cat or the warrior queen they want to be this year. Then comes the cutting and stitching and sculpting and gluing and trying on and adjusting and back to the table for more cutting and stitching and sculpting and gluing until occasionally it's perfect, but more often I'm out of time and I pop the kids into their costumes and they promptly stomp in a mud puddle or something.

It may seem strange, but I really enjoy the process. It could be I'm into pain, but I prefer to think that I'm innately creative and the process of making something out of piles of fur and glue and clay fires me up enough to make it all worth doing.

That, and I work best when I'm up against a deadline. No deadline and I can drag things on for years. I recently painted a portrait of a friend's daughter and her horse. I asked my friend when she wanted it done and she said, "Oh, don't worry about that." 6 months later, I saw what was coming. I begged for a deadline! She said, no no. It's fine. Whenever. 2 years later, with her kid at least 5 inches taller and the horse long since sold to someone in Florida, I finally deliver that painting. She loves it, but it made her miss her old horse.

Now Michael, my partner, is a planner. Deadlines make him edgy, but he can live with them. With no deadline he shines. He picks a project and works on it daily without fail over weeks, months or years even. Very impressive.

Maybe it'll rub off.

It's Busy Being Green

I am now possibly the busiest I have been in my whole life. No scratch the possibly. Make that definitely. It's been a lot of fun. Sometimes it seems that the more you do, the more you can do. That's a paraphrase of a popular quote I've seen attributed to a half dozen people. I tracked it down and it turns out it's Lucille Ball who said it. What she really said is, "If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it. The more things you do, the more you can do." Pretty smart. I guess she just played the ditzy lady on TV.

It is so true. I've been amazed at what I've been able to accomplish lately. On top of getting the kids back into the swing of school, volunteering there, firing up the real estate career and taking 2 real estate classes and the children's book illustration projects I have going, I've been taking and have just completed my C3 (Chicago Conservation Corps) Leadership training.

I'll miss seeing all those motivated people every week. I made a lot of good connections. Some of them will last for years, I'm sure -- but now that I have a little more time, will I lose the fire? Could the drive to get things done go out? That training took up most of every Saturday for 5 weeks, so it's possible that I'll have a lot more time now, but then, I have a project to start.

I have about a dozen I'd like to take on, but I'm having trouble deciding where to start. I thought I'd take a look at what some of the other C3 leaders are up to. So today, just 24 hours after completing my training, I took some time to stop by a river restoration site. It was a spontaneous thing. I was driving my kids home from their gymnastics class. I'd taken a different route and found myself sitting at a stoplight at Damen and Berteau. As I sat there idling, I looked up at the street sign and remembered what my C3 classmate Graham had talked about as his project: a river beautification that included reintroduction of native plants. Graham had said that the site was already beautiful, so without a word to my kids, I turned left and drove to the river.

They we're a bit confused when I pulled them out of the car in unfamiliar territory saying, "Let's go explore!" But that's the kind of direction kids particularly like getting from their parents, so just a few questions and a lot of forward motion followed. That in itself is a beautiful thing, and it complimented the ever more beautiful scene we enjoyed as we drew closer to the river. Little songbirds flitted between the fading flowers. We saw splashes of color here and there among the green and brown of the fall flowers and grasses, beautiful textures of myriad seedheads, colorful beetles hanging out on milkweed pods before we even got to the river's edge. On the water we saw a dozen mallards quacking loudly at a group of people who were canoeing our way, hound dog in the prow howling her joy at being out in the "wild." We worked our way up toward Montrose along tree lined, wood chipped paths with rustic little handmade fences, saw people walking their dogs and a young couple just out enjoying the scene. We had a terrific time and we didn't have to drive for an hour to see it either.

And isn't that one example of what's so great about Chicago? We have a great city here. Green it. Explore it. I can help.