Antonio! » Wisconsin

Here vs. There: The homebuyer’s dilemma

fugeelama — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 16:41:25 +0000

I don’t know what’s causing it — maybe this whole quarter-life crisis thing just manifests itself it different ways for different people. Whatever the case, I’ve found myself watching shows like Flip This House and This Old House and thinking I want that.

So what’s a guy to do? I’m surrounded by home-related banter (my boss just bought and is renovating a house in North Park) and “For Sale” signs left and right. But alas, the more I research the situation the more I realize that it’s going to be a while before I own a home, especially here in San Diego.

What does $239,900 get you nowadays? That depends on where you live. In Southern California, it doesn’t get you much: a roughly 600 square foot condo-conversion (i.e.: apartment). But the same amount of money in Milwaukee gets you an entire house. Spend half-a-million dollars, the average home price in San Diego county, and you can get yourself a mansion overlooking Lake Michigan!

I love living where I do now. Not the actual apartment, but the area. I love being able to walk to the grocery store, the bank and a kick-ass sushi place. But eventually I want to have a roof over my head that isn’t attached to 15 other units. I’m tired of worrying if I’m being to loud for the neighbors next door, or below me, or 20 feet across from my front door. I know it’s just one of those things that will eventually happen, but sometimes playing the waiting game really sucks.

PS3 Relase Day

fugeelama — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 15:49:23 +0000

Only in Wisconsin…

PlayStation 3 hopeful buyer injured trying to buy console

WEST BEND, Wis. â€” A person was injured Thursday morning outside a Wal-Mart department store racing for a chance to buy one of 10 coveted video game systems the store will put on sale Friday.

An assistant manager announced to a crowd of about 50 people that the store was only going to receive about 10 of the Sony PlayStation 3 game consoles and the store official placed 10 chairs outside of the store, police said.

At the signal, the customers were told to run to try to occupy one of the chairs to be able to buy the system at 12:01 a.m. on Friday.

A 19-year-old man ran into a pole and struck his head, injuring himself. He was taken to the hospital for treatment, police said.

F*cking Brrrr!

fugeelama — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 14:46:26 +0000

Yeah. It’s really that cold. Will someone remind me why so many of us live in Wisconsin?

Dining in Bayview

fugeelama — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 19:05:22 +0000

Residents of Bayview have a wide variety of places to eat, depending on what you’re in the mood for. Personally, I can’t get enough of Number 1 Chinese and Sven’s Cafe. Well now there’s a new place to check out: Annona Bistro is now open on Kinnickinnic across from Hi-Fi Cafe and it’s quite tasty. Meals run about $7 a person, but it’s well worth it. I recommend the Chicken Pesto Pannini with their homemade potato chips, though everything else looks like it’d be just as good.

Beware the lazy river Nazis!!!

fugeelama — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 14:52:58 +0000

A group of us took advantage of mutual days off from work together to go visit Six Flags Great America last Thursday. Yes, Thursday: a day of the week you’d expect people to be working or going back to school or whatever the hell people do on Thursday. Not true. Case in point — the line for one of the rides at the end of the day was 2 1/2 hours (which we all refused to wait in).

Part of the reason for the trip in the first place was the new addition to the theme park, a water park called Hurricane Harbor. Sure, admission to the water park is included with admission to the theme park, but what they don’t tell you is that the water slides/attractions are policed the same way the roller coasters are. Want to enjoy the lazy river? Go right ahead, but on your second pass around look out for the Lazy River Nazis, taking your tube lest you (gasp!) float around for a few more minutes and deny some fat, hairy man from Iowa his chance to use two tubes to float his ass in the lazy river too.

Did I mention the wave pool that 1) is only open for approximately 40 minutes of every hour because 2) they only run the waves when the pool is devoid of people? Good times those were not.

So anyways, if anyone plans on making the trip to Gurnee anytime soon I’d highly recommend waiting until all the little Illinois punks go back to school so that you actually have a chance to enjoy the park and not just wait in line all day.