Last night at an install our car was broken into. Our Gps, Ipod, Laptop, brand new stereo, Nintendo DS, Camera, Flipvid, and Kindle were all stolen. Life just got better. Luckily we are not hurt and are safe. It just sucks...
Laura got her turn so now it's my turn.
Work has been ok. We constantly meet interesting individuals at our jobs. As my knuckles hit the front door I wonder what will happen when the door opens. Every house is a new challenge but it keeps our lives interesting. Most days are slow so we go to Borders and use the Wifi and read or go to the public library and use the Wifi and read.
For valentines day I got Laura a Kindle. For those old folks reading (jk): A Kindle is an ebook reader. So I find books online and put them on the Kindle. It is like a small computer but when you read the books it looks like actual paper, not a big flashy computer sceen. Anyways, during our off time, Laura and I fight over who gets to read it. Laura just started reading the Enders Game series after completing the Percy Jackson series. I just finished the Angels and Demons, Davinci code, and The Lost Symbol series by Dan Brown and am now reading the Hunger Games. Reading is our life when we aren't working. But it's a good habit to have right now.
Life seems to love to throw new challenges in our direction. We are fighting to make it through each week but are doing pretty well. As you may have read our car broke down, so we had to fix it. We are still living in Exteneded Stay hotels, which we are uterly sick of. Earlier this week we got hit with a bunch more repairs: Our laptop battery broke, our car stereo stopped working, our check engine light turned back on and our car is making some new noises, and finally my drill broke (which is necessary for us to work). We have replaced what was needed and are keeping our heads up high but it is easy for us to become overwhelmed. 
Mike, my brother in law and boss, has been trying to help us get an appartment but doesn't really have a say in it. He seems to think we are making too much of a big deal out of the sitution. We are frustrated because we would like to actually unpack our things and move into an apartment. This way when we come "home" from work we might actually feel like we are home.
I see his perspective and ours but we just want to have our own place instead of a hotel. Hopefully soon... I'm not trying to complain, rather express my opinions and feelings.
P.S. You may have asked: why the crap is there Otters randomly in his blog? Because Otters are freaking sweet! Laura told me to add pictures to my blog so there you go. I love Otters! Peace
On Sunday, we decided to go with Sami and Mike to go explore more of downtown Chicago. We went to Navy Pier. It is a pier, obviously, that has some great views of the city. They also have a lot of shops and a small carnival type area. It was fun to be able to just relax and walk around. The view was beautiful of both the water and the city. The shops had had Chicago on pretty much anything you could think of. They also had a lot of smashed penny machines which made Sami happy, because she collects smashed pennies. 
Then we went to Bubba Gumps. It was awesome, because we only had to wait for 10 minutes. This gave us just enough time to use the restroom and explore the shop before we had to eat. Bubba Gumps is fun because they have a great atmosphere. If you don't know the resteraunt is based off the movie Forest Gump. They have movie quotes and memorabilia all over. Dave and I shared so that we could get as much seafood as possible. We ate five types of shrimp, mussels, clams, lobster tail, and CRAB LEGS(Our favorite food)!!! It was so delicious!
After Bubba Gumps we decided we would go home. We went to Sami and Mike's and just hung out for the rest of the day. All in all it was a great day off!
So we have been in Chicago for a week now and haven't done much of anything. We arrived to our hotel on Monday and spent some time with Sami. Ya I said hotel. We arrived and have no apartment. So good old Pinnacle Security is cheap and won't order enough apartments because they expect 30% of people who start with Pinnacle to quit or be fired. This sucks for us because no one has been fired or quit yet. So we are stuck at Homestead Inn, which is a part of Extended Stays Hotels, for a while. We are expecting to be stuck in there for almost a month. 
We feel bad because Sami has to watch our guinea pigs for a while. They get stinky fast and Sami can't handle the smell for long. We try and visit Sami and the Guinea Pigs as much as we can. We just bought a new cage for them and it has a hammock on the top. Chip loves to sleep in it and it is so cute.
We haven't really tried much food out here except for Portillos. They are a Chicago original and they are amazing. They are famous for their hot dogs and their Italian beef sandwiches. Chicago hot dogs are not a bun mustard and ketchup. They had the bun, a hotdog, mustard, relish, 1/2 chopped onion, 1/4 pickle slice, and 2 peppers slammed together. They weren't half bad either but the best thing Portillos had was their italian beef. The closest thing I can say it is like is a french dip sandwhich but way better. YUMMM!
We started installing security systems on Tuesday. The first few jobs Laura watched and I tried to teach her as much as I could. She picked up on everything really fast. By Friday we were finishing jobs in under one hour. Which is really good for installing. The office isn't incredibly busy right now but is keeping a good pace. We have been installing 2 installs eveyday so far. The great news is that almost all of the installs are takeovers. Which means they have existing panels and we just have to put up a new one and a few new sensors.
We have had some pretty interesting customers so far. We installed at a daycare that looked extremely ghetto. Laura can tell you all about how they were not up to code on almost anything.
One night we got an install at 8:30. The install said it was supposed to go in at 9 PM. So we sat outside the house for 30 mins waiting to go in. Finally we get out of the car to go into the house. A man in a car in front of us starts honking his horn. He starts yelling to his wife. She just screams "WHAT?!?" back multiple times. Finally he yells the security people are here. She screams back to take us inside. He tells us to just walk in and get started and he would be in soon. We walk in the house and all the lights are off. So we find our way to the existing panel and start working on replacing it. The man in the car walks in the house and tells us that he's been drinking in his car and passed out. He didn't need to tell us he was drinking we could definitely smell it.
His name is Andre and he is quite a character. He is a tall big black guy who reeked of alcohol. We ask him a few questions regarding the panel. As we are talking to him he starts taking his pants off and walking into the bathroom. We saw some crack... I'm sad to say the panel is right by the door and we heard everything that went on in the bathroom. It sounded like he needed a new toilet by the time he was finished. Let's just say he was very noisy in there.
He walks out of the bathroom and comes back in the room with us. He forgot to button up his pants but he doesn't seem to care. He then goes on to tell us all about the tacos he ate and how they didn't agree with him, going into detail about the noise we just heard from the bathroom. He explains how he doen't understand how Mexicans can eat tacos so much and how the cilantro made him feel. Finally, I change the subject and try to stick to the security system.
We finish the job fast and leave the house. However, the office ran out of a certain part so I had to come back the next day... We get to Andre's house to install the part and leave as soon as possible. I get to the house and Andre is just getting out of a car with a beer in his hand. It is noon and I can tell he is already wasted, again. He tells me to go in with his wife. I walk up the steps and ring the doorbell. Meet Barbara, a short plump black woman with an attitude. A real bad additude. I can't even say the hello before she starts complaining about the system. The funny thing is her complaint is about the chime feature. She complains that it is way too quiet and she wants it turned up. This is not possible on our system. She is not happy to hear this. She starts freaking out and talking about cancelling the system. I try and calm her down but it is not working. Finally, I get the sales rep on the phone and make up an excuse to leave. They cornered me and tried to get me to stay but I was crafty and finally made it out.
The sad thing is this woman will probably cancel because the chime is not loud enough. The chime feature says "front door" when the front door is open. This works for all the doors and is not very important to the overall security of the system. This may seem like a far out story but is quite normal for our job. Sorry it was so long but I thought it was worth telling.
Yesterday, we went to Wrigley Field with Sami and Mike (Dave's sister and brother in law)to see the cubs play.
We had to drive to a subway station, then take the subway to the field. It was nuts on the subway. Everywhere you looked you saw Cubs jerseys, hats, etc. I don't know if you know, but in Chicago you are either a huge Cubs fan or a huge White Sox fan. There is really no inbetween. If you like the Cubs you LOVE the Cubs. When we got to the field it was even crazier. You couldn't even walk you were just moved with the pack. We finally got to our seats. Which were amazing! We had found them on stubhub.com. We had thought they were going to be higher than they were, but we ended up being on the 11th row. The game was against the Pittsburgh Pirates. They have both been sucking it up lately so we knew it would be a good game. Which it was. The cubs ended up winning 4-3. 
After waiting in car repair shops for over 11 hours in a 3 day span and paying $700we got our car fixed... (We're broke) The Nissan dealership found that the distributor was broken. They fixed it in a few hours and were finally able to get out of Des Moines. We drove to our hotel in Westmont Illinois and now are hanging with Sami, Dave's sister. So we made it to Chicago fine and are going to start work tomorrow.
On Friday, we started our drive from South Jordan, Utah to Westmont, Illinois. It started out fine. We left at 5:30 AM and arrived at Dave's Aunt Joanne's house at 8:15 PM. Joanne, her husband Mick, and son Steven treated us to pizza, lasagna, salad, and bread sticks for dinner. We went to bed early because of exhaustion.
We woke up early the next day and were on the road by 7:00. Around 9:30 our car started "bucking" and the RPMs were going crazy. We called Laura's Dad, the car expert. He had us check out a few things. Nothing we checked seemed to be off. So we looked on the GPS for a near by garage. The first auto repair shop could not even look at our car until Tuesday of the next week, but referred us to a nearby Goodyear. We went over there. Originally, they told us they were to busy to look at it. We told them our sob story of being stuck on the way to Chicago. They said they would squeeze us in. They looked at our car and told us that a small part needed to be replaced. They told us they would order the part in and the car should be fixed midday. So we hung out in Altoona, Iowa for a few hours. The awesome people that worked there were really nice to us. They offered to do anything they could for us. They even suggested a great pizza buffet for lunch.
When we came back from lunch they told us they had some really bad news. The part had arrived, but they could not install it. At this point we didn't know what to do. We were somewhere by Des Moines, Iowa and we had no idea where to go. The guy behind the counter said he would take care of us. He called all over Des Moines to try and find someone who could get us in and fixed that day. Finally, he found a shop across town. We drove over there and they said they should have the part installed and the car ready to go in not to long.
Fifteen minutes after the new shop brought our car into the garage they came back out and said there might be more wrong then they had thought. Three hours later they came back out and said that the part was not the problem but a symptom of a bigger problem. They didn't know what the problem was. They referred us to the Nissan Dealer. Unfortunately, they are closed on Saturday and Sunday.
So after 7 hours of sitting around we were stranded in Des Moines, with a broken car. A man, who had heard our story while we were waiting, offered to show us where some nearby hotels were. Driving 25 mph in front of us and pulling off to the side as our car shut down 3 times he got us to some hotels. He pulled over and told us where many places around were and even offered us money. So even though we're stranded at a hotel and are looking at a huge maintenance fee, we have realized that the people of Des Moines are extremely nice and helpful. Neither of the auto repair shops we went to charged us anything and a random stranger went out of his way to help us and offered us money. We hope that we can pass along the kindness that has been shown to us to someone else in need.
Also the Jazz were killing the Lakers and then I turned on the TV. Our luck was then passed to the Jazz and they lost. I am sorry to all Jazz fans and the Jazz themselves. It is all our fault they lost...