This summer I have taken as roommates 2 young women from Saint Petersburg, Russia, and soon there might be a 3rd. The ladies are on a work and travel program with Cultural Homestay International in San Anselmo, Calif. Their job is to keep customers happy at Ghirardelli Chocolate Co., down the street from the John Hancock Tower.

But even with the 3-4 of us, there will be a few futon spots left over for Couchsurfers, and so I thought I would extend an invitation. Staying with us will be an instant way for you to meet fun and interesting people. But you need to know a few things.

FIRST: There will be 2 cats, a dog, and lots of dog hair. If you are claustrophobic, you might want to stay elsewhere.

SECOND: I do not have a smoking area. Not inside the building; not outside the building. If you must smoke, please find a location 200 feet away from the property. My condominium neighbors do not enjoy coming home to the sight of smokers feeding their habit at the rear entrance.

Furthermore, I have come to regard the "smoke break" as an anti-social and even hostile act. When you interrupt your visit to leave my home and suck on a burning cigarette, you tell me that your tobacco habit is more important to you than I am.

So if you want to stay with me, put your cigarettes away. Be smoke-free for a few days. Maybe you will like it.

WHAT IT'S LIKE HERE: You will be just 381 paces south of the Jarvis Red Line and 1,050 paces west of the lake. Your toilet seat will be heated and equipped with a bidet. You will enjoy 40 mbps wifi. My Labrador retriever will keep your feet warm at night. Can you beat that? I don't think so.

MY NEIGHBORHOOD: I am in Rogers Park, the northernmost neighborhood in Chicago. However, the Jarvis train station is just 381 steps away, and the trip downtown takes just 38 minutes. Furthermore, Rogers Park is a desirable neighborhood in its own right, with good markets, bars and restaurants. Here's a map: http://imgur.com/b18Xmll

WHO I AM: An SWM who went to an American grade school in Kaiserslautern; high school in Evanston; and college at the University of Illinois, where I became an obsessive-compulsive copy editor at the Daily Illini. I went on to a professional career at the Los Angeles Times, Portland Oregonian and Chicago Tribune.

But that was another life. I am no longer a grammar fascist. Some years ago I ran into some financial fortune and left the rat race.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I want to sleep on your couch one day.

Interests

1) My family tree.

2) Good writing and editing.

3) My Labrador retriever.

4) Rollerblading, bicycling and fitness -- ya, one day.

I have a special interest in Germany, especially the postwar occupation. When when I was a kid in 1970, my father moved us all to Kaiserslautern. Dad was a special education administrator for the U.S. Defense Department school system. For my sister and me, it was the greatest experience of our lives. For example, we know the proper way to pronounce "Adidas." We loved Nutella before the world discovered it. I was never too much impressed by spaetzle, but my sister thought it was great. And we loved Burg Hohenecken. Like most Americans who served in Germany, we choke up when we think of those days.

Yet I realize I speak from a point of privilege as an American. I know that for most Europeans, the last century was no great experience.

• cats
• dogs
• writing
• books
• education
• chocolate
• fitness
• traveling
• music
• teaching
• genealogy

Music, Movies, and Books

Well, Pink Floyd, for sure. But after that ... too many to list right now.

Teach, Learn, Share

Here's a little wisdom:

--"It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in an argument." --William Gibbs McAdoo.

--"Make no friendship with an angry man."

--"You know ... my Gramps use to say ... if you let assholes piss you off ... you'll spend your life pissed off."

--"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men." --Samuel Adams.

--"Live as if you were living a second time, and as though you had acted wrongly the first time." --Viktor E. Frankl.

--“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.”

What I Can Share with Hosts

Here's a little humor:

--"He can compress the most words into the smallest ideas of any man I ever met." --President Lincoln.

--"An empty taxi stopped, and Jack Warner got out." --Anon.

--"Wagner’s music is better than it sounds." --Bill Nye

--“The covers of this book are too far apart.” --Ambrose Bierce.

--"Detroit is Cleveland without the glitter." --Hughes Rudd.

--When I saw a sign on the freeway that said 'Los Angeles 445 miles,' I said to myself, 'I've got to get out of this lane'." --Franklyn Ajaye.

--"I'm impressed with people from Chicago. Hollywood is hype, New York is talk, Chicago is work." --Michael Douglas.