Luke Leiden, 24, and Jim Conlon, 33, are casing a bulky brick home shrouded in tall bushes on the 3300 block of Idaho Avenue NW. They take pictures with a small digital camera. Leiden puts down notes into clipboard filled with data, drawings, and measurements.
It's 10:03 a.m. There's not many residents around. They don't seem [...]

"It's not a chore chart?"
"It's a task list."
"When did we decide to do that?"
"Like three weeks ago."
"Has it worked?"
"Sure."
Not exactly a ringing endorsement from the fiancee. And yet at 12:10 a.m., this counts for a victory inside our cramped apartment with the narrow living room, the cat w/ ADD, the bugs who sometimes decide to [...]