don't worry, be happy

I could feed my anger and rant about our Landlord for days, but unless he screws us in some way from here on out, I'm done with him. So now onto happier things....even though I'll be living with several people who are in their early 20's, I think it'll be fun, our new place is pretty sweet too and I get the best room. This weekend should be filled with merriment as it is Cassie's birthday tomorrow, which though I'll be in the moving process, I hope to be able to celebrate to the fullest, then I'll be off to Duluth to spend time with two of my favorite people, Sally and MS Flava (oh yeah, and Jenni and Todd too) and see Wilco and have an all-around swell time. I start school in less than 2 weeks, which will allow me to quit my life-sucking job, and 2 weeks I get to see not only Fiona Apple in concert, but Cassie in her Taiko drum recital. I see good things ahead.

on fire

My Google horoscope for today....

"This is a day of extremes and your alternating swings between emotion and logic can become tiring, even for you. Mercury in expressive Leo is at odds with your stoic Taurus nature, so you may find situations developing that require you to stand up for your ideas. However, first make certain that your perspectives are valid enough to defend."

hmmm...interesting


The blowout with Dan commenced last night around 10 p.m., and lasted a good 2 hours, after which I slammed a beer and chain smoked and had a bitch fest with Betsy. There was some serious yelling going on from all three of us, and I so rarely get so riled that I raise my voice I even shocked myself by how loud and angry I got. Betsy may have gone too far when she called Dan a sexist pig, she seriously lost it a couple times, but then he claimed that we were accusing him of being a sexual predator. Sexist pig and sexual predator, though sharing some commonality, are not the same thing. Since Betsy's friend goes to Dan's tango class, Betsy hears what Dan says, calling a woman's chest "titties", talking about how women are supposed to be submissive, being verbally and publicly humiliating to his girlfriend, scoffing with his other sexist pig friends about being "PC" and respecting women. Not to mention innapropriate comments to and about his tenants, sorry, but when your landlord, starts blabbering in conversation about how he hoped to rent to a stripper in the hopes that she might bring her hot stripper friends over, or how if he were 20 years younger he'd be "chasing so and so's tail" (another female tenant in the building), one might think he's a bit slimy and sexist, no? Not that I would ever seriously fear that Dan would make a move on any of us, but it's plain unprofessional and somewhat unnerving.

Anyways, of course he manipulated and twisted things around, talked about how he always tries to be kind and helpful, blah blah blah. How insulted he was that we wrote such "nasty" things to and about him, when all we were trying to do was point out the truth. The funniest part was when I read from the landlord and tenant rights manual the bit about our right to Privacy and how he's required to give notice except in case of emergency. Then he pulls out his manual, (the very same thing I had as if it's going to say something different) babbles about Mike Hatch, the author of the manual as though this is a personal friend of his who is going to be on his side, and then reads exactly what I read which clearly puts him in the wrong, and I was like yeah, I think Mike Hatch just might back me up on this one. Granted he did apologize to me for the way he talked to me, which was innapropriate, rude, and childish, and which prompted me to give a smart to his ego by writing down exactly why I think he's a shitty landlord. Instead of the civil and adult conversation we could have had, in which I tried to explain to him yet again why I felt it was asinine for him to ask us to pay more (likely because he knows I'm a pushover), and he would have manipulated it and not understood my point but made a valid point that I agreed to pay more, and I would have taken responsiblity for my lack of assertiveness and tried to end it in a civil comprimise. But no, it had to get ugly, although we did end it civily with a comprimise, and it felt good to get it all out and call his bullshit even if little of it did get through his feeble brain matter.

Whatever, soon we'll have washed our hands of him and won't have to deal with him again.

eerily silent

Dan has not responded to our letter, and we are a little nervous about that. Plus, this is what my google horoscope says today....

"It's easy for you to misjudge the seriousness of a situation at home now. Youmight mistakenly believe that you can fix a problem with just a wave of yourhand. But it's not going to be that simple. Staying focused on the root causes and not the symptoms will help soften the hard edges."

What does it all mean?? Anyways, he was home last night, and we were home, so he could have easily talked to us, but then we saw him leave. I decided he was probably going to go to late night happy hour to drown his patheticness in booze since he's a money-grubbing loser. He's middle-aged, sleazy, trying to weasle money out of two sweet 20 something year old women, and can't seem to grasp that he might instead solve his money issues by getting a job other than teaching Tango 2 nights a week and spending the rest of his day on his duff. But the silence is kinda eerie, I'm not sure if he's really pissed off or took our letter to heart as I tried to make it clear that it was not my intention to insult him, but more to be like," hey, we've been good tenants and here's where we could have easily taken you to court. Maybe you reflect on that instead of acting rudely and childishly towards me and threaten me in a public place when I'm with a friend, especially when I've never treated you with disrespect. Plus you basically have no case" So who knows.

Ok, I'll stop ranting about the landlord for today, we'll be out of there by Sat. anyways. The only thing I worry about is that he'll keep a portion of my deposit, then I have to decide if it's worth it to take him to small claims based on principle and for $100 (unless he keeps more than that).
I tried to play tennis yesterday with my co-worker, I'm a little rusty since I haven't played for oh, about 5 years, and I've never been a great player by andy means, but boy, my co-worker was terrible. I'd at least like to play with someone who can hit the ball more than 5% of the time, and maybe makes some effort by say -running- or something after the ball to at least try and hit it back. She wants to continue to play in the hopes that she'll improve, which I can't say I'm too excited about.

I'm surprised I'm not on my death bed, Betsy's been hacking since she got back from Europe, which is kinda gross, but not her fault I suppose, but what's really gross is that she does not cover her mouth. I have to say I find this very irritating, and almost shocking. Of course I still enjoy her, she just grosses me out.

I need to find me a good analyst

Landlord is still being a prick, he claims he isn't upset with me, that he just doesn't want to get screwed, then said he wants his $100 from me (since I was the one to enter into a "verbal agreement), and if I don't get it he'll take it from my deposit, and if we went to court he'd go through, find any time we've paid rent late (at most 2 days, and he doesn't have any grace period after the first which all landlord I've worked with have had), but too bad for him in the tenant rights handbook he has to give us written notice about late fees, how much and when it is due. If anyone is screwing him over it's himself for being a dumbass. Betsy and I combed through the tenant rights handbook, and typed a letter clearly explaining how he has violated our tenant rights on many counts, how we graciously let things slide when we could easily have gotten several hundred of dollars from him (which now I wish I had), and that unless there is some loophole that we don't know about, if we went to court our case would be pretty solid whereas he's got not a lot to stand on. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of stuff documented that I think we did at one time, but I at least want him to wake up and get some self-awareness and realize that he's a shitty landlord and that's why he has a pattern of tenants hating him. It's quite possible that he'll continue to be a dick until we move out, and we may have pissed him off and hurt his little 'ol ego, but hopefully he'll treat his future tenants with more respect.

So other than feeding my anger towards Dan, I had a rather fun-filled weekend. I had vaguely hoped to go to see my coffeeshop friend's band at some bar for a bluesfest, but per usual, my friends were lame, and since I had never been to this bar before I didn't want to go by myself to unfamiliar territory. Thankfully Betsy came through and invited me to go with her to see a blues band that was at the radio station she volunteers at who were having a show near our place. The music was excellent, Betsy's radio friend was cool, and we hung out with some members of the band after the show which was quite enjoyable. Then Cassie and I got a relatively early start yesterday to see the Pride parade and partake in some Pride fest festivities. Surely we looked a cute couple to the casual observer, and we scored a bunch of free stuff, played dance dance revolution and watched the heartwarming mass committment ceremony.

As Dr. Phil says, "you teach people how to treat you", well, once again my lack of assertiveness is coming to bite me in the ass (with the landlord situation). I always get myself pumped up to speak my mind, but then when it gets to the actual confrontation I fumble around for words and get easily manipulated, and I don't know how to remedy it. Gotta hook myself up with an analyst I suppose.

good, bad and seriously ugly

Cassie got us; Todd and Jenni, myself, Carissa and Mary Kay, free tickets to the comedy club since it is her birthday next week. I was prepared to get my drink on since I've not "been out" in a while (or at least feel like I haven't), and I had today off, and the other night I was severely jonesing for a brewski, but the fridge was barren and the LQ was closed when my craving reached it's peak since state ordinance reverted back to the 8 p.m. closing time weeknights instead of the 10 p.m. closing time that we Minnesotans had enjoyed for a short time. So I made up for it last night, a brewski at home, happy hour specials, a carafe of Margarita at the club, then Cassie and I forged on after our lame friends decided to call it a night and hit the 90's to meet a friend of mine and enjoy the drag show and plentiful drink specials. I did get slightly offended when Cassie got hit on by a lesbian (it's a gay club for those unfamiliar), reason being twofold; a. I didn't get hit on by any lesbians (not a good reason to be offended, but smarts a little), and b. this chick just assumed that Cassie wasn't my girlfriend, I thought that was rude of her to assume and then try to horn in on my (maybe) girl while I was standing right there. Anyways, the night was capped off by some late-night pizza, and of course some old dude offering his digits to us, me being the geezer magnet that I am. I told him that I could take his number, but I was certain that I wouldn't call him, which he took rather graciously.

So a lovely evening, then a rude awakening this morning by Betsy and the Landlord yelling at eachother because Betsy's bike had been stolen from the garage, actually her friend's bike that she was borrowing. Apparently things got heated, I stayed out of it since it wasn't my deal, but then after spending a nice afternoon with Cassie sunning and getting ice cream, I ran into Landlord Dan at the ice cream place and he was an enormous ass to me. See, since Betsy and I were originally going to switch apartments and stay in the studio for the month of June, we obviously paid less rent for that space. After those girls backed out last minute and we were to stay in our apartment, Dan offered to "split the difference" between the rent we did pay and what we would have paid for our place which equaled $100. I thought this was a bit unfair at the time, since Betsy and I had already paid our rent, the other girls were the one's backing out on their agreement, it was mutually beneficial to Dan and us since he would have been out a huge chunk of money had we not wanted to stay since he would have had at least one empty unit, and we ended up not using the extra room. Even though I thought this, since I was drained, in schock that I had just worked my ass off for several hours for essentially nothing, and am generally not at all assertive I agreed, which was stupid, and with Betsy being in Europe I couldn't get her to talk sense into me. So I emailed Betsy and we both decided that it was stupid that he was charging us more and hoped it would blow over. Well, he asked me for the cash yesterday and I said my piece and why I thought it was unfair, and he said his piece and I said I'd have to talk to Betsy. Then this morning the bicycle was stolen, and there was much yelling and swearing by Betsy aimed towards Dan (though I think the fault does ultimately fall on Betsy unfortunately), and now Dan is being a huge prick. He claims now that we should at least be charged for using extra storage in his basement, and that he's going to measure the space that our shit is in, and call around town, get prices for comparable storage spaces and charge us the highest price he finds. Not to mention that I'm now afraid that he's going to find some stupid reason to dick us out of our deposit. I mean, his threats aren't very threatening since he's been basically a shitty landlord, there are several instances where he showed our apartment or had maintenance done without giving us the 24 hours notice required by law, nor leaving us any sort of note, that alone we can charge him $100 per incident (unfortunately only 3 incidents I have documented, but still), and other things, like our oven leaking gas and not getting fixed for a month, though that was some time ago and also not documented. I'm just extremely irritated right now, of course right before we move shit has to hit the fan, and though Betsy doesn't always take full responsibilty for her part, Dan RARELY takes responsibility for his NUMEROUS mistakes, and always seems to think he's the greatest Landlord in all the land. I don't know how much legal leverage we have without talking to a lawyer, court was mentioned, and though I think it's an empty threat since Dan obviously has no money which is why he's always using shady tactics to get more money out of his tenants, I'm pretty sure he can't afford courst fees. It's just so ridiculous, and shitty that things aren't going to end civilly since even though we've always had our issues with Dan, we still manage to get along with the guy for the most part, and now we'll probably get screwed since we just put up with his crap for so long.

Alright, just had to rant for a bit, maybe it'll blow over once people start thinking rationally.

it's all downhill from here

The first day of summer, hence the longest day of the year. I was going to contemplate how the days will get shorter, and eventually colder and it will be winter and depressing, but then decided against it. I'm all about living in the moment you know, and in this moment it is nice out.

doing just fine

Years of employment at my life/creativity-sucking job has rendered my brain basically dead, I feel fat, and my apartment has clutter and boxes crowding every space. I'm lazy and I lack empathy for other humans.

Anyways, on a lighter note, my mother officially co-signed my loan, as in it is in the mail, I have my schedule for school and will start in exactly 3 weeks. I haven't overdrawn my checking account in several weeks, been able to pay most of my bills and still have been able to eat, drink and make merry, and will be saving a decent chunk of money on rent. My friends are nice to me, and my family is well as far as I know.

lets do our part

I saw "An Inconvenient Truth" last night, and I'll have to say Al Gore did a fine job, things were laid out clearly, easily understood, with not really any room for naysayers to claim that the recent showings are just part of the "natural cycle". While Gore did get a bit sentimental at times, and he is purportedly an SUV driving hypocrite, not to mention all the flying he does and claims that he's overhyping the situation, well I thought he was endearing, well informed and passionate without being over-zealous. Funny side note-I was reminded of this time when I met up with my friend Brenda and her dad for church and then lunch after, during the time of the 2000 election. Brenda's father, being a conservative evangelical Jesus freak type, went off trying to convince me that absolutely NO one who in any way supports abortion can be a Christian, and that Al Gore is a mongoloid. So I hope that people will see the doc., and hope that people like Brenda's father who clearly hates Gore, and corporate fucks, and complacent folks like my Dad who just thinks it'll blow over because thats waht Rush Limbaugh says, will use their brain just a little bit more for the common good, myself included.

After the movie my buddy Petra and I went to some artist's loft because her old roommate had some work up and there was to be some live music. At first it was just us two, and the dude that lived or worked in the space and his musician friend and some other chick. Then people start filtering in and between Petra and myself, we had some random connection with just about everyone there. One dude is engaged to an old friend and roommate that I lived with for three years, another I used to go to church with and he knew Petra's brother, another sang at Petra's brother's wedding and so on, it was kinda weird.

Betsy returns tonight after her 2 1/2 week stint in Europe, no more solitude for me, in fact I'm certain to get claustrophobic since our place will be even messier than it already is. But, only 2 weeks, then we move, and then I'll still be claustrophobic because I'm living with five people.

a face only Jesus could love

I'm kinda in an 'I hate people' mode. Not the people that I consistently like, I still like them fine enough, but other than infrequent socializing with close friends, I'd be fine with a period of isolation. Yeah, I'm a bit more irritable lately, a bit more blatantly rude, a bit more judgemental towards either people who consistently annoy me, or strangers who just have something about them that rubs me the wrong way. I believe that I inherited this side of me (normally a most kind and amiable individual) from my mother and my eldest sister, Romaine, for whom bouts of actively disliking basically everything about life come on a fairly regular basis. So anyways, I was reminded of an ex-friend yesterday, someone who a couple years back caused me a great deal of pain and to this day remains the only person that I would hope that I never interact with again. Even though said person really isn't a "bad" person, the harm caused was, as far as I know, not intentional, and the person was sorry, but I still harbor dislike for this person. Then I was thinking about how "they" say that harboring hatred poisons your soul...but I don't hate this person, I just don't care if this person is in my life at all, but what if I'm deluding myself and I am really poisoning my soul, and I will never realize my dreams...never experience true love...become hopeless and forlorn....oh well I guess. I figured that Jesus can love all the people I don't.

Boy, am I slap happy today, which of course results in ridiculous and inappropriate behavior at work, good lord I am so funny.

how do I hate thee....

I'm starting to not just be indifferent towards my job, but moving into the actively disliking it stage. And the people that annoy me are starting to really grate on me. Yet, I will work here for at least 6 more months so that I can get "vested", only 6 more months of life-sucking mundane work, well, that is also dependent upon me scoring a decent paying job while I'm in school that is, if not, then 12 more months of the mundane.

the end

We relieved our itch last night, and completed "Six Feet Under", and I was not disappointed, nor were my compadres. Well, I'd like to write my insightful thoughts on the finale and series as a whole, but really it just speaks for itself. So I woke up this morning a little sad, since not only is it a beautiful and thought-provoking show, but it was also fun bonding time with Cassie and Sarah (and Coby). I've got no more Gilmore Girls or Six Feet Under to watch, so now's a good time to take a break from TV on DVD at least until it gets cold and it's time to hibernate as much as possible.

Anywho, I've been less than productive today. I'm quite excited to start culinary school, to have a change of pace, and to eventually quit my job.

the torture

My little stepbrother graduated from High School yesterday, so I went home to the farm to attend his graduation party. Thankfully my amiable cousin was there to keep my company so that I didn't have to make too much endless, torturous small talk. Lots of 4-H families there, people that I haven't seen in the 9 years since I myself graduated from High School, and it was fun to learn what old friends and acquaintances are up to, or kids that I used to babysit. Nevertheless, I was happy to get out of smalltalk hell a couple hours later after the obligatory short, awkward, yet friendly chat with my father. I'm sure if I had to say one more time, "yep, living in Mpls, working at the hospital still" I may have crazily hopped on a sheep and rode off into the sunset or something.

When I got back to civilization I headed straight to Cassie and Sarah's to indulge in our favorite series on DVD, "Six Feet Under". I didn't arrive til about 9:15, and Cassie had gotten 2 disks, and I figured I'd surely fall asleep second episode in, but I only dozed off for a short time, then I was rarin' to go and we pounded through all 6 episodes, boy was that intense. Lots of high emotion, we laughed, cried, were disgusted, and got really pissed off at Nate. I know I was harsh on Brenda in a recent post, but she remains my favorite character. Now we only have the finale left and I'm itching like crazy to see it, but of course we gotta figure out a time when all three of us can watch it. It will be bittersweet, but I hear it's one of the best finales.

I feel a little bad for passing off a task onto the new girl. I claimed I was too busy and I wasn't really.

appears to be working again

Blogger seems to have remedied it's issues.

You know you are old when staying out until 11ish merely relaxing and chatting with friends and a couple beers wipes you out. Gone are the days of closing the bar 5 nights a week, not caring how one might feel at work the next day, gone is getting a second wind well into the evening and deciding to forge on, go dancing perhaps or continue the good times into the early morn. Now a day's it's pushing it to be out past midnight. I think my dad parties more than I do.

Just talked to my bro, he supports my pastry chef career, so perhaps he will ease my mother's mind about my career choice. I'll admit I'm a little nervous about starting classes in about a month.

oh, excuuse me

So this is actually my post from yesterday that didn't post since blogger was down, nothing real exciting, but then again, nothing exciting happened yesterday either, I worked, went home, read at the local shop, went home and watched "So You Think You Can Dance" instead of going for a run like I had planned on, and fell asleep on the sofa watching Gilmore Girls, woke up at around 11 p.m. and went to sleep. I must say though that I'm quite enjoying having the place to myself, I don't know how I'm going to handle living with four other people in a few weeks. I'll probably just be antisocial and shut up in my room, if I have my TV and maybe pick up an old playstation and get Dance Dance Revolution it should be no problem. Speaking of being antisocial, I'm trying to decide if I want to play yard games tonight at Carissa's or continue on with my solitude.....hmmm, anyways, onto yesterdays post...


Apparently I was completely out of line last night for parallel parking on a busy street. I didn't realize that my performing a completely legal and common manuever so highly inconveniened someone by forcing them to pass me in the (not at all busy) next lane that I therefore deserved a flip of the bird and informed I was a "fucker". I know I'm naive, but the level of people's jerkiness still shocks me sometimes.

We are going to start recycling in our office, finally, after all this time. I no longer have to horde paper and take it home to recycle.

Something else that shocks me is the delusion of my landlord...Last night he's like, "I don't know if you heard, but Hilary decided to move somewhere else" No duh, first of all, you were the one who told me on Sat. as all my shit was piled on the porch so that Hilary and her roomate could take over our apartment per their request, and second, that was the cause of much personal irritation on Sat. which has not yet been forgotten. Then he proceeded to tell me that he has "learned his lesson" in that he shouldn't have decided to kick us out in the first place because we are such great tenants (whereas the hipster girls are clearly not as great).

shucks

I guess today is the day the antichrist is born or something to do with the antichrist and the endtimes. May as well just get on with it I think rather than continue being jerked around.

I just went on an Ebay spending spree the past few days, not that I have money to spend, but apparently I didn't quite think that through whilst in my bidding haze. Ebay is very addictive, once you get your fix, you "win" the item, another fix is needed or else depression is inevitible.

Watched a little "Six Feet Under" last night, by myself, since I always fall asleep (we always seem to watch after 10 p.m), and I'm lucky if I stay awake past oh sometimes as early as 8, but I can usually make it at least until 9 p.m. So anyways, since I sleep through 1 or 2 episodes per disk, I take the disk home to watch the unseen episodes, this usually takes 2 or 3 additional evening due to the sleeping problem. While MS flava and Sally were in town last weekend, MS (also a fan of the show) asked me if I ever disliked the character of Brenda to which I replied no, I've always found her character endearing (even when she was a nasty sex fiend). That is, until this final season. It isn't that I dislike her necessarily, but her hair is too long. I remember reading in my YM magazines as an adolescent that the majority of dudes dig long hair, while this is probably true, and I guess I can see the appeal of long hair of a theoretic level, but I don't think the majority of women can pull of long hair. I mean, sure they can pull it off, but I think most would look better with shorter hair. I did the long hair thing for several years, and that, along with my rotund stature and hairy toes contributed to my trollish look. Women with fabulously thick and/or curly hair can do whatever the hell they want with it and look good, but I believe those of us with finer, straighter hair (such as myself) do better with a shorter cut. But that's just my opinion, and it isn't as though having shorter hair has solved all my hair issues as it is very hit or miss (and there's that styling factor involved for which I'm often too lazy). So Brenda's hair is too long and well, she just doesn't have the spark she once had, she seems a shell of a person so far this season. However, we are only on disk 2 and things can easily change.

under pressure

After working my arse off all night friday, getting an early start on Sat. and continuing to work my arse off all day (with help from friend formerly known as Jenny Piepho, her spouse Libra, Cassandra, and finally Jenni, Todd and Kristen) getting the apartment empty and cleaned so that the girls that are moving in could do so per their request, well, at about 5 p.m. my Landlord informs me that one of the girls decided to bail last minute and great news!, we get to stay in our apartment after all for the next month. Yeah, would've been great news a week ago (or even a few hours before), though a little irritating when one is about a half hour from having the place boxed up, moved out, thoroughly cleansed and half of one's shit is sitting out on the porch. I quickly got over it, doinky Landlord apologized and offered his help, the other girl that didn't bail also apologized and offered her help, and I had Cassie to help me move stuff back in and offer support, joined later by Todd to muscle the sofa back inside.

My mother agreed to co-sign for me, I just talked to her a couple hours ago. Can't say she was a wealth of support however, asking me if I was sure this is what I want to do and questioning me taking on another loan. So thats got me questioning my decision now. I mean, thats been the major question, is this really what I want to do? Yes in the way that I think it will be fun, and something that I enjoy doing, and a skill that I'll have under my belt that I can make a decent wage at. If I had unlimited resources? Probably not, but it's better than what I'm doing right now, and everyone else seems to think it's a great idea and are excited for me. I shouldn't let my family get me down I guess, once again, I should see a therapist and maybe get the balls to try and improve relations between myself and my parents, too bad they think I'm weird and I'm fairly certain they don't think I'm too bright either.

We are plugging along in Six Feet Under, I read something online that I wish I hadn't, know something that I wish I didn't know. So while I hope to savor this final season, I want to get on with it since I know too much now.

I choked

I played horribly at croquet last night. I'll blame the elephant beer. Speaking of Elephants, I feel like one today.

A fresh example of the doinkiness of my landlord. I get in the shower this morning, about 2 seconds later the water is shut off. I know my landlord had planned on working on some plumbing issues, but he failed to mention that the water would be shut off at 8 a.m. I was slightly miffed, and chalked it up to Dan's usual idiocy. Fortunately the water came back on long enough for me to go about my morning routine as usual.

Damn Bright Eyes is playing on the radio, gag me.

the three r's

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. I'm not going to claim to be an environmentalist and I surely mindlessy contribute to the destruction of our planet on a daily basis, however, I do make an effort to abide by the three R's. Betsy and I are pretty diligent about our recyling, oftentimes, more than half our tiny kitchen is filled with bags of recycling, yet this morning I walk out only to discover that our landlord took all of our recycling efforts and dumped them into the garbage. I salvaged a bag or two, but sadly the rest will end up in a landfill. Why a person would do such a thing I do not know, to my knowledge it was appropriately sorted, I just shake my head in wonder. My landlord is such a doink sometimes. He also asked for my rent shortly after 8 a.m. this morning, knowing that he is constantly strapped for cash I figured he'd cash it ASAP, which would mean trouble for me since I don't get paid til tomorrow. So I "forgot" to slip it under his door like he asked because, guess what, there are still several more hours until the 1st is over and I'll be damned if I get an overdraft because he cashed my check before 3 p.m. Besides, someone who trashes recycling for no good reason deserves to sweat a little.

Betsy made me a excellent moving mix since she (lucky SOB) left yesterday for a 2 1/2 week stint in Europe (therefore leaving the apartment cleaning in my hands), and I must say I'm quite pleased with how much I accomplished last night, so I'll credit the mix.

Plan is to play more croquet tonight, what if I choke? I don't know if my ego could handle it.