I don't know what is wrong with my nerves today. The planes going by overhead all the time are driving me nuts.

Do you and Allyson have the same landlord?

I feel like I should send Allyson and sarameg DVDs of Strangers on a Train.

What's not to love about an empanada?!

The flavor and the texture, if the ones I've had are anything to go by.

Captain D's now has grilled shrimp, roasted new potatoes, and garden vegetables, so they get my fast food vote. Though I like McDonald's fries the best.

Don't love the fast food. I kinda miss it, though. There was one "adult" burger that McD's used to sell on a rice bun that was a key part of offsite visits to one particular customer when I worked in MI. I'll do a lot for the right bread.

Just got an obnoxious phone call from someone who just got cc'ed into an ongoing discussion and didn't think to ask the person who cc'ed him in. And also didn't stop to tell me who he was and why he was so offended that I was part of the conversation. I just pulled out the most high-ranked name in the project I could think of. I hope it all works out just fine. Or at least that he doesn't call back ever.

I'm still obsessing over Belize. I've picked a random week in the fall and am running prices. The photographs make me want to weep with their beauty. I love me some Jamaica and really like coming from a place that beautiful...enough that I can sometimes feel guilty really liking similar scenery more, but damn. We do not have coral reefs--and nowhere but Australia has reefs like Belize.

Ambergris Caye. Man. A nice slow week, with hammocks and lazy ceiling fans and maybe even no internet.

maybe even no internet.

twitch

Sent to my landlord:

Re: Violations to Civil Code 1941.1 and Health and Safety Code 17920.3 in Unit 8, 4437 Ambrose Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90027

cc: LAHD Code Enforcement

The following is a list of problems in my unit that are listed in the above codes (see highlighted portions of attached list).

• Light fixture in entry way burned out

• Room heater is broken, per gas company. Landlord’s solution was to place a potted plant outside to keep cold air from blowing out the pilot. No heat all winter, despite repeated pleas to fix it.

• Refrigerator is leaking a sticky substance out of a line.

• Oven no longer works (stovetop is fine).

• Several holes in bathroom wall due to landlord making repairs in a neighboring apartment months ago. Reported at the same time as the heater, was never fixed.

• Peeling paint and soft walls in bathroom due to upstairs tenant’s plumbing bursting and pouring water into my apartment for 10 days, every time he used his shower. Although this was reported immediately, I had to plead on the phone daily for help from Infinity Real Estate Services. I was promised that the walls would be checked and painted, but that has never happened.

• The door frame to my apartment is broken and appears to be rotting.

Per California’s tenant rights, I am giving notice that these repairs need to be made within thirty days to return my apartment to a habitable state.

If repairs are not made, the tenant will hire an attorney and hold rent in escrow until the repairs are made, or choose to “repair and deduct” as is allowed by Green v Superior Court, cited above.

Sincerely,

Allyson

Go you, Allyson!

Score, Allyson. Some people need to know who they're messing with, because some righteous pissiness isn't worth inciting.

maybe even no internet.

twitch

I know, I know. But I'm trying to imagine days where I have so much (or so little!) to do that I didn't log on. I don't think I've gone any notable length of non-internet time since Kenya a couple years ago. Even then, didn't last the whole thing--three or four sessions towards the end of the week.

Yay Allyson!

Is your landlord the actual owner, or just an on-site manager? Because if there are higher-ups who actually hold the title, I'd make sure they get cc'd as well.

It's weird. The owner pays a management company to deal with this.

So when I call the management company to make a repair, they call the owner, who says he will take care of it. The owner doesn't take care of it, and the management company just says, "it's being taken care of by the owner."

And then the cycle begins again.

Our onsite manager doesn't do repairs. She calls the management company to report complaints, takes out the trash, and posts notices.

It's a chain of buck-passing.

Very nice, Allyson.

I think the key differencce between our landlords is that hers got helping of malice. Mine are just bureaucratic incompentents who eventually cower before the rage and do something. Hers are the incompetents plus spite, which is so much worse.

I can go without internet on a vacation, easily. Even if it's offered. but then, I'm the girl with no cell phone. (Dude, even my MOM has a cell now. Dad got it for her trip to B'ham because those crazy kids don't have a landline.)