weekend bits

playing catch up on some stuff from over the weekend, and even a few from the last few weeks.

the biggest news is after living here for nearly a year (will be at the end of the month), i have FINALLY had the opportunity to meet the crazy neighbor lady. fortunately, the time at which i did it, the landlords were outside working on our entrance door so they provided a good medium to do introductions. so while standing in the driveway holding 2 bags from Trader Joe's, i actually met and spoke briefly with the crazy neighbor lady. she seems like a pleasant person, and even she acknowledged the living next door to each other for nearly a year. LO asked CNL if she had heard rumors about Atlantic being bought by Trader Joe's. CNL didn't know, but she also hadn't heard of Trader Joe's, but she'll look into it. i wouldn't mind if Trader Joe's came in, but that would affect some people as TJ's doesn't really carry stuff like baby needs, so i'm not sure how it would work.

now, as i mentioned a moment ago, according to the terms of my lease, i am paid up in full, which is very cool. i have lived here nearly a year and it's been a very good experience, and i really appreciate that my landlords are a) very cool, b) attentive to fixing things so i don't feel as tho if something needs to be fixed, to try and do it myself and c) actually closer to my age than my previous landlady (who should be around 95 or so) so when i chat with them, they actually understand what i'm talking about to some degree. i had a good run in my last apartment, and i liked the location (tho i still have yet to determine the evolutionary need for skeeters), but this one is much nicer. for starters, it's on the 2nd floor and i don't have to worry about leaving windows open (there were a rash of break-ins in the area last summer that were connected to ones the previous summer (2003) and were related to ones in that whole area starting around 2002. long story short, people were walking into unlocked homes (you're around back watering the plants, front door open) and stealing stuff (money, jewlery, etc). they also would climb in thru open windows (pop the screen, etc) if no one was home. granted the time at which this seemed to be happening was during my "i spend a lot of time home trying to find pennies" period in my life, but there was always the paranoia that surrounded that.

here, i just worry about how i'm going to keep the apartment cool on hot sticky days. if i leave the windows open, it stays a little cooler, but more sticky. if i close the windows, then it stays a little drier, but the place warms up into a bit of an oven. and unfortunately, the contractor that KO thought was a good guy (prolly is) seems to be dragging his feet on when he is going to replace the windows. and i'm waiting until that is done before deciding if i want to pick up a 2nd a/c for the living room. what to do. what to do...

so anyways, i really like where i'm living. i like the neighborhood, the proximity to things, it's an easy shot into work. lots of pluses. and i've been here nearly a year. i'll have to dig out my lease to find out, but i want to say it was the 17th i signed my lease...in any event...

and as i mentioned above, KO spent the weekend replacing the door to our entrance. the door and jam (jamb?) was off saturday and he finished installing it yesterday evening (~630 or so) so i have a new key. the door is much lighter than the previous one (fiberglass vs solid wood) and LOT easier to open. this has spring loaded hinges rather than the industrial door closer that was WAAAAAAAAAAY to much of a pain to open. it's white instead of the dark green, and it smells. at least for the moment. it has that new door smell which hopefully will go away as i can smell it bleeding into my apartment and i don't like it. some trim needs to be replaced on the inside and out, but for the moment, we have a working, lighter door.

this is from a few weeks ago - i was watching something on CBS (prolly CSI) and they were doing a teaser for a story on childhood obeseity and the way the voice over guy did it (that typical intense we're all going to die if we don't watch this voice) sounded like the following:

Childhood obeseity linked to moms who work for CBS4 news

i wasn't paying a whole lot of attention, but that's what i heard. or at the very minimum, that certainly sounded like what i heard.

i'm coming to terms with my work related exile. i'm still displeased with it how it happened, but i don't have a lot of say in things right now, so i'll just bite the bullet and do what i have to do, which reminds me...

ok, that should copy the files i need tomorrow. better to do it now while things are quiet and bandwidth is low. both offices should be closed, so long as someone in MR doesn't let someone in they shouldn't. that happened in the office i'm headed to a short while back. the vandal's vandalized things and then fled. i forget if that happened before or after we had security cameras installed.

oh well. stoopit humidity.