Greg the Landlord is an ASSHOLE!!!!

Never rent from this guy, he will make your life a living hell.

Katrina, Kory and Roger,

The cleaning costs are $229 plus $35 for a torn screen.
(The torn screen was from Katrina's bedroom and was in the living room closet.)

($229 + $35) / 3 = $88 each

The damage to the balcony roof (wood) and the rubber membrane will cost approximately
$2000 to correct.

The damage was just outside the door along the South railing. It was hidden by the green
outdoor carpeting but was easy to find ... all I had to do was step on the spot and the
floor sagged and made a cracking wood sound. Lifting the green carpeting revealed the
punctured rubber membrane.

Do any of you know what was dropped. It was heavy enough to pierce the rubber membrane
and to crush the wood flooring underneath it.

Total costs including cleaning and repair to the balcony are in excess of $750 each which
exceeds your individual security deposits.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Best wishes,

Greg

If anyone wants to give me free legal advice, I would be more than happy to take it. I moved out 6 months ago, and all of my friends know that I would not damage the place I lived. When I moved out no one checked me out, even though I notified the management company 2 days in advance. Living in this place and renting from this guy have created me too many headaches to name. The least of which was, that when he couldn't handle his ex girlfriend dating other men, he decided to moved to Alaska and stuck me with two strangers (the other two named in the email). He claimed he was unable to let me out of my lease, even though the verbal agreement was that he would continue to live in the house (it was a roommate situation). Anyway, he's an asshole, never trust a Greg.

BRRRRRRRRRRRR!!

The temperature in the house when I finally got out of bed was 55 degrees. I say got out of bed, because I was awake long before the battle between good (sleep) and evil (the anti-sleep) started at about 4. Evil won today at about 4:30. The nice thing about living with Joy is she hates the super cold. So the temperature in the house ranges from 70ish to 80ish. The thermostat never works quite right unfortunately, so we are forced to suffer through fluxuating temperatures. So today, I'm going into work early, where it's warm.

5 Days Later

I hope no one thought I was dead. It's just been a slow news week. Here is the 5 Day Recap:

Saturday: Saw the Timberwolves lose to the Rockets in a miserable display of basketball. It's hard being one of six people cheering for the away team coincidently.

Sunday: Saw Along Came Polly. All the funny shit is in the preview, wait for video.

Monday: Work a half day (technically I didn't have to be there at all), and then spent the rest of the afternoon reading the Atkins book so I can figure out this diet and what I'm doing wrong.

Tuesday: Ate one of those low carb Weight Watchers meals for lunch, it sucked, I'm back to big salads. Highlight of the day was the Queer Eye holiday episode.

Today: LOOOOOOOOOOOONG Day at work, even though I was only there for 8 hours. Currently I am watching the American Idol try outs in Houston, it is the sorriest, saddest, funniest thing I have seen in awhile. I mean if you can't sing, you can't sing. Don't embarrass yourself on national television. I'm seriously embarrassed for these people.

Other news: I've told my supervisor that I am moving in April. She's wondering who is going to take my place. She asked me what it would take to make me stay. I told her a job, benefits, good salary. They won't be able to offer it to me, which is why I asked for it. I'm looking forward to spending time with my friends back in the Twin Cities. Sunday breakfast with Jim and the Boytoy, cooking meals for Ms. Susan, walking her dogs, walks around Lake Calhoun. It's all there waiting for me. Once again I'm on a search to find the ideal person to drive back with me. I asked NRG, but he was somewhat evasive. How, you ask? Well, he answered my question with a question. He asked me, "How cold is it in Minneapolis in April?" How do I answer that? Well, I told the truth naturally. I said like today (It was sunny and 50 that day, so I wasn't lying). I did neglect to mention that it could also be freezing cold. OOPS!! He'll know now.

You Know Who You Are!!!!!!!!

Damn you girl that brought in doughnuts this morning. I know I am nice to your face, but I hate you none the less. You know I love Shipley doughnuts more than my own mother. Their tasty goodness that goes right to the hips. Yeah, I'll continue to be nice to you, but don't offer me a doughnut again, or else I'll kill you, I won't just hurt you, I'll kill you.

And F*^K you too, bitch that thought it was a good idea to make popcorn yesterday. I didn't like you before you made the popcorn and I sure as hell don't like you now. Just keep walking and stick that popcorn straight up your ass.

In diet news, I've lost 7.5 pounds since Monday.

Slow Week

Things have been a bit slow here this week. My lack of energy since starting the Atkins diet is amazing. I get home at night, only to fall on the couch and surf the channels. According to my sources though, this will get much better after the second week. Maybe I can actually start exercising like I planned to 6 months ago. I can't hardly believe I've been in Houston for 6 months. The time really is flying, and before I know it, I'll be back in Minneapolis. Anyway, back to diet news. I've lost a total of 4.5 pounds since starting on Monday. I know that it's just water, but it feels good, so shut yer yap.

I've been reading the book Holes this week. It's actually really good. I managed to read half the book in 2 hours last night, so it's a quick read. I've been taping my shows this week too, and have been unable to force myself to watch anything. For some odd reason I'm going through this phase where I don't really want to watch anything. The only things I "NEED" to watch is Alias and Must See TV on Thursdays. Otherwise I've dropped everything else including 24. Which is unfortunate because I really do like that show, but I stopped caring.

I've been a bit homesick lately as well. On Tuesday night I spent most of the night on the phone. I called Ms. Susan. We chatted about me moving in and finding a third roommate (who will be as cool as us, it's going to be hard to do, I know), the men in our lives, and our jobs. Then I called Daddy Jeff. He thinks he's so funny with his little comments, and he thought he had to dig further into them then necessary. He's also afraid of getting me in trouble with the mom. So thank goodness he's been filtering his comments. I also talked to NRG for awhile. I do that sometimes, where I just need to talk, about anything and everything, lucky I have good enough friends to fulfill those needs.

Well, this weekend might prove to have a story or two. Joy and I are going to a Rockets game on Saturday. They play the Timberwolves. I called and left a message for NRG asking if he was interested. It's funny because when he called me back, I was all like, who is this. He referred to himself as NRG. He's too funny sometimes. Anyway, we're working on finding a third person to join us. If you know of anyone, let me know. I'll let you know the next time something exciting happens. Take care.

Automated Telephone Answering Systems

Like everyone else out there, when I call a company I want to speak to a real person. I don't want to be told that I am in a cue, and I have about a 10 minute wait before a customer service representative will be with me. I also hate those automated systems that lead you through menus with options that don't even closely represent any service you need. The options must get screwed up sometimes. Today I had to call an insurance company, the most annoying part of my job, and their customer service options menu didn't offer any service I needed. So, I just picked a random number, 3 sounds good. Then I have a whole other list of options to pick from. The funny thing is, that they didn't seem to be related at all to option 3 that I had previously picked.

For example (just for fun):

Thank you for calling Kat's Company. In order to serve you better please pick from the following list.

For dog sitting services please pick 1.
For general house sitting services please pick 2.
For customer service please press 3.
If you have a good bit of juicy gossip you might like to share please press 4, where you will be connected directly to Kat.
If you are in need of a favor, press 5.
If you are interested in going out to boy bar press 6.
If you are interested in going out to regular bar press 7.
If you want to play cards press 8.

Now this is where most companies seem to have problems. There is a whole new menu to choose from at this point. The objective is to have options on this second menu that are clearly results of the initial option selected. So, here is how I would imagine a company might screw up my list. Let's say you pick any of the options.

If you need dog sitting this weekend, press 1.
If you are a good euchre player, press 2.
If you suck at euchre, please hang up the phone.
If you are issuing a complaint, press 3.
If your gossip is old news, press 4.

And so on, what I'm essentially trying to say is that the whole damn options menu is just a matter of frustrating you so much that you hang up the phone. It's a stalling tactic created by corporations. I think next time I call I'll just press random numbers until I get a live person on the phone, $40 says they can help me no matter what the issue is.........just think about it.

The Weekend

I worked for a bit this weekend. Santos and I had dinner again on Saturday night. This time we went dutch. DAMN!!! That's ok. Afterwards I went out with NRG. He had some Navy banquet deal-e-o in Conroe which is an hour north of here. I drove up to meet him afterwards (the Navy got him a room for the night) and we watched TV and talked. It was like a big 'ol slumber party. Except for the lack of parental supervision. We also didn't drunk dial anyone. Next time. When I got up there was some crappy coffee to make, which I actually enjoyed because of the small hangover I had. And just so you know mom, I wore my pajamas, all night.

I got back to the city by 1ish on Sunday. It was actually a nice drive back down. And apparently there is an outlet mall in Conroe, so if I have any money before I leave, which I probably won't, but if I do, I'm going back to check it out.

Ok, well, that's everything. Maybe not overly exciting, but it's been keeping me busy none the less. I've got a major headache tonight. I don't know if it's my new diet (Atkins--I finally broke down) or if it's just because it's Monday. Either way, I'm going to bed early. Have a great day.

Friday

So, a couple of us from work were supposed to go out for happy hour on Friday. There were emails exchanged and a meeting time and place agreed upon. At 4PM, I went in search of my crew, neither of which were where they were supposed to be. I tracked Santos down, who was in a meeting with my boss. Stephanie was wandering around. I thought we were still going to meet by the elevator, but then someone else told me she left already. I thought she just went to the place. But, I didn't know exactly where the Chili's was by work. So, I drove around in a panic trying to find the damn place. By the time I did, it was almost 5, and Stephanie wasn't there. Santos called about 2 minutes after I left a message saying that I was fed up and going home.

Well, I'm glad he talked me into not going. Although we lost Stephanie, Santos and I had a great time. We drank a few beers, talked about life and relationships and such, then had some dinner. We ate at a Japanese restaurant that had a sushi bar. I had a not so great experience with sushi about 2 years ago, so I wasn't thrilled, but decided to give it a try again. It was good. I love sushimi. I like wasabi too. It was a nice long meal, with good conversation. He also paid, which is something else I really like. I made sure to mention that I wasn't putting out at all before the waitress picked up his credit card. He said I wasn't his type because I was too tall. I just laughed at him. Everybody wants me!!! Apparently he didn't get the memo on that one. Silly goose.

Thursday

Well, He did call, we did go out again, and yes, we did have fun. Let's just call this one IT Guy (and people say we aren't our jobs). IT Guy lives in Dallas and works in Houston, so he drives up on Sunday evenings for the week. They put him up in a hotel, kind of a good deal. Well, his hotel is fairly close to where I live. I went over there and we went out. There is a bar very close to his hotel so we went there. I think it was called Wink's. Well, much to my surprise the place was a swingers club. Yes, you read right, a swingers club. That's where couples hook up with each other and GET IT ON!!!!!

There are rules to Swingers Clubs. First rule is to not talk about swingers club. The second is all single men must sit at the bar, while couples and single women can sit in the booths and tables. The single men are not to approach anyone, that is up to people who are sitting at the booths. The server asked our names as we sat down, far away from other couples. We just observed and drank. We made jokes and snickered at the single men. It was all very awkward and a bit uncomfortable. We had our required number of drinks and left. All in all an interesting evening.

Sorry

Sorry I haven't been keeping up with my blogging duties. Things have been busy, which is good, but the bad thing is they have firewalls up at my new job, which is preventing me from blogging on company time. DAMN!!! What they don't realize is that I'm less productive because I don't have an outlet while I'm taking a break. So now I just go talk to my co-workers, which happens to take longer than posting........ When will they ever figure it out?

This is how it's going to work for the reading.......I'm going to post for the days that I missed. I'll just create a new post for each day.....now unfortunately this one will probably be at the bottom, so just suffer.

A Good Date

I actually had a good date. I know it's hard to believe, but it happened. Now, it's just a matter of him calling again. We had originally planned on going out tonight to a hockey game, but neither of us had much to do on Tuesday night, and decided that it was better to meet before committing ourselves to a date where we would be unable to easily get away. Some tactics included in getting away could be getting the call about a mysterious "accident", or going to the bathroom and never coming back. We decided before meeting face to face that we would be honest with each other if we didn't feel some type of attraction.

So, we arrived at the appointed place (Mike's Sports Bar) at almost the same time. We recognized each other right away due to the descriptions we exchanged, and he actually saw a photo of me with my glasses (very hard to miss). We got a drink, sat down and started talking. At first I think we were searching for things to talk about, but as we got more comfortable with each other (and a shot and another drink) the conversation flowed nicely. We played a game of pool, I jokingly said something about how glad I was that we didn't bet because I was losing (for those of you who know me, you know I HATE to lose), well we did end up betting. Big mistake. He won, which meant that I had to stay out at least until midnight. Apparently I didn't mind so much because we were out later than that.

On a scale of 1-10, I give the date an 8. Now, he just has to call again.

Orange Security

As most of you know, we are at orange security level, whatever that means. While flying, you get to experience the full benefits of this heightened state of security. I found that it is an especially nice treat when you get to fly out of a small airport, like Madison for example. There are about 50 TSA's, but as they wonder around the airport filling us with a false sense of security, the line to get to the other side of the metal detection devices quickly builds up. This not only is a good way to increase the number of cranky air travelers, but also allows those new to the line a way to create conversation with perfect strangers. Now, I'm all for meeting new people, especially those that are a bit more colorful. But after spending a half an hour in the wrong line (due to my itinery that was incorrect) only to be rudely told that I am an idiot for not knowing the Northwest doesn't fly to Cleveland, but to have my bag carrying my delicates searched not once, but twice due to the ineptitude of said Northwest ticketing agent. Now, I am usually a patient person, all I ask is to be acknowledged while waiting a half hour in line. When that jackass told me that I was in the wrong line, my temper flared. What I said is unimportant, but let's just say that the people in line behind me were mentally clapping for me.

Now, that's not where the torture ends for us unsuspecting air traveling fools. They get us caged into the inner sanctum of the airport only to rape us of hard working money by overcharging us for bland food. Did you know that a turkey and swiss hoagie and a V8 costs more than $8 including tax at the Madison airport. When the lady behind the counter told me this I rolled my eyes, and she knowingly acknowledged my distain. I'm sure she feels guilty about the prices, but there is nothing she can do. Let's just say that I am glad I have no future air travel plans.

I have a couple of questions about the orange security:

Orange you supposed to be polite?

Orange you going to offer to aid me in my air travel ventures?

Orange you allowed to make eye contact and greet your guests with a smile, not a sneer?

Orange you going to pull your head out of your ass sometime soon?

My Dad

My dad and I have had a roller coaster of a relationship since I started high school. He's a very "by the rules" type of guy who believes that routine and regulation should be adhered to at all costs. This sort of attitude has caused some problems for us in the past.

In a small town like Highland, the only thing to do on the weekend is drink and make out. Since no one wanted to make out with me, my only other alternative was drinking. So that's what I did. My mother, having grown up in the same small town did the exact same thing, understood. Although she didn't like it, it was just accepted. My dad on the other hand was anti underage drinking (with every law supporting his view). He grounded me for a whole summer because he found a bottle of brandy in my room. But, it didn't stop me once I was free to roam the streets again, I just had to be trickier about it. How sorry was I?

But, the older I get the more accommodating he is. There is always beer available in the fridge, he takes me out drinking when I come home to visit, one night we even did a couple of rounds of shots together. He's mellowed out quite a bit in the last couple of years. He's also gotten funny. I don't know exactly when it happened, but somewhere in the last ten years he's developed a sense of humor.

Now when I come to visit, we go shooting (weather permitting), down to the bar (weather always permits), or out driving around. So I must say that over the last 10 years our relationship has only gotten better. Now, if he would just stop making fun of women drivers............

I Must Be Old or Something

Well, now that I have reached the ripe old age of 30 everything starts going downhill, or so it seems. New Years Eve. It's that night you prepare for by banking some sleep, you start to practice drinking shots to hone your skills, you make that whoop, whoop sound when you are alone so your tone and pitch is perfect once midnight on the 31st rolls around. OK, maybe not everyone is that serious but you plan to stay awake until midnight right? Possibly a little later.

Well, about that. I'm OLD. I was drunk by 9, sleepy by 10 and out by 11ish. I didn't see midnight, except through the back of my eyelids, and honestly it wasn't that memorable. I can't remember the last time I wasn't awake at midnight on this celebratory evening. I mean, bitch, please. But, I did have to wake up to pack to come back to Wisconsin. All in all it was a nice night, and I'm not complaining, I just feel old, because when I told my mom about it, she told me she was up later than I was. Yikes!!!!!!!!

Well, happy new year all. I'll be posting from Highland until the 6th, when I'll be making my way back to the warmth of Houston.