What are you doing for NYE?

Wake up at 5:45am with 4 year old poking your cheek.
Breakfast.
At 8:30, go to beach - take a walk, build a sandcastle, etc.
Lunch at 11am.
Go to pool at 12:30.
At 1:30, try for some quite time. Unsuccessful.
At 3:30, go back to pool.
At 4:30, come back to room and try to figure out dinner plans. Not in the mood for going out with the devil.
5:15 order baby back ribs carry out from Michelbobs.
Dinner at 6pm.
Bake cookies at 7pm.
Kids in bed at 8pm.

Will we make it to midnight? doubtful

Miss State Cowbells

Watching Miss State and Wake Forest Bowl game and can't take the cowbells. They are non-stop, and make me want to mute the tv.

This is Pathetic

First it was the Snuggy (blanket with arms). Now this.

If you want to sell a stupid sweatsuit, fine. But please do not advertise it as something to wear to a tailgate.

Notre Dame Bowl Woes

Its official, ND has not won a bowl game since 1995. Ha!

That is all.

Nice Little Vaca Action

This week we are in Marco Island, FL for a little R&R. Yesterday we flew into Tampa, which is about three hours north of Marco rather than flying into Fort Myers, which is just a 45 minute drive, because flights were just 550 instead of 1000. 550 to Fla is expensive enough! For me, 350 is the most I would ever expect to pay, then again, I've never flown for vaca over the holidays.

Jack turned two on Nov 9, which means he must have his own seat on the flight. However, we decided to sneak him on the flight in the dog crate so we didn't have to pay for him. No, we just lied and said his bday was Jan 30 so he could qualify for free without his own seat as "infant in arms." Wifey was very anxious about this; worried about getting caught for lying. So I handled all the check-in action. It was flawless, of course.

It was a decent flight; the kids were well-enough behaved. The three hour drive, however, was frustrating because Hunter was screaming a lot. Shocking, I know.

Something I will Never Forgive Myself For

In 2008 when we were in-between houses living in our condo, we hired a cleaning lady. She was always late and never came at the time she said she would. Our condo was supposed to be cleaned every other Saturday morning, but it always turned out to be Saturday afternoon.

In the fall, this poses problems for me because it is football season. The weekend of the Ohio game, we had the same problems mentioned above. She was supposed to come in the morning, but instead came in the early afternoon. So at half time at the Ohio game, we were forced to leave the condo (maybe not forced, but wifey demands we are not home when the house is cleaned ((she needs to be checked in to a mental institution?)) and we decided to kill time by going shopping.

While at the store, my Mom calls. She has a habit of calling me during Michigan football games for commentary on the game (Michigan won! or Michigan Lost!). Normally if I am planning on watching the game on DVR delay, I will not answer, but this time I did. Instead of "Hello", I said, I am not watching the game, so don't blow it for me. But apparently she didn't hear that, and spoiled it for me anyway. I realize we had no chance to win in hindsight, but that doesn't matter.

Thinking back on this, I pledge to myself I will NEVER let this happen again. I refuse to be run from my house to miss/watch the Ohio game on delay due to the ineptness of a cleaning lady running on time.

Cell Phone Eticate

As I am preparing to rent the two houses that I have for rent, the final step is to have them professionally cleaned. I asked my in-laws for a referral for a cleaning lady, and they happily gave me a recommendation.

So I called the number and nobody answered and there was no voice mail. I called three days in a row with this same result. I talked to my in-laws and they said that is the way she operates her phone. She never answers, but she always calls back. But she never called me back. My in-laws said they would call her and handle it. They did - she cleaned the first house.

Now the second house is ready to be cleaned. repeat above. No answer, no voice mail, no returned call. So I decdied to text her. She finally called me back from the text, and told me she was sorry she didn't ever call me back, and said "I'm sorry I don't answer my phone, I never do, you should have been warned." Then I said, "you should consider voicemail." and she laughed.

How can you run a small business/be a small business owner/sole proprietor with this type of cell phone eticate? This is not the way to success.

Christmas Lights Failure

Every year I try to do a good job with our outside Christmas lights. Shortly after Turkey-day, we had a warm weekend in the 50's and I decided it would be a good day to put up the lights. Our started the project and thankfully I tested the lights early during the project, learning what not to do from Clark W Griswold.

It turns out our single front outlet is not functioning. So after about 20 minutes the project was put on hold/cancelled. I don't know why the outlet won't work and I am not motivated enough to call someone to fix it/figure it out.

So this year we have no lights outside. I am embarrassed.

We have many differenet nationalities in our subdivision, so many folks don't celebrate Christmas at all so they don't bother with lights. But as a proud Christmas supporter/believer, I feel like to not have lights up is just wrong.

Hopefully I will get that outlet fixed for next year? I put the odds at 50/50.

FML

So, the renters are finally out. This has been such a disaster I hardly have the energy to tell the story. The guy in Brighton went with less drama save for the cats. The family in Shitmore, however, is a different story.

In addition to the BS with the FIA agency and never getting that money and getting strung along for an extra two weeks, when I finally put up my arms and said "I've had enough," and submitted the eviction paperwork, last Friday the deputy sheriff went and stuck the 24 hour notice to the door. That cost me $55.00. If they didn't leave by 24 hours, then I would come and pay the deputy $30 per hour plus milage to watch me unload all their shit. Thank God they got out on Monday. However, they left ALL THEIR SHIT in the yard and in the house. It is amazing. There is so much junk that I literally have to have a dumpster delivered to the house and fill the damn thing up. I need to hire a guy for two full days to unload the junk into the dumpster. Literally, they left a live turtle in the basement in a fish tank. What kind of people would do this?

The dumpster is $325, plus $200 labor. Also, the stove and fridge are inoperable due to their stench. So that is another $800. Holes in the wall, cleaning people, paint, God only knows how many other repairs I will need! So in addition to the $3,600 in rent (through November) and court costs they owe me, I'm figuring another $1,500 in cleaning and BS plus paint = $2,000 for a total of $5,600 the effed me out of. Plus December is not rented, so add another 695 for over 6,000. If you add in my agony, grief, time, and rage, then you could take it over 10,000.

One More Reason Why I Love Costco

This hand dipped ice cream bar with almonds is only $1.50 and it is INCREDIBLE. There is nothing like it! Not to mention the price. The actual ice cream is not super premium, but the chocolate and almonds are very very good. The only thing that could make it better is if the ice cream were super premium.

When I compare this product to products from Dairy Queen, there is just no comparison. First of all, the Dairy Queen ingredients are shit. The quality of the ice cream is bad. The prices are outrageous. I am convinced this item at DQ would be 4.99 instead of 1.50.

I love this item so much that I will go out of my way to go to Costco to get this!

Eviction Update

So remember the a-hole tenants for whom I had to go to Chelsea court 3 times to get out? Well I had the judgement as of Nov 2 and they needed to get out by Nov 14. So on like Nov 9 I start calling the tenant telling them to get the Ef out cause the Sheriff is going to come throw their shit in the street. He says he has money coming from the FIA agency blah blah blah. I actually talked to the lady at the agency who said they were about to be approved. But magically, the next day, the FIA lady says she can't talk to me about the case anymore. This was very suspicious to me.

Meanwhile, the tenant tells me he is approved for $1200 and the check is in the mail. So I am hopeful, but very suspicious because I have not received a call, email, or letter from anyone at FIA who supposedly approved him for $1200. If the check was in the mail why wouldn't they confirm it with me? I clearly can't trust the tenant because he has literally been o-fer when "the check is in the mail."

So I waited a couple more days to see if the check would come, and of course, it never did. So I told the tenant to get the eff out and I was sending the paperwork to the sherif that day. He started calling and texting saying he was trying and some other b.s. Then he texted me something like, "I'm still trying to get the info to FIA, I should have it soon, I'm trying." This tells me that he was never approved because he never actually supplied all the information to the agency. I suspect if he would have supplied the info, he would have been approved. Talk about an Effing loser. I mean, you have from Nov 2 to like Nov 30 to get assistance or WORK or SOMETHING and you can't even come up with $1 of rent. That also goes from July 1 to Dec 1. Not ONE DOLLAR OF RENT.

So like I said I sent in the paperwork to the sherif and naturally, they said I filled it out wrong. Well, not exactly. They said I didn't include on the paperwork if I mailed a copy to the tenant, but there was nothing on the form telling me I needed to do that. So that delayed the court a day - fortunately, I was able to fax over a letter to the courthouse to fix it. I asked the lady at the court where I filled it out wrong and she said its not on the form, you're just "supposed to know" to put it in. Nothing surprises me anymore. Nothing!

In other news, you know I have the Brighton judgement from Nov 9. He had to be out by Nov 21. Today is Dec 1 and he still has some big furniture there and I am threatening to have it taken to the dump. I actually went there yesterday to see how the condition of the place was looking and it is in decent enough shape. It just needs paint and to be cleaned. but when I was there, I found all the furniture, and of course, two cats. There was no heat in the house because he didn't pay the gas bill since august. So these cats are effing freezing. Also they are starving, because there is no food left out for them. Or there was but they ate it all days ago. WHY? WHY?WHY?WHY?

So I had to go get some cat food for the cats because I have a soul.

I called my painter to come look at the house and give me a bid. When he went out there, he felt so bad for the cats he took them with him. He said he couldn't let the cats freeze. I was glad, but also worried because this guy is basically stealing these cats and I am not rally supposed to be in the house without the Sherrif. blah blah blah

So today the renter actually gets back to me over text and said he was going to pick up the cats today. I immediately called the painter and told him to take those cats back ASAP! He said he wasn't going to be able to do it until 5pm. So I was forced to tell the renter that I took the cats to keep them warm and I would bring them back at 5pm so they won't be there when he gets there. At this hour, I have not heard from the tenant or the renter about the cat.

If the renter does not have the furniture out by this weekend I am going to pay my painter to take all of his shit to the dump. I am so sick of this shit. The next step is to take dozens of calls about renting both houses, and spend several evenings of my personal time driving out, showing the houses, trying to get the utilities on and in my name, and collecting rent and coordinating all that. Should be a lovely time.

I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE