Farewell, Oh Ye Political Giant

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Victory Is Mine!

I had a knit pair of slipper boots/mukluks in college that were my favorite things ever. I wore them everywhere, including on rounds. They even went to Mexico with me. Sadly, they died a rather violent death by dog mauling.

For the past 10 years or so, I've been looking for a new pair. I've scoured the internets, tried every variation in search engines and came up empty handed. I could have planned a trip back to OU to go to the store where I originally purchased these, but I'm not going to take a 7 hour trip (one way) just to buy a pair of $20 slipperboots.

Today, I finally found a site that sells them -- just as I remember them, leather soles and all. You know the first thing I did, after I got over the initial shock, was click on the "Buy These Bitches Now" button. I should have them in my greedy bootslipper loving hands in 3-5 business days. Pictures will be posted. Seriously. And maybe I'll even post the pictures of Roxy and Ginger that I was supposed to have posted months ago.

[If you doubt my love for these boots, there is at least one semi-regular commenter that has witnessed these boots in all their glory. They even went on rounds with me in said boots. I'll let you all figure out who s/he is.]

Oooooh, Barracuda

Do you like to rock? Do you like guitars? What about hair bands, indie punk rockers, and KISS? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then maybe you should come over to my Bitchin' Condo and play some Guitar Hero.

On a whim, the Mayordomo and I bought Guitar Hero III and 2 guitar controllers. It's been non-stop rockin' at our place since Monday. Mayordomo particularly likes "Barracuda" and "I Wanna Rock 'n' Roll" -- or whatever that Poison song is called. I'm more partial to the alternative songs: Social Distorion, Sonic Youth, and the like. Of course, Mayordomo hates this when we play together because it gives me an advantage. He never got into college rock, indie bands, or alternative music so he has never heard these songs before. Whereas, while I've never been a huge fan of heavy metal, you don't grow up in the 80's not knowing these songs.

And for some bizarre reason I've got "Carry On Wayward Son" by Kansas stuck in my head. It's been there all week. The last time I actually remember hearing that song was over the summer when I was watching Supernatural. (You can laugh all you want, and I'll agree: The show is nothing but eye-candy.)

I've gotta go practice my power stance now. If you need me, I'll be in the 'concert hall' (OK, fine game room/guest bedroom) rockin. Just knock before you come in -- I might have some groupies in there with me.

Please, Recompete

We've got some serious issues with our property management company. Unfortunately, our Board decided that we're going to stick with them for at least another year. This despite the fact that there is wide-spread discontent with the antics of the property management company. (I know there were some compelling reasons to hold off on the recompete, but seriously ... )

Things got pretty interesting this weekend. Without any advance notice, we were advised that our garages are going to be power-washed, "effective immediately" and starting on Monday. A schedule, by level, with poorly written instructions followed. The notice finished with a disclaimer that all cars will be towed -- at the owner's expense -- if they are not removed prior to the power washing, and that the Association is not responsible for any damages.

Never mind that Monday was a Holiday. Never mind that many people had already left for a long weekend. Never mind that there aren't enough guest spaces to accommodate 5% of the cars on any given parking deck. Never mind they knew about this for 2 weeks prior to the event. We won't even talk about how ridiculous it is to clean a garage right before all the salt and grime of winter is going to start accumulating. And, finally, never mind that the Board was never asked for approval of this project.

There are going to be some seriously pissed off residents/owners when they discover their cars are missing from their assigned parking spots. Hopefully, this will be the last nail in our property management's coffin, because they are getting seriously out-of-hand. Someone needs to remind them that they are not running an apartment complex, so heavy-handed mandates from on high are not acceptable. They need to be reminded that while they exist to manage the complex and to a certain extent enforce our by-laws, at the end of the day, they work at our discretion. As far as I'm concerned, these people are going to find themselves out of a job.

Grab Bag

In the frenzy of the last few weeks, many things that I wanted to post about escaped my attention. So to make things easier, here's a bulleted list. That's

folks, cause that's how I HTML.

• Taxi Drivers throwing a hissy fit: The area taxistas have been all bent out of shape about a proposed plan to do away with the crazy-as-hell 'zone' system in favor of the never-before-heard-of meters. Pro: no more getting ripped off by dishonest taxi drivers. Con: people who rely on taxis to get places would end up paying more. Personally, I think a hybrid system could work well. Give customers the choice of using the meter vs. the zone system when they enter the cab.
• Pilot Project: Within a few days I hope to bring the Emergency Douche-cast System live.
• Crazy Lady On Metro: Nothing says all primped up for a job interview like wearing a business skirt-suit set 2 sizes too small, and grabbing the waistband of your pantyhose from the outside of your skirt and hiking them up and letting the elastic snap satisfyingly. All in plain view of everyone on the metro. Repeatedly. I'm still not sure what the walking backwards out of the train and on the platform in high heels was all about. However, and I say this in all sincerity, I hope you're OK, and that you got the job.
• Visitation By The Unnamed
• Clean House 2007: Sunday was super-hyper cleaning Robobo-Gobobo CLEAN! day. Clean House: Let me showz you it.

I'm thinking I need to go out and do something exciting this weekend. There's only so much of sitting on the couch doped up on Vicodin and muscle relaxants drooling on myself that I can take. I'm gonna take this show on the road.

Nothing New of Note

No, I'm not dead, in hiding, suffering from a disfiguring skin disease or anything remotely like that. But the project that ate my life 2007 edition, is almost over. My portion is complete, and it has entered the testing phase. Within the week, the website redesign should go live. It's kind of cool because I'll have something 'concrete' to point at and say "I did that." Of course, I now have a new massive project. Which also involves HTML, CSS and all that fun web stuff. So, it looks like I'll still be dreaming in HTML code for at least a few more weeks.

Outside of work, I'm happy to report that we have done away with Fall entirely out here. We moved from the hot and humid 85 degree weather of Extended-Summer-In-October directly to the 45-50 degree I-Hope-You-Own-A-Parka-Early-Onset-Winter. Two weeks ago, lows were in the mid-to-high 60's, now it's about 37. Granted, I love wintertime ... but I like Fall better, and I'm a little annoyed it didn't really happen this year. On the positive side, this means I get to wear my new red hoodie sooner than expected.

Unexpected Bounty

To make a very long story short: I was perusing the company intranet calender yesterday, and I discovered we now get Veteran's Day as a paid holiday. Granted, that means we lose our 'floating' holiday -- but I usually forgot to take that anyway. I am so looking forward to this unexpected 3-day weekend!