The Dutchman leaves tomorrow - sadness - but I'm going out to dinner with two colleagues tomorrow night, so my sorrows will be drowned a smidge.
Two ridiculous things happened today:
1) Our water was turned off at 9:52 this morning. To the whole house. No water. Not a drop. The Dutchman was halfway through shaving....it sounds like something out of a movie, but there it is. Apparently, I neglected to put the water bill in my name - I thought our landlord took care of that. So, filthy me and the half-shorn Dutchman went to the local water resources office and paid them a fat $115 to turn it back on so we could brush our teeth and use the loo. Ridiculous...
2) After this mess was over (and I missed going out to lunch with 3 new colleagues today dammit!), we went to Denny's. After consuming the mini-burgers I felt better. We went to Home Depot to get those last little nit-picky things and then went home. And realized we'd locked ourself out of the house. This was actually the Dutchman's fault (he'd pulled the door shut locked without checking to make sure I had my keys). There's a ridiculous reason why we haven't been able to have duplicates made of the house keys. But suffice it to say that our landlord is away for 10 days and we have one key. That was in the house. With a cat curled up about 5 inches from it and looking at us wildly gesticulating through the front window with a look that said, "If you haven't brought me tuna, then fuck off."
So, we attempted a break in! And I'm actually happy that we failed because this made me feel better about my safety. Even though I'm sure that thieves would be more resourceful. So, we called the 24 hour locksmith and in 45 minutes a hillbilly named Trevor came to unlock our door. In the meantime, TD and I had lost 7 pints of blood each to the mosquitoes. Trevor had difficulty opening the front door (mumbling something about "old lock" and "difficult" and saying "dag-gummit" and "holy moly!" under his breath). So, I took him around back to try the back door and he finally got it open. He insisted on seeing my lease and one of my utility bills (which was good in prinicple but irritated me when every square inch of flesh on my body was itching). Then I forked over $55 in cash (no credit or checks).
So, today's lessons cost us $170 and 14 pints of blood. I feel like swimming in DEET....
5 comments:
Zowie!
The first day I owned my house, I managed to lock myself out and the dogs in (they were like, WTF? What is this place? Where are our food bowls? Why are you outside?), and my spare key to my new house was in my old apartment, the keys to which were on the key chain locked inside the new house, and my landlady for the old apartment was out of town. I did eventually manage to break into my apartment through the kitchen window and the day was saved. And at least there were no mosquitoes!
Well, on the plus side, you've given at least one member of the blogosphere an entertaining break from work!
(Is it technically a break if I haven't actually started yet?)
Oh no! But I'm glad everything worked out, and your new place looks/sounds beautiful! (Sorry have been a negligent commenter lately; unuseful stuff's been going on it my head.)
And I meant to mention that I "know" (which is to say, I met for a second time at a conference, over a bunch of drinks) one of your new colleagues and totally talked you up (hint: said person, who's obviously in my field, was on leave/sabbatical this past year, and lived relatively recently in a city I've also lived in).
Of course, I did not reveal how I knew you. So in the unlikely event that she mentions me, be cool!
Oh, Flave! I believe I know who you're talking about - I have not yet met said person, yes? Oh, you're so nice talking me up to my colleague peeps! I will totally be cool about it - the way I usually talk about fellow bloggers is "Oh, s/he's a friend of a friend - you know how small a pond academia is!" Was s/he nice? I'm looking forward to meeting them...
Oh, totally. I quite liked him/her. And at least on my limited exposure, s/he has some awesome jewelry! (Okay, I guess that last comment just obviated any need for gender-neutral pronouns. . . )
Post a Comment