For some reason I can't seem to comment on my own blog. It's annoying.
But yes, I was talking about those utterly adorable little parasols you & Tom gave me. They're adorable. :)
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Parasol salt shakers: Mended!
I collected them today. They are charming as ever, and now they work! (Still need polishing.) I'm so glad the pawnshop moved in downstairs and brought their repair dude with them.
Today's earrings: bears, stumps
Bedtime reading: Soon I Will Be Invincible, Austin Grossman
Today's earrings: bears, stumps
Bedtime reading: Soon I Will Be Invincible, Austin Grossman
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Further adventures
Filed my first police report tonight. The process was made more entertaining by the child of the people ahead of me in line. He was most cute; younger than, but otherwise not unlike, my nephew. I should go visit my nephew. And send him books.
I spent the last week intermittently handing out keys. There were two impromptu parties at my place, at which I passed around keys and drinks and said things like "I am the Keymaster!" and my neighbors gave no hint that they had seen either Ghostbusters or Say Anything. One of my neighbors surprised me by having a spare set cut for me. I was very touched.
Brunch last weekend with T&S. I've agreed to take receipt of a gatefold table and rather a lot of geneological materials. (*anticipatory cackle*)
Did the requested shopping for the Wandering Albatross. Must ship tomorrow.
Today's earrings: bulls, flowers
I spent the last week intermittently handing out keys. There were two impromptu parties at my place, at which I passed around keys and drinks and said things like "I am the Keymaster!" and my neighbors gave no hint that they had seen either Ghostbusters or Say Anything. One of my neighbors surprised me by having a spare set cut for me. I was very touched.
Brunch last weekend with T&S. I've agreed to take receipt of a gatefold table and rather a lot of geneological materials. (*anticipatory cackle*)
Did the requested shopping for the Wandering Albatross. Must ship tomorrow.
Today's earrings: bulls, flowers
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
The Recent Adventures of Misadventure Girl
All times approximate.
Thursday, 7/28, 8:30am: An alarm in my apartment building went off. The fire department was summoned, the fire doors shut, and the blinky strobe lights went off, but there was no audible alarm. I was on my way to work, but ran into a lobbyful of firefighters instead. The firefighters did their sweeps and concluded there was no fire. I called the management company. Extended phone tag ensued. While waiting around with Constant Neighbor for the Property Manager Dude to show up, we discovered that the front door would not close on its own. It would fall to about two inches shy of closed, and hang there. It could be pulled shut, though. So Constant Neighbor and I spent the morning in the lobby, making sure the door got closed behind everyone who went in and out. I called work and told them I was taking a floating holiday. While we were there, a tech for the internet company came in. We asked how it was going, and he said that it'd be about three more weeks. ????? Property Manager Dude had been telling us that he'd been promised a Monday, 8/1 go date.
1pm: Property Manager Dude showed up. (His assistant had been telling me all morning that Property Manager Dude "was in a meeting" and would be getting right back to me. Property Manager Dude told me he'd been at a doctor's appointment. And I'm, like, it would have killed the assistant to give me a realistic ETA? I'd have been so much less pissed.) The plumber/handyman and the alarm company tech showed up right after him. They started trying to figure out what had triggered the alarm while I trailed after them trying to keep out of the way. I finally got to go up on the roof, and it really is nice up there, except for all the ductwork underfoot. The upshot was that something had caused a fluctuation in the water pressure upstream of the fire pump... but there was no way to know what. Might have been something in the building, might have been construction or repairs somewhere upstream in the city water pipes. They weren't even 100% sure it wasn't a short that just looked like a water pressure fluctuation. We agreed to schedule a fire drill with full testing of the alarm system at everyone's earliest convenience. The alarm guy turned off the alarm. The front door started closing properly. Constant Neighbor and I put a bug in Property Manager Dude's ear about the internet company's ETA. We all went our separate ways around 3pm.
Friday, 7/29, afternoon: Property Manager Dude emailed the board a flyer about the upcoming fire drill and asked that someone post it in the lobby. I volunteered.
7pm: I got home after my standard wine & pizza with b2. I went down to the basement to get the key to the bulletin board, and found that the lockboxes that held the keys were gone. They had been bolted to the wall in the basement. We'd pulled keys out of them the day before. And now, they were just plain gone. I was a shade bewildered - three glasses of wine - but I was pretty sure I was looking at the right spot, from the holes in the wall where the bolts used to be. I went upstairs and left a voicemail for Property Manager Dude.
Saturday, 7/30, morning: I went down to the basement and looked around some more. The exterior handle to one of the storage areas had been knocked off the door. Just the handle part; the door was still closed, and not easily openable. I left a voicemail for Property Manager Dude. Then I went to meet b2 and we saw Cowboys and Aliens. (Exactly - and I do mean exactly - what you're expecting. Cowboys, aliens, horses, stuff explodes. We recommend the matinee seating.)
Monday, 8/1, 2:30pm: Property Manager Dude called me back about the missing lock boxes. Turns out there was an outside door key in there. Oh, dear. The boxes themselves have four-digit combination locks. Only 10,000 combinations to try. They're a bit sticky, but still, all it takes to open them is time and perseverance. I email the rest of the board to tell tham that re-keying the outside doors is now on the agenda for Tuesday's board meeting.
Tuesday, 8/2, 6:30pm: Scheduled HOA board meeting. Property Manager Dude announced that he had successfully bullied the internet company into getting their act together, and we were now ready to go in the building. He gave setup instructions. We discussed various and sundry other business. I brought up the missing lockboxes. We decided to re-key only the exterior doors, for now. The meeting broke up.
9pm: Constant Neighbor appeared at my door. He'd skipped the meeting, but someone who had been there had filled him in about the missing lockboxes and imminent rekeying. He was not pleased. I gave him booze. He wandered off.
10pm: Constant Neighbor knocked on my door to tell me that another alarm had gone off. Back down to the lobby to meet the firefighters, many of them the same as last time. This time the source was a "manual pull" inside the Subway restaurant. Which we can't get into. I called the management company emergency line, and they sent out the same plumber/handyman as before. He played around with the alarm system for a while, and the upshot was that until we could get in to the Subway so that the "manual pull" could be physically touched by a firefighter's magic hands, the alarm could not be shut off. Silenced, but not shut off. It turns out we don't have emergency numbers for the commercial tenants, and neither does the management company. Maybe the alarm company could do something? Maybe, but by now it was 11pm. There weren't any techs there at customer service who could try something remotely, and no way to know how long it would take to get a tech to show up in person. Constant Neighbor, who'd been alternately being helpful and throwing tantrums, suggested paying the bouncer at the bar down the block to stay the night in the lobby. Sounded good to me, but the bouncer had already had other plans. I called the emergency line at the management company and asked if she could get us a security guard for the night. She said, "probably," and went off to make some calls. Turns out it's harder than you'd think to pull a security guard out of thin air at midnight.
Wenesday, 8/3, 1am: I gave up on finding a security guard, made signs for the stairs and elevator, took Muffin's Aerobed down to the lobby, and settled in for the night.
2am: Constant Neighbor stopped fluttering around trying to make me more comfortable and went off to his own bed. I tried to sleep.
4am: Recycling Guy came in to collect our recycling. And that made it worthwhile to me that I'd stayed down there. The guy seemed pleasant enough, but I really doubt he would have made sure the door closed behind him if I hadn't been there.
6:30am: The first of my neighbors came through on his way to work.
7am: My next-door-neighbor L came through on his way to work. He called up to his partner M (who's one of my fellow board members) and told him that I was camped out in the lobby. M came down and relieved me. I briefed him, then folded up the air bed and went to take a shower.
8:22am: A firefighter entered the now-open Subway and laid his magic hands on the "manual pull." The alarm shut off. I went to work.
Thursday 8/4: My neighbor M volunteered to pass out the new keys today. The locks will be changed tomorrow. The trouble is, not all of our neighbors are at home to get the new keys. So, how to get them into the right hands without locking anyone out? It's a puzzle.
Thursday, 7/28, 8:30am: An alarm in my apartment building went off. The fire department was summoned, the fire doors shut, and the blinky strobe lights went off, but there was no audible alarm. I was on my way to work, but ran into a lobbyful of firefighters instead. The firefighters did their sweeps and concluded there was no fire. I called the management company. Extended phone tag ensued. While waiting around with Constant Neighbor for the Property Manager Dude to show up, we discovered that the front door would not close on its own. It would fall to about two inches shy of closed, and hang there. It could be pulled shut, though. So Constant Neighbor and I spent the morning in the lobby, making sure the door got closed behind everyone who went in and out. I called work and told them I was taking a floating holiday. While we were there, a tech for the internet company came in. We asked how it was going, and he said that it'd be about three more weeks. ????? Property Manager Dude had been telling us that he'd been promised a Monday, 8/1 go date.
1pm: Property Manager Dude showed up. (His assistant had been telling me all morning that Property Manager Dude "was in a meeting" and would be getting right back to me. Property Manager Dude told me he'd been at a doctor's appointment. And I'm, like, it would have killed the assistant to give me a realistic ETA? I'd have been so much less pissed.) The plumber/handyman and the alarm company tech showed up right after him. They started trying to figure out what had triggered the alarm while I trailed after them trying to keep out of the way. I finally got to go up on the roof, and it really is nice up there, except for all the ductwork underfoot. The upshot was that something had caused a fluctuation in the water pressure upstream of the fire pump... but there was no way to know what. Might have been something in the building, might have been construction or repairs somewhere upstream in the city water pipes. They weren't even 100% sure it wasn't a short that just looked like a water pressure fluctuation. We agreed to schedule a fire drill with full testing of the alarm system at everyone's earliest convenience. The alarm guy turned off the alarm. The front door started closing properly. Constant Neighbor and I put a bug in Property Manager Dude's ear about the internet company's ETA. We all went our separate ways around 3pm.
Friday, 7/29, afternoon: Property Manager Dude emailed the board a flyer about the upcoming fire drill and asked that someone post it in the lobby. I volunteered.
7pm: I got home after my standard wine & pizza with b2. I went down to the basement to get the key to the bulletin board, and found that the lockboxes that held the keys were gone. They had been bolted to the wall in the basement. We'd pulled keys out of them the day before. And now, they were just plain gone. I was a shade bewildered - three glasses of wine - but I was pretty sure I was looking at the right spot, from the holes in the wall where the bolts used to be. I went upstairs and left a voicemail for Property Manager Dude.
Saturday, 7/30, morning: I went down to the basement and looked around some more. The exterior handle to one of the storage areas had been knocked off the door. Just the handle part; the door was still closed, and not easily openable. I left a voicemail for Property Manager Dude. Then I went to meet b2 and we saw Cowboys and Aliens. (Exactly - and I do mean exactly - what you're expecting. Cowboys, aliens, horses, stuff explodes. We recommend the matinee seating.)
Monday, 8/1, 2:30pm: Property Manager Dude called me back about the missing lock boxes. Turns out there was an outside door key in there. Oh, dear. The boxes themselves have four-digit combination locks. Only 10,000 combinations to try. They're a bit sticky, but still, all it takes to open them is time and perseverance. I email the rest of the board to tell tham that re-keying the outside doors is now on the agenda for Tuesday's board meeting.
Tuesday, 8/2, 6:30pm: Scheduled HOA board meeting. Property Manager Dude announced that he had successfully bullied the internet company into getting their act together, and we were now ready to go in the building. He gave setup instructions. We discussed various and sundry other business. I brought up the missing lockboxes. We decided to re-key only the exterior doors, for now. The meeting broke up.
9pm: Constant Neighbor appeared at my door. He'd skipped the meeting, but someone who had been there had filled him in about the missing lockboxes and imminent rekeying. He was not pleased. I gave him booze. He wandered off.
10pm: Constant Neighbor knocked on my door to tell me that another alarm had gone off. Back down to the lobby to meet the firefighters, many of them the same as last time. This time the source was a "manual pull" inside the Subway restaurant. Which we can't get into. I called the management company emergency line, and they sent out the same plumber/handyman as before. He played around with the alarm system for a while, and the upshot was that until we could get in to the Subway so that the "manual pull" could be physically touched by a firefighter's magic hands, the alarm could not be shut off. Silenced, but not shut off. It turns out we don't have emergency numbers for the commercial tenants, and neither does the management company. Maybe the alarm company could do something? Maybe, but by now it was 11pm. There weren't any techs there at customer service who could try something remotely, and no way to know how long it would take to get a tech to show up in person. Constant Neighbor, who'd been alternately being helpful and throwing tantrums, suggested paying the bouncer at the bar down the block to stay the night in the lobby. Sounded good to me, but the bouncer had already had other plans. I called the emergency line at the management company and asked if she could get us a security guard for the night. She said, "probably," and went off to make some calls. Turns out it's harder than you'd think to pull a security guard out of thin air at midnight.
Wenesday, 8/3, 1am: I gave up on finding a security guard, made signs for the stairs and elevator, took Muffin's Aerobed down to the lobby, and settled in for the night.
2am: Constant Neighbor stopped fluttering around trying to make me more comfortable and went off to his own bed. I tried to sleep.
4am: Recycling Guy came in to collect our recycling. And that made it worthwhile to me that I'd stayed down there. The guy seemed pleasant enough, but I really doubt he would have made sure the door closed behind him if I hadn't been there.
6:30am: The first of my neighbors came through on his way to work.
7am: My next-door-neighbor L came through on his way to work. He called up to his partner M (who's one of my fellow board members) and told him that I was camped out in the lobby. M came down and relieved me. I briefed him, then folded up the air bed and went to take a shower.
8:22am: A firefighter entered the now-open Subway and laid his magic hands on the "manual pull." The alarm shut off. I went to work.
Thursday 8/4: My neighbor M volunteered to pass out the new keys today. The locks will be changed tomorrow. The trouble is, not all of our neighbors are at home to get the new keys. So, how to get them into the right hands without locking anyone out? It's a puzzle.
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