Dive Bars and Beers

5 SIGNS THAT YOUR NEW FAVORITE DRINKING ESTABLISHMENT IS A DIVE BAR:

#5:  A pitcher of beer only costs $7.00

#4: There is a giant gaping hole behind the toilet (not to mention those curtains)

#3: The fancy artwork is screwed into the wall with half a handful of screws they don't even try to hide

#2: The pool table doubles as a beer pong table

And, finally...

#1: the sink is propped up with a 2x4

Maybe you ask what could possibly entice one to frequent this establishment?  Proximity to the house, that's what.

Gah.  I just looked at the floor below that sink in the picture one more time. 

New house, new bills

Chris:  Hey, can I throw this away?

Me:  What is it?

Chris:  The SDG&E bill I just paid online.

Me:  No, give it here please.

Chris:  Why?

Me:  Library card.

Chris looked at me and, with that look on his face that says, I love you honey and you are so adorable but sometimes I think we inhabit a completely different universe, and said aloud, "Heh, you're a nerd."

And if you do not know why I need a copy of a recent bill with my name on it for my first library card in this city, then you are not a nerd and you do not belong in our secret club.

And if you do, well, kudos to you.  As for me, I'm off to read a book...

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Summertime has both wonderful things and not-so-wonderful things.  Here are a few from the past couple days:

THE GOOD
Ripe watermelon, straight from the field...

THE BAD
With hotter temperatures, fire season is in full swing...

AND THE UGLY
For anyone who doesn't know, July in San Diego was one of the coolest on record. August started out the same way - threatening to break 100-year-old records of the lowest daytime high temperature. Granted, that is about 65 degrees - which in no way is something to complain about.


But all of that changed last week when Mother Nature said, fooled you little peons, just as you started getting comfortable in your light jackets and cool breezes, now it's suddenly going to be the HOT! ah ha ha ha! In contrast to July (and, really, most of the summer), August has brought a "heat wave" that is now breaking record highs, instead of record lows.


Now, I'm fairly hip with the 100+ weather, having survived many summers in Phoenix. However, it is amazing how quickly one's tolerance for the heat dissipates when, suddenly, the air conditioning goes out.

AND CONTINUES NOT TO WORK FOR 4 WHOLE DAYS.


Last Tuesday, the AC at the office turned off, right about at the hottest portion of the day. Meh. We call air conditioning guy. He comes out, says he's not sure what's wrong but it doesn't look like the unit is getting any power and we probably need a $1300 part to fix it. Probably.


Wednesday, he comes out, replaces the part, and.... still no AC. Did I mention how difficult it is to concentrate on work inside a building that is maintaining a toasty 89 degrees? Everyone's walking around the office in their socks, shirt collars unbuttoned, sweat on their brows. Temperaments are, at best, testy and at worst, downright cranky.


Thursday, the husband of one of my co-workers stops by the office. Being a sort of handy guy, he climbs up to the roof to check out the AC unit. He climbs back down in less than two minutes and proclaims, "I found your problem."


Turns out, the landlord had the energy company install one of those "Super Saver Energy Boxes" that turns your electricity useage off during peak (aka the hottest) hours of the day. Which explains why the AC was working in the morning, but mysteriously turned off at the same time every day.


You would have thought the AC repairman would have looked for that. I mean, if your computer wasn't working, wouldn't the first thing you do be to check and make sure it's plugged in?


So after a quick call to the energy company the "Super Saver" was disabled and, theortically, we were going to have air condition again. Friday proved the energy company to be liars and for our building, once again, to be hot. Nothing like being on the top floor of an only moderately-insulated converted warehouse building. It was cooler outside than in.


Who knows what next week will bring... I miss you, air conditioning, please come back.

I think he just wanted a new phone...

iPhone, meet rock.

Rock, meet iPhone.


(To give it credit, it did pretty much still work.  It didn't actually ring, so if you weren't paying attention it was easy to miss a call.  And we did have to tape it up so that the husband wasn't getting glass shards in his fingers.)

But it was slowly dying machine and the end was inevitable.


And now you know how my husband came to have a brand new phone.

Solution-less Puzzle

I have been spending a lot of time lately developing my relationship with Southwest Airlines.  Aside from all the fun and games that comes along with frequent flyer-ship, I've spent enough time reading Spirit magazine to realize that the July issue of the crossword puzzle was missing half of the clues for the "down" column.  This made me reminisce on another solution-less puzzle that I came across during my college days.

I have always been a big fan of Dots candy.  You know, the gumdrops that come in the yellow box.  I don't know if they still do, but they used to come with little mazes and puzzles on the back side of the box.  Well, one day back in 2001, I met a maze that had no solution.

I tried to solve this maze.  I tried.  And tried.  And tried.

Finally, I gave up.  There absolutely was no solution to this maze.  In my despair, I sent a copy of the un-solvable maze along with a letter to the Dots corporation.  (And the address wasn't on the box, either... I went to quite a bit of trouble over the whole thing).

I didn't really expect a response.

Turns out, I got one:




Some poor consumer relations lady actually had to write a letter that said, "we apologize for any undue concern the solution-less puzzle may have called."   Okay, thanks, but I wasn't that concerned!