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They Only Think It’s Gone

July 31, 2007 By

Remember when I mentioned about the leaky sink and the moldy results? Well, here’s the rest of the story.

So as not to gross anyone out by sticking them in your face, you can go here to see the photos.

Almost a week after the original fix, we got someone out to fix under the cabinets. It took that long because I called the office and wouldn’t let them in without anyone being home, so I had to make an appointment so I could let boyfriend know. So, they came out, slapped down some peel and stick vinyl floor tile, caulked it and called it good. Well, all was not good. They totally ignored the little cabinet to the left of the sink, which was also damaged. The huge gap under the dividing wall between the cabinets should have been a clue, since the floor was severely warped and the two cabinets share a floor. But, no, it was not fixed. So on Monday I called the office again, and told them that I was not happy with the fix and that part of the damage was completely ignored. I was told that the maintenance supervisor was just back from vacation and he would head over to look at the damage. He did, and Boyfriend told him to come back the next day since Boyfriend works from home most of the time.

The next day, they come back to try and fix this and immediately start in with the peel and stick vinyl floor tiles. Boyfriend stops him and tells him that there’s mold. Boyfriend was told that the white stuff was hard water stains and that mold is black, but maintenance humored Boyfriend and poured some bleach on it before covering it up with the vinyl tiles.

Now, I’m not an expert or anything, but if you look at the photos you will see that there are plenty of black bits on that cabinet floor. And I know enough about hard water to know that the buildup of limescale is not furry!!!!! Anyone who has seen a rotten piece of fruit, however, knows that mold can be furry.

Since the apartment has considered this problem to be fixed, I have taken pictures and documented our experience in the event that I ever need to prove that we did everything that, as tenants, we are legally obligated to do. But seriously, this just sucks that such a “nice” apartment complex would be that lackadaisical about mold.

I’m willing to bet that some unnamed neighbors will soon be having similar maintenance issues. Our water was off for a good part of the day, so I encouraged Boyfriend (who works from home most of the time) to call. Technically, they’re supposed to notify us in the event of an outage of essential services, and since the water was off for a short time yesterday also, we figured they knew it would be off again today. Anyway, it turns out that a neighbor in our building had a leak – a major leak – that required maintenance to shut the water off to fix. They couldn’t fix it yesterday, so they tried again today. It comes as no surprise to us that maintenance had a hard time with the leak. If this leak is a major as the office made it out to be in their attempt to elicit sympathy for the need to shut the water off, and it had been occurring for more than a few hours when it was discovered, and if maintenance fixes up the damage resulting from the leak with the same expertise they did our cabinet, then it looks like we’re not the only ones with problems. We should find out who the neighbor is and get friendly with them, because should this spread, we could very well have a case for at the very least getting out of our lease without penalty.

Filed Under: Grrr, House

My Mom’s A Blogger Now!

July 30, 2007 By

Hey all, just a quick update – My mommy finally got a blog!!! I encourage all of you to visit and say hi. Here’s her (edited for privacy) email that I got announcing it. Go here to visit her. (I’m emailing this, so if the link doesn’t work, go to www.bubba9399.blogspot.com – she was so excited she put .blog instead of .com in her email).

Mommy wrote:
Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2007 17:54:50 -0700 (PDT)
From: Mommy
Subject: Blog me
To: Kirsten

Maybe you can tell me how to improve my “looks” on the blog.
(Whenever you have time)
Love,
Mommy

Filed Under: Family, On the Internet

How to Be a Blog Spammer

July 29, 2007 By

I received a comment to my previous post that was obviously nothing but spam. I have comment moderation enabled so that I do not subject all my faithful readers to the spam that I receive (it’s not much, really). Once in awhile I have been known to post spam because at that moment in time I have a witty comment available.

For those who are wondering, here’s the entire text of the email I received notifying me of the comment:

knicksgrl0917 has left a new comment on your post “Focus on Repairs”:
hey! i’m going to cali this weekend and won’t be back until september…here is the website i was talking about where i made extra summer cash. Later! the website is here
Publish this comment.
Reject this comment.
Moderate comments for this blog.
Posted by knicksgrl0917 to All About Me – And Then Some at 7/28/2007 5:06 PM

The part that says the website is here had a link to the website, which was a “Get Paid to Take Surveys” site. Now, here’s how to be a spammer, for those who are interested.

  1. Comment people you don’t know referencing conversations you’ve never had.
  2. Leave links to websites that supposedly allow people to make money. Doing this without full disclosure is even better.
  3. Leave your profile private. That was the case here. Now I can’t visit your blog to see exactly how legitimate you are, nor can I flag you blog to the authorities. Smart move on your part.
  4. Tell me up front that you want a link to your own spam blog. Entice me even further by telling me you’ve linked to me.
  5. Write your comment in a foreign language and include lots of links. I don’t know whether you’re legit or not, but I’ll click your links for the fun of it.

This list is in no way complete, but it does outline some of the tactics I’ve seen that I can remember at this moment in time. What other suggestions do you have to become a blog spammer?

Filed Under: Grrr, My Blog

Focus on Repairs

July 28, 2007 By

Remember back last fall when I got a new car? A lovely 2005 Ford Focus that looks like this:

Well, it’s still under warranty, since it’s only 2 years old and 29,500 miles. It still looks great. But go? Does it? Not so much.

About 2 weeks ago I brought it in for some warranty service. The air conditioner wasn’t cooling properly (which, when its 115°F outside, air conditioning is no longer a luxury, it’s a necessity), and the radio was doing weird things when it played CDs. I also found out after Boyfriend brought it in that it had a transmission issue, which Boyfriend noticed but didn’t tell me. So, a week later I get the car back. The radio has been replaced, the transmission was completely rebuilt because it was so on its last legs, and the air conditioner was not fixed because of “previous work and aftermarket parts.” Well, a conversation with my dad told me that the fan was not cooling the condenser, and Boyfriend should be able to fix it easily.

So now, the transmission is still really not right, in fact it acts quite a bit worse than before I brought it in. And, when I was driving to work the other day, the battery light came on for a few seconds. I drove it just fine all week, got home from work Friday afternoon, parked the car and hung out with Boyfriend for a bit before heading out. Get in the car to go out, turn the key, and nothing. No response except the dash lights.

A quick side note about batteries and desert climates: Because living in the extreme heat of the desert and doing mostly city driving, all cars here are considered to be in an extremely harsh driving environment. It is well known here that even with a 5-year battery, the average life expectancy is only about 2 years. I was lucky to get 3 years out of the battery on my Kia.

If it is in fact the battery, it should be a quick fix and had better be covered under warranty. I don’t leave shit on in the car, but the fact that the dash lights came on tells me that the battery still has a bit of a charge. Research on the battery light indicator tells me that it could possibly be the alternator. I don’t know, but I do have a feeling I’ll be getting to know Bill down at Ford Country quite well.

Because of all this, Boyfriend and I have started discussing other transportation options for me. He has a vehicle that he drives for work, which they’re pretty strict on. He also has his own, older but in tip-top shape huge beast of a truck that I hate driving because I like little cars. (No big car is better commentary please). His truck also sucks on gas, as most trucks do. So, the options are:

  1. Get to know Bill at Ford Country very well and invite the wife and kids out for dinner in hopes that I’ll get top priority service.
  2. Purchase the extended warranty. Dad can get it for me at cost, which will save several hundred dollars over buying it here from Bill at Ford Country.
  3. Trade the damn thing in for something with a very well know reputation for reliability, like a Toyota.

Personally, I’m sick of this car thing. If it had a 100,000 miles more on it, then I could understand having so many issues with it. But this is still under factory warranty. It’s still just a baby. And because it’s so new, I have a hard time with #3. I do have a car payment on this car, but because Dad worked his magic I have a very low car payment, and I’m nowhere near upside down, so money-wise, it doesn’t make sense to get a new car. Which leads to #2. This is what we will most likely end up doing. The $700 for the warranty will probably pay for itself in the first month (if I had to pay for that transmission repair, it would have been roughly $2,100 according to the paperwork I got back). I still have a year or 6,000 more miles to purchase that, but it’s looking like the best choice.

Filed Under: Car, Grrr

Summer Monsoon

July 23, 2007 By

Here in the desert, the season when it supposed to be most likely to rain is known as monsoon season. Now, those of you reading from parts of the world where monsoon means that it doesn’t stop raining for months at a time, I understand you may be laughing at me. But in the desert, a quarter-inch or mere centimetre of rain is serious business. The desert ground is not unlike concrete, in that it is not absorbent. The water from the rains just runs off into the lower lying areas. For those not familiar with the topography of Las Vegas, we are in a valley. For this reason you will frequently hear the metro area referred to as “The Las Vegas Valley“. Water tends to follow gravity downwards. What am I getting at? Well, I’m not drowning. But I am sitting here, staying up a bit later than I ought to be, enjoying the smell of the rain, the flash of lightening, and sound of thunder as I blog, listen to Boyfriend play some silly computer game while sorta watching tv. Yeah, I know, all the electronics during an electrical storm. Whatever. Read the paper to see if I fried.

It was nice to get some time to relax this evening. I took a short nap since I was soooo exhausted today, then made some dinner and sat down with the laptop so I could be online while still being able to spend time with Boyfriend. He’s not been feeling well lately, which we suspect is due to the mold. (No comment on that situation at this point.) Anyhoo, when we’re both on the computer we don’t usually get to be together because of the setup here at home. We have a 1 bedroom apartment, and his computer is in the living room. Because there’s no room left out here, when I moved in my desk went in the bedroom. It sucks, but it will have to do for now until we get a house. But thank goodness he has a laptop, so I can spend time with him while computing. I’m currently set up on the sofa so that I can easily look over the screen here and see the left half of his wonderful face staring intently at his screen as he tries to survive his silly little game.

Anyhoo, the storm seems to be over for now, the clock is getting later and later, and I really need to get some rest.

Filed Under: Las Vegas