No, wait, it gets better.

Every other day isn't too bad, right?

Well, turns out the cheap-ass landlord's cheap-ass electrical wiring has given up the ghost. With the rolling brownouts starting last night, we spent the night with no AC in 88% humidity. Moreover, Kayla gets home at lunch and informs me EVERYTHING in the fridge is warm. Seems there isn't enough juice going through the lines to kick on the compressors of the AC or the fridge. The other appliances have been acting wonky as well, and the crazy landlord had better hope that my TV was not permanently affected by the low voltage.

So, they SWEAR it's Entergy's problem. Uh huh. So, they're waiting on Entergy to come out, who will tell them it's their problem. This will likely be 4 or 5 this afternoon (assuming for the best that it's still sometime today). As a result, they won't pay the extra to get an electrician out there today. I think we'd be lucky to have one tomorrow.

And this guy has the never to scream at me within the first 30 seconds of meeting me asking if I'm going to "complain about everything?"

This is why we pay a mortgage.

Yay, short week!

Well, I suppose I've been a rather negligent blogger as of late, substituting pictures for actual content. Sadly, there isn't too much more to report. Charlie is getting finished with the work originally contracted for, and has submitted a bid for the next stage. He appears to be moving quite rapidly and effectively, so that's been a good thing.

Still no movement whatsoever on our battle with James Kim and CMC Construction, Inc. of Virginia.

Kayla and I are pretty much settled into the new apartment now. The holiday weekend was nice as we were able to take The Beeb to the dog park twice a day all three days. That resulted in a sleeping Beeb each night by around 8pm or so. She's a perfect dog when she's sleeping. I do have to admit, however, that she's settled down a lot in the last month or so. She's acting crazy less and less. Now, having said that, she'll have destroyed everything in her kennel when I get home.

We also are almost caught up on Lost. Just the season finale to go. We can't wait!

The balcony from whence The Beeb contemplates.

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sent on the go because I am a very important person

The Beeb inspects Esplanade

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sent on the go because I am a very important person

Port-o-call!

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sent on the go because I am a very important person

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sent on the go because I am a very important person

Mayoral vacancy?

New Orleans needs take-charge leadership like this!

Testing the blogger picture attachment tool!

sent on the go because I am a very important person

sent on the go because I am a very important person

Moved!

We're pretty much done with the move now. The old apartment is vacant and clean, and we just have a bit more cleaning and organizing to do in the new place. While the new place is fairly musty and strangely decorated, it has a great balcony for evenings like we've been having. I know that they are short lived, but it's almost like vacation when we sit out there at night. Now, I have to get a bike so I can get to work without having to drive...it's a bit too far to walk, especially during the summer.

A hopeful metaphor for the city, in tree form.

Pic

sent on the go because I am a very important person

Moving

Still in the midst of moving. We officialy got the keys to the new apartment last night. It looks like it will work out pretty well, although we did get spoiled living in a brand-new place. Oh well, I guess it will make us appreciate our new house when (and if) we get there. I can't wait for all of this to be finished so I can just relax in the pool or on the balcony with The Beeb.

We also took pictures today for the Saturday paper. There's going to be an update on everything for our loyal reader. Charlie seems to be working out pretty well so far and is moving along rather rapidly. Still, we're months away from living there.

Serial short posts

Wow, I'm sure I'm dissapointing all of my loyal readers by my dearth of posts lately. Between being busy on the weekend, and moving, I suppose it's starting to cut into my blogging time.

The good news, however, is that the State of Louisiana is no longer involved in our rebuilding process. We were surprised by our road home deposit yesterday and are now planning on how best to use it in addition to the remaining insurance to fix the house.

Charlie, the current contractor, is chugging along and anticipates finishing early. While the final product remains to be seen, it's looking fairly good so far. We're still very cautious, however, and are getting the work inspected as it happens.

Funny.

I don't know how reliable this is, but it's an interesting thought nonetheless.

Oh, and another thing.

Where the angry comes from.

Hmmmm...

pwned. Next thing you know these people will be asking for some kind of government handout. That's what you get when you build on a flood plain.

Still waiting...

for our direct deposit. I'm checking out the Esplanade apartment this afternoon. I figure if it doesn't smell like cat pee, we're in business.

No shit.

I'm positively shocked.

Also, notice how much coverage of this we've seen? I guess they were just "finders."

Pay close attention to how this is treated by the press and the Feds. Is anyone blaming the victims for living in tornado alley? I just feel sorry for these people as they find out their insurance company doesn't have them in the good hands they believed in, they don't get the FEMA trailers promised, and the state runs out of money before they can be helped.

"This is one of the most devastating tornadoes we have had in Kansas," said U.S. Rep. Jerry Moran. At a shelter in neighboring Haviland, Cheryll Behm said her home in Greensburg is probably repairable, unlike the rest of the town. "I am concerned Greensburg never will be built," said Behm, a nurse's aide at the Greensburg hospital.

Now where would anyone get an idea like that?

All's quiet.

Another fun weekend in New Orleans. Saturday I went apartment hunting and think I may have found a winner. Between Craigslist and the article, we actually had two pretty good choices, both in Broadmoor. While we're sad to be leaving the French Quarter, we just couldn't find something that would work with the limited lease term and The Beeb. Oh well, we can always visit.

Other than that, not much to report. Jeez, I hope something exciting happens so I can blog about it!

Closing day

Big day yesterday. First I had to go to the bank to get our account information on Chase letterhead so we could get a direct deposit of our RHP money. They wanted to argue with me about it, saying that a regular page was just fine, and that's what the manager preferred and "it would be ok." This went back and forth until I had to bring out the, "I don't care what she prefers. This is what the RHP told me to bring to closing, and they're the ones with the money. I have fought them for seven months, and I'm not about to have closing fall through because YOU won't give me letterhead." I think I restrained myself rather well under the circumstances.

The closing itself was fast and easy. We showed up about 20 minutes early, and they took us about five minutes early. The signing of the documents took about 20 minutes, but most of that was our English-not-a-first-language person was scanning our drivers licenses and thumb prints. As we walked out, an attorney asked us if our signatures were ours, presumably so he could notarize it later. Uh, right. Very professional operation they have going. They tell us that we'll get our money in about five days. I don't believe it, but then, I won't until I see it in the account. Can you blame me?

I looked at one more apartment yesterday afternoon. It was in a pretty nice location, being on Esplanade right off Royal. It even had a pool. It was also $300 a month more than we're already paying and getting dangerously close to our mortgage payment. I refuse to pay in rent what we're already having to pay in a mortgage. The apartment I had intended to see vanished at the last minutes as the owner changed his mind about renting it. It seems like the good prospects are disappearing as get closer to them, almost as if they were mirages and we'll be living in our cars. I guess that's an overstatement. The Beeb would eat our cars if it ever came to that.

C'mon, what else?

Today is allegedly the big day. Last night, however, when examining our closing documents I noticed an error in the legal description for the house. Seems as if someone moron at either the RHP or First American (each blames the other, natch) copy and pasted the wrong information. Instead of the tax bill number and legal description (LOT F, SQUARE Q, etc.) for our house, there are the details for some random house in Lakeview.

Now, while this mightn't be a problem for most, it could be for me. You see, the practice of law depends heavily on the public trust. As a result, the bar committee tends to frown on fraud. If I sign a witnessed document attesting to the veracity of something that I KNOW if false, I'm committing fraud. Ergo, this is a big deal to me, my unused license, and my student loans.

So, like a good citizen I called both the RHP and First American. Both blamed the other for the error, but swore that it "shouldn't be a problem." When asked what happens if we show up and it's still not fixed, nobody could tell me. Great. So, we go to closing (unless they call to cancel between now and then) hoping for the best. If you've been paying attention for the last seven months, you know how much sense that makes.

I've always depended on the kindness of strangahs.

One of the interesting side-effects of the InsideOut articles are the unsolicited emails and letters we get from people: 1) wishing us luck; 2) offering an apartment; and 3) seeking the email addresses of the RHP people. In the apartment search the emails have almost restored my faith in humanity with the number of total strangers coming out of the woodwork to offer Kayla, The Beeb, and I somewhere to stay for three months. It seems that we now have an embarrassment of options. Even one of the photographers for the article (who we also share dog obedience classes with) has offered a place to stay. As bitter and negative as one could become from the aforementioned trees of woe, it helps to have these random acts of kindness to prop ourselves up on.

Charlie is demolishing away, and I look forward to going to the house tonight to see what's left. Hopefully we can get to the structure soon!

Also, check out this article. This is unsurprising both in the fact that it happened, and in the fact that no one really seems to care. Not only are they so shameless as to deliever defective goods that people are trusting their lives to, but they figure they can cut-and-paste, typos and all, and nobody will notice. Sad thing is, even when U.S. Senators notice, nothing happens to these people. But I guess even when you kill more Americans than any time since the Civil War and there are no consequences, you can't expect a pump contract to generate much interest.