--- Well, the conversation with the Merovingian actually did some good.
Well, I didn't actually call the Merovingian into it---he was
unavailable. Something about a previously scheduled appointment in the
ladies room, but the husband was available, and on Friday he reamed the
manager and, finally, something got done. Why does it always have to
take threats of having the city come out to inspect for this or that
before they'll actually do something? It's so annoying. Do we seem like
the type of people who enjoy laying down threats of having the city
come out and inspect for mold because of all the water damage? No. I
certainly don't enjoy doing this; I know the husband doesn't like to,
either. Why do some people only respond when their asses are on the
line? And the rest of the time you and your needs can go hang? Even if
its part of their stated job responsibilities to do what they're
supposed to be doing? It's such a pain in the ass to have to call these
people on the carpet all the time. Anyway, rurrently there are now two
foul mouthed louts outside melting the ice in the gutters. They were
here for a time yesterday afternoon. $240 an hour---three hour minimum.
Tweedledumb on Saturday actually told the husband that he couldn't get
anyone to come out without payment up front and that he was trying to
get the Great White Hunter to cough up some cash. Well, ok. But I'm not
buying it. How is it possible that the next door Type A neighbor had
his roof cleaned---on Saturday, mind you---when he's in Phoenix for the
winter? What is the deal here? Anyway, the jerks showed up yesterday.
Of course they're the bottom of the barrel type of contractors. And, I
know I have a potty mouth, but these guys put me to shame.
When every other word out of their mouths was a curse word, we're
hitting the area where I actually become offended. Not to mention they
felt the need to shout the curse words to each other---one was on the
roof, the other on the ground. I'm sure the neighbors were impressed. I
know I was, says she, dryly. I shouldn't complain. It's not dripping in
the Cake Eater apartment right now. That's a good thing. I'll take it.
I just wish it hadn't taken a whole
week for them to do something about the problem. Is it really too much
to ask for someone to do what they say they will?
{Insert sound of husband laughing hysterically here}
--- Funny anecdote from Friday afternoon.
The Doctor and ML were off to Chicago to celebrate ML's 40th Birthday
and they needed a ride to the airport. We have a neighborhood taxi
service when it comes to rides to the airport. If they need a ride,
they call us. If we need a ride, we call them. It all works itself out.
They fly a lot more than we do any more, but there was a time when they
were hauling us back and forth frequently. It all comes out in the
wash. And it saves you $40 in taxi fare each way. So, I drove them to
the airport. As I was dropping them off, mentally girding myself for
the ride home in rush hour traffic, there was a page for some famous
NHL player I'd never heard of. ML commented on this, in a funny, ha-ha
sort of way. A lady that was standing there smoking jumped in and said
"Hey, they just paged Wayne Gretzky a minute ago." I'd forgotten the
NHL All Star game was in St. Paul on Sunday until that moment. So,
while it was probably some overzealous hockey fan trying to peg the
Wayner to get an autograph, it was still humorous. But it might have
been legit, too. I've never seen so many limos leaving the airport in
all the years I've lived here. Amazing. The highway was full of them,
so you never know. Hmmmm. ---We finally got our butts over to St. Paul
to see the Ice Palace on Saturday afternoon, and that was fun. The
weather was finally decent. About twenty-five degrees and incredibly
sunny---not a cloud in the sky. Now, the ice palace is pretty cool, in
itself. They built a palace out of ice blocks! WOW! A big giant igloo with form! Very cool!

That's a lot of work, obviously. Particularly for something that will just be torn down in a few weeks, anyway. They're doing that today.
But it's still cool, in theory. Particularly when you get into the
notion that winter in Minnesota is now something to be seen as a
fickle, teasing bitch. She doesn't get going very often anymore.
There's no more "sure thing" guarantees to be had. Maybe winter's hit
middle-age here and has a headache all the time? I don't know, and I
don't really care if she puts out or not, but there was an awful lot of
hullaballoo about how they were afraid they weren't going to get the
thing built because we'd had such a mild December. You see, the lakes
hadn't frozen over yet, and despite pissing off the ice fisherpeople,
this was bad for the ice palace---they needed the ice from Lake Phalen
to build the thing. Lake ice is better, apparently, than plain old
ice---the silt and mud and vegetation that turn off swimmers in
summertime are good things when it comes to constructing
buildings with ice---they provide extra stability. But January turned
out to be very, very cold, and the lake cooperated by freezing over and
the thing got built. Now, I don't know exactly what I was expecting.
Something more impressive than it was, I suppose. Now, it was very cool. Don't get me wrong. But I guess I actually expected rooms.
Instead, you got a big castle wall made out of ice and a big empty
space in the middle---with jumbotrons, of course, to advertise junk.
Still cool, but I think I worked myself up too much for that. The
husband and I paid our $10 to get in, we walked through the ice maze
they'd set up to act as turnstiles, we walked through what would be
considered the front yard if it was an actual castle, walked through
the doors of the palace, and wham...turrets of ice and a bandstand,
with guys in parkas playing Hawaiian music. And that was it.
Still cool, but not as cool as it could have been. I liked it. It's not
every day you get to see a building made out of ice. Very nice. And it
was all nice and legal, too. I'll post a picture of it later with a
little post about the carry and conceal law. The husband is busy right
now.

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