What I Did On My Summer Vacation

My landlord just got tazed

Sorry I haven't posted for a few days. I found out that my landlord, who lives upstairs, and his girlfriend were crack smokers. The girlfriend also has mental problems and has been in and out of treatment centers. She can't afford her meds, so she breaks down all the time and cuts herself. Apparently last Friday my landlord called the police on her because she cut herself (I was out of town), and then THIS Friday he called the cops on her again!! Same thing. So I am watching my 3-year old son and his friend ride their tricycles in the driveway when the police and rescue units roll up. My wife grabs the kids and heads over to the neighbors and I sip my beer while I watch my wasted landlord get lippy with the cop through his upstairs window which is open. Then my landlord SHOVES him. The cop hits him with the tazer and hollers at him to get down on the floor. My landlord says "That feels good!" So the cop cranks up the voltage and really lets him have it. Some wrestling ensues and backup arrives. They carry him off in the squad and they carry out the tweaker girlfriend. She will probably be in 48-hour observation, while the landlord has a court appearance.

In all seriousness, the neighborhood we live in is great. It's like Pleasantville. Except for this guy. How could we have known? I guess he looked a little White T to me but I didn't know that he had a bad history. I guess you should do a background check on the landlord if you plan on renting a property. I started looking at properties today. Lesson learned. I'm visiting the cop shop when I have an address in mind. We're not ready to buy yet, and we want to save some cash for a year. But if this happens in the best neighborhoods, how often is this same thing going on all over?

Banana Bread

My pet peeve: a loaf of bread that has been sitting next to a bunch of bananas. Actually, pretty much anything placed next to a bunch of bananas. Why does everything taste like banana when they are in close proximity? The bread is the worst, though. I hate that.

Later This Week

I think later this week I will recount my glorious three months of summer vacay. It might have been the best ever.

I'll Take It!

I just got a job offer from an ad agency. I will no longer be unemployed. Awesome.

Plug Me In

California. Good lookin' out.

Toyota and the University of California will be testing plug-in hybrids there as part of a development program to make them a reality. Plug-in hybrids are more powerful versions of the hybrid car and can achieve more than 100 m.p.g. The plug-in models will be more costly (of course) but will save a significant amount of fuel, and with $4.00 - $5.00 gallons of gas looming on the horizon like the headless horseman in that crazy Walt Disney cartoon, we can all appreciate a little more m.p.g. for our money.

Of course, you could just ride a motorcycle (even a Harley gets around 50), a bicycle, or find work that's close to home. I know, easier said than done. I will admit that riding my bike to work every day in St. Paul pretty much ruled. I lost weight, gained muscle, and I loved getting outside. Plus, I didn't pay for parking, my insurance was lower, and I didn't have to buy gas for weeks on end. I think I made it 6 weeks on one tank. Never underestimate the mountain bike, brothers and sisters. Oh, bad weather sucked though. The rain started to not bother me after a while, but once you get over 6 inches of snow, you can just forget about riding.

Milk in Glass Bottles

I started buying milk in glass containers lately. It seems to taste better. Because of the soaring price of petroleum, milk prices have been going up as well. So when I saw that a local dairy was offering milk in bottles at a competitive price, I decided to buy some. It tastes awesome. It's a higher quality product that has been minimally handled, and is fresher because it takes less time to get it to the market and has less of a chance to be mishandled. Lamers Dairy in Appleton, Wisconsin (Dairyland's Best) produces the bottled milk, and I must say that I like it. I predict some of the dairy products produced locally will grow in popularity as the price of fuel rises, because there is inherently less cost to get the products to your local store.