Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Florida!

“Yeah!”

Venting rant for a rainy Tuesday

Hi there!  The below is purely to unleash:

I hate termites.  I also hate my property manager.  Let me give you a little background… I live in a townhouse connected to 5 other units.  If one of us has a problem, chances are, we all have the same problem.  This holds particularly true with infestations.  A few months after we moved into our unit, we started hearing noises in the attic.  Ghosts?  No, they were rats.  That’s right, rats.  I used to live in NYC and even then rats stayed in the subway like they’re supposed to, never inside my personal dwelling.  On top of rats (which thank God I never saw face to face like Joe Pesci did in “The Super“, I started seeing these giant ass cockroaches.  They were so big, that they could be mistaken for small brown birds.  Again, even in the lowdown city, I rarely saw roaches that big… mostly normal size cockroaches sufficed.  Apparently, down in Florida, everything is supersized.

Anyways, all 6 units payed a small fortune to get our place tented for rats, mutant cockroaches, and of course termites (which were spotted in one of our neighbors place).  For those fortunate enough to never have gone through tenting, this means they literally put a giant circus tent (yes, stripes and all (seriously)), over your dwelling.  You have to evacuate all living things for a few days, including house plants.  You also have to make sure anything edible is sealed, put in special plastic bags, and refrigerated.  Why the same set of rules didn’t apply to dishware is beyond me.  All in all, it was a headache.

Fast forward a few months to me swatting down what looked to be flying ants… aka termites.  After looking around the rest of the house, I spot what seems to be hundreds of wings on the floor…ewwwww.  I call (and follow up via several emails), with my property manager to no avail.  This happens to be the same property manager who works with an accounting firm that “accidentally” put my maintenance check toward the credit of another unit and sent me a notice saying my maintenance wasn’t paid.  Only after investigation (on my part), was the matter resolved.

Finally, after my building captain got a hold of them, they call me back and schedule an appointment anywhere from 8-10am.  No problem.  As predicted, no one shows.  I call again.  “They are in the area but are running late”  Ok,  why didn’t they just call and tell me that (I wondered in my head).  Over an hour goes by and I call again.  “Ok, they’re on their way”.

Is it just me or am I the only one who has a sense of urgency when it comes to basic business practices?  So… the guy comes and he seems mad at ME!  How is this possible?  Isn’t it his job to come on time?  If anyone should be upset, it’s the lady who shelled out a bijillion dollars to a termite company that didn’t work a few months prior.

So after some snooping around, he found a possible hotspot which he treated.

Wish me luck!

I know this is off the beaten path that is online dating but needed to vent out.

Has anyone out there had a termite problem before?  Do they ever just go away?  What about faulty property managers?

Thanks!

Related articles

• Is Greenbug the best bet for fighting termites? (sfgate.com)
• What to do about surprise cockroaches on day 1 of our lease? (ask.metafilter.com)
• Cockroaches make for bad neighbors (abc4.com)
• How to Get Rid of Termites Effectively (wamblingmind.wordpress.com)
• Termite Inspections – An amazing Technique to Reduce Termite Procedure Expenditures (boldstate.com)
• Drawbacks of heat treatment for termite control (sfgate.com)

What’s your type of guy?

A pack of blueberries from a organic farm co-op program. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Hello, hello, hello!  I just ate about a pound of blueberries because I have it in my head that they are a powerful antioxidant, so I figure eating a pound of them in one shot should override the mini-chocolate bars I ate earlier.  Wish me luck.

I was thinking about my wonderful lil’ big sis this weekend because I am so excited she is coming down to Florida.  I refer to her as lil’ big sis and she conversely refers to me as big lil’ sis.  Lets just use LBS and BLS for short.  Hopefully these acronyms don’t stand for anything too unsavory in the digital world.  This is due to our age and height discrepancy.  She is a mere 5 feet, arguably 4’11” and I am around half a foot taller, yet she is a few years older than I.

So I was remembering a time when we were talking about online dates in general and where we go, what we do, and all other fun things involving encounters of dating kind.  We were comparing stories and noticed that even though we are two peas in a pod, we have completely different online dating (or really any kind of dating), styles.

LBS likes the artsy romantic that writes poems about her beauty while I always tended to go for the business type guys who had 5 year plans and verbally told me I was beautiful (poems were not necessary).  She didn’t mind going dutch while I couldn’t even comprehend the words coming out of her mouth when she told me she “split the bill”, she had dates lasting upwards of eight hours while I thought a long dinner would suffice and save me from boredom, she told me how she would meet a guy after having no phone interaction while I just thought that plain ridiculous.

I would go in cyberspace and send her what I thought were potentials and she wouldn’t even respond to them.  My LBS would continue to tell me horror stories of guys she met involving men that I didn’t send her.  After several months, one could almost imagine a cartoon bubble with a question mark above my head.  I just didn’t get it.  Then it dawned on me, we had different tastes in men.  Even though I was vetting and sending her potentials that were artsy, had witty blurbs, and even some that lived in Brooklyn, she didn’t bite.  Reason being, they had different long term goals.

When looking for a potential mate, seriously looking, I think a key thing to have in mind is what you want.  This should include more than just surface qualities such as funny, adventurous, witty, etc.  These personality traits should filter through naturally in the dating process.  ie: If the guy is a bore, most likely you will not continue to go out with him.  Qualities I am talking about should be what Patti Stanger calls “non-negotiables”.  These are qualities in your future mate that cannot be adjusted.  In addition, try to establish a rough 5 year plan.  Where do you see yourself in 5 years?  What kind of mate do you see yourself having for those 5 years?  If you really can’t answer those questions for yourself then maybe you just want to enjoy dating and living life?

As for my sister, I cannot wait till she comes down so we can exchange stories on all things in life.  Hopefully she doesn’t kick my ass over mentioning her on the web.  Oh well…thats what families are for, and ours is a doozy!

So with that said, what’s your type of guy?  Do you like blueberries?  How many did you eat today?

Speed-dating thoughts

King of hearts (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Hello there!  I just came back from an amazing wedding in Boca Grande, Florida.  It was on this reclusive little island on the west side of the Sunshine State.  The weather was gorgeous, the food was scrumptious, and the wine flowed, almost endlessly, into my belly.  It was so fun!  Speaking of fun, how many of you went on some fun dates this weekend?  Florida was sunny as ever but I also heard my friends in NY were enjoying some 80 degree weather over the weekend.  Did any of you go on dates?  How about any speed dating events?

I have never partook in speed-dating but it seems like something fun to do.  I think anything out of the ordinary in a safe environment can be a good time.  Think about it, a bunch of similar strangers looking for love in one spot.  You don’t have to worry about rejection, being relevant for too long, or not meeting enough people.  Speed-dating allows you to meet multiple people for a set amount of time (I think it’s something like 2 minutes allotted per person), and whoever is sitting across from you is almost guaranteed to speak to you.  Sure, you might not like what they have to say, but it allows you to not ponder the “what if”.  This is a shy guys dream!  This is also a great experience for a group of girls that have trouble being approached by men when they go out to bars and lounges… which is a flashback to my prior dating life.

If someone likes you, you are notified, and if nothing comes of the event, you can go to another (possibly with a different theme).  I was recently introduced to a great business guy from Brooklyn through a mutual friend and he actually has his own speed-dating company.  He was even on mobwives.  Did I mention I absolutely looovveee mobwives?!  Anyways, here is his site for those that are interested.  And no, I am not paid to endorse, I just checked out his site and I love the way he breaks down single speed-dating events into different themes.  For instance, it can be Young Professionals, 50 and Older, Men with Accents, Fitness Speed-Dating…you get the idea.  See for yourself: www.onspeeddating.com

I want to hear the good, bad, and ugly speeddating stories you have.