Blackouts, Weddings, & Fatass Pitchers

Edited 9:45

1) So Chinatown lost power last night in the middle of packing. The entire grid went out, which of course was a bit of a crimp in the packing plans, so that means tonight will be a massive effort in terms of putting together an acceptable level of packed material. Since we are moving on Saturday, and we only have a very limited window to get all our stuff into the pod because the fascists in the building insist it can only be there for a few hours (requiring an extra $75 fee, woohoo!). Once again, we are stuck in moving hell. Fantastic. I can't wait until I'm rich and 1) don't have to move and 2) can afford movers if I do move. I haven't lived in one place longer than 13 months without having some sort of personal move since I was in 8th grade. This suck.

2) Oh, and Chinatown with absolutely no lights, includding traffic lights, is unbelievably creepy. It feels like entering a freakin' graveyard. A freakin' graveyard filled with bums and crack-addicts. I'm glad they fixed the power grid.

3) Speaking of bums and hobos, I also saw one hell of a police take down yesterday. When the power went out, the Resident Female and I decided to go out for dinner, as we had no power to cook anything and no lights to stare lovingly at each other with. Walking on H between 5th and 6th, there were a ton of police cars, with more crashing the block from all directions. A kid actually ran across the street and nearly smashed into me, then stopped and turned into a nervous "I didn't do shit, I'm not with those guys getting arrested I swear" walk. Well, he obviously didn't see the guy in the NYPD t-shirt hauling ass across the street behind him, because he ran up right behind him and clobbered him. The kid dropped to the ground and was promptly cuffed. On top of this, out of the dozen plus cop cars screaming into the block, all the cops running around seemed to have on kevlar vests, implying that this was some pre-planned raid. Not sure if the blackout randomly coincided with the takedown, or if it was a part of it, but it was a happening time in Chinatown, let me tell you. Mayhem in the streets. I can't wait until I move.

4) Joe Thorton, San Jose. MVP. I hate the Bruins. Somebody competent needs to buy that freaking team.

5) Clemens made his first start of the year last night, and I saw the first few innings at dinner. In a strange way, it was satisfying to watch Roger waddle his fat ass to the mound, labor through 5 innings, throwing foul after foul on pitcher's counts to the murderer's row of a lineup that is the... Minnesota Twins. It made me happy that, after spending the winter and the first few months of this season attempting to whore himself out to every team with a pulse and a checkbook trying to scare Houston into ponying up massive amounts of money (note: it worked), that he had returned to his "Last Few Years In Boston Off-Season Workout Plan". The boy looked big. I mean BIG. Fat fatty fat fat fat. I mean, approaching David Wells fat. Here's to hoping that in his next start he takes a liner off his knee. Or, failing that, his nuts.

6) After all these years, I finally have a sister. Yep, the Brother McGuffin finally tied the knot, a few weeks shy of his 30th birthday. Beautiful ceremony, and boy did that best man look dapper. Congrats, bro.

7) I have a non-sexual man-crush on John Lester. And Jonathon Papelbon. Seriously, next years rotation will shape up in on of the two following ways:

Schilling, Beckett, Wake, Paps, Lester with Hansen closing
Schilling, Beckett, Wake, Lester, Clement with Paps closing

My goodness, my Guinness.

8) I've been watching the DVDs of the first season of Rescue Me, and it is one of the best shows I have ever seen. Funny mixed with occasional poignancy. Get it. Link on the right.

9) Oh, and thank you Comcast for cutting off my cable and internet two weeks before I asked you to, then taking three days to turn it back on. Why is it that the only thing this organization can seem to accomplish on time or early is taking away services? I mean, this is what they do for a living, right? Couldn't they spend some money on figuring out how to actually run an organization well rather than putting out those freaking "the cable industry has created jobs over the last 30 years" advertisements on television? Seriously, who cares? Great, you employ a bunch of jackasses who can't get their heads out of their asses long enough to arrive on time or set shit up properly, have horrible equipment that breaks down seemingly every three weeks, rude telephone operators, and you spend the astronomical fees we pay you on advertisements suggesting you create jobs. Okay, it's true that cable has created jobs for Americans, but you know what else has created jobs for Americans? The war in Iraq. Soldiers, defense companies, Haliburton, etc. But would the US government ever run a commercial saying, "The war in Iraq: bringing jobs to American since 2003"? No, because that is dumb and pointless. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the cable industry shares some parallel with the war in Iraq, but the mere act of finding a platform to say "we created jobs" to engender some form of approval for an industry that is incredibly poorly run and is notorious for bad service sounds like something a bunch of communists would do.

Seriously, think about this. There was essentially a discussion saying, "People don't like us because we have a poorly run organization that employs imcompetent boobs who can never be on time. We need to change people's minds. We need to redouble our efforts, set up stricter and more client friendly policies, totally rethink our business model and our policies to be much more customer friendly, and we should focus on generating better service and products. Or, we could run a television add saying, 'We suck, but at least we create jobs'." This is like Lunchlady Doris saying, "My staff keeps complaining about all the roaches. I want to hire a new staff." And the best part? My new building isn't wired for RCN or any other competitor. I hate the damn cable companies. If I didn't need high-speed internet, I wouldn't touch them with a 20 foot pole.

10) Oh, and congrats to my aunt, who nearly submarined the deal to sell my grandfathers house and will almost certainly knock a few hundred thousand dollars off the price tag. She is a freaking idiot. Basically, my aunt was given the right of first refusal on the house, and just had to buy out the other two siblings if she wanted the house. Because she is incapable of dealing with logistics of any kind or forethought, and feared figuring out anything to do with financing, renting the place out while they were away, taking care of it from across the country, etc etc etc, she passed. So, what does she do on Wednesday? She starts telling the buyer, five days before the house comes out of escrow, why she didn't buy the house. And of course, the reasons are justifications that aren't even true. The fireplace doesn't work. Since when? You can't run the dishwasher and take a shower at the same time. What? Where did you get that from?

So, basically, my mom was accused of trying to decieve the buyer and selling a house that was not properly advertised. She had to fly in a damn plumber from the buyer's town to check the water flow, get written and notarized statements from the people who have rented the house that none of these things actually were problems when they rented, and so on. And you just know that the buyers are going to do everything in their power to renegotiate the price downward. Personally, I say that every cent that gets knocked off the price should come out of her end, because she is killing my mother. What the hell is wrong with that fucking woman? Christ!