Inconvenient Annoyances

EN, always, you have my sympathies on renting and crappy landlords!!!!

Why must landlords suck?! (I may be a bit biased because I rented my house out for 2 years after moving - and yes, it sucked financially and I took a loss, but I knew that going in and was just waiting for a better time to sell it, I didn't treat my tenant like crap or regale her with my life story and why it's so hard to be a landlord.)

Having been on both sides, too, I suppose it's because a lot of renters out there are scumbags too? Maybe she's been taken advantage of before... (but how unprofessional to tell your tenant your sob story like that wtf??) I'm going to hug our tenant/lodger next time I see her. We heart her, and not just because she got us Sundance London tickets last weekend.

Things are looking up on the Copenhagen front - when I emailed a girl I know over there to ask around her crew if anyone had a place for me to sleep, she wrote me the most lovely email insisting I should stay with her and she's got plenty of room and how it's all meant to be. I was so touched I nearly cried! So yet again, I'm looking forward to going/running/visiting Copenhagen in a few short weeks, and having a local show me around now, too!

Having been on both sides, too, I suppose it's because a lot of renters out there are scumbags too? Maybe she's been taken advantage of before... (but how unprofessional to tell your tenant your sob story like that wtf??)

Sounds like she's only had 1 or 2 tenants, and the last folks stayed 2-3 years, so if they did screw her over at least she got rent out of them for a while. I'm just baffled at the "if you don't like the condition of the place, too bad because you signed a contract", given that the contract says she has to fix stuff.

I'm going to hug our tenant/lodger next time I see her. We heart her, and not just because she got us Sundance London tickets last weekend.

Aw, how nice!

she wrote me the most lovely email insisting I should stay with her and she's got plenty of room and how it's all meant to be. I was so touched I nearly cried! So yet again, I'm looking forward to going/running/visiting Copenhagen in a few short weeks, and having a local show me around now, too!

That's awesome - I hope you have a great time!

Hail. Come on. It's the 2nd of May.   

I am thinking of planting winter vegetables this year, since I don't think spring/summer want to show up........

Hail. Come on. It's the 2nd of May.   

I am thinking of planting winter vegetables this year, since I don't think spring/summer want to show up........

Fun weather fact of the day:

Hail can form at any time of the year - it is not an indication of cold weather, or of spring/summer not arriving. In fact, we're actually expecting warmer temperatures going into early next week (12-14 C in Scotland, 18-20 C in South East England on Monday).

Hail can only fall from cumulonimbus (thunderstorm) clouds, and statistically, we get more thunderstorms in the summer than in the winter (usually following a spell of hot weather), therefore hail is actually more common in the summer than in the winter. In fact, the most intense hailstorms ever to have affected the UK have all occurred between May and September.

The hailstorms that are occurring today will be due to unstable air moving through as a trough behind the occluded front that came through yesterday. The temperature structure of the atmosphere today will be such that it is easy for thunderstorms (and therefore hailstorms) to be triggered, especially over Scotland and the north of England... because the air is coming from the northwest.

Fun weather fact of the day:

Hail can form at any time of the year - it is not an indication of cold weather, or of spring/summer not arriving.

Yes - happens in the US all the time with thunderstorms in the summer, quite fun.  Can be 95º and look like the middle of winter. 

Should have said sleet instead of hail!  Unless maybe it is hail due to instability.  

12º is hardly pleasant though, is it 

VLM can do as they please, because they don't care about runners, they care about charity money.

This is exactly why my husband refuses to run it. He loves marathons (just ran one last weekend!) and he loves London, but he's not interested in this one. The organizers are just too ridiculous. Sorry you got caught out in the change, it really sucks.

One of the worst hailstorms I ever experienced was in Tavira, Portugal in the middle of summer!

Very unusual, and a lot of damage to cars among other things. Some folk there had never seen hail and assumed o fim do mundo had arrived!

I saw the cloud build-up and thought "tornado".....wasn't far off...we had high winds and the conditions were right, but thankfully that didn't happen.

So, my landlord issues have increased exponentially. We fixed 80+% of the issues we originally had, and told our landlord about the two remaining issues (both electrical, which means we're not allowed to fix them and she has to fix them, per our tenancy agreement).

Some gems from our most recent e-mail with the landlord in response:

My friend is a property lawyer and you added to the contract what were your concerns before signing and that is all that matters !

I repeat if you wanted  changes to be made you should have checked this before signing the contract.

Why do you do this AFTER you have moved in ??
not happy at all

So...yeah. We quoted the contract to her where it states that electrical issues are her responsibility, and this is her response. (She seems to think that, in addition to the two extra clauses we added to the contract regarding pets and paying her for the gas supply directly, we should have outlined all maintenance issues as well. )

So now we have to assume that she 1) won't fix anything with the flat, ever 2) will possibly kick us out at the 6-month mark because we dare to ask about maintenance issues. And we know that she doesn't have a grasp on reality or legal contracts. Joy.

Jeez, ED, what a jerk. Are you sure you want her as a landlord after 6 months?

I asked DH to throw in my swimsuit and the little guy's swimming stuff into a load of laundry he was doing. For some reason, he also threw in a (thankfully, clean) disposable diaper that happened to be in the swimming bag. Now there are little absorbent balls of goo all over the clothes.

and

I had organized a mom's group thing for today. We are supposed to meet in the park and the weather is not cooperating. This means they'll have to come to my house and I'll need to do a quick cleaning session.

Minor yes but I'm so jealous of my friends who get early releases of Iron Man 3 and Star Trek 2. My friends in Singapore got it in April and my friends in Germany won't stop rubbing it in my face that they already saw Ironman 3  Here I am turning as green as this balloon I'm not innocent because I watched the Avengers multiple times before my buddies in the US got to see it...perfect for my recovery post-dissertation madness  

Btw, has anyone else noticed that Hollywood blockbusters have been shooting in London and the UK a lot lately? Ironman 3, Star Trek 2, Thor 2, even the Fast Furious franchise...  watched a batch of trailers this week and almost all of them were set in London Did Boris cut a deal with Hollywood?

Also, Thor 2 was apparently shot in Greenwich (where I used to live)  and if I have to watch my precious Greenwich being destroyed on screen I might just cry  

RAR - lol 

My IA's for the last two days... (the semi sane ones that aren't too horrifyingly gross to put here lol!!) Lovely day so I hang out laundry to dry.  DH goes back to work so I go upstairs (I stay in the room if my FIL is home I feel uncomfortable otherwise) Not 30 minutes later FIL goes outside and takes our laundry off the line and tosses it in our basket. When DH asked him about it he said he thought they were dry (Umm.. one I had to hand wash and I didn't wring it out very good it was actually dripping on the line). So we had to crank up the radiator so DH would have dry work shirts for the morning. 

FIL stealth putting on the radiators at night on these warm nights.  We weren't really suppose to use the radiators in the winter (I don't know why... ) But now that it's warm in the bedroom at night they must be on.  The valves appear to not be on any room FIL is in so I don't get it. (Plus he doesn't get cold, he's 400ish lbs and keeps warm) So I cut the valves off in the bedroom after a couple mornings of finding the room boiling.

Went down stairs this morning to do the usual help DH get ready for work routine, which includes packing his lunch.  I usually don't wash his tupperware and leave it on the rack to dry (dry it and take it upstairs) but I was really tired last night so I did.  Well the lid to one of his containers is there, but the actual container is missing!!  Nothing else on the rack has been touched since last night.  I look in the fridge, dishwasher, cupboards and where we keep other tup containers. Nothing. So I think well the FIL has thrown it away. (Not uncommon for him to do spiteful things like this, why we try not to keep things downstairs) Bank holiday yesterday so the bins are out this morning. I check the recycling bin... there it is right on top!  Thankfully DH has work so early the bin men had not come yet.  Going to have DH has his dad tonight if he's seen it, see what he says. 

The last IA which deals somewhat with the food container.  Hate how our small 9x9 bedroom serves as our bedroom, kitchen and bathroom as we have to store our groceries on the windowsill, floor, drawers and we can't leave our bathroom things in the bathroom without them being immediately used. Nothing is sacred.  FIL has used DH's tooth brush like 4 times already this year that he's had to replace!! Who does that? EWWW!!

Have you spoken to your FIL about these issues? I mean, rather than have your husband do it, perhaps you could talk to him yourself and figure out why he does these things.

I wish talking was an option haha! I can't imagine how it would go if I tried to talk to him... very badly for me I would guess!    He is a passive aggressive bully.  Last time all three of us tried to sit down and have a conversation with him it went very badly.  He screamed at us, made fun of me, DH and I's marriage, put his hands on me, refused to talk to us any more and said if we ever brought up any more issues he was kicking us out.  That was within 10 minutes of the conversation and last August.  Since then FIL has not said one word to me since, he just glares at me. When I say one word I really mean it lol.  He won't even ask me to move to get out of his way, he will just open a door then slam it then cough and rinse and repeat 10 or so times until I move.  He is a scary and creepy man.  DH barely wants to talk to him as it is, usually we don't even ask why he does things we just deal with it and avoid him. It does get tiring though. He likes to be very much in control. There is a rumour of some violence he inflicted on his daughter years ago because she beat him in a game of cards and rubbed it in his face. This is the type of guy he is.  So in all likelihood DH probably won't ask his dad where the container is, it's nice to fantasize about it though.  Besides most times when FIL hears the door go in the morning when DH leaves for work he is usually glaring out the window, so he probably saw me digging through the trash and retrieving it anyway.  So long story short, not sitting down and talking with him is best, I'm afraid we would be punished worse and not in piddly little ways like throwing away DH's work lunch container.