We have a right to that. We are not asking for a lot.

vw, if it's not too late, I would change the above to:

We have a right to that. We are not asking for anything that is not already our own, by law.

I also think you might want to tweak this part:

I am not a completely unreasonable person, though, and I have had some time to calm down since talking briefly with Mrs. Landlord this morning. I know you will want to get into the apartment to do things like painting and fixing the living room floor before the new tenants move in. Therefore, I have a proposal.

I would get rid of the statement about you not being completely unreasonable, entirely. It's like you're copping to be unreasonable, when you are the one whose rights have been ignored.

I might consider something like:

Not!Emily, Emily, and I have had some time to think since my brief conversation with Mrs. Landlord, this morning. Since you will want to have considerable access to the apartment to paint and repair the living room floor before your new tenants move in, I have a proposal.

Good letter. Good for you for documenting everything, too.

vw, I might ditch this, entirely:

On June 30, Mrs. Landlord called and left a message that Emily’s room was “too cluttered” and we needed to be “more cooperative” and “help them out.” Emily moved some things around the best she could. We were both furious, though, that we were called uncooperative after everything we have put up with.

She didn't violate your rights by doing this, and it could give her a written admission of non-neatness from you, if she tries to refuse to return any of your deposit money.

She thought my dresser was in the way, and suggested we move it onto the balcony.

You're quite right that this one was just her being a bitca and not violating our rights, I just felt the need to expand on that story. So.... evil!

Mind you, so far as non-neatness goes, I'm like the queen. My mother has suggested that after I move I should hire someone to come in and clean once a week, and has offered to pay for it.

Mind you, so far as non-neatness goes, I'm like the queen.

I'm pretty sure that once you are here, and staying with me, we're going to find out that this is kind of not true.

I can't decide if that's a challenge of competing non-neatness, or a subtle threat about not messing up your space, but regardless -- I can totally be neat as a guest! I can! It just doesn't, you know, come naturally.

Oh, definitely the first. We can be slobs together!

My mother has suggested that after I move I should hire someone to come in and clean once a week, and has offered to pay for it.

If you don't take her up on it, I will lose all respect for you.

What Cindy Said.

Gronk. Today has been a very long day. However, all my student evals are done. (Well, the first drafts. I'm going to have to spend a lot of time Thursday afternoon revising.)

Did my gronk kill the thread? Sorry.

Last night was a gorgeous night. On my way back from supervising study hall, I stopped to watch some fireflies in one of the fields. Then I managed to get inside about 10 seconds before a horrendous thunderstorm hit.

Did my gronk kill the thread? Sorry.

Ah! So it was Hil, in the study, with the gronk.

Wally report! Well, I'm still living the dream. So there's that out of the way. Wallybee and I have finalised details for our Alice Springs vacation after I get back from your lovely theme park country. And we wandered around the wilderness reserve at Latrobe Uni, seeing numerous kangaroos and one goat, which I patted (while Wallybee alternately took pics and shrieked whenever it approached her). Oh, and whie we're walknig across a lawn, causing the purple swamphens to go into full ignore mode (seriously, they were ignoring us before, but when we approached I swear they turned it up a notch), swallows flew around our feet after the insects we were stirring up in our wake. For some reason I found that very funny.

Oh! And we watched the first ep of the new Doctor Who season on Saturday night. First time she's watched the whole way through. I may have a convert. (And she's just discovered Fawlty Towers!) And the new Attenborough special started on Sunday night! (Planet Earth.) Huzzah!

Huh.