Today's goal: Keep people from giving me anything else to do so I can clear everything off my desk before I leave for T-day at my parents' house on the 7:30 a.m. train tomorrow.

Tomorrow's goal: Make squash rolls and try not to eat them all before T-day.

Thursday's goal: Don't explode from eating too much.

I am so pissed. In July, the builder promised me that he would order a custom corner cabinet unit that would replace one of the existing cabinets. Yesterday, I was told by the slack ass management company that I needed to empty the current cabinet. Makes sense, right? This morning, the gentlemen arrived (17 minutes late) and told me that they were told to simply add a cabinet that they already had in the existing space. NO!

The management company is always fuckung up. I emailed them on Thursday with the outstanding issues. The next day, they sent me an email telling me that my parking space and storage unit were ready and that the cabinet could be installed early next week (this week). That seems to suggest that all of these things were available and they did not tell me. Plus, when I went into the garage the next day, I saw another car parked there, so someone had been told that the garage was available.

It took them an entire month to program my apartment into the entry system, and there was a problem with some of the lighting downstairs that STILL has not been fixed. I would rather not go into a dark recess under the stairs to throw away my trash, thanks.

ARGH! I have the developer's number somewhere. I'm calling him, I'm tired of this shit. Especially considering the amount of condo fee I pay!!

Overheard on the bus this morning: "I'm striving for mediocrity."

When you've really got it made is when you can be effortlessly mediocre.

I love this being married to an American thing. I'm taking Thursday off to do all Thanksgivingy things such as cook a turkey. Boy is also taking Friday off, but I'd feel a bit cheeky taking two days just for non-national holiday turkey.

Oh, Vortex, that sucks. It's your new condo. It's supposed to be full of excellence and good things, and right now it sounds like you have all the costs of home ownership plus the aggravations of being a renter dependent on other people for basic home maintenance bullshit. Which is kinda bullshit.

I found another snag with the offer -- they want me to start 12/3. Which is indeed the requisite two weeks away, but in brute reality it's just one week since one of those weeks is the short holiday week that we're in the middle of right now. If I do that it'll leave all the current people flailing, badly. So I really want to push the start date back; it's a point of honor, really -- I won't dick the current boss over like that, which should tell them I wouldn't do it to them either. I just need to figure out how to say it without sounding like I'm a weaselly waffler.

I just need to figure out how to say it without sounding like I'm a weaselly waffler.

Like this -- "While 12/3 is technically two weeks, the holiday in the middle makes for a bit of a crunch for my current employer. I'd like to start 12/10 if that's possible."

JZ, are you sure you're not mathing wrong, or have biweekly pay switched with monthly pay or something? Because if the job pays $5300 more a year, that sounds like almost double '$200 extra a month.' More like $200 extra a biweekly paycheck. I think you should still negotiate - one should always negotiate - but make sure you have the numbers straight in your mind.

That how-to-pack video from TSA showed up on NBC Nightly News last night, which I was watching over at my MIL's house. Brian Williams was scathing in his commentary and said he regretted that this had happened during the writers' strike because he thought the late-night shows needed to weigh in on this one.

DH and I had been engaged in some political jousting with his conservative youngest brother, but we all united on the stupidity of folding our clothes and rolling our electronics' cords for the TSA's convenience. I wondered if between us DH and I are carrying enough small electronic devices to pack in the form of a hand giving the middle finger.

I heard someone commenting that, with all the things slipping by the TSA, they may soon forbid carryons completely.

So ... they can't guarantee that anything of value in your luggage will arrive - or that the luggage itself will arrive - but they're talking about making you pack everything except (I assume) your ID and ticket?

I havent' seen the PSA about folding not rolling clothes. That seems really really dumb.

I still have 260 words left to put on my essay. Right now "Striving for medicority" is totally my motto.