They took the cheapest option on the menu and compared that.

Am too tired to go into details. However, learned the following from my travel companion, who is lucky not to be in jail, and feel compelled to make the following public service announcement:

If you have rented out your apartment to a snaky deadbeat you found on match.com, do not call on your brother's scary jailbird friend to "convince" the tenant to move out. Seriously. It will not go well.

I kind of forgot in the six months or so since I've seen her how much energy my vacation friend takes to not smack her silly, over this and so many other things. Oy.

If you have rented out your apartment to a snaky deadbeat you found on match.com, do not call on your brother's scary jailbird friend to "convince" the tenant to move out. Seriously. It will not go well.

I kind of forgot in the six months or so since I've seen her how much energy my vacation friend takes to not smack her silly, over this and so many other things. Oy.

So kind of a "they should film this and show it at every Xmas" thing, but as a public service annoucement then?

So kind of a "they should film this and show it at every Xmas" thing, but as a public service annoucement then?

I think the most appropriate medium for this message would be "sock puppet theater."

I think the most appropriate medium for this message would be "sock puppet theater."

Well that would certainly convey some of the wormier aspects more literally.

I just woke up. So much for getting up early and going shopping.

I'm already in my all-day class. We're learning enums in Java.

Hey, Scola, I've already been up 20 minutes. My plan was "Get up early and work and clean house and wrap packages and shop."

I got up 2-1/2 hours ago. I've made a pot of tea. And downloaded a cookbook. My computer has been in my lap for 2-1/2 hours. The house is no cleaner.

Here's the rest of my story from last night.

Friend M had to relocate for a job. She wasn't able to sell her condo, got a renter, bounced checks, wouldn't move out, yadda yadda. The real story is after all this:

She contacts an old friend of her brother's who is apparently an in-an-out-of-jail motorcycle gang type. She pays this shady character $2500 to convince the deadbeat to move out (!), and he immediately starts making noises about beating the guy up or kidnapping him and letting him wake up in Mexico or somewhere (!). So she starts freaking, "no no no no no violence" and the guy then says that he's been surveilling the guy from a van and has observed that he's dealing drugs from her apartment. (Her 14th floor apartment, btw - must have been some van.) So the new plan is to turn him in to the cops and get rid of him that way.

Only there's a hitch. Because "the police don't care about small amounts like that" turning him in will involve, get this, another three grand to bribe a corrupt police officer.

So, naturally, she wires the guy the money.

An aside: at some point in all this, the deadbeat does actually get the hell out of town. No more is known on that issue.

However, at some point during all this, Mr. Shady Enforcer - who, recall, is a long time friend of her brother's - has somehow added himself as a signatory on one of her credit cards. And then has somehow hacked into her email. He sent some nasty emails to her friends, signed from her, but the real kicker is emails he sent to himself, also supposedly from her.

In these, along with a lot of lovey dovey crap, "she" carefully and clearly explains that she has wired him the first $5500 that she owed him for loans in the past. And that, "as they discussed" since she didn't have the rest of the money, she was adding him to her credit cards so that he could charge things to pay off the remainder of her debts to him and her brother's.

And this is where it stands. She's got the credit card company investigating that part of it, but the rest?

Seriously, yo. WTF?