bonny, you also have a manor/manner mix up in the letter. Otherwise, I think it looks fine. Don't threaten to withhold rent without talking to a lawyer; only about half of jurisdictions allow you to do this and then only if it's for basic services (e.g. no water, no heat). If a jurisdiction does allow you to withhold rent you'd probably have to set up an escrow account, etc., etc. You're just not there, yet.

The one thing I'd add is how & when you want the landlord to contact you with a reply to your letter.

IKEA IS PISSING ME OFF

I have Ivar shelving. It is very versatile and handy and each time I move it reconfigures nicely. You have sides, shelves, and little pegs. Over the years I have run short on the little pegs...

Apparently, there is no way to order more little pegs. After half an hour on the phone waiting I'm told I need to go into an IKEA and buy them and nobody knows how much they are. This is madness. They're litle metal pegs, fucking sell me some and stick them in the mail.

Trudy, try a hardware store and ask for shelf pins. If you can measure the holes they go into that's great, but 5 mm is pretty standard.

From the: What? This isn't common knowledge? Dept.

Shelf pins? Thank you. Bless you.

It's official. I hate today. And somehow in an hour I have to be in a much better mood, get all gussied up, and head to campus for all of the honors celebrations (English Dept., Honors Dept., and University).

OK, since people are bringing their various woes here, I have a question for the hivemind.

I have a good friend who has a five-year-old niece. The niece's mother is very controlling and has some mental health issues (depression, I believe). From what my friend has told me, it sounds as though the niece is heading into a situation much like what mine was growing up. It's pressed most of my buttons and it has me worried. I would like to tell my friend of the possibility of this and give her some things to watch out for in case the niece does head into a similar situation.

Opinions? comments? I don't have children, no nieces or nephews, I freely admit my knowledge of children is mostly theoretical. But ... I'd like to prevent this from happening to someone else.

Sparky's right. Take one with you to match them up. They have them in a ton of different sizes.

(((Everyone who needs them)))

I'm at mom's trying to convince her to actually rest. I have not been very successful so far.

(((vw)))

You all are the best. Thanks for the grammar edits. Things spellcheck and a fevered mind won't do for me!

I will make the suggested changes and send it on.

In the meanwhile, against my right-mind judgment, I opted for throwing a fit at my landlord. I was walking Bartleby to calm down, but I passed the door to the store and before I knew it, I was standing in front of him groping for words. Or rather, to speak words without allowing flames to shoot out from my eyes.

It worked, I suppose. Where 'worked' means I said what I needed to say and he said some stupid stuff and we wrestled around to the truth, which is that neither of us wants to fight but that he is 'never going to be the perfect landlord' (his words) and I'm pretty much out of luck on the indignation front.

Now I just want to eat something really bad for me...in quantity.

Todd, I really support you in speaking your piece. If you see something happening, it probably IS happening. Not speaking up advances nothing.

I don't have kids either, but I know what abuse looks like and am, therefore, called to comment when I need to. I never expect a particular outcome but I know I would eat myself alive if I didn't think clearly about and call attention to things that concern me.

God bless you for being observant and caring.

eta: Making no assumptions about the issue in question or its impact. I just used the term 'abuse' because it is part of my experience of people seeing and not speaking up.