I think my office is trying to kill me today. Paint/varnish fumes have been circulating around our area this afternoon, and I managed to bang up my knee real good on the side of my desk. So now I'm dizzy and in pain.

House guests, v. Space Invader.

Someone smashed one of the window panes at the front of our house last night. They didn't manage to get in, mainly because our lovely old window frames are painted tightly shut. Even if they had the alarm would have gone off. But still, I had to spend this morning cleaning up glass, filing a report with the police, warning the neighbours and ringing glaziers, which made me late for work.

I seem to have lost my good pair of reading glasses which does not bode well for my trip to the desert. Can't read anything without them. Have to take the old ones I use for the computer. Bummer!

the cost of gas is killing me. we don't even drive much.

Moving. From where does so much shit accumulate? Is that correct grammar?

I started renovating my kitchen in at the end of April. I've had boxes of Ikea sitting around the apartment since then. As of the end of May, I had nine cabinets around the apartment. As of mid-June, I had ripped out my old kitchen cabinets, sink, etc. As of last night, I got three cabinets up on the wall.

All this to save $10,000.

There was a funny commrecial a while back (I don't know what for), where a contractor is standing in a kitchen with a couple. He says, "here's what's going to happen. My guys are going to come in, probably very early on a Saturday when you're not ready for us, and rip out your entire kitchen. We'll probably break some other stuff as well. Then we'll completely disappear. Don't bother calling for two, three months, because you wont find us. When we do come back, we'll have the wrong stuff. Don't worry, we'll only charge a small fee for that . . . ."

Don't start.

Tana, a builder pal of ours jokes about starting a company called The Last 10 Percent, which will finish the jobs other contractors abandon when the work is almost done. (He's done it for us a few times over the last 20 years.) Jon figures he can charge twice the price of the original job and still have happy customers singing his praises.

I should tell him he has some serious competition at less ruinous rates.

Wandering herds of tourists, moving slowly along and across Fifth Avenue in much the same way the wildebeest swarms across the Serengeti.

People, either move the fuck over or pick up the pace!

And the people who wedge themselves right in front of a subway turnstile, and then start to search their bags and pockets for a Metrocard. And the people who walk down the subway stairs in slo-mo if the train standing in the station isn't theirs.

Get out of the WAY!

So, I'm in the bookstore today, standing about 3 ft. back from a group of shelves surveying the big picture before zooming in and this 6&something-ft tall 2-ft wide guy parks himself right in front of me to survey the same shelves. Douchebag.

BTW, anyone seen the book In Me Own Words: The Autobiography of Bigfoot? A quick flip through proved hilarious.

Maybe it was Bigfoot, checking out the placement of his book? (He used his advance to get a fully body wax.)

the technology development people. I have learned to ask for what I want in the most simple, clearest way, and they still don't get it. I used to ask for the answer to a question. Now I tell them the question, and detail exactly the steps they need to follow to find the answer. And still, they come back to me and simply repeat the problem back to me. Yes, thanks, I know that's the fucking problem; I need an answer! These are very nice and smart guys so there must be a language barrier, but I don't understand how I can be any clearer.

Yes, I like to head straight for the middle of those chains. I always wanted to be John Riggins (but without his back problems).

New York? I trained for this on Oxford Street. Every Christmas for six years.

Next time don't try to save money on tech people. You pay a third and get 1/16 of the productivity.

My credit card company has added a 3% "foreign purchases" charge onto my bill for everything bought in London. A call to complain was met with "it's always been there but we used to add it onto the charge for each purchase when we converted the charge to US dollars... now we add it at the end of the bill as a separate charge so that you can more readily see it and dont confuse it with the applied exchange rate".

So... why is there a 3% charge? Does it cost them anything extra when I make my purchase in London then, say, Arkansas?

Is this standard? Who else has been abroad recently and what's your experience.

It's not much $$ in the overall scope of things but these fine print charges always piss me off. One of my favorite East European dives in Manhattan used to charge $2.50 for 6 potato perogi, $2.50 for 6 meat perogi & $3.00 for mixed perogi (3 potato/3 meat). Service charge for mixing. Always got to me.

Several of my bank debit cards only charge 1% - ETradeBank, WaMu and possibly others. Etradebank also refunds ATM surcharges, making it the least expensive way to get Euros. Credit cards all seem to charge 3%

A television dropped on my foot.
AGGGGGGGony, and now a big blue foot.

Can't HRB play catch with a rubber ball, like most toddlers?

He likes a challenge. And, apparently, irony.

Better to drop an irony on your foot than a TV set.

I shall make the suggestion to him with alacrity.

75° outside at 3 o'clock this morning. 66% humidity, no breeze. How the fuck are you supposed to sleep? And how the fuck are you supposed to maintain your sanity when it goes on for days, weeks?

Yes, yes, I know: buy an air conditioner.

NYC is sooo smelly. Humid, hot, stagnant air. Blech.

Years ago I walked to work in the mornings down Amsterdam and Broadway. The stench on garbage day (which seemed to be every day on some blocks) was overwhelming.

But at least in the winter it's freezing cold.