Category: Condo

Everything be broken

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

The recent radio silence is due to a couple of things:

  1. Our den (aka, the BlogCave*) is being painted and my computer is piled in the middle of the room under a tarp. Because of my broken wrist I’m trying to avoid shlepping my laptop home at night, which means I’m forced to use Nellie’s laptop now, and I’m trying not to hog it too much.
  2. The TIFF bible came out yesterday, so I spent most of the night going through to see which films catch my eye, even though I can’t go to any this year. This essentially becomes half of my wishlist for the upcoming few years. After two hours I was only halfway through the book so I have another night’s work ahead of me yet. There’s no rush, really; I’d just much rather read about movies than study.

.:.

It occurred to me this morning that I am not at all prepared for my trip in a couple of weeks. I’m not talking prepared-but-not-up-to-my-usual-clinical-standards. I mean I’m not ready at all. I should get on that.

* note: I don’t really call it that. But I might, starting right now.

[tags]painting, tiff07, trip planning[/tags]

Let the trumpets sound and angels sing

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Hallelujah…we have a bed. The bed we bought three months ago, that was supposed to be delivered two months ago, that has exposed UpCountry’s complete lack of customer service…is finally in our bedroom. First of all, it’s huge…not a lot of spare room left in there. Second, it took two guys three hours to set up, so I think we’ll be leaving it behind when we move. But it looks great and the cats have already made themselves at home on it, so I think we’ll keep it.

As Nellie put it, we’re now one dining table away from being real grown-ups. Guess where we won’t be buying it from…

[tags]upcountry, bed[/tags]

I just not that into your mov…Oh hello, cast list.

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

My birthday present has finally been installed: outdoor speakers. We can now listen to music on the balcony, or even watch TV with full sound. They sound really good, maybe even a little better than I expected them to sound out there. Thanks baby!

.:.

I have no interest in Kanye West’s music, but like my friend Joe, I may just buy his new CD when it’s released next month. In fact, I might buy multiple copies. Why? ‘Cause Curtis has been runnin’ his mouth, that’s why.

.:.

There’s a movie being adapted from the book He’s Just Not That Into You (amazon). Men have not heard of this book, but many women have, especially those (based on what I’ve heard about it) those who lack in self-esteem and/or functional synapses. I could imagine no situation in which I would watch this film…until I saw the lineup. Now I’m almost considering it: Jennifer Connelly (who would be on my all-time top five laminated list, if I had one), Drew Barrymore (umm…backup list?), Ginnifer Goodwin and now Jennifer Aniston. Madre de dios. If Scarlett Johansson or Parminder Nagra join the cast I may quit my job and just hang around outside the film set.

[UPDATE: guess I’d better write out my resignation]

.:.

Spacing asked a very good question yesterday: why hasn’t Toronto mayor David Miller imposed — or even seriously considered — road tolls? With the city in such dire financial straits, wouldn’t a few hundred million dollars come in handy? And that’s forgetting the environmental benefits, the reduced traffic, the fewer (in theory) pedestrian/cyclist deaths, etc.

Even The Economist is asking the question. Spacing goes into Miller’s explanations for rejecting the idea, but none of them pass the sniff test, especially coming from a Harvard graduate in economics. In my opinion he’s either getting pressure not to do it, or is afraid of the pressure which would inevitably come.

[tags]sonance, outdoor speakers, kanye west, fifty cent, he’s just not that into you, jennifer connelly, drew barrymore, ginnifer goodwin, jennifer aniston, spacing magazine, david miller, economist magazine, congestion charge[/tags]

My slow descent into the weekend

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Some lads playing cricket in Moss Park. Click on the picture to get the larger sizes.

.:.

Today were a looooong one. Got up early to hit the bank and then the lawyer’s office where we signed over our bank accounts, our various chattels and the rights to any future screenplays we may write. In return we’ll have our very own crushing debtload come Tuesday. Huzzah!

Didn’t leave work until 8:00, by which time Nellie was happily nibbling away on something delicious at Fieramosca with her friends. They called a few minutes ago; even Mennie (the hostess) said hello. She missed me. I could tell.

Right now I’m enjoying my alone time and the clean apartment and my efficiency at catching up on stuff. I’m blasting the New Pornographers and gettin’ shit done. It may qualify as a lame Friday night, but goddamn it feels nice.

.:.

BlogTO had a couple of great island-related features earlier this week: a detailed description of a first trip on Porter Air (who fly from the Toronto Island Airport) that pretty much removed any doubt I had about using them the next time I felt to Montreal, Ottawa or Halifax, and an explanation of why the gradual extension of the Leslie Street Spit is causing (or, rather, not preventing) the erosion of the Toronto Island beaches.

.:.

Every time I listen to Radiohead‘s Kid A I’m struck by how good it is. Every time.

[tags]moss park, mortgage, fieramosca, new pornographers, blogto, porter air, leslie street spit, radiohead, kid a[/tags]

I'm starting to believe in curses

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Ever feel like you’re playing bad customer service whack-a-mole? Just when we get the gas leak sorted we have to deal with UpCountry, who are being substantial dicks about the bed we ordered two months ago. They called a month ago to say they’d be following up in a few days to arrange a delivery date, and charged our credit card for the remainder of the bed…but no one ever called us. We’ve tried calling, emailing, everything…no answer, and the mailboxes are all full. Very professional.

So yesterday we went to the store and asked where our bed is. We heard some story about things going from the wrong warehouse blah blah wank, and were given the delivery service’s phone number. My first thought was, “How about you call them and sort it out?” but I realized if we rely on UpCountry to proactively provide customer service we’ll be waiting a long time. We also asked for a better phone number to call since none of the phone numbers they publish actually seem to have a human near the receiver. We were told there is another number, but there’s no point in taking it down since that number won’t be answered either. Clearly UpCountry has been taking customer service lessons from our condo management office.

Luckily, Andrew Richard Designs [caution: cheesy new-age music] next door (where we bought our balcony furniture) were actually nice, if not overly competent. We arrived to pick up the cushions for our benches, only to find out that they’d made us the wrong ones. Right color, wrong texture. However, rather than making us wait 3-4 weeks while they made the right ones, they simply gave us the wrong ones to use temporarily and submitted the correct order. As it turned out, once we got them home, Nellie actually liked how they looked, so I think we’ll keep them after all. Not a perfect experience by any means, but certainly better customer service than UpCountry. I can tolerate a mix-up; what I can’t tolerate is unwillingness to fix (or even acknowledge) said mix-up.

.:.

So, new cushions installed, we fired up the barbeque and had CBGB over. Nellie prepared a tasty seafood feast for us as we relaxed out on the (rather windy) balcony. All very yummy, and after a quick cleanup job we crashed.

[tags]upcountry, andrew richard designs, customer service[/tags]

A few more broken limbs and hellish weeks at work should do it

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Status du fatblogging:

  • Original weight: 233
  • Weight last week: 229.5
  • Weight this week: 226

Uhhh…ok. Not being able to exercise all week clearly didn’t hurt me as much as not having time to eat normal meals helped me. Still, that’s not sustainable. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to run again once the swelling goes down and I’m in the hard cast.

.:.

We’ve eaten two straight meals on the balcony. The weather’s been perfect for it, and now that we can grill things without fear of explosions I think we’ll be out there even more. Nellie popped down to St. Lawrence Market yesterday for some fruit (which we had this morning with breakfast) and some tofu. We heard there was a booth there that makes tofu palatable, so we tried a place called Ying Ying Soy Food. It was actually really good; one type Nellie grilled in bbq sauce, the other was left plain, and both were tasty. Throw in some grilled veggies and bread and a bottle of white…’twas a good night.

.:.

One more thing: happy birthday, T-Bone!!

[tags]fatblogging, bbq[/tags]

It was pretty funny when H-Simp punched N-Flan

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

I’m liking my new blog template. If you notice any bugs (beyond the broken links in the consumption/mp3 widgets in the sidebar; already noticed those ones) let me know.

.:.

The Simpsons Movie (imdb | rotten tomatoes): pretty good. Little dopey toward the end, but solid laughs throughout. Much more sophisticated visuals than I’m used to seeing in the show, and humour a little more in the pratfall/timing style of the early seasons than in the more recent absurdist style. Good escapism for sure.

.:.

Daily Dose of Imagery has (yet another) very cool shot of downtown Toronto, including our condo. The perspective is misleading; our building (on the far left) is actually dwarfed by the big bank towers).

.:.

The whole athlete nickname thing where they use their first initial and the first syllable of their last name (e.g., A-Rod, J-Kidd, T-Mac, etc.) has gone too far. It was already silly when it got to J-Dub, but now that it’s reached Man-Ram, it’s just torn the ass out of the whole thing.

[tags]wordpress templates, simpsons movie, daily dose of imagery, toronto, athlete nicknames, manny ramirez[/tags]

In which I am a sook

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Ooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww this hurts. More Advil, please.

.:.

Very cool: the Walk Score, which tells you how convenient your neighbourhood is (for walking to things). Our current home scored a very high 80, and our previous place scored a 73. Friends of ours with houses scored 62 and 51 respectively, pretty good considering the suburbs seem to net scores in the 20s.

[From Torontoist]

The sweetest beep that ever there was

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Well, the gas leak saga seems to be nearly over. Today some people from the building came by with a new dude. This new dude had an actual piece of gas-detecting equipment…how novel. Anyway, he climbs up on the stepladder and sticks the device into the wall panel…nothing. The other three get smug looks of satisfaction, and comment on how there’s no smell so there’s clearly no leak. But then the new dude turns on the gas (the shutoff valve has been closed), puts the device back in the wall and…oh, what’s that, a beep? A FUCKING BEEP? Yeah, a beep. Within seconds this thing went off. Then the guy did the “soap test”, where you spray a little soapy water on the pipe to see if it bubbles. This is the test the building guys have been doing for the last few weeks, swearing up and down that there’s no leak. The new dude does it once and five seconds later has bubbles. The other guy gives it a try…nothing. The new dude explains that it’s because he just emptied half a bottle of water onto it and temporarily sealed it up. Twenty seconds later…beeeeeeep. Hooray for technology.

It was all I could do not to go put on a track suit and do a Will Farrell style cheer. For the last month these people have ignored us, talked down to us, bitched at us, told us we’re wrong and, let’s face it, put us in danger. Seriously, I couldn’t even look at them; I wouldn’t have been able to refrain from just giving them the finger at close range. But I didn’t want to be that guy. I figured I’d just blog about their snotty incompetence instead.

The one time I wasn’t able to contain myself was when the new dude told them the leak was on the trac pipe adapter to the supply line. I said, “Oh really? Cool. ‘Cause that’s exactly what it says right here on this notice from Enbridge. You know, the big red one labeled ‘WARNING’ that’s been stuck to the wall by the access panel? That’s dated June 18th? That says, ‘MSA POS AT TRAC PIPE FITTING ADAPTER ON SUPPLY LINE’? Yeah, that one.”

One of the ladies from customer service, who’s been pretty bipolar about this whole thing (one minute she seems helpful, the next she seems annoyed) couldn’t even stay after new dude discovered the leak. She just left. Who knows, maybe she had somewhere to be, but I think she just couldn’t handle being that stupendously wrong. I hope she went downstairs and told the rest of them how colossally they’ve fucked up for the last month. I hope they’re all scared for their jobs. Not because we’re the kind of people who would try to have them fired, but because it might convince them to actually give a shit the next time someone complains about a problem with their unit. Especially a gas leak.

Anyway, the guy came up and fixed it. Took him less than half an hour. He probably spent more time in here spraying it with Palmolive for the last month than he did actually fixing it, but it’s done. He got the new dude to test it again, and it seemed fine.

To celebrate, we barbecued. And every bite tasted like triumphant morsels of fuck you.

.:.

Other good news: my computer’s almost back up to speed. Still no sound card, but the USB is 2.0 again and the internet connection’s back. I used said connection to download two new albums tonight: Spoon‘s Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga and Stars‘ In Our Bedroom After the War.

.:.

Also, after the disaster that was last week, it’s felt good to do three things today: 1) go for a run; 2) get home by 6:30; 3) not do a scrap of work or school tonight. None…on a weeknight! Truant! Truant!

[tags]spire condominium, gas leak, enbridge, spoon, stars[/tags]

C

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

100 days ago we took possession of our condo. Let’s recap: I love the location & neighbourhood even more than I thought I would. The view’s even better than I expected, and Nellie’s gotten used to the balcony. In general I love almost everything about the unit and the building.

However, we’ve had some major problems. The toilet backed up two days in a row; I wasn’t here for that, but Nellie went through hell. Our floors still haven’t been replaced. We’re still missing blinds in our living room. The elevators have been very, very spotty and in various states of disrepair. But most frustrating of all has been the gas leak.

I blogged about it recently. Since then nothing’s improved; in fact, customer service has just pissed us off more. They seem to have two settings: ignoring us or scolding us. Because of work and school I’ve had little time to deal with this, but something’s gotta give soon. The people in charge of fixing what could potentially be a serious safety risk seem to be either incompetent or stupid. I don’t want to threaten them with legal action, but unless they can extract their heads from their asses it may come to that.

None of this has made me not love my new home. I’d just like to be able to love all of it, including the den and the barbecue.

[tags]condo, gas leak, context, spire[/tags]