So, there have been a few things going on lately. To go back a little bit, we now finally have tile on a balcony/patio. This was a needlessly long, drawn-out saga. Back when we first got the apartment, the maintenance manager told us that we were lucky, because we picked an apartment with a newly redone balcony. This seemed pretty cool at the time(July). When the time came to move in, at the end of July/beginning of August, we were told that it wasn't done yet, but would be within a few days. Several weeks later, when we asked again, we were told that they were out of the tile, and it had to be reordered. Meanwhile, all sorts of work was being done all over the building. We were told that we should go ahead and just use the concrete that was on the balcony already, which he claimed most of the apartments still had. There were two problems with this: 1)Most of the apartments that we checked out had the tile installed, and 2)The concrete wasn't really usable, since it had been swirled up into an abrasive surface in preparation for the tile they never laid down. We couldn't really go out there barefoot, and it was a pain in the ass to clean.

We then waited patiently, until February, when I finally called them on it. We were once again told that the tile was on oreder, and that the conrete was fine to use. We said that was absolutely not true, and explained the problems with the concrete. The manager apologized, and said that he would get maintenance to get whatever tile they could, and have it put in as soon as the rain stopped and things dried out. We said ok, and sat back to wait again.

Three months later, I marched back in again, and told the leasing manager that I needed to talk to the maintenance manager, and that I was getting furious, as we had now passed the nine month mark on our lease without the tile on our balcony. She got the message to him, and I came back and spoke to him. He again tried to claim that the concrete was usable, and I shot him down immediately. I told him this was getting insulting, and that I wanted it taken care of.

They installed the tile the next day. The same tile that all the other apartments have. I swear, I could scream.

Anyway, that was one thing. Another important thing to mention, I suppose, is that I got a new job. I finally got out of FC&FL(Fs added for emphasis), and I'll be starting next week as a game tester. I cannot possibly convey how much of a relief this is to me. I think that had I stayed much longer, my head might have exploded. The owner, in my humble opinion, gets greedier and more business-unsavvy every day. He needs a swift kick in the ass by someone who isn't afraid of him to tell him to get his act together. Hmmm...I wonder who might fit that bill?

Lastly, a group of us, including my beloved, went to the Ren Faire yesterday(Sunday). There were a lot of false starts and glitches on the way there, but the big bad weirdness was the guy who accosted me shortly after we started browsing the shops. I was dressed as a monk, since it was the costume that my brother's girlfriend was nice enough to obtain for me last year. This being Ren Faire and all, I wasn't too concerned about someone asking if I was dressed as a Franciscan monk. I told I wasn't particularly aiming for that, and that I was just wearing what I had to wear. Then, he got weird.

He wanted to know if I knew the history of the Francsicans. Now, I do know a little, but I wanted him to go away, so I said not really, and started to turn away. He then started going on about Saint Francis, and the pope, and all sorts of history which I really didn't give a rat's ass about from some pushy jerk at the Faire. I told him I really didn't want to hear this, and he said that he thought I had said I knew this stuff. My father and I both told him that, in fact, I had specifically said I didn't. This was the point at which he basically floored me. "You're not really a monk?"

WHAT?????? WTF???? How the hell did he get that idea? Particularly because, were I a monk, not only would I have known the history he was spouting, but it would have been profoundly insulting to tell me what I already should have known. At this point I was getting really pissed, and I simply said, "No, this is my costume for the Faire. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm here to spend time with my family!" He finally gave up and wandered away, although he did manage, towards the end of our day, to walk in front of me and cut me off as I was pushing my father's wheelchair towards the exit. Yeesh.