On the home front

Good news and really, really annoying news. First, the good news. I saw someone finally fixing our gate that that nutty lady drove through. I promised a pic a few weeks back and never delivered, so here it is:
It's a great sturdy gate and they had temporarily replaced that section that she took out with lame flimsy 6-foot high fencing. So looks like we are getting that section fixed only after 2 weeks of waiting!

Here's the pretty bad news. We got a letter from the HOA saying we were in violation of a policy. What policy is that? We have blue drapes hanging in our windows! And we better replace them toot suite on receipt of the letter! Ok, if we are in violation, then fine, we're in violation--and no, we had no idea. But those drapes have been up since June of 2006 when we bought the place. Drapes are really fucking expensive and when we moved in, the only way we were able to buy drapes and other household necessities were with the many gift cards we received from our wedding and the rebate gift cards I redeemed from my rewards credit card. So I sent an email back saying that we are happy to replace the blue drapes with, as is their ruling, white or off-white, but that I needed some time in order to do so--especially since they've been up for almost a year and no one has noticed until now! I didn't tell them we were broke as a joke, but said that with the upcoming holiday we would be mostly away (somewhat true) and begged them to give me a reasonable deadline so I could go shopping. So we'll see what they say. We definitely cannot afford to be fined by the HOA right now either, that's for sure.

The only reason we got blue drapes in the 1st place is b/c of that horrible blue shag carpeting that I am dying to replace someday anyway. I just figured blue would match! Looks like I'll be selling those things on craigslist here soon. I've got a buyer off craigslist for some extra .45 ammo I no longer need, so that'll pay for the haircut I desperately had to get last night. Hey, I get 2 haircuts/year and I could wait no longer. Besides, I want to look nice and neat for court next week.

Met little bro for lunch today and he also took pity on me and bought. Shit, these days I'd sell plasma if I didn't have to seek out such seedy places to do so. Besides, I like dealing with the Blood Center. They reward me nicely with all kinds of gifts.