melog-20101130.log.3

momma made a chicken casserole. so, no need to visit kfc or popeye's.

she also made a sweet potato pie. not as good as chess, but i'll take her sweet potato pie over "no pie" any day of the week.

we bought a pumpkin pie for thanksgiving. only one slice was ever eaten from that pie.

yuck.

i called a plumber this evening. see . . . i rented out my first house to someone after moving to my current dwelling. the temp is dropping in my region. so, the tenant will decided to turn on his heat-- except that the gas meter was removed from the house from being vacant for so long. so, i have to get a new gas utility permit issued in order to have the gas turned on.

neither i nor the tenant knew this was necessary until a few months ago. i tried to get the gas turned back on, but my first attempt was a fiasco:

first, you have to apply for a house inspection. never mind that the house already had a successful inspection in order to have the the electricity turned on. oh, and that costs about $40.00.

*bing*

next, you have to get a licensed plumber to do a gas test and check to see if your house is up to code. $350.00.

*badda-bing*


then, if you're an ignorant poor soul like myself, you'll miss half a day of work to wait around for a terse city inspector who will come to your rental property and fail your inspection because your plumber did less than half-ass work and gave you the shaft.

*CHA-CHING*


that's some expensive shit, especially since i can get shit for free if i ever needed some.

well, a former neighbor who lives near my rental property is a plumber. i had forgotten about that fellow. he helped me out in the past. i got back in contact with him and he told me that a good plumber would have met the inspector for me and would have checked for everything that was not up to code before applying for an inspection.

simply put, i'd been had.

and i finally figured it out after waisting so much money and time. i was very, very pissed about this event a few weeks ago. the plumber tried to contact me to "fix the problems" missed in the inspection. but, they were only going to charge me even more.

tomorrow, i'll meet my former neighbor. he'll do a walk though with me and show me everything that needs to be brought up to city code. then, we'll go to the hardware store. then, i'll pay him for his labor after the work is done.

then, he will meet the inspector for me (so i don't have to miss work-- as it should have been) and let me know if there was a pass or fail. if it fails, the problem is on him. if it passes, then we all walk away happy and my tenant gets heat.

then, the tenant will cuss when he gets his gas bill next month.

hope it all works out. i gotta check with my supervisor and see if he's ok with me taking tomorrow off at short notice. usually they have no problems with it. but, it's best to ask as soon as possible.

after i do that, i gotta get my kids cleaned up and in the bed.

when it's all quiet, i think i'll watch my star trek dvd, or maybe finish up watch carl sagan's cosmos series.

a bowl of cocoa covered ice cream might be in my future, too.

mmmmmmmmm . . . .