The alarm "installers" have been here since 9:00 am. I’m going crazy. The house is a mess and they don’t look like they are even close to being done.

To top it all, I can’t connect to my work email and I’m supposed to be "working" from home.

I had a huge posting all typed up yesterday with my weekend update and blogger lost it! I hate when that happens and now I really don’t feel like retyping it.

It’s cold here (for California standards, before any Rochesterians leave nasty comments about how it’s not really “cold” as long as it’s above 30).

I stayed home this morning so PacBell could do a homerun from the D-mark to a jack in my house (whatever that means). This is all so I can get my alarm installed.

See, the alarm guy came out several weeks ago and couldn’t install the alarm system because the phone box was too far away. I had two options: pay PacBell $120 to run a line or get digital phone from AT&T and pay $30 instead. So AT&T comes out and they tell me I can’t get digital phone because of my DSL. That’s crazy! That was last week.

Today PacBell comes in and the guy says they really should install an independent phone box for the house and he doesn’t have the equipment with him and that I should reschedule. I call them up and their next available date is Nov. 20th! And then I’ll still have to schedule a time for the alarm people to come in. I’m so regretting getting this alarm system.

I have a horrible tooth ache. My dentist thought she had saved my tooth but it looks like I’ll need a root canal. I took two Advil and two extra strength Tylenol in a one hour period. Now I feel funny.

Last night, Su, Nathan, and I went out for dinner and then to the pub. They have a DJ there on Saturdays. I think it’s weird for an Irish pub to have dancing and a DJ. It was even stranger to see CNN on the big screen while cheesy dressed up girls danced to cheesy 70s music.

My dentist works out of a van. The van comes to our office parking lot on Mondays and Tuesdays so it’s terribly convenient. Unless you have an emergency on a different day of the week. And that’s why I found myself at the Excite parking lot in Redwood City this morning. I was not amused.

Hmm… Someone did a search for “california heidi guy” and clicked on a link to my blog. I really wonder what exactly they were looking for.

Woke up and there was no water again. Cleaning lady came but couldn’t clean. She acted as an interpreter and talked to the plumber. He wouldn’t be done until 5:00 pm (and would continue this week). Cleaning lady left and rescheduled for Saturday at 8:30 am. Argh!

Called Su and we decided to meet for lunch. Picked up Su and went to Mandarin Gourmet.

We drove around Palo Alto looking at houses. Some construction workers let us check out some places that were being restored. They sucked.

Came back home but felt antsy with no running water available.

Drove to downtown Mountain View and checked out some apartments. Hung out at Starbucks until 5 pm.

I was watching The House of Mirth when Su called. It was Nathan’s b-day and they wanted to go for dessert and drinks.

The House of Mirth

Remi Adefarasin (Cinematographer). Sony Pictures 2000, DVD, $14.94

We had desserts at Il Fornaio. Su wants that to be our hang out place now. Headed to F&A. It was full of Europeans. We couldn’t figure out why. Then we tried British Banker’s and that sucked. Finally we went to Blue Chalk but it was pretty dead.

On our way to my house, we decided to go to Denny’s. The guys in the booth behind us looked like they had played Dungeons & Dragons. I mentioned that. Two seconds later we hear them start talking about wizards, ogres and trolls.

Woke up and there was no water.

Called the water people. They sent some guy. He said the water was shut off and turned it back on. He figured kids must have turned it off.

Five minutes later the water was off again. Now I knew how to turn it back on. Thought this was weird and kept watching the water shut off valve location. Caught a Mexican guy turning it off again. He explained, in broken Spanish, that the water would be off all day.

Tried to clean my closets but felt this compulsive need to wash my hand every five minutes. Since there was no water, decided to go shopping.

Went to Target and bought a few things. Went to Pier 1 and bought BB2 pillows. Came back and watched a movie.

Things are changing around here although it looks like some people (meaning landlords) are still unaware of that fact:

$1600 - 2 Bedroom Apartment Mountain View
Places like these are still rare and sound suspiciously cheap (I know, I know, people who don’t live in this area are thinking: “What? That’s higher than my mortgage”. Yep, it probably is and yep, we probably are stupid to be living in this area to begin with).

$1850 - 2/1 Apt - Centrally Located (Move-in Bonus)
Ads like these are becoming more and more common. Last year, the word “bonus” meant that you had to pay the landlord a little something extra to even be considered for a place.

$2000 - Mt. View -2bdrm, 1.5 ba avail now. Private addition
This is probably average for the area although last year I saw a “private addition” where they just built something over a garage, divided up 700 sq. ft. into a living room and two “closets” and called it a 2 BR. Oh, and they were asking $2,500 for it.

$2400 - Beautiful 2bed/1bath house 1 block from Castro Str
Yeah, but is it really *that* beautiful? As in, Am-I-willing-to-pay-$400-more-a-month beautiful?

$2695 - Beautiful Upstairs 2×2 Condo @ The Lakes of Mountain View
I’m assuming that part of the rent goes to pay for the hired ducks. Ducks are getting pretty expensive. Last I heard, ducks were getting paid $15/hr just to hang out in our ponds at work.
By the way, since when are there Lakes in Mountain View?

I hadn’t been to the dentist in two years (since I moved to California). I know, I know, shame on me!
I finally decided it was time to go but no one here had a good dentist to recommend. So I used Metlife’s site and picked one from a list. He was Japanese. I figured he’d be good. I know, I know, cultural stereotypes are bad. His office was also in a nice town so that seemed like a bonus.

I get there and his office looks like a temporary house. You know, like the ones they build in construction sites and they tear down after they are done with the "actual" construction. Similar to RIT apartments. I go into his office and his equipment is from the Flintstone’s era. The little console thingy was blue and had all these round edges. It looked like a vacuum cleaner from the 50s. He cleaned my teeth and told me I had a cavity. I told them I would call later to make an appointment. Today I called another dentist.

I had this huge entire blog typed up when my computer crashed!

So now I am not going to write again about how hot it is here, how my little sister just moved to her own apartment which she owns while I’m still renting, how my dad is on this crazy pilgrimage trip in Spain, how I just moved into my new office, how I went to Target looking for cool stuff for my new office but couldn’t find anything. And most of all, I won’t be asking what the hell is kettle korn. Nope, it just won’t happen! And that means that the two people who actually read my blog, will not get to read about all these things. And I am sure that they will be crushed!