Realty Blues

Our landlord is selling our apartment. Fine. He’s been a great landlord. We’re willing to help him sell the place. Keep it clean, let Realtors in, be nice, etc., etc. We had two stipulations:

  1. We have to be there when they show it.
  2. We need 24 hours notice.

This was reasonable to the landlord, who had had the experience of trying to sell a home he was living in. It’s just courtesy.

Three times now I’ve gotten voicemails from Jenny Pruitt Realtor agents, that go something like this:

1:00pm: “Hi my name is Pushy Realtor, and I’m going to show your apartment at 5:30pm today. Thanks!”

Because I work in a basement, I don’t get my voicemail off my cellphone until I leave work at 5pm. That’s my problem not theirs. But 4 hours notice is not 24 hours, and they never ask me if I going to be there. They are going to show the place whether I’m there or not. So I have to call them back and explain to them what it says in the listing.

And they always get pissed. The lady today practically hung up on me. She was so put out that I wanted her to follow the rules. She was put out that I didn’t want to let a bunch of strangers into my house when I wasn’t there.

What’s funny is that I am at home now, and have plenty of time to show the house. I’d be perfectly willing to, if they had called yesterday. But I’m not going to bend on the rules, because they’ve already abused them.

Last week, I think the place was shown without even a phone message. If you’ve been to our house, you know that we keep the bathroom doors closed because the cats have a plant fetish and they will eat our houseplants down to a nub. Potato ate an entire aloe plant once. Nothing left but a gooey dirty nubbin in the pot. Anyway, I came home and the bathroom doors were wide open and Ezelle was happily munching away on Leslie’s new African Violets. I bet they are delicious, with those soft furry mushy leaves. Leslie didn’t leave the doors open. Leslie likes her houseplants chew-free. Someone else was in the house. Without even the courtesy of a voicemail.

We talked about that incident with the landlord, and he was very sympathetic and understanding and said he would talk to the listing Realtor. I guess it did some good, because now they are calling at least 4 hours before, but at least they are calling.

I’ve shown the apartment to one Realtor so far. Jazz Boudreaux was his name. Not surprisingly based on his name, he had lived in New Orleans–he recognized the Adams Street PoBoys menu on our fridge. He called 24 hours before, set up an appointment, was very respectful of my time, and thanked me for taking the time to show the place. I don’t want to come off that I think all Realtors are self-centered jerks. Just the ones from Jenny Pruitt and Associates. Take a lesson from Jazz Boudreaux and be nice, and I’ll be nice.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

In honor of the secular celebration for the saint, the Archbishop of Atlanta has lifted the Lenten restriction of meat on Fridays.

Frequently the rectories and the Chancery receive calls concerning the issue of abstaining from meat on Saint Patrick’s Day, March 17, especially when it falls on a Friday of Lent. In virtue of canon 1245 of the Code of Canon Law, a priest who possesses diocesan faculties granted by the Diocesan Bishop may dispense in individual cases for a just reason from the observance of both fast and abstinence, or commute these obligations to some other pious activity. This year, however, Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory is granting the dispensation to all members of the diocese with the recommendation that Catholics should do some penance in place of their being allowed to eat meat on this Lenten Friday.

Is it just me, or is it odd to celebrate a saint’s feast day by skimping on a Catholic rite? He does say to some other penance in its place, though, to his credit. I don’t ever recall this happening in New Orleans though.

Hope everyone is wearing their green and will down at least one Guinness today.

st.patrick

Wicked at the Fox

WICKED will play Wednesday, May 17 through Sunday, May 28, 2006 at The Fox Theatre in Midtown Atlanta.
Performances are Tuesday through Saturday evenings at 8:00 p.m. with matinees on Saturdays at 2:00 p.m., Sundays at 1:00 p.m. and a special matinee performance on Thursday, May 18 at 2:00 p.m.
Ticket prices range from $27.00 – $66.00 and go on sale Sunday, December 4, 2005 at the Fox Theatre box office, all Ticketmaster outlets, online at www.BroadwayAcrossAmerica.com.

http://www.foxtheatre.org/current_news.htm

I’m excited to finally get to see this play.

I’m not the only one

From Fantasy Football writer Joe Bryant:

I’m with Saints coach Jim Haslett on the holding call at the end of the Atlanta game. That was lame and should have been a no call. To me, it was exactly like the end of the USC – Notre Dame game where Reggie Bush clearly violated the letter of rules pushing Matt Leinart into the end zone.

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3230/1483/400/BushPush.jpg

I don’t think you call that one on USC. And I don’t think you call the Saints for holding there. That flag doesn’t get thrown on New England or Philadelphia or Dallas.

Jim and I call bullshit

from the ESPN Saints-Falcons game recap

“I’m telling you it was a flat-out bullshit call,” Haslett said in a remark that is likely to draw a fine from the NFL. He said the Saints ran the same play Atlanta had used a week earlier.
“They didn’t call it last week. We were pulling the guy to the outside and you’re allowed to pull as long as you’re moving forward,” he said.

You’re damn right it was a bullshit call, Jim.

Still, there is no excuse for losing that game. The Atlanta offense could not score the entire game. Blaming the refs for the loss because of a bullshit call is just as bad as blaming the loss to the Giants on the “home” game setup. Poor coaching (like when you sent the field goal unit on the field for a 51-yard attempt on third down with 10 seconds and a time out left) and poor playing (like when our offensive line let that rookie Falcon scoot through the line untouched to block the field goal attempt) is why we lost that game.

On a side note, I find it amusing that every single sports radio host and caller in Atlanta either does not mention that last penalty at all, or is outrageously praising the refs for doing the right thing at the right time and making the right call. Good job refs.

About Atlanta, a rant, nothing new, please move on

I was going to post this on Metroblogs, but I decided maybe I shouldn’t drag my fellow bloggers there into a feud with Joy Johnston. Joy Johnston


When I first moved here and was looking for information about the city, the Atlanta “blog” from about.com worked its way into my rss reader.

Perhaps its bad form to moan about another local “blog,” but since there is no way to post comments on that site, I am left with no recourse.

What a piece of junk. I don’t know why I haven’t deleted its feed yet, but there it sits, and I dutifully read the new entries. about.com is an internet dead end. A black hole. All the links link to another page on about.com, which link to another page on about.com.

I’m always looking for local bands to check out, and today there was a mention of one I hadn’t heard of (I haven’t heard of many), 13 Stories. Great, I think, I’ll check out their website and see what they are. Not from about.com, I’m not. I’m going to keep checking out the same page on about.com. Over and over. I can’t escape without (the horror) actually having to type “13 Stories” into google and searching myself.

Maybe I’m lazy. If looking for basic functionality on a website is lazy, then I’m lazy. Perhaps I am too picky. I’m sorry, when your link reads “Visit Their Web Site” I want it to *gasp* go to their website.

I know everyone knows this about about.com. I’m basically saying “McDonald’s hamburgers are made from soy!”

And I still haven’t gone to the band’s website.