In Other News
Throw The Bums In!

I can't help but chortle with glee over Tuesday's elections. Let's face it, it was a referendum on the Republicans and the GOP got spanked to a fare thee well. I'd love to be able to say "I told you so" but I can't because I didn't. But I did tell Beth; she can vouch for me. I predicted months ago, right when Blowjobgate was...er, um...coming to a head, that their impeachment debacle was going to turn around and bite them in the ass. And so it has.

And now we're losing Newt too? My, how the worm turns...to bite off its own head. His replacement will no doubt be an even bigger ass, but that's a good thing in the long run. I think what we're seeing here is the self destruction of the Republican party. They were onto a good thing with their Contract with America, but then they started believing their own press releases and lost their mind -- and mission. They're going to keep redlining that ultra-conservative engine until it explodes and splits the party down the middle, and maybe then we'll start to get some sense back in government.

And speaking of sense in government, how about the race for Sheriff out here? The incumbent dies a week before the election and his supporters keep campaigning for him? And he still gets 1/3 of the vote? Only in LA... I'll tell you, that was the race that worried me. I don't think we'd have ever lived it down if we'd elected a dead guy Sheriff.

But then, we did have Tom Bradley as Mayor for quite awhile and I don't think anyone was ever really sure he was alive.

Friday - November 7, 1998
Slumlords

There's light at the end of the tunnel. Not a terribly bright light, certainly not the solution to all our problems, but a light nonetheless. We've decided to rent the other house and we already have a tenant -- she moves in Monday.

It all came about rather suddenly, before we'd even made the decision to rent, actually. I went to a screenwriter "chat" last Sunday, a gathering of some of the people from a mailing list I'm on, and one of the people there mentioned in passing that she was looking for a place to live. Oh really? sez I, I have a place. Then I spent the next ten minutes nursing my wounds and convincing her that, really, I wasn't hitting on you, I have a house you can rent, that's all I meant, honest, please stop spitting on me, please stop kicking me, ow that hurts, etc... She ultimately decided she was interested, so Beth and I talked it over later that night and decided to rent rather than sell. Why not, when we already had a tenant lined up?

I think it's all going to work out pretty well, at least considering the alternative. Taking the house off the market will erase the stress of waiting and hoping for an offer; renting it will remove most (not all -- she can't afford that much rent) of the financial burden, thus erasing even more stress; having that income rolling in rather than out will give us more freedom to track down every last rat bastard involved in the aborted sale and then take the time to properly stomp their guts into a fine puree; and, as a final bonus, keeping the old house will elevate us to the status of Land Barons, perhaps even Slumlords if we play our cards right. We'll still be losing money, of course, but it'll just be a trickle instead of the outright gusher we've been coping with for the past three months.

I can't adequately express what a relief this is for us. Why, it's almost as though we were drinking lemonade...