Can I Take a Mulligan on Last Week?

I’m surely not the only one asking for a mulligan after last week, right? By the end of the week, I was sheetcaking Chinese takeout. If you don’t know what sheetcaking is, then you should watch that video with Tina Fey.

Here are a few things that have been going on. It’s going to be a little raw like Tawcan’s Random Thoughts

Worst Dogs Ever

The weekend before this last one, the 12th and 13th, we were dog sitting 2 of the top 4 worst dogs we’ve ever had… out of more than 125+ dogs now. A 3rd dog was probably in the top 10 worst dog range. From doing hundreds of dollars of damage to our fence by breaking through it get a rabbit, to doing dozens of dollars of damage in jumping on the counter and knocking glassware on the floor. By the time that one of the dogs perfectly aimed his poop in my wife’s shoe we just laughed because it didn’t make the top 10.

The experience made us reconsider if dog sitting makes sense. Of course Rover’s booking shenanigans isn’t making it any better. Yesterday, I was working with another sitter to cover for his family emergency and he agreed that problems simply didn’t happen with DogVacay’s system.

That Other Thing

During the time I was dealing with these dogs that thing in Charlottesville was going on. And then the this guy of all people decided to talk. You know how that all went, so I’m going to stop typing and sheet-cake some more fried rice. Did you know you can make a nice little dam with a pork strip at the end of your fork and fill the prongs with fried rice? It’s perfect for dipping into a vat of duck sauce.

At least this distracted me from the nuclear war with North Korea. It really didn’t, so here’s another Chinese takeout tip: never microwave the leftovers. The fried rice comes out like eating gravel. Instead, pan-fry it with some oil, butter, or bacon grease. Sometimes you might be in the mood to use all three.

Surprise Monday Holiday!

I got surprised by the Monday holiday last week, Victory Day. I wrote more about it last week, but it was fun to show up to daycare and find that I’m the only one in the parking lot. To make it worse, the four year old still had camp as they didn’t celebrate the state holiday. You’d think that would be better, but it was a meltdown that the youngest got to go home and he didn’t. I guess camp is not fun.

Water Damage in the Rental Property Part 1 (Tuesday)

One of our rental properties has water damage. It was noticed with the tenant moved some furniture. They noticed a problem with the outside wall of the condo. We brought in the condo association’s property manager to look at and fix it while I contacted people to work on the interior. I also started to work with my insurance to get an updated policy in my hand to present the condo association.

My expectation at this point is that the condo association would manage the project and fix the problem that was caused by not properly maintaining the exterior of the property allowing the water to get in.

Opioids Hit Home (Wednesday)

I was typing out a detailed story here and then realized that even anonymously the details shouldn’t be shared. Someone close to our family got the call at 3AM from her son who was ready to jump off a bridge. A month before he installed a floor in our house. He’s had a contractors license and I’m not handy at all. He was showing up at 7AM putting in long hours for a couple of days. I worked with him to do some of the more boring DIY work once he taught me what to do. We paid him a few hundred dollars.

He’s getting the help he needs. I offered my support any way I can. We were expecting to give him more work. It’s still a possibility down the line.

Oh THAT Billionaire (Wednesday)

About three hours after hearing the opioid news above, my wife and I went to pre-school orientation. It’s a class of 9 children. The person sitting next to me is literally a billionaire.

I can understand how these can happen in New York City or Silicon Valley. For example, in San Francisco the person working next to me was John Chamber’s son. (John Chambers is the CEO of Cisco a company worth around $159 billion today). However, that kind of thing doesn’t happen in my small state known for ranking #50 in business. Except this week it did.

This is isn’t bad news like some of the above stuff, but it’s weird and feels a little uncomfortable. And that comes from someone who has been writing about money for 11 years.

Water Damage in the Rental Property Part 2 (Friday)

I got the call from the inspector about the water damage and it turns out it is much more extensive than I thought. The condo association is also being completely unhelpful in taking ownership of the problem they created. Also, the inspector says that it’s probably not just my unit.

I spent the day rounding up insurance documents, mine and the condo associations. (It seems nuts, that I had to talk to their insurance company to get their insurance.) I started claims and pushed about a dozen emails back and forth. There are probably a dozen more still left to do. (That’s one of the reasons I’m starting my day at 2:30AM Monday morning to write this blog post.)

Things Get Better (Saturday)

By the time Saturday rolled around, things got better (not that the billionaire thing is bad). My wife got out of a couple of obligations and we able to spend time with the kids.

My hometown of Boston reminded the world that while we may be “#%@!&” when it comes to bragging about sports, the words “Boston Strong” aren’t just words.

The New York Post declared that the new David Ortiz is here. His name is Rafael Devers and he is setting records at the age of 20 just 21 games into his career. Told you that we may be “#%@!&” when it comes to bragging about sports… and that’s just a couple of weeks before the Patriots season starts.

I’ll try to reset and move forward this week, but I know I’ll still be working on the rental property, some outstanding unrelated paperwork issues, and getting the kids ready to transition to school in about 10 days.