Reason 612 to never buy a house with an aboveground pool, unless it also comes with a pool boy:
If you go on vacation for two weeks, when you come home, not only will you now own the world's largest Petri dish, the microorganisms will have evolved intelligence and mock you mercilessly.
Diana delivers the news:
... Four years ago there were no houses under $500,000. Two years ago there were practically none under $600,000. Now there are quite a few under $600,000. Not that those are the "wonderful Wellesley houses" newcomers want, however. Any house in Wellesley that's selling for $650,000 or less will need work (or demolition) to meet the higher standards of today's buyers coming into a town like this.
One more, and it's a trend.
Todd Wallack, formerly a reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle has been chronicling his 5,000-mile trek from the Left Coast (as has his wife, Helga).
Actually, it's more like a return than a new arrival, at least for Wallack - he used to be a business reporter at the Herald (and before that, a reporter at the world's greatest Web site on enterprise computing).
Jo learns that if your kitchen has skylights and you leave them open to cool off the kitchen overnight, a raccoon might just find its way in and drop 18 feet to your kitchen floor:
... A few minutes later while we all debated how the hell we were going to get him out of the kitchen, he/she hopped up on the window ledge and departed with nary a look back. ...
With photo of the intruder.
Margalit learns that sometimes it's a lot easier to put your hand down a garbage disposal than get it back out:
... My hand is still very wedged in the disposal, and the sink is hanging off my arm. They try taking the disposal apart, piece by piece, but eventually they get to the realization that the only way this sucker is coming off my hand is if they saw it off. With an electric saw. A loud buzzing power saw. Cutting through metal with my bare hand underneath. ...
Reports are filtering in of scattered blackouts across the region last night:
When the power went out last night at the James's Gate pub in Jamaica Plain, they didn't shut down - they broke out the candles. And Abby was there with her camera.
Steve reports he's thinking of putting empty bottles out with his recyclables to help bring peace to the rival gangs of bottle collectors roaming his neighborhood:
... Someone could be hurt! Or, I could lose sleep.
Nomar Garciaparra's old Charlestown loft is for sale. You remember that condo, right? The one from which Nomah and his uncle jumped into the hahbah to save a couple of drowning women?
Last week, Alison found herself basically locked in her house while police blockaded her neighborhood because some kid blew up a large pipe bomb.
Turns out the kid was merely enjoying a hobby he'd picked up from his dad:
Kristy, who moved from Davis Square to the home of the Automile, counts 'em down:
... My neighbors are all really friendly and nice, and are not 19-year-old college students who will throw "ragers" every weekend. It's a family neighborhood. (Yes, I recognize that listing this makes me sound old.) ...
Josh Ourisman is quitting his job in San Francisco and moving to our fair Hub (well, Cambridge, anyway). He's blogging the transition:
... This blog is my official chronicle of the process of quitting my job, moving across the country (from San Francisco to Boston), moving in with my girlfriend, and going into business for myself all at once. I like to think of it as a social experiment in exactly how far I can pursue success along a path entirely of my own choosing. ...
It's bad enough when the guy you just refused to give a cigarette to starts screaming threats at you and coming at you. Even worse is when you get near home and there he is again.
You don't have to tell Single Girl in the City that ridiculous rents are back in vogue - but why did the Globe have to write about it when she's looking for an apartment?
... "Yeah, that unit isn't $1095 anymore. They raised the rent," he told my boyfriend.
"What? You just posted this ad, like 3 hours ago, and it said it was $1095. How much is it now?"
Shelley is sitting on her third-floor deck, trying to catch a breeze when all of a sudden she sees a small light flashing from the fire escape ...
You'd think that in a neighborhood blessed with thrice-weekly trash pickup, there wouldn't be much of a problem with trash on the street. You'd think wrong, Stephen Baldwin reports:
... [S]ome imbecile who resides three doors down from me seems incapable of following these directions, dumping his or her trash on the sidewalk long after the collectors have left with everybody else's garbage. ...
John Keith shows you what sort of home you can buy for $300,000 in different Boston neighborhoods these days.
On Critical Fluff, Jayniek writes:
I assumed it was a pretty standard truth that nobody enjoys thumping bass at 6am on a Sunday morning.
This, apparently, is untrue, as proven by the asshole who lives below me. ...
After the diplomatic approach to ending the racket fails, she tries a technique familiar to anybody who's ever lived in a building with neighbors like that.
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