Halloween and Stuff

So, we are having a party on Friday.  Now... the last time we were going to have a party and have these same out of town guests, Mother Nature decided to have an "Almost Tsunami".  So, we had to cancel our party and never did see our friends.  Now they are back and coming to our place for dinner on Friday.  Hopefully, MN will be kind.  The air conditioning gods should be so good, too.  :(  We have this cover on our a/c.

Now, the a/c is built into the wall so the cover is flat on the wall held on there by these ridiculous metal thingies that some morons thought up 3 decades ago.  They were fine until I decided that the old rusty cover needed stripping down, rust removal and this special dipping thing that will keep rust at bay for the next 13 centuries.

So, my a/c guy Pat comes and takes away the cover.  It is gone for weeks and weeks.  I think there is an old blog on the mental anguish of this cover and its anti rust dipping bath.  :(  Anyway, no matter what, since then the cover will not stay on the wall.  I have NO idea what they did to the ridiculous screw thingies but they have not worked since the dipping.  Then Pat's brother, who is a handy man, decided that he'd "fix" it.  Ok.  He does.  It doesn't work and the cover is no better.  Except now the original screw thingies are gone.

So, I run into Pat in the lobby the other day and he makes the gigantic mistake of asking me how the cover is.  HAH!  I drag his Bostonian butt into my apartment and show him.  Oiks, sez he.  This is his responsibility he responsibly tells me.  Good.  I tell him.... fix it.  It's driving me nuts and 2 nights ago it came crashing off the wall scaring the bejezus out of all of us... as if Ipo isn't nuts enough.  :(  Now I have gouges in my wall and wood frame of the door opposite the cover.   I am not happy.  My wine is making itself known.

Pat tells me he will go to the hardware store that day and call me later.  The next morning, bright and early, I am hissing into the phone.  Naturally, he hasn't called.  We have this dinner party coming up and we have the a/c cover in pride of place on the living room floor.  Not happy.  Major not happiness.

Those of you who know me, know I am the anal retentive queen and the mere THOUGHT of that thing laying there is making me nuts.  So, today I call Pat again.  Oh gosh.  He has gone to 3 hardware stores and can't find anything to fix it with.  I am losing it.  I ask him just what he thinks I am supposed to do and remind him that he says this problem is his responsibility.  He blames his brother for throwing away my screws.  I can see my wine marching across the kitchen floor.

So, I tell him I on't care whose "fault" it is but, as he knows it is his responsibility, he can just fix it and he better fix it by Thursday.  Naturally, I have not heard back from him yet.  Wanna lay money on the fact that I will wind up calling the ever-wonderful Charlie to fix it?  I bet.  Charlie can do anything.  I will call him tomorrow.  I thought I'd give Pat one more chance to get the job done.  I think I'll have Charlie do it and send Pat the bill.  That oughta work.  ;D

SOOOOO... in the meantime, I made these favors for our party.  What do you think?  ;)