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"I'm not happy with the way I look either." -Katherine
"What have you done to change that?" -Me
"Nothing!" -Katherine

Friday, 5-31-19: 2nd bootleg update of the day.
Alright turds, all two of youz who actually read this pathetic excuse of a website, I am back to write more of my useless thoughts. It is now 2200, and in a former life nearly 21 years ago when I was close to half the age that I am now that would have been taps, taps, lights out. All hands maintain silence about the decks. Do I miss that old life? FUCK NO. Now I am married to a hot chick who is also my best friend, and back then I had a medical condition commonly known as NFT. NFT = NO FUCKIN' TALENT! I was not good at anything. Okay, I was mediocre at a bunch of things.

Now all these years later I am good at a few things. I can sell things to people (Circuit City Sales awards from 1999-2001 beotches! Oh wait company went bankrupt what a bunch of crap!), I know how to be a slumlord, I can do taxes, and now for some reason I have become a carpenter. Also I am a decent DJ-assistant. That is called being versitale. I think. Maybe? I don't think I even just spelled that words correctly. What a bunch of crap!

The Red Sox just lost to the Yankees. What a bunch of crap! Time for channel 1928, daja vu from my first early AM update of the day when I was listening to Whitesnake. That chick on the hood of their car was pretty hot, but my wife has her beat.

^AHAHAHAHAHA GOD BLESS THE INTERWEB.

I am almost too drunk to write this shit, but not really I am still ok and when I drive to the bar I might make it. Kat just texted me this "Had 3 shots so maybe no yard work for me tomorrow hahahaha love you." AHAHAHAHAHAH! Well I have had 3 drinks also, but I made them pretty strong and F it if I get boozed up. Last Friday was epic fun. I guess the bar is not too busy right now, but it is all about quality and not quantity. I'd rather have only a few fun people instead of a room full of turds. Unfortunately on most nights small crowds = less pay for my wife. What a bunch of crap! She gets paid more on nights when the place does more business.

I talked to Mom on the phone again tonight for a half hour or 45 min. Last week we talked for damn near an hour! We had some catching up to do for sure because she was out west the week before we went to Mexico. This week we talked about Dad's upcoming 70th birthday party. He turns 70 in one week, but for reasons that make no sense to me Mom works all day on his actual birthday. If I were her I'd tell the boss to go fuck himself. Not like she even makes huge money, not for what she does. I think she works for pinko Jew pricks and I know that is politically incorrect as all hell, but she seriously said in the past her boss is Jewish so there ya go.

Dad's birthday is Friday next week, but I think we will do the celebration Sunday the 9th. Of course I will be there for that because my dad is fucking awesome. My parents are weird and set in their ways, but they are awesome. They taught me a lot about who I am, and mostly that is good. They worry about stupid shit all the time so I try to be the opposite of that. I do NOT want to be an old fuddy-duddy who worries about dumb little things. I don't even care about a lot of things, and that is both a blessing and a curse. Some things are not worth worrying about, but admittedly I do need to get my shit together a bit more. I am always busy doing something. What a bunch of crap!

I don't know what it is like to be my wife. Both of her parents are dead, but maybe they treated her poorly and that is ok? I dunno because they passed away before I even knew she existed. I think my parents will check out before I check out so one day in the future I will know what it is like to have dead parents. That last sentence is terrible, but it is true. My grandparents all checked out within the past 10 or so years, and they were all awesome. I really miss my grandparents a lot, especially Grammy and Papa. Mom talked about Grammy tonight on the phone some, and apparently she (Grammy) did not sleep well on a lot of nights. Grammy was fucking awesome, but her last few years were rough and I want to kill myself before I let that happen to my own body. Unfortunately when you are old everything changes so who the hell am I to even speculate on what life it like at age 90?

Okay, I am going to eat a WalMart "Freshness Guaranteed" lemon cake and then go to Jester's. This lemon cake was on the bakery clearance rack for 25 cents. HAHAHAHAHHAA. Yeah maybe I ain't outliving my parents after all! The end. Fin. Goonies never say die!

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Friday, 5-31-19: A three-day hiatus from long work days.
I put it on channel 1928, the 80s channel, and Whitesnake's Here I Go Again is playing. AWESOME. Dakota sang this at the Eagle's Club for Thursday night karaoke just over a month ago, and when he and I walked into that place the old ladies there loved it. For them Dakota was freah meat, and the coffee-brandy-drinking liquored-up ones really showed him some affection. That was the second-to-last week of Kat's 3-month stint there as the Thursday karaoke DJ, and ever since about 4 weeks ago the regular DJ is back from his Florida getaway.

We actually finally joined the Eagles. One of the members who occasionally comes to Kat's Jester's karaoke show has been trying to get us to join for about two years, and we decided to just do it since it is not that expensive and we did have some fun there. We paid the annual fee and did some paperwork, but so far we are not officially members because other things have to be done. A pint of blood, a job interview, criminal background check, 50 pushups, and probably not really any of those four things. One of the members actually invited us to come last night for karaoke with the regular DJ, but we decided against it so we could just relax and bivouac.

I made a list of the four most important things that I need to do today. First is go down to the sheriff's office to have FED (eviction) papers served for a tenant. I gave her until June 1st to geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeetttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt oooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuutttttttttttttttttt, but she is still there. I don't think she plans to move anytime soon since she hasn't found a place yet. Dakota has been driving us back in my truck from Oakland each day this week (he does a good job) so that gives me a chance to text and take care of some business as needed. On Tuesday her and I had this text conversation:

ME: "Are you still planning to move out by June 1st? If so I plan to pay you the entire deposit (unless there is serious damage to the place.)
HER: "I haven't found anything yet. Is there anyway I could have a little more time, please?..."
ME: "I have a court date scheduled for June 10th at 1PM. If it comes to that the court would allow you to stay until the 17th, but at that point it becomes a public-record eviction for any future landlord to see. If you are out by the 10th I can cancel that and it is not an eviction. I don't want to do a court date. It is never pleasant for either side."
HER: "So, I can't have more time?"
ME: "Not beyond the dates I just gave you. That in itself is more time."

^I left out a few irrelevant parts and some specifics so she can maintain her privacy, but the gist of the coversation is exactly as posted.

REQUEST FOR MORE TIME:

I do feel badly about taking someone's home away, but that is how it works when you fuck up as a tenant and do stupid shit. Keep paying rent late, make bootleg excuses, violate terms of lease, get a warning not to do it again, do it again anyway, and then your ass gots to go. Nothing personal, but it is not worth my time to even do business with people who say one thing and then go do another thing. Rinse, wash, repeat.

The second thing I need to do today is confirm a 1030 showing for my old apt tomorrow. There were 3 guys living there, but one left to take my Chamberlain duplex with other friends of his. The other two are planning to move out soon, but I don't have a date yet because they are waiting on pending out-of-state job interviews. I already have people who want that apartment so I am happy about that, but I wish I knew when exactly it was going to be available. Oh well it happens. It is a great apartment so I won't have trouble at all getting it re-rented this summer.

Third I need to do some banking, and fourth after that I need to buy my tax software for next tax season before the price increases by $100. I actually can buy that software before I even go to the bank after I jump onto my online bank account and move some funds around. I got a check from Phil yesterday for the past two weeks (two weeeeeeeeeeeekkkkkkkkkkssssssssssssssssss!) worth of work that we did at his place so I have some precious... precious money that I need to afford cool things like tax software and property tax bills. Okay nevermind there is nothing cool about spending all my paycheck from Phil on those things. What a bunch of crap!

The weather is supposed to be great today and tomorrow so hopefully my awesome wife and I can do some yard work. We are going to move the vegetable gardens to a new spot, closer to the garden hose and where we had one garden two years ago. We also need to seed and fertilize parts of the lawn, and I might even need some sod for a few areas that seem to refuse to grow. I used a yard of mulch last weekend around the properties and out front at our house so I might go get another yard for out back and for another property. A trip to Lowe's seems likely for plants and other supplies, probably today.

Hopefully it is a good weekend and we can relax some. Maybe I will even go lift some weights today in my bootleg gym, my first time using that thing in about three weeks. Not using the gym = what a bunch of crap! I haven't even gone for a jog in 6 days, but I don't feel out of shape at all because doing the work at Phil and Danielle's house is a form of exercise in itself.

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Wednesday, 5-29-19: Oh great another poor weather day.
This has been a pretty bad spring as far as our weather goes. We have had a large number of cooler-than-average and wet days, and today looks to be more of the same. What a bunch of crap! Yesterday was also a turd of a day, but we did manage to get close to a full day's worth of work done down at Phil's before it started raining. (6.75 hours of work, we left at 1445 instead of our normal 1600-1630.) Here is what things looked like before we got shut down by mother nature:

Shingling up on that very high dormer is a pain in the arse, but at least the cool weather made it tolerable up there on the roof. I do have that dormer to use as a sort-of shelf, but it is still awkward and I gotta be extremely careful that I don't fall off and die. Dakota has been doing a lot of the larger middle section, and he does a great job. I gave him a pay raise and hopefully he can get a little extra bonus pay if he sticks with it all the way until the end.

When will the end of this gods damned shingle job be? I was hoping for the end of next week, but now I have serious doubts. We still have another large section that we haven't even started yet, there are a few smaller areas to finish out back, and if time permits they want the very front done now. The original plan was to NOT do that front since it looks okay, but I do think the house needs it done so it can all look fresh and new. I told Phil on Monday that I don't know if we will have time to do it, but I would like to do it for them so we can officially say we were able to shingle everything for them, 100%.

Even though the weather is shit on toast (42 degrees, drizzle, raw) it is only 0556 and things are supposed to improve a tad. Cloudy and upper 50s isn't bad with a sweatshirt. We are going down to Oakland today, and if there is no rain we'll also go tomorrow on another cool and cloudy day. Then we can stay up here Friday and Saturday, and I need to help my awesome wife get our back yard squared away. We still haven't planted anything in the raised-bed gardens and it is almost June. What a bunch of crap! Good thing we didn't plant stuff yet because we damn near had a frost the night before last.

My allergies have been BAD this week. Like, worst ever bad. I haven't taken an allergy pill yet this morning, but I know I will have to take one because I can feel my eyes about to water and my nose about to start flowing with snot. I have been sneezing seemingly dozens of times each day all week. What a bunch of crap! Yesterday when we left Phil's as the first of the rain fell we could clearly see the hood of the truck with a green hue from all the pollens. I think our own yard is the main offender for my allergies, but no doubt working outside makes it worse. One of these years I guess I should get tested so I know what causes these flare-ups. I don't seem to get hit as hard some years as other years. Unfortunately this year is terrible.

It is 0600 now so I guess I need to go look at the online bank accounts so I know where to put some more precious... precious money. Since it's already almost the 1st I need to account for several automatic mortgage payments that will come out, and if I can swing it I'd love to buy next year's tax software for my tax business since the price is discounted substantially if the purchase is made before the end of this month. Oh, I owe some property tax bills as well. It never ends. What a bunch of crap!

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Sunday, 5-26-19: A day off for my worthless ass.
Today will be a mostly day off for me. Maybe? Hopefully! Even though Dakota and I didn't go work at Phil's yesterday or Friday I had things to do up here that I paid him to help me take care of. Friday morning was two trips to the city landfill, trash mountain, in horrible drizzly and cold weather. The top of the mountain was all mud and felt freezing with a strong wind. What a bunch of crap! Plus I almost lost a foot when we had to move an extremely heavy broken washer/dryer combo unit from an upstairs apt. Thankfully I had boots on or else bye bye 2-3 toes from the left foot. I didn't work that much Friday, but between the dump-runs and paperwork the day flew by. I did play rball for the first time in 2.5 weeks, and my elbow still feels pretty good so the rest was much-needed.

Yesterday I had a tax meeting with a client, and Kat had an outdoor evening "block party" in nearby Carmel that I helped her with. Outdoor gigs = what a bunch of crap. Black flies pwned us, even with bug spray. Late morning and into the afternoon yesterday Dakota and I used a yard of mulch to do some landscape work, and we both took turns running the mower. Yesterday was the first day so far this year that I had to mow our own lawn. OMG LATE SPRING. It seems almost certain that we won't be doing any blueberry raking in late July this year. Who knows, we might have to wait until the second week of Aug to start the blueberry season at this rate. Super late spring this year, and many wet, cool days. Thankfully yesterday was a beautiful day, at least it was great until the evening when it started to cool off before incoming rain. We did finish that party before it rained, though. The rain held off until we were home and bivouaced, and it is wet and raw again this morning outside. What a bunch of crap!

So today is Daniel's birthday, and we will all have a meal at Las Palapas Mexican restaurant. Las Palapas is awesome and if you disagree with me then I hate you. I probably hate you anyway, but I'll hate you a little more. Kat has another meeting with a wedding client that I'll do with her, and in about an hour I'm going over to Deno's (nickname for my good friend, Mike.) house to measure and plan for a deck that he wants installed. I guess the meeting and the deck-planning are both work so today isn't even a true day off. What a bunch of crap! Ah well we just had plenty of days off when we went to Mexico just over a week ago.

Tomorrow it's back to Phil's to pick up where we left off at this point on their house:

That octagon room is FINALLY done, and it was an incredible pain in the arse with all the windows and corners. However, it was all a first-floor project whereas the next section, the part that still is not totally stripped down, is going to take a lot of trips up and down ladders. I want to get that entire section, everything in the photo, 100% finished this week. Then next week we can finish one other large section. Their back deck is pwned and needs to be replaced since we had to do this to it in order o replace a shitload of rot:

^Bye bye most of the deck! The framing still remains for the back part of the deck, but maybe a lot of that will need replacing as well. Phil wants us to do the deck, but I don't see how we will have time until maybe the fall.

Speaking of decking, I just got back from Deno's house and we made a plan for the size that he wants. I have to price up the materials and get him an estimate either later today or sometime soon. Deno talked to me last year about wanting a deck so that is why I would do his before I would do Phil's. Plus he only lives 2.5 miles away, and it is an easy commute to his house with no traffic lights at all and only one stop sign. I'm pricing everything up, I will have to estimate labor for both Dakota and I, and we'll see if he still wants it done after I give him what will be a very fair number. My fair number might be sticker-shock to him, though. If he wants to do it still after he gets the price then Dakota and I can start that as soon as Phil's house is shingled. Or we can start it sooner if there are days where we can't go to Phil's due to rain for part of a day. Deno lives so close that working at his house for only 2 hours is no big deal whereas when we drive an hour one-way to Phil's I like to be mostly certain that we can stay for a full day of work.

I haven't even begun to add up the materials cost, but my gut tells me he will be around $1500 for the roughly 10x24 size that he wants. Thankfully it will only be two feet off the ground, but he does want railings so that adds to the materials and labor cost. Our deck out back is also only a couple feet off the ground, and for me personally having railings was a no-brainer. I can price it for him either way and then he can make a final decision.

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Friday, 5-24-19: Back to the "normal" Friday night routine.
It is amazing to me that my awesome wife has worked at Jester's for as long as she has. Not only has she worked there for damn near 6 years, but she has also made it a tremendous success. People love going to her karaoke show. I am obviously biased because I love her, but it doesn't take a genius to see that she has won at her DJ job. The owners of Jester's are notoriously cheap, and even they finally saw the writing on the wall and allowed the karaoke show to expand into the restaurant. Since that expansion a few months ago the Friday nights have been, on average, more successful than ever. The place is packed down there right now, and soon enough I'll be there myself hanging out and having fun for the last couple hours of the show.

I'm at home right now, and I just talked to Mom on the phone for 55 minutes. We had a lot of catching up to do since we last talked before her trip out west to visit Uncle Kev in Oregon and before our totally awesome trip to Mexico last week with Neil and Angela. We talked a little about Dad's upcoming 70th birthday, and that happens in just two weeks. Two weeeeeeeeeeekkkkkkkkkkkkssssssssssssssssssssssssss. Where is my Total Recall image gods damn it?

^Okay, that is not exactly what I had in mind, but F it the shoe mostly fits and no one who visits this bootleg site even cares... whether or not they care. That is about two people, give or take one. Hehehe.

I think my brain is fried. I have too much to think about, but I am happy because I know how to fix my shit so that is going to be a long-term win. Dakota and I will *mostly* finish Phil's house in a couple weeks (two weeeeekkkkkkkkkkkssssssssssss!) and then we can do other things. Meanwhile I will work towards selling a property and hauling on the one that I manage. Then I can focus primarily on my tax business, my wife's DJ business, and occasional work on the renal properties that I don't haul on. I have about a year's worth of work to do, but I am not behind too much right now. Except for the fact that I owe back-taxes on a couple properties and the city wants their precious... precious money. However, Brewer has a mil rate close to 23 and that is a fucking bunch of crap. They can kiss my hairy ass I will pay them this summer before they threaten to do a hostile takeover. I think you have to be behind on taxes about 2 years before they really take over, and I am like 2 months behind so I should be ok for a while. Maybe? Hopefully!

I played r-ball today, my first games in 2.5 weeks, and I did ok. Lifting weights in my gym? Forget it. Too busy doing other things like eating and drinking in Mexico and working at Phil's. Since we've been back from Mexico I cleaned up my diet and worked outside a lot. I have a sweet tan and am still in pretty good shape. Dakota and I worked at Phil's for three consecutive days, Tues-Thurs, and we did good work. It is slow, but we are doing the best we can. I am hoping to finish it all in 8 work days, but who knows maybe it will take 10. One thing I do know for a fact is I can't be screwing around down there come mid-June because I have lots of stuff to do up here and I want to enjoy what little of summer there is before it is gone.

I just sneezed twice, and here comes a third. I think allergies are getting me hard this week. What a bunch of crap! I ate a few allergy pills this week, but none so far today. I think this house is pwned because I have allergies bad here and my wife thinks the place is haunted. Maybe that last part is not 100% accurate, but in general this house has flaws that make us want to haul on it and buy a different house at some point within the next bit of time. A few months or a couple years? Too soon to tell.

Man, I think I got drunk. I have had about 4 coffee brandys and milk now, and I am going to drive to the bar. Good thing the bar is close. Maybe I am not drunk because it has been 3 hours. Nope, I am pretty much loaded. Getting an OUI would sucks. A lot. Hopefully I can mostly drunk-drive the 1/3 of a mile to get there. I am eathing a Po Tart because these things are awwomee. If you disagree with me then I hate you. I probably hate you anyway, but I'llhate you a little more.

Mookie Betts got a hit so the Sox have a chance. They are in Houston playing the very good Astros team, and they are losing 4-2 in the 8th. The Sox started off their season terriby, but then they did good work so now they are something like 25-22. I could look it up, but F that it is too much work. I put on NESN to see Red Sox highlights, but I have ot wait becaue they talk about the Bruins a lot. Like, a LOT. The Bruins are going to the Stanley CUp finals next week and I want them to win, but baseball > hockey and I want to see Red Sox highlights gods damn it. When the sox play in the evening we bivouac before the games end so I have to wait until 0600 or 0620 to get the final score update.

OK, these Pop Tarts crumbs are everywhere. I dont fell like writing any more so I am going to go do other tingns. now . Goonies never say die!

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Monday, 5-20-19: I have to work a lot now.
Vacation was awesome, really awesome, and now it is back to the real world, the world where we have to work hard if we want to have extra money for things like fun vacations. Thankfully I have a good helper so I can *mostly* stay caught up. I guess I'm not really caught up, but at least I am not pwned too hard with things. Dakota normally does a great job (except when he gets paint all over the floor hehe.) so that makes a huge difference for me. I won't need a helper forever, but from now through the next couple months I hope he wants to stick with me and make some good money.

Yesterday Dakota painted over at a vacant apartment while I did a very complicated tax return. The tenants there moved out while we were gone on vacation, and I mailed them their full security deposit today since they did a very good job of cleaning. There is a cracked window, but I don't think that is their fault since the entire window can barely open and close. My guess is my now-deceased foundation contractor fucked it up a few years ago when he was doing a bootleg repair job that cost me too much and that left a huge mess. Probably the house settled some and the stress caused that crack at some point within the past couple years. Oh well there are two things I can do about it now: nothing and like it. What a bunch of crap!

^My ex-foundation contractor who butchered that job. He did redeem himself before he passed away, though. He did a good job at the remodel here at our own house.

Dakota and I finished up over at that apartment today, and the new tenants start moving in tomorrow. We'll work all day down at Phil's and then I have to meet those tenants when we get back to tomorrow will be a long day. Actually the next four days will be long days since we plan to work down in Oakland every day tomorrow through Friday.

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Sunday, 5-19-19: Vacation = FUN.
We got home from our week-long vacation yesterday just after 0400, and we thankfully didn't have any flight delays or unexpected bullshit either on our way to our beautiful resort or on our way home. The trip was awesome, and we all had a wonderful time down in Mexico at the Royal Haciendas. Our third stay in there since 2015. How cool is that?! Getting our money's worth from buying a time share on our honeymoon four years ago = Oh jesus hell ya!

We brought two of our great friends with us on the trip, Neil and Angela, and they were really cool travelling companions. Ang had never flown before so she was nervous about the flight down to Cancun from Boston. Thankfully it was an uneventful flight and a good trip from the airport to the resort. Unfortunately it was incredibly gods damned hot from our exit off the plane in Cancun until we cleared customs, but we made it through okay. Neil, Kat, and Ang all drank at Jester's right before we left for Boston so being boozed up and then borderline hungover for the flight might not have been the best combination for the bunch. I did sleep for a couple hours before we left, and I didn't drink before we headed south since I was the driver. I more than made up for the drinking during our stay at the RH, though.

This time the four of us decided to take advantage of the AI (all inclusive) option at the resort. Since Kat and I are owners we got a better $70/day/person price for the AI for all of us as opposed to the $100/day rate for nonmembers. AI = all the food and drinks for one price. If we weren't going to have any alcohol I would say the AI is not a great deal, but we drank plenty and then some so AI ended up being a total no-brainer. In fact we spent more time right at the resort than we ever have. We only left the place for two smaller part-day excursions, one to Tulum to see Mayan ruins and one to shop in town for a couple hours.

The resort had everything we needed and then some. Shitloads of great food and a seemingly endless supply of booze. Several different swimming pools as well, and we spent a lot of time down by the water. Too much time because we all got varying degrees of sunburn.

^My awesome wife in the pool making a bootleg smile face with that floatie-thingie. She probably had a few tequila shots by then. We got to know our server well, Juan, and he was amazingly great to us. Of course we tipped him well so that probably encouraged him to give us a little extra service above and beyond the basics.

^Even though we did drink a lot we never overdid it (okay maybe we pushed a little too hard Wed!), and we were able to get up early enough to see a gorgeous sunrise over the Caribbean. Sadly there was a crapload of seaweed in the ocean, but it didn't ruin our fun because swimming in the ocean = what a bunch of crap! Fresh water pools > ocean swims.

^The servers seemed to like us. That middle drink is one shot of Jose Cuervo tequila. One shot. OMG! We guessed it was 3 or 4 ounces, and one shot is normally an ounce so we got hooked the hell up. I drank a lot of tropical drinks by the pool, drinks with cool fun names like Banana Monkey, BBC, Bay Breeze, etc. I also drank a lot of Dos Equis beers as did Neil and Ang. On Wed night I asked Neil how many beers he had drank that day, and he hilariously replied "All of them!" HAHAHAHA.

The most fun I had there was definitely Wednesday. We did morning yoga, ate a huge breakfast (as usual) at the buffet, and then claimed four poolside chairs. We were at the pool before 1000, and Juan was bringing us booze within that hour. I waited until closer to 11 to have my first drink, a rum and coke, and by lunchtime we were all drinking at least a little alcohol. We had a great poolside lunch and kept drinking and swimming, and by later in the PM we were all quite liquored up. By then we were doing lemon drop shots while Kat had more tequila. We did hold up on the booze for a little while for supper, but then it was drink o'clock again before we went down to the evening entertainment of DJ/dance music. "SoChill", the server at the entertainment area, was also fantastic and kept the drinks coming. We all had great fun and my dumb drunk ass has a video somewhere on Failbook of the attempts to drink and dance. Failbook = what a bunch of crap! I'd post the video here as well, but I don't have it since I don't use Failbook.

^The view from our 4th floor balcony. This year we had more time than we have ever had to just relax and enjoy the surroundings. It helped that Kat and I didn't do that timeshare presentation in order to get free stuff that we didn't need. This was the first time ever down there that we didn't do the timeshare thing, and I don't even for one second regret that decision because we got extra precious... precious time to lounge around at the pool and on the resort.

The staff down there was amazing. Even the maids take pride in what they do.

^How cool is that?! They did that last year, too. Also probably the year we stayed on our honeymoon in 2015, but I can't recall that one for sure.

Overall I think the vacation cost Kat and I just under $3000. It is a lot of money, but not that bad considering how much fun we had and how much we ate and drank. Also we spent $200-300 on cool stuff down there when we shopped. Some for ourselves and some gifts for family and friends. We stayed in a spacious 2BR villa with a full kitchen, but F cooking we just ate at the restaurants there all week. Paying Katherine to watch the dogs also factors into that total cost. Drive to Boston, parking, tolls, shuttle to and from resort, etc. Totally worth it and can't wait to do it again!

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Friday, 5-10-19: Typical busy before-vacation day.
I had a lot of stuff to do today, and I still have a few more things left on the list at this mid-afternoon hour. We leave for our vacation in under 12 hours now. Oh Jesus, hell ya! I still have to figure out when I will sleep or even IF I will sleep between now and when we head south at about 0200. No big worries if I don't sleep since I've gotten what I believe is a solid night's sleep for the last three consecutive nights. It's been a long time, or so it seems, since I have strung together three consecutive good nights of sleep. Not sleeping enough for days on end = what a bunch of crap!

I think I will sleep tonight for a couple or three hours, maybe 2200-0030? Or I might fall asleep around 1700, but that seems unlikely since I still have to do a walkthrough with Dakota around the bootleg properties. He's gonna mow the lawns next week, at least I hope he is. I originally wanted to mow today and then do it when we get back, but today is fucked up the ass 42 degrees and soaking rains so screw that. A day like today up here sure makes me look forward to tropical weather!

The last two days up here were actually really nice, and we got a lot done down at Phil's house. When we wrapped up for the day yesterday this is where we had left off:

Those gods damned octagon corners... what a bunch of crap those are! As is clearly evident in the photo we still have A LOT left to shingle. Everything to the right plus another larger section not even in the photo. A lot of that right side will be 45-degree cuts and up and down a ladder, too. For sure it will be a busy push the last half of this month for us to get most of that done. We won't work down there again for about 1.5 weeks since we're taking a much-needed vacation.

My phone has been crazy with texts and calls today. I have a meeting tonight at 1900 with a tax client, Kat works at Jester's, and I have been coordinating last-minute things with Phil, with tax clients, with my contractors, etc. Mom is out west she texted me that Uncle Kev won at a casino. I have Gavin set up to cover the rentals in the event of any emergencies. Rent receipts done, one more rent still to collect this PM, trash thrown, house cleaned, hair cut, packing *mostly* done. Lots of shorts, tank tops, and tee shirts. Bring on 88 degrees and ocean breezes! Palm trees?! Oh Jesus can't wait to see them all!

^Used often lately and for good reason because it is awesome, especially after a long Maine winter.

We are doing about the same thing that we did last year for our trip to the RH in Mexico, but with different travelling companions. Last year Dillon, Debbie, and Katherine came with us and this year it will be Neil and Angela. Katheine will stay home and watch the dogs for free rent this month. She pays rent because she decided to not go to college so welcome to the "real world." (We don't charge that much, less than if she lived on her own by a lot.) Plus she gets vacation pay from her work, but I'm sure that's not a huge consolation since we're taking a vacation without her this time. Hopefully the kids can come with us next year if they want to do so.

So after Jester's closes down and the gear is stowed here at the house we'll grab Neil and Angala (who both live very close) and head to Boston. Our flight leaves Logan airport at 0755 so if we're on the road by 0200 we'd be at the airport by around 0600. We should land in Cancun around 1115 and then we shuttle to Playa Del Carmen and our "home" resort of the RH. We will get to the RH before our official check-in time of 1600, but that is okay even if our room is not ready we can hang out at the resort and explore around the property for a couple hours. We can get food and a drink, etc. Last year we got there before 1600 and our room was ready so maybe we will get lucky again. We had an AWESOME room last year so hopefully we get a good one again. The rooms are all the same, but certain ones do have better views than others...

We will be exhausted when we arrive, but that's okay it's a small price to pay for what will hopefully be a great getaway. Last year my awesome wife was liquored up for the drive south to Boston, but she did sober up by the time we hit southern Maine. Stop for a piss at a couple different rest areas? Definite yes last year. I'm driving so obviously I won't even have one drop of alcohol tonight. Hopefully I can sleep a little. I normally can sleep some on the plane so if I don't sleep at all tonight I can rest a little on that 4.25-hour journey (one hour time change in flight.)

Why fly out of Boston? In case I didn't mention it the other times we've flown from there, the prices are half what they are in Bangor. Not a huge deal with one traveler, but with a larger group that adds up to many hundreds of dollars saved, even with the gas, tolls, and parking fees needed for a trip to Boston. Plus flight times are a lot better from BOS. If we flew out of Bangor we'd have shitty layovers and longer total travel time whereas our flight south tomorrow is a nonstop to CUN. Nonstop flight = DO WANT MOAR OF.

Alright turds, all two of youz who read this shitpile of a site, I am out of here. I shall return more tan!

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Tuesday, 5-07-19: A part-day off.
I took yesterday kinda off from work. We didn't go down to Phil's, but I had a few things to do up here. I had three days worth of mail over at my rental office, I had some rent in the drop box, I collected rent from a tenant, and I met with tax clients. The client meeting was not to actually do taxes, but it was to help them figure out their situation regarding earning income and collecting social security at age 62. I did a bunch of research for them, and they left my office happy. I also gave them some advice as far as being a good slumlord goes since they own a couple rental properties. )Now since they left with my advice their buildings will go to hell in a handbasket hehe...)

I had hoped to fire up a lawn mower yesterday to do a little spot-mowing, but I never got that far. Instead we raked up the front and side yard here at our house and I lifted a few weights and went for a jog before I cooked half of the turkey that I shot last week for supper. Dad told me how to make turkey-tenders, and they came out tasting pretty damn good. Even my awesome wife had some, and she normally doesn't eat my deer or turkey meals becase I am not a very good cook.

^Makes for good turkey tenders, but is a pain in the arse to do because crumbs get all over the place and you have to dip each piece in egg first. I suck in the kitchen, but every now and then I pull something off that tastes okay.

Since some rain is coming from around midday on we're not going down to work at Phil's today. Instead I'll do DDP Yoga in a bit with Kat and then Dakota and I will work around the rental properties for about 3 hours until lunch. I have a dirt pile at North Main that is half-spread around, and I have to load up the truck for a dump run. The dump is open Tues-Sat through most of this month for spring cleanup so that gives me a few extra chances to haul on junk. Normally the dump is only open the first and third Sat of each month, and having the landfill only open twice a month = what a bunch of crap!

We will work hard down in Oakland tomorrow and Thursday, and then I can finish up a few more things Friday before we leave for our vacation to the RH in Playa Del Carmen in Mexico. That trip can't come fast enough because it will finally give us a break from working. I really don't get to take many days off lately because even when I don't have a lot on the schedule I end up busy. Yesterday was a classic example of that, and even this morning I've already spend a half hour paying business bills and budgeting. $800 on the Lowe's card, $200 on the Home Depot card, bye bye $1000. I put a lot of supplies for that massive N Main remodel on the Home Depot and Lowe's cards last fall (special dererred interest deals) so now I have to whittle those account balances down before high interest rates kick in.

I don't understand the dogs. It is 0715 so I figure it's time to feed them their breakfast. Groot is a little piggy so she loves feeding time and eats her food quickly. (She's not fat, but she eats like she is!) However, both Copper and Tiger Lily give no craps about their food. Tiger Lily actually walked away from her dog food. Is she a food snob? She just came back and is now picking away at it, but she will walk away again before she finishes because that is how she rolls. Copper is laying over by the bedroom door and hasn't shown any interest at all in his food yet. What a bunch of crap!

Alright, he just came over to sniff his food and now he is eating. It is weird. We buy them good dog food, too.

I guess I should go do things now. The end. Fin. Goonies never say die!

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Sunday, 5-05-19: We worked all weekend.
Dakota and I had two very productive days working down at Phil and Danielle's house. The weather was great, not too hot, not too cold, not too sunny, not too windy, and not a drop of rain. Oh Jesus hell ya! Unfortunately the sun is still strong through the clouds, and the sun was out in full just long enough to give us both a bit of a burn. I was very pasty from a winter of no sun so that didn't help at all. Now I am sunburned. What a bunch of crap! I don't think I have a bad burn, though. It doesn't hurt at all, and hopefully tomorrow it will look more tan than red.

^Over the weekend we shingled all of that, which is not much at all from a square footage standpoint. Those gods damned corners do slow us way down. That is an octagon room so there are a lot of corners left to go. What a bunch of crap!

The next section that we need to shingle is on this side:

I had some rot to replace there, but nothing too bad as compared to what I posted a week or two ago. Dealing with that propane-box-thing, the pipes for the gas lines, and the garden spigot took up a lot of precious... precious time. Also stripping off old shingles takes a long time, too. If I had to do it all by myself it would never get done so thankfully I have a helper who is very competent.

I am not working down in Oakland tomorrow because I have things to do up here. Plus we won't bivouac until around 0330 tonight due to the Pour House karaoke show and GAME OF THRONES. There are only three episodes of GOT left, but each episode is around 80-90 minutes long. I am not going to take a nap, I am going to stay awake and power up, and Dakota wants to go over to the Pour House to hang out for a bit so I'll leave shortly for that. I won't booze too much, at least I hope I don't, because being sober-ish for GOT would be nice.

I feel like I still have a lot to do in the next five days before we leave late Friday night/first thing Sat AM for our Mexico vacation. Tomorrow looks to be great weather so hopefully I can get one of my two mowers going (both?) and spot-mow. Nothing is too green yet, but there are a couple spots in need of attention. Not our back yard yet, though. That yard is pwned and I need to figure out how to make it luscious and green. It might be an impossible task with three dogs and a huge maple tree shading out half the yard back there, but I gotta at least try...

Hey awesome, the Red Sox won again today and are now 17-18 on the season. They've played very well lately after a shit-show of a beginning to their season. The Yankees are still ahead of them in the standings, though. What a bunch of crap!

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Thursday, 5-02-19: One miss one hit.
We were supposed to go install shingles in Oakland today, but the weather is shit on toast again. What a bunch of crap! 38 degrees, drizzle, and a forecast high temp down there for most of the work day in the low 40s. It will hit 48 there today around 1600, but that would be quitting time so F that. So instead we will go work down there Saturday, and that was originally supposed to be a day off. The weekend looks decent with clouds and temps in the 60s. Oh Jesus hell ya! 60s will feel like a heat wave after so many cooler days lately.

We are supposed to hit the low 50s up here today since this "storm" is south of us. That isn't too bad so I'll have Dakota help me for about 2-3 hours this afternoon doing more yard cleanup around the rental properties midafternoon. This morning I'll do some paperwork, do DDP Yoga, and lift some weights in my bootleg gym. I also need a tenant to help me figure out what the hell is going on with this rent check that was in my drop box yesterday:

^AHAHAHAHAHA Epic fail and what a bunch of crap all rolled up into one. It's like he started the check and then decided to just quit halfway through. Did not fill in dollar amount and did not sign it. Does that mean I can make up my own number for the month? Hehehe. My bank would laugh my ass out of there if I tried to cash that note.

I plan to do some cleanup and maybe a little earth work here:

^Between garage and main building, and that part faces the street so everyone who pays attention can see it looks like crap. What a bunch of crap! Shingles from the old garage roof have blown all over the place so that roof needs to get replaced ASAP. Hopefully this fall...

^Back yard extra dirt from having the driveway built. It's looked like that all damn winter. What a bunch of crap! That place still needs much work, but thankfully the office and rental part of the building have been done so we are at least *mostly* covering our costs.

I went down to the ol' homestead and got a turkey. I missed one, I shot one, and I tried to sneak up on one to the end result of epic fail. Dad and I went out to the prison farm Tuesday evening, and there were turkeys everywhere. A group of toms and jakes were in one field, and I snuck up on them in the woods and got pretty close. I did two hen yelps with my little pocket-call, and I got a couple of them to come close. Unfortunately my shot was no good so bye bye turkeys. I am amazed that I missed because the shot felt good enough and they were not far away, but I was in a bunch of brush so that probably screwed me up. I don't even know if I have EVER missed a turkey before in my life. I missed with a bow, but my shotgun is usually deadly when I do it right.

Shortly after that I tried to sneak up on turkeys out in the fields by "Rifleman Rock", but I blew that one. I got perfectly in position to call, but when I reached into my pocket I realized my little call was not there. It had fallen out, and by then I had wasted a shitload of precious... precious energy low-crawling to the edge of that field and was sweaty. I didn't have the energy to low-crawl search backtrack so I just walked around looking for the call as turkeys flew away. What a bunch of crap! I did find my call at least.

Finally when I knew I didn't deserve any success I did get lucky. I tried to call in a large group of turkeys from a rock island in another field, but they were about 75 yards away and just out of range. My calling did not work at all, and I was about to quit when I noticed three turkeys scooting across the field apparently enroute to join the larger group. Even better were the red heads, larger sizes, and proximity. Within range! I called again, turkey hen purrs, and all three stopped to look around. That gave me enough time to line up on the closest one, take my time doing it right (only takes an extra second or two to mentally check off the basics like head firmly on butt of gun, squeeze trigger, etc) and drop that bird on the spot. I thought I had shot a jake, but turns out I got a nice 19.6-pound tom. Oh Jesus hell ya! He was 42 yards away when I shot him so that was a bit of a poke with my shotgun. No brush in the way and a good, still target made the difference.

I should have shot two, but hey one is great.

Yesterday morning Jason and I did some hunting on his new piece of property before he had to leave and go work. He is incredibly busy (I can relate!) so he only hunted with me for about an hour. He has a field out back and nice, open, mostly hardwood forest that goes a few hundred yards back down to the river. He had a shitload of turkeys in his field when I got there, but we could not get a shot at one at all. We snuck up and peeked over a stone wall to see hens only a few feet away. That might have spooked them some, but maybe not. Unfortunately once the turkeys left the field I didn't see or hear another turkey for the rest of the morning. What a bunch of crap! I spent a few hours hunting that property, too. (I actually did see turkeys way in a field across the river, but too far away to matter.)