I absolutely hate the word “blog”

No, not the cheesy Shakira album. I mean actual, paid laundry service.

See, we have assigned time slots in our building to do laundry in the shared, coin-op laundry room. And lately, some inconsiderate neighbors have been stealing our time slot, despite the fact that we repeatedly leave increasingly frustrated-yet-still-begrudgingly-polite notes about it. (At first, we figured it couldn’t possibly be the same people over and over again, and that it must just be new-ish tenants who didn’t realize there was a schedule. But then, our caretaker informed us that it’s the same assholes over and over again, so now we’re in full combat mode.)

Needless to say, the fact that they’d thwarted our FOUR most recent attempts to do laundry had left us with quite the backup. So I caved, and we looked into getting professional laundry service. And can I just tell you, MY GOD IS IT WORTH IT.

For a mere $0.95/pound, Russell will come by your place, pick up all your dirty things, wash them according to your specifications with your choice of products, and return them within a day clean and dry and nicely folded and bagged. You don’t even have to drop it off or pick it up. He says his rates may go up soon, but considering that we did at least four loads worth for $35, I’m not too freaked out about it.

Don’t get me wrong — this is a major splurge for us, so it will probably never become our principal form of laundry-doing (at least not unless we’re making six figures each). And now that we know we have the building’s proactive caretaker in our court, we’ll probably continue to do battle with our neighbors until we win. (Next week: Me sitting in the laundry room reading, waiting until they show up so I can confront them in person. Fun, fun.) But still — this was a very welcome help-in-a-pinch option, and I plan on having Russell come take care of our excess sheets and towels again the next time we have houseguests!

Not exactly the first time, but still.  This was pause-and-shoot worthy. Especially given that these days, the mere mention of Sarah Palin’s name is a standalone punchline. Even the women on the skincare and makeup forum I frequent had to take a stab.

Anyway. On a political note, Imaginary Readers, allow me to introduce you to Grant’s new blog. (Here’s hoping he doesn’t mind the Imaginary Plug.)

Grant will most likely write about politics far more frequently than I will. He will also write about video games and movie reviews and… aw hell, go click it. He’s funnier and wittier and taller than I am. Well, in many contexts/shoes, anyhow. So there you have it.

He’s also figuring out how to do a lot of custom CSS stuff from scratch, which makes me jealous and impressed. Who knows — maybe I can get him to work his newfound skills on this tired old blog. (Kidding, kidding — he’s the one who helped me co-design this hack-of-a-theme just a few months ago, so I could update to a non-WP 1.0 design.)

I feel like I’m in a Volkswagen commercial. I’m sandwiched between two other bus commuters who were previously both yammering loudly.

But they finally shut up and both started listening to music. And for the past two-ish tracks, we’ve all been subtly tapping our feet/fingers/neighbors in PERFECT TIME with each other.

Aww, Loud White Tapper just got off. Way to ruin the groove, buddy.

In other news, this post was brought to you by the new-ish WordPress iPhone app. Testing, one, two…

Grant and I wound up having to hit the Sub Pop 20th Anniversary Comedy Show without dinner in our stomachs last night, so we used my precious iPhone to locate some late-night grub. (By the way, the Citysearch Web app for the iPhone is pretty darn handy, if not 100% accurate.) We stumbled into the Virginia Inn (aka “My Inn”) fifteen minutes before the kitchen was going to close, and the staff were all super-nice and accommodating.

We recalled that the VA Inn had been closed for a while since they were expanding their kitchen, so we were hoping they’d have a decent selection of actual food, and not just bar fare. And it turns out, we were right!

I ordered the “Steak Frites” and requested it medium rare, thinking I might get a dried-out slab of charred flat-iron and some blah fries. But what I got was a thick, small but hefty, perfectly Pittsburghed (charred on the outside, rare-but-not-chilly on the inside) filet mignon chop, and some of the most superbly prepared potato strips I’ve ever tasted — for a total of $22.

Oh, how I wish my iPhone battery hadn’t died, so I could post a photo! For greasy pub food, I had a meal that rivaled the stuff one could get from The Met for three times the price. I was blown away. I’m definitely mentally re-bookmarking my inn as a place to head back to. I’m so glad they’ve re-opened!

I’ve been going to the Northgate Mall since I was a kid, but I kinda lost interest after their construction got so prevalent that the whole parking lot was covered in debris and chain-link fences. But it seems that some of that construction has finally been finished, yielding lots of swanky new retail space.

The problem? The goddamned stores aren’t attached to the mall. The entire mall is now flanked by these hip new stores, but they’re not connected at all, even though they’re RIGHT UP against the mall. So they LOOK connected. And half of them (but not all!) are LISTED on the mall’s directory, and pictured on the map as if they were connected to the mall. (And the other half aren’t mentioned or pictured on the mall maps, but the stores call these outlets their “Northgate Mall” locations.)

And some of the new retail isn’t even within reasonable pedestrian distance from the mall. And by reasonable, I guess I’m not really bitching about the distance. I’m bitching about having to walk through a shitty, car-oriented lot full of idiot drivers and no crosswalks. I saw a mom pushing a stroller and dragging a toddler get almost hit as she was trying to walk over to one of the new cafés.

If you’re going to be an outdoor mall, swell! Do it like U-Village (or better), with crosswalks everywhere and lots of open spaces with separate entrances for each store. But if you build a typical, closed-in, claustrophobic mall with a car-friendly lot that hates people on foot, then at least build all the retail in one centralized, CONNECTED spot. Sweet Jesus! It’s enough to drive this potential shopper away, so I never have to deal with muddling over how the hell to get into a certain store again.