Small victories

1. Kona and I went to the dog park this morning, and he did NOT get attacked. Yay.

Of course, yesterday to help him get over the trauma of the day, we stopped at the cute pet store on Roscoe (Zane & Zara's) owned by these nice guys who named the place after their dogs. Kona knows this place and makes himself right at home - so he went nosing into drawers, picking out the toys he wanted, then proceeded to start chewing on one particular stuffie that I had decided to buy him. As I'm paying, the guys mention the shopping promotion Roscoe Village shops are having, where you shop on certain days and can donate money that'll go to local schools - whereby I mention that I thought my property taxes to the tune of $8K a year for my dumpy 2-flat were enough. And in the meantime, Kona has torn the head off the toy and there's stuffing all over the place. So we basically walk out leaving the place a shambles.

Yep, that's me and the Kone, making friends everywhere we go.

2. Successfully got coffee and a petite scone at Starbucks. No incidents to report. Yay.

Well, except then when I went to my car, I got in a slight altercation (verbal only, just barely) with some assclown who started yelling at me because I parked in front of a bakery. You see, Chicago has gotten very militant with the stupid parking meters, so you can no longer just run into a place and dash out again in a couple of minutes without risking a ticket. And you can also no longer just pop a quarter into a meter - you have to deal with their stupid fare box, get the slip of paper, etc. and so on. Fuck that. So when I go to SB, if I don't park on a side street, I park across the street where there's a sign for 15-minute parking with flashers on. And it's by a bakery - but the sign doesn't say "Bakery Parking" or anything like that, just the 15-minute thing. So I'll park there for the 2 minutes it takes me to get my coffee, and leave. I've bought plenty of stuff at this bakery, so it's not like they don't get my business at other times.

So Assclown started yelling and swearing at me for parking there, and I basically told him to fuck off, at which point he started yelling something about "you overprivileged kids going running home to mommy and daddy" blah blah blah - which, quite frankly, I'm kind of flattered that he thinks I look that young. Then he threw something at my car as I was driving off. Nice. The weird and crazy thing is that I KNOW this guy! He didn't seem to recognize or remember me, but I thought he looked familiar, and then his hat tipped me off - he works at the hockey store at Johnny's Icehouse. Go figure. So, asshole, go ahead and mess with me again - I'll tell the cops exactly where you work and slap a harassment charge against you. Shithead. Not. In. The. Mood.

3. Computer went through its rebuild yesterday and did NOT explode. Yay.

Of course, it turned a whole slew of emails into pure gobbledygook. But not the majority of them, for which I'm eternally grateful.

Yes, this is what passes for a "good day" around here.

Of course, now I'm scared to leave the house, since trouble seems to follow me like white on rice (and what the hell does that MEAN exactly??). Just call me Calamity Tasha. Sigh.