7.17.2004
odds and ends
I finally saw The Italian Job last night. Excellent movie: I really like Donald Sutherland. Great actor.
I spent the day helping my younger brother and a few of his friends find an apartment in New Brunswick today. The apartments ran the gamut from impeccably clean, sunny, and gorgeous to total stinking hell-hole. There was one very amusing one where we entered to find remnants of food EVERYWHERE. Also, a shirtless guy typing away on a computer while three pairs of jeans hung to dry on a clothesline over his mattress (not bed, mattress). The only food visible on the counter were a couple of sliced limes, and when the landlady knocked on the door to a bedroom to let us see the space, we heard the tenant reply "um, I'm in here with my girlfriend..." before he finally relented and let us open the door. He then proceeds to tell the landlady that he does not want to have to leave the apartment, or if he must, he will be handing the lease over to a long line of his friends who "would love to rent this apartment." Landlady looks disgusted.
Another property was a house which had been rented to 6 people, though the house itself has so many nooks and crannies that it could have slept 15. The owner herself said that one of the actual leaseholders was an immigrant who might (shrug?) possibly have been helping his fellow immigrants find places to live. Rent was steep, but not if you factor in the 15 Malaysian immigrants sleeping inside bookcases.
All was not lost: a few excellent prospects arose. I expect Andrew and his friends will be most pleased next year.
Ate dinner at the Rutgers University Grease Trucks, where I had a Fat Knight sandwich. For those of you unfamiliar, a gentleman by the name of Darrel had a hankerin' for some deep fried food about 6 years back. He asked the food truck guy to make him a sandwich that included mozzarella sticks, chicken fingers, fries, lettuce, tomato, and ketchup. Thus, the Fat Darrel, and the rest of the Fat Cat sandwich line, was born. The Fat Knight consists of: cheesesteak, mozzarella sticks, chicken fingers, marinara sauce, and french fries. My friend had one with gyro instead of cheesesteak. mmm mmm good.
Finally, a scary thought: I was flipping between VH1's I love the 90's and Comedy Central when I was accosted by a television ad for the Twelve Girls Band: a pop group of twelve Chinese girls who play traditional Chinese instruments in strange arrangements of pop hits such as "Only Time" and "Clocks". Come on, China - is this the best you could come up with?!? This is why Communism loses. Because of this.
I spent the day helping my younger brother and a few of his friends find an apartment in New Brunswick today. The apartments ran the gamut from impeccably clean, sunny, and gorgeous to total stinking hell-hole. There was one very amusing one where we entered to find remnants of food EVERYWHERE. Also, a shirtless guy typing away on a computer while three pairs of jeans hung to dry on a clothesline over his mattress (not bed, mattress). The only food visible on the counter were a couple of sliced limes, and when the landlady knocked on the door to a bedroom to let us see the space, we heard the tenant reply "um, I'm in here with my girlfriend..." before he finally relented and let us open the door. He then proceeds to tell the landlady that he does not want to have to leave the apartment, or if he must, he will be handing the lease over to a long line of his friends who "would love to rent this apartment." Landlady looks disgusted.
Another property was a house which had been rented to 6 people, though the house itself has so many nooks and crannies that it could have slept 15. The owner herself said that one of the actual leaseholders was an immigrant who might (shrug?) possibly have been helping his fellow immigrants find places to live. Rent was steep, but not if you factor in the 15 Malaysian immigrants sleeping inside bookcases.
All was not lost: a few excellent prospects arose. I expect Andrew and his friends will be most pleased next year.
Ate dinner at the Rutgers University Grease Trucks, where I had a Fat Knight sandwich. For those of you unfamiliar, a gentleman by the name of Darrel had a hankerin' for some deep fried food about 6 years back. He asked the food truck guy to make him a sandwich that included mozzarella sticks, chicken fingers, fries, lettuce, tomato, and ketchup. Thus, the Fat Darrel, and the rest of the Fat Cat sandwich line, was born. The Fat Knight consists of: cheesesteak, mozzarella sticks, chicken fingers, marinara sauce, and french fries. My friend had one with gyro instead of cheesesteak. mmm mmm good.
Finally, a scary thought: I was flipping between VH1's I love the 90's and Comedy Central when I was accosted by a television ad for the Twelve Girls Band: a pop group of twelve Chinese girls who play traditional Chinese instruments in strange arrangements of pop hits such as "Only Time" and "Clocks". Come on, China - is this the best you could come up with?!? This is why Communism loses. Because of this.
