2002-10-11 9:39 a.m. A bold new look for charmcity dot diaryland dot com. A bold new outlook, a bold new direction. Stunning aesthetic vision highlights a return to core values. Or not. I dunno... I just needed a change of scenery. Sometimes you've gotta play with font colors and backgrounds to make yourself feel fresh. Not too much going on today. The rain continues to fall. We're all still keeping our eyes open for the sniper. At home, my roof is leaking. Yesterday was a pretty productive day. Well, if you forget about the span from 8:30am - 5pm. Other than that, well, I rocked and rolled. The roomie is out of town for a few days, so I decided to use my solitude to clean and cook. I don't know why, but I always enjoy the two when I'm all alone. Maybe I just don't like people looking over my shoulder. Who knows. Anyway, I ditched out of work around 5 and headed to the grocery store. I was in the mood for Mexican, so I loaded up on tortilla shells, Jack cheese, and taco seasoning. A quick breeze through the toothpaste aisle, and I was on my way home. I browned the beef, added the seasoning, let it simmer, sauteed some mushrooms and mixed some whole kernel corn and said mushrooms into the beef. My bright idea was to forgo the chopping of the peppers and onions and use this...umm...automatic chopping type kitchen thing I have. Well, chop it did. Only too well. I ended up with bell pepper, onion, and jalepeno puree. So, that's right, into the beef mixture it went. I let everything simmer for 15 more minutes and then turned the burner off. Spread the tortillas with refried beans, add a layer of salsa, add beef concoction, add sour cream, fold, and eat. Actually they weren't half bad. No great shakes, but a decent effort for my primero foray into comida mejicana. After that, the focus was on my bathroom which was about one week and 7 showers away from being declared a federal disaster area. I'd bought some stuff called "The Works" at the store that promised to solve all my problems. And solve them it did. Also, it was pretty good at burning my friggin' skin. That's when I read the directions. Directions which, in addition to containing every dire warning possible, made it quite clear that skin ws not to come into contact with the wonder product. Something about phosphouric acid. Blah blah blah whatever. And that's when I noticed the roof was leaking. It's been raining in Baltimore (which, by the way, is a great song) for about 48 hours now. The roomie and I have known about the leak for a while, but it only happens when the wind's blowing from a certain direction. No, seriously. Anyway, the seals on the windows next to the door leading to the roof deck are a little...umm...well, they suck. So, when the rain blows directly on to those little windows on the left, it gets into the seals, runs down the window frame, and either drips right down, or runs down the wall. It's already stained the drywall on the left side of this hallway. The side of the wall where the water dripped before was a little damp, but not as bad as I thought it'd be. Maybe I'd gotten lucky this time. Or, maybe I'm an idiot. About 6am this morning, I woke up to hear a dripping sound. Uh-oh. See the recessed light to the left of the image? Somehow, the water had found it's way over there and was dripping through there. The towel went on the floor, the bucket went under the drip and the fingers were crossed in the hopes things wouldn't get worse. We'll see. I'll let you know. downtown----uptown leave me a note, fool!

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