Love->Building on Fire
Okay, Thursday's update was mangled by me having to put in extra hours on the Burns packet, but Friday would have at least had something...were it not for this.
Stop worrying, no one was hurt, It wasn't my building, I'm four buildings down. However, because I left for work a little after 8:30 that day, I pulled out of my spot just in time to see the second firetruck pull into position and block my way out of the complex. As is my typical style it was only then I noticed that the building was on fire.
So there I was, expecting to be running against a deadline at work, instead stuck at home without a route out of the complex. Totally safe from harm, but unable to do anything about anything. I emailed in to tell everyone I was fine, but stuck, and somehow, through the telephone effect, I was believed to be in the building next to the fire, then in the fire itself. About 15 minutes later I get email informing me that most of the department is praying for me. I imagine it went something like "Um, he's sick. My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with a girl who saw Dwight pass out at 31 Flavors last night. I guess it's pretty serious."
I was half expecting electronic road signs to be flashing "SAVE DWIGHT"
I don't recommend this for anyone as a choice of method for spending your day. First of all, it's too hot to just go out and watch the fire. (This is incidentally why there were 17 departments called out for it. Whenever someone left the burning apartment to recover themselves, it was just as hot outside. At least inside, it was a dry heat.) Second, because you don't really know when they're done with the fire (it spurted up again on them when they thought they had licked it), you can't just make the assumption you won't be able to get out of the apartments any time soon. I did have a deadline at work I had to deal with, I needed to get out at some point, at least I thought that until 4pm when I actually did get out. Your entire day consists of go downstairs, see if it's still smoking, go upstairs, wait 15 minutes, repeat. Highly unsatisfactory.
We did get one absolutely golden moment out of the entire affair, and unfortunately, I kinda whiffed it. About 11am, I get a call, I was expecting one of my co-workers to call in for an update. Instead I get this:
"Hello....Mr. Kidder?"
"Yes" (Oh boy, not these jokers)
"Yes, Mr. Kidder. This is [name withheld to protect the guilty] for MCI's the Neighborhood. How are you doing today?"
"Not good." (I hate telemarketers, this one's going to pay.)
"Oh, sorry to hear that sir, why is that?"
"Because the building next door is on fire." (Let's see if this is in their script.)
"[pregnant pause] You're kidding?"
"No. Can we keep this line clear please?"

That felt REALLY good. Carey pointed out later that the dead solid grand slam to this would have been "Because the Neighborhood is on fire." But I'll be happy with the solid single.

After the fun of that, I drove up to the Burns, with Carey in tow. The tournament was cool as always, and I ended up second, won the all-star game, and came away with the best prize, (Pets.com puppet, with speech. Though I'm really disturbed by the fact it tells me that it likes my shorts and I'm a good lookin' fella.) Additional interesting exchanges: Joe sent up a copy of the 2nd Edition Match Game board game for Mike. Joe found it in the garage of his parents' place while they were moving some of his stuff in.

Sunday was a trip up to the Lansing Lugnuts game, and a surprise encounter with Pepsi Blue. It's not in my plans for two reasons, I try to limit the amount of blue in my diet, and it's raspberry flavor, which is just nasty to me. The other interesting bit of the whole affair was the discovery that there's some poor schmuck out there trying to earn a living writing historical tracts on the role of religion in England. The poor schmuck's name: Harry Potter The site is worth it just for the reviews, the more clueless the better.