Annie Maggard

\Song of the Day\ Air Dubai - Restless Youth

I feel like this is Black Eyed Peas if Black Eyed Peas was (were?) good.

Washed-out cell phone photo of my actually-very-bright-green dinner: whole wheat penne with chicken, shiitakes, and homemade spicy cilantro-almond pesto. 

• gomphosis
• buccinators
• splanchnic
• jejunum

\Song of the Day\ Sleater-Kinney — One Beat

I probably don’t listen to Sleater-Kinney enough.

Allow me to present a letter sent by the city building inspector to my greedy, irresponsible landlords, re: repairs that they have refused to make, which need to be made in order to bring the unit into compliance with city code (emphases my own).

This letter is to inform you that an inspection of this property was performed on 02/29/12 the purpose of which was to verify compliance with the Structure and Premises Condition Code of the City of Fort Collins, (Rental Housing Code, 2006 International Property Maintenance Code (IPMC) as adopted by the City.

The inspection determined items that are not in compliance with the Rental Housing Code that need to be corrected:

• Sec 404.7 (Food Preparation and Storage.) All spaces to be occupied for food preparation purposes shall contain suitable space and equipment to store, prepare, and serve foods in a sanitary manner. There shall be adequate facilities and services for the sanitary disposal of food wastes and refuse, including facilities for temporary storage. The walls under the kitchen cabinets do not contain any interior hard surface to clean. The exposed insulation is unsanitary and inadequate. Install wall coverings to provide sanitary and cleanable surfaces.

• Sec 305.3 (Interior Surfaces), 504.1 (Plumbing General) and 504.2 (Plumbing System Hazards) All interior surfaces shall be maintained in a sound and sanitary condition. Cracked or loose plaster, decayed wood, and other defective surface conditions shall be corrected. All plumbing fixtures shall be properly installed and maintained in working order, and shall be kept free from obstructions, leak and defects and capable of performing the function for which such plumbing fixtures are designed. All plumbing fixtures shall be maintained in a safe, sanitary and functional condition. Where it is found that a plumbing system in a structure constitutes a hazard to the occupants or the structure by reason of inadequate service, inadequate venting, cross connection, back-siphonage, improper installation, deterioration or damage or for similar reasons, the code official shall require the defects to be corrected to eliminate the hazard. The shower does not contain a shower base or pan. It is just a concrete floor with an unconventional floor drain and the concrete is rough and deteriorated. The wall panels are warped and detached and show signs of water leakage. The shower enclosure and base needs to be repaired or replaced to provide a safe, sanitary and functional condition that can be maintained.

• Sec 605.2 (Electrical Equipment – Receptacles) Need to install GFI protection on 3 electrical outlets in the kitchen.

• Sec 605.2 (Electrical Equipment – Receptacles) One electrical receptacle located in the common wall between the bedroom and living room is a 3 prong on a 2 wire ungrounded branch circuit. Need to replace this with a GFI receptacle or revert back to a two prong outlet.

• Sec 605.4 (Electrical Equipment – Extension Cords) Exterior wiring to the north exterior light is exposed lamp cord. Need to rewire this with appropriate exterior wiring and conduit.

• Sec 702.4 (Emergency Escape Openings.) The window in the bedroom is not large enough to meet egress. The minimum net clear opening shall provide no less than 720 square inches of openable area and shall have a sill height greater than 44 inches as measured above the interior floor level of the room in which such opening is located.

The above mentioned items are considered general maintenance and shall be repaired within 30 days of the date of this letter. Please notify me within 30 days to verify that the above items have been corrected.

…

GREEDY, IRRESPONSIBLE LANDLORDS: 0; ANNIE: OVER 9000

…and it was goddamn delicious, but I gotta admit: the color of it, especially after marinating overnight, made me feel more than a little uncomfortable about putting it in my body. 

Like so:

It reminded me of this article on our natural aversion to strangely-colored foods, which apparently developed as a means of self-preservation in the times before refrigeration, when fuchsia food was likely to be super-moldy.

But of course I ate it anyway.  Even evolution doesn’t stand in the way of my love for beets.

Space Mysteries by Vance Kirkland. David and I visited the Kirkland Museum in Denver yesterday, which is a meandering, cluttered collection of Kirkland’s paintings, as well as a lot of other contemporary fine and decorative art, including an impressive amount of mid-century modern chairs, housed in his historic studio space.  Pretty awesome.  Speaking of awesome, it should be noted that, toward the end of his career, dude painted by hanging in straps from his ceiling.