I took pictures of the azaleas in the back yard last Tuesday, but apparently I was more interested in blogging about taxes than flowers. Now they've already largely faded - you can see that the pink bush toward the middle had already started to drop its blossoms, and by now, most of the rest have followed suit.

You can also see that I still haven't removed last autumn's leaves from the flowerbed or trimmed the ivy. This weekend offered the perfect opportunity to catch up on the yardwork, but I must admit that the backyard still looks the same - I used the time to spruce up the Unsellable Condo in Vinings.For those who don't recall, I made an offer on the house I'm living in now about eight months before the owners were scheduled to move out, thinking that I could surely sell the condominium I had been living in in that eight-month period. Well, eighteen months later, it was still unsold, and twenty-four months later, I finally took it off the market. There's a classified in this week's Atlanta newspaper offering the UCV for rent - $1,000/month, washer/dryer included, no condo fees. Wanna rent a condo?

The ad cost me $245 for 10 days, and so far I've only gotten two calls - one from a single mother of two who declined when she heard it didn't have an upstairs and downstairs, and the other from a newlywed couple who sounded like they were shopping around for a mansion (they were very specific in their inquiries, by room, about the number of square feet).

Anticipating more traffic next weekend, I went over today to clean the place up a bit. It's been unoccupied for two years now, and needed a good vacuuming and dusting. Also, I've known for a long time that the master bath's toilet handle needed replacing, so I stopped at Home Depot on the way for a replacement part.

The setback occurred when I found that the garbage disposal wasn't working. The last persons to spend any time in the unit were housepainters re-doing the living room, and it seems they washed their brushes in the kitchen sink and over the months the latex paint set up in the disposal and jammed the gears. So the majority of the day consisted of removing the unit (wiring and plumbing), taking it apart, freeing up the gears, rebuilding the unit, and replacing it (wiring and plumbing). The water in the trap stunk like sewage, so of course it spilled out and ran all over the cabinet under the sink. Frankly, I was surprised when I finally turned the power back on and the disposal actually worked.

Although now it's leaking. I guess the gasket around the rotors either gave way or else I didn't replace it right, but in any event, I didn't have the patience to remove, repair and replace it again today, so I left it in place (it at least looks functional) and will tackle this task again when I finally find a renter. Honestly. I will not lease the place out with a leaky disposal.

I realize this might be the most mundane post in the blogosphere (why are you reading this?). Other blogs are offering witty comments on pop culture, titillating details of Saturday night's dates, and insightful perspectives on current events. Whereas I'm talking about leaky garbage disposals. But that's the way the world is - others may be seeing great films and bands, having hot sex and rocking the world, while I'm squatting under kitchen sinks wondering if I left the circuit breaker on or off.

And that's just the way it is. I'd love to be more entertaining, but why should you have it any better?