Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Repairs, Comments, and more Games.

Finally got my Fedora and Cowboy hat back. They still smell a little, but they fit and make me look awesome. We'll be leaving them out in the garage to air out a bit or maybe try the "vinegar method" that Liz's mom is currently trying out on her dress and coat.

Nintendo received my stuff today, I can't wait to get my Wii back and start playing Mario Kart Wii but it's not too bad because I bought GTA IV as an impulse buy. I've got issues with GTA in general (nothing to do with the sex and violence) but I've got no other games and it's getting absurd reviews so I gotta know first hand if it's all B.S. or the real deal. I also bought Justice League Unlimited Vol 1 & 2. I watch it on Boomerang but they skip episodes which annoys me so at midnight I went on an angry Amazon rage and bought it. What can I say, I've got a thing for B-list DC Superheroes. There was a dude dressed as Vigilante at Comic-Con and I was freaking out. Liz looked at me like the idiot I am.

I'm also totally excited about 2 things this week. 1) HOUSE WAS BRAND NEW! I love House, one of my favorite shows ever. 2) IRON MAN IS COMING OUT! I'm totally seeing it Thurs at 8pm. If you wish to join me, give me a ring or just show up.

Lastly, I notice people are actually commenting on posts! It's like sing Duran Duran at a Karaoke bar and then getting applause! (Metaphor of the day). Keep it up.

And remember, sex is bad m'kay.

Sunday, April 27, 2008

We win our first softball game

Let me start off by saying I'm shocked that there are readers out there. Blows my mind. On Friday I found out that Jack, guy I used to work it, keeps he's Teo fix going by reading the blog, Renee continues her secret love obsession with me, and Dave Bober makes his fantasies come true via teoandthefire.

Friday was the last day of Pre-Cana (thank God!) and me and Liz are officially ready for marriage. We even got a little certificate saying something like "You're not a pagan sinner! Congrats". The "sex talk" was the most amusing because we were told that you can have sex when a woman can't get pregnant as long as you don't wear protection. Something about timing and mucus, it was gross. So if you can figure out both your biological clocks, screw away and don't make babies but the moment you introduce plastic wrap, you're a sinner.

Saturday was at first clothes organization day. We got rid of a lot of crap, put some "rejected" items outside to air out (which surprisingly work! I may have suits!), and put away the rest. I can now go to the gym because I have gym clothes. Later, I visited Andrew and Peggy's place, to see a VERY VERY VERY drunk Pat. It was like watching deaf-mute trying to have sex but instead making sweet love to a pile of dirty clothes. Sad part is, Pat was in fact making sweet love to dirty clothes. Andrew's sweat-shirts will never be the same. Pat and Karl asked me to throw more metaphors into my blog. Last time those 2 asked me to do something, it involved Polaroids, ski goggles, a hose, and a mule. The situation was like being in a room with Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie except a lot uglier.

Sunday involved buying Mario Kart Wii (though I don't own a Wii, Nintendo is repairing it for free), playing it at Matt's house, Harold and Kumar (totally awesome), and softball (We won! My average is .666, number of the BEAST). Oh, and I started testing my Nintendo, and it seems to work fine, though I seemed to have lost the light-gun and a 2nd controler I think. More searching needs to be done. Some games don't work, but the good ones seem to be ok. Only time will tell.

Remember, reading my blog is like having sex while in outerspace...it's awesome.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Root Canal and Clothes

A lot has happened this week. Most importantly, my pain is gone. I finally had the root canal (on Monday AND Wednesday) and all the crazy pain is gone. They still haven't properly filled it up nor put the crown on (ugh) so I've got a temporary filling. Also, since I have ZERO insurance, it's going to cost my an arm and a leg. I'm not pleased.

We had a borderline pointless meaning with the association basically telling us 2 things. 1, our association fee is being reduced by 15% (sweet) and nothing is going to happen with the building for over a month (un-sweet, bitter?).

I got a SNES in the mail, along with some other stuff. I'm just racking up the credit card bill. It's wonderful. I also got my clothes back! Most of the stuff is good, I lost some jackets and my suits (I'm suit-less) and some other things I really liked which just made me depressed. Liz lost her really nice dress and I felt awful. I'm getting her a new one as a graduation gift.

I'm really looking forward to the weekend. I just want to relax, play some Rock Band & Call of Duty 4, and forget about everything just for a little bit. Maybe I'll even start exercising again.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Parents House almost pulls a Teo's Condo, My Teeth, and the Comic Con

This weekend was a lot of fun and a complete mess.

Friday: Liz' birthday

We went out to celebrate Liz' 25th Birthday. It was a lot of fun but 2 bad things happened. First I started to feel some pain from my tooth that I was going to have a Root Canal on Wendsay for and second, my parents told me that there was a gas leak in the house and we have no hot water. GAS LEAK! Meaning if there was a spark, my parents house and everything in it would've been just like my condo...GONE. It's like Final Destination, the Grim Reaper wants me dead but sucks at his job. Also the Gas company apparently sucks and wants us dead because the so-called 24 hour emergency support we pay for said they'd come tomorrow morning to fix the gas leak THEY CAUSED! That's right, they came to fix the water heater and left by almost destroying our home. I'm thinking lawsuit. This also meant no hot water tomorrow morning for Comic Con.

Saturday: New York Comic Con and PAIN.

So me and Liz wake up early to go to the 3rd Annual New York Comic Con which I LOVE! Liz is the best fiancee ever because she decided to keep me company. After our cold showers we go to comic con and get on the huge line. We did some panels (which bored Liz to death), went around the floor and bought some stuff (I got some toys I lost in the fire and some comics, I bought Liz an Ugly Doll). We even saw some celebrities that weren't comic book writers (Ron Perlman, Seth Green, Selma Blair, and Milo something [Peter from Heroes]). Liz knows Milo's full name because she's in love with him he was on Gilmore Girls. It was a long day (9-5:30) and though I enjoyed all of it, I was in a ton of pain. My tooth went crazy and the pain went from my chin to my eye into my skull. It was unbearable. I had to take breaks to deal with it. We later met up with Pat, Kelsey and Lindsay for Ethiopian food (I'm cultured bitch!) and I went home in total agony. I left the dentist a message and went to bed.

Sunday: Narcotics and Pre-Cana.

Sunday was a slow day mainly because I was in pain for most of it. I packed my Nintendo stuff to ship out on Monday for repair/replacement. I also took a ton of medication (2 Alleve, 1 Tylenol Extra Strength, and local oral anesthetic.  Still it wasn't working but then the dentist's office called and booked me for Monday 9am and called in a prescription of Codeine. Much much better. Me and Liz then went to get our Catholic on at Pre-Cana where we started the 6-hour training? I don't really know how to describe Pre-Cana other than it tries to flesh out potential problems you may run into as a married couple. There are journals involved, need I say more.

That's my weekend, the pain continues with a Root Canal and an Association Meeting at night. I'll let ya know how that goes. Otherwise, I'm going to get ready for sleep while on Codeine (God Bless it). If you want to see cool pictures from Comic Con or Liz's Party go to my flickr site. 

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Money, Mets, and Gift Cards

I received the insurance money Tuesday afternoon. I could say something cliche like "It's so interesting how all my worldy possesions can be reduced to 2 checks." but instead I'll say what the cool kids with their rap music say: "Money Money, yeah yeah". Honestly though, most of it will be saved/invested until we either move back in or sell the place and buy a new one. All the cash will go untouched. Well, most of it, since I did already by a MacBook, Xbox 360, iPod, HDTV, and a Digital Camera.

Weds night went to see what was probably my last time in Shea. I'm a Yankee's fan but I don't hate the Mets and I want 1 more experience in the stadiums before they're gone. Mets won 5-2 and it was a really good game. Homers, good catches, strike-outs, etc. Yanks beat the Red Sox too. Suck it Boston!

Also, the people from Liz Moot Court team at Seton Hall Law pitched in and got us a large gift card to Macy's. Liz said she was borderline speechless and I can't say enough on how kind it was to do that for us. We'll be saving it to help buy furniture down the line. I also can't repeat myself enough on how I appreciate everyone's gifts and efforts to help during this time. It's been overwhelming.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Pictures from INSIDE THE CONDO

Click on the link below.

Recovery Day




Saturday, April 12, 2008

The buying begins and SUPRISE!

So on Friday I started the long process to rebuild what I've lost. First thing to buy was a new TV of course! I got myself a 42" Vizio from Sears for pretty cheap. It's an awesome model and I just watched There Will Be Blood on it and it looks great. Next came the device I'm using to type this entry up with, a new black MacBook and it's glorious. I plan on putting Vista (yeah, I know) as a 2nd OS using Boot Camp at some point, but right now I'm cool with the current OS X. I also got an iPod and a free printer. Marv helped me with the purchase and a discount which was awesome. 

Friday night I was expecting to go out to dinner with Liz and her parents but the joke was on me, SURPRISE PARTY! Tons of people were there to celebrate the destruction of my condo and earthly possessions and it was genius. Everything was Fire Theme (Thanks to Liz, Whitney, and Noelle for the amazing theme), Pat gave me a Fire Mix Tape (except for the magical last track), and others brought me small gifts or booze. It was great, I beat the crap out of the Fire Truck Pinata and took home my weight in chocolate. Did I mention I LOVE CHOCOLATE. I've said already, but it can't be said enough, thanks to everyone for the party!

Other news, bought an Xbox 360 today, finished the inventory and pricing of all I've lost (it's a lot), I get my hard drives back tomorrow, and I won an SNES on Ebay! I'm trying to buy things slowly but there is so much gone and I want it all back now (Rock Band!) so we'll see if I can pace myself. Hopefully I'll get my comics back soon.

Anyways, tomorrow is Softball and I get all the photos from Pat so expect a huge photo post using Flickr. Till next time, I'm Teo Fernandez and I'm sexy with or without Old Navy Jeans (they still don't have my size, assholes).

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Stretching the Truth - Star Ledger

I was in the paper today, and as I mentioned before the Red Cross, who does wonderful things around the world, totally abused the media yesterday. Here are the pictures.


The photo above is completely staged. It says some crap about how she's consoling me, yeah right. I was busy loading stuff in my dad's truck when the photographer was snapping pictures and she comes buy and explains to me what the Red Cross does, I've been fine during this whole thing. Someone else may need a shoulder to cry on, I just want to buy my videogames and comics. The photographer was upset too because they were trying to stage photos all day apparently, as Pat overheard him being upset in broken English.


The Red Cross was at NO POINT IN MY PLACE! They helped outside with food and drinks (I think, maybe that was the condo association, I don't know) and they were around, but they weren't helping me because I didn't want or need them. I had my friends and family help me and people the insurance company brought to clean my clothes. I knew they were going to use me for photo-ops but these captions are a little much. Maybe I'm just angry because I've lost almost everything so I apologize for changing the Red Cross to a Red Bullseye.

If they want to help, find out whole stole my laptop from my ruined place, more on that to come later...

Pictures are Copyright of the Star Ledger or whatever.

Photos via Flicker

Pat has a ton of photos from yesterday, so they'll all be posted on Flickr and linked here.

I make the news

I got interviewed yesterday while trying to remove my things. They also took a lot of photos of me and my place. It was also funny because apparently The American Red Cross loves photo-ops. Let me start by saying that the Red Cross has been great doing what they can to help us out. Me, personally, I didn't really need them but I'm sure others do all across the globe. I just can't help but laugh that a woman from the Red Cross made chit-chat with me so that the photographer (who had already expressed how he didn't want to take "staged" photos of the Red Cross people) would take a picture of us making it look like she was calming me or something. I mean, again, Red Cross is great, but it's funny what they'll do to get in the papers. Nothing negative about it, publicity equals more funds for the non-profit organization, so I didn't complain.

Star Ledger Article

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Old Navy Hates Me!

Ok, if I'm fat, please tell me, because Old Navy ONLINE doesn't carry my jean size. 38W by 32L Loose Jeans. Not low-rise crap cut, not super-tight ass jeans. Just loose. Do you hate me Old Navy? Did you create the perfect jeans for me, only to NOT SELL THEM TO ME!

I got stuff out today, big post to come, probably tomorrow. Tons of pictures to come as soon as Pat can get them off his camera.

The Big Day!

Today I get 3 hours to get everything I own. 12-3pm. If you had 3 hours, what would you get? Me, I'm going for my clothes first since they're in excellent shape. Pictures will be taken.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Older News from the Day Of

NJ.com #1

NJ.com #2

Both articles titles are full of inaccuracies. One says "Dozens" where only 12-15 people are without a home. That's A dozen, not multiple. The other says 9 homes, where it was 10. No offense, but is it so hard to get simple facts.

More News...Cause of Fire Not Known.

Daily Record article 1 week later

Thanks Marv.

Lost Comics Count

So far, I've lost 240 comics (about). We'll see if that number changes after tomorrow. Don't really remember how many boxes I had.

Itemizing all the comics, games, movies, and music isn't so bad, finding the price of how much it'd cost to replace is a pain!

Once my lists are said and done, I plan on posting most if not all of them.

Saturday, April 5, 2008

Day 3 - 5

Thurs I went to work. It wasn't very eventful and I left early to do 2 things that night.

They let me and my dad in to my place for a few minutes. The place is a disaster area. The ceiling has fallen, things are burned, my TV and electronics either exploded or were melted. Things water logged. It's bad. My clothes are OK interestingly enough, they didn't get wet or burned thankfully. The furniture is toast, my Games, DVDs, CDs, and some (not all) comics are completely destroyed with only melted or wet remains. We got out all the uber-valuables which were ok and hard-drives. The hard-disks may be ok, we'll see. Some jackets, some old-school games (which are dead), and 3 of 5 boxes of comics (2 are good!). We also got out important documents and receipts which was probably the best thing to get.

We went home and tried to organize, Pat came over to help and take the already posted pictures.

We had a meeting at 7pm at night. It meant that the Yankee tickets I got were now useless, so we gave them to the landscaper. They gave us a ton of info, told us our big chance to get what's left is next Weds at noon (for me). 3 hours to get everything. Ugh! Also told us how long it'll take (a guess) to have it all demolished and rebuilt (12 - 14 months) and what "builders grade" means. Oh, and I still gotta pay my association fee even though I don't have heat or water, gotta pay sewage though I have no plumbing, and taxes obviously.

With all that had happened, I decided I need Friday to organize with my folks, so I took off from work.

Friday involved talking to the insurance guy, which was very helpful and beneficial. They're bringing in special cleaners to take care of my good but stinky clothes. Everything...and I mean EVERYTHING SMELLS. We also talked about the following steps, the meeting, and of course money. I separated all my water-logged comics and got very upset because there were a lot of awesome issues I lost. World War Hulk #1, Sinestro War #1, few issues of JSA, Buffy Season 8 #1, etc.

I also went through all my receipts to try and figure out what I could claim via my credit card's policy along with just a list of stuff I lost. My mom took one look at my giant bucket of receipts and almost died. Apparently my organization skills are only good in my own eyes.

At night, back to normal, ate with Liz, Whitney and Jason, went to bed. Today I ran more errands, saw Marv and the Mall, and contacted Nintendo about possibly replacing my Wii. I hope they can help. I'm going to call Microsoft and Sony later. Right now, I'm going to shower. Expect another update in a few days. Any questions or comments e-mail me or call.

About the photos

Click on them, the High-Res shots really do better justice.

This pictures are from the day of the fire, courtesy of Emery, and of some of the stuff we got out when were were allowed in for a few minutes (courtesy of Pat).

Lots of Photos














Day 0 - 2


Day 0:For anyone who doesn't know yet, this is where I will tell you. The building I live(d) in caught fire on Monday, March 31st while I was at work. No one was harmed or hurt, all animals survived. The fire, which started outside below my condo raged upwards destroying my deck and the wall, and completely took all the homes above me out. My place is still intact but I suffered severe water damage. This is what it looked like when I arrived only an hour after the events.




I'm in the middle floor.
I got in around 4pm after my friend Whitney gave me a buzz about it. I assumed the worse and that I'd lost everything and when I got there I figured that was a good guess. All the officials were there and the Red Cross along with friends and family. People at work were nice enough to drive me there but there was nothing I can do but wait for more information. We had a meeting late at night where they brought us up to speed and what needed to be done and afterwards and they explained how the building would probably be torn down and I'd be homeless for a year at least. We then got burgers and I went to bed. I slept alright that night, trying not to think about it but that wouldn't last.Day 1:When I woke up, I couldn't help but think and hope on what I could get back and what I can't. I worried that my comics (1+ years worth) were soaked, that all my movies and video games were wet, my old school games (Atari, SNES, etc) where out in the open and probably soaked. My Xbox, HDTV, Wii, PS2, etc were also probably gone. After a while I realized I wasn't falling back to sleep and got up. I think I've recently become allergic to my house, so spending the night resulted in red eyes and a sore throat. I spent the day with my dad doing as much as possible. I spoke with dectectives explaining what I knew, what I had on the deck, and any posisble theories. I really had none. It was mentioned that the people above us smoked on their deck but no evidence or explanation for the fire has been found. I cancel my cable and eletric bill, got a new gym card made. Of course, Patriot Media/Comcast will be billing me for the lost modem and cable box. I went and bought underwear, socks, and some pants from Old Navy. Old Navy didn't have my jean size, jerks. We also met on site with the insurance people and of course our coverage plan isn't as good as I'd hope. After dealing with that, we went to get my tax stuff, had the mail rerouted, and went home. Liz came by and we went to the mall (Menlo Park) to see if I could get more stuff. We hit Old Navy and got more stuff (still no jeans at 2nd location!) and tried other stores. I didn't know if my clothes might be salvagable so I didn't want to buy much. We ate Chick-Fil-A and went home. We watch a bunch of Ninja Warrior on my old college TV and she went home. I slept better.Day 2:The morning I got some bins hoping to be able to go inside and get some stuff. Instead it's brought to my attention that the building is unsafe and I wouldn't be allowed in. I'd have to wait till next Weds to get my things. Will my comics last? Will anything last? I don't know. Pat swung by and we hit up Panera. I like Panera bread, just not sliced bread. Afterwards I went to my 3rd Old Navy and guess what...NO JEANS IN MY SIZE! Am I fat? Seriously tell me. I bought a shirt, got my new comics at the store, and went back to the site. After sorting through what's going down the next week, I finally went home to read some comics and get on the web. I really want to document most of what's happened and keep everyone informed.Everyone has been incredibley helpful and kind during this entire thing. Thing is the best way to put it since it's so much rolled into 1. If you got questions or anything, shoot and e-mail or call. E-mail will take a while to respond unless I'm at work because my parents basement is colder than Frostie's penis. Yes, Frostie the Snowman has a penis, he's a SnowMAN right? I'm off to shower and possibly put on new close, and try and cough out the smoke and hazardous chemicals I'm sure to have swallowed. Seriously though, I'm ok and wearing clothes only made by Old Navy and Hanes.


It Beings

This is where I'll post everything about the Fire and what not, stay tuned.