Four fine days

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

Dang, not sure where I want to start this week. Let’s go in sequential order.

Friday. Best Biggest Little Best of Northern Nevada party ever! We all had a blast, Franz Szony’s art was smoking, the songwriting contest winners were warblin’, and our cab driver was fast and friendly.

Saturday and Sunday, worked my ass off helping my girl move. My fingers are swollen, but I didn’t feel too bad about not making it to the gym this weekend, or the rice and beans I had with my chorizo and eggs Saturday morning at El Adobe (Reno’s Best Mexican Restaurant), or the Chicken Tikka Masala I had at India Kabab and Curry (Reno’s Best Indian Restaurant) on Sunday night.

Monday, Monday. (You know, I’ll never be able to hear that song the same way after Mackenzie Phillips’ horrifying revelations about her father.) Here’s my plan. In part because of a fake notice I received from some group representing itself as somehow related to my bank, in part due to Dennis Myers’ cover story, in part due to a story I saw claiming Reno is the country’s “weakest housing market” and in part because I’m the guy this program is supposed to help, I’ve decided to try to take advantage of the government’s Making Home Affordable Program.

It’s kind of funny, how all these things conflate in my mind to be a not-that-disconnected series. I noted firsthand how the independents really came on against the chain stores in the Biggest Little Best of readers’ poll; my friend is essentially moving to take advantage of lower rental costs because of the horrible housing market; and—you can probably guess how offended I’d be by some company misrepresenting itself as my loan company in order to take advantage of my fear of the crappy real estate market in Northern Nevada.

Please—and I’m just lucky I read the small print—don’t give private information like your Social Security number to these bastards who are trying to take advantage of your fear and ignorance to sell you a loan.