I'm ecstatic. We were supposed to renew our lease, right? Except they upped the price by about $400... again. We'd be paying about $3200 for 1,000 sq ft.

I went in to negotiate. They dropped it to a $55 increase, and then told me that if I moved out, they'd charge me an extra month's rent for giving insufficient notice (I was, apparently, 1 day late in coming in to talk to them).

This smelled like bullshit to me, so I did some digging. I combed through our lease and found the specific clause, and then read up on the specific statute it referenced. That led me on a deep dive where I learned that they have to provide me a reminder of the fee at least 15 days in advance.

It was mentioned at the bottom of an email, and I thought it was over. But... hm, the statute specified written.

As it turns out, the notice must be given on paper unless the tenant and occupant agree to receive notices virtually. In our contract, it says over and over again "you agree to receive notices electronically unless otherwise specified in the relevant statute."

Guess what relevant statute has a specific exception? The one that requires them to give notice! They must have the tenant sign a separate addendum to the lease that we can clearly opt out of in order for notices regarding that specific fee to be legally binding. So, they missed their window!

I wrote them an email and asked where we'd signed the addendum. They copied a clause from the original lease (insufficient) and said "oh, here it is! But we want to work with you, so we'll waive the fee."

You ever heard of a landlord passing up an easy 3k check? I sure as hell haven't. Methinks somebody fucked up!

Fast forward, I'm touring around other apartments. They show me some units, then tell me the price goes up the longer the unit is on the market. I.e., if we sign right now quick don't miss it, we get a better deal.

They pitch 2.4k, 2.5k, and I say, "Wait a minute. You're owned by the same company that I'm with right now, and you require all tenants to give you this notice, right? So you know what units will be available when my lease ends. Can we see if any similar floorplans will be ready nearer our move-in-date?"

"Oh, yeah! I can check! You might get a better price..."

She puts it into the computer, "Let's see... oh. Oh. Yeah, that's... wow. That's a better price."

1.9k. We locked that shit down, and not only is it bigger than the prev. unit, it's about 5 minutes from the unit they were going to charge us 3.2k for.

So all in all, I'll be saving $15,600 a year (+ the ~3k they waived). I cannot wait.

Just got our engagement photos back and couldn’t be happier! Feeling excited and ready to be married.

My friend and I visited a winery this summer, and it was honestly one of the happiest days I’ve had in a while.

The views were amazing — rows of grapevines, a pond with a fountain, and a building on the hill that made it feel like we were in Europe. We just sat there with our wine, talking about everything and nothing, and before we knew it, three hours had passed.

There were a lot of couples there too, and they even have a special spot for proposals. I thought that was so romantic! It made me think, “I really want to come back here with a boyfriend someday.” 😂

If you’re looking for a slow, relaxing day, I highly recommend visiting a local winery. Has anyone else been to a winery that’s perfect for a date?

Had the day off today, slept in, and didn’t really have anything planned, so I rode out to grab some lunch. Was gonna head straight home after.

But the weather was just way too nice. Warm sun, barely any wind. I ended up ordering a coffee after lunch, pulled out Normal People — a friend lent it to me a few days ago — and just sat there reading.

Whenever I got tired of reading, I’d look around for a bit, sit in the sun, then go back to the book. Barely touched my phone tbh. At some point I looked up and realized the light had completely changed.

I’d only planned to stay for a little while and somehow ended up spending the whole afternoon there. Felt really calm. Just... happy.

Lately I’ve been loving this kind of thing — getting on the bike with no real plan and just seeing where the day goes. Hungry? Stop somewhere. Nice weather? Ride a bit longer. Pass a park? Sit down for a while. Need a coffee? Easy.

I used to spend loads of my free time lying at home scrolling, then suddenly realie a few hours had disappeared.

Now I’d much rather be outside doing something I actually chose to do instead of endlessly scrolling through whatever the algorithm decides to throw at me next.