Burgled!

R and I had our condo burglarized a few weeks ago. I'm only getting the time to write about it now due to a hellish work schedule and lack of creative spark.

Let's see... where to begin.

The bathroom window was unlocked. Hence, point of entry. I was at a Nationals vs. Pirates game for a work "teambuilding" thing. R was still at work helping out after her real shift had ended. We arrived home at the same time around 10pm after picking up some food. I'd left home at 7pm, so whoever came in must have done so between 7 and 10. Jerks.

The door was closed, but I noticed when unlocking it that the knob lock was locked and the deadbolt wasn't.

"That's odd," I thought.

Once inside it didn't take long to figure out what had happened. The playstation was on the floor and the TV looked a bit askew. At first thinking that the cat must have dragged a bunch of wires around, we were mistaken, given that the DVD player was gone. R's jewelry box was rummaged through and she now has several single earrings for which the matching one was taken. In addition, my shoulderbag with my camera, glasses and work laptop was taken.

It could all have been far, far worse. The intruder closed the door behind them preventing the cat from escaping. We weren't home; preventing a confrontation. My Mac is still sitting pretty with all my music, pictures and everything else (oh shit, I should really back this thing up, huh?).

We called the police and an officer showed up after about an hour. He looked around for a while and then called for a crime scene unit. Two hours later there was blue finger printing dust all over my Playstation, R's jewelry box and the bathroom window; not the easiest stuff to vacuum up.
I'm surprised I'm not more freaked out by the whole thing. The police did a good job of making us realize how normal this is in downtown DC (great?) and telling us stories of much, much, much worse things that they had seen. That helped.

The worst things about being burgled:
(1) Knowing that someone you don't know has been in your place.
(2) Not being sure if shit you can't seem to find was stolen or if you just misplaced it again (ie. My watch).
(3) Dealing with filing a homeowner's insurance claim.
(4) Calling up a company to put bars on your windows when you can distinctly remember saying, "we don't need bars on the windows. We need to trust people. Bars cause more crime than they prevent because they make the neighborhood look dangerous and attract dangerous people."
(5) They took my camera! I loved my Canon S500! F*#@!

The best part about being burgled:
(1) Getting to use the (transitive) verb "burgle" and all of its many conjugations. Yes!
(2) A new work computer that's way, way better than the last one.
(3) R already replaced my awesome shoulderbag. She rules.
(4) It's a good excuse to get a new camera. I'm eyeying up the Leica Digi-Lux 2

I've been keeping a little too busy and ignoring el blog... but I suppose that's both good and bad. As the president of the condo association, I've found that the position is more than a title and is also a big time-hole. Talking with contractors about repairing things that the association doesn't have money for sucks. I can't wait to rent again. Working 90 hours in a week doesn't aid in blogging ability either. In fact, my lack of recent entries consisting of something other than quick posts about news appears to have hindered my ability to write in anything other than short disjointed thoughts.

Recentness:
Last Sunday: Got back from a wedding in Miami. Was sick on the plane. Great wedding! No pictures. Thanks burglar!
Monday: Work.
Tuesday: Went to a lecture by Edward Tufte on "Presenting Data and Information" that was fan-freaking-tastic. I'd recommend
Wednesday: Work, then played in my second kickball game of the season... also the last regular-season kickball game. I missed all the other ones because my team normally has some "work product" due to the "client" every Thursday. Thank God that project is over... for now.
Thursday: Work, then home a little early (5 is early, right?), cleaned the house a bit, went to DC9 to see a show put on by DCist. Quite good.
Today: Will be working from home tomorrow and hopefully managing to do laundry and reorganize the songs that synch to my iPod in the meantime.
This coming Saturday: barbecue at the boss' house at 4pm, barbecue at R's parents at 6?
This coming Sunday: Another barbecue at 6. I will be oh-so-fat. I love Memorial Day weekend.
This coming Monday: No work and all play makes Greg happy.