The phone rang last Saturday. It was my landlord. "Do you have a reptile in your apartment" she asked. I do. Katula is a 12 year old stunted ball python that Justine rescued from a friend who didn't know how to take care of him.This is a non poisonous, non lethal, 3 foot long harmless animal that lives in a secured tank. I explained this and was reminded of the terms of my lease. I am allowed to have my cat, Peanut, but no other pet. I asked her for some leniency. She said she would get back to me.

On Thursday, I was emailed a notice of termination of lease and that we would need to be out on May 1st. WHAT!?!? I asked her if we could keep the snake and she answers by kicking us out? Justine, on the advice of a co-worker of mine contacted a local renter's advocacy group who told us that she needed to give us the opportunity (3 business days) to correct the violation. She hadn't. She answered that claim by stating that last Sunday at 7am, while in the company of a notary left me a violation notice on my door. Un fucking believable. There is no way that she did that. I left for work 3 hours later and there was no note. Also, she brought a notary at 7am on a sunday? bullshit. It turns out that the law says that she needed to hand me the notice at my home, failing that, my place of employment, and failling that, she can post it and then mail me the letter. She hasn't done any of those things.

Bottom line, she wants us out. and will lie to do so. I'm so fucking angry, frustrated, and stressed out right now. On top of that Justine is losing something that she loves. If we're going to fight this, and we are, we have to get rid of Katula tonight and that's really depressing.

So here I am asking my community and friends: Do you have the place in your life for a snake? perhaps on a long term basis? We would very much like to keep him close and if and when we decide to move out we would like to take him with us. Cats are an issue. If they are predatory and really want to get in to the tank, they can and will.

Oh, and thank you to everyone who came out yesterday to race bigwheels. As fucked up as this housing sitch is, that was a day of pure ridiculous fun. We have a new home for our event and it is even better than Lombard on so many levels. We easily doubled last year's attendance and the neighborhood totally embraced us. The course was awesome and the time and effort everybody put into their rides and their outfits was inspiring.