No Water But A Refund From Marriott!

Still no water (it's now 6 p.m.), but an email from Moscow Marriott Tverskaya - they will charge us in rubles at the actual exchange rate on the day of checkout (essentially 27 rubles to the dollar), and refund us $204.50. Close enough. I'm actually quite shocked at how effective I was!! We had gotten an email yesterday offering to credit us with $82, but I had emailed back that I (in the person of Ed Rucker, of course) was not happy with that result, arguing that we should get the benefit of the difference between the actual rate of exchange and the artificial 32 to 1 exchange rate used by the hotel. Who would have thunk that they would have caved so easily. I mean, I firmly believe that this is the correct result, but I thought it would take months of haggling. Maybe I will stay at a Marriott in the future, after all - who knows?

This is the first day that Ed has spent the whole day at the office - he left at 9:30 (things don't get going here until 10 a.m. in most places) and he's still not home (it's about 6 p.m.)! They are drafting some of the "form" motions they hope to file as a routine matter in every case where the issue arises (e.g., police brutatlity, illegal search, coerced confession, etc.). Let's see what happens first - the return of water or the return of Ed to the apartment!!

Postscript: No water until 8 a.m. the next morning. Fortunately, Ed got home before the water was turned on - about 7 p.m.