Another crazy neighbor

About 3 weeks ago Goof stayed home for the day. About 2 1/2 hours before Stinky was to come home he noticed a dog running around in the street barking and chasing cars. Goof gets anal about people and dogs on the front lawn, so he wasn't pleased, and I think he was bored. Around the time the elementary kids got home the dog was still barking and wandering around the cul de sac. The dog blocked Bug from entering the street, so he went to a neighbor's house instead I guess to wait him out. This was also the same day we saw Fred. Fred was chased by this dog too. Of course, we didn't care what happened to those two, their parents or guardians can take care of this. This is the same dog I was told to mind my own business with last summer. But Goof started to worry that this dog would attack Stinky. So he called animal control and it took them about 30 min to finally get over here. I gather the guy was able to ascertain the owner and where it lived from the tags.

A week later someone comes to the door ringing the bell and knocking. I see a woman in her late 40s early 50s. chin length curly brown hair, and harsh makeup. She looked like a drinker. This woman starts to yell at me because she got a $200 fine for her dog being cited loose, and that her dog is friendly, wouldn't hurt children, and just wanted to play with them. Oh and she was home. 2 1/2 hours of barking and you were home? Come on, the windows and doors were closed in my house, and we are well insulated, and I still heard the dog. She basically told me that I should watch out for my kid and my dogs, if I could say the same about them as she could her dog. Blaming me for her lack of responsibility. I was very flustered by this, and I didn't watch to see where she came from. Later that day, we noticed there was a card propped on the mail box. We looked at it, it was a pink thank you card. There was a card and note written in very immature spelling and writing style proclaiming her dog was a nice dog, and we were in the wrong to call animal control. Goof wrote a letter in response and wanted to put it in her mailbox, but because I wasn't sure where the woman came from, we did not follow through on it.

Now Wednesday Goof and promised to come home early to take Stinky out to the firing range. I was in the kitchen prepping dinner, and Stinky was in the living room playing on my laptop. I heard barking for a few minutes and I mentioned it to Stinky
but he did nothing about it, and neither did I. Stinky then gets a phone call from Goof. It seems he is trapped by the same dog as two weeks prior. He was standing by the truck unable to move because the dog was on our property and barking with teeth bared at Goof. Stinky goes and grabs his airsoft rifle, and goes out the front door, shooting it to scare the dog off. Goof is able to get in the house. Well then finally the woman comes out of her house. She yells for the dog and it moves toward her. Goof walks over to speak to the woman, she yells at him, that the dog is friendly. He tells her, the dog had him pinned to the truck door, he wasn't able to move forwards or backwards without the dog charging. The woman goes back into her house and grabs some hotdogs. She throws those on her lawn and the dog runs over to eat them. She does nothing else, and starts to walk back to her house. Goof asks her if this behavior is appropriate. She responds back that this isn't, but that she didn't want this behavior for her dog, and it isn't her fault he's like this. Goof tells her to take control of the dog. She yells back at him that she's trying, yet, she walks inside her house and closes the door. Goof is dumbfounded. The dog is still outside at has begun barking at him again. She comes out and yells at Goof again. He tells her that the dog must be leashed off private property, and he's an aggressive dog, and if need be Goof would call animal control. The woman responds back that they would just put the dog to sleep and again she goes back into her house. Goof starts to walk away and the dog starts to charge after him. Stinky calls out a warning and Goof turns around to stare the dog down. The woman comes out of her house again, and yells at Goof. At this point Goof has called animal control and he warns the woman, if the dog bites Stinky or me, he would shoot the dog. The woman tells him that it is illegal to have a gun in the city limits. Goof tells her, he has every right to defend his family. She threatens to call the police on him, and goes back into the house. So Goof turns to leave and again the dog charges. This time Goof had enough and he comes in and grabs our shotgun. He then takes it out to the porch and racks it. All this time, the neighbors have come out. Kioskman has come out and is smirking. Babymama's kids are looking through their front window smiling, and the new neighbors are watching this too. Once Goof racked the shotgun, Kioskman had a strange look on his face. Was he going to laugh, or shit his pants? A few moments later, the police arrive. They came in 4 cars, hands on their holsters prepared for something I guess. So you know what happens? They get charged by her dog. We figured Babymama and the woman called the police, as one squad car was in our driveway, another in Babymama's and the third one parked in front of the woman's house. Goof takes the shotgun and puts it under the sofa, and he goes looking for his gun permit. And if you know Goof, he has no idea where his wallet is. Uhm, with your pants? He finds his wallet but no license. Oh I think I washed it. What an idiot this man is. He can't put anything away in it's proper place.

So the police come to the door, and he hands the permit to the policeman. They enter the house and ask what happened. He tells them about the dog, and the police look around they see a toy bb gun on the staircase and ask is that the weapon he drew on the porch. No, it's not. Is this air soft rifle by the door the weapon? No, that was used by my son to scare the dog away so I could enter the house. Well where is the weapon? It's under the sofa. The policeman asks if he can pull it out and look at it. Of course. So the policeman reaches down under the sofa and pulls out our .22 rifle. No, that's not the weapon. The policeman reaches under again, and withdraws the HMR17. No that's not the weapon. How many guns do you have under the sofa? Just three. So the police finally pulls out the remington shotgun. Are the weapons loaded? No, only the shotgun, but it's not racked. Oh yes it is. The police unloads the shotgun. Another policeman ran a check on Goof to make sure there is nothing on file against him. Nothing there. The dog is still running around outside barking. I show the policeman the note card she left us, and what happened prior to that afternoon regarding the dog. The policeman reads the note and asks where our dogs are. They are in their crate quiet as can be. We tell the police our dogs do not go outside unsupervised or off leash on public property.

So the policeman has him write out a statement, and they go to the neighbors to get statements regarding this incident. Kioskman agreed that the dog was chasing children. The new neighbor had come home and she herself was chased by this dog. Animal control finally came and was charged by the dog too. The woman was spoken to and the dog was taken away. Well there goes her responsibility to the dog. I am gathering this dog will be put to sleep now.

The woman turned out to be the neighborhood drunk. That's why she didn't hear the dog for 2 1/2 hours, she was drunk. Goof asked me how I didn't recognize her. Well last time I saw her was 3 years ago. I don't make it a point to spend a lot of time with her.

So now the neighbors know we have guns, alongside the security cameras. Obviously Goof didn't shoot the dog, and he would have gotten into some trouble for discharging a weapon in city limits. It was just unbelievable that this woman called the police on him, and didn't bring her dog in. She dug herself one big hole. Four police witnesses, and animal control officer saw the dog behaving aggressively. This woman is just wrong.

I am hoping this is the drama for the month.

Enjoying the lifestyle

This weekend was fun filled. Stinky's been practicing his driving skills on the cart, and he's getting really good. We did the bbq thing with hot dogs and hamburgers on the 4th. Took a spin around the lake, and wondered where everyone was. Then went home and set off a few fireworks. We headed back to the lake and then we saw all the people! Carts and people everywhere. What I wasn't pleased was seeing dogs out. Fireworks people! Dogs don't watch fireworks like humans do. They don't necessarily understand what all the noise is about. We parked the cart off the path and headed up to meet Neville and his parents. They had marked a spot on the lake shore Thursday morning! Holy smokes! And to top it off, someone had moved their tarp! Seriously, next year I'm gonna have to stake out a spot too. So the fireworks show was lots of fun. I tried to film some of it, but it didn't come out as well as I hoped. What got us giggling and I tried to film that also was the traffic jam after the show. A sea of humanity and golf carts! I'm not used to seeing all those carts jammed up trying to get around. Goof, said it was like that when he took a quick drive to see the parade that morning. We decided not to get up early to see the parade, and I'm glad we didn't. Saturday was another fun filled night. Well it was for Stinky. We went to a drive in movie at the conference hotel above the lake. It was filled with golf carts and people in chairs. We thought it would rain, and we missed it. Unfortunately for Goof it was the movie Transformers. Very boring for him. Stinky was hoping to hang out with girls, but no go. We didn't do too much today, just hung around the house and did chores. I wanted to go to the library this weekend, but Sat, a T storm came in right after I left the house, so I just returned a book and jammed back home, missing the rain by 3 minutes. Today, I wanted to go, and just as I got ready... BOOM! Thunder started. Tomorrow I'm heading off to the library that's for certain.

I'm still working on my quilt, it's rather time consuming cutting the sewn squares into smaller squares. Hard to explain unless you saw what I was doing. Now comes the sewing again. When I'm done, I should have 80 blocks. Enough for two quilts, and then some. Then the placement of the blocks, and finally the quilting of the batting and back fabric. I have some smaller projects I need to get done this next two days. Have a friend that needs belly bands for her mom's dog, ASAP, and a pair of manly jammies for another dog person. I just can't seem to find many manly prints right now. Or we have different tastes. How manly is a male IG in jammies? You can only go cute, hilarious, and some what tough, but come on, the dog is wearing jammies! Moo, loves his jammies, but he's a sweet clown. He's not tough, nor does he want to act tough. This breed has silly, very loving males. The tough ones are the females with their outgoing personalities.

Lulu's results

Just a quick note. Lucy's tumor results came back today. It was a benign growth. I'm so relieved. My little punk rock dog can continue on her merry way, grumbling under her breath when we catch her trying to get in the garbage can, and sweetly begging for cheese, or dig her way amidst the blankets to curl up for a nap right by my hip.

School will be out on Friday for the sumer. I volunteered to help out tomorrow scooping ice cream for the kids. Stinky will go to summer school. Interesting note. Out here, you have to pay for summer school. I don't remember that in CA. Perhaps times have changed any everyone does? It's not that much money. I guess in a way it's cheap daycare.

What is considered a family member?

I love my dogs. I tend to treat them more like humans. This can cause trouble in life. My Lulu went in yesterday for a growth behind her right rear knee. I treat her like a human toddler most of the time, so it's hard for me to see my dog with a growth getting bigger each day. While I tend to humanize my dogs, I know I'm not as far gone as many people out there. They don't get spa treatments, nor do they attend a doggy daycare. I take them to dog shows, and used to go to play dates with other dogs of the same breed. I was really worried the night before and yesterday. I couldn't sleep so I stayed up all night and made a quilt for her. I knew she would go under general anesthesia for her growth removal. I didn't like that she would be away from familiar surroundings, while her growth was removed. I did opt to have her teeth cleaned at the same time to avoid another round of anesthesia. An apt at 11am left me away from her for over 7 hours. This caused me anxiety, I didn't want her to think I left her for good. Again humanizing a dog. When I was finally able to see her, she whimpered at me. My poor little doggie was riding the purple haze from the drugs. She's still a little sore from the surgery, stitches, and tender mouth from the cleaning. Bad news is that soon it will be Mingy's turn at his dental. There will be plenty of whining and whimpering from him. He's such a sensitive dog. Lulu is much tougher, she doesn't complain like he does. We have been napping most of the morning. I'm still trying to catch up on missed sleep and deal with menstral cramps. Lulu is probably sore, and we just put up with Mingy whining. I know for certain he missed her too. He was not happy that she was not with him in their room last night. I'm not certain how I will deal with the next two weeks in regards to him and his need for set routine.

Nationals are over

Boohoo. I really had a lot of fun this week at the national. Even though I hated having to drive the distance daily and the weather turned wet, and yucky, it was still great fun. I met a lot of people. Funny how dog people recognize dogs, but not each other. Yea yea, most people have no idea what I'm talking about. Heck, most people don't get so caught up in the dog world. I got a few pictures and some video clips of it all. I really wanted to take more, but ended up helping out and talking to others, so my concentration wasn't all there. I think the total was like 200 hundred dogs over the 4 days. That's a lot, and they were all the same breed. At points it was a mad house of barking dogs, especially when they were racing. Many well behaved dogs, and many not so well behaved.

I found out that Mingy my show dog has lost the show instincts. His breeder was there and she was happy with his looks and attitude. It took him a long time to remember her though. Whoops. She tried to walk him, and he forgot how to do the show walk. She held out liver to bait him, and he sat down. Hee hee. When a show dog sees a treat or bait as it's called when in the ring, they are to strike the show pose or 'stack'. Which in this breed means all four legs still and appropriately placed, tail down, ears pricked, head forward, eyes intent on the prize, and neck stretched to a pleasing angle. Ha! Mingy, sat, tail wagging on the ground, ears pricked, eyes at attention and big grin on his face. You can tell he enjoys a life of leisure!

Mingy's got a great personality, but he's shy. He is very wary of strangers. Give him a few moments to recognize you aren't a threat. There was an incident on Sat, where they popped out of the travel crate, and they didn't see me. Mingy jumped back up in the hatch, and a friend went to put his leash on him. Well he didn't know what was going on, and growled at her. So she stopped and decided to just stand at the door and let him get use to her. Another dog person from CA, came up and said, "Oh he knows me, I'll leash him" Even though she was warned. Yup, Mingy growled at her too. We had a conversation earlier in the morning about Mingy being a fear biter. She didn't believe it. When I got back to the car, I was able to borrow a collapsible wire kennel to keep them while I was helping out. I think I need to invest in a similar kennel if I bring the dogs to another one of these shows.

I might get into showing. My friend we call The Queen Mother, has a sweet dog. He is about 18 months old, and she wants to finish him. Well she wants to, but isn't sure if he can. He has a fear of the judging table. It seems at a show last year, the judge bumped the table, and scared him. Ever since then, he tends to lean away from the judge when he's on the table. We tried bringing him and the table to Starbucks to acclimate him again. Strangers were asked to come up and pet him, stroke him and generally let him know he's not gonna fall off. The hard part is that when he leans, the first thing you want to say is ,"Oh, it's alright, it's okay." That is not acceptable. They hear the tone that lets them know it's acceptable to continue this behavior. So, this dog needs to get his finishing points, and I want to try and show. I can't show Mingy, as it would be too hard for a newbie to jump into the higher class with a finished dog. It's cut throat at that level! Lulu got her stuff removed so she's out of the picture. Plus she's just too attached to me. She's a brat. I need to borrow a book from the library if they have it. It's a training book and if I can learn from that, then possibly I could show the dog in February.

There are still dog shows going on. There is one this weekend in Marietta, but I don't know how to get there, and honestly I don't want to drive up there. It would take at least an hour and a half to get there with traffic. Queen mother wants to go, but she doesn't want to drive either. She says she knows there is a back way, but that would take too long, and she doesn't like the freeway. I just want to give my car a break from all the driving. We want to go, but if she doesn't want to drive, I'm not going to bother either. Goof isn't that interested in going. I'll think about it some more.

Atlanta speedway is happening this weekend. I'm not sure which day it is. Goof says he can get tickets, but he's not so interested. He still thinks I won't like it. He maybe right, but how do I know if we never try? It's certainly boring on tv. Maybe in person watching 30 cars make a left turn for 500 miles would be fun and exciting. One never knows. Plus it's in the WM box. It's not with the masses. Food and alcohol will be provided. It's free for us! Why not I say. If he had gotten tickets to the Augusta Open, I'm sure he would have gone. Not that I blame him. Golf is fun for him. Hmm maybe next year he can get tickets to some big college football game. I don't know if they do things like that though.

Goof came home last night disappointed. It seems that his company has a conference this Jan. He was in on the conference call and got excited thinking he was going away for a week somewhere nice. Guess what? It's in town. There is a big conference center here that has a really nice set up. Other people in the conference call were worried about the drought situation. Goof piped in that we have plenty of water reserves for our county. They asked him how he knew and he admitted he lived in the town. He has become the point contact for this conference now. I told him if he wanted to, he could still stay in a hotel room. Even though it's only 2 miles from the house. I think it would be great. He does work, and relaxes, gets plenty of sleep on a nice comfy bed, if he wanted to he could pop in and relax in his undies, then head back. The plus side is if anything were to happen he's not far from the house. I'll let him stew on that.

Weekends are for sleeping

Well that's always been my opinion. What would have to change so I don't sleep in? A dog show. Not just any dog show, but the National specialty. What the hell does that mean? It means that the parent organization of my breed sets up a dog show only for our breed and many people from all over the country and even Canada come out enter their dogs into conformation, obedience, rally, agility, and or coursing. Last year it was held in CA, but of course we were out here and not heading back so soon. This year it's about 30 min from me and I get to have fun!

Oh my gosh, I woke up really early on Saturday and had a bit of trouble finding the fairground. Out here they really don't understand the use of lights on signs and streets. It wasn't even daybreak yet. Funny how that worked out, the ones that planned the coursing forgot the sun doesn't rise as early on the east coast in fall. I got to help walk dogs to the coursing boxes, and it was lots of fun to see them all chasing the plastic bag with the squeaker attached. There are several activities dogs can do. With sighthouds, there is LGRA coursing. It's a straight track dogs wear muzzles and racing silks, put into a box corresponding with the color of their silk. A buzzer goes off, the gate to the box is released and the dogs go chasing the lure (plastic bag). It's really neat to watch because it's like greyhound racing, but it's dogs that reach only your knee, and it's a straightaway, and there's no money involved. Your dog gets enough points it wins a title, you get some exercise and so does the dog. Some dogs like to chase, others rather sit on a pillow and sleep.

Another coursing activity is NOTRA which is similar, but it's an oval track instead of a straight away. There is also AKC coursing, which in my opinion is even harder. The plastic bags are attached to a string or line, driven through a set of pulleys. This is the same mechanism for all the racing, but with AKC coursing they have a larger course, and it's easier for a dog to tire out. I know this is confusing for those not involved with dogs or dog sports, but it was really fun to watch.

So that was this past weekend. I got up earlier than I do for Stinky's school. I came home in the early evening, and basically exhausted when I'm home. Lulu and Mingy loved seeing all the other IGs. Lulu is a brat. I am afraid to admit it, but she's a racist. She didn't puff up and growl at any IG, even though they got in her face and butt. She was perfectly happy around them. I know we have like 10 IGs in town, which is pretty impressive for such a small community, but Lulu really doesn't run into them that often. We see other breeds and mixes all the time. She was pretty good at the events. Mingy was visiting all the dogs, and getting quite happy with all the girls. The good thing, was that he would take it out on Lulu. It was all air and hip action, but at least he was leaving the show dogs alone. Mingy doesn't know what to do, his hips are moving, but it's all hot air. When we get home, I have been putting a band on him, just in case he figured out what to do to poor Lulu.

Monday through Wednesday is the dog pageant. The conformation shows. Which dog represents the best attributes of the breed? If the dog has the best head, and walk forgive the excess in height, all that stuff. It's a judge's personal preference too. Nice thing about an IG only dog show. The judge can't choose a fluffy dog over an IG. I really thing the breed should be moved over to the hound group. The comepetition against a beagle would be hard, but better than those ugly Chihuahuas. I hate fluffy yappy dogs. Granted I saw some barking mad IGs. They didn't yap though. d'Folly's were the worst. She as admitted she gave up on the barking control. If something walks by her front door the dogs are gonna go off. But that's nothing if the dogs don't make any noise otherwise. Mingy was a barking fool. Every time I walked away from him, he started barking. He wanted to be with me. Lulu did too, but at least she wasn't barking. Whining a bit, but no barking.

I might head out to the shows later today. The rain has held be off so far. Plus a few other things that need to be done here.

Talladega

Last night Goof was in several long calls about end of month closing. After all that, he tells me that he was offered Talladega tickets. He declined them. What? He thought I would not be interested in the race. All the drunk rednecks. Of course I reminded him, it's like the tickets we used to get for the Raiders. Luxury box, baby. The tickets would be amidst drunk southerners. There is a difference between rednecks and southerners. He was given tickets to Infineon speedway a few years ago and we didn't go. Well, I had wanted to go, but he only had two and was going to take Stinky, but Stinky wasn't interested. Well, gee, father and son time is important, so I didn't make a fuss.

I'm waiting later and later to walk. Fall is here and I'm cold! Yea, yea, it's not that cold yet, but I don't like it. The dogs don't mind. I've been trying to prepare. I made a flannel jammie for Lulu, which didn't work out too well because the flannel doesn't have enough stretch. I have to rework the pattern for that. Yesterday I tried again with a different type of fabric. This one is a knit material with a raised stitch pattern. I learned that the medium pattern size does fit Mingy, and not Lulu. The material does not flatter Mingy. The next jammie will be out of this sweatshirt material I had picked up. It's fuzzy on one side, and I bet with time, the other side will be too. I hope it's got enough stretch. It should keep the doggies warm.

In 3 weeks, the IG national will be here. I'm excited about it. I am planning on going everyday if I can. Sorry, family, mom is excited and wants to see the show. Luckily it's close enough to home. I didn't enter in anything. Obviously I can't. Lulu's fixed, and I don't know anything about showing so Mingy just gets to watch. I don't know enough about coursing, also I would have to preregister the dogs. Who knows if they would even enjoy it, or want to race. I can just see it. Lulu and Mingy at one end in the box. Lulu bounding out of the box towards me in her characteristic bunny hop. Mingy confused running full out at me, and tumbling into a hole. Heart attack waiting to happen.

Halloween is coming. The holidays will be here. I am trying to decide if I want to decorate the exterior of the house. Goof thinks it will be good. I just wonder why. We don't care about the neighbors. It's not like they are gonna come over. We don't get a lot of trick or treaters either. It's just for us. I want to stuff the spider and stick that on the lawn. Hmm, fill that with newspaper and leaves. I also need to find the window covers. Something we saw last year and I want to get this year if I can find it, is a flicker light. Put that in front of the window and that will be pretty neat.

My goal this holiday season is to find each holiday's decorations and box them up separately. Goof kinda threw them in the boxes and now we are in a jumble downstairs. I need a new label maker. My $10 label maker just died. Well so it goes. Gotta get a huge label to cover the old ones off the totes.

It's the little triumphs

Some days not much gets done, but just a little thing can seem so monumental. I dremeled nails today. Lucy doesn't fight me much, she just lets it all happen. Mingy thinks the world is coming after him to chop him into pieces. This is one freaked out dog when it comes to brushing teeth or doing nails. I had a conversation with a top breeder a while back and she gave me some advice on how to dremel his front feet. Her technique with difficult dogs was to lay the dog on it's left side on my lap, and for me to lay a blanket on him, and to throw my right leg over his back legs. I then lean over him with dremel in hand, and he can't kick out as easily. It works. Thank God. I know he hates getting his back feet done, but he doesn't freak and twitch as bad. The front paws were giving me grief and I really worried he would hurt himself. Karen Chant of Diavolino IGs, I love you. And not just for breeding beautiful, genetically sound dogs. I now have scratch free legs. Mingy can paw me, but he's been trimmed and rounded down, so we are safe! Good lord, he has goat nails too. Really hard and thick. Lucy's got little skinny daggers, rounding them out helps, but they are still thin.

interacting with neighbor kids

I was talking to an online acquaintance last night when the topic of neighborhood kids came up. It seems I forgot to write about and incident that happened just before we left for CA. As it seems that my blog is not as boring as I thought, and people are actually interested in my ramblings. Who knew? So for those few that know of this and want a laugh, I better share. What other way is there to let someone in closer to my strange little corner of the world.

I have neighbors diagonal from me that I really don't see much of. That in itself is not strange, I don't see or talk to about 5 of them. What's strange to me is that these neighbors have children and I see them out and about a few times a week, and the children are usually unattended.

Goof tends to think the mother has depression issues, since she's usually hiding in the house. I do know that when I see her, she's on the phone. I've seen her sit in her car to talk on the phone. Granted, I've done that myself when the house is too noisy or my phone is dying and I need to charge it while talking. Yea yea, we won't go into that.

So 3 little kids. Girl age 8, named after a famous country singer, boy age 5 named after a rapper, and baby boy age 2.5 or 3 also named after an r&b singer. All in all okay kids. They just don't have a concept of boundaries. First time I met the girl, we had just closed on the house. Goof was napping after moving in furniture, and she was playing with Stinky. Well she's really too young to play with Stinky, but she had a cheeseburger in hand. It was a cheeseburger that Goof had bought. Seems she got hungry and asked Stinky for something to eat! Huh? I don't know you, and I'm moving in, what the hell are you doing asking me for food?

About a week later, we are unpacked for the most part, and as a way to meet our neighbors, I bake a few cookies. So with paper plates neatly wrapped consisting of several cookie selections off we go. Dropped the cookies off at doorstops or met the neighbor. When we get to their house it gets strange. Ring the doorbell and wait a minute. The door opens and the 3 children are there. Middle boy takes the plate of cookies and disappears, leaving the baby to watch us at the door with an empty pack of Newports in his hand. We stand there for about 5 minutes before the dad comes to the door. That was an awkward wait. He comes to the door we introduce ourselves and then we leave. Goof made the comment as we got back in the house, that he wasn't quite sure what to make of that, and at the most he thought the kid was gonna offer him a smoke.

Obviously not a good first impression. So for the next few months they pile around the cul de sac playing and what not. They don't follow rules well. No playing on my japanese maple. It's too young to be climbed on. Branches thinner than your wrist do not count as climbing trees. Took many scolds before that took hold. They all three as one like to play on my porch. I have no idea why, besides the fact that we have a nice one. Their house doesn't. Problem is that my porch needs to be sanded and repainted. We also found a railing that's not as secure as we would like it. Most likely from them hanging off our railing. The little girl also keeps ringing my doorbell asking for my son to play. No, and to come in, NO! Why the hell would I let you in my house? You haven't offered to let me in your house. Also asking for food. What the hell? The one time was a fluke! Stinky didn't know better in that situation. Maybe it's because his friends in CA, were taught better than that? Now remember this usually happens when there is no parent supervision. Oh and just to make it clear they have a small front porch area with chairs outside that the mother uses occasionally to sit in and talk on the phone.

A week before we left Goof and Stinky let off some fireworks. Small bottle rockets. Kiosk man had come over to investigate. He didn't realize it was Goof letting them off. Whatever, let's not go there. So we are on the deck enjoying ourselves when the girl comes into our backyard on her bike! What the hell? You are riding your bike on my grass! Haven't you heard? We put grass over people! Seems she wanted to know who was setting off the fireworks. Goof and Stinky play it off, and proceed to fart to make her go away. Goof was trying to be kind, but he's in shock this kid rode her bike up on our backyard. Again no boundaries.

Two days before we leave. I see the kids on my front lawn, running around with practice golf balls. They are throwing our balls at each other. I go out to tell them no. Lucy slips out behind me and wants to investigate. The two boys start freaking out! They are scared of dogs because of enabler's dogs charging them. Screaming and waving their arms, running in circles. This aggravates Lucy. She starts running around the baby. Which causes him to scream even more and freak Lucy out. She grabs him by the back of the diaper and pulls him down! 8lb Lucy took down a 20 odd lb boy! All this time, I'm speaking in a clear loud tone to stop yelling and running around. I pick up the boy take the golf ball out of his hand and tell him no yelling, or throwing my balls. Don't play on my porch, I've said it before it's not safe. I grab Lucy and take her inside. I put the ball away and I look out my front door. Again they are on my porch! Hanging off my railings! I come out and again Lucy slips behind me. This time the middle boy who is to my left on the porch starts screaming! Again Lucy freaks out. He runs screaming past Lucy and me to my right and starts climbing on the railing! This is the weakened railing! Lucy is there at his feet bouncing up and down. I grab kid off the railing and tell him again. Don't play on the porch it's not safe. Finally they get it and they go home. Where are their parents? On their front steps talking on the phone watching it all! And they do nothing. Granted there is nothing they can do it's my property, their kids were running around on my grass throwing my balls they took from my backyard. Their kids that decided after I took the balls away and my dog to come up on my porch! When do you get the idea to take your kids off my porch? Got no leg to stand on if your kid gets hurt on my property when they are doing wrong. These are the same kids that block residents in the middle of the street staring at them while they sit on their bikes. No common sense at all. So what is Goof doing while all this is going on? He's closed the front windows and gone to the bathroom to laugh! You gotta admit it was a funny sight to see a little kid running in circles like a chicken avoiding a farmer's knife, while Lucy is circling and acting like a sight hound of ancient times going for the hunt!

As far as I know those kids did not play on our porch while we were gone. But another strange thing happened with the baby boy. I gather he is in the toilet training stage now. Goof watched one day as the kids were playing and for some reason the boy needed to go potty, he dropped his pants and proceeded to pee and SHIT on a car! This car belongs to the boyfriend of Fred's aunt. He's not a great guy, so we don't really care. The 3 kids go on as if it wasn't their sibling that did this. Climbing Enabler's tree and sitting on it and pondering the shit on the street. Goof was completely flabbergasted! We obviously don't care for that household, but OH MY GOD! SHIT in the STREET! However some time later, I guess one of them told their parents, and they cleaned it up. I don't think it was Enabler as she and her family have no issues with leaving human diapers their dogs chew up in the trash. I'm sure they view it as the originating household's issue to deal with.

I think we moved into the wrong neighborhood. Too bad the house wasn't in another one. It's not like the house was a steal, but I think we bought too high with what neighbors we have. Ugh, a few more years and it won't matter.

Long day

Okay Goof sucks. I swear men have pms. It occurs every 3 months and they just have one hell of a snit for any little thing. So, me being me. I get mad at him pointing out all my little faults, then if I respond back and point out his faults, he accuses me of pulling out thngs from the past. Huh? WTF are you doing? So this will be my new attitude about it all. Whatever he says is fine, he's right. He's gotta be right about something I guess. And all bets are off on not smoking. Yea, yea bad me. As he says, "It's your 16 year old self, holding that middle finger up, rebelling at everything." Fine, it's my almost 35 year old self, holding my middle finger up at you, letting your tirade go in one ear and out the other.

Marriage is hard. It takes a lot of work on both parts. I understand his point of view, but damn it I want my point of view to be taken seriously also. So, I leave it at that.

I am in an irritated mood also, because I'm sneezing. Hell if I know why. I've been sneezing on and off for the last 2 hours. It's not just one sneeze every so often, but at least 5 in a row. Am I the only one that gets annoyed at myself for sneezing? I hate it, it takes my concentration away from something I'm doing, driving, cooking, cutting up stuff.

I wanna know why Lucy always manages to get peed on. Or if Mingy is doing it for the fun of it all. She will be doing her stuff and he walks up and decides this is a good spot, and gets her. Or she will walk right in his aim. What is up with that? More baths for her I guess she likes it. Weird little dog.