Feel Like Complaining

The Saga Continues. You might recall my on-going love/hate relationship with my neighbors and their dogs ; I love to hate them. Since my call to animal control I really didn't know whatever came of my complaint of too many dogs next door. So I called them to inquire about what had been done. I was told that they couldn't do anything about the 'over the limit' and that I needed to contact Code Enforcement. So why was I told just the opposite; that they would take care of it? As I'm voicing my frustration we decided that I should file a complaint against them for the barking. If nothing changed after that I then had the option of getting at least two other neighbors along with me to petition and then they would be fined for it. Well I guess I'm the only one who is bothered this much by the barking so I know that's as far as it will go in that direction. I asked two other neighbors and nobody really wanted to join in the fun. Besides, with a petition we are no ...

No complaining today folks, nooosireeeebob. I just made a deal through Craiglist that tops any deal I have ever made. My daughter will be starting high school next month and one of the required items for math is a TI-84 Plus calculator. They run about 120-130 bucks new, so of course the first place I try is eBay. There are plenty to choose from but they seem like a popular item right now and I'm afraid that the price will be out of range if I get outbid more than once. I then go to my local Craiglist and do a search for the calculator. There were about 4 of them listed fairly recently but only one that had the book, both cords and instructional cd. And he was asking less than the others, only 30 bucks. He had left his phone number so I called, praying that he still had it. Sure 'nuff, he did. He lives in the next state over though, so I talked him into shipping it to me if I Paypaled him the money right away, adding an extra 5 for the shipping charges. That was Monday night and...

And raise you a sheep . That's what my brother said a few days after I send him pictures of our neighborhood-crashing moose. This was taken in the Seattle area of a dog catcher trying to catch a runaway sheep (not very well either). I'm not sure if he actually took the shot or if he knows if the sheep was ever caught. I guess he wins for cutest shot but overall I think I win the hand.

When my 13 y/o daughter returned from her DC/NY trip we got together with her teacher and another student and put all of the pictures on a CD so everyone could have a variety of shots. Great idea since my daughter didn't want to be bothered with taking pictures of the Statue of Liberty . She still hasn't lived that one down yet. "Yea, let's spend 1800 bucks, go to New York and not take pictures of the Statue." As we started looking at them my daughter's shots looked pink in comparison to the others. I asked her why they were so pink. She claimed it was a cloudy day and she didn't have her 'cloudy day' setting on. OK..........I thought, but still wasn't convinced that something was just not set right. So last night, I grab her camera and start looking around at her settings. I don't know how it happened but the camera was set with a pink filter. I mean, who would intentionally set their camera with a pink filter??? I know she didn't do i...

Last week I was sitting in my backyard enjoying the beautiful evening. We live on a corner so I'm able to see cars driving by and the alley entrance across the street. I saw this little girl about 4 years old approaching the end of the alley on her bike. She got to the street and yelled back for someone to join her. Then along came this little boy, he was maybe 2 1/2. I thought to myself, "No way are you two little people going to cross the street!" But they sure did; across the street they came, ready to come into my alley. I had never seen them before but several new families had recently moved down the next street. Incidentally, it's the same alley where the moose rested up a bit on the 4th. So I run down my alley and ask them if their mom knew they were down this far. No, they said, she's downstairs. So I told them they better get back home and I was going to walk them home. The little guy's handlebar fell off his trike so I picked it up and carried it. A...

I guess it was a good day to stay home. My husband was doing yard work in the back yard and I was in the house. He ran in to say there was a moose on the loose. A couple of women had driven by in their van and told him. I grabbed my camera and he yelled downstairs to our daughter who of course didn't believe him.....well just because he's her father. They were reluctant to follow me but I'm not scared of a little ol' moose. We walked down the alley across the street from our house and this woman pulled in the alley and into her parking area. We weren't quite to her house yet, when she came into the alley yelling, "There was a moose in my yard!" He had come out of her yard and into the yard of the house next door where I got these shots. He's hot, tired, and thirsty. The local news team showed up and by then the moose had traveled across another busy street into another yard. The news team interviewed my daughter and a couple of other people. We waited...

Do you ever have those times when you perceive something to be a certain way and then you find out different and the situation is wayyyy off than what you originally thought? I had one of those moments the other morning. I took my dog for a walk early before it got hot. The first part of walk heads right into the sun and even with my sunglasses on, I can't see clearly. About a block in front of me, heading my way, I saw what I thought was one of those teens that dresses in those-long-black-baggy-pants-with-chains-dangling-off-the-side. My daughter and I call them Halloween People. Then I saw an elderly woman walking towards him and they stopped to talk. "Well, he must be a nice kid regardless of how he dresses", I thought to myself. As they parted and I hit a patch of shade where I could see better, this Halloween Teen turned into a Monk who was taking his morning walk and returning to the Monastery that I had just passed. What I was seeing was his brown robe and tie as o...