Ghetto Update

Our Asshole Neighbors (OAN) got their dog back. This time they chained it to the front porch and left it alone out there so that it cried non-stop. And this time the neighbor across the street with the little fluffy dogs (aka Snacks For Big Dogs) went over to OAN to complain. At least I'm assuming that's what they talked about because we didn't hear a peep from the dog after that. It is sooo nice to not be the only one's to speak up to them. Hopefully, they will begin to realize that they really are annoying the shit out of the entire neighborhood, not just us.

Other annoying things that OAN are doing: Mutilating a poor, defenseless Honda Civic hatchback. The kid is turning it into a funny car. He's only had it for two weeks and it's already got tinted windows, an oversized exhaust and a criminally loud base-booster. He's doing all of this work in front of the house (sometimes on the sidewalk) where he can spill automotive fluids into the street and leave bits and pieces of car laying about. I swear that house is getting uglier and trashier by the minute.

In other news, I think that we will be the proud but financially challenged owners of a Ford Explorer by tomorrow. We're just ironing out a few details.

*ack!*

We put a deposit down on a 97 Ford Explorer Sport 4 x 4 last night. Now we are just waiting to see what sort of financing they can offer us.

Good news and bad news

Good news: I am happy to report that, thanks to the rain this weekend, our neighbors have been unsuccessful in their efforts to burn their house down. Another disaster temporarily averted.

Bad news: It will cost $400 more than originally anticipated to repair the car. Back to Plan A, scrap it and buy something else. So we are off to go car shopping after work. Wheee!

Weekend update: I have discovered the wonder that is Zabar's Chocolate Babka. Ahhh! Heaven in a celophane wrapper! Other than that, not much to report. All quiet (relatively) on the ghetto front.

ROTFLMAO!!! Read this --> Top 10 Things I Hate About Star Trek

Holy shit! After a 45 minute wait time on the phone, I still managed to score 5th row, floor right (EE, seats 2 & 4)! Yay!!!!! There is a [insert deity of choice]!!

Grrr!! Been trying for a half hour to get through to the Calvin Theatre box office to get tix for the indigo girls and it is still busy! At least they aren't on sale at ticketbastard. If they were, they'd probably be sold out by now.

Can I just tell you how fabulous it is to see a band like Fleetwood Mac from the seventh row? The show was amazing! I don't know if I can even adequately describe it other than to say that they looked and sounded great. They played a lot of older songs with a few songs from the new cd mixed in. Lyndsey Buckingham broke a string on one of guitars at least twice during the evening (and I thought Amy Ray was hard on her instruments!). Stevie Nicks was pretty mellow. She didn't move around a lot, but she sounded great. Christine McVee was MIA. The band did two encores! But I think the highlight of the show for me was the incredibly funky drum dance that Mic Fleetwood did. He came out from behind his drum kit with a hand drum that he played for a minute or two and then put that aside and started playing on these electronic drum pads that were sewn onto his clothing while he danced around. It was the coolest, funkiest performance I think I've ever seen. It was a great show, and I don't feel so foolish now about the money we shelled out for the tickets ($125 each. Yikes!). We definitely got our money's worth!

Well, we've pretty much decided to fix the car if the parental units can help us foot the bill for a few weeks. I'm not sure, but I think they may be running a credit check on us. ;-) My rust-bucket will continue to be mine for a few months longer. Hopefully it will last long enough for me to trade it in instead of junking it.

In the meantime, we're off for a seventies and eighties flashback of epic proportions. We're going to see Fleetwood Mac tonight. Seventh row center, baybee! Woohoo! (I'm not really that excited about it, but I'm trying to build up some momentum.) Gotta go...

Ghetto Update

Our asshole neighbors are trying to burn down their house. Apparently they thought that it would be OK to set up a charcoal grill on their front porch that is made entirely of wood. When we came home the flames from the grill were so high that they nearly touched the ceiling of their porch. Idiots. Now, I would be sorely tempted to do a surreptitious dance of joy if something unfortunate were to happen as a direct result of their stupidity, but there is barely eight feet between our houses, so ours would probably go up with theirs. Instead I will probably sleep fitfully all summer with the fear that the morons next door will set our house on fire. On the bright side, it looks as though they have elected not to reclaim the dog that they were abusing. Yay!

Still car hunting. Reconsidering getting the busted car fixed. Waiting for a quote. Wondering if we can manage getting it fixed and trading in my rust-bucket for something newer and less rusty. Maybe I'll just put it up on blocks in my front yard as a commentary on the decline of a working class neighborhood.

Well, I seem to have gotten things back under control. I'm not going to even bother trying to backfill the last 8 or 9 months. Suffice to say that my life got really, really busy and I just didn't have time to play with this.

So in recent news, one of our cars died this past weekend. We were halfway to Great Barrington, MA when the engine started making this awful clacking noise. We managed to coax it to a gas station where we waited two and a half hours for a frigging tow truck to take us home.

The verdict? The engine threw a rod (I think that's the correct phrase) and it will cost between $1,200 and $1,400 to replace it. Time to go car shopping. Whee! Now I just have to figure out where the heck the money is going to come from for new wheels.

What else is going on? Well, we pissed off our next door neighbors. They got a pit bull puppy a while back. We saw this dog outside maybe three or four times since they got it until the middle of April when they started leaving him in the back yard 24/7. I would just like to point out something to anyone who is unfamiliar with the weather in NY. It's still really freaking cold here in April! In fact it's still pretty darned chilly in May, as my friend T was just remarking.

So this poor dog is out there in nearly freezing weather without a dog house or even a blanket to lay on. At least he could run around. Soon after, they added a travel kennel to the yard for the dog to sleep in (a minor improvement) and began chaining the dog to the fence (the one in between our yards. *grumble*). OK. Whatever. They were still pretty much ignoring it, but at least the dog had food, water and shelter.

I have a couple of very brief converstations with the neighbor about the dog's chain getting caught up on nearby objects, which hinders his ability to reach his food, water or shelter (such as it is). The conversations are met with much resistance and attitude. To wit: "I would have seen it eventually. You don't have to keep on me about the dawg." OK, bitch. Screw you too. But she did take care of the problem so I am appeased. Until...

...her asshole son, who actually owns the dog, chains the poor thing to a tire mounted on a tire rim in the middle of the yard where there is absolutely no shade and deliberately places the dog's food and water out of reach! I know that it was deliberate because I made one last effort to speak to them about this whole food, water, shelter issue and the little SOB told me that he knew the dog couldn't reach anything and that it could drag that tire and rim (that probably weighs more than the dog). So we called the police. Officer Melanie (that's her name. Really. She was cute too.) took one look at the dog through our kitchen window and was on the radio to animal control immediately. Needless to say, they took the dog away. And now I have really pissed of neighbors, but I can sleep at night knowing that I did the right thing. Ain't life grand?

OK. Now enetetation is being flaky. *shrug*

OK. It's coming together bit by bit. For some reason the updates aren't coming through right away though. Publishing seems to help which is why I am mindlessly rambling about this.

Hi to anyone who still stops by my cobweb infested blog. I'm trying to fix the many broken links and stuff that are screwing up the layout. When I finally get this shit straightened out, I'll bore you with the tedious details of my life.