30 Before 30 Progress

9. Walk around my neighborhood (I've never done this since I moved to CA).
I finally completed this one! I thought it would be one of the easiest but it's actually hard to find the time to walk around your neighborhood instead of driving it. On Saturday, October 26, I finally found the time. I look a 25 minute walk around my neighborhood. I tried to walk down the side streets that I never really drive and make a loop back to my house.

During my walk, I noticed a few things about my neighbors. Most of them seem to take really good care of their lawns. They have the grass mowed and it's very green. They have plants and trees and have good curb appeal. They also have some really nice iron fences. I was so inspired by the walk, I came home and pulled some weeds up from my yard. I really need to stay on it but it's hard to do everything by ones self. I would like to get a new iron fence around my house but I'm pretty for sure that would be pricey.

I think the next thing I really need to do is stain or paint my privacy fence. I've wanted to do this all summer long but it's just SO hot here in the summer. Maybe now that the days are getting a little cooler (aka from 90-100 to 75-85). I'll have to look into this and recruit a friend. I'm sure it would get done a lot faster. Since some of the boards are newer than others, I think my best might be to paint them. Hmm... decisions.

Anyways, I've marked another thing off my list and I feel I know a little bit more about my neighbors.

An Awkward Moment & Theater Thursday

On Monday I experienced one of the most awkward moments in my 26 years of life. Not even kidding. So allow me to finally explain the awkwardness which took place. If you've never heard about the crazy things my neighbors do then after this you might want to read about them here.

As you all know (if you've been reading), I've been sick since Sunday evening. I've only left my house twice since then and my pajamas have been my attire of choice. Last week, we began having problems with the water pressure in our shower so we knew we were going to have to get someone in here to take a look at it. Well... of course they came on Monday. The day that I've got a wicked fever and throat that feels like it's on fire. I'm laying on my couch in my pink fleece pj's with white rabbits on them and hear the door bell. The guy is here to take a look at it and figure out the problem so it can be fixed. 

After a few minutes and many trips up and down my steps to the basement, he realizes he's going to need another opinion (code for I have no idea what I'm doing). Ok, great! Insert sarcasm. So he leaves and a few minutes later comes back to my door, opens it up and says, "Is it ok if I bring in Doug (not using his real name)? At this point, I'm like What?!?! Um..ok? Because Doug is one of my next door neighbors who has never been in my house let alone in my upstairs bathroom. They know each other and apparently he knows a lot about indoor plumbing, electricity, etc. He comes into the house, basically because at that point it would have been even more awkward not to let him come in because he was standing on the porch waiting and could hear the guy asking if it was for him to bring him in. 

Here's where the awkwardness really begins. I get up off the couch so I don't look like a complete slouch.  I look at my neighbor who's just come into my living room and he literally is standing there with bare feet, a white t-shirt and in his yellow underwear. Nope... not even kidding! Let's address all the points of his awkwardness and inappropriateness:

1. The bare feet- He had no socks or shoes on. He lives across the street. It was raining out. Not a drizzle but non stop raining. That means he walked bare foot on the brick street, thru the wet grass and then put his feet onto my carpet. Um, gross! I also caught a glimpse of his toes and it was not good. 

2.The white t-shirt was not white. I could tell that it was probably white at one time but now it had this tint to it. It was also a v-neck and I could tell it was one of those shirts that you're suppose to wear under other shirts not for just everyday use. But the shirt isn't the hot button issue here...

3.The Yellow underwear- to top of his look he walked into my house wearing his yellow boxer shorts. Like he had just been caught mid-change or pre/post shower. From the looks of him though no shower had been involved. So what the heck was he thinking?!?! Wouldn't you want to put on shorts or pants before walking into someone else's house?! It literally would have taken like 5 seconds. 

So there you have it, I'm also now trying to avoid any eye contact with that neighbor. 

This weeks Theater Thursday is A Summer Place. 

A Summer Place (1959) stars Sandra Dee as Molly, a teenage girl vacationing for the summer on Pine Island, Maine with her parents. Pine Island holds special memories for her family because her dad Ken, a now millionaire use to lifeguard there in his younger days. Ken runs into an old flame named Sylvia and they soon find out that their love is still there. Appalled by their parents behavior Molly becomes close to Sylvia's son Bart (Arthur Kennedy). 

Eventually Molly and Bart realize they have more in common than their distaste for their parents actions and begin seeing each other. Once the summer ends Molly heads off to college as does Bart. They continue to see each other but discover something that will always keep their two families intertwined.

This is a great old movie, if you love Sandra Dee or old movies then you'll love adding this one to your collection. Now for the fun part! Have a movie that you love? Great! Post about it and then come back here and link up. That way everyone will get to see movies that they may not known about otherwise. Don't know how to link up? Just e-mail me and I'll walk you through the steps! 

Just A Normal Day...SIKE!

Have you entered my giveaway? You can do so here. 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend. Around my neck of the woods, we relaxed, ate some good food and exchanged Easter baskets. Good times were had by all. 

For those of you who follow my tweets then you might already know a part of this story. My block was lit up like a Christmas tree Thursday night. Remember the crazy neighbors that I talk about from time to time? If not you can read about those stories here. Well Thursday night, technically Friday morning (3:30am) they had an accident occur at their home. 

I couldn't really sleep that night so I was up reading. All of the sudden I hear this really loud crashing noise, like metal being crunched. I knew something had happened outside so I ran downstairs to look out the windows. I figured with my luck someone had hit my car because I had parked it on the street. 

What do I see? I see an SUV mangled and sitting half way up into my neighbors house. The dude had been driving drunk and crashed his car into their house. Oh that's not all... he then tried to get out of the car and make a run for it. My neighbor at this point comes out of the house and starts screaming at the guy and goes off on foot chasing him. By this time the police, ems and fire department are just starting to roll up to the house. 

Thankfully no one was hurt inside the house. The parents and two children were ok. My neighbor was actually the one to catch the guy. If he hadn't went after him when the drunk started running then they may not have caught him. Just another day in my crazy neighbor saga.

Hope everyone has a fabulous Monday!

Meat & Potatoes

First of all, if you didn't see it yesterday, I have a new blog layout! So if you've been following in google reader come on out of there and take a look around!

Wouldn't this also be a great time for all you lurkers and new followers to say hello?!? I think so! I promise I don't bite, I love getting to meet new people and read new blogs. So go ahead, leave me a comment saying hello and introducing yourself. 

Ok, now down to the real meat of  this "Meat and Potatoes" post. The crazy neighbors have struck again! If you're not familiar with my past crazy neighbor incidents they are located here. I don't know what it is with these people? Maybe it's the reemergence of the warm weather. I know the heat can make people do some crazy things. Anyways, here's the story:

On Wednesday night, I was coming home from grocery shopping, filling my gas tank up, etc. I turned my corner to where I would park my car and I see about 20 extra cars that aren't normally there. We've had parking wars before on this block and between my neighbors and myself. This time they however left me the entrance to my driveway. So I start to take a closer look, there's got to be something going on for all these people to be at their house on a week night. I mean they literally have cars parked on their lawn... then I see it.

They've uncovered their pool. Not only did they uncover their pool in March but they were having their 1 year old son's birthday party around it and in it. Um people..it's warmed up some but it's not that warm. The high here Sunday was 39. The high here yesterday was 51 and tomorrows high is in the 60's but still! I think they've fallen off the deep end (pun intended).

They Strike Again!

Goodbye February. Hello March! 

Thank goodness another month is finally here. We're one day closer to warm weather, sunny vacations and life changing events! 

Ok....prepare yourself, there was another crazy neighbor incident this weekend. 

As mentioned in past posts, I have some ridiculous and obnoxious neighbors. You can read about the previous incidents here. The latest incident took place over this past weekend....

On Friday, I worked all day and late into the evening, around 9:00pm. I finally get in the car to start my drive home. I'm tired, hungry and getting crankier by the minute. I turn the last corner (because my house is located on the corner of a city block) and I notice a strange car is parked where I park my car every single day. My neighbors know that I park my car there. I know all of my neighbors and in the 2 years that I've lived here, I think we've all parked in the same spots. Let me stress that for you... 2 years of parking my car, then walking the 10 feet into my house.

So I pull up to my house and I realize there's no where to park. I realize that I'm going to have to park on the street and since street parking is limited that I'm going to have to park almost a full block away from my house to avoid blocking driveways which someone has parked in mine. I get pissed off and say Screw that! Then it hits me. I realize that about 3 houses down from mine there's a rental home and that new people have moved into it. The rental home does not have a garage or a driveway. So I realize it must be either them or someone visiting them. 

I don't know if it was because I had worked all day, was tired and hungry or what? But I snapped. This is my own home! I should not have to park a block away and have to hoof it in the freezing cold and snow. I own this joint! I shouldn't be forced to do that! So I came to a conclusion that had 3 options. 1. I could either double park on them and block them into my own driveway so they would have to come knock on my door and face me. 2. Leave a note on their windshield, giving them the 411 on parking in not so many kind words or 3. Lay on my horn until someone came outside. 

What did I do?

I blocked them into my own driveway. I forced them to have to come to my door, knock and explain to me that they did indeed park in a driveway that is not theirs. AND not only is it not theirs, it's not even on their side of the street. I don't think they'll ever park in my driveway again after the speech I gave them. I was pissed! 

And what made my blood boil even more was the fact that they didn't see anything wrong with parking there. Um...hello, it's not your house, which means it's not your driveway, which means you don't get to park there! 

The Great Big Boom!

I have three major goals for myself in 2010. 

Goal 1: To be debt free. I've been paying extra each month and I'm slowly getting closer and closer to the elusive status of "Debt Free".

Goal 2: To save more money. Oh, how I love you ING savings. Every month I'm going to make sure I put at least 10% of each paycheck directly into savings. 

Goal 3: Have fun and smile! Do something fun every month. Take the time to smile, laugh and have a good time!

We're 2 days into 2010 and the crazy neighbors have struck again. If you haven't heard of their shenanigans before, then you can read about them here and here.

As for their latest offense, it happened New Years Eve. After a long days work, the steady and I went out to eat. We ended up at the Olive Garden where I gorged myself on Fettuccini Alfredo and breadsticks. Once we finished eating we came back to my house to watch a movie and the see the ball drop. Everything was going great. 

About an hour after midnight, my steady needed to head home. So we said our goodbyes. I went back into my house and was going to change and get ready for bed since I had to work early the next morning. Apparently, my neighbors had other plans in store for the rest of the block. 

Around 1:30 am, I heard this giant BOOM sound. It scared me to death. Once my heart started beating again, I thought, "Oh it's ok, I bet they're just letting off fireworks or someone's car back fired." Wrong. I hear the giant BOOM sound again. This time, I no longer believed it was a car nor fireworks. I run to my kitchen window (where I have an unobstructed view of their entire house) and see the male neighbor in his backward, wearing his underwear and shooting his shot gun into the sky. Umm...dude. We live in the city. This isn't the outback. And it's never appropiate to wear just your underwear outside at any point in the day or night.

Needless to say, he wasn't too smart and thankfully no one got hurt. I'm sure this year will bring many more crazy neighbor stories.....sigh.

I came to a realization

This 4th of July weekend I came to many realizations. Well...I kinda already knew it but I'm willing to admit it now. I have an addiction. That's right, I said it. I'm an addict. I'm addicted to:

Burger King Cheesy Tots...the 12 pack.

And...

Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie Ice Cream

Someone help me!!!!! My thighs are screaming for mercy. 

Also, I came to the decision that my neighbors are certifiable crazy. I mean really. I've mentioned them before HERE. Well yesterday on the holiday they decided to have a yarn sale. Yes...a yard sale. My house is on the corner of the block. They live to my left. Well the only extra street parking is on the side beside my house. I come home from work and the first thing I see is about 20 tables set up on their teeny, tiny lawn. The second thing I see is that there's no parking available and some douche is blocking my garage entrance. I let it go...I go inside my house and forget about their rudeness. 

A few hours go by and we're ready to grill out. Well the only thing that seperates our back yards is a metal fence that's waist high. I didn't notice before but their yard sale extends to their back yard. So....the ENTIRE time we're grilling out we have complete strangers asking us how we're doing, hinting for free food or just rudely watching us eat. Awesome. After the food was done, we basically moved inside to escape. I let it go...

Once night fall comes. I swear they must have let off about 800 dollars in fire works. Kid you not! They let off so many fireworks I could smell the gunpowder from inside my house. No windows or doors open either! Seriously....I am not in their fan club...

Neighbors

At least once in everyone's lifetime, you're going to have a bad neighbor. In my case, I'm living it right now. I thought I had had bad neighbors before but these people take the cake. Every other day it's something new with these people. 

It all started about 3 months ago. They live next door. They're an unmarried couple, living together (which I have no problems with), probably mid-20's to early 30's and they have a baby (I'm assuming together). Well, about 3 months ago they had a VERY public, on the street screaming match at each other. I overheard some of it, because let's face it my house is about 2 feet from theirs and a volcano erupting would not have deafened this fight. The fight ended, harmony went back to the neighborhood. 

Three nights ago, starting around 12:45 a.m. another screaming match begins. This time it lasts until almost 2:30 in the morning! Now, right about now you're probably thinking why didn't someone in the neighborhood call the police. Here's why: the police would arrest at least one of them (and no one wants to see the baby get taken away), people are lazy and HELLO it was more entertaining than watching television. You could make out every word these people were saying that's how loud they were. I even remember hearing, "Your new whore can come pick up your things." Soooo.....we can assume he became a cheater (see earlier post on my ideas about cheating). 

The morning after that fight. I go outside to start my To-Do list for the day and what do I see? Spread out all over their lawn...every men's clothing items imaginable, books, cds, you name it. I'm guessing the whore didn't come pick it up.

Now, this brings up to tonight. I'm laying in bed, enjoying the great musical of Grease on tv...when I hear a screech, a tire screech to be exact. Then I proceed to hear crunching metal, as in someone beating the crap out of a car. The next noise I hear...the wood, baseball bat hitting the concrete. Again...I'm guessing the whore isn't too happy that he's still living with his still girlfriend. The noises were too entertaining. I got up from my bed and looked outside just in time to see the happy couple coming out to inspect his truck. He didn't look too happy....

I'll keep you updated on any further developments. 

Later Gators

Jennifer