What time is it?

It is the quarterly neighborhood check! I know you are anxious to hear if we got a notice. Well, actually if you knew us, you would just be waiting to see which violations went unnoticed and not IF we got the notice.

We now have until August 2, 2010 to mow our backyard and to put up our missing shutter. Quite frankly, our backyard isn't even that bad. In fact, we had just cut it. Plus side: we now don't have to cut it until August 2nd. They finally noticed the shutter. So we will have to figure out how to get a matching one, in a matching color and then who is going to climb up there and install it. I vote Raven.

I am sure the color doesn't even exist anymore. So we shall see. I wouldn't mind a whole new look to our front. I never wanted shutters anyway. But I am sure that's an even bigger violation. So maybe another color. But the pre-approved colors are just as crappy. So ugly maroon, middle school uniform color, here we come!

And then sometimes...

Sometimes your neighbor does something wonderful for you and you will always be grateful.

What is the Number One Rule of Owning a Dog?

The number one rule of dog ownership is: DON'T LET YOUR DOG BARK ALL NIGHT! I don't understand why someone in the neighborhood thinks its appropriate to keep a dog outside all night, especially in 90 degree weather. An added bonus of this insanity is the dog's incessant barking. It has been two nights in a row, according to Brian. This brings me to rule number one of marriage, if your wife is able to sleep through the dog barking, DO NOT WAKE HER TO LET HER KNOW A DOG IS BARKING. I would think both of these would be common sense, but apparently not.

How do we fit in?

Sometimes I think our neighborhood consists of a bunch of people who do not care about themselves, let alone the neighborhood or their houses. So this is how we do our part to fit in:

Yes, that is a bunch of weeds in our front yard. Yes, those are dandelions that are reaching up to the bay window and might, in fact, be taller than Caedan. In our defense, they grew up over night and we had to purchase gardening gloves to remove them. Hence, why they were around longer than most would like. At least we pay our HOA fees, so maybe that's why the we didn't receive a notice about the weeds, or, perhaps, they fired the notice lady in order to conserve money.