i love our neighborhood. we got really lucky cuz we have great neighbors, we seriously love our neighbors, they are wonderful! about 8 months after we moved in, we got neighbors from hell that moved into the house behind our next door neighbors. okay, they're not that bad, but they really sucked. they had a pit bull that was not very nice, and 3 little rat terriers and a shih-tzu that were ALWAYS yapping, sometimes as early as 5am!!! this used to really piss me off when i was pregnant and already had a hard time sleeping!! one weekend they left their dogs out all weekend while they were away, and their dogs barked ALL NIGHT. we left a stern letter saying they needed to control their dogs' barking or else we would take further action (i.e. call animal control, which is kind of a big deal here cuz they don't waste any time taking your dogs away!!). we didn't want to go there, but seriously, 2 nights straight they barked, we had to sleep in our guest room which is the furthest from their yard, and we could still hear them, altho much more faintly. they were very rude about it and denied it was their dogs, even after i told her i was looking AT her pit bull while he was growling and bearing his fangs. after that, there was a bit of tension. turns out tho that we weren't the only neighbors they pissed off. and it wasn't just their dogs, their teenaged boys would sit outside in their yard playing death metal really loud and swearing up and down. did i mention we live in a pretty conservative neighborhood with lots of young kids and families?? i felt so horrible for our next door (very sweet, very christian) neighbors!

well, just before we left for california last month, i saw a HUGE moving van in their driveway. no way, i thought...this is some sort of cruel joke or something. i told W what i saw and he said "don't get my hopes up, that's not even funny." well, when we got back from california at the end of september, i was talking to our neighbor and she said they moved out and their house is for sale!!!! OMG!!! our wildest dream come true!! seriously, we always talked about how we love where we live EXCEPT for our asshole neighbors (i could go on and on about why we disliked them so much, but i'll spare you). and now we really love where we live!! we don't have to worry about R being mauled by the mean pit bull (we have low split rail fences, not much protection from a mean dog) while playing in the backyard! when i told W what i had learned, he literally got up and did a dance of joy, and asked me when we could throw a party. hahaha...yes, we were pretty happy, to say the least. now we just have our fingers crossed that whoever buys the house doesn't have shitdogs, or annoying teenagers, or obnoxious adults, hahaha.