Dixie has a new family. She's getting picked up on Friday!!

The lull

There was absolutely no wind last night. At all. We sat and sat and sat and sat as they postponed and postponed and postponed the race. People got so hot and bored that they actually went swimming in Clear Lake. When that wasn't entertaining enough, there were "Argggg"-pirate sounds and they started capsizing each other's boats. Lots of beer was being drunk. And finally the wind picked up after 1+ hours of postponing. We raced, lost (though actually not as bad as we had been, so it was an improvement), and made it back to the dock by sunset.

I got to tell Sarah's favorite pirate joke. Have you heard about the new pirate movie? Its rated Arrg.

I guess its better in person.

Cari was Little-Suzy-Homemaker, and Fred & Katie (hi Katie!) and dinner were waiting for me when I got home. Yum!

Mean old neighbors

On Tuesday night there was a message on my answering machine. It was a woman. Southern accent.

Hi, this is your neighbor. Its 10 p.m. now. I'm calling to tell you your dogs have been barking constantly from 6 or 6:45 until now. Its becoming a real annoyance. We've talked to you before about this, you have to do something.

At first, I felt a pang of guilt. They had mentioned that when we first moved in that the dogs were barking in the morning and we put a stop to that by not putting them outside until right before we leave for work, rather than right when we woke up as we had been doing.

But, then, came the pain of rightious indignation (plus I had the memory of what is was like when I used to have neighbors that didn't take issue with the way I lived my life) - I realized that I had the dogs in the house from when I got home at 5:30 until when I left for volleyball at 8:30 p.m., so the dogs couldn't have been barking during the time period my neighbor suggested (or at least the entire time period).

Now, I was faced with the problem what to say to them. My "neighbor" in her pleasant message, did not actually leave her name with her threatening message. Thankfully I had caller ID.

I stewed on what to say for a little while. Called back and apologized if my dogs had been disturbing her and told her that the dogs would be kept in after 7 p.m. every night in the future. And, in what Sarah said was a "pleasantly threatening" voice, informed her that she may have been hearing another dog since mine weren't out the whole time she heard barking, and regardless, if she hears a dog after 7 p.m. in the future, it won't be mine.

Obviously, I am learning how to communicate with my neighbors in South-Shore-Village-Voice. That is, I sound all neighborly and friendly, but lace my comments with veiled threats of imminent action of the homeowners association, police, and imminent forclosure. Yep. What a wonderful world we live in. Makes me want to move onto a ranch far away from civilization. Or makes me long for neighbors like Keith & Anne and Richard up at the cottage.

And, in an effort of further vindication, Cari tells me she was woken up this morning from 7 a.m. to 7:20 a.m. by a barking dog that was DEFINITELY not ours, since all ours were still sound asleep.