Was I made fun of?

So, I think I got made fun of last night. Or maybe not. It was a very weird experience. After work, I couldn't convince anyone to go to dinner with me, and I had to go to class (so I didn't have enough time to go home), so I went to Fudrucker's by myself. I was sitting on the patio, eating, and basically minding my own business (I was the only one outside, despite the weather being marvelous) and someone comes and taps on the shoulder. He looked really young, and said "Hi", I kind of shot him this confused I-don't-know-you look, but said "Hi" back (wondering to myself if he was a co-op or something that I should know, but he looked even younger than that, like high school age). And then he and his friend just walked away. They got into a beat-up TransAm, and as they drove by me, he yelled "I'll love you forever!" Very weird. It was kind of one of those things that leave you wondering "Did I just get made fun of? What just happened?"

So, I brushed it off, went to class, and got home a little before 9 p.m.

Yip yip, part deux

There was another annoying call from my anonymous neighbor who said "Hello, this is your neighbor. This is your last warning about barking dogs, I'm going to call animal control next time." Ok, I feel really bad about this, they shouldn't be disturbing the neighborhood. I just can't handle receiving rude anonymous messages. It makes me angry. I don't get zen like. Instead, I just want to get even (despite knowing that I'm in the wrong, they could've handled the whole thing a little better). I hope she gets laughed off the phone when she calls animal control, which has bigger problems to worry about than a couple of barking dogs.

Since her last call (September 16), this is only the second day I have left the dogs outside and the first time in months I've left them outside past 7:30 p.m. (so, they are averaging being outside ONE day a week). And before the September 16 call, they had also only been outside one day in the previous week (in the month of September, I could count the number of times they've been outside during the day on one hand). One day a week is not a continuous nuisance (and when I put them outside this morning, I played fetch with Apache for a few minutes and heard the barks of at least three other dogs, so I'm obviously not the only one in the neighborhood with loud dogs). I just can't leave them inside when I'm going to be gone from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., they'd go nuts, and they probably would have to go to the bathroom too. So, I really am going to buy bark collars this weekend. I might also look into hiring a neighborhood kid to stop by a couple days a week to bring the dogs inside halfway through the day (or conversely, take them outside for a quick walk if I've left them in). And, maybe, late Saturday night I'll toilet-paper the not-so-anonymous ladies house.

Stupid unneighborly neighbors.