BBAY TOMRORWO!

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I am so excited I can't form words!

OH! OH! OH! OH!

Oh this is too good! About the dogs next door--A couple of weeks ago my daughter Sarah was returning to the house from an errand. AS she stepped out of her car she over heard a conversation between the little girl next door and a little boy she did not recognize. The little boy was asking to see her daddy's dogs. She told him that they didn't have any dogs any more. The boy asked why and she told him because they had too many. The boy asked where the dogs went and was told that they were at Cousin Chris'.

I let L (my daycare parent/animal control officer) know that when we go to court again and Nick can't remember what he did with the dogs that perhaps she could refresh his memory by inquiring where Cousin Chris lives.

With the May 6th court date right around the corner, L comes in this morning to drop off Joshua with some news on the dog called Tracker. Apparently this dog has been causing some trouble in the SE. He bites through chain link and can't be contained any better there than he could be here and has had some run ins with animal control. The animal control officer that's been dealing with him was not familiar with the dog. He talked to the man at the residence where the dog is being kept and found that he was not the owner of the dog. In fact, he admitted that he didn't know what to do to keep this dog in his yard but he couldn't give it back to his cousin because the court had previously ordered no dogs on his property. The cousin's name, Nick Kennedy. Surprise, surprise.

OH! OH! OH! and Cousin Chris and Tracker live a few houses down the street from one daycare parent and on the street behind another. This is going to get good.

May 6th is going to be very interesting indeed.

Easter!

Warren had a great time hunting Easter eggs this year. He tore through the yard yelling and screaming running right over most of the eggs. Later he finished with a short game of football with his great grandfather.

Weekend in the Smokies

Rick and I spent a long weekend in the Gatlinburg Pigeon Forge area. Last May we purchased a vacation club and gave the names of our friends as referals. A couple of months ago Tylerann told me they were going to visit the Bluegreen Resort and asked if we would come with them. Oh yes! We had not had an opportunity to use out points yet so we scheduled too.

The Mountain Loft Resort in Gatlinburg was full so we settled for Laurel Crest in Pigeon Forge. It was a lovely place. We stayed in a studio room, sort of a glorified motel room. It's the smallest accommodation, using the least amount of points. For allowing Bluegreen to give us a personal owner update (try to sell us more points) we were given three $30 dinner gift certificates. Not a bad hours work. Except that it took two hours and they did indeed sell us more points. Tylerann and Donnie did not buy a vacation club but that's all right. We earned $50 just for them listening to the sales pitch and we had buddies all weekend. They can buy vacation nights from us in the future. We are going to need to sell some just to pay for this!

We spent Thursday night at the Comedy Barn and laughed our faces off! Three rules for the Comedy Barn: 1) No eye liner or mascara, 2) Plenty of Kleenex, 3) Do not volunteer to go on stage, it can not go well.

Friday we road through Cade's Cove and did a little walking. We didn't see any bears but we saw a gazillion deer.

Our friends

On Potty Training

Politically correct or not, My daughter, Sarah has come up with a new, no fail, potty training technique. Yesterday Sarah bought some cloth training pants once deciding it was time to train her two and a half year old son. He did very well yesterday. I put the training pants on him as soon as he got up in the morning and from then until we went out to eat last night he had only wet three pair but had used the potty at least four times successfully. I forgot to put a diaper on him during nap but he woke up dry and went promptly to the potty afterwards. Hurray Warren!

Before going to eat we decided it best to put a diaper on Warren. When we got home he was still dry so Sarah tried to get him to potty then. Nope, he wouldn't do it. A little later Sarah still could not interest him in the potty. Sarah went to the kitchen and got a few cheerios. She started tossing one then two in the potty and asked Warren if he wanted to do it too. Well of course he did. Then my nutty daughter mischievously says, "Now let's pee on them!

"OK!" was Warren's excited little answer. Warren pulled his pants down and proceeded to soak those floating rings of whole grain goodness!

Nobody said potty training couldn't be fun!

SNOW!

Oh look! It snowed! Laura and her new beau constructed a snowman on his deck.

Laura and Dave

Nothing much new here and sometimes that's a good thing. Last Wednesday Sarah's husband was sent to Afghanistan and that night she appeared at my door. I was expecting her but not for a couple of weeks yet. The kid had to sleep on the couch a couple of nights. This morning we are busy (but not too busy obviously) moving furniture around and making a room for Sarah, Warren, and the expected Parker Liam to be comfortable in. I expect they'll be here at least until Christmas if not the whole year that Ricky is gone. Please Keep Ricky and all of our brave soldiers in your prayers. We are already looking forward to his safe return.

MySpace

I just posted my favorite pics or 2007. Check them out at LUVNTHOTS MySpace page.

My favorite pics of 2007.

"PLEASE, just say yes or no!"

A couple of weeks ago my husband switched up from Charter TV and internet service to DirecTV and Bellsouth DSL. My Charter internet almost never went down in the five years we had the service. Bellsouth has been down twice in two weeks now. Tuesday for over 5 hours and you know how that would drive me insane, and again today just for 15 or 20 minutes.

In that 15 or 20 minutes I called Bellsouth to let them know how I felt about the disappointment. I got an automated troubleshooting machine. I was asked if this was about the service connected with line 256-bla-blah? I started to say yes but the machine came back on before I could answer, "PLEASE, just say yes or no!" Did it just yell at me? It repeated the question and I answered yes. It asked a few more questions some of which didn't make sense.

About then I realized that I was standing on the back deck with several preschoolers playing loudly and a baby sitting in the high chair right next to me eating a cookie, trying to tell everyone how good it was. All this was interfering with the computer's ability to decipher my answers.

I was asked another question and the baby yelled out again. On the line there was, " If you need more information, just say "help". I screamed for help. The automated voice says,"I'm sorry, did you say you were having problems with your connectivity, DSL modem, or accessing your account?" My little friend squealed again. By this time I've caught on to the noise problem and I'm just letting the baby do the talking for me. Finally, I hear, "I'm sorry, I can not help you with your problem. Please stay on the line for a technical support expert," or some such thing.

I did indeed get to speak to a real live person. I've been tied up in automated phone help mazes for over an hour before but this child got me there in two minutes. So now you know how to get live help on a line. So easy a baby could do it!

Does anyone out there know if it's normal for Bellsouth to lose service so frequently or is this kind of unusual? I miss Charter.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Today is my 22 anniversary! Whoo hoo! Some of you are amazed aren't you? Ha ha ha. Kisses to everybody!

Check this out!

Did you read this morning's paper? Pit bull attacks, kills woman's Peek-A-Poo.

That's where we are headed. Amazing the similarities between that incident and what's going on with the dogs next door. Tell me, why is it that pit bull owners don't keep their own dogs on their own property? There seems to be a trend. The owners know what's eventually going to happen.

Ok, as for the mess next door, not much to report that I can confirm. I finally decided to call next door's property owner. He wasn't home at the time so I talked to his wife. We had a nice little chat. I told her all about the doggie business over the last two years. She had no idea. I also told her that Mr. Nick K. was living next door, he moved in with her some three or so years ago and hasn't left even to go to work since. At City Hall he was adamant that he did not stay at that address, just his girlfriend and 4 kids lived there. I started to tell Mrs. S. that if Section 8 was paying that rent someone was committing fraud but as soon as I said the word Section 8, Mrs. S. confirmed that I was correct. I told her so now you know about the fraud. She asked if it would be alright for Mr. S. to call me when he got home. I gave my number.

The next morning Mr. S. called me and said that he heard we were having some problems over here. I retold the dog story and informed him that being the property owner and giving permission for the dogs to be there might cause him a little liability if one of those dogs bit somebody while they were out roaming around. He interupted quickly with, "Well, I didn't exactly give permission for them to keep dogs." This was good news. I told him then he can order them gone. Then I braoched the Section 8 fraud issue. His voice lowered a little and he said, "Just between me and you [and everybody who reads this blog] Section 8 has canned them." That's even better news! It takes a while for the eviction to happen but they are so out of here!

Mean while, L at animal services informed me that there was a note attached to the settlement concerning the "dead dog" that said there were to be no other dogs on the property. I'm wondering if this is a mistake because they admitted to having one other dog, they lied about the white puppy repeatedly but they admitted to the brown and white one. Any way, Nick signed it so that's the way it is. Nick also violated it so we are expecting him to be recalled to court about it. This time I'm going to be there. There wont be any dead dog BS again. As for that woman next door who has been harassing my daycare mothers (and there's a plice report to boot), animal services is about tired of her attitude and they are summoning her to court over harassment. Good job, I'm tired of being cussed too.

The neighbors next door have been strangely quiet since the Tuesday incidents two weeks ago. The kids have been outside once or twice riding bikes but not in my driveway like they used to. That's a good thing. It wasn't safe for them to be whipping in and out of my driveway while daycare parents were coming or going. I was always afraid one might not be seen and get hit. And I haven't seen a dog one since that Tuesday. Good.

The Rest of Saturday's Tail . . .

Ok, the story I got on why police showed up Saturday was that the neighbors called the police to report that L and I were harassing them. L stood around and waited for the officers to arrive and -- long story short-- showed them the picture of the dog in my yard and that was that.

Had I known that, I would have wanted to be present for that conversation. I had nothing to contribute, the picture said it all, I just wanted to hear that woman ranting and raving at the officer. I wanted to hear the words that went with all the gesturing and pointing I could see from the window.

I just learned that that wasn't entirely accurate. The animal control officer was the one to call the police after the couple next door approached her and the woman got up in L's face in a threatening manner. The woman next door told the cops we were harassing her but when questioned her story kept changing. The dogs were hers one minute and her brother's the next. Then she'd go on to refer to them as hers all over again. Freak.

Now that's a dead dog!

Oh more neighba drama.

This morning at 7:01, a daycare parent (we'll call her "T") arrived in my driveway with her infant and preschooler for daycare as usual. As she was getting out of the car she noticed that the pit bull next door was on the loose yet again. The animal shelter was not open yet so T called the police and made a report. The officer she spoke to was kind enough to brief her on how the law worked in cases like this so now we are a little smarter. We don't have to depend on the animal shelter for our safety, T can get a warrant against them just as well. T called and informed me that she was going to be doing the warrant thing right after work this afternoon.

But wait, there's more!

At 8:50am I started out my front door to put something in the mail and guess who was there to greet me?

Now, just for the documented record, this picture was not taken Saturday with the one currently posted and on file at the animal shelter. The difference can be noted that my husband's truck is not in this picture and the neighbor across the street's white car is also absent in this photograph.

Yep. I ran back in to get the camera and the phone. I called the animal shelter with a gruff voice and asked that they do something now!

They did. L was here before my picture could finish printing and the dog was still in my yard! When I spotted her she was already taking her own pics. Then another city truck pulled up and blocked the neighbors driveway. He got out and both went after the dog but the owner openned the door and yanked on the dog and slung it inside the house and slammed the door (I didn't see that, I heard about it later). Apparently not before the dog turned on L and she took pictures. That's good. Glad she wasn't attacked.

They hung around for 30 minutes or so. I was waiting to see if the dog would be captured. It wasn't, but it will be. It's a matter of time. I didn't think anyone was home next door because I didn't hear any cussing but while the animal control officers were here, Nick, who is adamant that he doesn't live there though we all know he does, backed the car to the end of the driveway. I saw L walking toward his car (or her truck) with a blue piece of paper in her hand but I couldn't see her after that and am not sure if it was something she handed to him or if she was just going to move her truck. I'll find out later I'm sure.

So, the dog is still around, but not for long, warrants are in the making, I have a landlord to talk to, and you know there will be more on this blog really soon so stay tuned to this bat station, same bat time, same bat place. . .

To the Great Value bread guy:

You're not going to pick up chicks in the grocery store with a loaf of store brand bread in your buggy!

Yesterday Laura and I went to Walmart to pick up a few things. In our cart we had a few scains of yarn, a hair product, Windex, and a half gallon of milk. Laura was picking out Progresso soups and I was acting bored when around the corner came this fellow with a buggy load. I mean over $200 worth filling the cart to where not another item could possibly be placed in the cart withoutcausing a landslide to the floor. There were multiple bags of Doritos, Tortinos pizzas, mac and cheese (and not the Cheesiest either), and a whole lot of trash. Crowning the heap was a single loaf of Great Value bread.

Now I'm not one to judge a person by what's in his cart, normally. I don't usually not the contents of another's cart, normally. But as this guy was passing us in the aisle he offered to trade carts with us. Is this a new pick up line? That's when I took a look as his swollen mound (the loaded buggy you sicko) and told him, "No way, we can't afford you."

He asked, "Now what's wrong with what I've got?" Which caused me to glance ever so quickly. . . nevermind. I told him his cart had nothing to offer but trash.

The next words out of his mouth were, "So, where are your husbands?"

Now, I'm not sure how we got from junk food choices to hubby's but I offered up a quick (and honest), "On the couch." and turned to push the cart but he wasn't done with us. He asked Laura what about her's to which she replied that she wasn't married yet.

He prodded more, "Yet? When's the big day?" I pushed the cart a little further and with my back to him said something like 2012 or maybe 2013. He continued on with a comment about her being too young to date. I kept pushing the buggy.

When we got around the corner Laura grinned at me and teased, "Oooooohhh, he was hitting on you!" I didn't think so. I think he was just throwing his line aimlessly hoping to drag something in. Recently divorced and horny, that was it.

It was then that I realized that I wasn't wearing my wedding rings. It's been so cold that I can't keep them on my finger and am afraid of losing them. I mentioned this to Laura. She asked me if anyone really looks at that. I thought about it. She may be right. I myself am an equal opportunity ogler.

This guy was well over six feet, medium build, not bad looking, not Keith but not bad, he could fix at least the horny part with a computer and a few minutes at Lavalife.com but he sure as hell wasn't going to win a date with that Great Value bread standing up there on the top of the accumulation declaring dude to be so tight his cheeks squeak when he walks."

Guess who was loose today. . .

There's more to this but I'm not really sure what it is yet.

I was walking out to my car at 9:10 this morning to get loose receipts out of my car, it's tax preparing time for me. Before I opened the car door this dog came from around my husband's truck startling me. I backed up and into the house to get my phone and my camera. I called the animal shelter to report it loose, I'm not letting anything over there slide.

Guilty again.

By the time the animal control officer (My friend) showed up the dog was tied back up. She came over to talk for a moment. We had previously discussed that my neighbors were likely to be on Section 8 housing assistance and she had just learned that if that is so having a dog or dogs is fraudulent. This was good news. When she left I started out the door to get my receipts from my car once again. L (we'll call her) was standing just off my driveway talking to the neighbor whom I could not see. Then she was leaning against the front of her truck waiting for something. A few minutes later two police cruiser pulled up and the neighbors went out to them without the officers having to go to the door. Curiouser and curiouser. I sort of think L wasn't the one who called the police. I can't wait to hear this one.

Now how interesting is this?

Last Tuesday after court my friend spotted a pit bull puppy running loose and it just happened to be in my neighbors yard. See blog titled "Dead Dog" Tuesday January 15th.

When the animal control officer went to check it out the neighbor lady--maybe lady isn't the right term--got all riled up swearing it wasn't her dog and threatening harassment charges on my friend and me.

Since then other daycare parents have reported hearing and seeing a puppy next door but when I went to look it was nowhere in sight. Tuesday morning I awoke at 4:00am to what sounded like a puppy crying outside my bedroom door. The only thing that kept me from investigating then was my toasty Tempurpedic bed inside and the sleeting rain outside. Today during naptime I heard the puppy crying again and ran to get my camera but the batteries were dead. I put them on the charger and forgot about it until later in the afternoon when one daycare mother, the animal control officer, was pulling out of my driveway and spotted the little white puppy that definitely did not belong to the people at 911 C. St. tied up in their back yard with their other dog. She called me and of course I immediately grabbed my friend the camera, now with freshly charged batteries, and snapped a dozen or so pictures over my fence. I couldn't actually see either dog so I just aimed all over the yard and look what I found.

Apparently I'm not as stealthy as I'd like to think I am. The woman must have seen the flash once or twice because she came out screaming and hollering the "F" word (and I'm not talking about "flip") and I think she threatened bodily harm a couple of times. At some point she came up to my fence and must have smashed her face up against it trying to see in as she offered yet more obscenities.

Busted!

Aint that sweet. Suppose the woman next door would like a pic of her doggies getting along so well together? Perhaps not.

SNOW!

It may not be much but it's about all we see and I love it!

Dead Dog?

This morning at 8:30 three my daycare parents along with the city's attorney met with my neighbors and their attorney. They were instructed to try to settle rather than seeing the judge so that is what they did.

Apparently the only dog being considered today was the one offending September 7th. I guess they forgot about the zillions of calls I've made to the animal shelter about the other dogs on the property. Sometimes they've had up to five of them and sometimes more than one was loose at a time. This one chased one of my daycare parents and her children to her car and showed it's teeth at the animal control officer. Bad dog. The owner claims the dog is now dead. The dog that was alive and barking yesterday morning is now dead. Fishy? I can't believe the attorney for the city bought this. nobody else did.

While at city hall one of the witnesses, a daycare parent, called to ask me how many dogs were on the property this morning. I told her I could just see the brown and white pit bull that animal services had complaints on just last Thursday. Seems it was out roaming around disturbing neighbors across the street but when the officer (a daycare parent also) arrived, the dog was on it own property so she could not pick it up, only ask the owner to tie it back up. I did not make that call. I didn't even see it loose. But they get to keep it now.

This dog.

The settlement basically says that that dead dog is not to return to the property in the next twelve months and they are to only have the one dog on the property for the same time period.

I sure wish I had been there to here it for myself. I would have protested when the attorney asked if this was good for everybody. HELL NO it's not good. I can't agree to a settlement based on such an obvious lie just because the attorney wants to settle all his cases before lunch. No way. I would have been happy with the dog owner stating that he has placed the dog in the care of friends or family members with a properly fenced in yard and the dog will not be returning to the property. Now that's reasonable. Instead that lazy lawyer allowed these imbeciles to insult the intelligence of the court and everybody there with this dead dog bullshit. That's just wrong. I'm a bit angry.

One of the daycare parents stopped to get a sub on her way to my house. As she pulled into the driveway there was a little white dog in the carport of the house next door. She grinned and looked at me, I knew she was thinking what I was thinking so I got her the number and I grabbed my camera and we made a report. Ten minutes after the neighbors got home from court the animal control officer was in their driveway. Apparently the woman was a bit irritated at the visit. The dog didn't belong to them (and we didn't think it did but it was loose and at that location thus our report). Apparently there was some talk of harassment charges against my friend and me. Animal services did not find the little white mutt but we have a good picture of it just to keep our butts out of jail!



Of course the report was spiteful but there was a dog loose and as a family childcare provider parents are depending on me to keep their children safe and I take that responsibility very seriously whether the City of Decatur Alabama does or not. You know this aint over!

Testy, Testy

Looks like the neighbors are getting a little edgy.

Tuesday is the court date about the dog stuff. I was outside standing on the curb across the street taking pictures of the space between our houses relative to where the dogs were kept and my daycare entrance and also my fence. The neighbor (I forget her name) came out yelling. The first that I could discern was, "Are you takin' pictures of my house?"

I answered, "Nope, I'm taking pictures of my fence."

She went on with, "I appreciate you taking pictures of my house!" I think what she meant was that she didn't appreciate my taking pictures of her house. It's the lingo I know. I'm learning a bit about the slang by watching Judge Joe Brown. For instance, I've learned that conversating (if indeed it is even a word) means talking and talking means having sex. Just thought you'd want to know. Anyway, so I went on to offer her a print. I had to repeat it several times so I guess she didn't understand that I meant a print of the picture of my fence so I gave the A-OK hand gesture and turned to go back inside. I wasn't through with my picture taking but I didn't want to upset her further. From my back I heard her yell, "Smart ass!"

Yes, I am keeping my doors locked the next couple of days or so.

It's my thinking that I can take all the pictures I want as long as I'm not standing in their yard. Yes? So now I'm posting it on the internet!

It's a Boy!

Or at least it's going to be. Sarah had an ultra sound done today.

Sarah was so funny. She called me on her way back to Clarksville after the doctor visit. She said, "Mom, there's something wrong with my little girl. She has a penis."

I was wondering if Warren was going to be confused by this little revelation because they had been calling Sarah's tummy "Sadie" for so long. She said it's ok Mom, I've already talked to Warren and told him we may have to start calling Sadie something else after today.

They so funny!

Yesterday the power went off mid-afternoon for about twenty minutes. It was a cloudy dreary day so I opened the outside door for a little light and slid the window in the door open for a little fresh air. As I did, I heard my notorious neighbors come outside, slam the door, and start to argue. No, not just argue, it appeared between the fence slats that they were shoving and/or punching each other. I thought I'd better closed the door quick so the children would not hear but then something yelled caught my attention. I eaves dropped a minute and then began hysterically laughing.

They were pounding each other over who forgot to pay the electric bill!

More Sunday in Puerto Rico

After the visit to the fort on Sunday, our group was dropped off downtown. Rick and I already had our maps marked for the Hard Rock Cafe, a long time custom of ours. We did a little, a very little, shopping after wards and had to hurry back to the bus. The downtown area was crowded but beautiful. The streets were barely wide enough for two cars. There was parking on one side and just room enough for one lane of traffic to creep past.

This was sort of a town square. I think it was called Plaza Colon.

This was the lovely little school. There was a neat little playground on the other side.

Back at the resort we stopped at the bar before the long walk to our bungalow. I ordered another Mojito, my favorite new Spanish word. You put an ounce and a half Bacardi Superior in a highball glass. Add about 8 mint leaves and crush with a pestle. Then another ounce and a half Bacardi Superior, half a lime sliced and squeezed, fill with ice and club soda. I think you are supposed to put a little sugar in it but who needs more sugar? After the second drink know one can taste sugar anyway. Drop on by the house some time, I'll fix you one.

We had dinner at one of the restaurants at the resort Sunday night. It was wonderful but not $118 worth. I don't think I've ever been over $100 worth of hungry in my life! A jazz band had set up at the bar and we attempted to relax for a little while but I started falling a sleep soon so we headed back to the room at about 9:00, packed up and went to bed.

We checked out a little after 5:00am Monday and met the buses at 5:45. Home again home again and of course trouble at Atlanta. We were sitting on the little puddle jumper that was to take us from Atlanta back to Huntsville. We were sitting there a long time without leaving the gate. Finally the pilot got on the speaker and said he ought to tell us what was taking so long. Apparently on the flight before someone had flushed a soda can down the toilet in first class. That's classy. The plane could not leave without draining the tank and it would not drain. This caused about a thirty minute delay. Finally they drained the tank but the can was still lodged. Nothing ever runs smoothly at Atlanta.