a beautiful day in the neighborhood

Yes, it's a beautiful day here.  And I'm not just talking about the weather (which was about 75 and sunny).  Today, two--count 'em, two--of our neighbors are moving out, if not gone already.  That's half of the house.  So technically, we've now been here the longest.  And guess what else!?  The one now-vacant apartment in the building is a 3-bedroom!  They say there's mice over there...we got rid of the "pets", we'll get rid of them, too.  We still have to check it out to see if it's to our liking...who the hell knows.

As for the other vacant apartment (the one we rented in September...with the redneck fridge), she left that place a MESS.  Beige carpets now black with mud.  Yucky stuff on the kitchen floor.  Stench of dog permeating the whole apartment.  Nail holes in the walls...and not your average ones--must've been holding up shelves or something.  And the worst part?  She didn't even have the decency to bring the keys to us--she left them on the kitchen counter, along with the mail circulars.  Granted, we had a set, but WTF?  To think--this is the same person who BEGGED us to give her the apartment in the first place.  How rude.

Bottom line...$200 plus cleaning costs off our rent mext month, and possibly a 3-bedroom apartment.  It's all good, I guess.

til next time...=)

yay! the 5'er!

Finally, after a 2(?)-week hiatus, Robin came back with a new 5er.  Here we go...

1. How do you like your pizza and who do you think has the best pizza?

I like my pizza hand-tossed with pepperoni, green peppers, and onions.  I used to make it myself when I worked at Domino's...MMMMMM.  Now I get my pizza from Papa John's.  Yum.

2. How many journals do you have online and are any of them private?

Let's see...4 AOL (under 3 different screen names), one Easyjournal, and on Blogger (which I haven't really used yet, but I'm waiting to make it look better).  So that makes 5, and none are private.

3.  Do you believe in heaven and if so what do you think it will be like?

I believe in heaven, but have no idea what it looks like.

4.  Tell us about one of your bad habits.

Smoking...need I say more?

5.  Everyone likes a good deal.  What was the last good deal you got?  You know...like buy one get one free kind of thing.

Hmmm...last deal...the pic frame below was a good deal--it was usually about $28, and I got it for $17.  Other than that, I can't think of any, since I haven't really been shopping lately.

til next time...=)

project #2

This is part of my outside project.  I've been working on this since February.  This is part of my backyard, and it's a total mess.  It was worse before this pic was taken...

The neighbors, who were here about 12 years (more on them in the next entry), said it was much, much worse--the previous owner had junk cars where the cars in the pic are sitting, and there was a garage that just collapsed, it was so dilapidated.  It partially collapsed in the middle of the night.  It was so bad, the city had to step in and make him tear the rest of it down...made him get rid of all the cars, too.  Since then, no one has thought to clean it.  Duh...it's an eyesore--you can see it from the street, since next to our house is just an empty lot, and it's been that way for 30 years.  Wow...I see some entries coming from this.

So now we have taken on the task of cleaning up all the yucky stuff...our kids play out there, you know.  And we have to look at it.  There's picky bushes, big rocks, and loads of junk stuff in there.  When it's done, they'll have a nice place to play, including a little tree fort--you can see it behind the flag.  It's a little circle of trees, and it'll be nice once the leaves are on them.  It won't be a mess for long...I'm obsessed with making this look good.  I've done the majority of the cleaning by myself...I can't stop!!

I'm rambling, but I can go on for a while about this.  I'll save some for another entry.

By the way, I got a sunburn from being out there today.  Joy.

til next time...=)

local stuff

While out shopping at the mall yesterday, I thought I'd get some pics of the local attraction.  Right outside the food court, this is what you see.

These are trains from the Steamtown National Historic Site, right in downtown.

til next time...=)

project #1

I've had the past two days off, and I've been doing some work around the house, both inside and outside.  Actually, it's been more of the latter--I'm taking advantage of the BEAUTIFUL weather we've been having.  That and I'm cleaning up about 12+ years of leaves, garbage, and whatever else is in the yard.  Yum.  And it's going to take me at least a month to do...getting rid of all that junk with a few garbage cans isn't an easy task.  But anyway...I got the inside project done today.

Last year, Bum received an honorable mention for a contest she entered at school.  The link the original story is here.  Since then, I've been thinking of framing the picture she drew and the award that went with it.  Yesterday, I saw AC Moore having a sale on picture frames, so I decided to finally do it.  Today, I finally got it done.  The final product:

til next time...=)

monday morning question

In "honor" of April Fool's Day coming up this week, what was the best April Fool's joke played on you or that you played on someone else?

Actually, I answered this last year--I haven't been able to top it yet (then again, April Fool's Day isn't until Saturday...).  It was actually a weekend assignment...see the entire entry here.

"Yesterday, walking home from school, Alexis mentioned to me that she was going to play pranks on her friends for April Fools' Day. You know, little things like saying there was a bug in their hair, etc. I didn't think anything of it, since she likes to play little tricks on a usual basis. Until this morning. I was trying to get her up for school, and she wouldn't get up. Then it dawned on me...April Fools! I told her she had to get up because I won a contest, and we were going on a plane to New York City. She literally jumped out of bed. I never saw her get up so fast. I also told her that we were going to be on Regis & Kelly (one of her favorite morning shows..too bad she doesn't get to watch it that often) for a Mother's Day contest that I entered. She bought it hook, line and sinker. I kept adding details as she got ready. I didn't let her in on it until she saw her school uniform. I thought she was going to jump on me--she was furious! But at the same time, laughing. Makes me wanna do it again. HEE HEE HEE."

til next time...=)

me and my caffeine

This is so the t-shirt for me.  Click on the picture, and you can see other t-shirts too.

til next time...=)