Won't You Be My Neighbor?

So, I'll come right out and say it.  "I'm not very neighborly."  I don't really know why, but I'm just not.  Perhaps it's because we're surrounded by folks who are a lot older than Evan and I or perhaps it's because they are all kinda weirdos.  Let me break it down for ya.

Our Neighbor to the East:  He used to be, or maybe still is, the president of the Neighborhood Watch.  I don't think they've done anything organized in years, but he certainly still likes to be in everyone's business.  I actually like this neighbor...when they aren't being nosy. They are friendly, they keep a nicely maintained yard and house, bring us sugary treats every Christmas and very rarely do anything annoying.  When they are being nosy, however, it's a bit off-putting.  When we first moved in, one of our fence posts in the back yard broke.   Well, before we even had time to notice it, our neighbor (it wasn't on the side that bordered their yard) let himself in to our backyard and braced it.  Then, once we got home and noticed this odd handy work in our backyard, he came over to explain what he did...by ringing the door bell, and walking in and through our house the moment we opened the door.  Now, he did save us a lot of time, money and hard work because if the fence wasn't braced, more posts would have broke, but still....at least let us know before you take the liberty of trespassing on our property.  

Our Neighbor to the West:  These guys are odd birds.  They moved in about a year or so after we first moved into our house. It's just a middle aged to older man and his wife.  Oh and his big ass truck that is parked in front of their house everyday.  These guys mainly keep to themselves...especially whenever we wave, or say hello, they never respond or even acknowledge us.  The guy is out and about his yard and garage quite a bit, but I have only seen the woman maybe a total of 10 times in the 5 years that we've lived here.  The only times I do, she is always shaking out the rugs. 

In our neighborhood, the houses are very, very close together.  There is probably less than 8 feet of separation between houses.  So, needless to say, it's very easy to see in certain windows of our neighbors' house.  We have 2 stories and this particular neighbor only has one.  So from our upstairs bedroom we can look down into their kitchen window.  Well, one evening I went to draw the shade in our bedroom and just happened to glance into our neighbors kitchen....where the guy was walking around buck naked! Yeah, that's a view that will never help my property value.  Also because the houses are so close together, it feels like anything that's in this neighbors side yard is actually in my front yard.  And this particular neighbor has a ton of crap just laying about and it drives me CRAZY!! It looks so junky and hey, it's actually a city code violation...so, yup, you guessed it.  I reported him to the city so he'd have to clean up his shit.  He did, a few weeks ago, but now new crap has taken it's place.  I'd turn him in again, but they just put their house up for sale! Woohoo! Let's just hope some less junky...and less nude neighbors move in.

Our Neighbors Across the Street:  The three houses across the street from us are more normal, but I see too much of them than I ever should. One neighbor is constantly working on his piece of junk car in his garage. No biggie, but he can't work on it unless his stereo is loud enough for the whole neighborhood to hear.  The other 2 neighbors seem to be pretty good friends because they are constantly hanging out with each other...in their front yards.

The folks on that side of the street don't really have backyards because they slope down into a ditch or something, so I get that their only outdoor space is in front.  The issue I have with both families is that they let their dogs (2-3 of them) and their VERY young children roam free and wild.  Dogs chase each other or things across the busy street all the time and it's a miracle they haven't been run over yet.  They are never on leashes, nor are they every picked up after.  The children roam from yard to yard with the nearest parent a yard or 2 away.  One of these kids can barely walk, but manages to run down the street. The kids also play baseball, golf, soccer, or just anything with a ball all the time in the front yard.  Just like the dogs, the balls go into the busy street, often with a small child following after.  We always hold our breath whenever they are all out there.  Ugh.  But hey, one of these neighbors is moving as well! Let's hope some more responsible people move in. 

Or maybe you're looking for a new home! Well there are 2 right be me so come move on in. But buyer beware, I will be judging you from my front window.

My Quick Oscar Picks

The Oscars are this weekend and once again I think I'm smart enough to guess the winners. :) Here is who  I'm rooting for:

Actor in a Supporting Role: Christian Bale, The Fighter ("It's a fine life, carrying the banner..." :) )

Actress in a Supporting Role: Melissa Leo, The Fighter (The girl from True Grit is my second choice)

Actor in a Leading Role: Colin Firth, The King's Speech 

Actress in a Leading Role: Natalie Portman, Black Swan (She's come a long way since giving birth in a Wal-Mart)

Animated Feature Film: Toy Story 3

Best Director: David Fincher, The Social Network

Best Film: The Social Network (Like!)

The Wonderment of "Uncle Evan"

My lovely husband's birthday is tomorrow and in honor of that festive event, I've decided to dedicate this blog post to him.  Now, if you've ever met Evan, you probably have a pretty good idea of just how cool he is.  If you haven't had that pleasure, let me fill you in quickly.  Evan is a truly kind, intelligent, handsome, creative, talented, fun, witty and humorous man.  He also has a far superior vocabulary, so he probably could have described himself much better. Anyway...what some of you aren't aware of is the all powerful and magical UNCLE Evan.

We currently have 2 nephews (ages 6 and 9 months) and 1 niece (almost 3).  We also have a few other kids in our lives that we love and consider pseudo nephews and nieces.  However, I should note, that just about any young kid, related or not, that is introduced to Evan immediately understands the Uncle Evan Effect (UEE).  Kids are quickly drawn into the UEE as soon as they enter in a 10 foot radius of Uncle Evan.  They come to him with toys, with legos to build, video games to play, to hear his stories and sometimes they just come to him in order to soak up his awesomeness. :) Perhaps it is the kid in Evan that allows him so easily to play with kids of all ages for hours at a time.  He will conjure up various scenarios of make-believe, find interesting ways to play with toys that the kids would usually call boring and he will entertain the child for hours.  Naturally, all this playtime enables children to fall in love with Uncle Evan right away.  They will ignore everyone else in the room, other kids and yes, sometimes, even candy can't capture their attention. 

Sometimes the UEE makes Evan the babysitter at family functions.  While after a few hours Uncle Evan needs a break, he doesn't rest long before he's entertaining the kids again.  I think that the UEE is wonderful and Evan certainly deserves all the love and adoration from these kids, but I can't help but be a little jealous.  Here are some things that make me wish the UEE was able to be bottled and sold for consumption:

-On Sunday evenings, Evan goes to his family's house for dinner and I (along with my siblings, nephews and niece) go to my dad's for dinner.  Not a Sunday goes by when I'm not asked multiple times by both my niece and nephew, "Where is Uncle Evan?"  And then when I tell them he's with his family, they reply, "Well, why?"  And often the follow up is "Will he come over next time?" or "When will I see him again?".  Forget that I'm awesome and want to play with them just as much, I just simply can't compete with the UEE.

-On a recent shopping trip with my sister, niece and of course, Uncle Evan, my niece was only concerned with Uncle Evan's attention.  Us girls were shopping for shoes when Evan went off to look at video games.  The second my niece noticed that he was gone, she was searching the aisles for him and constantly asking "Where is Evan?"  Even though I answered her question a few times, she would not be satisfied until she actually saw him.  When we finally left the shoe store and went to meet up with Evan, she took my hand and was walking with a mission in order to find Evan again! Thank goodness he wasn't far. :)

We are all so very lucky to have Evan in our lives and the kids are even luckier.  They have a great uncle who absolutely loves them and can't get enough of them.  If you are ever able to see the magic between Evan and the kids you will truly understand the wonderment of the Uncle Evan Effect. 

Happy Birthday, Uncle Evan!

And So the Dust Settles

We've been back in our house for about 2.5 weeks now.  Getting re-settled was a lot easier this time because we simply knew where everything went.  Unpacking was a breeze.  Our guest room is now the only thing left to be finished. It's still a little cluttered with boxes and pictures yet to be hung. Hanged? Whatever.  Our tenant left our house in pretty good condition which was such a relief.  While our relatively short experience of being landlords was pretty easy, it isn't something I would recommend.  It's a lot of stress and we even had a great tenant.  Anyway, I'm just glad that part is over.

While the boxes were a breeze, it seems as though getting our house in working order again has proven quite difficult.  Here are some annoying things we've encountered/currently encountering...

-For a while we thought we were blowing a fuse by plugging in an old halogen lamp.  Every time we turned it on in our bedroom, the lights in the downstairs hall, guest room and bathroom would go out. It was very odd.  Eventually we figured out by resetting one of the outlets in the garage (?) was the trick and now all the lights are playing well with others.

-We couldn't get our cable hooked up right away because our tenant hadn't transferred service.  Comcast is stupid and won't turn off a service in order to turn on another service.  Our tenant was having the same issue at her new place so we were last in line.  We finally got it installed yesterday.  However, the dummy hooking it up didn't realize that the other 2 cords in the cable box were for cable in multiple rooms. So he hooked up the family room, took the 3-way splitter from the box and left the other cords dangling!  So now we have to go out and buy another splitter to fix the problem. GRR!

-Since we couldn't get cable installed right away, we had to with Qwest for phone and internet (we were going to bundle it all with Comcast, but they were stupid) because we couldn't go for weeks without internet with both of us on the job hunt.  Well, that got hooked up, but of course in addition to the regular fees there is $75 worth of hook up costs! REALLY?! All they did is flip a freaking switch somewhere.  Unbelievable!

-We have officially confused the post office.  Here's the run down: A year ago we had our mail forwarded to CA.  That fwding was supposed to expire 10/31/2010.  When we moved back to CO, but weren't in our house yet, we had our mail sent from CA to my dad's house.  Then when we had our house back, we fwded once again back to our original house.  Well in the past 2.5 weeks we've received hardly any mail.  The only stuff we receive is mail fwded from my dad's and CA, but nothing coming directly except stuff for "resident."  Mail being sent directly to our home address is, we believe, being sent in a giant loop from our house, to CA, to my Dad's and hopefully back to us even though the original fwd is expired.  We know something is definitely wrong because we haven't received our new ids, netflix dvds, or any of the tons of change of address notifications from banks, credit cards, bills, etc.  We've put in 2 calls to the post office, but it's no where near resolved.  A trip to the post office is in our future where we will no doubt get the run around again.

-Today fedex only delivered one of 2 identical christmas packages we ordered.  The packages have 2 different tracking numbers, both of which come up as delivered, but we only got one.  I called Fedex right away (having just missed the driver), but still don't have the package.  I have a suspicion the driver took it thinking it was an accidental duplicate. ARG!

-And then there's all of our outdoor solar lights need new batteries, a toilet is running and needs a new flapper, our mailbox is halfway falling off it's pole and I can't wait to see what brakes next.  Oy. 

Oh, plus not having jobs really, really sucks.  Who'da thought moving all the heavy boxes and furniture across several states and then from my dad's garage to the house would be the easiest part?! Phew!

The Journey Home

I'm home! Hooray! While I'm sad to leave the beautiful California weather behind, I am so happy and relieved to be home.  Gosh life is easier here...well except for the whole unemployment thing, but let's not dwell on that right now.  :) Here's how it all went down...

My dad and my sister arrived in Burbank on Wednesday, October 20th to help with the move.  I had all sorts of fun stuff planned, but most of it got thrown out the window due to last minute packing, cleaning and general exhaustion.  Oh and the weather in CA that week was kinda crummy.  We did a few things in Burbank, but mostly packed boxes and staged all our crap so it was easy for the movers to load up.  The original plan was for the movers to arrive on Friday and we'd take off Saturday morning.  Well, we decided that if we were able to leave Friday afternoon then we should take advantage of it.

So, the movers arrived around noon on Friday and were immediately impressed that all our stuff was packed and ready to go.  Apparently, they encounter quite a few people that are still packing stuff while the movers are working.  That makes no sense to me, I like to have everything prepared.  Anyway, they said that they would be done in about 2-3 hours instead of the 4-6 they had planned! Ha, good thing because we were planning all along that it would only take 2 hours so we could get going.  They got everything loaded and were on their way.  All the while we were trying to clean so the apartment was spotless by the time they were done loading.  We touched everything up one last time, dropped our keys off at the leasing office and were on the road home by 330pm Friday afternoon.  (Side note: We decided we didn't want to wait for the apartment people to come to do the final walk through so we just left. I fully anticipate them keeping every penny of our security deposit for one lame reason or another whether we were there or not, so we just left.  This will probably bite me in the ass later which might result in a big ranting blog post about it. Fun!)

So 330pm on Friday in LA means rush hour traffic on basically every highway in every direction.  Well, ALL DAY on Fridays means rush hour traffic in LA.  We were anticipating some delays and while we got stopped here and there along the way, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  We maybe lost an hour total sitting in traffic.  Our goal was to make it to Mesquite, NV by that night - 5 hours from LA.  We rolled into Mesquite at about 930pm.  Driving through the desert at night kinda sucks and I wouldn't recommend it.  It is super dark!  Anyway, we arrive at the hotel, grab some burger king and settle in for the night. 

Saturday morning we were up early hoping to be on the road by 7am.  This was the long leg of the journey, about 11 hours, plus we lose an hour due to the change in time zones.  Well after packing up, checking out and gassing up we were on our way at about 745am.  Rain was forecasted all along the way through to Denver and as we drove through parts of Utah we were rained on some, but experienced lots of splash back. Not fun when you are following another car all the way home.  Evan and I drove our cars out of LA on Friday and for the first 2 rainy hours of Saturday. Then we switched and my dad and sister got nothing but blue skies and sunshine while they drove the next 6 hours or so. Cheaters. 

We stop in Grand Junction for lunch at about 2pm and switch drivers.  Here come the mountains! More rain...a lot of it this time.  Then a break in clouds as we approached Eagle county.  Then we start getting some gray clouds...wet roads...and at the top of Vail Pass...SNOW! UGH! I hate, no loathe, driving in snow with every fiber of my being. And what better way for the state to welcome us back then to have us drive through it on our way in.  Really, it wasn't that bad. Just a little bit on the road, but the mountains were completely covered with the white stuff.  So I was the loser going about 40 mph (partly because my Taurus and large hills/mountains don't get along that well) with Evan following behind.  Luckily as we got to Frisco things cleared up and there was no more snow the rest of the way.  However, by the time we got past Idaho Springs the sun had set and it was now pitch black.  Blech. Curving roads, down sloping grades and lots of people's bright lights blinding you at every curve made driving the last hour and a half really crappy. 

Then the bright lights of Denver appeared on the horizon and we were almost there! Home was not far and I couldn't wait!  We pulled into my dad's house at 730pm Saturday evening. YAY!!  We unloaded the cars, dropped my dad off and headed to my sisters where we would be staying for the week.  We eat pizza, relax and play with our super excited 2 year old niece and enjoy being home!

Flash forward to this past Thursday when the movers arrive with all our stuff.  Since we still have a tenant renting our house till the middle of the month, my dad generously allowed us to store all of our stuff in his garage.  Moment of truth...our stuff made it! Kinda. All of our stuff is here, but I'm concerned about some of our stuff, mainly every box marked fragile.  It seems as though the crew that loaded our stuff in CA either didn't give a crap about our boxes or had no idea what the word "fragile" meant, because our boxes are kinda beat to hell.   A lot of them are bulging, gashed, ripped and even a few are partially crushed.  In fact, I witnessed every box marked fragile come out of the truck with at least one super heavy box on top of it.  One box of all glassware from our china cabinet was one of the boxes where the top was totally crushed.  I haven't opened any yet to check the damage because 1) I don't want to have to repack the boxes for when we move back into our house and 2) I'm kinda scared of what I'll find and don't really feel like being pissed off at the moment. 

So here we are! I am soooooo happy to be back.  Now I'm just waiting till I get a job and we move into our house to breathe that final sigh of relief.  Oh, I'd also say that I'm totally stoked to watch the Broncos on tv again, but after that game with Oakland I'm not sure I want to watch anymore games. Ouch. 

September 11th - Where was I?

So tomorrow is September 11th. 9 years ago that day forever changed for every American.  We all have our stories of where we were that fateful day, and mine is nothing special, but here it is.

I was a senior in high school and the day started off like any normal day. Woke up early to make my 7:20am psychology class.  Typically on my short drive to school I would listen to a CD, preferably one I could sing along obnoxiously to. On this day, however, I had the radio on for some weird reason.  As I pulled into my spot a newscast came over the airways stating that a plane had hit a building. I didn't think too much of it - I figured some tiny little airplane had clipped a building somewhere, no big deal. I turned my car off and headed into class.

I was typically early, so I sat down and started doing some homework, when my psychology teacher rushed in with her hand over her mouth and said, "I just saw the most terrifying thing." She then flipped on the tv and there on the news was the World Trade Center. Smoking. With a gaping hole in the building. And then they replayed footage of the second airplane hitting the second tower and my heart sank to the bottom of my stomach. I don't even remember hearing anything the newscasters were saying, I was just staring at the tv.

Needless to say, we didn't have a regular class that morning.  We stayed glued to the tv the entire hour.  Sometime during that class we all witnessed the 1st tower crumble to ground. My immediate thought was oh, of course they had gotten everyone out of the building by now.  Certainly everyone had evacuated and was far, far away.  I had no idea. In fact, it took a little while for it to sink in that I just witnessed hundreds of people die as that tower collapsed.

Eventually the bell rang signaling it was time for 2nd hour.  I had gym. I was astonished when our gym teachers made us dress and go outside to play softball.  Perhaps they were trying to keep our minds off the tragedy, but it didn't work as no one was interested in playing. We were outside though and we all froze each time a plane flew over.  Not all the planes were grounded at that point so we didn't know who exactly were flying those planes that flew over our heads towards downtown Denver. We could only fear the worst.  Finally, class was over and I rushed to 3rd hour Chamber Choir, knowing full well my choir teacher would have the tv on.

Another hour of watching the chilling details of the day unfold.  The Pentagon, the plane in Pennsylvania, the other tower collapsing, New Yorkers covered in soot and debris running for help.  It was during this class that the newscasters started speculating what this all meant. Were we going to war? Why yes, yes we were.  And my brother had just joined the Navy the previous year. I kept telling myself that the Navy was probably the best place for him to be as Afghanistan was landlocked. He told me years later that the first bombs to hit Afghanistan were from jets stationed on his air craft carrier.  And that shortly after the first plane hit the World Trade Center their aircraft carrier was immediately set on a different course. He was far more involved in the war effort than I thought.

4th hour, another choir class, 7th Harmony. There were only 7 of us so of course we decided to continue watching the news. We kept holding our breath just waiting for another plane to hit something or a bomb to go off or something horrible to happen. It was terrifying.

The rest of the day continued much the same. More tv watching. Calling my mom and telling her to come home from work downtown because who knew what city was next.  Calling my dad and sharing how shocked and scared we were. Calling my sister who was all alone in Seattle. It was an awful day, one I will never, ever forget.  The details are so finely engraved in my memory as I'm sure they are in everyone's mind.

And each year as I catch some of the coverage of those horrific events 9 years ago, I stop, and stare at the tv still shocked, saddened and stunned that this happened. There is pain in my heart every time I see coverage or hear someone else's story. I also distinctly remember watching anniversary coverage on 9/11 about 3 years ago while I was watching my 2 year old nephew. He was playing when all of sudden I was frozen watching that plane hit the tower. Something I have seen hundreds of times now, but I still have to catch my breath. I stood there, frozen with tears in my eyes.  My nephew must have been aware in my change in mood because he ran over to me with his hands in the air asking to be picked up. It will be years before he understands what happened on September 11th, but in that moment, at 2 years old, he comforted me and made me smile.

All I can do now is remember, pray for those who lost their lives/loved ones/coworkers/friends and hope that something like this will never happen again and we can all live in a peaceful world.

Linda Picks the Emmy Winners

Well here they are, my Emmy picks for this year.  Watch on Sunday to see how I did.

Comedy Series
Modern Family!

I still don’t honestly know how Glee won this last year.  Modern Family is WAY better than Glee on so, so many levels.  I’ve watched the first half of the season of Glee and while I like the music (sometimes) everything else around it is crap.  Modern Family is quality comedy through and through and they better walk away with the Emmy this year.

Drama Series
Mad Men

Ok this one is tough.  We’ve been mad about Mad Men for a while now and I still rather like it, but recently we’ve started watching Dexter on netflix and I kinda love it.  It’s pretty smart and suspenseful.  However, since I haven’t watched all of this season yet to make a fair judgment, I’m giving the Emmy to Mad Men.

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy:
Alec Baldwin – 30 Rock

This one I’m not sure about.  Usually I can gush over Alec or Steve Carrell, but they didn’t stand out to me last season and I haven’t seen the other nominees in work.  So, I’ll just go with Alec.  Will Schuester from Glee will probably get it, but that’s stupid.

Outstanding Lead Actress Comedy
Amy Poehler – Parks and Recreation
I can’t believe I’m not picking my girlfriend, Tina Fey.  I love her! But I gotta hand it to Amy Poehler this year.  I wasn’t much of a Parks and Rec fan when it first started, but now she has me rolling!

Outstanding Lead Actor Drama
Michael C Hall - Dexter
What can I say, I’m riding the Dexter train now. Besides I have had enough with Don Draper (John Hamm) and his man-whoreness on Mad Men. J

Outstanding Lead Actress Drama
Dunno...Julliane Marguiles – The Good Wife

I have no feelings about this category at all, so let’s go with Julliane, ok?  Ok.

Supporting Actor Comedy
Ty Burnell – Modern Family

He is HILARIOUS!!  Seriously one of the funniest characters and actors on tv.

Supporting Actor Drama
Terry O’Quinn! - LOST
If you don’t know what a Locke Face is, then you obviously didn’t watch the last season of LOST.  He was awesome!

Supporting Actress Comedy
Jane Lynch? - Glee

Darn, another one without a passionate opinion.  I think Jane Lynch’s character on Glee is kinda one-dimensional for her, but I love her from the Christopher Guest movies, so why not.

Supporting Actress Drama
Christina Hendricks – Mad Men

I’m giving this to Christina Hendricks because again, I don’t have a clear opinion in this category and I’m all about supporting this beautiful, busty babe.  Gotta love Joan!