won't you be my (jerk) neighbor?

Thursday:
We have a neighbor that snuck onto our yard last weekend and "pruned" one of our trees. We weren't home (one of our workers watched him do it), we didn't ask him to do it, and he threw all the leftover scrap branches in our side yard up against the house. He's also the guy that complained to the city about our cats, called code enforcement on our parents for not throwing away a pile of wood fast enough and generally being kind of a tool when we talk to him. From one perspective, he's doing something nice for us. From another, he's committed two minor crimes - trespassing and criminal mischief (vandalism) because he did it without our permission or consent, and them left a mess in our side yard. Si far I've taken the high road and given him the benefit of the doubt, choosing to take it as an attempt to be neighborly and not an ass. I called the city and they said to drag the pile of branches to the back, bundle them up and the city will throw 'em away. In the meantime, do I go over there and ask him not to do that anymore, or to come over and throw away the branches next time, or file charges?

Proud Dad Moment: Our daughter entered the science fair a last week. Her project was "Peanut Madness" and it was about how many peanuts it would take to cook a piece of bacon. The answer: one, apparently. I couldn't have been prouder. Afterwards, we went to her open house and saw her classroom & all the cool stuff she's learned and done this year. We came home and watched "2001- a Space Odyssey", which is a very cool (and very unusual) film.

-> a whole day passes and I don't get to post anything because I'm working.

So tonight I had an irritating time at work. My boss can be a tad overbearing and is a bit of a micro-manager, which I dislike. The terrible employee I fired last week showed up again for no discernible reason, as did no fewer than 6 other employees, despite the rule that says that "hanging out" at the theater off-duty is against the rules. Oh - and one of the kids has a mohawk he's been whining about having to shave off, and tonight he managed to parade it right in front of the big boss, who evidently told him to lose it. He probably might have been able to hide it under a ballcap had he not decided to be such a dummy about it. And there's a girl that insists on talking like a baby or standing way too close and trying to act cute. I swear - if she does that crap tomorrow I'm going to tell her that I'm not going to respond to or otherwise acknowledge her unless she talks to me like an adult. I think I might do it anyway.

And tonight I came to the realization that I miss being a bouncer. I miss the fighting most of all. I stopped off at a bar on the way home (it's less than ten minutes away) and picked up an application. If I can work up there one night a week I think it'll help take some of the whuppin' angst off of me. After working with teenagers for the past eight weeks I've started to miss the drunks. At least you can slap them around a little.

I have three days off next week. I think I'm going to make my spear. I'll take some pictures.

451