i've got words.

So on New Year's Eve I get a citation and fine from our lovely townhouse association. I was so pissed...I wrote them this letter. I've taken out the real name of where I live (just in case). I know nothing (probably) will happen as a result of my letter but it felt good writing it. I think I have some pretty darn good points stated. What do you think?

To the Management of M.Cliffs,

On Wednesday, December 31, I received a notice on my screen door informing me that I am being fined for having “dog feces throughout yard.” The inspection of my property was conducted on Thursday, December 19, 2008. I am upset to have received notice of the fine 12 days after the actual inspection. This makes any sort of appeal impossible since I cannot remember whether or not there was “dog feces throughout the yard.” I feel that the management of M.Cliffs is tying my hands in this matter because non-compliance only hurts me, the homeowner.

There are several things that extremely bother me about the inspection procedures at M. Cliffs:

1. There is no general notice that an inspection: a.) will occur or b.) has occurred. If I do not pass an inspection, I would to be made aware THAT DAY so that I can either take care of the infraction right away or gather evidence if I feel that the fine or notice was not fair or warranted. When an inspection occurs and I passed, it is good to know that I was not breaking any association rules. Since I am a paying member of this association, I feel it is my right to know when these inspections are being done (i.e. once a month, once every other month, or at the convenience of the inspectors).

2. The way the inspection is done at the expense of the homeowner. I have been home once during a inspection and was annoyed that the inspectors climb the covered hill fronting our fence and walk behind the bushes, getting the closest view of the courtyards. I felt like the privacy of my own home was violated, having someone unwanted so close to my home. I was also alarmed because my dog, who is usually friendly in nature, was startled at these “intruders” and barked at them to defend his home and master. Had the inspectors been bending over or had my dog been more vicious, someone could have gotten hurt. There is reason for there being bushes and a covered hill fronting our fence. TO KEEP THE GENERAL PUBLIC OUT AND GIVE MORE PRIVACY TO THE HOMEOWNERS. The Rules and Regulations emphasize that rules cannot be broken within “public view.” It is no longer considered public view when the inspectors need to trek up a covered hill behind bushes to find infractions. Furthermore, residents living on the second floor are not judged with the same scrutiny as those with courtyards. Second story balconies can only be looked at from the “public view” perspective. When citing and (especially) fining residents, inspectors should use the same judging criteria to make it fair to all residents.

3. Delivery of notice is untimely and unprofessional. I was home when I realized that I was being served with a fine. I saw someone wearing a blue M.Cliffs t-shirt running up the stairs after rolling up the fine and sticking in through my screen door. I was annoyed that I could not even ask questions about my notice. As stated earlier, I was also upset that the notices came out almost 2 weeks after the so-called infraction, making it impossible to prove or disprove. I am at the mercy of the association to pay a fine I do not believe I have to owe.

4. There is no instruction on where to send payment or file an appeal on the notice. Basic information such as where to send the check, who to make it out to and by what day payment is due is not stated on the notice. This seems like another method that the association uses to penalize the homeowner. I don’t even know if my House Rules manual is the most current one. My directory has the old site manager and our old managing agent. After reviewing the House Rules manual, it was still not clearly stated where a check should be sent. I (or anyone else) could send payment to the wrong place, be assessed more fines, be frustrated, angry and out more money.

I have lived at M.Cliffs for almost 2 years and have enjoyed the pleasant living environment, friendly neighbors and the dream of owning my first home with my husband and dog. I am a responsible dog owner who picks up after the dog during our walks around M.Cliffs as well as our backyard. We have not received any complaints about the cleanliness of our yard from any of our neighbors. I believe rules are in place to ensure the continued satisfaction of living in M.Cliffs for all its residents, however, I ask that you consider the suggestions I have discussed to improve the system already in place. Please forward this letter to anyone who might be interested in the concerns of the residents of M.Cliffs.

This is the back of our house. As you can see, there is the hilly landscaped area and bushes.

In the Day of...

In these uncertain economic times, I should be praising thanks to my many blessings...including having a steady, stable job. My position is being saved for next year too. For the most part, I really enjoy it. SOMEtimes, I could just punch my eye out.

For example, just the other day, I got a nasty email from an ingrate teacher whose teaching abilities in my opinion are questionable. Being a professional, I tried to remain calm despite her lack of tact. I'd like to mention that her email was in response to an email that I had sent her in attempts to HELP her. Basically, I was asking for more information about a particular student and she took it like I was dumping the problem back on her and was refusing to help her. Anyway, I spent some time crafting another email in response to her nasty one in which I maintained professionalism. I have yet to hear back from her.

I took pictures of my office the other day because i couldn't believe how incredibly messy it's gotten in the past couple weeks. A reason is: school counselor's are very busy. I don't necessarily have the luxury of time (contrary to popular teacher belief) to even put away a box of crayons some kid was using earlier that day, let alone file all the crap that gets put into my box on a daily basis. Let alone catch up on a back log of personal logs I should be doing because I have a bad memory. yeah. Another reason is: There are too many people and not enough space in my office. And the last main reason: We are the hub of all student activities that happen in our school. Toys for tots, the holiday assembly, and the biggest one of all is our mini carnival. Donations by the butt load is being stored in our office, making for a very big fire hazard. I posted a picture of my desk. As you can see, there's hardly any space for me to write anything down. I can't even see the bottom of my desk.

I just drove through the scariest rain I've ever driven through. The shoulder lane turned into a mini river. Traffic slowed to one lane cause the 2 right lanes were too flooded. I'm pretty sure he did but i still have yet to confirm that the dog pooped during these 2 days of rain.

I spent 20something bucks on this "nearly indestructible" dog toy today in hopes it would help Dutch stay occupied and entertained during the rain. I thought it would be pretty good cause we got him a similar thing from the same company and he loves the thing plus he hasn't destroyed it. Alas, it did not hold up as long as i would have liked it to.

Joe, I hope you enjoyed my post. it was pretty random plus really long.

anniversaries and birthdays

Dutch is almost one year. I've had moments where i thought we had made the biggest mistake in getting a dog. this one in particular. in hindsight, i can see how our decision was made rather rashly and probably based more on emotion rather than reason.

what i actually should be celebrating is the one year anniversary of our marriage. we had a nice day together, celebrating a day early since the 23rd was weekday. looking back i realize that we only had about 2 1/2 months of being carefree newlyweds before we made the decision to become quasi-parents. some days it was too much for me to handle. it seemed that no matter how many episodes of Cesaer Milan I watched or how many people i talked to (who always had the sure fire method for taming The Dutch), I couldn't figure out how to make him not-crazy.

I think the turning point came during the weeks of alone time i was forced to having with Dutch when i took him to doggy school alone. it was frustrating seeing him being the worst trainer at school (the evidence was the fact that the handler used him as an example almost every week) and me finishing the course. Then it was all the solo walks we had to do thanks to neil's football/lacrosse schedule in the spring. more bonding time. we began taking him to more places such as the dog park, beach, grandma's house, even a lacrosse game. and with every outing we went on came a very welcome crash out. we initially picked Dutch because we was considered the 'lazy one" of his litter. indeed our dog has no stamina. it was during those times of sleepy calmness i began to appreciate our dog and could finally see the rewards of a pet rather than just all the broken chewed up stuff around the house.

And so, as neil and i celebrate our year as a married couple, we will also be celebrating the birth of our dog. he's become part of the success of our marriage so far. the first year is supposed to be the toughest part to get through. so many changes to adjust to. this could be said for both raising a puppy and nurturing a marriage. we've survived both.

Dutch in the house with a mouse.

We got a dog. Neil got the Live thing for his Xbox. Dutch got a blue friend named Scooter & a leopard name Big Cat & a hedgehog name Jerome (i put him in the dryer & his hair got you-know-what).

I haven't updated my blog for several reasons. 1.) having responsibilities other than myself is hard. 2.) the computer is not in the living room...where the tv is. 3.) the internet wasn't working on my computer for a long time. 4.) though life is busy, it hasn't been exactly exciting, blog-worthy stuff.

Funny/Sad story. This morning I woke up, Neil was in the bathroom. I open the bedroom door & who is sitting outside our door? The Dutch. He had escaped from his kennel & had a nice time waiting for us to wake up. This was the second time he had done it & i'm pretty sure it was my fault both times. Anyhow, the last time Dutch escaped from his kennel in the morning, I was also surprised to see that the bunny had also made an escape from his cage & was also running around in the back yard. I thought someone was playing a trick on us. This morning, there was the dog but fortunately no rabbit out but instead, a tiny little mousey was sitting on top of the bunny's cage. I think he was hurt cause he didn't run. He was however scared enough when the dog caught sight of it to run to the other side of the cage on the ground. tragic story short, I started freaking out when he had the mouse in his mouth, started shaking it around then ran back into the house to play with his mouse.

As a side note, i have a fear of dead mice ever since I had accidently picked up a dead one from the bottom of our washing machine, not knowing what it was. I was so freaked out, i let the cycle run until neil came home & when he did, that thing was in the spin cycle. Needless to say, we ran an empty load before actually doing any real laundry.

This was the mouse before he went into Dutch's mouth. Cute yah? Goodbye mouse friend. Dutch is sorry too.

Don't See ____ at ______.

I don't want to be accused of ruining the career of some terrible stylist at a hair salon that I won't mention (if you really want to know, I'll tell you in person). Can't be too carefree on what you say on the internet. What I will tell you is that this person gave me the worst hair cut/blowdry of ALL TIME. I know that Matt has some pretty horrific hair cutting stories but this one is not only a really bad hair cut, it turned out to be a really creepy experience.

So yesterday I went to Pearlridge to visit the Satellite City Hall & do some pre-work-starting shopping. I also decided that it was time to try to fix the embarrassing hair cut I got the last time in March. Anyway, I got this guy. At first I thought, "well, on tv all the really good stylists are men. maybe I'll have good luck with this guy."

It started out fine. Really high pressured water with the shampoo but other than that, a good start. I told him I wanted to blend my layers while keeping the length. What starte out normal, turned to be a heart-pounding nightmare. Here are a few things that made this experience blog-worthy:

1. He couldn't get the angle to cut my hair right. He kept having to reach around my face until he realized that he could easily turn my chair or turn his arm.

2. Once, I saw him pick up some hair & then cut the air.

3. Another time, he picked up some hair & begin to cut, nearly missing some hair that had got caught (thus, he almost cut a big chunk off!).

4. He kept putting his tools down. First the comb, then the scissors, then he couldn't figure out what he needed. He fidgeted, unsure what he was supposed to do next.

5. HE DIDN'T KNOW HOW TO BLOW DRY MY HAIR! After much failure trying to grab my hair with the round brush, he concluded that the best way to get the hair on the brush was to toss it and dry whatever fell on the brush. Sometimes he blew some hair, sometimes just the brush, a few times he blew my face.

6. After he "dried" it, he began to randomly pick up my hair and cut more strands off.

7. He didn't check for symmetry at the end. This morning I realized that one side was longer than the other.

8. He ended by busting out the flat iron. At this point I was terrified that this was another tool that he didn't know how to use. My thoughts and fears were confirmed when I saw him toss some hair up & then he tried to catch it with the extremely hot plates, snapping it shut near my very tender scalp & face. He couldn't even style that right because if flipped it out (in a bad way) and only did the top layer.

9. The most chilling part of this whole experience was in the middle. He was running the comb through the top my head (my hair was wet and therefore, when he was doing this, I knew my hair would tangle at the bottom). I remember I was thinking, "what the heck is he doing now?" when all of a sudden his hand jerked and spasmed right above my boob! It was like he goosed my chest! I got really freaked out and my instinct should have stopped him right there but I kept telling myself that I had imagined it or it was an accident. I didn't want to be rude (backwards I know).

To end my long blog, I will conclude by saying that I ended up going to the store in my town and having it fix by a very competent stylist who I wouldn't mind having cut my hair again. However, I had to cut it shorter. She did say that my hair cut was not even at all (which made me feel like my suspicisions were true). This is a before and after picture. I can't even do this story justice writing it in a blog but I am so peeved that this person (who I've seen working before) is so horrible at what he does and the shop that he's at, has not figured out how much he sucks.

Munchie

Hey this is Munchie, our new baby bunny! His full name is Munchkin but we like to call him Munchie or Munch for short. He is a tiger holland lop. He is about 6 or 7 weeks old. I call him a "him" because I'm not sure what "he" is yet but I'm hoping for a boy. Anyway, he's totally adorable & fitting in quite nicely. He has full run of the house but we try to keep him out of the bedrooms. He even helps himself to whatever we have lying out...for example, I had popcorn on the floor which he had a taste of. He is very mellow & will lie on your chest. I like having someone else in the house when Neil's not around. So cute.

Puffy

I've been babysitting Alfie at the new house for about 2 weeks now. My mom & grandma went to Japan & even though they've been back for a couple days, I still have the stinker. I know he likes it at my mom's house better because he definitely likes my mom more than me. However, this daily presence of a fuzzy-o has increased my desire to get my very own bunny (although one could agrue that Alfie is technically mine but since he prefers my mom, he's now hers). Anyway, we went bunny shopping on Saturday where we realized that much of the bunny population were sold & not replenished after the Easter season. There was one at Pet's Central, that I had never seen before. It was one of the cutest ball-o-fluff that I had ever seen. It was frickin adorable. He looked liked these two here except he was a different color. C'mon, if you saw these guys bouncing around, you'd loved them too. His head was GY-NORMOUS. It was easily half his body. He had such a dumb look on his face too. More cute points. Wanted me one just like him. I never heard or seen them before which surprised me because I like to think of myself as some kind of bunny obsesser. I'm going to look for a lop eared lionheaded bunny. You likey too?