My Fortress of Solitude

I was lazy today... Watched four rentals. Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy sucked! Fever Pitch was okay. The Island was predictable. 40 Year Old Virgin was funny as hell! There is my first video review of 2006.
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(This will be a run-on sentence, so in case my High School English teacher stumbles across my journal - I meant to do this) If you don't take time to keep in touch with your neighbors, build up those relationships to the point that you have casual conversation on the street or else just take a moment to know how everyone is doing in the house that is across the street from yours, don't send your fricking child up to my door step to repeatedly ring my doorbell (we're talking five times - back to back - nonstop), make my dog get all excited, wake my sleeping child up after getting her to fall asleep, and have to hear your kid say in a most obnoxious way, "Do you wanna buy brownies from the girl scouts? They are $3.50 a box!" Secondly, if you are going to send your kid to my door, have the courtesy to come up to the porch so when I tell your kid 'No Thank You' I can look at you and give you the evil eye so you know not to do it again. Lastly, if you don't have the time to say a kind word or be neighborly all year long, why knock on my door the very first day of 2006? I swear, some folks just have a lot of nerve!
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Did I mention that 40 Year Old Virgin is funny? I did? Okay, just making sure...
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I did manage to do a couple loads of laundry and I cleaned (and vacuumed) the living room. So I guess I wasn't a complete lazy person. Oh, and I made a pot of beans for dinner as well... Yeah, I am such a domestic god, I make Mr. Mom look like a wuss!

Not too long ago, I wrote about the weasel next door that works with Mindy, and how he is a brown nosing corporate nazi asshole. In that journal entry I also mentioned how it had affected the relationship Mindy had with our downstairs neighbor, because she was somewhat close with the weasel. Well, thanks to the march of time, a burglary, and a heart to heart talk I had with our downstairs neighbor the tide has turned and the winds of change are upon us.

You see, when my wife first brought up the difficulty she was having with her co-worker/weasel, we had a hard time believing her. I felt she was being hypersensative and our other neighbor had blinders on because she wanted to believe that he was a nice person. But over time, I began to see what my wife was talking about, and the email proof she shared with me clinched it. It took a burglary to help our downstairs neighbor to shift her perspective.

When she came home from her trip, to a broken window and missing property, she was a bit shook up to say the least. I went out of my way to help her, gave her a hug, rigged some security measures for her so she'd feel somewhat safe, and went so far as to tell her to call me if she needed anything (while loaning her my baseball bat). His response? He said to her, on the day she came home to find her place burglarized, "You'll probably make this into something bigger than it is like you always do." Talk about an asshole!

Anyway, so I gave her some time, some space, and allowed her to come to me when she felt like it. I had promised my wife not to try and change her opinion with the new facts I had received about the stuff he does at their workplace. But I didn't have to. She invited me down to her place and we had a nice little discussion. I just sat and listened, which I have been told I am very good at, and just probed and prodded where appropriate. She told me what he had said to her that evening, when she came home. She also told me how she had thought about what Mindy had said about him and how he is at work, and she had noticed that he is that way at home also. She said he was an opportunist, going from neighbor to neighbor, looking for info about other folks, and than sharing that info with others in order to get more info about everything else. He had even pumped her for information about our real estate situation! She said he made her feel uncomfortable about it, so she didn't talk about it with him. In all, she found out that over time he changed how he acted with her and that he was puting on an act. Over time, the act fell away and she could see him for what he was. She felt bad that it had affected her relationship with my wife, because in all the time she has dealt with us, we haven't changed who we are. When I left, I felt good about her and the relationship my wife and I have with her.

Up to that point, I think things were a little restrained with Mindy and her. Mindy felt that since she was so close to her coworker, she couldn't fully trust her. But the next day, our neighbor came upstairs and they had a nice chat. She even apologized to Mindy about not believing her in the beginning - and I think that really did the trick. The political climate in our condo complex is changing... And the weasel next door is gonna be blown away!

I am sure that things will change for Mr. Weasel... Everyone gathered around our neighbor after her place was burglarized, and I think that show of support is going to affect sphincter-boy. When word gets around of what an opportunistic ass he is, he's going to find many doors closed to him and his information gathering techniques. Oh, how sweet it is!

Okay, so the guy who had made the written offer on the house decided he didn't like our counter offer and not to make another offer on our place. Mindy said she felt like he was dicking around with us anyway, so no big loss.

On the other hand, both of the agents who called me yesterday to tell me they were going to check out our place did not show. I did see one of them showing a different place, so now I am thinking she was an idiot and didn't know the correct address of which place she wanted to show and called me by mistake. It doesn't help that our realtor has three places in our condo community that he is selling, but than again it is a testament to how good he is if everyone who wants to sell goes through him.

Oh, and our annoying neighbor thinks he is being cute or funny by walking by our for sale sign and turning the arrow that points up toward our door to the opposite direction. Yesterday when I left our place it was facing in the right direction, but when I came home it was facing the wrong way. So, I turned the right way and went upstairs to tidy up and get the laundry going. When I left to take Dixie to the dog park, it was still facing the right way, but as I got into the truck I saw him walk downstairs, by the sign. I drove around the block and when I saw the freeway traffic I decided it wasn't worth getting on because it was jammed. So I went back to my place and when I went by the sign, the arrow was facing in the opposite direction again. In talking with my wife about it, I found out he got to work about late yesterday, which means he left not long after I did in the morning - and gives him opportunity to play with the sign. Granted, it's circumstantial evidence. I put some tape under the corner of the arrow to hold it in place. If it moves again I'll know for sure that it's because someone is touching it. If it happens once again, I think my hunch is concrete enough to warrant a stern warning with the optional ass kicking if our neighbor gets mouthy.