The unfriendliest neighborhood

We live in the unfriendliest neighborhood in the world.  No really, we do.  Sometimes I drive into my neighborhood and see happy children playing in the streets.  Only when I get closer I see that they are not children, but brats with their Nerf guns pointed at my car as I drive by.  I'm lucky if they even get out of the road.  Who is raising these children?  I make a point to wave at all of these lovely neighbors when I am walking my dogs, but no one waves back...or even smiles.  The other day we attempted to leave our cul-de-sac and drove up to see two neighbors talking to each other.  We sat their in our car while they chatted in the middle of the road. No one moved or even acknowledged that we were trying to exit the neighborhood.  Now I see where their children get it.

Friday was the last straw.  I took  the dogs out for a walk and my dog was attacked by a neighbors dog.  We were at the base of their driveway, my dogs on leash, and their dog ran down the driveway straight for Issy.  Luckily she fought back.  I was in a tangle of leashes attempting to pull them off each other.  I fell to the ground and skinned my knee and hand.  The neighbor was able to pull his dog off and began to take his dog back to the house.  I was in shock.  I checked Issy out and there was blood, but I couldn't tell if it was from her.  I turned to the man and said "is your dog okay because I see blood", and he said "oh they're dogs, they're fine".  When I prodded further for him to check his dog out he got defensive and yelled "where do you live anyway?"  Like it was my fault I walked past his house and his dog attacked us.  I stood there a moment longer, checking out Issy and my knee waiting for him to come back and apologize or see if my dog was okay.  I got nothing.  I had met a genuine asshole. 

When I got home I started to clean Issy up thinking it was the other dogs blood.  I found a bunch of puncture wounds and thought that was it.  Then I noticed blood on my couch and found a big gash on her chest.  I emailed Becky (aren't blog friends who work for vets the best?) and she eased my mind.  I'm a bit of a hypochondriac when it comes to my dogs.  Okay, I'm just a hypochondriac.  Thanks Becky!  All weekend I've kept my anger with this man.  Bryan went to high school with his daughter and told me he has always been a jerk.  Part of me wanted to go back to his house and say something, but I know it wouldn't do any good.   Thankfully my dog is okay and so am I.  Sometimes I wish I wasn't so polite in situations like those.  If it didn't involve my dog getting injured, I would've demanded a redo.

I should mention that we do have awesome next door neighbors.   They are the saving grace.  Saturday they had us over for fish tacos and board games.  We also made Dark 'n' Stormies.  They will help you forget how awful your neighborhood is.  When we move, I'm hoping to take this family with us.

via tmagazine

Dark 'n' Stormy

2 ounces dark rum
1/2 ounce fresh-squeezed lime juice
1/2 ounce simple syrup, or to taste
4-6 ounces fresh ginger beer (we got ours at Trader Joe's!)

Build the drink in a highball glass filled with ice, adjusting for sweetness and tartness. Garnish with a wedge of lime. Serves 1. 

You can make your own Ginger Beer too.  See the recipe HERE.


I hope you had a better weekend then I did.  Lots of baseboards were caulked and painted.  What did you do?