Crazy neighbors

I (mostly) like my house, I even like my city, and the neighborhood is much better than it used to be, but my immediate neighbors are almost all completely fucking insane. Today I will focus on the next-door neighbors, who resemble George and Barbara Bush in relative ages if not in politics (I don't know their politics or care to). When I brought my now-5-year-old home from the hospital, the husband saw us in the yard with the baby and said "I don't like kids." They both work from home and must have their groceries delivered, because I don't think I've ever seen them leave.

They must get bored living Boo-Radley-style, because they seem to spend most of their time looking out their windows and into my yard. We have a pretty big yard, and so do they, and our yards are separated by a fence, so they really could just choose to ignore us. God knows I try to ignore them. They collect feral cats by leaving food out on their porch, then complain when my dogs go eat it (the city rats, apparently, are welcome to the buffet). They collected OUR cat one day, after he had gotten out of the house, and kept him for a month without our knowledge, having him neutered and his ear notched before my mother rescued him. Ever since, they have insisted on returning the cat to us every time he gets outside, even though he rarely leaves our yard - they actually come into our yard to get the cat and bring him back. All. The. Time.

I just got involved in a pointless political debate (is there any other kind) with a friend from school and now dinner is cold and I've had more beer than I meant to and I have no time/energy to wrap this up gracefully. So, as my son would say, the end.

Shameless Substitution of Pictures for Actual Posting

I'd like to say I haven't been posting because school is keeping me busy, but let's be honest - I'm always a slacker. So here, in lieu of really dull updates about my school, the kids' school, my recent alarming weight gain, my exhaustion, the increasingly shrill and incredulous voice in my head every time I see or think of either McCain or (especially) Palin, are two brief stories told in pictures.

Story 1 - Seven-year-old gets glasses (poor kid needs not only glasses but bifocals, but mercifully is too young to feel the dorkiness):

He wanted these:

But fortunately, the bifocal lenses didn't fit those frames, so he got these instead:

Isn't he cute?

Story 2 - A day at the zoo with the twins

Twins brushing a goat:

Pretending to be baby birds:

Girly in awe of swimming polar bear (it really was kind of awesome, was playing and swimming and by the way absolutely freaking enormous and also isn't this just a great pic? Can't believe I got a picture of her face and the bear, I suck at photography):

Boy twin was also fascinated - although the bear was off-camera at this point, can't you just feel the enthusiasm?

That is all, I'm sure I'll post again sometime in 2008.

Pinecone is my favorite Palin

Don't ask me why I feel compelled to watch any part of the RNC, it just pisses me off. WHO is buying this? Okay, I'm not going to go into all the things this fascist crazy-assed bitch is saying that are just wrong wrong wrong wrong, or how lily-fucking-white this crowd is, or how Palin was part of the party that wants Alaska to SECEDE FROM THE COUNTRY, I'm just going to focus on the cute Palin, the one I actually DO like. The youngest daughter, whose name I heard as "Pinecone," but who is actually named Piper, just licked her hand and then rubbed it on the head of her unfortunate political pawn of a disabled baby brother. I think my husband is blogging more details of the incident, so I'll just focus on how deliciously cute this little girl is. Apparently there is no evil without a silver lining.

Just a side note - I just realized that every single person who actually benefits from the Republican tax cuts is in that auditorium. Why can't people actually vote their self-interest? Why do they insist on "no new taxes," when the new taxes would only apply to really really really rich people (read: not you, rednecks).

Yet another side note - Republicans seem to have a really low threshold for humor. These people have clearly not laughed enough in their lives. I will admit that she's a pretty good speaker, but these jokes are just not that funny. You people make me sad.