The Hatfields and the McCoys

That's what it's become around here. We're the Hatfields, the McCoys are the people who detest our dogs. I am home most of the time and am pretty good about bringing the dogs in when they bark. But this morning was crazy. I heard them start to bark, I got up from my desk and went to the door to let them in when the phone rang with Mr. McCoy asking if I could bring the dogs in. When I pointed out that I had been on my way to do that and that they had only been barking a couple of minutes, he hung up on me.

He apparently has a dog. A dog who does not bark. A dog who could care less if there are 3 dogs on the other side of the fence trying to either make friends or rip his/her throat out. I watch that dog. Our dogs are leaping at the fence and barking and their dogs acts as if they aren't there.

Maybe they got a blind/deaf dog?

I am the first to admit that, though we love them, our dogs can be a pain in the butt. I hate that they bark so much and I am very diligent about locking them up. But I can't be here 100% of the time, and if we are going to be gone all day, I can't lock them in the house for the entire day. I especially can't lock them up for 2-1/2 weeks.

When we went to Russia last year, Mr. McCoy, whom I had told we would be gone, contacted me in FINLAND to let me know the dogs were barking. I'm not sure what I was supposed to do about it.

I don't know what he looks like. I think if we ever met socially, it would be very awkward because he obviously hates us because of our dogs. And I can't just give the dogs away because they bother him.

This is the guy who complained when Walt was working in the carport on a weekend afternoon that the noise of his saw was disturbing his child's nap because the noise came through the open window (I guess closing the window was not a possibility). He also reported Walt to the police when he finished sawing a piece of wood one minute after 10 p.m. (the noise ordance here in town goes into effect at 10 p.m., unless you are a university or high school which has a football game going on, when cheers and band noises are OK). Walt was packing up his equipment at 10:05 when the police showed up in our driveway, responding to McCoy's complaint.

The funniest thing about this is that I've never looked Mr. McCoy up on the internet, but I finally did today. This is what it says on his professional profile: "XX conducts research concerned with the interpersonal tactics and message strategies that individuals use in the context of problematic social interactions." I guess this is a case of do as I say, not as I do!!!

He's the only one in the neighborhood who ever complains about the dogs. There is another barking dog who sounds like a beagle and who often gets our dogs going. I don't ever hear that dog stop barking, so I suspect the he/she is left alone in the yard during the day when the owners go to work. Mr. McCoy says he also calls those people whenever their dog barks.

We have tried a citronella collar, which worked on Lizzie for awhile, until she finally got used to having citronella squirt in her face whenever she barked. We also tried one of those gadgets which apparently emit an unpleasant sound that only dogs can hear. The gadget never really worked, and Lizzie seemed to get used to the citronella collar. We haven't tried one on Polly.

Up until a couple of days ago, Polly didn't usually bark until Lizzie did (Sheila doesn't bark much). But she has suddenly found her voice. In spades. It is she who often races out the door and starts barking at Mr. McCoy's back fence.

She has also taken over determining when it's time to eat. She comes into my office at 5 p.m. and starts whining. If I don't do anything, she goes into the family room and starts barking. She won't stop until I feed her. I hate being a slave to the damn dog, but she has the upper hand and she now knows it.

I don't even want to think about the what it's going to be like around here while we're in China, but I hope that it's not horrendous. I hate it when people hate me.

...And a Good Time was Had by All

The Ice Cream social was a great success.

I had things mostly set up by about 1:30.

(Note the puppies in the pen at the left)

Then it was just a question of waiting for the folks to arrive. Ashley arrived early so she could give Eliza her vaccinations and she took the "down" time to give Dexter a manicure.

The first neighborhood guy arrived right on the dot at 2 p.m. (he was also the last to leave--and had four different cups of ice cream!). He brought a bowl of sliced strawberries and a container of hot fudge sauce. Yum! Then others started straggling in.

Even the Don Saylor, Davis's Mayor Pro Tem showed up, and had a chat with Ned, who also came, with Marta.

Don also took this picture to post to Facebook, along with all the photos he took at all the other neighborhood parties he attended, from ours at 2 p.m. until after dark.

The puppies were a big hit.

This little girl in particular loved all the puppies, but especially loved Dexter (who was more her size than the others)

At the height, we may have had about 20 people, which was about double the number who came last year.

I ran out of vanilla ice cream, but had plenty of chocolate, strawberry and blackberry left over at the end of the day. I feel very good about how it all went and think that we went out on a real high.

I'll Never Do THAT Again

I'm glad that I already decided this would be our last year to host the Neighborhood Night Out. Last year it had an OK attendance, but I thought that by having it in the afternoon this year and making it an ice cream social, more people might come. (So far I've had 3 RSVPs...nobody officially responded last year, I don't think, and about a dozen people showed up)

It really sounds like a nice, neighborly, sociable thing to do. There are more than 100 parties this year all around the city, a significant rise from last year (when there were 60-some parties). The city gives you lots of goodies, most of which will ultimately end up in the garbage, I'm sure, but they include refrigerator magnets with city phone numbers, booklets about fire safety, information on H1N1, balloons, glowsticks and a big sign to put on the lawn. Last year there were a couple dozen pens so people could sign a sign-up sheet, but this year they didn't include the pens, just gave us the sign-up sheets.

But packet also included a gift certificate to the Davis Food Co-op for $25 to help purchase supplies for the party. I think that was about what I spent last year, as I bought ingredients and made my own hors d'oeuvres and people also brought stuff.

Well...I've discovered that ice cream for a neighborhood ain't cheap (especially at the co-op, which has "good" stuff, not cheap stuff)! Just four large containers (48 oz) of ice cream alone is more than $25 (and I'm not sure if 4 containers is going to be enough--but it has to be). But add to that cups, cones, chocolate syrup, nuts, and whipped cream and we're getting into real money for people I don't even know at all.

The final tally -- and this included a few things for us, that won't be at the party, like dinner tonight and tomorrow night) was over $80. The gift certificate helped, but by no means did it begin to cover the cost. We still have go buy ice in the morning. I had intended to buy more ice cream somewhere else where I could get a vat cheaper, but we're going to have to go with what I have.

Now I did ask for this to be a pot luck, and it's entirely possible that people are going to bring ice cream to contribute. One person offered to bring ice cream and I told her to bring some sort of topping and maybe cookies to go with the ice cream.

But bottom line is it ain't cheap and while I knew going into this that I would be spending money on it, as I said earlier, I'm glad this is the last year we'll be hosting. Time for someone else to step up to the plate and have a turn.

Realizing that there was a very good possibility that Higgins and/or Freddie might be adopted today, I tried taking some better pictures. I wasn't able to corner Freddie, but I really like this one of Higgins.

At the appointed hour, we drove the boys up to Petco (finding out later that Ashley had misunderstood me and thought I was asking when the puppies were going to be neutered--the boys this week and Eliza next week. I thought she said she only wanted boys at Petco this week and I could bring Eliza next week...so we left Eliza home).

When we got there, all the other siblings were already in the cage--and what a sight it was!

I'm not sure how many were in the cage--but I think it was 8 or 9. There was, of course, no grand reunion. They could all care less about the two "strangers" added to the pile. We came on home and awaited news of our babies.

When we got back to PETCO at 3:30, none of the puppies had been adopted, so we were happy to bring them both back home again, none the worse for their experiences. So they're here again for at least another week.

I'm glad.

By Golly--it Worked!

Despite my fears, the Neighbors Night Out open carport was a great success. We didn't get a huge number of people (and all the people who hate us didn't come), but a decent enough number that they filled the carport, so it looked like we had a big group.

Walt did yeoman's duty getting ready. My part was easy--fixing the food and writing my review for Damn Yankees. Always afraid there won't be enough food, I made chocolate chip cookies, sun dried tomato pesto (which turned out GREAT), and clam dip ('cause you can't have a party without clam dip, you know). I also bought a bit of Boursin cheese, which I had at the winery the night we had our DCN board meeting. And I made my grandmother's parmesan cheese/scallion broiled appetizers.

While I was doing the kitchen-y stuff, Walt was washing all the chairs on the patio and cleaning up the carport to make it look all pretty. Last week he had washed the walls and repainted it so it all looked nice and fresh.

We moved out what I've come to call "the dog table," the narrow table that goes behind the couch, which Lizzie has claimed as her perch from which she watches folks walk by. I figured I'd use it for the fruit punch. Sheila was so funny because she sleeps on the couch in the afternoon. When I go into the living room at night to sleep, I never turn on the light and as soon as she hears me, she gets off the couch because it's my turn to use it. But apparently in her mind, this doesn't apply in the daytime. She was determined she was NOT going to get off the couch to make it easier for us to remove the table behind it!

Around 6:30, I started moving food outside, wondering if anybody was going to come. Shortly before 7, Walt was sitting in the carport, after it was all set up, talking to his mother on the cell phone.

You can see the glow from my iPod, which I stuck inside that black thing on the side of the house. Jeri should get a kick out of seeing that, since she made it a very long time ago for some production she was working on.

At 7 on the dot, the first guest arrived, bringing a tray of hors d'oeuvres, which looked suspiciously like my parmesan cheese appetizers, only hers had crab in them. She was a perfect example of why events like this are good. We have lived here 35 years; she has lived here 36 years and one of her daughters, it turns out, had been our babysitter once or twice when we first moved here. I had never met her before tonight! She only lives half a block away.

At the height, the carport was filled with people.

Of course the people who hate us didn't come. Walt says he thinks they were out of town, when I pointed out that their lights were on early in the evening and off later (he thinks they are on a timer). That may be true, but even if you're paranoid, it doesn't mean that they aren't out to snub you, you know!

There were supposed to be representatives of the city stopping but but none did. But we all sat and chatted. Ashley brought out Nicki and later, I decided to bring Hannah out too, since she gets so nervous when her baby isn't around. They were, needless to say, the hit of the night.

Everyone started leaving after about an hour and a half, except for Ashley, who hung around to help clean up and take some of the food home. I'm sorry she didn't take more. I have lots of temptations waiting for me tomorrow!

Would I do it again? Yes, I think I would. Only next time I want to do something different and have an ice cream social in the afternoon, rather than a late evening gathering.

Call Me Madam

My party packet arrived today. I wondered if it EVER would. This is all the things I'm supposed to need to host the Neighbors Night Out party next Sunday.

I was wondering when/if it was going to come. The woman who hosted the party the last couple of years said that the city "provided everything," but I hadn't seen anything and didn't know if it would magically turn up on my doorstep or what.

Well...yes, it did sort of magically turn up on my doorstep. Or at least someone dropped it off while Walt was painting the carport today (he is painting it in preparation for the gathering).

There is an interesting assortment of goodies to help you prepare. For one thing there is a big stack of door hangers to deliver around the neighborhood to remind your neighbors that the event is happening. It was a huge deal for me to deliver the invitations door to door and now I have to go around the neighborhood and hang reminders on everyone's door again. This is not my kind of shtik. The woman who did it before had kids to send out to do it. I miss having kids to send out to do my dirty work!

In addition to the door hangers there is a tube full of light sticks, which Chico is very interested in.

Two of them fell out of the tube they were in and started glowing, so I decided I'd better tape up the tube to keep any more from falling out.

There was also a stack of "Hello, My Name Is..." stickers and magnets which give you all the contact numbers you'll ever need for offices in the city of Davis.

There is a bag of balloons and pens (so you can write your identity on those "hello, my name is..." tags

I'm not sure what I'm going to do about the balloons. I am very skittish about blowing up balloons and am always afraid they are going to pop in my face. I'm wondering if we can get a small cannister of helium (there aren't THAT many balloons) so they'll stand upright rather than just hanging limply..though hanging from our tree might be rather festive. Hmmm...I'll have to think about that...

Then there was this bag

which puzzled me. Up until I was in the middle of writing this entry, I thought it was some new way to tie up balloons, but then I suddenly realized it was the connectors to make the glow sticks into necklaces. Duhh. Can you tell it's been a long time since I had young children in the house?

And finally, to my delight, there was a $25 gift certificate to the Davis Food Coop. The city will even help you pay for the refreshments you serve (but shhhh...don't tell the neighbors who have been invited to bring a dish to share!)

We used to have a big folding table around here, but I don't know where it went--probably off to Ned & Marta's, since they give parties, and I don't. I guess we'll make do with the round glass table on the patio.

I'm officially nervous about this party. For one thing, I thought that "everybody was doing it" all over town. This is a town of about 50,000 people and there are, according to the city's party web site, which I found yesterday, exactly sixty-eight parties going on. So it's fair to say that only a small percentage of neighborhoods are participating.

Also, most of the parties are taking place in the middle of the afternoon. I never questioned the time; I just put down what had been done the year before, but now that I look at how dark it is outside at 7 p.m., I'm wondering if I somehow got the time wrong. Also, I'm having an appetizer party (as was done in previous years) and, as Walt pointed out last night, most people will already have had dinner. I should have made it a dessert party. But too late to change that now. I'll add cookies for those who want something sweet.

I've already had two people call to say they can't come. I'm not optimistic about a big turnout, but who knows--maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised. Or maybe that "precipitation" the weather people say may come next week will change everything!

Yes...ME!

Ned and Jeri both had the same reaction.

I had sent him an e-mail, and when she called this evening, I told her about the e-mail I'd sent to him.

The e-mail read:

"We're hosting the neighborhood block party on October 5. I thought I'd put together a 2 hr playlist for my iPod and set it up. If you were putting together a playlist for a gathering like that, what general sort of music would you choose?"

Ned's response was "Wait... YOU are hosting a BLOCK PARTY?" Jeri said that was the first thing she thought too.

Yes, we are hosting the block party.

This is the third annual "get to know your neighborhood" party, conducted city-wide. Someone offers to host, the City provides the invitations and (I think--I haven't seen these yet) things like balloons and other party favors to liven up the place. The former hosts (who asked for volunteers to take over this year) set up a table in their carport and provided fresh lemonade and hors d'oeuvres and just waited for folks to show up.

Parties will be going on all over the city and the police and/or firemen or perhaps a member of the city council show up each of them at some point just to introduce themselves and say hi.

I've had the invitations for several weeks, but didn't want to pass them out too soon. I decided to deliver them after the Emmys the other night, but my flashlight gave out after 3 houses (and by that point I decided that I might get arrested as a possible burglar if people saw/heard me stumbling around the the dark). So I got out this morning before the sun got too high and went to all the houses up and down our long block, putting invitations in every mailbox.

Well, almost every mailbox. One house had a motorboat backed into the driveway, with the motor touching the wall and the boat trailer attached to the truck. The pathway to the house was overgrown and would have required a machete to get in, so I just stuck the invitation on their windshield.

I've talked before about how I've felt like the pariah of the neighborhood for the past 30 years so it's going to be interesting to see who shows up.

It was also interesting to actually go up to the door of all these houses that I've never visited. I'm wondering if the people with the McCain/Palin sticker on their mailbox and the people with "Ave Maria" hanging by their front door will dare to come to the home of someone with a "No on 8" sign on the lawn.

One house had no less than six bikes in their carport and another must have had twenty pairs of shoes in all sizes lined up carefully along the walkway. Another had three couches in the carport, hiding behind their truck.

I found one guy getting into his car. I told him that Walt had worked with his wife's parents. Then, in a senior moment, I totally blanked on their name, these people I've known all of my years in Davis! "Damn--what's their name?" I asked, me who had just said I'd known them forever. He seemed reluctant to tell me, but then I guess he decided it was OK to remind me that their last name was "Smith." That worked and I mentioned their first names, so I guess he realized I was legit.

I also told one woman that the date of the gathering was the 7th, a Tuesday. I hope she actually reads the invitation and realizes it's Sunday instead.

There was an article in the newspaper tonight about the upcoming event all over town and when I read that some people have BBQs and some have ice cream socials, I'm a little sorry I decided to go with what has been done the past two years. If this thing works out and I end up doing it next year, I think I'll go with the ice cream social idea. (I suspect that might also get more people to show up!)