Me and the Mrs’s live in a very nice small neighborhood. Single family homes but they have small lots. We were told when we moved out here to get a small lot because you’ll be spending so much of your time out doing things that the last thing you want to do is be tied to your lawn. Makes perfect sense, and most of the time is true.

But occasionally you do want to enjoy your yard. We’ve put a lot of time and money into it and it really looks nice as you can see from the picture. That’s a small part of it, a tsukubai based water feature. We got in the mail a notice from the home owner association. Saying that people have commented on how nice our backyard is (we’re a corner lot with no fence along the sidewalk.)

But for the last few years we’ve not been able to enjoy it. You see, the neighbors behind us suck.

Now, don’t get me wrong, we live in a really great neighborhood full of great neighbors. Every other one we talk to and wave hi when they drive by. They all seem to get along nicely.

But behind us they have an old rottweiler that has the horrible combination of never being corrected for barking constantly and being incredibly bored because they never play with him. Which of course means if you take a step outside while the dog is out his incredibly loud barks go on for the entire time. And unfortunately our master bedroom and living room overlooks the back yard, which means if their dog is outside, you’re not sleeping or watching TV. The dog is so loud in our interior bathroom with no windows you can hear the damn thing plain as day. We’ve called the humane society which handles dog barking in our county. They put the neighbors on notice, and then the wife comes over and rants and raves about how horrible we are for turning them in. I suggested a bark collar, which worked on our dog permanently when he wore it for about an hour over 9 years ago and he never barks now. She started freaking out saying how inhumane it was and such. I wanted to deck her right there in my driveway for suggesting I was inhumane for correcting our dog once instead of running the chance that a neighbor would try the old poison in a steak routine after months of no sleep.

Their kids are also apparently little bastards based on what all the other neighbors say. I think the bark collar probably needs to be used on them also. The neighbors have the obligatory giant trampoline right up against the fence which is the only time you see the kids in the back yard.

Personally the kids playing on the trampoline doesn’t actually bother me, it’s when they’re out in the hot tub carrying on till 1am. The hot tub that sits on a couple cinder blocks. The hot tub sits underneath the speakers attached to the house. While the speakers are banned by the HOA completely, the hot tub needs to be part of a structure like a deck, rather than just sitting on cinder blocks in the yard. Typically I don’t find HOA agreements of much use. But I start to see why they’re necessary in some cases.

So now for the good news. They disappeared a few weeks ago. Up and left on a Wednesday. Just a few weeks away from the kids school being over. They then sent a few post cards to neighbors saying that they were moving up to a bigger better house and all that. Since then they’ve been by twice to clear more stuff out of the house (except for the trampoline and the hot tub) and clean it up a little bit. A few days ago the for sale sign went in the yard. They’re asking less than they paid for it a few years ago, but based on sales in the neighborhood, they should be able to get at least 10% more than what they paid, and that’s being conservative even in this market. Their front yard faces the neighborhood park. They have an outdoor gas fireplace. Shouldn’t be a big deal to put it up for sale normally.

We looked at the brochure, they didn’t do a damn thing to the house since they bought it new. They never even installed a ceiling fan or anything. Except for the rather extreme wear and tear, they had no effect on the house at all. Whole sections of the fence they put up needs replaced from water damage since they never adjusted the sprinkler system. Several window screens need replaced. It looked like they were renters rather than owners.

Heh, and have you ever seen yellow countertops? At least since around 1979? They got ‘em.

So who would move with a few weeks left in the school year? And on a Wednesday, before even listing your house, and with a U-Haul rather than professional movers. Something didn’t seem right. Lots of neighbors speculating on what happened, even as they notice and enjoy the incredible difference in the peace and quiet in the neighborhood.

Today the newspaper has an article about the county’s office that handles foreclosures. I hit the website, and you can search for the legal documents of every foreclosure that’s been filed. Sure enough, there they are. They did an 80% 3/1 ARM with a 20% second mortgage that they couldn’t afford in the first place, and it adjusted to 6.99. They have until August to sell the house before the foreclosure finalizes. Very bad financial decision, which is now coming back to bite them right in the ass.

Oh and by the way. These people are Realtors® with Keller Williams in Colorado Springs. You know, the people who supposedly specialize in knowing how to avoid this type of thing. The ones that should be keeping you from buying more house than you can afford. Someone who should be counseling you as a buyer.

So I wonder if this is divine justice? Nah, couldn’t be. Because then they’d learn from their mistake. Somehow I doubt these people will figure it out.

They’re over there right now doing a few last minute things before they do an open house for the day. I wonder if they tell the potential new buyers the speakers have to go and the hot tub they’re leaving also will need a lot of work before it’s allowed. But the house itself is incredibly well built and is overall in great structural condition. And for the price its a steal. The money you’d save can fix the issues pretty quickly. And you’d have a lot of great neighbors. That’s the house there right in the center of the picture, you can see the fireplace in the front yard and the trampoline in the back. That’s us on the mid-left.

Filly Eight Belles breaks down, is euthanized-

All that heart and her gallant fight, however, ended in the worst of all possible ways: a breakdown, an ambulance on the track. And, with no other choice, she was euthanized by injection.

The day began with hope and pomp. Bolstered by the sentimental support from 157,770 fans and endorsed by presidential contender Hillary Clinton and cheered by daughter Chelsea, the filly finished second in the Kentucky Derby on Saturday.

Never ever let a politician bet on your horse. Never ever.

It’s always a shame when a promising animal gets hurt and has to be put down.  To do it right on the track in front of over a hundred and fifty thousand people is even worse.

Visit Pirates Magazine Online because if you don’t you’ll get what’s comin’ to ya!

During all police investigations it will be necessary to visit a strip club at least once.

If being chased through town, you can usually take cover in a passing St. Patrick’s Day parade - at any time of the year.

All beds have special L-shaped cover sheets which reach up to the armpit level on a woman but only to waist level on the man lying beside her.

All grocery shopping bags contain at least one stick of French Bread.

It’s easy for anyone to land a plane providing there is someone in the control tower to talk you down.

Once applied, lipstick will never rub off - even while scuba diving.

The ventilation system of any building is the perfect hiding place. Nobody will ever think of looking for you in there and you can travel to any other part of the building you want without difficulty. There is never any dust or lint in the ventilation ducts.

If you need to reload your gun, you will always have more ammunition - even if you haven’t been carrying any before now.

You’re very likely to survive any battle in any war unless you make the mistake of showing someone a picture of your sweetheart back home.

Should you wish to pass yourself off as a German officer, it will not be necessary to speak the language. A German accent will do.

If your town is threatened by an imminent natural disaster or killer beast, the mayor’s first concern will be the tourist trade or his forthcoming art exhibition.

The Eiffel Tower can be seen from any window in Paris.

A man will show no pain while taking the most ferocious beating but will wince when a woman tries to clean his wounds.

If a large pane of glass is visible, someone will be thrown through it before long.

When paying for a taxi, don’t look at your wallet as you take out a bill - just grab one at random and hand it over. It will always be the exact fare.

Kitchens don’t have light switches. When entering a kitchen at night, you should open the refrigerator door and use that light instead.

At night, women should investigate any strange noises in their most revealing underwear.

Mothers routinely cook eggs, bacon and waffles for their family every morning even though their husband and children never have time to eat it.

Cars that crash will almost always burst into flames or explode.

The Chief of Police will always suspend his star detective or give him 48 hours to finish the job.

A single match will be sufficient to light up a room the size of a baseball stadium.

Medieval peasants had perfect teeth.

Although in the present day it is possible to fire weapons at an object out of our visual range, people of the 23rd century will have lost this technology.

Any person waking from a nightmare will sit bolt upright and pant.

It is not necessary to say hello or goodbye when beginning or ending phone conversations. It only wastes time.

All bombs are fitted with electronic timing devices with large red digital readouts so you know exactly when they’re going to go off.

It is always possible to park directly outside the building you are visiting.

It does not matter if you are heavily outnumbered in a fight involving martial arts. Your enemies will wait patiently to attack you one by one by dancing around in a threatening manner until you have knocked out their predecessors.

Police Departments give their officers personality tests to make sure they are deliberately assigned a partner who is their total opposite.

When they are alone, all foreigners prefer to speak English to each other.

You can always find a chainsaw when you need one.

Television news bulletins usually contain a story that affects you personally at that precise moment.

Via Mainichi Daily News

Porn filmed in Japanese McDonald’s? I’m rubbin’ it!

McDonald’s customers suspected something amiss when one guy pulled out his whopper…

Apparently porn doesn’t pay what it used to.

During the span of time between my 25th and 30th birthdays, I used to work for an IT services company that used to contract me out to a number of customers.  On one such assignment, I was sent out to a financial corporation to play third-wheel to a pair of systems engineers who needed a hand implementing some changes in their production environment.  It wasn’t complicated work, but it was pretty time consuming.  I was only slated to be onsite for 3 weeks, so I was pushing to get stuff done… which usually involved me skipping my lunch hour to power through a few setups.  About a week into the assignment, the 2 systems engineers departed for their usual 3 hour lunch (which is probably why they needed help meeting some deadlines) and I was left alone in the IT area to work on my assignments.  Once again they had left their music on way too loud, so I immediately rolled over and turned it down from ear-splitting to low roar.

I was in the midst of writing a report on my latest successful rollout when the door opened… and in walked a young (early 20’s) blonde girl who defied gravity in all the right places and was in serious risk of cutting off her blood circulation with the strict confines of her dress.  As I was the only person in the room, I felt it proper to greet her and ask what she required.  I gave her my best Matt LeBlanc impression with a “How you doin’?!” as she seated herself on the corner of my desk.  She told me that she was working for <nameless-supervisor>, and was hoping to get some information from <systems-engineer-#2>.  Since that wasn’t possible at this time, she decided to stay and chat for a while.

I talked about the company a bit… she gave me dirt on some of the managers… I told her some of my stories… she told a few dirty jokes… etc.  It was a good time, and actually kind of nice to take a little break.

Then, the song changed on the radio… and Motley Crue’s “City Boy Blues” started playing.  (I’ve always been a fan of the Theatre of Pain album, so I was pleased.)  Then, she says…

Blonde:  How can you stand listening to their music?!
Anarchy:  Huh?  What do you mean?
Blonde:  Oh… well, you probably like it because you’re old.

In that one moment, my ego shattered into a million pieces… my many years flashed in front of my eyes and suddenly tallied in my head to return the sum of my true age… and I could feel my father standing behind me laughing hysterically.

Most depressing…

I have to wonder now, since the data seems to show that NASA is lying about global warming.

Confusing? How can scientists who report measurements of the earth’s temperature within one one-hundredth of a degree be unable to concur if the temperature is going up or down over a ten year period? Something appears to be inconsistent with the NASA data - but what is it?

One clue we can see is that NASA has been reworking recent temperatures upwards and older temperatures downwards - which creates a greater slope and the appearance of warming. Canadian statistician Steve McIntyre has been tracking the changes closely on his Climate Audit site, and reports that NASA is Rewriting History, Time and Time Again. The recent changes can be seen by comparing the NASA 1999 and 2007 US temperature graphs. Below is the 1999 version, and below that is the reworked 2007 version.

NASA’s original data: 1999

NASA’s reworked data: 2007

In order to visualize the changes, I overlaid the 2007 version on top of the 1999 version, above, and a clear pattern emerged. The pre-1970 temperatures have been nearly uniformly adjusted downwards (red below green) - and the post 1970 temperatures have been adjusted upwards (red above green.) Some of the yearly temperatures have been adjusted by as much as 0.5 degrees. That is a huge total change for a country the size of the US with thousands of separate temperature records.

via The Register.

Further information shows that satellite data, which is more reliable than the thermometers that are affected by local conditions such as heat islands in cities, show decreasing temperatures over the last decade.

See here’s the thing.  I’ve loved science my entire life.  I work as an engineer.  And for some reason I can’t quite put my finger on, nothing coming from the pro-global warming camp ever passed the sniff test with me.  Something has always seemed wrong.  Little things never added up.  Processes that make perfect sense that would cause the data are discounted by these folks.  Everything seemed to be where the data is made to fit the conclusions.

Should there be less pollution?  Of course, but for the sake of less pollution.  Same thing with saving energy and resources.  Those are great laudable goals in and of themselves.  Should there be research into alternative fuels?  Damn straight, but not at the point of starving people in other countries.

Now, if the new wave of things that are now getting published about the solar cycle meaning we’re going to be freezing in 20 years pans out, what then?  Tell me there aren’t going to be circumstances where countries like Russia start invading south for the remaining arable land.  Will we here in the US get invaded by the Canucks?

Today we look back at Czechoslovakia during the end of the Cold War era.  The song is “Jozin z Bazin.”  The singer is Ivan Mladek.

As you can see, Ivo Pesak had taken dance ability for old white men to a higher level than we currently enjoy here and now.

And just so you know, this is currently a #1 hit in Poland.