The weird craziness continued into the afternoon. When the Boy got home from classes, Female Crazy Neighbour was still banging around her apartment like a mad thing. He fooled about on the computer & took a brief nap; then she phoned him to complain that she'd turned the thermostat to 77 but it was now 79. She was too hot and she wanted to know what he was doing to make the apartment so unbearable. My poor Boy - so patient, so compassionate, so kind - frigging lost it. He reminded her that the thermostat was in her apartment and she had insisted we close the windows. This was the point that FCN, who hasn't really been much more than a crank in the year we've lived here, started accusing us of crazy shit.

Some highlights, as reported by the Boy:

After a long series of banging & door slamming from roughly 2pm to 5pm (sporadically, not constantly-but enough to wake me from a nap at about 4pm), FCN calls and yells out about how she can't get the temperature down in her apartment and usual list of rants. (She complains of smells, smoking etc.) I try to challenge some of her notions about what kind of control Rocketbride and I possess over the temperature of her apartment. She insists that we have influence over the whole of the house. I challenge about how many of the issues conflict (i.e. the complaint she is cold versus not being able to cool down her apartment) and how she continues to bring up new issues: smells, carpet cleaning, smoking, garbage being taken out, the fact her eyes are burning from the air in the hallways, lights in the hall being left on and lastly that (I don't know if I'm following this correctly) that we have some kind of reserve of air that we're using to alter the temperature of the various apartments. She alleges that our apartment has not been cleaned in a year and insists that we are smoking in the apartment. She has never been inside of our apartment, although the landlord has visited frequently and also unexpectedly without being able to detect anything wrong in our apartment. She also claims that things were moved around in her apartment the night of September 18 in her apartment, and she asks where I was the night of September 18 at 8pm. (We were at a friend's house and can confirm this as 4 people witnessed us watching "Survivor.")

By the time I got home from work, it was like a sauna in our apartment. First I changed into shorts, then when I realized that I was sweating into the couch, I opened a fucking window. This is, if you'll pardon the obvious cliché, insane.

Terribly long week, and I was utterly exhausted by last night. I drove Theresa to the bar after work, then drank a Coke & refused to talk about my kids. We left after 45 minutes or so, and after she was safely ensconced in her house, I dropped by my parents to see if I could borrow a DVD player for the weekend. Luckily, Nic's is still packed from the Winnipeg move. My parents, having just spent 2 days cleaning out our basement like an impacted tooth, were hungry, stressed and in incredibly foul moods. I got to experience some blowback. Fun fun. Luckily I'm developing the ability to see the large picture, and I don't take these episodes personally anymore. Also, my dad called several hours later to apologize.

Still, by the time I got home, I was more than ready to kick up my feet & watch some Buffy. So I did. And it was good.

My mom found some pictures!

my uniformed uncle chases nic up the driveway. funny for so many reasons.

obviously, my love affair with bees started a long time ago.

what sane person misses the 80's?
"i like my sunglasses huge, my pants tight and my parents blurry!"

and then there was the whole 'everybody had to look like princess di' thing.
program note: tonight the part of nic will be played by a marionette.

a long-time favourite that i thought was lost.
this is a professional photo of my three eldest uncles.
the one who died last march is the stoic little baby on the left.

just in case you thought i was attractive, i submit this year's staff photo.
is anybody missing a neck or a chin? i seem to have two of each.

ferguson house, 1997-8. everyone, meet everyone.
also, my res life is a dark pit of darkness.

Booty Call: Day 197 - By using her hands on your belly, your provider maybe able to pinpoint baby's head, back, and buttocks for you.