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Hidden Trackable
Information
J: On Thursday my
bro-in-law Joe came over, with Meg and the kids, to give us an in-sink
garbage disposal. He even installed it for us! After that we took the
Naabs to Beijing (the restaurant, not the city) for dinner. Later that
night Gina and I went to the Looneys' place sans Looneys (they were at GAMA), and played Schaufenster
till the early hours.
On Friday, Kory came back from GAMA. We picked him up from the bus
stop, met up with Stacy and went to dinner at Hard Times Cafe. Then
Rich tagged in for Stacy and the four of us went to a movie, 50 First
Dates. Then Gina and I watched Groundhog Day at home, to compare and
contrast. Groundhog Day might hit my top 10 list soon. Yes, it's
that good.
Saturday I met Leo, Lucy and Kory outside the New Deal
Cafe for brunch. Then Kory, Jenny, Gina and I went to see Eternal
Sunshine blah blah blah. Great movie, but the title is easy to forget,
which is kind of appropriate, really. After the movie Dave Chalker
visited and played games with Kory and me, while the girls went dancing
at Glen Echo. The hit of
the weekend was High
Society, a Reiner Knizia card game. Even though it is flawed with
"hidden trackable information", the game is extremely addictive. We
played it until about 5:00 the next morning. Dave stayed the night.
The next day Kory came over and we played more High Society,
then drove off to the Game Keeper in Columbia for a going out of
business sale. We returned home with several new games to try. Leo and
Lucy came over and we all played Zingers, a party game. It was alright.
Then we played a Knizia children's game of the Lord of the Rings
(nicknamed Kids of the Rings). It was a roll-your-dice-move-your-mice
game, surprisingly shallow for a Knizia board game. Too bad. After
torturing Leo and Lucy with our experimental purchases, Dave, Kory and
I broke out High
Society again and played a few more games. I won two of 'em, which
I attributed to my newly developed strategies, while Kory claimed they
were due to his and Dave's bad play. It can be an extremely frustrating
game.
After Kory and Dave left, Gina, Booda and I went to a campfire in the
woods. There were a few drums and Rich brought his guitar. I brought a
dijeridu. We (Ginohn, Dorian, Amethyst, Rich, Ellen, Nancy, Paul, and
Kathy) Sang, played, drank, and joked around a very smoky fire as the
night grew colder and stayed windy. At one point when Rich was playing
his guitar, we heard what sounded like a walkie talkie. Thinking there
were police nearby, we quieted down, and the radio chatter immediately
stopped. Dorian and Paul conducted scouting missions while Gina put
Booda on his leash. We were perplexed as to why the police would
venture so deep into the woods and why the dogs (Booda and Athena)
weren't barking. Eventually some of the group decided it might be
Rich's guitar strings picking up radio waves, while I figured the sound
of a cop car's radio was traveling easily through the crisp cold air.
Rich started playing again and the radio sounds came back! Then Rich
reached into his pocket and pulled out a small voice recorder that he
had forgotten about. Turns out that whenever he played his guitar it
would press up against his pocket and push the play button. After
figuring that out we had a great time again, joking and playing, and
celebrating the beginning of Spring with good wine and mead.
On Monday, International Goof-Off Day, I went to work, and even though
I had taken a good long shower and wore clean clothes, the heavy smell
of smoke — brought in with my jacket — took over my office and even
crept into the hallway.
John Marketon came in and mentioned that the Wizards of the Coast game
stores were going out of business. I told him I had gone to one of the
stores the day before. We ended up going to another Game Keeper in
Arundel Mills for lunch. When we left that store, John suggested that
we go to yet another one in Crystal City, so we did. All in all, I
bought almost 100 dollars worth of games, and three copies of High
Society (one for Dave, one for me, and a spare). That was some
serious goofing off.
The next day, Gina called me at work.
G: Throughout the
morning as I tried to sleep, I woke often because of a loud noise
outside. When I finally got up and looked out the windows, I was
surprised to see men behind our yard putting up a chain link fence. The
folks in the big house behind ours just got a dog, so it made sense.
But I thought it looked like they were going to use the fence along the
back of our property as one side. That's when I called John. Then I
went out and inspected. Sure enough, they were attaching that fence to
ours. The home owners weren't around. At first, I didn't like that we
wouldn't be able to walk behind our yard, but I realized that we
actually never do. I was pretty concerned that GHI, our housing
cooperative, might not appreciate it though. There are always pathways
around and behind people's yards, and I figured that is GHI policy.
I called GHI and they were concerned. They sent over a couple of guys
to check it out. We still don't know what the verdict will be, but if
they decide that there has to be a way through there (besides the gates
on either side that they put in), one of two things will have to
happen. It depends on where the property line is. If our fence goes up
to the edge, we'll have to move it back. If their fence intrudes onto
GHI property, they will have to move their's back. Either way, they
can't share our fence, and will have to put up another.
If you were going to put up a new fence and use your neighbor's fence
as one side, even if you have every right to do so because your
property goes right up to that fence, wouldn't you at least say
something to your neighbor before doing it? If they had only mentioned
it, we could have avoided some problems. It's not like we're on a city
block where the backs of people's yards all meet up. All the area
around our fenced yard was open space, there isn't another house very
close by. While I am irked that they didn't bother to talk to us, we
are trying to keep the problem friendly and let GHI be the heavy.
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