So, the plot thickens with the neighbor. Last Summer, we cleaned out our shed. A couple of the boxes had kind of collapsed in on each other and the stacks were falling over, etc. We went through the whole shed and separated it into piles to keep, donate, or throw away. We got a bunch of moving boxes, all the same size so they are easier to stack, and we put the keep stuff back in the boxes and labeled them. We took the donate pile to a charity shop. But the throw away pile was too big to fit into our container, which only gets emptied once every 4 weeks. We have 3 containers. One for recyclable plastics, one for biodegradable trash, and one for regular trash. The biodegradable one gets emptied every other week, but the plastic and regular trash go in the week between, one the one week and the other two weeks later. So it's like Green, Orange, Green, Grey, Green, Orange, Green, Grey, and so on. But we already got a warning from the city that we put too much in the grey container one week because we were trying to get rid of all the trash from the shed. We'll get fined if we do that again. So we can't fit much in, and we're going to be getting renovations done at some point, but it's not our turn yet. When we do, we'll have a big dumpster, and we'll be able to get rid of all the junk. Until then, it's still just sitting in the back yard. We live in a row house, and we have a 7 foot privacy fence between our yard and the neighbors'. It's all enclosed, so there's no junk from our yard blowing into their yards, it's all covered with a plastic tarp, but I'll admit it's an eyesore. But we can't really do much about it yet, and it's only in our enclosed back yard, so it's not affecting our neighbors at all.
So after the wasp incident, the one neighbor who lives 2 doors down is the one who contacted the mediator wanting to talk to us. But we took care of the wasps and let her know it was done, and also told the mediator it was done. The mediator called to let us know that Lisette would still like a meeting. We had no idea why. She hadn't mentioned anything but the wasps, except one day when I was bringing my garbage container back, I had the back port open and she happened to be walking by and she craned her neck to see into our yard and commented "You need to clean up your yard, neighbor!" I explained that yes, we had cleaned out our shed and it was taking a while to get all the junk we don't want to keep into the container. But she can't even see our backyard from her house. Actually, NO ONE can see our back yard from their house unless they are upstairs in their houses and staring out their windows. I thought nothing of it at the time, because when she made the comment, I explained what it was and why it wasn't gone, and really, it's none of her business...it can't be bothering her because she can't see it from her house.
But that was the only issue besides the wasps that she's ever mentioned, besides putting pressure on me to choose the hideous color the rest of the row has for their houses. Our neighborhood is primarily a rental area, all owned by the same company. When we were looking for a home, this company worked on a lottery system. You signed in on a particular house you'd like, and they just drew someone from the pool of people who had signed in for that house. When we were drawn for this one, we were given the option of renting or buying. We decided to buy because we didn't want to be paying for something that would never be ours. But the rest of the houses on this row are rented, so the real estate company still owns them. They have spent the last year or so renovating all their properties to make them more energy efficient. New insolation, new and smaller windows with insolated glass, solar panels on the roof, etc. But because we OWN our house, it wasn't included in the renovations. We have an option to do renovations, but not quite the same as everyone else and not at the same time. AND we don't have to choose the same things that they did. But if a lot of the home owners choose to do the renovations, we get a bulk rate on materials and labor and we can get subsidies to bring the costs down. The rental company chose this HIDEOUS yellow color for the facade. I HATE it. It looks like a playmobil plastic house. It's just really tacky and ugly. Ours is the only one that's not done now, and our siding is faded and looking pretty bad, but we get to choose which color siding we want when we do our renovations. Lisette has been telling me we have to choose the yellow because it will look nicer if everyone has the same color. But I REALLY hate the color they have....I don't want that color, and I told her I think it's an ugly color and I wanted something different. She's mentioned it a few times since then, now that theirs are all done, and every time, she tells me I should just choose the yellow to match everyone else's. So I figured those 2 issues, the junk in the back yard, and the facade of the house, were probably what she was still upset about. But neither are her business, nor do they actually AFFECT her in any way.
So I'm walking to the grocery store today, and I come across my next door neighbor on our left. She says she has something to ask, because Lisette and our other side next-door-neighbor Kezibah want us to clean up our back yard. She says she personally doesn't have a problem with it. So I explained to her what the issue is and that we're waiting for the renovation when we will have the big dumpster. I'm not sure how much she understood because she's Turkish and doesn't speak much Dutch, but I explained it and she kept saying "I no problem. I no problem." so she's not bothered by it. Kezibah mentioned it once when we came back from vacation and I let her know that we had an appointment for the wasp issue. She said she had been stung and also asked about the back yard and said she had seen rats. First of all, that's BS, because she can't see into our yard unless she's upstairs and staring into our yard from an upper window and she can't see MUCH of our yard even if she does hang out the window. But none of the junk back there is food related. Rats look for food. We all have our trash containers in our back yards, and we take whichever one is up for that week out our back ports and out to the curb. So it makes sense that there could be critters looking for food in the containers. But I had explained to Kezibah that we couldn't fit all the junk in to the container at once and that we were getting rid of bits of it every 4 weeks, whatever would fit. So after the one neighbor asked about it today, when I saw Kezibah, I went out and told her as well that we're waiting on the renovation because we can't fit everything into the trash container. She mentioned the rats again, BUT she said she saw the rat in HER yard, by HER container. So I was right....it had nothing to do with our junk....it's that everyone has the trash containers back there. She didn't even see the rat in OUR yard, but assumed it was because of the junk. So I told her...it's not the junk, it's the trash containers, and we're WORKING on getting rid of the junk. So she said it's fine, as long as we're working on it. But Lizette walked by while I was out mowing the front lawn and she didn't even acknowledge my existence, so she's obviously got a huge problem with me.
But apparently she's been campaigning to the other neighbors about our back yard, which she can't even see....she won't even be able to tell it's been cleaned up unless Kezibah or the other neighbors notice it when they are upstairs sometime. But she's gossiping to all the neighbors, telling them to come and complain about my yard so I'll clean it up. The one neighbor today seemed really uncomfortable bringing it up. "I no problem. They problem. They want you clean yard." Whatever...it will get done eventually, and no one has a problem except her, so she can buzz off.
) all called for leavening agents in the ingredients list.
Earlier in the week, Sam and I were discussing making our own butter and flavor options. I was not expecting to do it with her cake filling! It tastes like white chocolate flavored butter and I used the liquid that separated out to soak the cake layers. It actually worked out well for the filling. And yes...those gifts are in Hanukkah bags! My mom got me some nice ones many years ago and I use them for just about every home bday as well as Hanukkah since it's easy.