Dropping the ball

Ok, I admit it, I have dropped the ball. I still have one more new recipe I need to post and what about my California vacation you ask? Well, I haven't even gone through my photos! Yes, I am that far behind. I just have no time to do anything personal anymore! I know this has got to change, but I haven't quite figured out how yet. So, I apologize for being behind. And before you know it, I'll be in Europe - and then I'll be even more behind on my blogging. Oh jeez. I think I'm breaking out in hives just thinking about it. Oh wait, that's just my sunburn from this past weekend of family photo shoots at the beach!

On a side note, I am finally ready to mail off my nasty-gram to the HOA. That's right - we received yet another non-compliance letter. [I'm rolling my eyes, but you can't see that]. We received the first one saying we needed to pressure wash our gutters. Are you kidding me? With all of the blatant and ugly violations going on and that is what they are bitching about?! Oh well, no skin off our back because we literally had JUST had the entire house - gutters included - pressure washed. Then a month or so later we receive another letter. Now this is the one that really frosts my cookies. They are saying that our trellis is in the easement and too close to the alley and therefore we must move it. UM, ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! So the attorney in my gets pissed off. We proceed to write a little nasty-gram informing Betty Crocker [I will keep her anonymous for protection purposes - for now . . .] that we submitted an application, as required by HOA rules, to build the fence and trellis. Said application included a sketch of the fence/trellis, as well as actual photos from the fence company illustrating what it would look like. Oh, and what else do we have? That's right - an APPROVAL letter saying "go ahead and build it." The icing on the cake is that we submitted this application in 2007 and received approval in Feb. 2008. So over one year later they are going to come and bitch about the fence? I think not. Especially with every other violation and unfulfilled promise that is out there. I threw in words like "dispute," "appalled," "relied upon," "to our detriment" and the like. Just to show I'm serious. So we'll see where it goes from here. I am actually pretty proud of my nasty-gram. I hope Betty F-ing Crocker is too!