You're stuck...where? You want HOW much?

Ahhh, the scammers are out in full bloom now, just smell that fishy fragrance.
In one crochet group recently, there was that good ol' "I'm in another country and have been mugged and all my money and my passport has been stolen, the embassy is not helping fast enough, I need money now." that was posted.  Now, I know that sometimes, these scammers hack into other people's accounts and use them so that the email seems to come from a person you know, but many others do not.
One woman in the group was quite derogatory about the 'sender', let's call her 'Jane', and blasted 'Jane'.  I pointed out that it probably wasn't 'Jane' that sent it at all, but that someone probably had hijacked her email.
Sadly, this went through to the group BEFORE that name was removed...and this is one scammer who was waiting for a reply.
I was fortunate enough to get a personal email from the scammer.
"Thanks for you getting back to me,yes i sent you the email.Actually i came down here for a program and on my way back to the Hotel where i was staying, i forgot my little bag in the Taxi where my money, passport, documents and other valuable things were kept, i am facing a hard time here and really stranded here  because i have no money on me right now.I contacted the embassy here to help me out but it will take some time for them to get back to me,i urgently need your financial i will appreciate what so ever you could afford to help me with and i promise to pay you back as soon as i get back home.
Hope to hear from you soon,"

Uh...yeah.  You'll be hearing from me, hate to see a 'friend' stuck (btw, all my friends are present and accounted for--and you're not one of them, but oh, well, if you can't trust an unknown stranger, who can you trust) and sure, I'll forward a couple grand to help you out.  Right after I finish sinking all this money into running here and there and paying fees to get that inheritance from overseas.  Or after that several million dollars is put in my account so an anonymous person can remove it from their country, for which they will give me a sizable chunk.  (there's a few of those, I don't think my descendants will EVER have to worry about money)
And after all the goodies come rolling in from forwarding emails about commercial products and hotels and whatever else, maybe I'll share some of those with you, too.
Of course, my email might be shut down so I might not be able to contact you.  I don't think I forwarded the MSN/hotmail/aol/Yahoo message enough times, you know, the one about deleting inactive accounts that didn't forward this message x number of times?  So please provide me with your name, phone number, physical address, social insurance/security number, bank info, oh, and don't forget the PIN.

Is it National Scream Your Head Off Day?

Is there even a National Scream Your Head Off Day?  If not, I now believe there should be one.  Scream and let it all out.

First, the mess next door.  Already mentioned, moving on...
Vacation.  Hubby didn't let me know soon enough (March) and the weeks he did finally ask for and be approved for are no longer available to me due to others having already booked.  Okay, so my manager did try to book me off for several days straight, he is awesome when it comes to trying to work with you like that.
Work?  Uh, scratch those several days off.  We're one man down, due to a teen who looked upon work as something to do when there was nothing else to do.  If there was something else, oh, well, just don't show up.  don't call, don't show up.  Or try to request a day off AFTER the schedule has been written, then don't bother to check said schedule, but ASSUME you get your day off and don't show.  Or better yet, don't bother asking for a special day off for an event that every idiot knows is planned months in advance.  When the schedule is posted with you being scheduled to work that special day, don't bother seeing if other arrangements could be made, just DON'T SHOW UP.  And forget about showing the next day...or a few days later for that shift either.
But please, don't be surprised when you finally do decide to show up for a shift that it's not yours anymore, and you don't need to worry about checking a schedule at that place anymore.  Period.

And please, don't bother yourself that because of your irresponsibility, others will now have to fill in.  Again.  Others who do show up for work on their scheduled days.  Others who didn't take a vacation the previous year because her spouse was laid off and she figured it was better to have that money than time off.  Others who rarely get a Sunday off, who were *hoping* to get a full weekend off this weekend.  The first weekend of her husband's two week vacation, and she may have wanted to do at least a quick weekend trip somewhere.
Okay, end of rant.

Wondering though, if this crap could actually benefit me.  How would hubby feel about me running my own business now, if I could add to the plusses with:  no more midnight shifts, with me trying to sleep during the day when you would actually like to do something as a family.  No more midnight shifts and day shifts mixed in a week.  No more being called in when someone doesn't show up for work and feeling obligated to say 'okay' or feeling a little guilty at saying no.  Choosing my own hours, opening one Sunday a month, or even none at all...

And more Happy Pictures

I've just been told by a neighbour who spoke to someone and discovered that our lovely view will be all ours for the entire summer.  Need I mention just how happy this makes my husband and I? 
The dirt finding its way into our open windows, or onto my clothes hanging out to dry...
The pipes 40 centimetres from our property line, which smelled like sulfur?
The front end loader which looked like it was about 3 feet from my fence, which btw, is 10 feet INSIDE my property line...
I am waiting for just one of our trees to be harmed, just one...
And I have composed a letter to the Deputy Mayor which is waiting for me to re-read when I've cooled down a bit.  Hopefully I do cool down a bit.
I would like to set things straight, we are not really angry with the workers, after all, they're doing their job.  We are upset that they don't seem to have been advised to respect the neighbourhood, especially the neighbours whose property is alongside 'their' property.  And...ALL SUMMER???  I am so not looking forward to the upcoming week when I'll be working midnights and expecting to sleep sometime through the day.  I am just glad that the last night I worked, the following day was a pick up dirt day and not a dump dirt day.  The pick up dirt days are quieter than the dump dirt days:  no sounds like cannons going off several times through the day.

Today's pictures, the most recent addition to the mess.  These pipes are about 40 centimetres from the property line.  And as mentioned above, have a sulfurous smell to them, I'm wondering if they were gas lines?!?

The measuring tape is a 3metre tape, and its tip is at our fence.  The picture below shows the distance between the pipe and the 3 metre from our fence mark (which is still inside the property line).  It is 40 centimetres, unfortunately, I could not get the numbers to show clearly on the tape and still show the tape and the pipe.  A crocheter I am, photographer...not so much.  This was after my husband tried to move the pipes away from our property, I'm not sure whether he did manage to move them at all or not.  If he did...they were closer before.

And a couple more shots of the jumbled mess of pipes, along with the new pile that is stretching toward us.  If I were a Sci-Fi geek, I might think it was actually growing.  Uh...wait, I AM a sci-fi geek.  (or so my kids say)

For sale or trade:  one three bedroom house...with a view?