Friends and neighbors (who are not friends)

A lot has happened in the last 5 days!  My mom came to visit me and we had a great time chatting, eating, and crafting.  On Sunday my sister came down to Corvallis and we all went out to Brynn's house for my bridal shower. It was so nice of  family and friends to drive from their respective cities to spend a little time together.  We had wonderful snacks courtesy of Sondy and Brynn and the most adorable cake from my sister.  Everyone was so generous!  It was strange being the center of attention (not that I don't like that from time to time...karaoke much?) but great to have people from different areas of my life all in one place to meet and mingle.
Sunday night I worked on the sprinklers again. Larry delivered a bag of sprinklers and a hose to me by way of his lovely wife Dorothy.  The better variety of sprinklers definitely aided in watering more yard in one go, though I did have to move things around a few times.  I spend about an hour and a half setting and running the sprinklers in all parts of the front and back yard.  I learned that running all three hoses at once is just as good dumping a bucket of water on top of the sprinkler, so only 2 at a time took a little longer.  And really, one would be best, but you have to be prepared for that much force!  At one point I shut off the back hose, leaving just the front, and came around to find that what had been a perfect set up had become Old Faithful the second coming!  The watering project is still ongoing and there will surely be more on that. 
  While I was watering Sunday night I got suspicious about the chicken situation behind our beautiful fence.  We did leave just a tiny space between the boards, like just enough to see an eyeball staring back at you.  A dirty chicken eyeball!!  The deal with the homeowner had been that once the fence was up (built a generous 1.5 feet into our property) nothing belonging to the west neighbors/her tenants was to touch it.  Not the lawn mower parts, not the car tires, not the wooden pallets, not the bed frame/chicken coop/frankensteined disaster.  And certainly not any chickens!  A phone call to the home owner took care of that...or so I thought.  Last night we received a strong knock on the door to find our lady neighbor waiting for us.  She informed us that we should have gone to her first (though she was told more than once of the "deal") and that we are petty.  This could get interesting, but hopefully it won't.
  Monday brought some tough decisions for Jay.  His knee had been giving him trouble and then his achilles tendon decided to act up.  A day's rest and regular doses of ibuprofen later, Jay made the decision to stop his trip in Crescent City, CA to give his body a break.  A shuttle bus to Grants Pass, a trip to Wal-Mart for a bike box (I'm sure he'd rather I didn't share the Wal-Mart part), and a greyhound bus to Eugene brought him about an hour from home.  Shep and I picked Jay up at 6:30 pm on Monday.  Jay has been taking it easy around the house and needs to keep a supportive shoe on for comfort, but he's on the mend!  There will certainly be many more bike adventures in his future and maybe I'll be gutsy enough to tag along for a few of them!