I just cannot believe I haven’t gotten any win notices! Am I being compensated or something?

The mystery package was a surprise win yet it contained just what I figured it would. It was just a T-shirt and a DVD. Tom, who was badly in need of new shirts, shouldn’t need shirts for quite a while with the way I win them!

The house next door, as well as a couple of other ones in the area, are still up for rent, all at $800 each. God, how I’d love to move next door! But only if there’s more money to be made here. If there isn’t a significant amount to be made, Tom will know it by the time our lease expires. If that ends up being the case, then we just may stay here till we can leave the state. If I quit shopping (after I get some Tonner outfits this month and a mannequin in March), then we should be able to save up enough to get out of here in the fall. Especially if I can hold off on getting my ear fixed and my teeth dealt with. We’ll just have to figure out how to deal with the bugs here and seal the gaps between the screen and casings so we can open the windows in the summer to keep from suffocating.

When it does come time to leave the state, I wish we could skip the city and head straight for the country, but I doubt that’ll happen. Even if we suddenly had enough to buy a house with, he’d have to get a job first and we’d have to get to know the area, and that could take several months. Yet this thing that’s determined to keep us in the city may not give us much choice! Our only ticket out of the city and straight to where we want to be would be if we won tons of money.

Tom went to help Eddie on Sunday with some computer problems and said that the “quiet neighbors” he talks of were slamming, banging, pounding and just totally going berzerk. He could feel the floors vibrating underneath him, he said. Eddie said they had been gone a month and were just returning. Typical westerners! Unless you’re bringing back furniture, that’s no reason to make such a racket, just because you’ve been gone a while. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were noisy from here on out. It’s not uncommon for neighbors to start off fairly quiet, regardless of which one of you moves in first. Our last nightmare wasn’t nearly as bad during the first couple of months. She didn’t leave the dog out all day, she controlled its barking, and she didn’t blast the TV.