This past Saturday Madi, Deni and I went to the Pittsburgh Zoo. We have a family membership so we decided to see what the animals were up to. Since it wasn't too hot out, they were actually walking about and doing stuff, as opposed to the normal laying in the shade and sleeping routine that I'm used to seeing. Madison dug it.

The Lion stared to roar, which was only a few miunutes after we were past him and his lady-friend, but we were standing right in front of the leopard, who couldn't let the Lion do all the yelling and started letting out a series of frighteneing growls. That freaked Madi out a bit. She was clinging to me like we were going to throw her in.

The monkeys were kinda boring, which was a shame, cause they're usually bouncing off the walls - literally. But Madi really liked the fish at the aquarium. She also got to pet some goats and see a couple of kangaroos doin' it, so she had a good time.

She was so wiped out after the trip to the zoo that she slept from about 7pm until 8 this morning. Crazy. We'll have to take her there more often. Good thing we have the pass.

This morning we had a minor trauma when Madison turned to walk out of the room with her bottle and fell and chipped her front tooth. She didn't cry too much, but she looks like a hillbilly now. Okay, it's not that bad, but you can definately see it if you look at her front tooths. We'll just have to give her more candy to try and rot those puppies out.

The shithead neighbors were banging on the ceiling this evening. Anytime that Madi walks into the kitchen they bang on the ceiling. Wait a second, you ask, we thought you lived in a townhouse, how are there people below you? I keep asking myself the very same question. We did all the paperwork on this place via the Internet, so we didn't actually see the place until we moved in. We didn't know there were apartements below us until about two months ago when someone moved in. Had we been aware of this fact earlier, we would have never moved in here.

Anyway, it seems their bedroom is right below our kitchen, so any foot traffic sounds like elephants dancing to them. I don't really mind them complaining if we are being excessivly noisy, like playing kickball or something, but in all honesty, it's just normal walking. I even went as far to give them our phone number and told them that if they ever have any issues with noise or anything to give us a call. So what do they do? Pound on the ceiling with a broom. ANNOYING. Here's some more info... we put a gate up so Madi can't go in the kitchen after 9PM. I put a carpet and some mats out on our deck so nothing would fall down on their patio. I haven't used out NordicTrack since they moved in becuase I know it will be too loud. (I'm waiting for my brother to help move it upstairs). We've made a conscious effort to make sure that we aren't disturbing them. So at 8:30 PM on a Sunday, or even a few weeks ago at 12:30pm on a Sunday, there they are banging on the ceiling for no real reason other than they feel we're being too noisy. Seriously, what do they want us to do? I just don't get how they move in and then suddenly dictate how we live our lives. Not to mention that everytime they close their front door it shakes the whole building and scares the hell out of Madi (they woek her up twice the other day from slamming their door). They also were fighting the other night, which was very loud... then a serious of really loud noises came from down there - not sure if it was something being slammed like a door or someone throwing something, but it was really loud. Startlingly so.

So tonight after they banged on our ceiling, I stomped on the floor a few times to let them know I heard them fine and the guy came up and rang the doorbell. I thought Deni was going to kill him. Anyhoo, whatever. We told them the same thing I told them before, if you have a problem, call us, don't bang on the ceiling. We also empashized that they did move in beneath a family of three who have a toddler, key phrase there being "toddle". It's just one more annoying thing making my hunt for a house so much more important.

Other than that, the new job's cool. Started playing in a new band last week. First show is on May 31st. Not too much else at the moment. more to come. feel free to email.