Kids.

You know, I absolutely adore kids. I miss my nieces and nephews like crazy now that I live so far away from them!

But, man-oh-man can kids be annoying little creatures!!!!! The complex I live in has a LOT of families, most with little kids. Now that it is starting to get warmer, the kids are out back of my apartment playing all the time. Now, this wouldn't really be a problem except for the fact that they have decided my patio looks like a GREAT place to play. It has short walls built on either side of it which are the perfect place to sit. Lately the kids have taken to sitting on the walls and bouncing tennis balls between them. Oh, and they put their faces up against the glass doors, staring in at me, watching me eat, watch TV, clean, whatever. Again, not really a problem, except for I have the CRAZIEST DOG EVER PUT ON THE EARTH!!! Every time the kids decide to step foot onto the patio Baci goes insane barking, running at the window, trying to get to them. This of course entices the children to taunt her, making her go even more crazy. I have been trying to think of a way to go out and tell them to not play out there without sounding like a mean old lady, but alas, I can't figure out one.

And this evening, I had to become the mean old lady. After having one small kid stare at me eat my dinner, I finally decided to give up and come to my bedroom to get on the computer; they won't bug me in here, right? Wrong!!! My bedroom window is ground level (part of my bedroom wall is below grade), so they followed me in here and stared through this window to see what I was doing. Eventually something else caught their attention for a minute, so I ran and pulled my blinds shut so that I could have some tiny bit of privacy. Then they started poking a stick into my air conditioning unit, making it make a terrible racket and throwing a tennis ball at my window! Luckily they missed more than they hit with the ball, but still. I finally had to be the mean old lady and go out and say something.

It was actually kind of funny. :) As soon as my patio door opened, they all shut up and stood perfectly still, just knowing they were in major trouble. I asked them if something was wrong for them to be bothering the AC unit, to which of course they pointed out the one who had been doing it and told me exactly what she had been doing (how I knew a stick was being poked into it). I was very nice and asked them not to bother my windows or my AC again, letting them know it would be really easy to break, and then went on to ask them to stay off my patio since it drives Baci crazy. They all agreed and I stayed out there and talked to them for a few minutes, so hopefully I didn't come across as too mean. I actually enjoy watching them play, so I don't want them to NOT play out there; I just don't want them to terrorize my dog or break my AC. So, with any luck they won't decide that they hate me and start doing things on purpose just to bother me. *sigh*

Kids--can't live with them, can't kill them. :)