Sometimes it's better to light a flamethrower than curse the darkness

I just got five calls in five minutes from some random phone number (my caller ID says that random caller is someone named Marcus who is a stranger to me). Turns out it was someone from HR trying to let someone know that the cake for the manager's birthday wasn't ready and they're running late. So there will be cake later. Probably the requisite singing of birthday dirges. And I'm under the impression that the HR manager may also entertain the assembled masses with that softshoe and shimmy number that she usually reserves for meetings with the department's VP. It is as not-quite-right as it sounds, believe me...

The dog had her stitches taken out yesterday, and her ear infection is coming back, so I got *more* medication for her. When I ran home to drop her off before picking up my husband from work, I was approached by the homeless guy living in the van parked in the neighbor's yard. He wanted to know if we had any odd jobs he could do (and kept repeating how he would ask a fair price). We're already not crazy about the fact that there is a homeless guy living in a van next door, and the ensuing conversation just reaffirmed my discomfort. He seems to know way too much about what goes on around my house. He asked about the pile of cement in the yard, about the condition of the pool (cold, slightly green and full of pollen, if you must know), about what we were building in the back - so he obviously had been looking through the fence at least on occassion. Not to mention he reeked of beer and every other story was prefaced with "I was in the back listening to my radio, drinking a beer...". He seems like a nice enough man who has been keeping the neighbor's property up pretty well (otherwise it really would look like a complete stye), and we thought he was mostly harmless up until this point. But we're not comfortable with him asking about our business in such a way. He's squatting, and if push came to shove or the situation became really unbearable we'd do something about it. Now at least I know that there's a possibility that someone's peeping into our yard, and I'll be more, um...modest...about wandering out to the laundry room in the early hours of the morning.