Photo Challenge

Day 23…my shoes

I’ve been wearing these LL Bean shoes for as long as I can remember.  They are very comfy and LL Bean always has them in stock!

John and Ruth Schey of Marblehead are the most evil neighbors on the planet hands down!!!

This was the house that they thought was an eyesore.  Looks beautiful to me!

before tear down

This is what happened after the homeowner lost his legal battle to the most evil neighbors EVER

The rest of the story from Boston.com

MARBLEHEAD — In the end, the giant claw of an oversize backhoe needed only hours to do what 18 years of litigation, hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees, and a bottomless well of angst and acrimony had been unable to accomplish before today.

Beginning about 7:15 a.m., by court order, Wayne Johnson’s 5,000-square-foot, million-dollar house overlooking Marblehead Harbor finally came tumbling down.

Johnson, a financial adviser in his 70s, is moving to a rental apartment in Salem, ready “to pick himself up and start a new life in a new location,” said David Noonan, his attorney.

But Johnson’s Marblehead neighbors, pediatricians John and Ruth Schey, are basking in the unfamiliar glow of natural sunshine, unblocked by the 35-foot-tall home that rose beside them in the mid-1990s, their attorney said.

“For the first time, it was light inside this beautiful house,” Frank McElroy, the Scheys’ attorney, said this morning.

Massachusetts Land Court ruled in 2000 that the Johnson home on Bubier Road, must come down, because the lot on which it sat did not meet the town’s minimum-width requirements, McElroy said.

But a string of expensive appeals, which featured a battle of intractable wills between neighbors who lived only 28 feet apart, led to a dozen years of waiting and wondering.

The legal fight effectively ended in December when Johnson withdrew his latest zoning appeal, McElroy said.

For the embattled homeowner, the fight has been a demoralizing setback, his attorney said.

“It’s been pretty devastating. Most people when they’re 74 years old are looking forward to retirement,” Noonan said of Johnson, who is divorced. “It would strike me that life is too short for people to be so vindictive, so vengeful.”

Johnson “lost the battle, but I think the real sad portion of the story is that an accommodation could not have been made with the Scheys,” Noonan said. “I’m sure they’re drinking margaritas” in celebration.

Neither the Scheys nor Johnson could be reached for comment today.

Noonan said that Johnson had offered to swap homes with the Scheys, who then would have had a wide view of the harbor and Marblehead Neck. Today, McElroy scoffed at the recollection of that overture, as well as a proposal to alter the building plans.

“They were jokes,” McElroy said. “My clients’ house is a beautiful, absolutely gorgeous, shingle-style house that is designed for where it’s built. The place he built was not very interesting or nice.”

In Noonan’s view, his client was victimized over a nonexistent water view that the Scheys argued they had lost. Although both properties are adjacent to town-owned Seaside Park, the Scheys do not have a good harbor view because of the park’s trees, Noonan maintained.

“It’s a Pyrrhic victory to be fighting for a water view that doesn’t exist and will not exist,” Noonan said.

McElroy insisted that the Scheys now will enjoy such a view from their two-story home. But the more important goal, he said, was access to the sun.

“The illegal density completely blocked off light to this place and created an unbelievable privacy issue,” McElroy said.

The case bears similarities to the demolition ordered recently for a $10 million home in Truro. In both cases, local building permits were approved for the homes, appeals were filed by neighbors, the owners were warned they could lose their homes, and state judges eventually ruled that the residences violated town zoning law.

The original rationale for approving the building permit in Marblehead seems to have been obscured by time. Mark Bobrowski, the town’s special counsel in the case, said he was unsure of the reasoning. Although the Zoning Board of Appeals later voted, 3 to 2, to overturn the approval, four votes were needed to reverse, Bobrowski said.

Town officials, he said, are relieved to put the case behind them. “I’m sure it’s been nerve-racking,” Bobrowski said.

Some town residents had other words to describe this long war of legal attrition.

“It’s just totally ridiculous,” said Jerry Cooke, shaking his head, an employee at ACE Hardware here. “It’s a waste of time and taxpayers’ money. I think it’s absolutely asinine.”

The house, he said, should have come down a dozen years ago.

Tony Brogna, who owns a downtown pizza shop bearing his name, shook his head in bewilderment.

“I feel bad for the owner or whoever has money involved,” Brogna said. “But I guess they’ve got no choice. I hate to see that, but what are you going to do?”

Noonan and McElroy also bemoaned the money spent on the case.

“The amount spent on legal fees is obscene,” Noonan said. “That puts the grudge kind of in context, that people would be willing to spend in excess of six figures to fight a neighbor to tear down a house that, quite frankly, was an attractive house.”

But Johnson, according to McElroy, spent much more than the Scheys.

Residents on the quiet street, tucked between Seaside Park and the causeway to Marblehead Neck, spoke quietly with each other but did not wish to comment publicly about their neighbors.  (because clearly they are vindictive people!!!)

Photo Challenge

Day 22…Where you work.

My Cube

My Cube

Front of the Building

Photo Challenge

Day 21…a favorite photo of me.  (Can’t believe I’ve kept up with this for 21 days actually!!)

I usually do not like photos of me at all.

At our first Chocolate Brunch my friend Jenn took this photo of me which I do like!

Keg Chocolate Bar

This photo of me in San Francisco last summer makes me happy!

KEG SF

Blair is married but is still confused about Chuck and now Dan?!

What?!

What are the writers doing?!

This is all wrong.  WRONG!!!!!

The only part of this episode they got right was when the real Charlotte Rhodes was finally revealed !!!  Ivy is outed as a fake.  Finally!

Sad moment tonight was when CeCe passed away.  I liked her character a lot!

Only a few good quotes tonight.

Chuck:  Here’s Monkey’s play date now.

Chuck to Dan:  I’m a sadist not a masochist.

Blair to Charlotte/Lola:  You!  You there in the hideous headband!

Come on writers.  Turn this around!!!!

Photo Challenge

Day 20… handwriting

Handwriting

Photo Challenge

Day 19…Something you hate to do.

Why would I take photos of something I hate to do?!  I am changing this day to Something I LIKE to do!  : )

Today was a good Sunday.  I made stuffed shells (ok I could’ve used a little more sauce but the brothers like them like this) and meatballs.  So yummmmmmmy!

Keg's stuffed shells

Then I watched a movie On Demand.  ’Something Borrowed’ and it was cute!

Started pinning every day!  LOVING IT!!!!

But recently I noticed some negativity on there.  Yes it is bound to happen when a million women get together on website right?!

People were pinning photos that inspired them and others are leaving negative and rude comments.

Why?  If you don’t like something that someone has ‘pinned’ just move along and keep your negative comments to yourself !!!

I mean seriously people.  If you have nothing nice to say…SAY NOTHING!!!!

How would the negative posters like it if I went into their boards and commented on their dream house, dream vacation or dream closet with:  GOOD LUCK WITH THAT…….DREAM ON CAUSE IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN!!!

Jeesh!  Some people can ruin the fun everywhere!

Ok.  Rant over!!!!

But, I will peek at Pinterest just a little less because of this.

The Vow

Went to see ‘The Vow’ today and I enjoyed it.

Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams did a great job and of course it was a tearjerker.

As if it isn’t sad enough the end song is the Cure’s ‘Pictures of You’  (tears!)

Photo Challenge

Day 18…Drink

Strawberry Daiquiri from Atlantis, Bahamas

Atlanis Bahamas Daiquiri

Tonga Room, San Francisco

Tonga Room Daiquiri