Another reason this house is awesome:

the neighbors next door are having a party; i think it's for one of their daughters.  they are super nice and the mom is an english teacher at the middle school that alex will be attending next year.  when they cut down some dead trees in their yard, she came over and warned me, in case the dogs got upset.  when we first moved here i was terrified of the dogs barking.  at the old house, barking dogs meant yelling obscenities over the fence, things being thrown at the dogs, general craziness on the front porch and sheriff calls.  the neighbor in question told us multiple times that other neighbors on the block were annoyed with our dogs.  she had the sheriff come out multiple times (particularly after we got willis) and we were threatened with fines.  one time the sheriff timed the dogs' barking while he was on their doorstep having responded to a call.  the message he left on our voicemail was to the effect of having witnessed first-hand the dogs barking for 20 minutes straight.  i could go on and on, but i would rather focus now on how different it is here:

no one has complained about the dogs.  as in the example above, they were concerned for their safety and well-being.  they described frightening instances of interactions with the previous owner's dogs.  the dogs were vicious and once trapped the english teacher with her daughter in the car in their driveway.  apparently they escaped frequently.  craziness. the dogs have a dog friend behind us name isabella (izzie) that barks as much as they do.  nary a negative word has been exchanged with any of my neighbors since we moved here.  the first night we spent was dre's 30th birthday, when she and josh became engaged, was 21Jul2010.  that's just so perfectly adorable, you can't help but go "ahhh", or is it "awww"?  :)
now when the dogs bark, i don't worry nearly as much.  i stop them because i want to be polite, not from fear of litigation.  so awesome.