Gross.

Our grill was stolen. Mr. Squab noticed it when he came home today; I'd been outside in the afternoon but I have no idea if it was there then or not. It was a pretty sizeable grill, and quite heavy, so we're guessing that whoever took it did it last night, with a friend to help and a getaway truck. This sucks for many reasons. One, no grill! And we like to use it a lot in the summer! Two, it was a surprise present from my sister and my stepdad, and I don't know why but somehow it feels worse to have a gift stolen than something we'd bought ourselves. Three, it just feels so icky and invasive. With all the work we've been doing on the house, especially outside, I'd been feeling pretty good about where we live - we've been meeting a lot of our neighbors as we work on the front yard, and everyone has been so nice, and the house is looking good. Now it's hard not to feel suspicious and like we live in the semi-ghetto again. Our back yard, where the grill was, isn't fenced, but it is up on a hill a good 6 feet above the sidewalk, so to steal something out of our yard you really have to make an effort to leave the public space of the sidewalk and enter our private zone. We've been leaving some of Ellie's toys out there, the occasional ladder or shovel - you know, stuff that you leave outside sometimes. Only now I guess we can't. Which sucks. On the plus side, I guess this makes it easier to figure out what to get Mr. Squab for Father's Day. On the minus side, when we get a replacement we'll have to figure out some way of chaining it to the house. Stupid theft.