That's very interesting, especially considering that so few people know their neighbors these days. I suppose homes are very different from apartments in this respect, but I can't remember the last time I had a conversation with a neighbor. In fact, the last several places I have lived, I never even met my neighbors. Yikes.

Now that you've gone public with how great your neighborhood is, the city will be sending out notices that your block will be bulldozed to make way for a freeway bypass.

Oh, I'm not worried. Arthur Dent is on his way to lie down in front of the bulldozer.

you so rock , i love you man!!!! :D

I totally agree with you about being fortunate to have great neighbors. We have been able to spend birthdays, anniversaries and even holidays with our neighbors. As transplants to our city, we feel really lucky to live in such a great neighborhood. Glad for you that you have the same.

No shit! When I was growing up we had the greatest neighbors. This year I found out how fantastic they were.

As the daughter of two teachers, my parents were always in and out and we usually fended for ourselves when it game to dinner. I SWEAR there was never anything in the house! Often, my dad would walk in the living room with a awesome looking sandwhich and my sisters and I would wonder how he could whip up something like that with "nothing" in the fridge. He always said he "just made it". Recently I started hanging out with our neighbors daughters again and as we thought back to those days, one of the girls said, "It was so great back then, just walking in and out of each others houses. At the end of the day, I would walk in the kitchen and wave at your dad as he was making his afternoon snack!"

I am also thankful that we have wonderful neighbors. If they only wouldn't spend so much time on yardwork. My yard looks like crap in comparison. Cheers.

Hey! I could probably contest you on the Absolute Worst Neighbors from Hell bit. Mine are quite the piece of work. 6 kids and 2 or 3 adults living in a 2 bedroom townhouse. Constant noise from the kids running up and down the stairs next door. Our shared front porch becoming the hangout for all the neighbor kids and my front yard becoming their garbage can. Always using 3 or their assigned 2 parking places so that my husband and I end up parking down by the next building. Our screen door window being broken and replaced while we were gone for the weekend without an explanation or apology and apparently without a broom to sweep up the pile of broken glass.

Oh.....and did I mention the guy grilling out at 1:30AM????

i thought i had finally found good neighbors. when we moved in they made us a cake, it was so nice, we would stand out side enjoying the spring air talking for hours, then in june when my son turned six he had a harry potter birthday party, and when they came over for the party they turned around and left and the said their son was allowed aroun satan worsipers, because he had a harry potter birthday party. not so nice neighbors afer all.

I was just thinking the other day that if I get to move someday and say goodbye to Property Management Hell (you don't know what it means to have bad neighbors until you have to manage them and really earn their endless spite), that the number one criteria would be the people around any potential new home. I like your interview question, "Are you cool?" I mean, it covers so many things! Anyway, glad to know someone else already tried it out and had success.

Its nice not to live next to crack addicts anymore. Although in my case we just waited the neighbours out instead of moving ourselves.

I understand the pain of the worst neighbors from hell and often wondered if the spawn of satan was living next door to us

now we live in an amazing area where I DO know my neighbors...it was rather shocking, but oh so pleasing

Having lived across the street from the neighbors from hell, I could not agree more. It's good to know you can knock on your neighbors door and ask for help if you need it, or give it if they need it. Everything else is fluff and real estate ads.
Love your site. Glad to know you are doing well and that there IS life beyond Star Trek!
Happy New Year to you and your family.
D.

We are very fortunate to live in the neighborhood we do. In fact in conversing with one of our new neighbors (some 5 years ago), it turns out her son and I went to school together from 4th grade right on through high school.

The other neighbors have become an extended family as we are with them.
We hit the jackpot of luck. :)

For some reason I am so comforted to know that I am not the only person in Los Angeles who goes cookie insane in December! My standards are gingerbread, spritz and fudge, and then I mix it up with Rolo cookies, hazelnut cookies, Mexican wedding cakes, peppermint crescents, kissy cookies... Sigh! Bring on the cookie-free New Year so I and all my friends and family can fit in our pants again!

This reminds me when I was younger, and moved with my parents, to a small close with really nice neighbours. Our new next door neighbours came and helped us unload the vans, and the 4-year old kid across the street came promptly over and asked "Could your oldest boy come out to play?" (me). I was 19!!

We live next to a house that is posessed. We have had a family that the father was killed when his plane ran in to the Andes, had a family that the father was in a iron lung, we have a family move out in the middle of the night, had a family who would practice their music every night almost all night, several who have broken up because of the house so I can always top the wost neibors. One family the son stood on top of the car and peed on the on the other boy as he ran around the car.

Same here. I just moved to a new condo in April and my neighbors are very friendly. We're always having parties & cookouts almost every weekend.

In 2001, I lived in a little cul de sac on a dead end street that was not part of a subdivision. There were about ten townhouses and duplexes in our little neighborhood. Two of my best friends lived in there. Another good friend lived there. There was also an old hippie couple who lived in there that we all became great friends with. Me and my best friends had dreams of trying to buy our townhouses from the couple who owned everything in the cul de sac, setting up a wireless network for the neighborhood and trying to go semi co-op. Alas, it was not to be. We knew it, too, but it was nice to think about. We still had career changes and grad school ahead for most of us. But something like that is something that I very strongly aspire to someday.

"When we were looking for a new house, even if the neighborhood looked nice, (which many of them did) I went out of my way to knock on doors, and meet the potential new neighbors. ("Hi, I'm Wil, and I may be buying a house on this street. Are you cool?")"

That sounds like a great idea, but as a perenially shy person I have to ask how you managed that without sounding terribly rude - because that's what I'd worry about constantly if I wanted to try it.

BTW, if anyone reading this is responsible for all the unleashed dogs roaming my neighborhood that terrorize my kids when trying to walk our dog, I just wanted to let you know that I'm the guy who keeps calling Animal Control on you. If you don't like it, tough. Stop breaking the law. It's not enough that your dog is "sweet" or "would never hurt anyone". It IS enough that allowing an unleashed dog outside your yard is against the law.
I should start penning your animals in the garage and gassing them.
Can you tell from this post what kind of neighbors I have?

My yard is a bit slovenly, but I'm a cool neighbor. Especially with kids. They love to come over and check out the motorcycles. And since I'm working in the driveway with the garage door open, they invariably see the jukebox, skeeball machine, etc. and I wind up having a party. I'm a regular pied piper of the cul-de-sac.

And I also let the kids walk my dog. They seem to enjoy watching my animal make poop more than I do.

I miss my old neighborhood for this very reason. We had cool if a little bit quirky neighbors. We said hello when we passed by and helped each other with yard work and other sundries.

Moving back into an apartment complex has really sucked, though we did at least meet one neighbor on our move-in day because her dog ran into our place.

We've been friendly ever since.

I have a neighbor from hell.
He rakes all the leaves and straw from his yard into the neighbors yards. On trash day he puts his trash in front the houses on either side (which is better thanhe used to do because he used to leave them in front of their houses all week long)He mows his grass to dirt level usually in the middle of the night. Loves to fire up the leave blower around 3:30AM.
The best part is he won't park his huge dual axle trailer in his own yard so he will park it in front any of the 6 houses that surround his house. He pulls the whole truck and trailer at least 3 full feet on the unfortunate neighbors yard. We put a "FOR SALE" sign on it once, and told him if he did it again we'd have it towed away, and kept that promise. We had it towed the the very next week.

But Wil, aren't you selling the house and leaving these nice neighbors? That's kind of sad, but it sounds like you have the house-hunting down to a science. Best of luck wherever you end up, and your new neighbors will be fortunate to have such nice, cookie-sharin' folks coming into the neighborhood!

"if you can't give plague to your family at Christmas, what can you give them?)"

Again, this line had me practically rolling on the floor! You are so funny, Wil! "Won't you be my neighbor?"

That's wonderful! :-)

...and at the opposite end of the spectrum, we have this situation going on next door to us in our new neighborhood:

http://soapbox.wilwheaton.net/viewtopic.php?t=39701

Isn't it funny how we so often need to be faced with bad before we can see/appreciate good? Balance, perspective, scale ... not sure.

But good for you that you found a warm and happy community! I too am fortunate to have found such a place after having had not so nice experiences in the past. Although we don't share cookies, we do chat over the fence and look out for each other.

And btw ... I applaud your de-commericializing
Christmas. What a wonderful gift to give your kids!

Sorry wil, but I had the neighbors from hell. They owned 12 pugs that grunted and spewed snot into my yard 24 hours a day. I still have nightmares!;-()

Does anyone remember the "My Redneck Neighbor" homepage? The author has recently taken the site down, but the cached copy still exists.

http://cp.yahoo.net/search/cache?p=redneck+neighbor&ei=UTF-8&cop=mss&url=h_qKx2LcGg4J:www.joespc.com/carlos/redneck.htm

If you can't have Will's neighbors, hopefully you at least get someone that you can make fun of online. ;-)

My neighborhood sucks.

No one talks or even waves when they're outside.
My next door neighbor hasn't said two words to me in all fourteen years of my life. He lives in a blue house with a black garage. He used to have a dog. And I used to be too scared to go to his house when I trick-or-treated.

And all the boys used to play football with me until they all got girlfriends.
Damnit.

hey wil! i love that everyone shares about their neighbours here! its great! it sounds like you live in a really nice area! it reminds me of when i used to live in San Deigo; my neighbours were so cool. we're still in contact even tho its been 10 years living on opposite sides of the world!

take care...
rach

Ah, yes, aren't The Absolute Worst Neighbors From Hell lovely? I have a couple of my own:) One loves to test their ever-broken muffler (attached to what may be known to some as a car) at 2:00am, another does not hide their constant fighting with siblings, parents, grandparents, and children (all of whom live in the same house) from the rest of the neighborhood, and yet another chooses to mow their lawn at obscure hours of the morning.

God I love my street.

I think everyone has scary neighbors at some point. I totally sympathize. Your blog seems to be inspiring for entries every so often, thanks!

Hey there

I am also a "cookie making fiend" at the holiday time. This year I made only 41 types because I run a hotel and didn't have much time! (The most I have ever made was 97 different types as well as 39 gingerbread houses.)

Would love to share any special recipes of your favorites. Am always looking for a new kind.

Running a hotel also gives you the worst kind of neighbors as well as the best. I live on property and you have to be careful who finds out where your apartment is!!!

Hope you and your family have a very happy and healthy new year.

LOL--I haven't made it over to this blog in ages, and when I do, Wil once again proves his coolness with a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy refernce.

Now there's a guy who really knows where his towel is!

I probably thought to check in here because my husband and I *finally* got around to watching Star Trek Nemesis last night, and we remembered that Wil was supposed to have a scene in that movie, but it got cut. We were trying to figure out what the scene could have been and where it would be in the movie.

Funny, on New Years Eve we were hanging out at one of the neighbor's houses with most of the rest of the neighborhood--and one of the subjects that came up was how most of us have never lived in such a friendly 'hood. Polite waves to nameless people before, that's about it. But this street, this is different. People went out of their way to get to know each other, and now we socialize and have a great time. But the sad thing is that it's a military neighborhood, most of us arrived near the same time, and during this coming year most of us will either be transferred or retired, and we may never find that again.

That's funny that you posted that. I live next door to my boss and we don't get along. There was a huge fight on New year's Eve and as much as I love my house, I want to move now. I hope if I ever buy a new house, I get along with my new neighbors. I think I was meant to read your post today.

I want to live on your street, Wil! My street USED to be like that. Then all the "originals" passed on, moved or otherwise left the neighborhood. Now most the new neighbors are complete opposites. They ignore you, keep to themselves or downright think they're superior to you, in which case, why SHOULD they talk to the likes of you!

Ah! How I miss the good old days!

BTW, my favorites on the holiday period are Snickerdoodles and Holiday Red Raspberry Chocolate bars!

When Ogrek and I lived in Norwich we had few memorable neighbours - not absolute horrors but just no-one who was prepared to socialise, even saying hello just seemed like too much effort. We moved to the West Country in April 2001 and as soon as we got there we exchanged more words with the neighbours in one day than we'd done in the eighteen months we'd lived in our last place. Admittedly the neighbours were just pleased to see what they considered normal people moving in for a change - they'd spent years with Neighbours From Hell before we arrived, our present place was once even a Drugs front o.O We do have one set of Hellish Neighbours at present, largely my fault because they are a pair of teenagers I 'saved' from a supposedly miserable life in London, but everybody else have just been wonderful.

} {
^_~

Natalie,gosh darn it!? Will you stop rolling on the floor everytime Wil has something funny to say? What is it with you and rolling on the floor?
Enough already!

Well, at least your first neighbors didn't kill your pets... did they? I know mine do. Grrr....... evil people......

I grew up with the neighbors from hell, so I appreciate what you write. And now keeping peace with the neighbors and being friendly and considerate is so important to me. I like my neighbors now. And our neighbors cats, who always come to visit. :) And those neighbors who gave me a lift to work last year in their ancient cool car cos no buses were running.

And about them cookies: agreed. My cousin sent me homemade cookies for Christmas, and of all my presents I loved those the most. :) Family is everything!

I grew up with the neighbors from hell, so I appreciate what you write. And now keeping peace with the neighbors and being friendly and considerate is so important to me. I like my neighbors now. And our neighbors cats, who always come to visit. :) And those neighbors who gave me a lift to work last year in their ancient cool car cos no buses were running.

And about them cookies: agreed. My cousin sent me homemade cookies for Christmas, and of all my presents I loved those the most. :) Family is everything!

I think my across the street neighbors might come in second for, if not win, a Absolute Worst Neighbors From Hell contest. I swear, these people are *always* drunk and like to shoot bottle rockets into our backyard for no particular reason whatsoever. And one year when we asked them to stop because my sister was violently ill with a migraine, they egged our house!

I'm glad to see that your neighbors are really cool people and it's a bit comforting to know that there *are* good neighbors out there somewhere.

You are so lucky to have good neighbours. As for neighbours from hell that I have met, I have only one word: leafblower. Aaaagggh....

our neighbors suck. My parents aren't very neighbor friendly, so its kind of hard to judge them. I would get to know them, but they're all in their, like, fifties. Not my cup of tea. Glad you have great neighbors though!

So, what do we have to do to get you to post the snowman cookie recipe? :)

The trick is to move into the house that has been sold by the not-so-nice neighbors. The former owners of our house were not horrible people, but they had issues. Our neighbors, all of whom are great people, are so happy to have people living here that take good care of the place and keep up the property that they've made point of being nice to use and making friends.

i had neighbors from hell too...these folks rented the house next door and had alot of company...company that would stop by for two minutes or less...then leave...that's how long it took for the drug transaction i guess...and you could hear their company coming a block away...'cause they would arrive in the neigbors drive with stereo fully cranked...they had a humungous dog chained up in the back yard that barked every time i set foot outside my house and also at any creature that would move in a half mile radius...one of my other neighbors...tired of the barking and cranked up stereos bought the place and tore it down...now we have no trouble at all with the renters next door!

I can totally sympathize with the neighbours from hell.

Shortly after we were married, hard luck hit us combined with the rental unit we were living in selling VERY quickly and we were FORCED to find somewhere - ANYWHERE - very quickly.

With just myself and my wife (no pets until after we moved in), we signed a lease in a (yes, I'm bracing for the jokes) trailer park, and this began "The Year Of Hell", and no I am not referring to the Voyager episode. Put the gun down, Wil.

In a trailer park in the east end of Toronto, I was not only faced with ONE neighbour from hell, I was surrounded by them.

Neighbour #1 rented the unit next door shortly after we moved in. A taxi driver had lived there before with whom we had enjoyed good relations. Not with this guy. Neighbour #1 didn't actually LIVE in the unit, he just PAID for it. His two reprobate minor children lived there instead and had complete run of the place, having friends over and loud music sometimes until 3, 4, or 5 o'clock in the morning. With the music came of course the drugs and the wonderful effects that come with that. Imagine looking out your window at some ungodly hour of the morning to see where the noise is coming from and seeing your neighbours stoned out of their minds sitting on lounge chairs on the ROOF of the trailer. I often wondered about this behaviour until I realized that the rooftop vantage point gave good surveillance of the driveway of the complex. From there they could watch for police cruisers, and at the sight of one, flee inside the unit, turn off the lights, and lock the door. We watched this movie and about 20 of it's sequels until finally one very annoyed police officer took his lead-weighted night stick and REMOVED the door. I have never given ANYONE a longer standing ovation.

Behind door number two we have neighbour number two. Neighbour number two is an "almost elderly" woman who weighs about (I'm guessing) about 200 pounds and is about 4'8" tall. You're ahead of me. You guessed it. Nudist. Imagine my joy at having the pastor of my church over to watch the ball game one day when "Alice" decided she was going to go outside and paint the trailer - IN THE NUDE. No fence, no clothes. She sat on what I would describe as a "shoe shine stool" (you know, one of those little 6 inch jobbies) with a paint roller in her hand. Her butt almost swallowed the stool. As he rolled the roller back and forth from left to right you could watch the WAVES of fat rolling from left to right like tidal waves in an irate tropical storm. After this incident I finally called the local police and asked them what could be done, because I'd simply had enough. The conversation went something like this:

Them: Is she on her property?
Me: Yes
Them: Is she making a rude or obscene gesture?
Me: I would argue that her body is an obscene gesture.
Them: (slight pause with signs of restrained laughter) I'm sorry sir, there's nothing we can do legally. (click)

When the year was up, we were OUT of there.

So yes Wil. I appreciate the need for good friends and neighbours. We are in a wonderful building now and get along with everybody here.

Hope you enjoyed the story.

Oh, I can relate to the worst neighbors from hell. I have them. My neighbor is a criminal. He is guilty of wife beating, theft, misrepresentation, destruction of property, insurance fraud, negligence, illegal hunting, tresspassing, illegal disposal of hazardous material, cruelty to animals, harassment, training dogs for dogfighting/holding dogfights, and assault with a deadly weapon (and those are just the things I know about). The only thing he got arrested for was the assault with a deadly weapon but they let him walk. We lost our house insurance because of a false claim he filed against us. We've had to pay over $30,000 to repair the damages he did to our property and to replace things he stole or broke. We don't have the option to move though because we have sunk so much money into this place that we can't afford to move. Besides, we were here first. I used to catch him coming into my yard to steal stuff when he thought nobbody was home (and once I chased him off with a rifle (it didn't work, it was an old thing from world war 2 that was only for decorative purposes-- but he didn't do that). We got a new gun. A very big gun (an M-14) and he doesn't come around here anymore. Well, that and we fixed our fence up and put up no tresspassing signs.
Sorry. Just had to vent.
I'm glad you have cool neighbors. My second closest neighbor is about 2 miles away and he's really nice.

I used to have the neighbours from hell too...

Until I invested in a full drum kit which now takes precedence in the front room infront of the windows.

I found this retalitory action to have a profound effect.

I am now just sneered at with contempt and disdain. Which works for me!

My neighbors! I have a rental property near me, and the tenants leave furniture in the yard, trash in the alley, park in my yard, have a thousand junk cars, plant flowers in my flower bed, trespass across my front lawn, pick up my dog and carry him to their yard...

And when I complained to the landlord, he sent me a "cease and desist" letter threatening to sue me.