Life has been rough over the past 24 hours. We have possibly one of the worst neighbors that ever existed. Have I complained about him (and occasional live-in girlfriend) before? I don't remember. If not, it's only because I've been doing so many food posts because I've hated strongly disliked them ever since they moved in almost two years ago.

And if I have complained about them, then you already know, and I'm probably just forgetting because I complain about them to a lot of people. (Sorry, everyone.)

Yesterday morning, our alarm went off early so we could get up to work out, but I had slept pretty badly, so we decided to skip the workout and get up later. However, I noticed the vague hum of sound waves/bass coming through the bedroom wall and really didn't go back to sleep at all, except for maybe 5 minutes.

Then I was at work all day. When I came home, there was thumping bass coming through the shared wall in our living room area. I pounded on the wall, but nothing happened. Adam and I had really high blood pressure for a while trying to figure out what to do about it. He eventually went next door and banged on the door five separate times. Either the guy didn't want to answer or he simply couldn't hear because his music was so loud. Finally, we called the police to send someone by and then went to have dinner out.

Which is a shame because I had dinner all planned, but we just couldn't relax in our own home. When we got back, the neighbor was leaving. So we don't know if an officer showed up or not.

Then, as we were trying to fall asleep, again we heard sound vibrations coming through the wall behind our bed. We both laid there for over two hours unable to fall asleep. Finally, Adam pounded on the wall sometime after midnight and it stopped.

We think he has his TV up against the wall by our bed (though that doesn't excuse the really loud bass downstairs). I don't know what to do about it. How do you ask someone to either not push their TV up against a certain wall or to not use it at a certain volume or after certain hours? All I know is, after we complain to our landlord this week, if the property management does nothing about it, we're definitely going to either break our lease or just bear it until September and then move out.

We don't want to move. In fact, we both agreed yesterday that we'd be fine living there until we save up enough for a house ... if not for the neighbor.

How ridiculous is it to be forced out of a perfectly good home against your will because of one loud, selfish jerk?

Anyway, I have to stop talking about it now. The lack of sleep is making me extra cranky.

So. Two weeks ago, I made this whole grain salad. It is good. 

I wasn't a huge fan of quinoa the first time I made it. Or at least, I wasn't sure how I felt about it. It's a weird looking little grain the way it pops with its little spirals when you cook it. And it has a more distinct flavor than couscous or other grains that are mostly flavored by what you add to them. But this second time around, I decided I do like it.

It's hard to see everything that's in it since it's mainly the same color, but there are grapes, quinoa, chicken and almonds in there.

Oooh, so here's an idea that would make it even better, I think. Instead of buying an original roasted chicken, what if you used like a lemon pepper chicken? That would be good!

I loved the burst of the grapes in it. I liked the crunch of the almonds. And overall, it kept me full all afternoon. Success!