My wife and I have lived in our present condominium for a little over two years now and we have observed (or not observed) some strange things going on mostly in the last year. The complex is over ten years old and we bought our unit from a young couple who were moving to Shanghai for a few years. We never thought to ask them any questions other than the usual things you want to check on when you are buying a new home.

I want to describe the events but I am not going to posit an explanation as I will leave it up to you, dear reader, to come up with your own rationales for what has happened. I only ask that you not automatically apply Occam's Razor as that would pre-suppose insanity or dementia for my wife and I and we have not exhibited any such symptoms.

The first "happening" occurred to me last year with my wife as a peripheral participant. My wife had fixed a pot of chili which we both love and we were each getting a bowl before heading to our lost to watch TV. We like to sprinkle some mozzarella cheese on our chili to add to the taste so I usually buy some pre-shredded cheese in a plastic bag which can then be zip-locked after it has been opened. We had a new bag. My wife prepared her bowl first and headed to TV land. I then prepared my bowl and took out a handful of the shredded cheese to sprinkle on my chili. I was pretty hungry and knew that I would probably be coming back for a second helping so after zipping the bag up I just left it there on the counter next to the stove.

I watched TV while eating my chili and during a commercial break I headed down to get my second helping. After ladling in about half a bowl, I looked for the bag of shredded cheese. It wasn't there. I figured I had probably absent-mindedly put it back in the refrigerator so I looked there on the shelves. Not there. I looked in the drawer where we usually keep the cheese. Not there. Puzzled, I then thought maybe I had pulled a real stupid move and perhaps dumped the cheese in the garbage bag we hang from a knob on one of the drawers in our island block in the kitchen. Not there. I dumped the contents of the bag on the floor. Not there. A little unsettled, I then asked my wife a dumb question. Even though I knew she had never left the TV room, I called up to her to ask if she had come down and gotten the bag of cheese. Of course, she answered no. She then asked why I was asking. When I told her she immediately scoffed and said I must have made a mistake and advised me to look again. Irritated, I looked again in the same places and called up to her again that I couldn't find it. She knows I am pretty thorough
so she said she would come down to help me find it.

To make a long story short, we took the kitchen apart by not only repeating what I had done but opening all other drawers and cabinets in the kitchen. Feeling silly we then checked all other drawers, shelves and cabinets in the entire condominium. We even checked behind and to the sides of the refrigerator. Nothing.

When I related this story to my friends they scoffed and said that it would turn up and I would know it by the odor and/or collection of ants or roaches. Well it has now been months and the bag has never turned up. We have seen no sign of roaches or ants and we don't have mice. You tell me.

Second story: My wife works at a big upscale department store. A few months ago she won an I-Pod at an employees' raffle during a meeting and brought it home. My wife and I don't really use things like that very much so we put it on a tray on the kitchen counter in a corner to give to one of my daughters when either one came by. We don't have a maid or maid service and at the present time we don't entertain much so we did not have any visitors to our condo during that time frame. One day we noticed that the I-Pod was missing. Gone. I had not touched it and neither had my wife. We looked all over the condo for it but had no success in finding it. You tell me.

Third story: We have a master bathroom and a second bathroom located near another bedroom. My wife keeps all of her "stuff" in the master bathroom and uses all the available drawers. In the mornings when I don't go work out, I will shower in the master bathroom but will then walk to the second bathroom where all my toiletries are located. I brush my teeth and take care of all other necessities there including drying my hair. I use a hair dryer, a red one, given to me by my wife when the hair dryer I had been using quit working. One morning, the hair dryer was gone. I ALWAYS put it in the second drawer because that is where there is an open spot for it and that is where I put my hairbrush. It was not there. My wife was still asleep so I quietly walked back to the master bathroom thinking maybe she had borrowed it to use for her hair if her own hair dryer had possible quit. Not there. I went back and looked in the other drawers and under the sink. Again not there. I didn't want to wake my wife so I ended up using the purple hairdryer located in my workout bag. Later that day, I called and asked my wife about it and she said she had not taken it as her dryer was working fine. She said she would also look for it. When I got home, she said she could not find it. The next morning it was still missing. Resigned to its loss I once again used my gym dryer. The next morning as I was getting ready to go work out I checked and it was still missing. That evening I was brushing my teeth in that bathroom and for the hell of it decided to check again. It was there. I called out to my wife and asked her if she had found it and put it back. She was as surprised as I was and said that she had not done anything. However it was back in its usual place. You tell me.

That's all I am going to write about tonight but there have been some other things which have happened and which have upset my wife and I even more. I have to think about it before I talk about those events.

Stay tuned......