Anyway, normally I wouldn't care about someone's yard, but Baker's mess（混乱） bugged（折磨） my dad big-time, and he channeled（引导，开导） his frustration（挫败） into our yard. He said it was our neighborly duty to show them what a yard's supposed to look like. So while Mike and Matt are busy plumping up（(使)圆胖） their boa, I'm having to mow and edge（修剪） our yard, then sweep（打扫） the walkways and gutter（小水沟）, which is going a little overboard, if you ask me.
And you'd think Juli's dad---who is a big, strong,brick-laying（砌砖） dude（家伙）---would fix the place up（fix...up 修理）, but no. According to my mom, he spends all his free time painting（绘画）. His landscapes（风景画） don't seem like anything special to me, but judging（评判，审判，评价） by his price tags（身价）, he thinks quite a lot of them. We see them every year at the Mayfield Country Fairm（梅菲尔德乡村画展）, and my parents always say the same thing:"The world have more beauty in it if he'd fix up the yard instead."
Mom and Juli's mom do talk some. I think my mom feels sorry for Mrs. Baker---she says she married a dreamer, and because of that, one of two of them will always be unhappy.
Whatever. Maybe Juli's aesthetic（审美观） sensibilities（敏感性，识别力） have been permanently（永久的） screwed up（困惑的；担忧的；神经质的） by her father and none of this is her fault, but Juli has always thought that that sycamore tree was God's gift to our little corner（角落） of the universe（宇宙，环球）.
简意：
通常来说，我是不会关心别人的院子是什么样的。不过贝克家的混乱折磨了我爸爸很长时间，于是他迁怒于我们自家的院子。他说告诉他们怎么收拾院子，这是作为邻居的责任。所以当麦克和梅特忙于养他们的宠物蛇时，我就在不停地修剪院子，打扫人行道。
或许你们都会认为，朱莉的爸爸会因此去收拾他们自己的院子吧。很遗憾，他大部分空闲时间都在绘画。对我来说，我觉得他的画没什么特别，不过它的价值却让我不得不好好审视它，他的画每年都会参加梅菲尔德乡村画展。我的父母也总是跟我说：“如果他收拾收拾院子，世界将更美好”。
我的妈妈和朱莉的妈妈经常聊天，我觉得我妈妈应该对朱莉妈妈感到很抱歉---她说她嫁给了一个梦想家，因此，他们两人之中总有一个会经常不开心。
或许，朱莉的审美观是受了她爸爸的影响，跟她一点儿关系都没有。朱莉常跟我说，那颗枫树是上帝给我们的礼物。
