Working For The Weekend

Well now - the weather over the weekend is something a fella could get used to...

Had an interesting day Saturday. Started off with a quick trip to Lowe's for some top soil, a pre-fab fiberglass water feature, and some lawn food. Now, before you go rippin' on the water feature I have to tell ya that price was everything when it came to that particular purchase. See, back in 2005 The Better Half and I had some contractor types come out and give us some quotes on putting in our lawn (a job I wound up doing myself with the help of a Bobcat, 135 yards of top soil, and a couple of friends) and installing a water feature. The cheapest water feature quote we got came out to $7,000.00 so that was a no go. Fast forward 5 years - Lowe's had a very nice fiberglass rock pond/waterfall feature for $199.00 including the pump. Now, up close and laid out to bare the thing is very fake looking...that's where the top soil came in. What I did was use the top soil to bury parts of the water feature to make it more natural looking. I also planted quite a few shrubs and flowers around it, so from 5 yards out or so the water feature looks pretty darn good...and the total cost with tax and top soil came out to be $232.00....

The rest of Saturday afternoon was spent in quite despair. Due to the craptacular rain storms and mild temps, red thread FUNGUS has infected a good portion of the grass. Red thread makes lawns look more beaten down and worn out than Whitney Houston, therefore, it has to go. However, because I have kids that love to run around barefoot, I don't use hardcore chemicals on the lawn (aside from spraying the yard with 'Cutter' every 6 weeks to keep mosquitoes away...I'm sure the water feature will help with that...), that means fungicide is out of the question. So, I scoured the intertubes for natural lawn food and found this offering from Scotts. I have never used this particular fertilizer so I don't have past experience to go on. The brand I used to use is no longer carried by the big box stores or McClendon's in Sumner, so I had to change it up. Here's hoping the nitrogen is released fast enough to assist the grass in smothering the fungus, but not so fast it burns the lawn...

Saturday night was spent at the homestead of some new friends of ours. Actually, they are the parent's of Maddy's best friend from school, but we had never met them. I wound up chaperoning Maddy's zoo trip with her friend's dad (names being withheld because...uh...I'm not sure...I just don't feel comfortable giving their names without asking permission) and we hit it off pretty well. After a couple of awkward voice mail exchanges we were able to arrange a play date for Maddy's friend to come over...then another play date was arranged for Maddy and Jossy to go their house (Maddy's friend has a sister three months younger than Joss Joss). From there we got the invite for the whole family to head over for dinner. That was Saturday night and a fine time was had. It's nice to have 'neighborhood' friends that are our age and have similar likes/dislikes, back stories and life experiences.

That's pretty much all I have for now. Sorry for the boring tone of this, it's late, I have to be up 7 hours to start a new day....must get some sleep or I'll be psychotically tired in the morning...

One Bag Short...

It never fails - I buy multiple bags of mulch, aka beauty bark, thinking I have more than enough to put down a decent layer...yet I am always one sack short of ideal mulch coverage. It's annoying, this. Especially annoying since the weather has been turning my flower gardens into bogs. The French drains have been unable to keep up with the deluge of rain, so parts of the yard are also swamped. Here's hoping this weekend's projected temps of 75+ degrees dries up the marshland that is my backyard...the sunflowers and petunias would really appreciate that....

Once More...With Feeling?

Good criminey, I'm going to give blogging another shot here. Got a little sidetracked with the new job and life...plus, I also felt as if I had lost 'my voice', whatever the eff that means. Basically, I was wiped out after so many changes over the last 6 months, changes my faithful 9 readers should be aware of.

Anyhoo, I'm back. For now.

So, what have I been doing? Well, I've been watching a lot of movies and completely ignoring the Stuff Reduction Project, a project that has been ongoing for what, three years? No stuff has been reduced, in fact, I have more goddamn stuff now than when I started. Example - I got rid of a lot of crap from the garage, crapola I didn't need or want and would never use. For about a week the garage floor was pretty much clear...and then I bought a bike trailer so I could exercise and tow two kids behind me...but I have three kids, so I went and bought a Weeride bike trailer to hook to The Better Half's bike so we could all ride. Guess what? Both trailers take up a lot of room, especially the Weeride because it doesn't fold up all that well. Therefore, the garage floor is a mess again, it's lousy with bike trailers and plastic bins full of shite we hauled back from Montana earlier this year....

Yeah, so movies. Really dug 'Crazy Heart and 'Whip It' while 'The Messenger' was just okay. 'Funny People' would have been better if it had been, oh, funny...but it was borderline excruciating. Why does Judd Apatow have to pollute his films with d*ck and arse jokes from start to finish? The premise of 'Funny People' was decent, but the writing was horrendous. Although I kind of hated 'The Hangover' the first time I saw it, that film grew on me now that it has been on HBO in heavy rotation...I don't think 'Funny People' is going to grow on me, it was just awful.

What else has been going on, you ask? I've been spending lots of time with the girls, engaging in some serious Playmobil and Calico Critter time. Playmobil stuff used to belong in the realm of 'rich kid' toys when I was young since it was all imported and European and all that jazz. The prices don't seem all that outrageous now that I have a job, and the Playmobil toys are sturdier than the ankles on a Russian babooshka. If I had to do it all over again, I would have stayed away from the Calico Critters...they are too small and a lot of the accessories are made of cardboard, cardboard that has to be folded just so. My hands are not what would consider dainty, so folding tiny pizza boxes for the Calico Critters Pizza Parlour was maddening...to see said pizza boxes mangled within ten minutes of play was heartbreaking.

The girls, especially Maddy, have been more involved with lawn work. Maddy joined 'garden club' at school and has applied what's she has learned to our garden. We planted sunflowers, tomatoes, cucumbers (that I'm pretty sure the torrential rain wiped out), and various peppers. All three are good 'helpers', although Baby Katelyn is better at stomping on stuff than actually pulling weeds and what have ya...but I like having them out there. I was telling the Better Half that someday I won't have three little faces smiling at me from the kitchen window as I go by with the mower...and that made her a little sad. My little girls are growing up too fast...

That's all I have for now...come back for more tomorrow!