A Little Sister Challenge

Here is my entry into the kitchen sink challenge set forth by Little Sister (a.k.a- Ruthie the farting wonder girl- will she ever live it down?) My view does not invoke the same sense of serenity that Little Sister's does, but I am light in fresh flowers and religious icons. One of Little Sisters many gifts is that she is always creates and lives in beautiful surroundings. And, better yet, she can do it all for $3.50 at the local thrift store. Massively creative that woman is. Anyway, for my view I had to remove a water bottle and a pair of pliers off the window sil, so as not to obscure your view of my suburb. Enjoy.

Done!!!

If I didn't return your phone calls this weekend, and there were some- my apologies- this is why. We started this project last weekend when we removed all the old plant materials and potted them up, ripped out the old rotting railroad ties and removed about a ton of landscaping rock and had it hauled away.

This past weekend, we built the walls, removed about a half ton of bad dirt, added about another half ton of soil amendments to the remaining dirt and replanted the perennials and added a few more. Whew! This area has been bugging us since we bought the house. So, we are thrilled to finally have it done.

The project also involved me learning to use a new power tool- a paver saw! It is basically a big circular saw that has water spraying on the blade to keep it cool while cutting through the wall bricks. Cool! I have to say that my performance with the saw was nearly lesbian in its precision, despite my squealing quietly in fear every time I turned it on.

A Great Yesterday

Hooray! The sun was out yesterday, which meant that Curt and I had a fantastic day out in our yard and patio. Partly sunny and 70 on October 20th. Aaah.
We first put our outdoor furniture under tarps for the winter, an exercise in which we both have distinct roles. I am the "Tetris Master" for my ability to creatively stack the furniture. Curt is the "Tarp Master" and has the job of covering the stuff and tying down the tarps. He rarely offers opinions on my portion of the work. I, on the other hand, always have an opinion about how we could tarp better. Stupid me. I offered a few suggestions yesterday and took way too long to catch on the fact that I was better off keeping my big mouth shut for the sake of our union.
While Curt was finishing the tarping, I moved to the shed, which seems to look like a war zone by the end of the summer. So, I removed just about everything that wasn't already hanging on wall and put it out on the lawn. Then I set about building some simple crafty storage solutions and installed some big hooks. All the stakes and posts are now stored neatly in a cage between two wall studs. Same with some window screening. The two big patio umbrellas are now hanging horizontally- one over the back wall and one neatly over the top of the wall with the window. Slick. After some more implements went up on hooks, the multiple pails stacked, rolled fencing placed in a large ceramic pots, we ended up with lots more room that before- even room for our huge new generator. Hooray! Curt was thrilled, but just looked at me funny when I suggested a moment of silence for this great moment in shed history.
In the evening, we went with a group of friends to see Elizabeth- The Golden Years. It was a visual feast and a great little film even with the historical embellishments.

Wednesday Evening

The storm blew through- literally, trees flapping in the wind and leaves going everywhere- lots of loud lightning and thunder. And, thank (Deity name here), we didn't lose power, which means that:

WE GOT TO WATCH AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL!!!

Okay, that's not the only reason I was desperate for the power to stay on, but it was in the top 10.

My observations:

1. Young women (and maybe older ones too, somebody please advise) are MEAN, MEAN, MEAN to each other. Holy crap. I don't recall young men being that mean to each other, unless of course, you are the nelly gay boy next door, then you get the crap beaten out of you.

2. The autistic girl, Heather, whom I will refer to going forward as Heather (autistic girl) didn't seem to have as bad a computer neck this week, which is good, but was awkward with the other contestants. And what did the other contestants do? Talked smack about her within ear shot. Hags.

3. When it came time for judging, the girl who told Heather (autistic girl) she should have tried harder during the photo shoot, got a little figurative bitch slap from the judges. Heather (autistic girl) took a fabulous photo and came in first. Critical hag came in about 7th. Go, autistic Heather, go!

4. Why is Miss Jay dressing as a boy this season? We liked his girl clothes better.

The New Arrivals

At our Fall Fiesta we asked our guests to vote on which variety of discus Curt should stock in the new 95 gallon aquarium, using pictures as guides. He took your input seriously and here is the proof. On Friday, Curt got a package of six gorgeous juvenile discus that are now happily swimming and eating in the aquarium. They are only about 2.5 - 3" long, but can get up to 7-8" long. As they mature, their patterns and colors will get more intense, which will be pretty amazing since they are already so beautiful.

Let me introduce you:

From left: Leopard Snakeskin, Red Turk Tiger Skin, Blue Diamond, Checker Board Pigeon (face forward), Golden Crown

From left: Checker Board Pigeon, Leopard Snakeskin, Golden Sunrise

Our Big Storm

Thursday evening we had a serious thunderstorm. Normally, when the storm sirens go off, we sort of think "Feh. Not so bad" and keep doing what we are doing. Typically, I love thunderstorms and enjoy watching them go by. The same was true Thursday night until we saw the trees along our fence line double over. As we were running, one of our two big maple trees on the side of the house snapped in half. Eeek! One of our dogs, Louis, didn't follow us in to the safe spot. Instead he sat on the couch with a chew. Of course, I had to go retrieve him and pictured myself being sucked out a window and skewered by flying debris. Although, at my current weight I think we'd need a solid F-5 twister to even slide me across the floor, which gives me some comfort, but does nothing for my self esteem.
Once the worst of the storm had passed, it was still pouring rain and producing grape size hail. During all this, we discovered that the downspouts on our eaves troughs were blocked on the back of the house. Rain water is POURING in to one of our window wells and filling it up fast. Too late. The water reaches the bottom of the window quickly and starts coming in. Aaarrrrgggghhh!!! So what do we do? I go out on the deck with a long metal spoon, then clear away the debris that I can reach. Curt, meanwhile, goes out in the elements with a bucket and starts bailing out the window well. On the other end of the house, we need a tall metal ladder to reach the eaves. And, yes, we go out with a tall metal ladder to clean the eaves troughs. Looking back it was really, really stupid and we knew it while we were doing it, but we would not have any more water in our lower level. Not having it.
By the time we were done clearing the eaves troughs, the worst had passed, the hail had let up and we were ready to head back in. Now, I forgot to mention that in storms like this we almost always end up losing power- once for five days, a day or so on other occasions. So, at the point that we went outside with the ladder, we were thrilled that the power was on. When we got back in with the ladder, the frickin' power was gone. AAARRRRGGGHHH! Curt and I are kind of big whiny babies when the power goes off, as if we have no other means of entertaining ourselves. We're sad.
Typically, losing power for a day or so is not a giant deal. However, the next day, Curt was staying home to take delivery of 6 juvenile discus fish that he had ordered from San Francisco. These are expensive fish and pretty sensitive to water conditions that are slightly off. So, Friday morning, I run to Home Depot and buy a generator big enough to power to whole house if we needed it. A little overkill maybe, but considering how often we go without power, it was about time. We got everything up and running by about 8:30. Curt's fish arrived at about 9:30 and I was off to work by 10:30.
Today, the power is back and we're going to spend the day chopping up the part of the tree that is down, hauling it to the curb, then figuring out how to take the rest of the tree down. Considering the size of the tree and the mighty mite size of my chain saw, this could take a while.