Day 135 - May 19th

On Tuesday, my eye was caught by our pencil container. I had just bought a replacement pencil sharpener after our old reliable one finally died. The new one is so much sharper! No more grinding 2 inches of the pencil just to get a point. So we have lots of nice, sharp, ready for school pencils.

Day 134 - May 18th

A picture of the garden as it stands right now, with onions in the foreground and a lot of sticks marking rows of seeds. A few tomato plants and three cucumber plants might be visible in the background along with a wheelbarrow filled with gravel.

Today is a sad day for our family. It was 18 years ago today that Carrie, my older sister, was killed. She was 19.

Day 133 - May 17th

These are Jill and my hands holding last nights tickets to Celtic Woman. We had SUCH a good time. Even though we were in the very, very last row of the Paramount Theater - row Z! But they were simply amazing. Especially Máiréad. WOW. For those who may not have seen nor heard of them, check out this youtube video which is an ad for the show we went and saw. These women are just .... awesome.

Máiréad is phenomenal to watch. Seeing someone spin around and around while furiously and flawlessly playing the fiddle is something you have to see to believe. Here is a youtube video of her playing at Slane Castle. The two amazing drummers in this video were also in the show we watched and were mind blowing with their skills, too.

Day 132 - May 16th

Today's picture is an in-progress shot of my latest project - the steps. Ya ready for a long explanation? Too bad, I'll give one anyway.

I don't remember if I posted or not, but my next major project is the kids playset. I'm going to build this one. BUT, in order to do that, I have to do a couple things. First, the space where the playset is going to go has a pile of gravel. AND it's got a few depressions - when our neighbor waters, parts become big puddles.

Why is their a big pile of gravel? Because several years ago, I saw the yard completed - in my mind. All the various constructions done, etc. Then I sat down and roughed out what materials I would need to complete all those projects. I estimated, for instance, how much gravel I would need for ALL the projects put together. And then I had it delivered. I did not anticipate our major financial challenges that culminated in 2007 and resulted in me having to get a second job and work 75 hours a week. But it happened and I still work that.

So there are four major projects needing gravel: the north bottom stairs, the east deck outside the view gate, the fountain area and it's drain system and the shed's. So this weekend, I tackled the north bottom stairs - because it accomplished multiple goals. 1) it has been one of the most "undone" areas of the backyard. 2) it is using a LOT of gravel. 3) it supplied me with a LOT of dirt - to fill in those depressions.

It was tough work - to haul out the dirt, I had to carry it up the hill to the wheelbarrow and then carefully get the wheelbarrow up a three foot high wall - balanced on a single 2x4 scrap. And it was hot weather! I brought up 5 or 6 loads of dirt before I declared myself done. The rest of the dirt (about 6 more loads) got tossed over the fence into the woods one shovel full at a time.

I made it through most of the project on Saturday and then finished all but one row of three boards on Sunday after I got home from my 9 hour shift at Fred Meyer. I would have gotten more done had Lowe's actually carried decent materials, but they didn't and I had to drive an hour out of my way to go to Home Depot, which had superb materials. Why, oh why, couldn't we have gotten a Home Depot!

OK, enough talking. Here's the site after some prep work on Friday. The first shot is from above, the second is approximately the same angle as "the shot of the day" above.


Here's the shot from above taken Saturday night.
Finally, if you've actually read through all this, I wanted to tell you what that big space is there. That space was actually inspired from a book and I've been planning to build it for three years now. The book? Winnie the Pooh. There is a line in the book about Winnie sitting in his "thinking place" and I wanted to create one. This is fairly separated from the rest of the yard and I plan on putting a bench against the fence in that big space. It can be a little retreat from everyone so you can "think".

Day 131 - May 15th

Lydia has a friend spending the night and they wanted to sleep in the tent. They set it up all by themselves :)

Day 130 - May 14th

Went to the dentist this morning with Alexander and Sophia. Sophia = awesome. Not a problem. Me = no major problems, just a bad area of the gums that required "deep cleaning" - the iPhone picture above was taken just moments before that needle went into my gums. I have to go back in four weeks for a follow up.

Alexander=$$$$. He has an abscess in one tooth - it has to be extracted and a place holder put in. Plus four baby cavities need work. Our portion? $500. OUCH.

Day 129 - May 13th

I took the camera out over lunch and what caught my eye were the onions left over from last year and the chives. Both are blooming. I don't really know what to do - should I lop the tops off? Should I let them flower?

I opted just to take the picture.

Then I stood up and Peter was right behind me with a peanut butter and jelly face. I didn't even look through the lensfinder, just pointed the camera at him and snapped. I liked it!

Day 128 - May 12th

I went to a client today and on the way home, snapped this picture of our local Starbucks. I liked the light and cloud effects.

Today I heard something no one ever likes to hear from a Doctor..."It's probably nothing, but we'd like to run some more tests." It was an optical doc. I hadn't been to the eye doctor in a few years and knew my prescription was outdated - I found out my right eye is weaker on both distance and close up. Then he looked at my optical nerves and saw some discrepancies. So in two weeks, I have to go in for an in-depth glaucoma test. It's really not the test nor the prospect that jeebs me out - it's the eye drops. ::::shudder:::::

I also heard a wonderful thing about a Doctor. My brother, Brian (or Dr. Reasoner as the folks in central Texas know him) is coming to Seattle for some medical thingie in July! YAY! I haven't seen my brother in years.

Today was 5-12. A somber date for about a billion people as they reflect that it was one year ago today that an 8.0 earthquake devastated parts of Sichuan County, China. We have friends over there and listening to Wai tell the stories of what he saw as part of the relief effort chilled us to the bone. Over 69,000 people lost their lives.

Day 127 - May 11th

I found Sophia doing her writing practice. She's coming along nicely!

Day 126 - May 10th

A little late posting this! Since Alexander was left out of the family picture on the newly done table, I decided the next day should be him. I caught him glued to the tube.