Labor Day Surprise

Well today it finally happens. What you ask; a new car, my first BASE jump off the Perinne bridge, exercising once again? No, nothing quite that exciting. Rather we are going to finish the project in our back yard earlier this year. Some of you may know that for the better part of the Spring and into early summer I spent part of my free time pulling up sod in our back yard for a bed of flowers and other plants. Of course we didn't do this the easy way by renting a machine, no I did it by hand and a trenching shovel one square foot of sod at a time. Eventually I ripped up a section four feet by about sixty feet, that's a lot of sod. On the up side, when I was doing that work it put me in touch with the soil, which was helpful with all that's been on my mind these last few months.

Then again, today I really have to get in tough with the soil. In a little while we're going over to our friend's home to borrow their pick-up truck and then out to another friend's home who is going to use his front end loader and give us a truck load of dirt/top soil. Then you can guess what happens. Yes, I will use a shovel to unload that pick-up truck load of dirt, dump it onto our driveway and then transfer the pile to the back yard bed one wheelbarrow load at a time. Hopefully sometime this afternoon our big yard project will be done, finally. Thankfully we have friends like the Blackstons and Smutnys who are willing to lend a hand. I really do appreciate their help, I just don't know how much I will appreciate laboring so hard on Labor Day. Who knows, perhaps by the end of the work day I will be a new man.

Hopsack Brown, Blue Spruce & Green Day

Three colors marked the Price family's first day of Memorial Day weekend. We woke with the sun and taped off the trim in the "Master Bedroom" and followed up with "Hopsack" as the color of the day. This is a shade lighter than what is in our bathroom. Or as we both remarked throughout the morning, "it's a soothing color."

From about 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. Kathy and I made our way around our bedroom. I took the roller and Kathy tended to the trim. It was well worth it as we cozied-up our bedroom and made it blend into our "nature" theme.

Then, before the sweat of the holiday weekend wore off completely we headed outside for the planting of a "free" Blue Spruce. I say that it was, quote-un-quote-free, because we had to purchase a Christmas Tree from Kimberly Nurseries in the first place, in order to qualify for our "free" spring spruce. But it was worth it as "she" is sitting out in our backyard waiting for a sprinkle from the heavens.

As for the "Green Day" I bought Green Day's latest CD "21st Century Breakdown". We listened to it throughout the morning and during clean-up, it was well worth it. Unlike "American Idiot" this latest album is far less politically angry and far more poetic. So if you have some work to do this Holiday weekend and you're looking for some inspiration then I encourage you to look into Green Day's latest, "21st Century Break Down". Between this album and whatever you have schelduled you're sure to get your work done!

Flapper

What's a "flapper" well it's not something that you use to turn the lights on and off, that's for sure. A flapper is what Kathy and I purchased today at Lowes so that our master bath's toilet would work again.

Sometime last week while Kathy was gone and I was trying to hold on to sanity the toilet in our master bathroom stopped working. I went to flush and nothing happened and in the midst of everything else I just decided, "Oh Well" we have two other toilets so I'll just not worry about it. I know, I know, HOW GROSS! Well all I can say to that is that there really wasn't much to flush down so I just told Eric we couldn't use that bathroom.

So before Kathy came home I asked her over the phone, and at a safe distance, if she knew what to do. Thankfully she gently let me know that I should have simply gone out to Lowes when it broke, but that we'd tend to it Monday morning. I guess I put it off because I am so not Mr. Fix It. But with a little help from a guy in the plumbing department we found what we needed, paid a little over three dollars for it and by just rolling up my sleeves we once again have a third toilet that works!

I probably should have fixed it earlier, and even though a toilet is not rocket-science it was a whole new experience for me and thankfully when the mission was complete, both Eric and Kathy were there to clap and say congratulations.