Two posts in two days....wow!

I promised on yesterday's post I'd try to clean up the pictures on my desktop and post them. So consider me on a roll. Two posts in two days. Go me!

If you look really...really....really...r.e.a.l.l.y....hard you can see 7:57 in this picture. It was pitch black in the bedroom and this is the time displayed on my ceiling.

D. keeps unplugging his clock radio and moving it around the house, so he's always missing his alarm. I decided I'd set mom's clock up on his nightstand. I turned on the feature that displays the time on the ceiling. Sisters, you really messed up giving this to me. It is soooooo cool! You really need to run out and get one for yourselves. I love it!

Even though the display is above D's side of the bed, I can easily see it. No more having to lift my head off the pillow to view the time. Whenever I do that, it wakes me up and I can't get back to sleep.

This is side 1 of the 3 sided deck D has been working on. Look how pretty and green the lawn is. That's because D spent a week working on the sprinkler system which was totally out of whack.

Side one almost finished with the framing. D put me to work on Labor Day finishing up this part of the frame in.

I should have taken better pictures of how dangerous and rotted this deck was. I took some pictures of side two but not enough.

D finished up this corner last week. It was a real pain in the patoot. If you look very close, you can see where none of the pillars holding the deck up are straight. Not only were they not straight but some of them we're completely disconnected from their bases.

This is how rotted the wood was. Walking on the deck was very iffy at best.

These are the steps on side one...the front of the deck. They are so rotted and the nails have all pulled away I was actually scared to climb them in order to take pictures. I ended up stepping smack dab in the center where there's a support. They rocked and bowed when I stepped on them.

This is side two where D pulled off the old deck. He brought in 4 loads of gravel.

This looks simple but I think D used every swear word he knew in getting this corner lined up.

The second phase of the deck will be a step up from the first. Working the corner of the deck was an engineering feat. LOL! Friday, D already had 1/4 of the framing of the second part done. He's still got a long way to go.

I am sooooo far behind!

This is my desktop. I usually try to keep it pretty clear and put the important stuff on my hard drive. As you can see, I've fallen very far behind. The guys who take care of our computers at work tell us to keep our stuff off our desktops and on our hard drives so if our computer crashes, they can usually retrieve almost all of our work.

I've been meaning to post pictures since before I got back from the cousin reunion and just haven't had the time. In the black area of my desktop all those little squares are pictures I need to edit and post on my blog.

I figure since I'm already out of date order, I'm just going to grab a batch and post it. Then I can clear them from my desktop and look efficient again.

So....I'm starting with the pictures I took last night (Friday 9-9). As the sun was going down the dark storm clouds rolled in. It was so darn tropical, I felt like I was back in Fiji on vacation again.

Unfortunately, I had to reduce the size of this picture too much. In the original, I could see about half of the moon's shadow hidden in the clouds. It was really cool. It couldn't be seen by the naked eye but the camera picked it up.

Now, picture me sitting verrrrry still for about 10 minutes with the camera perched on my knees. Yep, I did that. We had so much lightening, I was determined to get a shot of it. The only problem is, I didn't know when it would strike and by the time the shutter opened and closed, the lightening was gone.

So use your imagination on this. Right in the center of the picture it's a little pink. Well, that's the end of the flash of lightening. So, technically I'm going to say I caught a picture of the flash. LOL.

Looking out the front of the house, the sky was dark on the left and clear on the right. When I started to rotate toward the back, I got a bit of blue showing through the storm.

As I turned to the garage side, I saw some dark clouds but mostly clear.

Within minutes Mother Nature was giving me a breathtaking view that knocked my socks off.

I called D out so he could stand in the hot rain with me. I love it when it's muggy and wet. Especially when the raindrops are those huge fat puppies. It's the time you don't care you hair and clothing is getting all wet.

Some Great Ants and not so Great....

For a week and a half we've been fighting the not so great ants. I've given up on the big names like Raid, Black Flag etc. They just don't make the same product they did years ago. Must be an eco thing. sigh.... We tried Hot Shot and the ants completely ignored it. We put Terro next to the Hot Shot dispensers and the ants went wild.

Rather than remove the old containers we just added new ones next to them. It's hard to see but each one of these is filled with little black bodies. Wooowhoooo! We've had a black line coming down the pillar on the kitchen counter for well over a week. Yesterday it got very thin and today I think there were less than a dozen creatures looking for food. Yep, Terro wins hand or should I say, Ants Down! LOL!

Now this is a Great Aunt. Yuck...yuck... This is my Great Aunt Harriet. For my nieces out there and daughter in law, this would be your Great, Great Aunt Harriet. She's my mother's, mother's sister.

When I was up in Seattle at the cousin reunion (pictures to follow at a later date), I called my cousin Harriet to see if I could visit my great aunt. She said, "Absolutely, she'd love it!"

I saw Aunt Harriet when I was up there in 2009 and she remembered the visit and all of what we talked about. She's as sharp as a tack for a woman who will be 97 in November. She's just limited on her mobility. Which doesn't seem to slow her down much.

She was thrilled I bought my sister Sue with me. It's been ages since they've seen each other.

This being Labor Day, I thought I'd labor. Yep, that's me working on the neighbor's deck. D was working on the part that will go around the second side of the house and I was permanently attaching the framing boards on the edge of the backyard side. I surprised him by being done much faster than he thought I'd be. So I filled in my time eating some grapes from Carol's arbor. LOL! They were pint size but sweet.

Now I'm home trying to catch up on paperwork but thought I'd better do the blog since I got a text message from my daughter-in-law reminding me I haven't posted in awhile. D is starting the BBQ so I can cook a pork roast for dinner but we'll head next door for a little more work.

I'd forgotten how rewarding it is to work on a project that size and actually had a great time. I do have a stipulation to work in the shade whenever possible. LOL!

Happy Labor Day to you all!

Last Sunday...

Last Saturday I worked on the inside of the house and on Sunday I worked on the backyard. Of course I had to don the perfect attire to tackle the job. I figured since I put the hole in these pants trying to climb over the gate in the backyard, it was fitting to make them my work jeans.

Of course no job is right without the perfect shoes. No I wasn't weed whacking so these would be perfectly safe. By slipping on and off, I could get the crud from between my toes cleaned throughout the job. LOL!

With the uniform all chosen it was time to check on where the animals would be. The Bear would be hiding in the closet for most of the time. Although the leaf blower doesn't scare her because she's used to me drying her off with my hair dryer after a bath.

Nissie decided once she saw the contraption I was going to use, she'd spend the time on the bed in my bathrobe.

Nuttie took up the post of guard dog. Which meant, she just wanted to be comfy laying on the lounge and used me as an excuse to do it.

With Nuttie outside, I had to keep an eye on the hawk that was circling overhead. Since she's smaller than a rabbit, I always make sure she's not outside by herself without either the Bear or me close by.

We had the yard weed whacked, so not only did I have the pine needles to contend with but also the cut weeds.

It's a dirty, hot job which might be why I decided the little tuffs of weeds looked good where they were and I wasn't going to deal with them on this day.

What you can't see in this picture is, on the other side of the gate there are so many pine needles you can't tell there's a brick walkway under it.

When I got it cleared, I was amazed at how much the roots from the pine tree were wrecking the walkway on the other side of the gate. That tree has got to go. I'm sure we'll drag our feet on it though because it's a huge job and we'll have a hot house again because of the lack of shade the tree provides.

I've decided leaf blowing is an art form and not everyone can do it.

It should probably be called wrangling because you have to keep those little critters in line or they'll scatter to the 4 winds.

Getting them in a nice line and through the gate takes patience but is very rewarding once it's done.

The best part about getting on the other side of the gate means I can spread the debris all around. No packing it up and taking it to the trash for me.

To do the entire yard including by my shed and garden area it took about 2 hours. It was exercise well spent.

I find if I divide the yard into 5 sections it makes the job feel smaller than it really is. You know a little bit here, a little bit there.

I bought two of these cool 'swing' chairs about 3 years ago and they're still not hung. I take them out each year and attempt to put them together. I always get all but two ends put together and then quit. The wood will not fit in the slot because it's so small even if it did, I'd be afraid when someone sat on it, it would slide out.

I just haven't finished the job because I know there's some serious modification that needs to be done to this beast before it'll be safe to use.....maybe next year.

The grapes inside the garden area are doing great. I didn't prune them at all this year just to see what they'd do. As you can see, they are neatly trimmed on the outside where the deer can reach them.

On the inside however, there are actually grapes.

Nuttie kept an eye on me and followed me around during my workout but Nissie was still on the bed when I finished the job. Yep, that dog has it rough.

I headed straight for the tub after finishing the job. I definitely worked up a sweat. I don't know if I brought more dirt in on me than I left outside. I do know, it was heaven in that tub after such a hot job.

What did I do this weekend to outshine last weekend? Hm.....I shopped most of Saturday for clothes for work or groceries. I found 5 tops which were all under $8 each. I hit those great surprise sales where it was 75% off the original price.

I normally don't find much on those types of sales but yesterday I hit the jackpot and didn't break the bank. I found 1 simple top at Kohl's and 4 at Penney's.

When D got home in the afternoon, I went with him next door to work on the neighbors deck. When he gets home today, we'll head next door again and see if we can get more done on the deck.

Yawn....boring post....

I had today as a lay around be a bum day then I went to the bathroom. Not this one but the one the down the hall. While sitting there I realized how dusty everything was. Not dirty but dusty. So I finished going potty and immediately started cleaning the room. Even with the floor and toilet it took about 15 minutes.

It felt and looked so good I headed to the laundry bathroom.

This is the before picture. It wasn't very dirty just dusty and tired. So, I tackled it.

This is the after picture. I know it looks the same but it's sparkling and smells fresh. Nuts, I forgot to drain the bleach out of the sink. Guess I'll do that when I'm done with this post.

After the bathroom, I wandered into the kitchen. This is the before picture. Not much to do. Just a few things to put away but I hadn't cleaned the counter next to the big window in ages so it was dusty and dull looking.

I'll know when we have to sell the house when I can't climb on the counter and clean around the sink anymore. LOL!

Here's the after picture. Not much different, except all the appliances are scrubbed and shiny along with the counters. Believe it or not, I spent almost 2 hours working on this beast. Maybe it took longer because I was listening to Harry Potter on my portable DVD player. See it there on the counter in the foreground? It was the best gift D has ever given me.

Of course since I was in the kitchen I might as well tackle the eating area. I don't think I've swept the floor in over a week so it really needed. And those books on the chair are the new phone books I set there around 2 weeks ago.

Whenever I clean the eating area, I have to turn the table a different direction. It makes me feel like I did something productive. LOL!

While I was tackling the house, the dogs got to go outside for awhile. The weeds have been whacked so they can spend some time in the sun once in awhile. I have to watch Nuttie though because she'll stay out until her tummy is sunburned.

With the kitchen and bathrooms done, I thought I'd do some laundry. Then I decided the laundry room was a mess. Okay, it's not that bad but compared to the other rooms, it's a mess.

What you don't see here is the ice cream D always leaves stuck to the washer/dryer and counter. For some reason he has an allergy to cleaning up sticky stuff when he dishes our Friday night treat.

With the laundry almost done, appliances clean of ice cream stickies, the baker's rack straightened and the floor washed, I'm happy.

When the dogs heard the dryer door open then close and me walk, they ran in the house somehow knowing I had the blankets to the Bear's bed. They just love the blankets hot from the dryer.

I thought I was done but then headed to the bedroom to get more laundry. My mother always said, "If the bed is not made, then the room looks a mess. If you make the bed, you almost instantly have a clean room." Well, she's right. Although, D did a pretty good job decorating the furniture with his clothing.

Once I got the bed made and D's clothes put away it was time to tackle my side.

As you can see I didn't have nearly the amount of clothes to put away, but I somehow collected more garbage on my nightstand.

It only took minutes to take care of my side. I think the bedroom took less than 10 minutes total to straighten up. It's driving me nuts my dresser hasn't been painted yet. I'm still waiting for summer to start. We haven't had enough consistently hot days to take the dresser outside to sand and paint. With the fog and overcast in the mornings, the wood would warp before I could paint it.

I'm one of the few people hoping for a week of 90 degree weather. Then I could get my darn dresser done!

Noe came out and weed whacked the yard the other day. I love it when he's done. It always makes the yard look bigger.

The downside is, now I have bits and pieces of weeds all over the patio. Part of me is thinking I should locate the blower and clean up the yard. The other is saying, "Find your Kindle!"

I'm thinking the 'other' voice is winning out. But first I'd better address the birthday cards to my sisters. I bought then awhile back and just found them during my cleaning process. They made me laugh out loud so I thought Andi & Nana would also get a chuckle out of them.

Happy Saturday friends and family. I think I have a kindle to locate.