Sleepy Weekend

Unlike the last few weekends, we've decided to slow things down a little bit.

For me, it's no taxes to rush getting done. No work assignments needed "right this minute". I can't even do any WBT/CBT work because the company's learning management system is still being upgraded.

For Lauren, her Spring semester is over. Finals are done, her grades are in, and apart from attending graduation this afternoon and some interview meetings on Tuesday and Friday, she now has a week off to rest, garden, and get ready for her first summer class. That, and play with her new iPod Touch, which she won in a raffle earlier this week.

Due to the weather, we really can't do very much to the lawn or garden this weekend, apart from a little bit of weeding: it's too wet to mulch, although Lauren might have a few things she wants to plant. So we got up early this morning, had breakfast at Hy-Vee, and then made the rounds of the city-wide garage sales, which are usually prevalent around graduation.

Oh, there are a few things we could do: while Lauren is at graduation, I'm going to buy some fresh paint brushes and get the front porch floor repainted, so it should last for awhile. And do laundry. I might even get around to cleaning the house.

If the weather stays nice towards later this evening, I think we're going to toss some wood on the fire pit, get out the lawn chairs, and do some hot dogs, salads, and s'mores later on. It's casual, and low-input, which really sounds good to me.

EDIT: I didn't get around to the painting or the laundry or the cleaning. Instead, I spent a half-hour or so trying to get the mower (the one we had brought to the True Value for service) to start, in preparation for the first mowing of the season. Needless to say, it's going back to the True Value tomorrow with a polite "did you happen to do a test start and run before you told us it was finished?"

Still, the evening went great. I started the fire pit at about 6, got out the lawn chairs, and we grilled while Lauren surfed for iPod Touch accessories from the iPod. After that, Lauren did a bit of weeding while I tended the fire, and we rounded off the evening with a small amount of Stone Hill Winery's cream sherry. No, I wasn't a Boy Scout growing up. Or even a Girl Scout. But I made sure that the remaining embers were taken care of.

EDIT #2: We did get the mower dropped off and I did get the painting and the laundry done on Sunday.

The Great Outdoors, Part 2

Another weekend again finds Lauren and myself outside in the back yard after a busy weekend, with a citronella candle sitting between our lounge chairs; Lauren's working on a quiz/lesson for her summer class, while I'm surfing and chatting, with fireflies flickering around both of us.

This is the weekend that we would have been in Des Moines, for a solstice gathering and small second wedding reception that two of my friends were throwing, but there wasn't enough response from everyone, so both it and the solstice gathering got cancelled. It peeves me a little that two of my friends wanted to do something really nice for us, and hardly anyone up there responded to the RSVPs, making their efforts for naught. I mean, it is summer, and everyone does have busy schedules, but c'mon people ... what gives??? To quote Stan Lee: "Nuff' said".

Anyhoo, we had a great and productive time this weekend anyway. After another 8.5 mile walk out to Gray's and back on Saturday, we spent the afternoon doing some planning and yard work ... mainly planning for the 4th of July, some shopping for groceries for that campout, some hoping that the weather on the 4th stays pleasant enough that we don't get rained out, and also some more yard work, which will lead into several nice additions to the back and side yards.

Friday afternoon, we rented a tiller and did some bedding prep for what will become "the kitty garden", or the 3rd corner garden to go with the rose garden and lily garden at each corner of the property and create a "virtual border" for the lawn.

For a little backstory, last summer Lauren and I had brainstormed what "theme" we wanted for the next corner garden, and I suggested doing a "kitty" garden, with pussywillows, catnip, and some cat-themed decorations. Then, after our cat "Kitty" passed away last February, we decided that we'd also add a small memorial marker for her, too. We'll probably hold off on planting until fall, but the seedbed will be ready by then. Lauren also did some relocation of her day lillies and some of the peonies, which cleaned up some of the clutter by the street.

Last night, we started another leftover project from last summer, burning out an old tree stump near the street, and that is now turning into another "nice to have" item, too; we've decided that we're going to turn the former stump space into a small firepit area, so tomorrow, we'll be getting a trunkload of paving stones and a bag of sand to assemble that. It will cost us about the same as an average-grade portable firepit from Wal-Mart, but we think doing it this way will let it blend in with the rest of the yard decorations. Since the location is out by the street, it's plenty far enough from the house for safety purposes, and when it's done, we'll not only have a decorative place to use as a conversation and cooking pit for later in the fall, but we'll also have a place to do junk branch and leftover garden plant burns as well. It's a pity that the closest of my friends lives an hour and a half away, and some of Lauren's friends live even farther away .... we could put the conversation pit to good use.