Massive productivity with only one mishap.

As I probably have not mentioned, our friends from college (Kaylin and Daniel) are relocating from Alaska, and they're spending this weekend with us on their way to Texas. On Tuesday, we leave for Bend for a few days, and when we come back, we will be bringing my family with (they are here for vacation). There is nothing like knowing company's coming to motivate a flurry of activity. Here's what was done today:

1. Our awesome neighbors' friend cut down the cedar tree in our backyard. It was well on its way to dead, and it was also blocking a lot of sun from the pool. It was a real whopper, like 50 or 60 feet tall, and you can watch the footage yourself below. I am notoriously bad at calculating when things are actually going to "timberrrr" so of course I'm almost mid-sentence when I cut myself off to yell.



2. Look how cute our little garden is! I'm still waging war on earwigs and slugs, but my beer traps seem to be working. I've caught a lot of earwigs. Who knew frat boys and garden pests had so much in common?


3. Speaking of exploding plants, check out a) the raspberry


and b) our tomatoes, pepper and zucchini. They were but tiny starts just a short while ago....oh, they grow up so fast...
4. Lest you think I have only accomplished things inside, I give you this!

Also, this!

No, it's not merely a towel, hook and vent cover. I hung the hook, so that we don't have to put our towels on the toilet while showering (just seemed more civilized). That vent cover has been waiting to go up since, umm, February, and I'm really glad that that's done. And the towel rack is basically the same story. When we discovered a hook on the back of our bedroom door, I sort of lost motivation to put up a towel rack. But again, in favor of looking civilized...

5. Don't have a pic of this, but I put up our new address numbers outside. They're pretty generic, just Times New Roman numerals in brushed nickel, but it's all straight and nice now. Those have been sitting around next to our front door since March.

6. Lastly, I hung the curtains again in the office. When my mom and I wallpapered two months ago, I had to take them down. Putting up a curtain rod is real pain, especially since I thought I'd be all tricky and hang them off the window to make the window look bigger (and not block light). Well, I miscalculated how long the rod was, and spaced the holders like four inches too far apart, so when I tried to hang it, the rod separated into two pieces. Ooh, I was mad. Mainly because now I have two holes in the wallpaper that are kind of obvious, which was EXACTLY what I was trying to avoid. And don't give me the "measure twice, cut once" baloney. I DID measure twice. Just not the curtain rod. Anyway, looks cute, huh? Kate gave me those little wooden boats, which I love.


And now really lastly, I leave you with a shot of the pool, patio and fire pit. Todd has kicked some serious algae butt in the past month, and our pool is now almost crystal clear. Major props to him.

Satan's henchmen

While cleaning up the trash heap in our side driveway last night, I ran across not one but TWO evil black widows. Todd said they were approximately standard size, but with bodies the size of a green pea, they seemed rather monstrous to me. Anyway, one met his (her?) end by a swift whack with a paint stirrer and the other one I may have treated to death by bbq lighter. PS they smell bad when burning.



All together now, EWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pool shack, but slightly less shack-ish

Last week, keeping in mind that the pool was coming along promisingly, I decided the day had arrived to paint the pool shack. Before I went to work, you may remember from previous footage that it looked like this: and also this, and this but it doesn't look like that anymore. I pretty much executed the world's sloppiest (and possibly a personal worst) paint job in Glidden Parchment White, which is slightly off-white (so as not to be blinding). I started off doing what you're supposed to do when painting outside: sanding and scraping. After a round or so of that, I sprayed everything off with the hose, and that's where the trouble started. More paint kept flaking off, and this made me mad. So rather than doing things the right way (which may have involved taking the whole thing down to bare wood) I went to Costco for a hotdog and a Very Berry Sundae. By the time I came home, the shack was pretty well dried out, so I started painting, making sure to apply it good and thick.

Considering that half the shack is rotted anyway, I'll be happy if it's still standing two years from now, paint job aside. Anyway, I'm quite sure you'll agree that it looks much better now. Our neighbors certainly do!