Pool Pics

A big project for us this summer has been getting the old Gunite pool in the backyard going. When we bought the house the pool was full of leaves and looked pretty bad. We have been busy draining and shoveling it out, then scrubbing and painting the surface, and finally calling the pool service guys to fix the pump and get things running again. Now that's all done, and I just finished my first swim. Sure, it's a little dirty (we still have to buy one of those pool vac gizmos to pick stuff off the bottom), but....it was still great. My own pool! Maybe I'll even share it with Lee Ann and Annie.

Weekend Getaway

On Saturday morning Lee Ann and I drove north to West Liberty, Ohio and visited the two house museums there called the Piatt Castles after the brothers who built them. That night we stayed at a bed & breakfast in historic Urbana. This was our kind of vacation, and we had a wonderful time despite a bit of rain.

Both of us have been busy lately with work and house projects so have not had much time for fun. We still are busy, but found time for this weekend away to celebrate our upcoming 20th anniversary (June 29). Time flies!

View of Minn/St. Paul Airport

Good gosh, observed the airborne Bengalista as he picked a couple of Canadian geese out of his teeth at Mach 3, they look just like kid's toys down there on the runway. Briefly he thought of buzzing the terminal to jolt some groggy traveler awaiting his Denver connection. Then, recalling his ill-advised close approach at St. Louis terminal a few days earlier, he instead changed course and arced up, up, up into the burning blue, higher and higher, where never lark, nor even eagle flew, a stripey orange bullet on a collision course with destiny.

Flying Tiger Spotted Over Louisville

Another day, another crazy adventure, mused the flying feline as he threaded his way at supersonic speed betwixt the skyscrapers of downtown L'ville. Somewhere far below, an insignificant speck of a sidekick talked safety in a nasal monotone to sleepy men; but up here, punching through the cumulus into brilliant sunshine, the big cat with the million-dollar smile was burning adrenaline and lighting up the sky like a supervillain's worst stripey nightmare.

Loaded For Bear

Here is Lee Ann modeling our new "Honeysuckle Popper." This is a big, heavy crowbar-like device with a hinged wooden block that acts as a fulcrum. You push the head into the soil underneath the unsuspecting honeysuckle and then lever it up out of the ground. Working for about an hour this morning, Lee Ann "popped" about a dozen good-sized bushes and any number of smaller ones.

This approach sure beats my previous method, which was to drag on the bush from all angles until I had broken enough roots to physically wrench it from the ground (at the same time wrenching my back, as it turned out). Now that we have the right tool, it's a matter of keeping at it until the invasive miseries are all gone. We have probably a thousand to go.

You Should See The Other Guy!!

This is the honeysuckle I have cut out of our back fencerow, which is mostly what I had been doing around the house for the last few weekends. The honeysuckle has taken some serious losses, but it hasn't been a one-sided affair. On Sunday, my third day of pulling up bushes by the roots and cutting them up for the pile, I overworked my back and sprained or tore a muscle back there. Score one for the honeysuckle! Since then I have been mostly chairbound, waiting for my back to feel better. Today, finally, it does. But I still am limping around with a cane, and planning a terrible fate for the surviving honeysuckle. They can run, but they can't hide. Actually, they can't run either - even better!

Kitchen Update

This isn't huge progress, but since the last picture I mounted the base and wall cabinets to the left of our stove, where the wall oven used to be. The cabinets will be painted but we are still thinking about colors. They will have new pulls, too. The next step is to put a marble top where the microwave is now so Lee Ann can roll out dough there.