BIG NEWS!

Big news.   For those of you who haven’t already heard from me or my family: Tomorrow is my last day at my job and I will be going back to school at the University of Illinois in August.  I will be working on earning my Master’s Degree in Landscape Architecture, something that I have to have if I want to follow in the CFO’s footsteps and teach.

This definitely wasn't in our initial plans when we moved up here, but sometimes you have to improvise. The next question that people are asking is “what are you going to do after you get your degree?”  At this point, I don’t have a good answer for that yet...  Maybe I will find a teaching position somewhere or maybe I will be able to build some connections with U of I alumni who work at firms in Chicago that might consider hiring me to work remotely and ride the train into the city once or twice per week.  Who knows.

I’ll freely admit that I’m nervous as hell about going back school… it has been 15 years since I graduated and times have changed.  Back when I was in school (you can read this imagining an old man’s voice) no one had cell phones or laptop computers.  We had to go to one of the computer labs on campus if we wanted to check our UGA email account (which was a new, cool thing).  All of my design projects in school were drawn by hand and I spent a bunch of late nights in the studio on campus drawing them.  Now I'll be able to work on my laptop where ever I have a power plug to plug into.  

I’m also a little worried about being an “older” student.  I’ll turn 40 before I graduate!  I never would have guessed that my 40^th birthday would be celebrated on a college campus.  

The CFO is not looking forward to her new role as Sugar Mama… she said that she preferred to be the supplemental income generator, not the primary one.  But, as many people have reminded her, I did it for her while she earned her PhD, so fair is fair.

Hopefully this will give me a lot of stuff to write about over the next two years!

Bring on the Mulch

Between the HOA, our cars, the yard and the curling club, I've been really busy lately juggling stuff in my free time.  My miata developed a leak in a coolant hose several weeks ago and, after talking it over with a friend, I decided that I probably should replace all of the coolant lines on the car.  It is a 19 year old car, so better safe than sorry.  Unfortunately, on the miata that equals out to 9 coolant hoses!  Even worse, some of them are in some really tight spaces that are hard to reach, even with my small hands.

I ended up destroying a couple of the hose clamps while removing the hoses, so I had to order replacement clamps.  Then I got distracted by beautiful days that were more appropriately spent outside in the yard instead of in the garage.  The next thing I know, a few weeks have passed by and the car is still up on jack stands.  I’m one hose away from being done with replacing all the hoses, but then I have to replace all of the parts that I had to remove to get to the lines (air box, crossover pipe, the under body tray, passenger side wheel, intake manifold support, oil filter, and countless electrical connections that were undone to move harnesses out of the way).  I need to get it back together soon since it is already July.  I'll have to put it away for winter in a few months!

It is hard to believe that this is our fourth summer in our house (and Bloomington!), which means that it has been 4 years since I mulched our rear beds.  I put a heavy coat of mulch down the first time, so it lasted for a while, but it is so thin now that the weeds have attempted to reclaim the yard.  I've had to resort to the “nuclear” option of spraying round up every other week to try to keep the beds clear.  Since the rear beds are so big, I really didn't want to pay for the nice, expensive shredded bark mulch that we use in the beds around the house. 

It took some time, but I finally found a source that fits my budget: free mulch.  That’s right, the mulch is free and I just have to pay a small amount for delivery.  The negative is that it is “single grind” mulch so it can be a little chunky… but I’ll take some chunks here and there in order to save major $$$.  There are occasional big pieces of wood that somehow made it through the grinder intact, so I am pulling those big pieces out and adding them to my stockpile of wood for the fire pit.  Problem solved.

The Pile!

The guy dropped off two loads of 6 cubic yards each last Friday and the CFO was quite surprised at the size of the pile.  She was even more surprised when I said we would need another 1-2 loads after that! I spent a good bit of last weekend spreading mulch and I've put a good dent in the pile.  I decided that I wanted to trench the edge of the bed so that there is a clear, defined edge for the turf.  It looks really nice, but it is a pain in the rear to slowly work along the edge of the bed one shovel width at a time.  Some of the grass has spread too, so I am removing chunks of sod in those places, which is slowing me even more because I have to dispose of the sod.  I’m probably almost half way around the edge of the rear bed right now.

 During the bed edging

This side is mulched.  We've also been stalking the clearance section in the plant department at Lowes, looking for bargain plants to fill in this side of the yard.  It is only a matter of time before someone buys the house next to us and we'd like to have some green between us and them.  Too bad our new additions have been small 1 gallon plants!

I've also been busy working with a group of people who are trying to form a curling club here in Bloomington.  Until last year, the city parks department was coordinating the league, but then they decided that they didn't want to do it any more.  They basically said that if we want to curl, we have to pull together a group and collect the money required to rent the ice at the rink, which is over $200/hr. to rent.  A core group of 10 people have met 6-7 times and we are finally working on having our first event later in July (if enough people sign up).  

There was a lot of debate over the name of the club, but the final vote named it Illinois Central Curling Club.  I thought Central Illinois Curling Club sounded better, but I was in the minority.  I think several of them liked the play on words of "I C curling" as "I see curling."  Once the name was nailed down, I started working on logos for the club.  It started with variations based off of the Illinois Central Railroad and, after numerous variations, it was finally narrowed down to two.  The shape of the I's still hearken back to the railroad logos, but the overall design definitely have more of a curling theme to them. The group couldn't decide between these two, so I guess we are going to have two logos.  I think we'll use the round one as a group crest and the purple one will be used on shirts/stickers/etc.

We’re looking forward to the upcoming 3 day weekend for the Fourth of July.  The CFO’s parents are driving out on Thursday and will be spending the holiday weekend with us.  Have a great holiday!

Cruise report finale

After leaving Belize City that evening, we sailed north to Cozumel, Mexico.  During our last visit to Cozumel, the CFO and I went on an off-roading dune buggy excursion and had a ton of fun.  We hadn't pre-booked an activity this time and  we decided that, since we had done excursions on the two previous days, we would just hang out on the ship all morning and then roam around the stores in downtown Cozumel the afternoon.  Since we stayed on the ship all morning, I was able to hang out and surf at the flow rider.  Did I mention that I enjoyed the flow rider???  There were only 5-6 of us there, so we pretty much had it to ourselves.

After surfing, the CFO and I ate a snack and then hit the streets in search of who knows what.  We ended up not buying anything because what we found was too expensive... she found some jewelry (of course) that she liked and I found a watch that I liked, but everything was over our budget.  Plus, even though the ship companies have relationships with some of the jewelry places, it still makes me kind of nervous buying it in a foreign country.  Maybe I’m just a bit paranoid…

After a few hours of shopping we headed back to the ship for another snack and then we sat on our balcony watching everyone come back to the ship on the pier below.  Soon enough it was time to get ready for dinner, Formal night #2 which is also known as “lobster tail night.” The CFO and mom both enjoyed lobster while dad and I opted for beef instead.  After dinner, the CFO and I made the rounds to several photographer stands before heading to the late show at the theater.

 Mom and Dad dressed for dinner

We clean up well... nice sunset with storm clouds too.

Saturday, our last day on board, was spent at sea, sailing back to Galveston.  It was a nice day, even if the line for the flow rider was impossibly long.  A lot of the people who had been spectating all week decided that they would take this last change to try it, which meant that I wasn't willing to stand in the line for it.  The CFO and I went to the on board art auction, but didn't see anything that we really liked.  It was interesting to watch the limited action, but due the limited number of people on the ship looking for art, there weren't a lot of bidding battles. We also spent some time going through all of our photos at the ship's photo center (over 100 taken through the week) before settling on 4 8x10's for us and/or relatives.

That evening, we had to do the one thing the CFO dreads most… pack.  If you want the crew to haul your bags off the ship (trust me, you want them to do it for you), then they have to be placed in the hallway by 10pm on the final night.  We got everything packed and headed off to our final dinner in the dining room.  Since this trip was originally scheduled for our anniversary in November, the crew thought that it was our anniversary.  It was technically our 7.5 year anniversary, so we let a group of the dining room staff sing the happy anniversary song for us.  We also had our two waiters pose with us for this photo:

As you can see, these guys were pretty happy and had a good sense of humor.  At dinner on our first night, our waiter asked if the CFO and I had kids, to which I replied, “No we don’t, do you?”  He replied with a dead straight face, “In every port” and then walked away.  I'm guessing he's used that line before, but I still found it very funny.  Our waiter was from Hungary and the assistant waiter was from the Philippines.  They quickly learned our names and our preferences on drinks, bread, side dishes, etc. and we looked forward to seeing them at dinner every night. If only we could get this level of service at the restaurants that we go to at home!

I enjoy taking time to talk with the crew members and I am always amazed when they talk about their schedule, 7 months on, working EVERY day, and then 2 months off.  Sure, 2 months off sounds nice, but I don’t know how they can continue to be happy and enthusiastic week after week, but they manage to do it.  A lot of them have families at home, so I guess they are making enough money to make the time apart worthwhile.

This towel character was waiting for us in our room one night (that's the TV remote on his lap) 

We took one last stroll around the ship on Saturday night and then headed to bed.  When we woke up Sunday morning, the ship was in Galveston’s port and was easing its way up to the cruise terminal.  We ran down to the dining room for one last serving of French toast and then went to our assigned waiting area (the Theater) before departing the ship.  A news channel was playing on the screen above the stage and we were welcomed back to reality with news of shootings, politics, and other crap.  We were definitely longing for another week of obliviousness on board the ship.

After leaving the ship, we had a short walk through customs and then we boarded a bus to the airport.  Our flight to Atlanta was on time and we said bye to mom and dad at the Atlanta airport, before flying the rest of the way home to Bloomington.  We got home around 10:30 pm Sunday night and were very happy to know that Monday was Memorial Day, so I didn't have to go to work!  Of course, our grass was super tall so I spent a majority of the day getting the yard back under control…

A few more photos and a video:

The Navigator of the Seas being dwarfed by it's big sister, the Allure of the Seas

The CFO had seafood every night...

Mom and dad were just two doors down from us

Snack time on the balcony

And, finally, the view from our balcony while at sea:

Cruise report Part 2

The cruise that we took was a 7 night trip, we left Galveston on Sunday afternoon and spent Monday and Tuesday sailing to our first port.  Here is a map of our itinerary that shows how far we sailed:

Having done numerous cruises, the CFO and I quickly settled into the “at sea day routine” that we have perfected after several cruises: 

Wake up, throw on pool clothes

Go to the main dining room for Breakfast

Go to the photo studio and review the photos of us that were taken the night before

Spend the rest of the morning on the pool deck

Go to the main dining room for Lunch

Spend the afternoon on the pool deck

Nap in room

Snack time

More lounging

Get ready for dinner

Dinner

Late show at the theater

Go to bed

As you can see, it’s a tough life.  We prefer to have breakfast and lunch in the main dining room because the food is better (than the buffet) and we enjoy the fact that they seat random groups of people together at 10 person tables.  You never know who you will end up sitting with, but it is easy to break the ice by asking: “Do you cruise often?”  

Everyone found it amusing that I ordered French Toast for breakfast every day, but cruising is the only time I have it.  The CFO isn't a big fan of it, so I don’t make it at home.  I did alternate my side dish between bacon and sausage each day for some variety. 

While we were doing our thing on the cruising days, my mom and dad kept themselves entertained with some of the other activities that were offered on board like trivia contests, Sudoku contests, bingo and gambling in the casino (I think that was dad’s favorite place).  We typically met up with them for meals and then went our own ways in between meals.

On Wednesday morning, our ship pulled into the port of Roatan, Honduras, which is on an island off the coast of Honduras.  We disembarked from the ship and boarded a bus to head out to Pirate Beach.  The 20 minute drive to the beach was kind of depressing, as we could see how poor the living conditions were for the area residents.  It was an odd juxtaposition of disheveled shacks and a beautiful view of crystal clear ocean water.  If it weren't for the ship loads of tourists who spend money on the island, I can’t imagine how those people would survive.  As the bus driver checked in with the guard at the gate of the resort area, the CFO quickly noticed that the security guard was armed.   We wondered if that was a good or bad sign.

We got off the bus and were greeted with a cup of a punch and a beach full of nice padded lounge chairs laid out under the shade of palm trees.  We spent the morning lounging around and floating in the water while a variety of fish swim by.  There weren't a lot of people at the beach, so it was really relaxing.  After spending the morning on the beach, we headed back to the port to do a little souvenir shopping and then went back onto the ship for lunch.  Why pay for lunch on the island when food on the ship is “included?”  We departed the port around 5 pm and headed towards our next port.

We woke up the following morning as the ship pulled up to Belize City, Belize.  There is a major reef around the city, so the cruise ships have to anchor out in the deeper water and a group of tender boats shuttle passengers to shore.  After a 20 minute boat ride to shore, we quickly located the tour representative and were escorted to their waiting van.  The four of us were joined in the van by two other couples and we enjoyed a scenic 1.5 hour ride into the middle of nowhere.  Once at our destination, we were all given helmets with headlights and life jackets and then we were lead on a 30-45 minute hike through the jungle.

The guy who led our tour, who went by “the Snakeman,” was an entertaining local who was constantly pointing out plants and describing their medicinal properties.  According to him, there was a cure for everything in the jungle, even HIV.  I took it all in with a grain of salt, not sure how accurate all his stories were.  

At the end of the hike, we were each given an inflatable tube and were lead down to the river.  After everyone in the group was floating on their tube, the guide tied all the tubes together and downstream we went.  The river had a very gentle current, no white water in sight.  Because of the slow moving current, the guide wasn't in a tube; he swam/walked the entire trip, pulling our group of 8 down river while telling more stories about the surrounding areas.  He had to be in pretty good shape to do that and we were shocked to hear that, during their busy season, he would lead 3 tours down the river each day.  Crazy!

The cool thing about this river is the fact that it flows through huge limestone caves.  That's right, we went "cave tubing." At several points along the route, after the river turned a corner inside the cave, we would all turn off our lights and were surrounded by darkness.  It was pretty cool and this was one of the highlights of the trip for me.  The CFO isn't the most adventurous person around, but she handled the trip well.  I was disappointed that we didn't see more bats; however she was relieved that we didn't see many.  I think mom enjoyed the trip too, however, dad didn't seem too impressed... 

(Since we were going to be in the water, we didn't bring a camera with us,.I borrowed these images from the web to give you an idea of what we did)

After the float down the river we were taken back to the tour company’s headquarters, where we were given a meal of chicken and beans & rice.  However, we didn't really get to enjoy it because we had to hurry back to the ship so we didn't miss the last tender back to the ship. All cruise lines offer excursions that you can book through them, but they can sometimes be expensive.  This tour was a good example of that as we booked this trip through an independent provider and paid less than half of what RC would have charged us.  Plus, our guide took us through an extra cave upstream of the main cave that everyone goes through and they fed us lunch.  So we definitely got more for our money… but there is one problem of going independent:  If you are late, the ship might leave without you.  When you go on an excursion through the cruise line, they guarantee that the ship will wait for you if there is a mechanical issue and your excursion is delayed.  If you are out on your own and you miss the last tender back to the ship, you are out of luck.

This made my dad extremely nervous as the drive and hike to river, plus the float through the caves took longer than what was estimated.  However, the CFO and I knew from past experience that, as long as you were on the tender pier by the advertised time of the last tender, the ship won’t leave without you.  We tried to get him to relax about it, but he was very concerned that the ship was going to leave us.  We arrived at the tender pier about 45 minutes before the scheduled last tender and were quickly taken back to the ship.  We were sitting at the ship's promenade cafe eating a snack when the captain announced on the PA system that although it was time to depart, they were still waiting for 600 guests to be tendered back to the ship.  We were actually “early” compared to those people and the ship actually left about 15-20 minutes later than scheduled.  All that worrying for nothing.

Cruise report, Part 1

It is amazing how quickly a week can pass when you are on vacation.  On Saturday May 17^th, the CFO and I rolled out of bed very early and took a 6am flight from Bloomington to Atlanta, GA.  Once at the Atlanta airport, we hit Chick-fil-a for breakfast (of course!) and then walked to the gate for our second flight, where we met my parents.  The 4 of us boarded that flight to Houston, TX and a couple hours later I stepped foot on Texas soil for the first time.   Cross another state off my list.

I had this master plan to meet a friend of mine and her husband for lunch at the airport and then we would travel an additional 45 minutes to Galveston.  While planning the trip, I figured out that, with 4 people, reserving an SUV through Execucar was cheaper than taking the boring old shuttle van, so I booked it.  The instructions said that we should check in at their kiosk and a driver/SUV would be assigned to us… it sounded easy enough.  Unfortunately, as soon as we touched down, I received a text message from the company stating that our driver would meet us at the luggage carousel.  Normally that would be really nice, but we were supposed to meet my friend for lunch!

When we got to the carousel, I saw our driver with an Ipad that was displaying my name, which made me feel way more important than I really am.  I walked over and talked with the driver and he said it would cost $75/hr for him to wait for us to eat/chat with my friend... oh crap, I didn't plan on that! I quickly called my friend to see where they were and she said that they were circling the parking lot looking for a parking space. Instead of parking, she hopped out of the car and met us at the door of the airport.  We got to talk for about 5 minutes before our driver had our luggage loaded up and ready to go… it was a bummer since I hadn't seen her in 13 years.  So much for my brilliant planning.  We piled into the black Suburban for the ride to Galveston, which was full of local history/information from the driver (perhaps a little too much according to my parents, but I thought it was interesting).

The Pier in Galveston, no way I was getting on any of those rides!

We checked into our hotel and spent the afternoon/evening roaming around the water front of Galveston.  Overall, I wasn't too impressed with Galveston, but this was just a quick lay over before the real vacation started the following day.  On Sunday morning we woke up and could see cruise ships just over the tops of the surrounding buildings.  Time to get our cruise on!  We asked the front desk schedule a cab ride for us from the hotel to the cruise terminal and were told they would be there around 10:00 am.  At 11:00 am we were still standing outside the hotel waiting on our cab.  Evidently cab service is lacking in Galveston and Sunday is their busiest day since there are two cruise ships in port.  We could have walked to the ship in that amount of time, if we didn't have so much luggage. We waited outside with a dozen other people who were all going on the same cruise and everyone was anxiously eyeing every cab that drove past (which wasn't many).  We were very happy when a cab finally pulled up and asked which one of us was the CFO… our ride had finally arrived.  Less than an hour later, we were checked in and walking up the gangway to board the Navigator of the Seas.

We could barely see the cruise ships in the distance from our hotel

Royal Caribbean has a fleet of ships, usually having multiple ships of the same size/class.  Since our first cruise with RC (our honeymoon), they have introduced several new classes of ships, however we always end up on a voyager class ship.  This trip was no exception, the CFO and I have now cruised on 3 of the 5 voyager class ships.  At this point, we might as well try to travel on all of them.  The good news is that we are pretty familiar with the layout, so we already know our way around the 15 decks.   Even better, this one just had a multi-million dollar face lift in January.  

The main pool area

After getting on board, we all walked up 5 flights of stairs to the buffet for lunch.  Let the week of eating and eating and eating some more begin!  After lunch, the CFO and I went and checked out our room (with a balcony) and  then walked around the ship to take in the changes that were made during the refresh.  We eventually ended up at the rear of the ship where the most exciting (to me anyway) feature was located:  The FlowRider surfing simulator that was added during the refresh.  There was a guy on a boogie board riding the wave and I immediately knew where I'd be spending all of my free time. 

Ever since RC started including the FlowRider on their new ships (starting with the Freedom class), I've been dying to go on a cruise with one.  It looked like so much fun in the advertisements. For those of you who don't know, the FlowRider is basically a padded box with a floor that slopes up from front to the back.  All along the front edge of the floor is a series of water jets that fire out a stream of water along the sloped floor of the box up to a drain along the back wall.  This creates a "wave" of water that you can surf or boogie board on.  I was told that the system circulates around 30,000 gallons of water per minute and I saw, first hand, that it comes out with enough force to manhandle a 300 pound guy.  It is also strong enough to remove loose fitting swim trunks and/or bikini tops from unsuspecting riders.  Because of the entertainment factor, RC built an arc of 3 rows of stadium seats for spectators around the front of the box, providing people with a place to sit and watch the carnage.  (There was always a crowd watching whenever the FlowRider was open)

Getting some "hands on" instruction

Before I could try out the FlowRider, I had to sign a bunch of waivers (possibly not a good sign!)  I really wanted to boogie board because I thought it would be easier, but when I got there it was stand up surfing time (they alternate between the two activities through the day).  I initially balked at the idea of doing the stand up because it looked really difficult, but was persuaded into trying it by the instructor.  At the time, there was only one other person there, so the two of us basically had the wave to ourselves.  Having unlimited access to it was a good thing because the stand-up surfing is far, far from easy.  I spent more time on my ass than standing up and I quickly learned how powerful those water jets were, as they easily pushed me up the slope and into the back wall.  It only took one face first hit into the wall for me to realize that I needed to spin myself around after falling so that I could hit the wall feet first. 

 Falling...

 About to fall, again...

Recovering after falling and being blown up to the back wall...

A short video of an instructor trying to get me out into the flow

The first two days of our trip were “at sea” days, so I had a lot of time to play on the flow rider.  The first couple days were the best  because there weren't many people in line.  By the end of the trip, the line was way too long to be worth standing in it. The CFO laughed at me because a majority of the people in line were 10-20 (or more) years younger than me.  There were a couple guys older than me, but most people were probably 22 or younger.  

By the end of the trip, I was able to get on a board and push myself out onto the wave without any help from the instructors.  I slowly figured out how to maneuver the board and managed to get some good rides in, but they all ended the same, with me on my tail. 

 I'm getting the hang of it later on in the trip...

But even a good ride ends the same as a bad one...

As you can tell, the FlowRider was one of my favorite parts of the trip, I could have spent many more hours out there trying to master it... Stay tuned for the rest of the trip.

March?

Sorry that I haven’t written in a while… I can summarize the entire month of March in 3 words:  Cough, Cough, and Cough.  

I started to develop a slight cough around Feb 1 and I tried to power through it.  As March began, the cough started getting progressively worse, eventually getting to the point when I broke down and went to the doctor.  For better or worse, my doctor is kind of a cold Nazi, "no prescription drugs for you!"  Every time you go in with what appears to be a typical cold, he gives you the same sheet of paper with a list of over the counter drugs on it and basically says tough it out. This technique definitely encourages you to try to beat it on your own, which I am more than happy to try to do.  

The first round of medication suggested by the doctor did nothing to stop the escalating cough, so I ended up going back for a second office visit.  That visit turned into a chest x-ray to verify that it wasn't Pneumonia, which you might remember I had 1 year ago.  The x-ray was clear so more over the counter medicine followed, along with an antibiotic.  After another 10 days, the cough was still active and starting to keep me up at night.  I went back to the doctor for a third time and was loaded up with a serious round of medicine… this time a lot of prescription stuff.  My collection included a steroid, another antibiotic to kill anything that is lingering, a cough syrup with codeine in it that totally knocks me on my ass so I can sleep, and zyrtec because he thinks it might be allergies that is causing the post nasal congestion that is making me cough.  I’m definitely sleeping like a rock now and the cough is slowly receding.  Hopefully I will continue to recover this week, but now the CFO is developing a cough.  Ugh.

Because I didn't want to be “that guy” at the gym that is coughing away while working out, I haven’t been to the gym in over a month.  I miss going and I’m worried that it is going to be hard to get back on the 4:45 am routine once I can go back.  The good news is that I haven’t felt so bad that I couldn't go to work, so I've worked this entire time.  I’m sure my boss is tired of hearing me cough through the day, though…

In other news, the CFO and one of her co-workers have been spending all of their waking hours from the last few weeks working on a big grant application.  They have put a ton of work into it, including staying at the office until 3 a.m. the last night they worked on it.  The final copy was submitted on Tuesday and, after all of the effort that they have poured into it, I hope they get it.  However, the grant getting funded could tie us down to Bloomington for at least another 5-6 years and I’m not sure how I feel about that… Sometimes it is hard to be supportive when you aren't super thrilled with the possible outcome...  

The best news of all is that Spring has finally sprung, signified by the daffodils and tulips that are starting to poke up from the ground.  It looks like our almost record setting snowfall is over, ending at 51.2” for the winter, falling just short of the 1959-60 record of 57.8”.  It will probably be another couple weeks until the spring bulbs are in full bloom, but it is nice to see some green appearing around the yard and, more importantly, no snow on the ground.  

The CFO and I took a quick walk around the yard on Sunday afternoon and, while we were walking around the backyard, we met the couple that will be moving into the house to the left of us.  The guys that were living there moved to Atlanta, GA and there has been a sold sign up for almost a month with no signs of the buyers.  They appeared to be in their 30’s/40’s and don’t have any pets or kids.  As long as they don’t have a garage rock band, it sounds like they will be nice, quiet neighbors.  We are still waiting for the 5 bedroom house on the other side of us to sell... I've already predicted a house full of kids along with an ugly trampoline or play structure on the level area right next to our property line...  I am going to focus my yard funds on beefing up the plantings along that property line this spring.

I don't have many photos from the last month, but here is the mini closet make over I did on my side of our closet.  I had this big open space above the area where my sweaters (it is cold here, remember) were, not so neatly, piled up.  The addition of a few shelves helped clean up the space and made it much more functional.

That looks much better...

38

My birthday was a couple weeks ago, so I am adjusting to being 38 years old… The CFO continues to remind me that I’m quickly closing in on 40.  How is that possible?  I remember when my parents turned 40 and it seemed like they were super old.   

My birthday celebration was pretty low-key, we went out to dinner with some friends (mmm… prime rib) and I received a lot of nice gifts including some clothes, cycling accessories, money and the CFO gave me a new lawn mower.  Being the smart woman that she is, she gave me an illustrated “I.O.U.” for it and is leaving the decision of which brand/model to buy up to me.   I must be getting old when I get excited about the idea of getting a lawn mower for my birthday!

The CFO also managed to schedule a hair appointment for herself on my birthday, and she proceeded to have them chop off enough hair for her to donate.  I prefer long hair, so this was kind of sad (and mean to do on my birthday!)…

Before

 

After 

We had a brief warm up a few days before my birthday.  The above freezing temperatures combined with a couple inches of rain  to create a lot of melting snow and surface water.  The snow berm that had built up between us and the boys to the left of us created a swimming pool in their backyard that over topped the sills of their basement windows and worked its way into their basement.  I saw them outside frantically digging on their side of the fence, so I went out and helped open up a channel for the water on our side.  The resulting stream of water was 8-10" deep and it ran for a good hour before their yard was fully drained. 

 

The water draining from the boy's house across our grass area.  The dry creek bed is still buried under 3 feet of snow, so this is route option #2 for the water.

 

This is the water flowing in the ditch between our house and the field behind us.  It is usually a dry creek bed, it only looks like this once or twice per year.

 

While the warm up and rain washed away some of the snow, we still have a large piles of it everywhere.  It was topped off last weekend when we got another 4-5 inches of snow… I heard that friends in Georgia have daffodils popping up in their yards; we can’t even see ours because of the snow cover.  It looks like we might get above freezing this weekend, so that will be an improvement.  The CFO is heading to Virginia for spring break, leaving me a week to tackle some projects.  I haven't decided which ones I will tackle, but I'm hoping to be productive.