Welcome to Summer

And just to prove it, after today I'm not coming back to work for 5 days.

Over the weekend we're going to this:
http://www.ctmsfolkmusic.org/festival/Solstice/default.asp
where Jim will get his third lesson from his East Coast Hammered Dulcimer teacher. I'm bringing my acoustic electric bass in case they have a workshop for me or something. Probably it will just get a nice car ride and I'll get some tunes.

On Monday, we're picking up my mom, bringing her back, and ditching her while we go to House of Blues to see Hot Tuna. She says she wants to hang out alone since her house is too crowded. I'm not sure she Really understands we don't have TV. I don't think she'll be willing to run the computer to watch DVDs or Daily Show episodes on the net but we will see.

Tuesday I'm staying home and hopefully some folks will bring some babies over and distract my mom.

I think we're ditching her on Wednesday night for a Humphrey's show, as well.

She'll be staying until she gets bored and gets on the train home. If anyone else wants to come by and distract her, please let me know. I'll be in the back yard digging to China.

By the light of day

everything looks just as messy, only brighter.

new photos here

I Has a Shovel

This is progress?


Badger Badger Badger


Badger Badger


Badger

Badger

Badger Badger


Badger Badger Badger!


Meanwhile, in the Front Yard, I started re-excavating the sprinkler system so Jim can fix it. This is where the pine tree roots grew around the pipe and snapped it:

This break is what started this project.


Jim planted a little garden in the front yard. Awwwwwwww:



This is the view of it from the sidewalk. This is after I cleaned up the yard a bit, and added the little rock border:


I dug this section out, with some help from Cousin Steven, yesterday and today:

I used my NEW SHOVEL that Jim got me. He's so nice. It fits me and does not give me splinters.

I HAS A SHOVEL okthxbye

Me, too

http://icanhascheezburger.com/2007/06/14/this-is-mah-job/

Changes

My department is getting reorganized. All around me, people are anticipating changes, having meetings, making plans.

As far as I can tell, none of it has anything to do with me. Some things never change... Although sometimes they seem noisier and/or more boring by comparison.

If anyone wants to share any work gossip with me, feel free.

Manual Labor is fun

We recently had all our trees removed, including this poplar tree.

We waited until it was really ugly to have it taken out:

It was nice for shade and privacy, but the roots were getting into the garden:


And under the house:


Meanwhile, the ex-living-xmas-tree in the front yard:


was eating the sprinkler system:



It took months and finally it took friends of friends since grade school to get someone to give a decent quote and then return our phone calls for scheduling.

We paid them an extra couple hundred bucks to dig some trenches for irrigation.


We have been excavating large poplar roots from the remaining cement-like dirt and boulder combo, using a 20 pound digging bar, a shovel, and my fingernails.

In the picture above, the top shows the width of the trenches they dug. For the bottom part, we widened their trench until we got to the cement patio.

We were already digging out the root system below, when we gave up on the garden because of the need to have the trees out. We were really tired of pulling happy poplar roots out of the garden every year, after initially digging out all the rocks, and putting in real dirt.



Triumphant!



Serverhenge waits patiently:



We used to have a third poplar tree. I took it out with shovels and hand saws, and made a bench out of it, that no one will sit on but me:


Which way should we go next?

You can see even more photos here:

Before tree removal:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeemshome/sets/72157600005508789/

After tree removal:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeemshome/sets/72157600056539276/

"You can't just cut down a poplar tree":
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeemshome/sets/72157600332736332/

Red Eye

Yesterday morning, I had regular bloodshot eyes, as a result of two nights in a row out til 11 **gasp** for Humphrey's by the Bay concerts. There was one particularly red patch in my right eye.

I noticed this as I was leaving. There was a bottle of Visine 'gets the red out' right there, so I put some in and waited a few minutes with my eyes closed.

When I looked in the mirror again, it looked as if I had a big drop of blood in my right eye on the right side. It would not spill out of my eye. it was like a bubble, something liquidy with a really high surface tension. And it looked like red liquid. When I looked to the left, it stretched out and looked almost normal. When I looked to the right, it compressed right up against my iris but no further.

I went out and tried for quite a few minutes to get the attention of my boyfriend, who was on the phone with a client. Mostly I wanted to know if I could use the computer keyboard that was in his lap, to email in to work. I was like that kid on Youtube who yelled "blood! blood!" while his parents laughed and videotaped. But I didn't yell, cause he was on the phone with a client. I just pointed at my eye a lot. So he smiled and waved. So I took off my glasses. And so on.

Finally I got his attention and sent the email and laid on the couch for a while with a little mirror in my hand, constantly checking to see if my eyeball had exploded.

By this time Jim had gotten off the phone. He was concerned and wanted to call the doctor. I had decided it was probably the Visine doing something weird, and that it wasn't getting redder and that it was mostly reflection of the regular bloodshot eyes. I got him to settle for me laying on the couch. It was Boring.

I stayed home all day due to bloodshot eyes. That's a new one for me.

This evening, I told Jim "I never want to put Visine in my eyes ever again" and he said "I wouldn't". We decided to throw away that bottle, anyway.

I went in there and before I threw it away, I checked the expiration date.




JUNE 2001

GAH

Glad I'm not blind.