If you have to ask...

Don't ask.

Pay attention people. This is a metaphor for life.



In other news (perhaps exciting only to this gardening geek), we've finished building our new compost corral. It's been a long time coming, but we wanted to put some thought into it and build something that a) wasn't going to cost a bunch of money, b) would last a long time, and c) would be effective and user-friendly. We feel good about this system. Shorty here can easily shovel the contents from one side to the other, stir, water, etc.


It looks like Lincoln Logs, doesn't it? Well, it kinda is. Landscape timbers held together by threading a piece of rebar through each joint. Simple and effective. And, no, those aren't munchkin-stairs for Shorty, just leftover pieces.

Yay for A/C!

New car for Koby and Brooke

2002 Hyundai Accent GS

Happy kids are happy!

Everybody say it with me: "How hot is it?"

It's so hot, a squirrel deflated under my pepper tree.



It's so hot, bees set up a vacation resort in my pond.



It's so hot....
It's so hot....
Aw, heck, that's all I got.

Visalia: not exactly the vacation spot you think of first

I spent a few days in Visalia last week. Joel, somewhat overwhelmed with work, school, parenting, etc., welcomed the offering of maternal help to get his new house put in some semblance of order.

Joel's bought a really great house. It's a 1500 square foot home that was originally listed as a 4bed/2bath. As soon as escrow closed he knocked down a weirdly constructed wall that created the 4th bedroom, turning that part of the house back into the den it should be. He also tiled both bathrooms before moving in!

While Joel was at work Thursday and Friday, I had no shortage of tasks to keep me busy. There were carpets to clean, loads and loads of laundry to wash, and some minor electrical issues to be repaired (which explains the meticulous heart-shaped post-it note numbering system you see all over the walls in the slideshow). Since they just moved in and she has already moved out but doesn't yet have anywhere to put all of her worldly goods, the garage is chock full of stuff to be sorted/boxed/tossed/organized. Think of these as "before" shots...




Joel picked Landon up from Cindy on Friday afternoon and had him until Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately for me, Landon was napping when it came time for me to head back home on Sunday. I didn't get to snarfle him goodbye and missed him and his daddy by the time I got a block away!

I can't see why


Why is it that when you pick up new prescription glasses the doctor has to put them on you? Do they think you can't be trusted to do it properly yourself? Don't they realize you always, always have to right away adjust them anyway? I think it's their way of saying, "It's so simple to examine eyes with that little 'this one? or this one?' giant batman eye mask machine, even a caveman could do it. Therefore, just to prove to you that I am a trained professional and worth every one of your 40,000 pennies, I shall put these spectacles on your face for you." *jab*