Matching Tracksuits

First major project of this weekend: the deck.

Before:

After cleaning and sanding:

Second major project: recovering from installing Windows XP Service Pack 3. "Within hours of its release, Microsoft's Service Pack 3 for Windows XP began drawing hundreds of complaints from users who claim the update is wreaking havoc on their PCs" I later discovered (source). That was in May, and apparently it's still not fixed.

A half-project of taking our Jetta in for a flat tire fix provides a striking contrast. "Imagine if everyone provided service like that," I said to K. "We'd go to pick up our car and find someone in the shop had opened the hood and taken a sledgehammer to the engine: it would look the same, but would never work again."

Yet another mind-numbing example of the "mystery" of the Microsoft monopoly: crappy products that rule the world.

The morning summer sun is actually merciful here — thanks, in part, to the forest we have in the backyard.

I now fully understand why plumbers charge the fees they do. I mean, if you had to go into strangers' homes and deal with this stuff, wouldn't you?

And this drain was only for our kitchen sink, dishwasher, and washing machine. Forty years' of grime -- not to mention what appears to be straight-out mud.

How do drains get this nasty?

Suffice it to say, it's a good thing there is no way to digitize odors, because ladies and gentlemen, you would almost literally be up a particular creek...

We’re in the midst of re-doing (I hesitate to use the term “remodeling” since it’s such a small job) our closet.

Before:
After:

After — well, sort of after. The door frame width is a wonderfully-irregular 40 1/8 inches, so we’ll have to buy custom doors for it.

Forty and an eighth?! Where do they come up with sizes like that?

Yard work is much like paperwork -- it tends to pile up and overwhelm. Unlike paperwork, though, I can't just toss yard work into some draw to make it go away for a while.

Yesterday, I played catch-up.

• I finished digging out our antiquated, slow-draining, often-overflowing drain.
• I mowed.
• I trimmed.
• I changed the oil in the car (for a change of pace, I guess).
• I raked.

And then the oddest thing: I was filled with energy. That's another crucial difference between yard work and paperwork: working outside energizes; working inside drains.

Tomorrow, at school, I dig into the pile of work that awaits -- some of which I'd promised myself I'd do this weekend.

• Make-up work to grade.
• Reports to fill out.
• APS plans to finalize.
• Final exams to create.

And you'll find it, at 2:45 in the afternoon, when my last class has padded out, sitting at my computer, hardly able to hold my eyes open, dreaming of a shovel.

Well, not quite tumbling.

We cut down a half-dead cedar tree yesterday, but it was so entwined with vines and such that it didn’t quite fall. It took some encouragement.

Rather, "Done" list:

• chop wood
• haul wood to storage location (i.e., corner of the carport)
• carry unusable wood to the roadside
• make a trip to Lowe's for various equipment
• chop, cut, and pull large stand of thorn bushes
• dig, cut, pull up half of the impressive root system of said bushes
• take bushes and roots out to the roadside
• rake up leaves formerly inaccessible due to the stand of bushes
• vacuum car
• wash car
• work on clogged drain
• do grocery shopping
• drink beer
• collapse