Whew buddy that was a heck of a storm.  I got the severe weather alert as we were heading out for Muay Thai tonight.  Along the highway the rain and wind came - significant enough to slow traffic to under 40.  When I got off the exit all of the stop lights were out, a tree was along the road we go up, and signage for commercial buildings was toppled.

As we sat in the parking lot waiting for the rain to slow, lightning struck relatively close -- and it lit up the center console on the turned off car -- which is super weird.  When things slowed down I heard the fire whistles going and we made a run for the building.  I figured if there was more coming we were safer there.

Power was out, so the few that showed up for class ran about in the emergency lighting and had a bit of fun.  Fortunately the storm had passed by the end of our class window.  So much mess on the roads on the way home.  Power was defn out here while we were gone.  Grateful to say that the house is safe and sound.  The one rose bush out front didn't fair as well.  More than half of her broke off right near the bottom.  I'm not sure how to try and save her, but I'm trying to do my research.

That didn't last long... two weeks ago I noted that the referred lawn service folks came.  Last week I'm told they were in the neighborhood on Friday while we were out, but given that they said they were going to come on Saturdays I hadn't scooped nor unlocked the gate, so I wasn't mowed.

Today I texted before leaving the house asking that their team mow to the right of the fence if they were still coming today despite the recent rain.  Well the reply was "I apologize for the confusion but we will no longer be cutting grass."  Would they have messaged me if I hadn't texted?  Prb not, right?  Then asked me to send a check for 2 weeks of mowing.  No sir, I paid in cash for week 1 and you weren't here last Saturday.  This has potential to piss me off.  Hopefully the kid that mows for the neighbors is interested in taking on more lawns.

I got a charge on the batteries for the mower and got the front and sides done this evening before dark.  The back is thick and high right now... so that'll be fun tomorrow (if it doesn't rain more).  The batteries are charging back up.  Wish me luck.

Our neighbor came in clutch on Tuesday with that great last day of spring break idea, inviting us to go swimming with them at a nearby place where they are members.  Needless to say Avery loved getting to swim, especially with one of the neighbor friends that she plays with often.

The rest of the week went fast. I ended up only taking 1.5 hours off earlier this week once everything totaled up for the week, so I'm going to need to take more time off before the end of June.  I wish I thought I could plan ahead and somehow pick a day I will be motivated.  Today was one of those days.  When I took a small lunch break I started pulling things from one of the kitchen cabinets.  Clutter just builds to the point of insanity for me.  Add a little here, add a little there.  Eventually the cabinet is embarrassing and you can't find anything.

After work I started putting things back into that cabinet and throwing away some things that were past date or likely to not get eaten.  I wanted to rearrange a bit, moving some things to the lower shelf so Avery can reach them.  This spurred me to pull two more shelves from another cabinet and then that spread to the one lower cabinet where I had previously set up some snacks that Avery could get out for herself.

While I now have three cabinets that are cleared out and tidy I also have a couple of bags of things to go back to the basement shelves -- the basement is a whole other level of chaos that needs some attention.  Heck how many other spaces here need that level of attention, who am I kidding?

Here we are, Avery's last day of Easter/Spring break.  It's the final stretch to end 1st grade, which is crazy.  I've encouraged her to sleep in yesterday and today before we get back to the typical grind.  She was definitely ready for a break and is soaking up some time on the couch.

Break started with the resurrection party at her school and I got to go help with that.  It was fun and the kids seemed to enjoy it.  It's always good to get another glimpse at the kids and to see how each behaves.  It's kind of funny that I knew who some were just by things they said or did.  This gave me half a day off of work.  I chose to take half of the next day (Thursday) off and all of Friday.  I am so proud that I didn't even boot the computer on Friday.

On Thursday we tried to go to the basketball clinic that Avery has been participating in but only a few of us pulled up and no one came to unlock the school.  I guess we didn't get the memo?  If you say 9 weeks, start this date and end this date and that counts out to 9 weeks I assume it's happening.  This was a bummer as we would have done something else that evening had I known.

Instead we got up early and went to a 9am showing of King of Kings on Good Friday.  It was excellent.  Engaging and entertaining for me as an adult, but also full of stories from Jesus' life and a well done depiction of his death for children, which is a tough thing to try and present.  We repeated a little craft we did when Avery was much younger, creating bunnies out of a tracing of her hand - and boy have those bunnies grown.

Saturday we had a bit of running to do but then made our way to the Canonsburg Easter Egg hunt.  It's always a good time and the girl left with lots of goodies.  Then we stuck around to hang out at the park a while with her bestie.  The weather was fantastic.

Sunday after hunting her eggs here and going to church we prepared some goodies to take with us for Easter dinner.  It was at the near Aunt/Uncle's place, so that saved travel time.  A neighbor had gifted us two very large containers of cherry tomatoes.  We put them to use roasting them with olive oil and garlic and then mixing them up with mozz.  I also had a burr about banana pudding and ended up making a way too large batch of that to take with us (and eat for the next week apparently).

Yesterday and today I am back at work in the mornings.  It being our final hurrah I need to come up with something good to do this afternoon.  As a bus just went by it looks like the other neighborhood kids returned to school today.  Hopefully the weather holds so we can go enjoy it.

I hope you had a blessed Easter.  He is Risen!

We have had so much rain.  The grass is green, lush, and TALL.  Unfortunately, it's too much rain to actually mow.  But I had to get things in order for our neighborhood Easter egg hunt tomorrow.  It's a lot easier to ensure the poops are scooped if the grass is trimmed, so out came the weed eater.  I needed to pull out the leaf blower to get everything that accumulated below the deck cleared away anyhow.  So my quick "I'll just go scoop poop" turned into a couple of hours of work outside.  I am feeling accomplished with something that is long over due.

While out there I realized the robins have been busy - and there is already a nest built under my deck!  No eggs yet.  This reminds me that the time to put hummingbird food out is nearing, but the weather is still calling for some rather cold moments in the next week.

Update:  as I am typing this the new lawn care guys came.  I knew they had intended to start mowing in April, but hadn't heard more from them.  I'm glad I was here (to open the gate and pay them).  I'm glad I had already scooped poop.  But I guess some of my effort this morning was a bit of a waste.  It's ok, I could use the exercise.

Cats.  Why are they obsessed with hiding so I accidentally trap them in my bedroom in the morning?  One might also ask why I am so inattentive that I don't notice for a few hours.  In my defense I gotta get the kid off to school and then the calls and meetings start.

It's most noticeable when Church is trapped because he isn't waltzing between me and my keyboard around 10am.  This is what triggered me to notice his absence earlier this week. I left him out and he promptly went to get the breakfast he missed to find an empty bowl (oh Barney, you little piglet).  Today it was Barnabas that didn't come running when it was treat time.  I left him out and went to check the food bowls presuming I would need to hook him up with some kibble.  My charming Church didn't touch Barnabas' food until that very moment when he decided "wait, I gotta try and eat this up so he doesn't get it".

Last night Barnabas was kind (?) enough to point out to me that the present from the dog mentioned in my previous post still offends him.  He was jumping over the spot and trying to cover it with the rest of the carpet.  Roger that Barney, I'll pull out the rug scrubber and try again.

* GROSSNESS WARNING *

 

Barf. Oh yeah, that's why I stopped giving bones etc to my dogs a long time ago.  Silly me, I gave Zero a bone on the deck yesterday to keep him happy and quiet while we had company here.  Today we have vomit.  Noxious, make you gag strong vomit.  Soupy, hard to clean up vomit.  The first huge puddle was ejected in the living room, because of course it was.  Several more pools formed outside on the concrete while I attempted to rinse the bulk of it from my cleaning rags before putting them in the washing machine.  The house smells like a cesspool despite cleaning to the best of my ability.

This level of gross happened out of the blue once before in my dining room a few months back and I had not provided anything of the sort to him.  As I am trying to replace flooring in the near term, please don't allow this to be a routine thing.  I just can't.

We had a beautiful weekend.  My sister, S, came in with her bf.  On Friday we ate dinner and made a Sarris ice cream parlor run then on Saturday we took a walk around Peter's lake, made a three stop cruise between local breweries, and finished up with dinner.  It's been a while since I've gotten to see her, so it was a highlight.

The temps have cooled back off but I did get a few more seeds in pots (basil, beans, cukes, peppers) and I sprinkled some chive in a little area beside the wall out back with the hopes they will proliferate.

I also got a few Easter decorations up inside and switched out my kitchen curtain for the birds instead of the snowflakes.  Welcome spring and summer!  I've been gathering goodies for Easter, but I need to inventory to see what gaps I have.  In addition to helping the Easter bunny out, our neighbors are repeating last year's Easter egg hunt, so I am trying to get the right things pulled together for that squad, with something special for each kid - this isn't as easy as I thought given we have from 1 yo to 14 yo to account for.

This morning I realized I should have returned Avery's switch game to the library so I guess I need to run out today -- and pay a fine.  The last tax bill check cleared, so I'm done with all of that until September.

I took a moment to step out today and dropped one container of carrot seeds, one container of beet seeds, and one small container of lettuce seeds.  I also watered the pepper and asparagus plants that are sitting in the basement waiting to go back outside.  It looks like everything in the basement is dead, but I have persisted and I'm glad I have as today I spotted a little scrawny asparagus in the pot!  I didn't cut back the fronds last fall as I was afraid I would do "too much", but I will do so as soon as I can get that pot outside.

The drips at the hot water tank are from the drain release.  It isn't a large amount of water, so that's a relief.

Not to be out done, and perhaps a curse of me speaking it into the universe that many items in this house are probably creeping towards end of life, the keurig, the dryer, and the fridge all gave me a moment in the past week.  The pump on the keurig wasn't stopping after the water was exhausted to brew the cup of coffee.  Fortunately, after descaling and giving it a bit of time this resolved itself (for now).  The dryer threw a code when steam sanitizing an item that indicated there was an exhaust flow issue.  After last year's shenanigans with the vent cleaning tool breaking off I call bull.  It has since been running without complaint. Then I pulled a bottle off of the door where the ice maker is and found about a quarter cup of water in the tray.  I sopped it up and reseated the door that opens to tend to the ice maker and it took hasn't provided angst since.  I'm not going to remain this lucky for long, I'm not stupid.

I never got the second estimate on flooring that I was waiting for, but they did leave a message.  I need to stop back up there and clarify my want for the estimate w/ my current selection.  I had a third place come and measure just for the non-carpet flooring.  That came in at the same price as the place I expected to be pricy (where I picked an acceptable, but not love it option)... but they have a laundry list of things they don't do.  For example, I would need to go buy and stain/paint replacement quarter round and I would need to have the plumber to reconnect the toilet and the fridge's water supply.  (sigh) This whole thing is frustrating.

There was some water under the hot water tank earlier this afternoon - of course there was, right?

With the brief nice temps I tucked all of the sprouting potatoes into pots.  I also had a tomato that had seeds trying to grow.  When I sliced away that portion I also put those i to a bit of dirt to see what comes of it.  Tonight I should prb cover them all.

If you've ever watched Office Space you understand when I say TPS reports.  Well, you're aware, even if you don't fully understand... but if you understand, you understand.  My present TPS report is people copied on emails.

I got an email forwarded to me that I needed to take action on.  The guidance was explicitly to reply to everyone on that email.  Ok, no problem.  I send one message and get a call from a subcon saying this other email needs to be on all communications and sounding a bit like I slighted someone.  Ok, fine.  Subsequent emails on this discussion include said email address.  Now I got an email from someone else from the original email asking me to include another email address on all of these communications.  Why weren't either of these emails on the original request?  Why do I feel like I somehow made a mistake?  It's hard to keep track of now 11 recipients.  If someone drops one of them off of an email, do I need to readd them?

Meh.  So much time is lost to ridiculousness in business.  Why do we have to include every friggin person on a team for every meeting -- but then restrict to a subset of people that are on certain conversations which result in confusion and questions later from the people left off?

On a brighter note, today was "decade day", so we geared Avery up for the 80s at school.  She's got the oversized Atari shirt with the sleeves rolled, silver parachute-style pants, fluorescent shoes and bracelets, the side pony with a bit of blue color, and blue eyeshadow.  She is the very definition of Totally Awesome.

aaaand it's snowing again.  At least we had a nice weekend, mostly.  There were some pretty wicked wind and storms that came through,  While I didn't get an alert on my phone we did head to the basement briefly when it started to hail yesterday.

On Saturday I swung into yet another flooring place since I have yet to get an estimate from the one that has been here twice.  They had choices I hadn't seen before, but again, none of them landed in the "I love it" category, even after bringing three samples home.