yard bitch

Hey everybody!

Here I am! I'm alive!

Seriously busy, but alive. Sorry haven't updated.

I'm waiting now for the last changes for this big project that has eaten my life for the last 2 weeks. Make the changes, make the pdf, do all the links, send it to the client and that's bloody it (hope to god, anyway).

So it's Cinco de Mayo, a day on which I traditionally avoid bars as people are stupid. (Well, all the time, but even more so on Cinco de Mayo. Plus, it's a Mexican holiday white people celebrate by eating and drinking out so that actual Mexicans have to make the food and can't actually celebrate their own damn holiday.) I will be out tonight, though: tonight we celebrate my friend's graduation, a day not diminished by it being a long-ass time in coming. Rather, we celebrate 'cause it's an awesome achievement. YAY GP!

And my friend J is visiting tonight. So, all in all, I plan to be happy and drink, dammit.

All I've done for the last two weeks is to work on this damn project at work, and in my wealth (snert) of free time I've been working my ass off in the yard. Happily, that's partially literal: my ass is shrinking! I am visibly (to me anyway) getting more fit. And as I've learned today, fit is the new rich.

I had $175 in gift cards from Home Depot (birthday and washing machine/dryer rebate) burning a hole in my wallet. So Wednesday I got to Home Depot and bought $168.71 worth of plants, to which I say damn. I had one of those flat things loaded up, but I didn't think I was getting up to $168.71 worth. Damn, plants are expensive.

Anyway, they are mostly (I can't even write that word without thinking Cartman: "mostly") in the ground. Got some for the back yard which aren't yet planted. But on Wednesday I planted… (counting mentally) 20. And the front weed plot is starting to look like a garden. A sparse neonatal garden, but a garden. Let's summarize my proud acheivements from the last three weeks:

Weeded and feeded front yard
Mowed and edged front yard
Mowed back yard.
Weeded about a 20' x 15' plot in front (by hand, bitches!)
Put down tarps to kill rest of the weeds in the plot, so about 20' x 10' to go
Mulched 20' x 10' plot in front (so far 17 bags of mulch)
Weeded the border grasses in the front
Weeded 9' x 9' plot in back for tomatoes
Planted 22 tomato plants (got a little carried away)
Mulched tomato plot (about 9 bags)
Planted basil (plants and seeds), cilantro, and sage in herb garden
Weeded and mulched herb garden
Planted more ferns and hostas in shade garden
Weeded and partially mulched shade garden
Deadheaded geraniums and roses a couple of times
Planted 20 plants in front
Removed ugly ladder hanging in carport (H: functionality), replaced with hanging baskets (S: aesthetics over functionality!)

Are you not impressed? I fucking am. I am seriously proud of myself. I did things that I thought I couldn't do by myself. And I've liked doing it (mostly). It's been quiet and contemplative work. And it's been nice to be quiet. I think that the last month or so has been a healing time. I'm not quite ready to get my whoo-hoo! on, but I'm getting there.

My house is a disaster area, though. Filthy! I'll... get to it. (I'm not saying I haven't gotten overwhelmed a few times)

Okay, gotta run. Should eat so when the asshole research company finally gets us their damn changes I'll be ready to go. (They haven't hit ANY of their deadlines yet, which is what caused me to work all this past weekend: we had to cram three (if not more) weeks of work into one. Don't like them.)

xoxo
s