Thursday night was the Beck show, the opener was a guy called Devendra Barnhardt (sp?) so I wandered around outside and talked to people, and Beck put on a good show. Unfortunately, it was at a casino, so it ended early (all casino shows end early so you can go gamble more). It was fun, but I think seeing him once was enough. He did quite a bit of stuff off of his new album, and I really liked it, but he only did one song from my favorite album :(
Friday my parents came to town and we had a graduation party for me! It was awesome, so fun and not super crazy but I got to talk to everybody and most of my committee came and one of my coworkers brought a bottle of her own wine and it was the best wine I have had in a long time! I got given a potted plant, AND a gift card to the nice nursery to spend on more plants, AND my main advisor gave me a gift card for my favorite bookstore! It's perfect, because my future plans mainly include spending time reading, and working in the garden. Also, "helpful brother-in-law", whom you may remember from past posts, has an even more helpful brother, who was not able to make it to the party. He 's the one who helped cart all the gravel in my backyard to make the patio... anyways, he sent along a congrats-type card with an IOU for four hours of yard work. That is HUGE! That covers a lot of digging that I was not looking forward to doing...
Saturday I took my parents to the car museum (surprisingly cool!) and then we went to my nephew's birthday party at the park. And that was plenty.
Sunday I had a church gig with my quintet and my parents came and sat at the back and listened, and then we met my sister and Matt and helpful b-i-l at the hotel my parents were staying at for a super nice lunch. They had to hit the road after that but it was nice to hang out (and lunch was spectacular)!
And... another project is almost done! My laundry room is painted, and the shelf is hung. It's a bit high, but we're tall so the future owners can deal with it. Here's the shelf with a weird washed-out shot of the paint color. I have a poster for that left-hand wall waiting for a frame.
Here's a better shot of the opposite wall, with my pretty fruit label and useful drying rack, and the leaves for the dining room table, which need a better home now that my laundry room is all purty.
And here's the final project: a new coat of paint, and new handles and hinges for this big, dumb, ugly cabinet. It is too useful, so it would be a bit unreasonable to rip it out just for being ugly. So clean white paint and nice shiny modern hardware is the last step. And a better spot for the vacuum, too.
Meanwhile, the backyard is going gangbusters! My beans could have used taller teepees, they are falling off, but they are starting to bloom so I am excited! Not that I know what they are, they were from helpful b-i-l again, so he might have to ID them if I ever get some bean pods. Or I will just be eating some interesting chili soon. On the bottom left there is barely visible the bed of rocks that I am very much looking forward to having help digging from helpful b-i-l's giant burly brother. 
Here you can see where I have been working on the bed. I ripped out about half of the ivy so far, and most of the rose bush. There are still some roots to get, and the rest of the ivy, but it is good dirt and not too rocky so I will be able to get some more shrubbery in there when it cools off a bit more. 
And farther out past the rest of the ivy, you can see the other half of my backyard - the neglected empty desert, with a bit of flagstone, and some more digging to be done... I want to plant some lower-water stuff out here so I don't have to keep running hoses all over, and hopefully some stuff that will attract more birds. It's a work in progress.
1 comment:
Wowza! The laundry room looks great, and yes, you have to keep the cabinet.
Post a Comment