tiny update

T minus two days. This can not be over soon enough. I want to be back in my yard. With my new back door! Pics this weekend hopefully... it's a million times nicer than the old one and I just want to have time to paint it! But that's just another distraction. Bleah. SO CLOSE.

Weekend Update: almost there!

I just sent in my defense powerpoint presentation today to get approval from my committee. Whatever they don't like, I have until Thursday to fix. Thursday at 8 am. I also need to bring snacks and coffee. WHY couldn't it be 9 am? Oy.

Also, I was going to go back in to work a bit this week since there's not much left that I can do, but I went in this a.m. and all of the machines in the lab are down and their budget is all messed up so they may not be fixing any of them this month. SO I am back home catching up on data entry (I figured I might as well be near a computer while I'm getting stuff done in case I get feedback from anybody on that presentation).

AND Matt has started pestering me about the front yard. We are going to get rid of 2/3 of the lawn for sure, but not until September at the earliest (too hot now). There will be probably one more tree put in, and then some dogwoods and Russian sage. Most of the rest will be decomposed granite. With a couple of rocks. So that's something else to add to the When I'm Done With My Thesis list - map out destruction and rebuilding of front yard. And find out who to talk to about the irrigation. Great. He always thinks up such fun projects for ME to do. He better help with this one, I don't want to run the sod cutter.

more music

Background music to do PowerPoint to. I love these guys, their new album isn't my favorite, but my FAVORITE song is on here at right about 29 minutes if you want to skip ahead.



They're called the Ditty Bops, I've seen them live twice now and they're interesting. It's a little bit of folk, a little bit of vaudeville and I don't know what else other than gorgeous harmonies. Found it here, there's another one there too if you like this one.

http://www.remarc.com/craig/?p=418

To Do?

Really need to do:

• start on my PowerPoint presentation for my defense, it shouldn't take too long but I need to get to it sooner than later, I am still waiting for feedback on my final draft in case there's any more changes I need to make (please no).
  
• go to the gym, slacker!
  
• put a coat of paint on the random chair I found in the attic. Sturdy, but after I sanded it down it doesn't really look good enough to stain and keep. We'll see how spare flat interior paint works before I go buy new paint, it's a gorgeous color so it might be ok...
• organize food for backyard BBQ Saturday night. Family is in town and Matt's band has a gig so I will be feeding them all after the gig.
• stop shopping for clothes online. I don't need anything desperately right now so I need to quit it. Also drop of a bag of clothes at the new clothing resale store and see if I can get cash for them...
  

Misc. Goals:

• finish painting the porch beams white
  
• rent a pressure washer to clean nasty green paint off concrete porch floor
• get house numbers and put them up (old ones got taken down when trim was painted)
• get new mailbox to go with new house numbers? In my dreams, maybe. The old one is nasty and gold, but new ones are not cheap. It would look a billion times better though so it will be worth it when I finally find one.

I have been hacking back some stuff in the yard but Matt took my camera on his business trip so I can't document. The neighbors' wisteria (gorgeous but nasty) is now firmly against the fence and on their trellises, instead of fighting me over my tomatoes. And my pretty maple has lost a couple of the lowest branches, you can almost walk under it now. I will need a proper tree pruner to get any farther on that but there is a branch that is leaning on the roof that I don't like the look of right now.

I am loving my garden right now though, all my herbs are relatively happy and I have four (count them, FOUR) cherry tomatoes! Matt threatened to pick them last week but he knew he would be in big trouble if he did so I am still checking on them every morning and they are so cute! This is the most ambitious my vegetable garden has ever been, and I am really getting some concrete plans for the structure it will need to be more productive and attractive next summer. So there will be some disassembly/reassembly in that corner in the fall (or early spring, depending on time/budget since I want to build some proper raised beds there). My big rainbow and yellow something-or-other are still looking a little peaked but my green zebra is getting lusher and happier now that it is aphid-free so I have high hopes for it! Pictures soon...