Sleepy Saturday

It's wonderful to wake up with a gentle rain pattering down with the bedroom window wide open. Another rare thing here, but the 2006 weather in general has proven to be odd. From famine to feast here, waterwise.

The misty rain stopped by 8am, so I went out and fed the ravenous birds, then spot planted some grass seed in the little patch of lawn in back. No matter what I do, the lawn ends up mostly weeds. This Fall, the dying plum tree gets cut down and I may just xeriscape that last remaining bit of Americana that's so inappropriate for Albuquerque.

The birds never use the feeder until I'm back in the house, then over a dozen sparrows and a few mourning doves are all over that thing. Over a pound of seed disappears in less than 30 minutes, then they hit the ground and pick all that, too. The doves only ground feed, so that's what they're waiting for.

abqdan journaled about the new water heater install yesterday, but he didn't mention the 3rd disappointment about that whole deal. The plumber couldn't install the whole-house water filter, apparently because if he did anything other than replacing the existing leaky heater, it would all have to be inspected and indeed something about the current venting isn't to code. So we'll take that filter back to Home Depot, get the refund for that, and call it all done. And we have a nice new water heater.

We're betwixt and between for finishing the laundry room, since the additional plumbing has to happen in there, as well as the new electrical, so we'll probably not be working on any of that until after Montreal.

And of course, the guy that came by last week didn't fax over a quote for the parquet repairs like he promised. More fodder for our attitude about Albuquerque contractors. Looks like we'll be ripping it up ourselves and starting over.

People keep telling us that they hire out for all the work to be done at their own homes. My question would be how do you actually FIND anyone competent to do that work. We haven't. Two and half years into this process.

But I'm not down about it all right now. It's a beautiful summer day here.

Sleepy Saturday

It's wonderful to wake up with a gentle rain pattering down with the bedroom window wide open. Another rare thing here, but the 2006 weather in general has proven to be odd. From famine to feast here, waterwise.

The misty rain stopped by 8am, so I went out and fed the ravenous birds, then spot planted some grass seed in the little patch of lawn in back. No matter what I do, the lawn ends up mostly weeds. This Fall, the dying plum tree gets cut down and I may just xeriscape that last remaining bit of Americana that's so inappropriate for Albuquerque.

The birds never use the feeder until I'm back in the house, then over a dozen sparrows and a few mourning doves are all over that thing. Over a pound of seed disappears in less than 30 minutes, then they hit the ground and pick all that, too. The doves only ground feed, so that's what they're waiting for.

abqdan journaled about the new water heater install yesterday, but he didn't mention the 3rd disappointment about that whole deal. The plumber couldn't install the whole-house water filter, apparently because if he did anything other than replacing the existing leaky heater, it would all have to be inspected and indeed something about the current venting isn't to code. So we'll take that filter back to Home Depot, get the refund for that, and call it all done. And we have a nice new water heater.

We're betwixt and between for finishing the laundry room, since the additional plumbing has to happen in there, as well as the new electrical, so we'll probably not be working on any of that until after Montreal.

And of course, the guy that came by last week didn't fax over a quote for the parquet repairs like he promised. More fodder for our attitude about Albuquerque contractors. Looks like we'll be ripping it up ourselves and starting over.

People keep telling us that they hire out for all the work to be done at their own homes. My question would be how do you actually FIND anyone competent to do that work. We haven't. Two and half years into this process.

But I'm not down about it all right now. It's a beautiful summer day here.

Scratching head...

Just spent an hour pulling up another batch of nightshade from the back of the yard...second time this year. I know that unless you pull the root out, it's going to come back. Hard to do that though, since it's REALLY prickly.

So I just googled for "Killing Nightshade" and brought up about 2000 links to some popular computer game. Hmmph.

Scratching head...

Just spent an hour pulling up another batch of nightshade from the back of the yard...second time this year. I know that unless you pull the root out, it's going to come back. Hard to do that though, since it's REALLY prickly.

So I just googled for "Killing Nightshade" and brought up about 2000 links to some popular computer game. Hmmph.

No longer a virgin

Tonight I called my first tip with a live band...with virtually no rehearsal!

For the first time in probably decades the NM Central District Dance featured a live band...Bill Bailey and Country Classics. They had a VERY long hiatus in playing for square dancing...Bill B told me during a planning meeting a month ago that they had played for some of the earliest Nationals in the 50s. I'm sure he and his wife had to be somewhere in their 70s.

In any case, almost all the callers in the central district got to call a tip...except that the band was over-LOUD, it was nice to have them there. I did a patter call to O Lonesome Me, and a singer to Oh Baby Mine. Nary a breakdown on the floor.

Yehaw!

No longer a virgin

Tonight I called my first tip with a live band...with virtually no rehearsal!

For the first time in probably decades the NM Central District Dance featured a live band...Bill Bailey and Country Classics. They had a VERY long hiatus in playing for square dancing...Bill B told me during a planning meeting a month ago that they had played for some of the earliest Nationals in the 50s. I'm sure he and his wife had to be somewhere in their 70s.

In any case, almost all the callers in the central district got to call a tip...except that the band was over-LOUD, it was nice to have them there. I did a patter call to O Lonesome Me, and a singer to Oh Baby Mine. Nary a breakdown on the floor.

Yehaw!