This weekend has been largely dedicated to yard work.  Not something I particularly enjoy, at least not the mundane stuff like mowing grass, raking leaves and such.  However, I do like cutting things down!  I think its that whole instant gratification thing.  So this weekend was spent reclaiming some more of the yard.  And I use the term 'yard' loosely.  I don't think large patches of weeds around bare patches really qualifies as a yard.

The corner that I keep my garbage cans in had been overtaken by some vine encased small trees.  It seriously was a mini jungle.  I got it all cleared out which makes me very happy.  Got most of the huge piles of oak tree leaves bagged up....just in time as I'm sure the oak tree "worms" will be falling soon.

My lawn guy came over and cut down all the bushes in the front and along the side of my house....except for a small azalea bush.  Now its really obvious the outside of the house needs to be cleaned.

Next up will be spraying the yard for grubs.

I'll be doing another financial post later today probably.

I have great intentions of updating, honestly I do.  But you know how life goes.  You get super busy and other, more important things eat up your time.  Or it could be you just forget and end up playing WoW instead.  Not saying that's the case with me.....but it is a potential scenario.

So what has happened since I last updated?  Well, the month of February was pretty much consumed with back-to-back blizzards.  I was, very literally, snowed in for 2 weeks.  Sure, I could drive my car to the end of my driveway but then that 3+ foot of snow that used to be my street kept stopping me.  You might think that because I live at the airport's long term parking my street would be at the top of the list to get plowed.  Not so much though.  Seems neither the airport....or the city....considers my road all that important at all.  I think the only thing that gets plowed after my street is....well, nothing.  I'm pretty sure I live on the last road in the county to see snow plows.  The house and I survived the storms mostly intact.  There was a small leak in my bow window where the gutter froze and backed up.  My carport roof now has two leaks in it that I need to get fixed.  Oh, and the flat roof section on the Shed O'Doom collapsed.  I am pretty irritated by that.  I wanted the WHOLE shed to collapse....save the effort of tearing it down.  Honestly, that pretty much sums up the high points of February.

Not a whole lot has been going on this last month.  I'm starting to work on my yard which has been declared a national disaster area I think.  Between the storms, a grub infestation and a burrowing-critters-going-after-the-grubs infestation, my lawn is pretty well destroyed.  So this year I'm focusing on killing the grubs which should theoretically cause the burrowing critters to move elsewhere and tearing out all the ugly bushes around the house.  I got all the holly trees that were clumped at the corner of my house cut down so the dogwood that was hidden in the midst of them can now breath free.  I also need to seriously pressure wash the house.

Other than that, its been insanely busy at work.  And I mean more insane than normal.  Who keeps bringing all this hazmat into my buildings???

Oh, I'm going to attempt canning in a couple weeks.  Gonna do tomato sauce.  So we'll see how that goes.  I'll keep you posted.  No, seriously.....I will.

Life has been having its ups and downs lately. We'll skip the downs because that's just how I deal with them....ignore them and they eventually go away.

I'm still waiting to hear if the agency is going to approve my classes. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Now that I've finally found the online degree program I want it would totally suck to not be able to take the classes! I haven't figured out how long it would take me to finish the degree. Some things take a little time to build up the courage to do. But I do figure I can complete the certificate part in a year. Who needs a life anyway. Oh, and for those just tuning in the degree I'm looking at is Evironmental Management and Occupational Health and Safety with a minor in Homeland Security.

Work is starting to ramp up as we get closer to the end of FY09 and the beginning of FY10. There's a rush to spend the last of the 09 budget monies and gearing up to start spending the 10 monies. For me this means a push right now to get a bunch of smaller abatement jobs done before 9/30 and the planning and preparing for a whole bunch of large projects due to start in October. 2010 is looking to be a very busy one for hazmat.

The house keeps me busy on weekends. I'm starting to plan some of the renovation work. I should be getting new steps off the kitchen this coming week. Yay for wonderful friends who do home renovation for a living!!! I think the kitchen will come after that. I've been convinced to strip and restain the cabinets instead of painting them. Haven't decided yet what I'm going to do with the counters. The design is done for the conversion of the roll top into a cabinet. Its not going to be exactly cheap or quick but that's ok. I'll end up with something my grandfather made but in a form that is actually useful to me. I think he'd approve.

I have about 4 hours to decide if I want to make a spur of the moment trip to Mass for the weekend. An old high school friend is there and has invited me up. Its my three day weekend so I'm seriously considering it. Would be good to get out of town for a couple days.

Been scoping out Craigslist recently in the search for an embroidary machine. Wow, even used they're expensive. Might just have to wait on that one.

Ok, enough rambling for now.

I replaced the ceiling fan/light in my living room yesterday. A friend came over to help with the electrical wiring from the house wires to the fan. I'm smart enough to know where my limits are not to mention the Don Ho look just doesn't work for me. If you're too young to know who Don Ho is, well, I have nothing more to say to you. (I'm just kidding, I think) Anyway, after my friend got the wiring done and was leaving the last thing he told me was not to forget to remove the rubber stops that keep the fan from rotating.

I got all the rest of the fan and light hung and hooked up, turned the breaker back on and turned on the light. Success!! The light came one! I was so excited. Next was the fan. I pull the chain and...nothing. I pull the chain again just to be sure...still nothing. Hmmm...I pull it one more time because third time is a charm after all, right? Wrong. The fan isn't fanning anything. The lovely black blades are just sitting there mocking me. I text my friend to let him know the fan isn't working in the hopes he has some magical knowledge. Sitting down on the couch in defeat I stare up at the stubborn fan and notice this black thing sticking out from between the fan blades. Oh.......yeah........ummmmm, wonder if that's one of those rubber stops he told me to remove that I didn't. I climb back up on the ladder and read the label stuck to one of them. In big letters it tells me to remove before operating. I go around and pull all the stops out and then try turning on the fan again. Guess what!?! The fan worked!

Yeah, I am such a dork at times.