Ishtar. Easter. Spring.

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It is said by historians that the ancient celebration of the Sumerian goddess Ishtar was co-opted by Christianity to wean the pagans from their happy sex and fertility holiday. All I know is that I couldn’t do the weekly food shopping because the store was closed for Easter Sunday. Hmmm.

Still a chore-filled weekend, though. Mostly yardwork and car washing yesterday, with dusting, vacuuming, and laundry filling the Sunday. Pretty damn boring, truth be told.

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Our condolences to the family and friends of Specialist Danyluk.

  • Spc. Kerry M. G. Danyluk, 27, of Cuero, Texas, died April 15 at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany, of injuries sustained April 12 when enemy forces attacked his unit with small arms fire in Pul-e-Alam, Logar province, Afghanistan.

I ain’t Rocky…

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Stallone’s director made getting in shape look like a snap in the Rocky movies. Me, I’m doing well with the elliptical, and for a moment over the weekend I was below 230. I’ve not been that weight in better than a decade. Today:

A good run

A good run

A good run (for me) – 6000 strides in under 50 minutes. Ciao!

This is my belly …

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Would you scratch it for me? Lexi is *such* an attention hound.

Would you scratch it for me?

I’d trade her in on a working dog, especially one that does house-cleaning. But Lexi is so darned cute.

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Today, shopping, and more yardwork. I finished dismantling and bagging the junk on the concrete pad. I’ll arrange for a “large item” pickup from the trash provider sometime later this week. Very happy to have that done. I also dressed all of the garden beds with manure and leaf compost… and turned over three of them. I’ll knock out the rest later this week. Overall, I managed about 12 hours of yardwork, and that pleases me.

Preparing for veggies

Preparing for veggies

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In the last week, DoD reported no casualties.

Spring Chores

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Spring cleaning extends to the outside of the house, too. I had a pile of stuff from the dismantling and rebuilding of the front fence last fall.

Front Fence Demo Pile

Front Fence Demo Pile

Y’see, by the time the fence had been rebuilt and the stain on the front-facing portions of the fence … well, ice and rain were falling out of the sky. So I left the pile for Spring. Now, it’s the time, so I took that pile, and amended my mulching/composting box. Now it looks like this:

 

Mulching/Composting box

Mulching/Composting box

I constructed that atop the old, low (10″) box I’d previously used for the purpose. Now it looks like it has been here all along, since the fencing material used … has been. I’m pleased with the re-use of the material. However, all that was left has to go. So I broke it down and bagged it, leaving the space empty:

Concrete pad much cleaner

Concrete pad much cleaner

At which point, broken but still dragging myself around, I remembered that I’d had a thousand or so pounds of bagged goods delivered into the driveway, and that needed moving in and stacking until I get around to working the garden beds and dressing the front beds. So I got out the wheelbarrow, and moved all the stuff in. Um, yay?

Bagged red mulch, leaf compost, manure compost.

Bagged red mulch, leaf compost, manure compost.

I’m rather tired now. I think I’ll take the evening off … except for remote work: system patching tonight at 10. Ciao!

Sprung

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At least I think Spring has sprung. Of course, there was frost on the grass and rooftops this morning, and we have two more of those mornings in the forecast. But I did do some significant yardwork yesterday, clearing the winter debris and die-off from the front yard. I also did the early Spring fertilizing on the lawns.

Also accomplished: not too damn much. I finished playing Bioshock Infinite, which was fun, even though I saw the ending coming from about a million miles away. Fun game, good story. Nice drive by on Rapture, right near the end, too.

In celebration of TableTop Day yesterday, we played Scrabble ™ in the evening. Herself came very close to beating me both times. Lexi helped, too:

Lexi helps with Scrabble

Lexi helps with Scrabble

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After  a wonderful month and a day without a casualty, DoD reported on April 4 that Capt. James E. Chaffin III, 27, of West Columbia, S.C., died April 1, in Kandahar, Afghanistan, of a non-combat related incident. Our condolences to his family and friends.

Spring #WTF

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Yesterday: chores and such. Today: shopping, chores and such. And along with those and exercise, a startlement. I was just getting into the groove on the elliptical, when I looked up and out to see … snow. Sigh. Really? Yup. Wasn’t much, didn’t stick to roads or sidewalks, but seriously I’m officially tired of snow. I want a couple of months of high 50’s to low 70’s. What I’m a’feared of is a direct transition to summer mode. That’ll have me wishing for more snow in less than a couple of days. Here’s what it looked like out the back window:

30 March 2014: Snow

30 March 2014: Snow

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Another week with no casualties announced. I’m glad. Ciao!

Whoops…

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Frankly, I don’t know what happened on Sunday. It wasn’t a particularly stressful day, I got some stuff done, but not much. Not much at all since I managed also to forget to post, and continue forgetting until Marcia reminded me just now. What’s been going on? Today:

Yeah, more snow

Yeah, more snow

You wouldn’t guess it was Spring already, eh? In other news, I’ve been a much better boy when it comes to sticking to the exercise routine this year. I picked up in earnest in early February and have been improving as I went along. Today, along with sit-ups and a few push-ups, I managed this on the elliptical:

Today's elliptical workout - 845 calories & 5000 "strides"

Today’s elliptical workout

So I’ve got that going for me.

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Good news, no new casualties reported by DoD (none announced since March 3). Ciao!

Dreaming of a White St. Paddy’s Day

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Echoes of Bing Crosby chasing around my head as I look outside:

House in gray and white

House in gray and white

Very pretty, though

Very pretty, though

A downside is that there’s a couple more inches of the stuff headed our way, so I’ll be waiting to clear the driveway and sidewalks until mid-afternoon. And I’ll just have to assume that the snow peas are happy as clams in a snow-covered planting bed.

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Here’s the laptop pedestal I built and finished over the weekend. It’s designed to sit on top of a regular desk, to be a stylish standing desktop for laptop and mouse. It can also move down to floor level, and be a foot-rest or stool. But mostly it’s a standing desk. Someone I know needs this (not me!)…

Standing desk

Standing desk

 

Mo’ Snow

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It has started snowing again, and is supposed to throughout St. Patrick’s Day. Weird, eh? Lexi is gonna be cranky when all of her spots are covered up with snow, again!

No real other news, I’ve had a busy weekend and gotten lots accomplished, from shopping and haircut to coffee roasting and building a small woodshop project for a coworker. Oh, yeah, and patched some Solaris boxen, and … well, you get the idea. Sleep is for the weak.

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No casualties were announced by DoD in the last week.