watching the grass grow...

Quite literally. There is absolutely NO landscaping (aside from the weeds) in my back yard, and I'm tired of Kota rolling in the dirt... the landlords said I could plant grass if I wanted, and it looked like there was sod there at one time, so I'm sure it CAN grow... now it's just a matter of GETTING it there....

I raked up the ground....


I laid the seed, threw some compost on top, threw some more seed on (in hopes that something grows) and started watering....
I then put up my temporary fence (let's hope it stays) and watered the heck out of the yard...
I'm supposed to water twice a day till I see it sprout... so keep your fingers crossed that we have grass soon... :)

a garage cleaning adventure

A friend of mine moved from a big house to a smaller place and sold a bunch of stuff... In that "stuff", I bought a set of shelves for the garage. My garage had NOTHING when I moved in... my old place had a few shelves built in on the back wall... so when I moved here, everything went on the floor :( I wish I had thought to get pictures of the garage before I started...

Here are the shelves before I started my project... good sized shelving unit, if I do say so myself!



And another shot of the shelving unit... for frame of reference, these shelves are big enough to hold my rolling cart laying upside down...

















Everyone knows that when you clean out the garage, you are bound to find some "visitors". I found THIS guy in my old Eukanuba food container... I've found relatives of his in my house before... NOT so cool. Anyone have any ideas as to what kind of *ick* spider he might be? He's big.... :(





I dumped him out on the rocks and snapped his picture before I squashed him... interesting pattern on his back, I thought... but still not welcome at my place, thanks!








I was almost done when I took this picture... but look at all the space!!! And there's empty space a plenty on those shelves still! Plastic storage bins are stacked up next to it on one side, and the boxes on the other side need to be pitched... my yard equipment is there too (the box you see standing on the ground is my bush trimmer).

I found a TON of things when going through things in the garage.. a whole bag full of collars and leashes and such... Funny. I already had a bag full of those things! How do you acquire so many!? LOL

The other side of the garage, which used to be the "congested" side... now it sticks out no further than the crates. I'm starting a "garage sale" pile, in hopes that I'll get off my duff and have one. Tell me what single girl needs three kitchen tables! LOL









The front wall was lined with stuff too, and now it's empty as well! The empty plastic storage crates are all stacked up and ready to use when/if I have to move again... the treadmill needs maintenance and the bike needs air in it's tires... there are always excuses ;-)








So in my cleaning, I mentioned I found a bag of leashes and collars... I dug through everything and came up with each dogs puppy collars!
Green = Ollie
Blue = Kota
Blue w/ design = Orion
White w/ flowers & purple = Sedona
Black = Chance

Why do I have them? No clue. But I thought it was a fun trip down memory lane! :)

the weather in AZ & other thoughts...

They've said lately, that the weird storms we're getting are more like the storms we'd get during the Monsoon season... not in early May and late April...

On Monday I snapped these pictures of a dust storm rolling into the southern outskirts of the Phoenix metro area (as I was going home from work). I got another on my cell phone (other cell phone) of one we had soon after I moved here. They're int
eresting... huge walls of DIRT just creeping up on you... winds and a sandblasting.. sounds like fun huh?

This was my first glimpse of the storm, once I realized what it was...

and to the east side of me...(I was driving South)

Kinda cool huh? :)

I found out that there is an Office Manager position coming available in the Bay Area office today (I work with the people in the bay area office daily, dispatching technicians for phone systems to local bay area companies) . I'm not sure what it pays, but I'm definately going to ask.
The Bay Area, you ask? Yea. It wasn't all that bad. Freaking expensive, but all in all, a pretty cool place to live. I align better Politically with most the folks up there as compared to here... If the salary can be made to be manageable, this might be a good opportunity for me to get out of this heat (tho I will miss Nicole & her family, and Kim) and into a climate I can deal with, not to mention, a LOT closer to most of you, and I could actually DO shows with you on long weekend trips!! We shall see, but deep inside, I'm hopeful. Anything to get me out of this current job! ANYTHING!

I'm getting things ready here at home... the guest room is currently the "staging area". All of the housebound things that are going to Nationals are going in that room. Nothing more. The suitcase is packed, got most of the stuff for the goodie bags printed and sorted out how I need it... The dog stuff is all staged in one area in the garage (since I don't want to tote that crap with me to work tomorrow) and will load up tomorrow night after work. I went by to tell the neighbor, Heather, that I would be out of town, and asked her to watch the house. Gave her my number, should anything come up. Loading up the car is the part that sucks for me... I don't like to pack.
I might just take my time in getting there. I was all "balls to the walls" about it, but I figure... what rush am i in? I've always hustled that trip, why not chill. I don't have to be there till Saturday at noon, to meet Joann and Ron Pape for bag stuffing.

I'm really glad I'm SUPER familiar with the area... it'll be SO helpful! I know where all the stores are... I can get anyone just about anywhere at any time of day :)

I can't wait for everyone to get there!

My dog is running up and down the hallway...up.... and down..... over and over and over. She ZOOMS through the house like a maniac... for MINUTES at a time. Can we say agility?? And SMART! She's discovered her middle finger and is using it lately (in the last week especially)... must be hormones ;-) Cannot believe that she's almost a YEAR OLD! Can you believe that Kate? They're almost a year! Seems like just yesterday she was a bitty baby.
Speaking of bitty babies....



This last one, the look in his eyes reminds me of Carbon. Chris says his eyes are split similarly to Carbon's eyes... should be interesting.
Just wanted to add some CUTE to the blog ;-)

Oh, and Sedona has the same love for the sea world that her brother and sister have....

(yes, they have their own pillows... Long story)
(do i win "The Worlds Longest Blog" award?)

another Thursday done

The day started off with the most incredible storms... at one point I asked myself whether I was in the middle of a hurricane... the winds were incredible... the debris flying around was amazing... and the amount of rain that was coming down in sheets was.... amazing. The Element got a good "power wash" on the passenger side near home, and got another good "power wash" on the drivers side a little closer to work.
The day itself was pretty unremarkable... nothing to write home about... I am, however, listening more and more to co-workers stressing themselves out to the point of tears, and I'm resigning myself to the fact that I work in a hell hole and that I can't let it get to me that bad. They SAY things will get better at work, but when you're in a job that's just not a good "fit", there's no making it better... it's just a matter of time till another, more suitable position comes along. I do wish, however, that I could create a position in the Portland branch for me somehow.... hmmm
Been talking a lot to a guy at work... he's a lot of fun, but I worry too much I think. We've gone out and I had a great time, but I'm afraid of developing anything with him I think.... here I go again, being the uber worry wart that I'm known to be.
I killed a whole ass load of crickets this evening... My garage is infested with crickets (could be worse, I know) so I finally set loose with a couple of cans of RAID and just went to town... tho the part I didn't think of, was when I hit those suckers with the RAID, they start hopping ALL OVER the friggin place... which then had ME hopping all over the place to keep from having them hop on ME! Ewww! At one point I was balanced between the bumper of my car and a dog crate (I knew I have spare crates for a reason!) spraying the nasty little buggers. Found a crazy looking spider and sprayed the bajeezus out of it too... dont' think I killed it tho (damn). I need to have an exterminator come out and hit the garage... it's way more of a job than I'm built for... tho in order for that to happen, I'd have to clean the garage... which gives me the willies too... move a box and you hear the "click click click" of the crickets jumping and hitting the boxes... *shudder*
The two younger kids are in the living room enjoying Nylabones and Kota, of course, is here at my side... ahhh the loyal companion. :) At least I know HE loves his mama ;-)
Off to feed myself.