Yupyup, I know.  It's been over a month.  And there's been some stuff going on that I probably should have been unlazy enough to type up, but I wasn't. 

 

First, I got back to a poetry slam after a year or two of not catching any.  Lucky for me, it was the Grand Slam.  And finally, Buddy made it onto the Seattle team.  It's about time. 

 

I've been helping a friend build a retaining wall in his back yard on the weekends, and this weekend started digging in my own yard for the raised beds that I've had planned and staked out since October.  The pics will be somewhere in this gallery once they finish uploading.  And check out the sage bush.  Damn!  And the growth on the bay tree.  The herbs are gonna go nuts this year.  I might even have the area for the raised beds dug up enough to plant some veggies out back soon.  Though if I run into any more rolls of chain link fence or cinder block pieces used as backfill, I might snap and take out a few people first.  I'm not sure if they allow vegetable gardens in prison.

 

So the yard is going well.  Only a couple of deaths over the winter.  The tree ferns, again, dammit, though I see a couple new fronds on one (again in the yard gallery above).  I think the other one might have kicked it permanently.  The new fruit trees are doing fairly well and I might get a few pieces of fruit off them this year, but I'll probably be too busy picking all the plums I'll have to worry about much else.  The cherry tree seems like it'll be a lot more productive after being pruned pretty severely last year.  All in all, the yard is going well.

 

Inside is comin' along, too.  The upstairs still isn't done, and I've told the handyman that I'm too far over budget to keep paying him every month, but he wants to see it done so is going to put in a few hours a week for free till it's at least textured and painted.  He does good work, even if he does it slowly.  I'll worry about the basement when I can get some cheap labor to help me with it.  It sounds like there might be a few prospects for that help on the horizon, but I'm not gonna hold my breath.  I figure it'll be a few more years before it's all "done."

 

Work is going well and I'm enjoying it more than I have in quite a long time, though dealing with team members in China can be a real drag, as they get to work at 6PM our time, so if we have to chat with them, we have to stay late.  But the team seems pretty functional and we're all doing good work, so I'm pretty happy.

 

So all in all, things are going well.  There's even a guy I'm interested in and if he didnt' live eight hours away, it might go somewhere.  We're tryin' to fix that, though.  I'll keep ya posted.

 

Anyway, the sweet temptation of South Park is luring me away.  Hope all is well out there.