So, last week I dug some holes.
Today, the trees arrived and I wrestled with a couple of the heaviest trees in the world for a few hours got them planted into the ground. Now, in a couple years, we should have some decent shade in the backyard.
Next, we need to get our patio done. And our deck. And our firepit. And the rest of our landscaping.
We have three trees in our yard: the Red Maple that was included with our house and two Bradford Pears.
As of today, we have doubled that number.
Alli and I headed to Suburban Lawn & Garden today, lured by the promises of discounted trees and our very own golf cart to drive around the grounds. (I also secretly hoped to run into Ahmed Hassan of Yard Crashers on DIY.) Our backyard is in need of some serious work and I’ve been bugging Alli for a couple of years to at least plant a few trees so they could get some height.
While our landscape plan is still a few dollars away, we’re at least going to get three trees in the ground this year, helping to build a little more privacy from our crazy neighbors shade and add some color to our bland, empty grass box of a backyard.
I can’t wait for them to be delivered!
Tonight, I got home from work about 40 minutes before Alli was scheduled to be home from dance practice. I grabbed my camera and headed out, wanting to capture some pictures that were within about a mile of my house. I live on the edge of the metro (on the edge of civilization, really) and I wanted to get out and capture some of that beauty.
I got a 50mm f1.4 lens for my camera for Christmas and I love the pictures that it takes. You can see the whole set on Flickr.
On the heels of David Cook, the Kansas City area has another reality show star in position to win their own show on HGTV. Jennifer Bertrand of Olathe (represent!) solidified herself in the final of HGTV’s Design Star against Matt Locke of Colorado Springs.
For the past several weeks, Bertrand and Locke have competed in numerous interior design challenges on HGTV’s version of American Idol. Since the Food Network and HGTV are on constant rotation in our house, we’ve been keeping tabs on the hometown girl. Next Sunday, she’ll compete for her own show on HGTV.
Of all the contestants, I’m glad it’s come down to Bertrand and Locke. While I imagine the producers would have liked the “I want my mommy” guy to go a little further, I’m glad that the two I picked from the very beginning as my favorites are in the final. This way, even if the hometown girl doesn’t win (as I’m sure many of those who are jealous of other Kansas Citians’ success might hope for), I can be glad because the other guy is good too (whereas if David Archuleta would have beat David Cook on American Idol, I’d have been pretty annoyed).
In the same way that heavy voting from the Midwest helped David Cook emerge victorious on Idol, let’s help Jennifer Bertrand continue Kansas City’s dominance of reality show contests! At the very least, maybe this blog post will encourage her to come do some work in our house for free…
We had a crazy busy weekend. Friday night we celebrated the completion of Alli’s hospital mural with a couple movies, some Chipotle and a cookie cake. On Saturday, I needed to work on my sermon for Sunday morning in Manhattan. After I completed that, I joined Alli out in the yard. We decided to start a landscaping project in the front yard to add a flower bed in front of the retaining wall I built four years ago.
Working on the yard is hard. We had to cut out all the sod in the flower bed, which turned out to be – by far – the most difficult part of the process. Next time, we’re renting a sod cutter. We broke for lunch and then trekked to Home Depot to pick up some flowers, soil and mulch. When we returned, my mom joined us and we laid down the weed barrier and got to planting some petunias, some begonias, some gerber daisies and some pepper plants.
By the end of the day, we were totally exhausted and completely sunburned. We crashed on the couch for a while and then went to bed around 9:30. I then proceeded to toss and turn all night. My back was sunburned so it was extremely difficult to get comfortable. Combined with the fact that I was already sore…I ended up getting no sleep at all.
That made it difficult to get up and drive the two hours to Manhattan on Sunday. But thankfully, my wife kept me company along the way and we planned out what we were doing later. We had a great service in Manhattan, but four hours of driving is a lot for an hour of worship.
We had to run right after so we thought we’d stop along the way to grab something to eat real quick. After passing several viable options, we kind of “last resorted” at Pizza Hut on California in the state capital.
This was a mistake.
I should have known. It took us about 15 minutes to place our order. And we were first in line. We had to repeat ourselves five times to order boneless wings and a cheese personal pan pizza. Not a whole lot of confusion to that, right?
After a 20 minute wait (which was supposed to be 13:25) and overpaying for every item we got (including the 12 oz. sodas that cost us $2 each, we got out of there and back on the road. As I pulled out of the parking lot, I bit into my first boneless buffalo wing to find a surprise. A BONE! I thought to myself, Wait a sec, didn’t I order boneless? I checked my receipt and sure enough, I did.
Eating bone-in wings while driving would be a challenge. So I went back and did what any rational person would do – I yelled at the 20-year-old manager.
“I know I ordered bone-out wings because I said it. I also paid for them…right here on the receipt. So why do my wings have bones? You have two choices: you can either re-make them correctly and immediately or you can give me my money back.”
The manager tried to ease my anger by offering me twice as many wings. I told him this wasn’t one of the options and that if the wings were going to take longer than 2 minutes, that he should just give me my money back. He did. All of it. If he thinks he got off easy, he’s kidding himself. I plan on writing Pizza Hut’s franchising office today to let them know the disgusting nature of the bathrooms, the poor service and the plain idiocy of those working at the Topeka Pizza Hut.
</rant>
After we returned home, I had to run to the grocery store quickly. When I got home, Alli and I spent the evening doing some pre-marital counseling with a couple that I’m marrying in July. It was a really nice evening and I made some awesome meatballs for the pasta – ground turkey and pork italian sausage. Very good.
We finished the evening watching the rather weak season finale of Saturday Night Live. The previous week with Shia Lebouf was funnier in my opinion, which is surprising because I love Steve Carell. But his skits just weren’t that funny. Neither were John McCain’s two appearances. I know he’s trying to joke it up and make people less worried about his age, but he just looked so uncomfortable.
Another restless night of sleep and it’s time to work again. Too short of a weekend.
Isn’t it gorgeous?
Our new bed arrived today. Nebraska Furniture Mart was supposed to take away our old mattress and box springs.
They didn’t.
Then they said they would send the truck back to our house at the end of the route.
They didn’t do that either.
So…instead of waiting ANOTHER DAY to sleep on the new mattress (it was originally supposed to be delivered Monday), I dragged the old mattress (we’re talking 30 years old) down two flights of stairs and put it on our front porch. If Nebraska Furniture Mart doesn’t come pick it up tomorrow, there is a strongly worded letter coming their way.
It may look trashy, but I just don’t care. I can’t wait to sleep on the new Simmons BeautyRest.
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