Our Yard... landscaping from start to finish!

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Saturday, August 30, 2003
4:02 PM

I think we are at the point where it has to get worse before it gets better. Workers have been here all day (which I suppose is a good thing even though it is Saturday). Still trenching, adding pipes, etc. They also jackhammered out all the concrete stoops outside our doors so now we have just dirt (patios will be replacing the former concrete). In short, the yard is a mess. Don't believe me? Take a look:

Notice in the second picture the remnants of the workers' lunch (not to mention the now broken pieces of concrete from the stoops . . .)

That's about it for now. Just waiting for the workers to leave so I can go snoop around out there . . .

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Thursday, August 28, 2003
9:12 AM

Work on the yard continues. They have been trenching again, this time for the drainage pipes. The yard is a complete mess - can hardly walk around with all the holes in the ground. We will be sooo relieved when this is all done and this landscaper is out of our lives!!

Meanwhile, on the indoors:

As you can see, the cats are very interested in the work outdoors (actually, I think they were all looking at birds on the bird feeder).

That's about it for now. . .

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Tuesday, August 26, 2003
9:13 AM

Thanks to Dana, the direct posts of pics are now working. Here's the very cute one of Tim and Petey:

Mark & I watched Chicago last night. Perhaps we are the only two who feel this way, but we can't believe it won Best Picture! It was nowhere near as good as Moulin Rouge. The singing was mediocre. Worst of all, you (or at least we) didn't like any of the characters. Why am I supposed to care what happens to a bunch of slimy people? Definitely not my movie. Think I'll have to watch Moulin Rouge soon to cleanse my palate. (We also watched the Life of David Gale - also not our favorite. I guess we are just movie snobs!)

Not much else to report. No more work on the yard. No response to our nasty letter. Perhaps I am losing my touch (Sigh).

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Monday, August 25, 2003
12:59 PM

I'm sure everyone enjoyed my last post. So much to include!! Just kidding. Don't know where that blank post came from. Just stringing you along.

Dana has advised that the reason my website is slow to load is the photo site I use for my pics. So at Dana's suggestion, I will try uploading my pics to our webspace and linking from there (but as you will soon see, this isn't working out so well for me).

Anyone care to guess what is going on in our yard?? I'll give you a hint: NOTHING!! Nasty letter is on its way to the landscaper as we speak (and yes, it does use the work "unacceptable" many times).

I did get some use out of the pool this weekend though:

(OK, the pic didn't work - HELP DANA! I did just what you said and it doesn't work! - I'll try a link:

Family

Somehow I think everyone would have had more fun if there had been water in the pool. But as you can see Nicole and family were down on Saturday. As always, great to see them. They came up to our house for a while and Tim and Petey were enthralled with each other. Petey just laid on the couch all afternoon letting Tim pet him. I assure you that until Saturday, Petey had only sat in one place for about 10 minutes. Another link:

Tim and Petey

That's about it for now. I see my swimming chances slipping away . . .

P.S. - It took me forever to get those links to work and, as you can see, the second one is less than ideal. The pictures are a complete loss. In short, I NEED DANA's HELP with the whole HTML thing. Please?

Sunday, August 24, 2003
10:49 AM

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Wednesday, August 20, 2003
9:07 AM

So how does everyone like the new look? Can you tell who did it? Thanks Dana!!

Nothing new to report (yes, still hosing that d%@n pool!). But work is supposed to start back up later this week.

Just to keep everyone interested (big assumption on my part), here's a pic of our back yard plan:

It may be a bit hard to read, but it should help you get a general idea. The areas in blue will be slate, as will the two diamonds off the family room and master.

Still no bananas.

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Monday, August 18, 2003
9:14 AM

It's Monday, again. Hopefully there will be progress on the yard this week. Still watering. Can't wait to see the water bill this month. Though I don't have any new and interesting pool pics, here's a pic of the sunrise from our yard:

Luckily the family all made it back safe and sound from Italy. Just a day later than originally planned.

Meanwhile, in between watering the pool, Mark has been brushing up on his ping-pong:

Now we just need a family tournament. . .

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Saturday, August 16, 2003
6:48 AM

Nothing really new with the yard. Still watering.

Meanwhile, thanks to the power outage, Dad, Barbara, Alex & Connor are stuck in Italy (at least they were as of yesterday). They flew Air Canada connecting through Toronto, which is one of the affected cities. As a result their flight back yesterday was cancelled. No idea when they'll get on a new flight. . .

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Thursday, August 14, 2003
2:05 PM

Day 3 post-gunite. Still watering. (Yawn)

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Wednesday, August 13, 2003
8:51 AM

As promised, here are some pics of the pool during and post-gunite. Suddenly looks more like a pool doesn't it?

Have to admit that watering the pool twice a day is getting old already. And we have 9 more days to go (and the gunite company recommended watering 3-5 times per day. That's clearly not going to happen).

Here are a couple of new pics of Petey. The first is with Mark's Aunt Heather. She and Petey hit if off big time:

That's it for now! Have a great day!

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Tuesday, August 12, 2003
10:03 AM

The gunite is in! A day early even (well really two weeks late but it was scheduled for today and went in yesterday. Got it?). They didn't finish until a few minutes before 9 pm (I'm sure our neighbors appreciated that). I did take some pictures but didn't have time to upload them. I promise to do that tonight. In fact, Mark (the wonderful hubby that he is) got me/us a new much more complicated digital camera, so the pics should be even better quality!!

Now we get to water the gunite 2-3 times a day for 7-10 days. It wet cures (really don't know what that means). But supposedly the more we water it the stronger it will be. So water it we will. In fact, we already have sort of a wading pool in the deep end from the spraying.

Not much else to report. Banana plant is pretty much the same. Petey and the big cats are still tolerating each other. I think Little Boy would tolerate Petey a lot better if Petey didn't leap on him every chance he gets. Petey is at least smart enough not to try that with Little Girl.

Catch you all later. Pics tonight.

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Friday, August 08, 2003
8:46 AM

As predicted, no gunite this week. We are scheduled for Tuesday but have already been told that that could mean Monday or even Wednesday. Don't really get that. How hard can it be to set the date? Are there gunite emergencies that upset the schedule?? So we are now 2 weeks behind schedule. Huge surprise!

Nothing else really to report. Banana looks about the same . . . still no fruit.

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Thursday, August 07, 2003
8:57 AM

Here is an e-mail from Dad & Barb from Italy:

We are here. we are hot we are having a great time.
alex still hasnt gotten over the flight
love the gelato
connor wants to know if spice is ok
we get the car tomorrow and go to sorrento
alex wants to know if taping his shows is going ok
hope everything is going ok there

gotta go to another museum
getting lots of pictures

I'll bet they are hot! August in Italy. And during a record heatwave. According to weather.com, the temp in Rome is high 80s to mid 90s. Sorrento looks like it is a bit cooler though. Hopefully they will not get heatstroke!

I particularly love that Connor asks about the dog and Alex about his shows. Interesting priorities!

Still no word on the gunite (sigh). I see our early September completion date rapidly slipping away . . .

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Wednesday, August 06, 2003
9:50 AM

Hello all! Hope all is well with everyone.

No new pics of the yard, but we did pass our first city inspection which means they will now set a date for the gunite/concrete shell to go in. It may be this week but we aren't holding our breath. I'll make sure to post new pics when something happens.

Meanwhile, the cats are all getting used to each other. The situation is definitely improving, though there is still some hissing and growling. Here's a pic that shows just how well things are going:

As you can see, Little Boy and Petey are doing well. Petey's new nickname is Mini-Me because he looks just like Little Boy. Little Girl is a bit less friendly (though she's doing better too - see other pic of all three of them in the albums). They are eating off of a really cute kitty dish that Lorre, one of the paralegals at Mark's office gave us. Thanks Lorre!!

On an entirely different note, as many of you know, my brother Connor is obsessed (and I mean really obsessed) with banana plants. After several visits to our yard, Connor has proclaimed that our yard is absolutely perfect for growing bananas. He is supremely confident that in our yard they will bear fruit. Though we aren't really going for a tropical look (I don't think they grow bananas in the Mediterranean but I could be wrong), we told Connor that we'll plant bananas for him. So now it will be sort of a Mediterranean/tropical look. Connor has already carefully chosen a banana plant that I picked up last weekend. Here's a pic:

Obviously no banana bread any time soon . . .

That's it for now. I'll keep you posted on the pool!

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Friday, August 01, 2003
9:04 AM

Sorry for the delay in posts. Not a whole lot has been happening that is particularly visible. The pool guy was there every day this week (except this morning - not sure he is coming today). He usually arrives by 7 a.m., but our neighbors tell us he is gone by noon. They have been doing more piping and equipment installation. Here is a pic of the spa with the pipes for the jets:

As I said, they have been working on the equipment. It seems to be all in. I posted a pic of the equipment in the photo album in case you are interested.

Meanwhile, to keep your interest, I thought I'd post some pics of the neighborhood. This is the area to the side of our house (you can see our house on the right hand side):

They just installed all the grass. It's nice to have this greenbelt between our house and the next neighborhood over.

We went on a walk last night on the trails around our homes. Here's a pic from the path:

Finally, here is a pic of Petey:

He, LB and LG are doing much better. They still hiss and growl at him, but they will at least all be together for long stretches of time.

I see that we have been getting a decent amount of hits. Do us a favor: post a comment!! We would like to know who's checking out our site. Just click on the hyperlink below about comments and let us know you were here.

Have a great day!

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