I am exhausted (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

I finished up the cleanup of the side of the house. I got rid of about 12 bags of assorted sticks and garbage in total, finished the trimming, and put down "mulch" which was really shredded leaves and grass clippings. I do this to recycle, prevent weeds from growing there, and it's natural fertilizers for trees... which I guess is a problem because of that forsythia. I trimmed the forsythia back down to the nubs again, knowing it would all grow back in spring, but it looks nice for now and I am happy I finally got on top of that thing after neglecting it for many years.

Man, thanks again, ironkite for your reciprocating saw. Some of the fat trunks you cut down back there still have that blue dye from the blade, and I kind of like that (and the door is doing great)!

But in order to make that "mulch," I had to rake both yards and mow the grass. Luckily, it's cold out, so I didn't overheat, and the high humidity kept the dust down somewhat so my asthma didn't kick in until the very end. I timed it well.

I'll probably have to rake again, even though my trees are done shedding their leaves for the most part, because, you know, leaf litter blows around neighborhoods.

Speaking of which, I am glad I finally got rid of all that garbage that those stupid teens leave on the side of our house. I filled most of a large trash bag with their crap. They seems to favor Pabst Blue Ribbon in large cans, Sprite, Starbucks coffee, and Styrofoam takeout from the Lebanese place in our shopping center. At least half the time, they bag their trash in the takeout bag, but I wish they'd take it with them instead of stuffing in in the corner by my fence and blocking the gutter spout. Given the state of decay of most of it, I don't think they have come but this year, and I hope the problem is over. And I am glad I never find cigarette butts anymore, cause those things are hard to get out of the yard, and it seems more of a fire hazard if they were smoking back there.

Despite the cold and damp, a lot of people were out in their yards today. I am kind of jealous of those families with several kids, because I have to do this crap all by myself. If I had help, my lawn would look totally awesome, but I can't afford to hire anyone, so it always looks a little neglected. There were also families who had hired ... possibly questionable help of a legal residence nature... and they have awesome looking lawns. If I wasn't so paranoid about being caught by the INS, I'd grab a few from Home Depot myself. Posted in: bushes , fall , housework , trash , yar work , yard

Babyroom ready for decoration (Kilala.nl (Cailin Coilleach)) by Cailin Coilleach

*phew!* It took me a few days, but the baby's bedroom is finally ready for decoration and the furniture.

As I said, it took a few days, mostly because I had to make a few runs to the city dump. There was all kinds of crap that we needed to get rid of, before we could even think about cleaning the room up. The storage room in the basement needed to be cleared out as well, in order to make room for the things that we were going to keep.

Some furniture went to welfare, a lot of stuff (among them old belongings of their father) went to Marli's brother and two car loads of "stuff" went to the dump and welfare.

Now that we're done, all we need to do is wait for the furniture to arrive. Well, that and order loads more furniture and other things for the kid, since we're not even half done yet. *panic* Ah well, one step at a time :)

In the meantime I spent most of the day cleaning the house and doing all kinds of household chores. I think a well-deserved shower is in order ^_^



Posted in: baby , babyroom , cleaning , decoration , trash

Wacom, inefficient in packaging (Kilala.nl (Cailin Coilleach)) by Cailin Coilleach

A few weeks ago I complained at the Wacom helpdesk, that my stylus was not living up to my expectations. While the pen itself was still fine, the rubber grip had started falling apart within six months. Luckily they assured me that this was covered by warrantee, so I wouldn't have to pay thirty bucks for a new one.

Well today the new stylus arrived, or should I say "a big box of air". Wacom shunned no expense in making sure my stylus reached me in one piece. *sigh* Talk about waste! A box, fifty times the size of my stylus, a big wad of plastic bubblewrap and then the small box the stylii usually come in. What, an envelope wasn't good enoug?

I'm still happy with my shiny, new stylus though ^_^;

Posted in: packaging , trash , wacom , waste