Day 52 - 04/13/2007

Paraskavedekatriaphobians were on the lookout all day today.

I wasn't one of them.

I was on the lookout for dandelions and chickweed as I worked from home running migrations. In between, I did homework in the yard, trying to get a grip on it before the various weeds take over. I may not have been successful, though, as what I wanted to do (seed the lawn) won't be possible until late-May. I need to wait about 6 weeks after spraying the lawn before I can lay more seed. It's doubtful it will mature before the heat of the summer comes down on us and the grass goes dormant.

Of course, I could always water the lawn to avoid that.

After a long day of yard work, M, N and I went out to run some errands. We hit the Merrifield Garden Center (one of my favorite stores in the area, if only for providing me with ample "I wish I could..." material) and, in addition to having the helping staff member identify the weed in my hand (chickweed) and recommending a plan of attack, we also picked up some lavender and catmint for the area around the mailbox. We had planted lavender last year (which is still there), but the other two plants we planted don't seem to be coming back up (and it would appear they won't come back up since I covered the bed with a layer of weed blocker). I love that stuff; simply roll it out, plant your desired plants and mulch. Viola! No weeding required!

Afterwards, we went over to Lowe's to pick up some topsoil, a shovel and some fertilizer. (Recall that mine broke a few weeks back when I was trying to dig out the shrub by the back deck.) After checking out, we went to Milwaukee's Frozen Custard for a mid-afternoon treat of, yes, frozen custard. N loves going there for the trains that run along the ceiling (as well as for the custard, obviously). I love their vanilla custard, but since the flavor of the day was peanut butter cup (and I'm a sucker for peanut butter and chocolate in my ice cream), that's the flavor I chose. I wish I had stuck with vanilla. While it was good, the flavors were overbearing and there were too many pieces of peanut butter cup; the vanilla was too hard to distinguish. Oh well, lesson learned.

M spent the night at Riley's, so it was just D, N and I at home. After putting N to bed, D and I settled in to a quiet night in front of the TV. We rented Borat to entertain us, but were somewhat disappointed. Sure, there were parts that were funny, but at times it just seemed forced. And we both could have done without the naked wrestling scene; that was just wrong. Good thing we had Tivo'd The Office; that's pretty much always good for a laugh and this episode (where Michael demonstrated the dangers of working in the white collar world) had its share of them to offer us.