Appointment etiquette

As delighted as I am to be included in this Save the Date via multiple billboards along my commute to work, its really quite rude that they do not list the meeting location! What, they want me to use the interwebs to find the location?  Isn't the Internet the devil's technical playground?

Hammer time

 Jonathan + jack hammer rental = what I came I came home to last Wednesday.  This strategically created rubble used to serve as a solid concrete path that formed a "Y" from the back patio to the back gate on the left and the shed on the right.

Mid day Thursday Jonathan finished his jack hammering and started mapping out the trench for our front yard retraining wall.  From walkway to retaining wall, the Caetano-Hupp household  takes recycling seriously!








Mid morning Sunday we tossed the last shovel of dirt from the trench, then poured in a good 600 lbs of sand in to help in the leveling of the blocks. Using the dolly we transported two blocks at a time from the back to front yard and attempted to start laying the initial level. Turns out leveling these beasty 70+ pound blocks isn't as simple as hopped.  Time to think this over and possibly figure out a new approach.

With a little research and ingenuity Jonathan figured out another approach for the wall. Instead of laying the blocks in two layers he turned the blocks upright against one of the walls of the trench. Tadaa!  In just two days time Jonathan placed all of the wall stones and the drainage pipe, which will move water away from the wall towards the back yard.

The wall is not complete, but pretty darn close, and its looking great.  Little fill here, little rock placement there and our retaining wall will be in business.

Supervisor Jackson approves!

Oh, and by the way, as of this Tuesday our red rock piles is completely gone!  Hooray for free resource scavengers!

Good ink gone bad

This is apparently what happens when you have to go into work early, pens attack.

All dried up

This past week certainly felt more like a week and a half.  I started last week at the bottom of the karma wheel with a bout of food poisoning starting in the wee hours of Sunday morning and lasting through Monday.  No details needed but I think I can honestly say I was only awake for about 7 out of 48 hours.

Can art. Theme was ending hunger.

As the week went on, my karma took its sweet time improving.  Tuesday, on my way to work I pulled over to heed the low tire pressure my car was indicating and came face to face with a lovely screw stabbing my front, driver side, tire. Lovely.  Later that evening we took off the flat tire and mounted the donut, and slowly maneuvered our way to Costco to order 4 new tires. I was in need of tires anyway, so no worries, simply let the bad times roll off my back because my luck will undoubtedly improve, right?

Tron bike made from beans. Ironic?

Not so much.  The karma gods were enjoying a mighty hardy chuckle when on Wednesday morning at 5:50 AM I managed to get three toes stuck under the back door while letting Jackson back inside.  How does one get their toes stuck under the door you ask?  I can't be too sure, since it happened so quickly; however, I'm pretty sure it was a wicked combo of two thoughts, move foot and move door, and only one synapse firing.  Needless to say the door moved, leaving the toes to get sucked under in a merciless toe vacuum. With Toby observing me quite intently I managed to maneuver two out before calling Jonathan who kindly, despite my weakest efforts to discourage, gave the door a quick push releasing my slightly mangled toe.  Despite a bit of toe pain, the situation was far too bizarrely entertaining not to laugh about.  Happy mid-week.

Thankfully Thursday and Friday went off without a hitch paving the way to a pretty darn good weekend.  Saturday morning we visited the Scottsdale Art Festival, enjoying on going live music performances, artist's booths and eventually making a purchase from an artist (Chris Vance) who drove down from Des Moines, ID.  For lunch we both enjoyed delicious food from two popular Phoenix food trucks.  I had some tasty lumpia (Filipino deliciousness) from Hey Joe, and Jonathan enjoyed a delicious dog from Short Leash.  The food trucks park in various parts of Phoenix during the week and can usually be found down town for first Fridays and at the farmers market on Saturday.  Their fare is definitely worth making the trip down town.  After the festival we again took on the task of moving the rock river.  This section of the river was possibly the worst phase since who ever put the rock in this section went a little over zealous with rock installation.  Jonathan finished up the day by pick axing the boarders of the river to reveal even more hidden rocks. The fun never ends.













Sunday morning we finally finished removing our blasted rock river. Wheel barrel load after load we trucked the rock to our back yard, which has now become a little reminiscent of a landscaper supply store.  Just  when we were about to shower off the layers of sweat and dust we had both accumulated our first craigslist responder arrived to take some of our red rock. As much as we both wanted to take a break, helping this lady in her tight jeans and tiny tank top proved much more to our advantage than letting her work alone.  What we accomplished in a good 20 minutes of solid shoveling may likely have taken her hours to shovel.  We're quite delighted that people have actually been stopping by to take from the massive pile since the more we can give away, the less we have to pay to get hauled off.

Progress from this weekend continued today with Jonathan staking out the front yard in prep for the small retaining wall that we'll construct along one side of the house.  This weekend we will likely be driving all about the state to check out rock colors, sizes and styles, as well as retraining wall construction materials. The completion of the front yard isn't quite within reach, but the continuing progress has been very exciting indeed!