A Good Week

It's exactly 8:00, and things are off to a noisy start this morning.  The moving folks got finished yesterday, it seems, but a new bunch of young people moved into a side unit across from us.  I loved hearing the laughing and excitement as they got settled in last night.  Their balcony is pretty close to ours, and maybe they will be balcony users.  I've never seen anyone use it yet.

And a geranium.  I like them already!

Across the way, PJ received plants from her daughters for Mother's Day, so they have been working on that.  They also have some dragon fly lights that look so pretty at night.  And a gas grill.  I won't be tackling that.  I'll just find out when Ryan is grilling and take my plate over there.

Susan doesn't spend any time on her balcony, but her cats do.  She filled it with greenery to give them a haven and to let her think she's looking out into a forest from inside rather than at my K garage.

This morning's noise is coming from the roofers.  Our unit is on schedule for the new roof, and it's well underway.  They brought all the suppies last week and put them on the roof, and now they're beginning.  I'm glad I remembered to move my car last night!  The workers are predominantly - maybe all - Hispanic, and I can't tell what they're talking and laughing about, but they are making the most of a hard job.  Once I get dressed, I'll try to subtly take some pictures.

One of the guys was standing there watching them and saw me taking pictures.  I think he thought I was worried about it, because he told me they would be through today and that I could park my car in my place tonight.  It was hard to explain why I was taking pictures, but he was smiling.  I think he told me - through kind of sign language - that he had fallen off a roof last week, and that's maybe why he wasn't up there.  Or maybe he was the supervisor.  I really do need to learn Spanish.  I keep planning to.  The girls want to learn too, so we'll see what we can do this summer.  They want to talk to Lauren and Allyn in Guatemala on Face Time.  We tried it a little at the beach, but those little girls know a good bit of English and Graysen and Katherine only Hola! and how to count to 10.  Not very conductive to a lengthy conversation!

I have to take my package to Snoqualmie to mail, so I'm going to go to North Bend to the hardware store and pick up some potting soil and fertilizer and a couple of herbs. And some black paint to start on my wicker chairs.

Got it all.  Paint, brushes, potting soil, fertilizer, and herbs.

Not a very good selection of herbs.  I got oregano, rosemary, basil, sage, and some mint for my iced tea.  They look healthy, but we do need cilantro, chives, and parsley.  A nice lavender plant would be nice too.

It's a cute little hardware store, and things were easy to find.  Not as big a selection as a Home Depot, of course, but less temptation.  I noticed while wandering around that there is a bigger pet section than most Wal-Marts.  There are lots of dogs in this area and no Pet Smart or Wal-Mart close by, so I guess this is the place to go other than the grocery store.

I read an article yesterday on painting pillows with fabric paint.  That might be just the thing to do for those chair cusions.  Luckily, they don't get much sun to cause them to fade, but they are showing some mildew and stains.  I tried washing them in the washing machine, but they're a little too big.

I don't know ...  I don't have the patience to tape off for the stripes, and I don't want a solid color, so I may have to live with them a few months and look for a good sale at Target maybe.

Layla has gotten very brave about using the balcony, but I think this noise is a bit much even for her.

After all that, Emily is coming over to spend an hour or so with me on her work-at-home day.  It may be our last chance to talk without kids around since today is Kate's last full day of school.

Tomorrow morning, I'm having coffee with Debbie and finding all about her plans for getting her house ready to sell.  Then leaving there to pick up Kate, feed her lunch, and take her back for their end-of-school carnival at Rooster Valley.

Then I'll see what the rest of the week's schedule is for keeping Kate.  I plan to take some outgrown clothes over to Small Threads in Issaquah to consign,  and maybe Elise will want to go with us to Target and Home Depot.

Mapping out my plans for the week and coming back with picture proof.  Somehow I'll have to fit a grocery store visit in there and working on cleaning the balcony rails.

I also need to stop at the library to take this book back.  It's one of the ones I got for the beach and left at home because of not wanting to carry the weight.  I took two paperbacks instead which were not good enough to finish.

It started off slowly but then got better just as a received the due back email Saturday.  I did a marathon read and finished it last night.  It was interesting, and I learned pretty much all I wanted to know about working in a lab.  There were secrets, a murder or two, and a good bit of psychological discussion.  I'm glad I finished it.  I'll see what her other two books are about and maybe request them.  I probably won't have a lot of time to read this summer.

I finally got this little toy working.

My old one just could not be repaired.  I worked on it and cleaned it and could never get it to print a label clearly.  It's old, so I let the girls have it for their "computer" when they play.  The new one didn't come with batteries, and I had only AA and larger, so I proceeded to try to get some AAA ones.  For some reason, I got more AA the first time and then AAAA ones.  It's like I have a battery blind spot.  Finally, I have the AAA ones in, and I'm ready to label.  I'll work on the art cabinet first and let the girls tell me what labels to make so they (Graysen) can read them.  Hopefully, that will make them (and me) more likely to put things back where they go.

I just noticed this blog post on my blog list to the right and realize I have the same labeler.  I'll have to read this and be sure I'm making the most of it.

Donuts for Dads happened this week, and I think Ryan and Graysen liked their morning together.  This is the only picture I have that I had to lift from the CVES Facebook page.  I do see our folks but looks like there were plenty of dads and kids.

They had a Mother's Day thing too, but we were out of town that day.

This sounds like a good week's plan.  We'll see.

I kind of want to get another cup of coffee and read other people's blogs now.