Today I woke up to the sun streaming through my bedroom window, the sky was a stunning blue.  As I prepared myself for the day I realized that the temperature outside was warm.  So I decided that it would be a good day to clean up the leaves in my front yard.  The pesky Oak tree has dopped leaves all week long.

It took several hours to clean up the mess but I was glad that it was such a nice day.  I’ve spent many days in the fall cleaning up leaves that were practically freezing so I won’t complain.

Took time out to closed the pool for the summer…what a bummer.

I hate it when summer comes to a close.

Yes, my friends I’m still painting.

As you can see I’ve been working hard.

The last time that my house was painted was before I owned it.  So at least nine years ago.  The current colors are faded yellow and a dark blueish grey.  The new colors will be burgundy and light gray with white woodwork.  I’ve completed the front of the house.  Only three sides to go.

Enjoy the fireworks and stay safe.

Actually week three because there were no games last week.  This week I called prior to heading to the volleyball court because it was raining.  I was told to suck it up and get over there. Apparently a little rain is not going to stop play.  The rain broke before I arrived at the court so the first several games were played rain free.

There was a good sized group, especially considering the weather. We started out with four to a side but by the time the first game was complete we had a couple more players wanting to play.  The group was divided into three unequal teams consisting of either 3 or 4 players.  My team was two very good females and me.  We kicked ass, I only ended up losing once all night.  We played about an hour longer than normal despite the fact that it began raining near the end of the night.

I think I need to work on my serve over the course of the next week.  The serve was a bit weak and arcing.  I prefer to serve harder along a flat trajectory.  At least I think I can correct it.

……At least that is what it felt like. 

A little background…I had finally removed all the stumps and the vast majority of rocks from the area by the garage then I painted that side of the garage.  It was now time to landscape.  Given that area that needed plants was fairly large (30′ X 6′) it was going to be fairly expensive to purchase the plants.  Given the current economic maelstrom I was not to excited to spend a bunch of money on plants.

Fortunately the neighbor across the street has an overabundance of plants around his house and he has been up north since last night with no plans to return until Monday.  They sprayed some WD-40 (so it wouldn’t squeak) on the old red wagon, grabbed a shovel and some work gloves, and marched across the street. 

The plantings in his yard were overgrown and in bad need of some attention.  They split several hostas and placed them in the wagon.  The hostas were quickly replanted on our side of the street.  Another trip produced a bunch of lily of valley in my front yard. 

In all four trips were made, each time more and more greenery was added to the previously empty dirt in my yard.  As of right now the greenery is looking rather limp but with a bit of water over the next several days we are hopeful that the plants will survive and even thrive.  Meanwhile across the street you would never know that a bunch of plants were removed.

Ohhh…and by the way, the neighbor did give us permission to raid his plants.  But I’m curious to find out what the other neighbors thought was going on.

The kids had friends over to swim and watch scary movies.  So the first swim of the pool season has been swum.  I’m estimating the water temperature at around 72 degrees.  A bit cold for me but the kids were all in and swimming so that’s good.

The temperature for the upcoming week looks to be in the high 70’s and possibly the low 80’s a couple of days.  That should boost the pool temperature. 

Back to the pool party.  After the initial swim, beverages and chips made their way to the patio and were consumed in mass quantities.  As I casually observed the action from the deck, it looked like the kids were having a wonderful time.  Most of them reentered the pool and spent a little bit of time swimming.  By this time dusk was upon us so they went to the basement to watch a couple of movies.

I was glad to have people swimming in the pool because I sure as heck wasn’t jumping in it.

Internet so fast they had to create a new name for it.  Faster than broadband, Charter introduces Phatband to the St. Louis market with the name of ULTRA60.  Yes that’s ULTRA60 as in 60 Mbps.  So if you have a need for speed Charter’s ULTRA60 might be the option for you.

ULTRA60 will be rolling out to select areas through out 2009 and in many cases will be the fastest Internet available.  So if you are a gamer, a movie lover or a telecommuter ULTRA60 will add a high velocity experience to your day.  DSL has officially become the dial-up of this decade.  Ok, I’m not sure that I can unilaterally make that pronouncement but it adds a certain poetic essence to my prose.

I have not heard what kind of pricing that ULTRA60 will have.  I sure hope that when it reaches Michigan that the price will be reasonable.  I can just imagine myself sitting by the pool, towel wrapped around my waist, hair still wet from my recent swim, right around sunset, cranking up the laptop and visiting Hulu or a site like it and watching a movie while sipping a nice cold Coke.   

Need additional information?  Check out the Ultra60 Information Page.

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