yards landscaping and swearing

Anybody else trying to put in a yard from scratch?  It sucks.  No, not satisfying, it sucks.  Sucks money, time, patience, good will, money, time...you get the idea.  We are trying to do so on a budget.  That sucks some more.  Throw me money maybe I can throw it at the yard.  I need someone who goes out of state on a regular basis to get me a powerball ticket once a week.  I could 300 use million.

I digress.  again.  My wife has dry, red eyes from looking at numerous web sites for free sod, dirt, manure, compost, pea gravel etc.  She even threw her laptop at me.  Landscaping companies are horrible internet people.  Often they don't have a web site or it doesn't function but almost every one does NOT post prices.  You want my business, post a price.  I do not want to call, or more correctly, my wife does not want to call, or more correctly, neither of us want to call 15 places, get a hold of 5, get 3 quotes because they can't tell us for some stupid reason and then discover the 100 dollar delivery charge and then get hit with the gas surcharge.

This sucks!

Spring Break, kids and hair.

I have discovered that spring break isn't just for students anymore.  I had my two college kids around during their breaks and found myself staring at young adults.  Amazing.  Sure, they still aggravate me at times, make me cry in joy and pain some, but I marvel how far they have come and how they seem to be ok despite my parenting.

This gives me hope for the younger three.  I hope I have progressed as a father and husband.  I am sure there are areas where I have regressed.  Gives me a few (many) things to work on besides all the other stressful things in life.

Sometimes I have wondered if I should have done this or that differently.  Sometimes the answer is yes but through it all my kids have survived, thrived, grown up and still amaze me.  Through it all I truly think that what really matters is what you do with your family.  Not where you lived, how you lived or how long you were there.  Just, was the family the most important thing in my life. 

My kids may have cost me my hair but they have given me love, life and happiness too.  It's been worth the hair!

NFL lockout vs. Japanese Tsunami/Earthquake/Nuclear Meltdowns

Is it just me or do people get tired of rich people haggling over where their next million is coming from?  This is going to be a very short post by the way.  If I keep going my language is likely to get worse. 

Here's my idea.  Wait, some background.  Apparently the NFL owners want to make a billion more dollars this year than last.  The NFL players union doesn't want to play 2 extra real games to help the owners make more while the players actually make less per game.  Don't get me wrong, not sympathizing with rich football players.  I am biased toward there side but there is a difference.  There are other issues in this argument but enough background.

Now the idea.  The owners can give up that billion, the players union can give up another billion and they can send it to A: Japan, B: US inner cities, food banks, gulf coast etc, C: pick another one.

Just sayin, God needs us to help out down here.

Finally...

Anyone else still have Christmas decorations up?  Ha!  My outside house lights just came down today.  why so late you may ask.  Glad you did.  It's been cold, rainy and I have no yard so my ladder just sinks into mud.  Today was nice for awhile and dry enough to risk it.  I can't claim complete victory as some of the late stragglers are still in the garage awaiting my pleasure to take them downstairs. 

This of course is no pleasure and will likely wait until the wife threatens to throw them away.  As some of you may know, throwing things away, especially christmas decorations, is not something I do well.

On a tangent from above, if anyone has any connections with Yard Crashers from DIY network please let them know my yard is a blank slate that awaits their magical touch and transformation.  Little to no demo needed.  Again, blank slate and any or all shameless advertising on the table. 

My wife was at a sprinkler store that doubles as a christmas light and decorator store in the winter and they wanted to use my house to train their workers.  Great!  Wait, we had to pay for all the lights at a discount.  She tried to explain that my house was on a brand new highway, front and back views and they could put all the signage they wanted to out there but to no avail.  Had to do my own.  Someone out there has got to see the potential and be willing to do hundreds or thousands of dollars of work to my house or yard and not make me pay for it.  Just sayin.