I have plowed through all my projects for the weekend save one: re-grading the front of the house. Given that tomorrow is the celebration of the day Christ rose from the grave, I shall leave that for my next day off.

Yesterday evening, as soon as I got home from my temp job, I changed into old clothes and raced through mowing the yard. Ten days had passed since the last mowing, and I suppose the fertilizer was kicking in for the grass in the back yard was quite high. In fact, the back yard is filling in nicely. Now, if only the front yard would feel the competition and get its act together.

I also had to bring in all the plants that I had put outside just last week. I had thought that it was safe to do so, but the giant begonia, the hibiscus, and the bonsais would not survive the coming cold snap.

I waited to eat until after I had waxed the basement floor so that it could be drying during dinner. Once it was dry, I began the arduous task of getting all the furniture back down to the basement. The beds, mattresses, bedding, tables, lamps, dresser drawers, chairs, settee, boxes, etc. The fact that I would finally have my living area back was the impetus to get the job finished. I will say that once the bedding was back on the beds, I felt immeasurably better. Having the basement empty and the floor stripped down to the concrete was discouraging, a huge step backward in my eyes. I did have to do a load of laundry so that I could wash the fitted sheets I keep over the box springs before putting them back, but I left off folding the rest and putting it away until later.

Today, I put the new closet bi-fold doors together, hung them, and then painted them. Since the paint is oil-based, I will not be able to do the second coat until tomorrow. So, I turned my attention to the yard. I have bricks lining the edge of the yard. Facing the house, the ones on the left had gotten all crooked. On the right, I had been keeping these railroad ties that had been left at the curb to hold back the yard until the three sidewalk sections were replaced. Last week, I pulled up the wood, and with G.'s help, cut them up so that I could put them in my county trash containers. Today, I pulled up all the bricks across the front and then dug out the dirt that had been pushing the left side ones forward and had spilled across on the right side. Marching across the front of my yard now is a smart row of bricks. Even though the sidewalk sections are still missing, I believe it looks quite a bit better. As I was working, I was quite thankful that the weather was frigid because it meant that while I was shoveling dirt and arranging bricks I did not grow hot. Now...if only the cold weather could last until I get the grading done!

To make sure that I was completely productive, I ran to the bank to deposit my check, played with Kashi in the back yard, emptied the dishwasher, cleaned the kitchen, mopped the kitchen floor, watered the plants, finished the laundry, cleaned out the utility closet, cleared off all the things that had congregated to the basement stairs, and sorted through the paperwork that has piled up since I started the basement floor project.

Fancy and Madison noted that their cage still needs to be cleaned out, but I have decided that enough has been done this day. Instead, I popped in About a Boy so that I could lounge on the cough, laugh a little, and get some rest.