Channeling my Inner Fred

I am so happy we are having normal spring weather this weekend.   I spent a lot of time outside today to prep the yard in general but also for the upcoming grill-out on May 19.    I raked the backyard and the north side of the house primarily.  (Hence the channeling of my Dad.)    I still have more work to do in the front of the house to clean up the landscaping.    In total, 14 of the tall paper yard waste bags have been filled.    Gavin was cool and came up too and cleaned out all of the gutters.    He also helped with some of the yard work and he and I did some work behind the garage.    Past owners seemed to just throw things behind the garage and I'm trying to tidy it up.    There is a big pile of brush and branches, broken cinder blocks, pieces of old cement, and lots of leaves.    He and I handled some of the branches and raked up a bunch of leaves today.     He also dug out some erosion areas too so the gate to the fence by the garage now opens and shuts properly.    I want to make sure it worked well so if/when we get a dog, I can prove I have a secure backyard to a rescue society.   

It seems silly but I am incredibly sore from the yard work.    My legs are aching tonight.    Makes me feel old.    The yard work did lead to a little spat with Dan and he never came out to help me.    Toward the end of the evening I started hinting I could use help and he still didn't come to help me.    Now yes, it was my choice to spend a lot of time cleaning up the yard but it was something that needed to be done.   Past owners have not cleaned up leaves as they should have and I wanted to give our grass and other vegetation a better chance of thriving this summer.    He said he was on board for doing the mowing when it comes to yard work but it seems like this other work isn't appealing.    He just earned the opportunity to help me further behind the garage with clean up.    Ha. 

We dog-sat this weekend for Dan's Mom and her husband.    Despite their issues, they took a trip to Eastern Iowa so there dog Charlie stayed here Thursday night until Saturday night.   He's an easy dog.    He's pretty old so he basically laid around.    The cat was not happy at all to have another animal in the house.    She has a right to be uncomfortable due to the nature of the dogs at her past residence.   It still bums me out she was so pissy about it because introducing a corgi to the house may be difficult in the future. 

Dan's friend was able to come over and do more work with the house today too.    My closet is finished!    Well finished in the sense of carpentry.    He put up a bar so I can hang my clothes and did it in a thoughtful manner so the slanted ceiling won't be too stressed with the weight of my clothes.    I still need to get some shelving for the closet but it helped me better organize the bedroom.   All my clothes are now in the closet or in my dresser.    It looks much more tidy.    I also put away all my winter clothes and pulled out my summer clothes too.     I have a pile of things to donate and a pile of things to take to the local consignment store.   

I plan to spend tomorrow (Sunday) with a multitude of grading tasks.    I have 86 binders to grade for my health classes at ISU.    I also need to do about 55 rubrics for teaching assignments too.    I extended a deadline for PE unit plans so those will start to trickle in but I won't touch them until later next week.     I'm actually up to date with my DMACC grading...one class has to turn in a Diversity Handbook they create for a mock sport association but I only have like 10 students so those won't be too time intensive.    Needless to say, lots to do.   

The end of this semester is a little different as I am one of the department marshalls for graduation.    All faculty go through a rotation for helping with graduation.    I am borrowing a gown from the department (never got one since I didn't attend my graduate ceremony).    It is pretty old but looks pretty nifty.   I need to add some clasps to it because it doesn't stay shut.    I have an old cap to wear too (from department) but am curious to see if I can find a better tassel to wear with it. 

I am excited for the upcoming grill out at the house.     I am slowing buying things for it.    We bought the hamburger for it today.     I am buying things for Gavin's graduation party too.    On a psychological level, it's less of a blow to spread out the costs rather than buying everything all at once. 

I've also indulged in my guilty pleasure of attending concerts recently too.    Dan and I are seeing Everclear again in June.    We are also seeing Bush early in July.    Gavin, Dan, and I are seeing Godsmack and Shinedown at the end of July.    Thankfully the venues in Iowa are keeping the ticket prices affordable.   

Guess that's enough of an update for now.