This And Thats

There hasn't been any one amazing thing happening to us lately to write about.  That must mean that it is time to just start typing again and see what comes out.  Come along, it might be fun!


Our young cats found a new hobby recently.  They would climb up on the computer desk and pull out the pushpins holding things up on the bulletin board above and behind the monitor, then bat the tacks around everywhere.  It was not fun for us and we were not happy.  We had to start leaving the door closed at all times, essentially locking them out if we weren't in there ourselves.  Searching for a better solution, I found a cat training device on Amazon that seems to be working well.  It has a motion detector and will send out a spray of air to scare the cat away.  Easily found if you search, I just don't want to say the brand name here.  We have been using it overnights and may use it more during the days while we are at work.  They have not pulled down any pushpins since we got this device, I just want to make sure they continue to stay away so we'll keep using it at least for a little while longer.

Weather-wise has been pretty normal, though I would like a bit more rain recently.  Noteworthy is the very cool weekend we had last weekend.  Highs were in the lower 60's, F., very fall-like for just being July at the time.  It has been dry enough that I have not had to mow the lawn as much, even skipped the front for about 3 weeks, but there are spots that are browning a bit.  Maybe I'll go try a rain dance later.

I've declared war on crabgrass.  Not so much in my lawn, though there are spots, but in my neighbors lawn, specifically the stretch between our driveway and her house.  It showed up in the same area last summer so I sprayed it with crabgrass killer and a few weeks later threw some grass seed down to fill in the lawn.  Well, it came back this summer so, again with my neighbor's permission, I have been aggressive about trying to kill it off.  So far it is going well and hopefully I can get some real grass to grow before fall.  Yes, it is helping my neighbor and I know she appreciates it, but also some of my motivation is that I really don't want it in our lawn.

Work has been interesting lately.  I wrote some about the layoffs a while ago.  I was spared, and will be promoted even.  Now even more opportunities are in front of me.  Out of a possible 3 options, all promotions, I know which I will take.  I'll have a meeting on Monday with some important people then things will be clear and set.  I am grateful for these opportunities yet I will be most happy when things settle down and get back to normal.

I've been a bit concerned that we are mostly adding green stuff to the compost bin, most of the brown stuff comes in fall.  There were no problems last year, but it was not a full year of waste.  I know there are additives you can use but I don't think I'll look into that until I suspect we have a problem. This year I may be glad I built it every inch as big as it is.


And speaking of the compost bin, before this year I was pretty set on regular updates over on our garden site and that has become more sporadic this year.  What can I say?  I've been a bit of a lazy blogger this summer - but that's okay, I'll get over it!  PTFO