• Hours worked in the yard: 7 1/2.
• Flower beds de-leaved: 2.
• Piles of leaves/sticks/whatever previously created that were mulched: 8.
• Beds that were completely filled: 2.
• Beds incompletely filled: 2.
• Bags of leaf-based mulch created: approximately 20.
• Retail value of said bags: probably around $60.
• Bags of stick-based mulch created: 2.
• Retail value of said bags: probably around $15.
• Value of having the leaves they were created from gone from the yard: much more than $75.
• Kiddie pools used to hold stick-based mulch: 1.
• Of the chipper and shredder, number of features I’m happy with on the new tool: 1. (Ed: The chipper takes way too long to deal with – lots of clogging to have to work around. Or maybe I just don’t know what I’m doing.)
• Mosquito bites: 2. (The yard spray works!)
• Yellow jacket nests found: 1. (Luckily, I wasn’t stung.)
• Hottest temperature worked in: 97 degrees.
• Rocks accidentally put down the shredder chute: over 500, counting pebbles.
• Times I stopped the machine just to clear out rocks from the shredder chute: 3.
• How much better the back yard looks, in terms of percentage: 90%. (I still need to get pine straw or mulch down around my trees, and there’s still too many overgrown and weedy areas for my taste, but at least the piles of junk are gone. Overall, very pleased with the outcome of the time spent.)

This past weekend, Kelly and I did our taxes. This year, we did them using a software product and e-filing the returns. This was a first, as I did them manually the previous two years. It was also the first year we ever itemized, and the first year that we got a refund! We’ll probably end up using it to build our fence. Of course, I’d rather have had the money all last year, but that’s okay…we’ll just adjust the W-4 and move on.

However, after last year’s fun, I’m just happy that the returns were accepted and that we’re done with it for another year.

Last night, Kelly and I went shopping for groceries and pet supplies.

• Amount spent on groceries: $136
• Amount spent on pet supplies: $210
• Amount of money spent on dog food: $0

Yeah, I know that a lot of it was one-time purchases, but still…

We’re at my sister and brother-in-law’s house this weekend. After this, we’ll probably be staying at home for a while because London won’t be ready for trips (and we probably won’t be ready to take him!)

We’re going to a minor league hockey game tonight. I haven’t been to one in years, but I’m a hockey fan anyway, and it’s pretty fun to go. According to my sister, they’re really good tickets – right by the boards. So it should be a good time.

So I went 2-for-3 this weekend on updating the site. Hm.

I’ve been playing one of my games a lot recently. I’ll get too far into it and then stop only when I’m tired and realize that I have to work tomorrow. Not really good on a number of fronts. See, I didn’t read the chapter I was supposed to yesterday, either. I did read my Bible – the passages we read in church – but not the one that I was supposed to read for the study. So tonight I did it and the one for today.

The difference that it makes to me when I have read my Bible that day is really astounding. I’d forgotten about it. Sure, it just makes me feel good, and there’s a sense of accomplishment, but there’s also a deeper understanding of why I believe what I do. Some days I’ll read a commentary about the chapter that I’m on in addition to the chapter itself; that’s been useful as well.

So even though I “missed a day” yesterday, I’ve been happy with how this particular resolution has gone so far.

I started today by getting up early. Normally, this wouldn’t be that great a thing, but I went to bed early too so it evened out. This morning, I went to Wal-Mart and bought an electric blanket for Kelly. Last night, we bought a radiator from Home Depot. Between those two things, hopefully, our gas bill should go down and Kelly’s comfort level should go up.

Once Kelly got home from work, we watched the Alabama-Auburn basketball game. I don’t follow college basketball nearly as much as I used to (I know, one of my two favorite teams is two-time defending national champs…), but when the two teams play just about anything against each other and it’s televised, I’ll watch it. It was even better that Bama probably played their best game of the year and whupped some tiger tail.

After that, we went over to Ricky and Tammy’s for an early 30th birthday party for Ricky. (Already this month, he’s become an “old man”…now he’ll be an old man.) Katelyn, of course, is as cute as ever. It was a nice laid-back evening…pizza and some old Animaniacs episodes.

Add all that up, and that’s a good Saturday for me.

I don’t think that I’ve made an official announcement on the site yet, but we’re getting a dog. True to my desire from long ago, it will be a chocolate lab, and we’re naming it London, after Jack London.

Yes, I know some of you are asking, “Why not a husky?” Well, I love huskies, too. In fact, I’d probably put it second on my list of favorite dogs. The problem is, we live in Alabama, not Alaska. And it’s just so warm in summer. But there’s also another issue – huskies aren’t as easily trainable. I want to make sure that we can get a well-trained dog the first time around. And what better dog than a Lab for easily-trained?

There is a downside to the Lab, and it relates to size. Kelly hasn’t had a large dog before, and trying to deal with one, especially as boisterous as a Lab, can be intimidating at first. So we asked the breeder for one that’s a little more laid-back.

So we’ve got most of the basics now – a crate, toys, barriers…about the only thing that I can think of right now that we haven’t gotten are food and water bowls. We’ll be getting him in about 2 1/2 weeks, and we can’t wait!

I had the day off today, and so did Kelly. What did we do? Well, for the most part, not much at all. We did put together our golf organizer, and we were going to take our recycling to the community bin, but it was already full.

Other than that, I wore my flannel, played around on the computer, watched some TV, etc. Not really anything spectacular. For the most part, just how I like days off.

Oh yes, it happened. Although it didn’t start until after the morning light. I stayed up until about 2:30 and it didn’t snow. I woke up around 8:30 this morning; I think it started about 15 minutes after I got up.

We got out in the snow a little bit. We took a few pictures; those are forthcoming (we got a new digital camera, and are still learning the ins-and-outs of it). I hope that they come out nice. It was fun to see the people walking up and down the street, just enjoying the snow and the resulting scenery.

For a little bit, the flurries were pretty thick. It wasn’t Green Bay playoff weather thick, but it was a good bit of snow. I’d say that we probably got a little over an inch in total.

And only a few hours later, it was gone. Practically all evidence that it had ever snowed had melted away. But it was nice while it lasted.

This evening, Kelly and I made our first fire in our fireplace. The dying embers are glowing as I type this. We’ve enjoyed the day. I hope you’ve enjoyed yours too, gentle reader, even if you weren’t blessed with snow today.