Another beautiful weekend in paradise

This weekend was one of great accomplishment and pain, though not all at once.

Saturday, I started out my day by having breakfast at Denny's with my school team to go over our final presentation. It was short and fairly easy, so it went well. We got to school and did our presentation first because two of my team had to leave early. Ironically, the rest of the class complained that we had the easiest presentation. My team was the last to choose which assignment we would present, so they all had a shot at that problem and overlooked it, so it was their own choice. We then took our final exams, which I think I did well on.

After school I headed to Home Depot, where I could not for my life get the attention of any of the employees because I am invisible when in the presence of busty blondes who giggle and twirl their hair and play dumb, so I hunted on my own and found the two items that I needed and headed for the cash registers. Getting the ladder into my car and secured was a bit of a chore, but the lawn mower blade posed no challenges.

After I got home I used my new toys. I cleaned out the rain gutters yet again, finding slugs, earthworms, ants, mushrooms, maple saplings and peanut shells in them, along with the expected pine needles, twigs, and the bits of composite roofing material that sheds with each rain storm. My shoulders got a little sunburned, but more importantly that composite roofing gets really hot in direct sunlight, and my butt was very hot. And not in a good way, either. I felt like there could be damage if I sat in one place too long. Luckily, it was easy and fairly quick to get through all of it.

Because I moved into the 21st century some time ago and subscribed to cable, I finally took down the eyesore of a TV antenna, which looks like it was attached to my chimney several hundred years ago. However, because someone painted over the aluminum straps securing it to the chimney, I now have to repaint the chimney because I tore some of the paint off. That shouldn't present any real difficulty. I also kicked some of the moss off of the roof, but since it all seems to be dead I decided not to worry about the rest of it until some day when I can take more time to get all of it off. While I was up there, I confirmed that I cannot see Mt. Rainier even from the highest part of my roof on a clear day.

After dealing with the roof, I mowed the lawn. The new lawn mower blade makes quite a difference. No more bludgeoning the greenery into submission, I actually get to cut it! The "edge" of the old blade was so dull that I ran my fingers back and forth across it very quickly and couldn't get a scratch. It was nearly as flat as the non-cutting side of the blade. While I was out there, I got a nice picture of a giant slug-slime-coated mushroom. Mmmm, juicy.

Sunday, I woke up with the best of intentions, but as soon as I got out of bed I cancelled all plans. I had forgotten how sore I get climing up and down ladders all day. No hiking for me today. But I did watch the Special Edition DVD of The Princess Bride, so I feel much better now about having to sit at home all day. I tried to download all of my class material for my next class, but the university website is having some issues. I hope they get them cleared up soon - there's a ton of reading, and I have only a week to get through it. I also managed to do laundry and dishes. Wow, do I party hard or what?

To sum up: yet another wasted, boring weekend.