Strikes and Gutters- My Way

Saturday was relatively uneventful. Nena had to work, which always blows. What the hell do they want from her? She's on the road all week, and then they have her working Saturdays. At least the kids she was talking to were unappreciative, that makes it all worthwhile.

After she got home we did some grocery shopping and went home to start dinner when Todd finally arrived from Iowa City. I hadn't seen Todd in a few years and Nena'd never actually met him. . .just heard a lot of stories (mostly all true) and had me mention that we could crash at his place the next time we were in Iowa City with time to kill. .that hasn't happened in a long time, yo.

It was nice to have Todd around this weekend. We never did make it to the Bob Schneider show I mentioned a few posts back. By the time we finished dinner (mmm, stir fry chicken in peanut sauce) and got settled all we wanted to do was play a game of Pop Culture Trivial Pursuit

I took an early lead, picking up all six pie pieces before Nena and Todd could pick up six between the two of them . . . then I decided to be nice. I didn't go for the hub for a few turns (after rolling a perfect six on the first try) and as a result I was punished by the trivia gods. I missed final question after final question once I did make a move for the hub and then couldn't roll the right number . . . ugh, it was ugly. Things I couldn't remember to win it all: The name of Calvin's babysitter (Rosalyn) or the name of R.E.M.'s first EP (Chronic Town I said Murmur.) There were other things I screwed up (because I incorrectly answered 7 final questions) before finally knowing who Jimmy Kimmel's first co-host was (Snoop Dogg, whose appearance is memorable for many reasons I can go into later if someone's really that interested).

By the time the game ended Nena and Todd were stalking me in the hub, it was after midnight and Todd'd been up for over 24hrs. . .so we all crashed.

Sunday morning Nena and I got up and went downstairs to make breakfast. While I was frying up some turkey bacon, we heard a really strange hammering coming from outside the house. Being used to Todd I immediately thought to ask, ˆ¨whereˆ‚s Todd?ˆÆ The answer was; outside the house reattaching the gutter thatˆ‚d fallen off the back of the house during the last big storm we got ˆ´round here.

Thatˆ‚s Todd in a nutshell, he saw that the gutter had fallen, knew that this was something he could fix and so he set about doing it. After breakfast I helped him finish his work, took down the trellis that our grapes had been growing on, fixed the shed doors and attempted to remove the roadspikes that are buried in our back yard. Nena, never one to be outdone bagged all the branches weˆ‚d cut down last month and removed the stump of a pine tree I cut down six weeks ago and generally kicked all sorts of yard ass. Yes, this is the same Nena who used to read books so she wouldnˆ‚t have to help her parents fix up their house. Lifeˆ‚s crazy sometimes.

It was amazing; Todd edged the front lawn for the first time in six months while I FINALLY fixed our mailbox. Itˆ‚s amazing, it doesnˆ‚t wobble anymore! All it took was a new 4x4 pounded into the ground by another 4x4 and a utility knife used to cut the mailbox so itˆ‚d fit over the new mailbox spike. d00d did we kick all sorts of ass, it was freakinˆ‚ incredible. The back yard is now a LOT better than it was when we bought the place and almost at a point where I can start to dream of what kinds of changes weˆ‚ll make in the spring. I know thereˆ‚ll be a deck, and maybe a bocce court . . .but as for the rest, who knows.

Oh, and yes, we did take out the bamboo growing up on the side of the house, though it still needs to be bagged and disposed of. But itˆ‚s a good start, yo.

It was seriously good to see Todd, though and it was really nice to see that he and Nena got along so well. Granted, heˆ‚s heard me talk about her so much and read so much about her here that he probably felt as though he already knew her, but itˆ‚s still really nice to have folks that are important to you get along.

The downside to all this is, as I said a few posts ago, Iˆ‚ve been needing a weekend to recover from my weekend. Unfortunately, thatˆ‚s totally not going to happen for a while, unless, of course, you include my impending trip to the ATL. Should be fun, even if it is a trip for work. ;)