Outdoor projects

Well, it's been quite a while since our last post, and there is probably a lot to write about - including the ending of a successful choir year with Da Camera, and many other fine concerts that we were both involved with in the last part of winter and into spring.

However, the thing that is most on our minds right now is the great outdoors! The weather has more or less stabilized in the last few weeks, golf season is in full bloom, as are the elm trees, lilacs, and the flowers on the apple tree. We were also blessed this year to not have the amount of spring wetness that we had last year, limiting the amount of water in our basement to just a few drops from the west side of the house, between the walls of the house and the attached carriage house.

This week, John went up on the roof and nailed down the raised flashing, and tarred all the seams in the hopes that will stop any future leaking. The new eavestroughing we installed last year seems to be working very well, although we are still concerned that the north side of the house, in the event of a large rainfall, will still find its way to the basement. Preventative measures are being put in place this week, starting today.

At some point in the next few hours we are expecting the delivery of 12 cubic yards of topsoil, which we'll use to regrade that side of the house. Afterwards we'll put seed down, roll it in, water it and watch it grow. The big unknown right now is that neither of us have ever seen 12 yards of soil before, and I think it will be much more than we need. We do have to fill some flower beds, and fix some holes in the lawn that we removed due to an ant infestation, and old tree stump removals, plus Adam says he needs some too - so I think we will make use of most of it. We'll post pictures as we are able!

It will likely be a dirty week ahead, but the end result will be good!

Thinking of San Francisco

It's been a long time since we've made a post here - and we aren't even sure if this page is being monitored by anyone anymore. However, we thought we'd update the site with a few details of our upcoming summer trip, which will count as our official honeymoon. Sure Scotland was nice and all, but a honeymoon with forty of your closest friends just doesn't seem to count for some reason.

First, in order to determine where we might go, and what we might do, we made a short list of things we enjoy:

Four things that Kathleen and John enjoy:

• Traveling
• Outdoors
• Baseball
• Wine

After careful consultation of where we might find a place to enjoy all these things, we settled on San Francisco. The trip will go from July 1st until July 10th. The central part of the trip will be a 4 day wine trek through Sonoma county, where each day we will walk anywhere from six to eight miles, with varying elevations, and stopping three or four times a day to enjoy samples from the finest wineries California has to offer.

We've also booked tickets to a Cubs vs Giants game, and are looking into a Mariners vs Athletics game.

We'll post the itinerary as is gets closer.

Also, keep your eyes peeled here for John's cameo appearance in an NBC horror TV show series!