My weekend was spent digging in the dirt. And no, that is not a euphemism for anything. I had a major aphid infestation on a bunch of my veggie. It was enough of one that a master gardener advised me to get rid of the plants. They were too far gone. Fuck.

There were a few I could save. So, I sprayed those down with soapy water – and am now waiting for the best time to release the lady bugs in hopes to restore the balance in the garden. The bugs are currently in my refrigerator. Guess I should release them.

So, I ended up pulling out a bunch of the plants actually. Thankfully I had some things to replant in them. So, I dug stuff up – moved more dirt into the beds – and planted more stuff. Then I found a sale on raspberry canes. I’m going to have more berries next year as I also put a bunch more strawberry plants in (thanks mainly to my strawberries that have been sending out runners).

Then I got everything weeded and pruned. Nothing like looking out at the yard and seeing it cleaned up and pulled together. Many times at work, I can’t actually see I’m making progress on a job. It’s nice to do a job where you can visibly see how far you’ve gone and how far you have yet to go.

Sunday night, my bro, his wife, his step-daughter and my parents came up for a visit. It was pretty funny as we started telling stories about growing up. My dad is sounding a lot more like my dad which is nice. Hell, he was even cussing up a storm which is more of the dad I know.  We drank beer, ate bbq, and some yummy peach-blackberry-ginger pandowdy. YUM!  (This cookbook, btw, is awesome if you like seasonal fruits. Amazing stuff that I enjoy having Garbanzo make for us.)

The stories we told was pretty damn funny too. All of the funny things that we did growing up. The picture of the house I posted last week was a topic for a while. That house had a lot of memories in it, like I said. I don’t think we had laughed that hard in a while.

My parents did tell us that they enjoy the back and forth Garbanzo and I have on Facebook.  I didn’t think we were that entertaining but I guess so.  The day he was whining via his status, and I replied “wah, wah, wah – buck up little soldier” or something to that effect was their favorite. I guess the big take away for me was my parent do read it all

Hopefully this week we will get our shower sorted out. Turned out that this issue will require around $4000 to repair and restore back to full usability. Damn tile work. We are now weighing our options. If we ditch the tile work – it’s a bigger job that just ditching that tile work – given there is a shitload of tile in that bathroom. The other option? Doing my own damn tile work. I haven’t resorted to that yet, but we may get there soon. Depends on what the other quotes come in as.

And for this Monday, remember: