Trash Can Overload

This weekend I worked out in the yard a lot. Cut the grass. Raked up old leaves. Bundled up tree branches. With my new work table, these choses seemed easier. I generated a large number of big trash bags. I was glad we have a bunch of trash cans.

Kit Kat has been doing spring cleaning in her room. It has been a mess for quite some time. Momoko said Kit Kat's friends could not come over for a party until this spring cleaning got done. That put the work on overdrive. Kit Kat generated about 10 bags full of trash. The problem was that I already filled the trash cans.

Luckily the trash collection comes twice a week. So I put all of Kit Kat's bags in the trash cans. I put a bit of my trash bags on top. However most of my yard refuse has to go in the next trash pickup.

Shattered Glass

Today I went outside and started collecting the leaves. Used the leaf blower to clear the big driveway. Then I ran the lawnmower to pick up the leaves in the front yard. Next I headed to the back yard. I had so many bags filled with leaves that I figured I better stack them up.

While stacking the leaf bags on the patio, I saw what looked like frost on the patio sliding glass door. That could not be right. It was warm outside. As I touched the glass door, the glass started falling down onto the ground. It was was not frost I saw. It was shattered glass.

Upon closer inspection, I saw what looked like a hole from some sort of projectile in the glass. Luckily only the outer pane of glass has shattered. The inner pane was still intact. I had to break out the rest of the glass from the outer pane. Then I picked up all that glass. It really shattered into a lot of small pieces.

The rest of the back yard will have to wait. Glass clean up took a long time.

Day Off With Friends

The kids were off today for parent-teacher conferences. Momoko had conferences all day long. I worked from home today. I had promised to take Little Kat to his friend's house today. He is spending the night there.

My boss called me for a status update on my work just as Littke Kat and I were leaving. Little Kat's friend was worried that he was not on time. I was not overly concerned because they guys are spending the night and most of tomorrow together.

In other children news, Kit Kat is waking up early tomorrow to clean the side of a road with her friends. I am amazed that Kit Kat agreed to get up early on a Saturday.

Communication Fail

I had to pick Little Kat up from school today. Momoko is staying late for parent conferences. I asked Little Kat how much homework he had. He said only 2 lil things. Kit Kat got home just after we did. I asked the kids if they were ready for tennis. Kit Kat she needed 15-20 minutes to take care of some things. I told the kids to meet me outside when they finished what they needed.

So I made the most of my time. Used the leaf blower. Then started using the lawn mower to pick up leaves. The kids were taking an awfully long time. I came inside. They said they were almost done with their snack. I went back out and mowed up more leaves. A long time later I came in to find what the delay was. The kids were watching a DVD. Huh? They said they were waiting for me. I was waiting for them. Fail.

We did some tennis. Little Kat got beaned in the eye with a Kit Kat tennis ball serve. He sat out for a game. Little Kat whined that we only play tennis. So we wrapped up our tennis game, and headed to the football field behind the tennis courts. It was nice. They were all the yard lines painted with some white stuff. They were night lights making the field very bright. We practiced throwing and punting the ball.

When I got home, I asked Little Kat if he could wrap up his homework in an hour and a half. He said no way. Then he informed me he had 4 homework assignments (instead of the four earlier). I had him complete them all. He was crying that his hands hurt from so much typing. Well he has tomorrow off from school. The 3 day weekend should allow him to recouperate.

(P.S. The image above is the cover of Little Kat's poem assignment. Good stuff.)

Stick in the Ground

Little Kat's alarm woke me up this morning. He must have set it for the wrong time. I ended up going to work early. This enabled me to come home early as well. I was the first one home.

When the leaves started falling from the trees, I was ambitious with collecting them and bagging them. Lately I have been a little slow in collecting the leaves. So today I decided to go out and pick up the leaves.

This is when I found something strange in the yard. There were sticks that were point straight up from the ground. It seemed unnatural. Was Little Kat or some of his friend's trying to plant a new tree? Or maybe, just maybe, the things fell down form the tree and plunged straight into the ground. It still seems unlikely.

Clogged Gutters

This weekend's rain has proven that our rain gutters are clogged. The water runs down the roof, and enters a gutter filled with leaves. The water is supposed to go down the gutter downspout. Instead it pours out the side of the gutter. That's the way you end up with a wet basement.

I climbed up and poked some holes into the downspout. That got some water going down the right way. But you know us cats. We hate to get our paws we. So I called up Tony. He runs a window cleaning service. But those cats are not afraid to climb up on the roof and clean out your gutters.

Tony and his crew are coming to the house Wednesday. Those cats aren't afraid of anything. They even clean out the dirt in your gutters with a hose they carry up to the roof. My hat is off to them. Any cat that can wield a hose and not be afraid has my respect.