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April 10th, 2006:

Ryan reviews music: James Blunt

Every couple of days Ryan posts a short music review. Today’s “review of a track from James Blunt’s newest album”:http://tinyurl.com/hmosy has me in stiches:

bq. “So Long Jimmy” is James Blunt’s equivalent to finding a blue plate meatloaf special at the bottom of the menu at your girlfriend’s favorite leftist vegetarian restaurant.

I’ve heard “Beautiful” many, many times in the past few months. I liked it the first 15 times. Now it’s getting a bit old and most of the crystal in the house has shattered. I’ve got to get my hands on “So Long Jimmy”. It’s time for some meatloaf.

spring comes so quickly


Three Weeks Ago

One Week Ago

In only two weeks time, the North Texas landscape has gone from dead, dry, and lifeless to alive, green, and vibrant. Three weeks ago, almost every blade of grass was brown, and every tree that wasn’t an evergreen was without leaf. Then, just last week I start seeing green grass everywhere, and bright leaves on almost every tree.

There are now wildflowers starting to bloom in the meadows, fields, and medians. The ants and bees are out in full force performing their respective duties. There are both red and green berries on my holly bushes.

Just yesterday I sat on my porch and watched a very vocal finch chase the female bird of his fancy about as she played hard to get before finally sitting down and allowing him to attempt to impregnate her at least 15 times all to the cheerful chirps of many a feathered spectator.

*Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s spring!*

Don’t blink or you’ll miss it.

a very landscaping weekend

Jess and I did yard work all weekend. The first time this year actually. Most of our grass is dead and dry and brown thanks to so little water recently, but I mowed what needed it, edged the sidewalks, and knocked down the weeds while she pulled the bigger weeds (one with a stalk over and inch thick!) and cleaned the bird poop off the patio railing.

Then Jess decided that edging stones would be a good way to fortify our flower beds against the repeated Bermuda Grass invasions while looking nice and fashionable at the same time. So we moved 80 stones, one at a time, weighing 14 pounds each, from a high shelf at Lowes on to a flatbed cart. Then we loaded those same 80 stones into the back of my truck. Then we unloaded those same 80 stones onto my front lawn. Then I proceeded to shovel hard clay, and pound a rubber mallet into these stones until they all managed to lay in a moderately straight and level line. It looks pretty good, I’d say. Let’s hope it keeps the grass at bay.

We also washed the windows, sweeped the patio, put out new bird feeders, cleaned up the old ones, killed a bunch of wasps, and planted some Basil, Hostas, Lilies, Dahlias, and Marigolds. We decided to plant by seed/bulb this year so we’ll see how that goes.

All told it was a very productive weekend. Of course, now that it’s all over, my nose is all stuffy and raw from blowing it, every muscle in my upper body aches, and I’ve got the coolest sunburn you’ve ever seen. I was wearing a t-shirt, jeans, and gloves and spent most of the day looking at the ground so the back of my neck is burnt as are my arms from mid-bicep to just above the wrist. Seeeeeeeeexy.

swimming weather

swimming weather
swimming weather
view @Flickr

Looking out over the frozen lake Ramsey in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. Two ducks can be seen swimming down the stream leading into the lake framed by this large tree. My Canadian friends insist that this is swimming weather.

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