House update Jr.

Much progress today, which would not have been possible without assistance from my cousin and her electric sander. Luddite that I am, I still prefer removing the old paint by hand using brute force, a putty knife, a paint scraper, sandpaper, and even more brute force. But for areas where you're just looking to smooth things out and remove just a little material, the electic sander works fine. And primer goes on much faster when two people are doing it from two sides of the porch. About two-thirds of the porch floor is now primed, as are both the top and bottom toeboards on the steps. Priming and painting the remaining third, which includes the area in front of the doorways, will require careful timing since the porch paint requires 24 hours to fully dry.

After we got done with the Sabbath's labors we retired to my cousin's house for pizza - but before then, as yesterday, I was greeted with an irresistable call from my lawn. This time I used my fully-charged weedwhacker on the brick walkway behind the house, which has become so overgrown with grass that it appears to be simply part of the lawn. Now I am convinced that some of those ancient bricks are seeing daylight for the first time in over a decade. I also whacked any other weeds that looked like they needed whacking, and then withdrew to a position of pizza.

My day's labors were not yet over. After giving a friend a ride home post-pizza, I realized that I needed to pick up some things at the grocery store. So there I was, in my paint-covered, tank-topped, jean-shorted glory, buying milk and peaches and a Sunday paper and ice cream and diet soda and a peach cake (BOOM: Sunday paper. There's a whole blog entry there. Later.) and Dulce de Leche Oreos (limited edition) and water and pre-cooked bacon and turkey bacon, too.

Now I'm back. Just need to put out food for the strays, take a shower, and head to bed. I'm looking forward to a nice, relaxing week at work.

In six days: road trip to the planetarium in Harrisburg!