Keith and Lacey

Since it’s August and we like to complain about how hot it is, I think we should remember once again our previous winter.

We shoveled snow.

We wrote in the snow.

We shoveled snow.

And we shoveled snow!

We had a pretty big snow year in 2007/2008 so I kept telling Lacey last year that there was no way we would have another big snowfall.  I was wrong – we had way more!  So there’s no way we will have another big snowfall this year.. Right?

For all the winter photos, go here.

Remember winter in Spokane?  Lacey’s family arrived from the warm bowels of Texas and three days later it snowed four feet.  BAM!

The big Ford from Washington became our primary, I mean only, mode of transportation.  Fun!

The lil’ Ford from Texas became our primary snow depth gauge. Useful!

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to go skiing because I was on-call for work that week but we did go climbing.  Substitute!

And we went ice skating in 2-degree weather.  Cold!

And of course, built snowmen.  Ok, tried building snowmen in very dry pow-pow.  Longhorns muffler!

Of course I have to end with a picture of my beautiful wife  Ta-Da!

For all the winter photos, go here.

Less than a week before the wedding, I had our driveway excavated and filled with base rock.

There were two shortcomings in the driveway screaming to be fixed.  First, the part next to the street had a big upside down speed bump.  Second, the cyclone fence blocked about half of the driveway, making it real annoying to drive in to.  But now it’s all fixed and looking great!

More photos are here.

My decision to plant a garden went something like this…

“Hmm, there’s an established place in my backyard for a garden.”

That was pretty much it.  I didn’t really like my family’s garden as a kid and I don’t really like weeding, watering, or picking, so obviously it made sense to plant a garden.

In any case, I killed the overgrown weeds with Roundup, shoveled and hoed the dirt around and over itself, and then procrastinated.  Luckily, my awesome mom came to the rescue and planted a garden for me.  Carrots, lettuce, spinach, beets (for herself, beets are sick), bell pepper plants, and tomato plants.  The raspberry bush was already there.  Unfortunately, I didn’t pick the raspberries before they all shriveled up and died so the bush retaliated and stopped producing.  Reminds me, I need to call that girl back before too long.

Pearls of wisdom from Mom and I:

• My fresh cherry tomatos are the best ever.
• Don’t plant your tomato plants too close to each other, they grow.
• Don’t plant your bell pepper plants too close to the tomato plants, they’ll be covered.  One of mine died and we moved the other one to save the one pepper it grew.
• Tomato plants smell awesome.
• Thin your carrots like it says to on the seed packet so that they have room to grow.  I don’t know how many of mine will even be large enough to be called matter.
• I don’t know what happened to the spinach, it got tall and seedy and not leafy and then died.
• If you till your soil, plant a garden, water it, weed it, prune it, and pick it, you get to eat fresh organic food you raised yourself!  It’s really very cool and not too hard because you force your mom to do the work.

It annoys me that Derek and Sara always have their cute little suburban yard perfectly groomed so I spent 3 days completely weeding my overgrown garden for these final photos.  Take that!  Ninja style!  Hyaw!

As per Brian’s request, here’s proof that you can own a house without tearing up carpet, grouting tile, and spending all the equity you are supposed to be making.

Ye cain’t survive long in this ol’ world without bein’ a wee bit piratey these days.

Last winter, long before I decided I needed a truck, Mighty Marsh convinced me that I should buy a house.  Good advice toolbag, now I have to act all old and responsible and do things like mow the lawn and wack the weeds and make homeowner decisions, aka suck.  Good thing I have a rad mom to help me take care of a few things since I don’t have an adoring “I’d do anything for you lovey dovey wovey” wife *batting eyes*.  Puke.  It’s also a good thing I’m awesome.

My house has a front door and some windows and a little black annoying mailbox that once a day I consider taking a 2×4 and a blow torch to.  It’s annoying because it’s narrow and deep with a lid that rapes my hand every time I stick it in.

I pressure washed the entire house with one of those cheapsauce $100 washers from Lowe’s.  I borrowed it from Jeff.  I don’t buy cheapsauce.  But I’ll borrow cheapsauce, which makes it freesauce.  I get it for free, that’s how I roll, yeah you know what I’m sayin.

If the point of a house is to sleep in it, I’ve succeeded.  If the point of a house is to spend lots of money, I’ve succeeded.  If the point of a house is to keep you from doing things you love, I’ve succeeded.  But not anymore, I’m making a comeback!  I have slept outside and started climbing again.  But I’m still spending money like your mom at the grocery store.  House: 3, Keith: 2.

All the Home photos here.