Jean's Update

Wow.  It's already the end of April.  Hubby's counting down the days until the trip.  He's commandeered all my stuff to pack it.  At first, I was offended.  I wanted to pack my own stuff.  Then, I let it go.  He seems to be enjoying the process.  He's like a little kid waiting for Christmas for this trip, and I think it's cute.  He's pulling train videos off the web.  He's searching for rider accounts.  This week, he's tracking arrival times and checking weather.  He has assembled a trip book with all the information on the trip at his fingertips. 

No rain here.  I don't think we'll be seeing it for some time.  Everything is green now, and I'm watering, but it's not likely to last.  I don't think we've had enough April Showers to bring on those May Flowers.

In kind of exciting news, I have a niece (sister's daughter, 10), who will be competing in the global competition for Destination ImagiNation in Knoxville, TN, at the end of May -- her group won for the State of Wisconsin, and I have a nephew (younger brother's son, 17) who will be going to nationals for the Quiz Bowl competition at the end of May in Atlanta.  That one kid in the family earns the right to compete nationally is mind-blowing, but two?  Phenomenal.  And both are academic-type competitions.

As an aside, I don't dislike this new Blogger layout so much as it's mildly annoying.

The Good Stuff:

- Ummmmm. Yeah.  All the yards are mowed.  I got the store property half mowed yesterday, and when I went back to finish it this morning, our neighbor had mowed his yard and finished ours for us.  This is why I don't much mind him driving across our property to get to his wood lot on the other side of ours -- once in a while, he mows for us.  (The guy's wife's grandfather's estate cut our property out of the middle and sold it to us -- he and his wife own the property on either side of us.)
- Yes, hubby got the riding lawn mower fixed in time for me to mow the front yard with it (yay).  It has a sticking choke problem.
- Scraping is going well on the west wall.  We'll be ready to begin sanding soon.  Hubby wants to get a coat of primer on before we leave on the trip.
- Weight came in down a couple of pounds this week, but I'm not pleased with my behavior regarding those efforts
- Mr Fig is doing well, and I may have a line on a Ms Peach tree to keep him company. 
- We attended a presentation at the county museum about a local sub-community by the guy who owned our shop building three people before us (when it was the Oldsmobile dealer).  We talked to him afterward, and I was tickled to hear him say he wanted the building to bring in a Sears and Roebuck store for his wife and daughters to run.  (Think about that, and if you don't have a clue why that might be enticing, I'll try to explain in comments.)
- I got about half the stick pile shredded (well....maybe more like a third of it?)
- Nearly finished with the A-Z Challenge.  It's been kind of fun.

The Not So Good Stuff:

- I guess I'm not sick anymore, but I am nowhere near 100%.  I feel weak, I still have a nagging cough, and my skin still itches here and there.
- No time on the recumbent bike or the Wii, but lots of time huffing around the yard, so I guess it's a wash.  I'm not going to lose too much sleep over it, but the bike and the Wii address cardio and flexibility, which yard work doesn't do quite as well.
- I did not work on PBOTL or MAY DAYS this week.  I'm planning to break it out and work on it, but I haven't yet today, so it doesn't count for this week.  Hubby has lanterns piled on top of PBOTL in preparation for working on his newsletter, so I'm hoping they disappear soon to give me room to wok on it again.
- My right knee is giving me problems.  Still.  Feels like a lateral ligament or maybe just the lateral meniscus.  This symptom was more last week than this, but I couldn't lift my foot to take a step forward to walk.  Very strange feeling when the leg won't work in that way.

The Week Ahead:

- Dentist on Wednesday
- I need to spend some time working on the inside of the house.  Mostly little things, but those are the things that make a big difference when they get knocked out and done.
- I'm not sure what I'll get done on PBOTL this week, but I should be able to get some more plotting done for MAY DAYS.  Looking forward to writing some words for it on the trip.