Lopsided Bush

Spring is here and so are the weeds.  Our yard is more of the English garden style - a bit more wild and free.  However, it is getting a little too wild - the largest bush in the yard had a lot of dead space in the middle and was starting to grow heavy on the outside and take over the porch.  The edge between the grass and the flower beds had all but disappeared, so little by little I'm starting to work on it between rain storms.  There is still a lot of work to do, but I pruned down the bush with a saw and took a shovel to the edge of the lawn while pulling some of the weeds along the way.  The only saw I had was a hack saw.  It took forever.  Buy a wood saw.

Interior Re-design and Bug Bombs

Interior design is fun, but it can also get expensive.  A common alternative to interior design is called interior redesign where one takes the existing furniture they have to create a new space.  Yesterday I decided something needed to be done with our basement since we recently got rid of the couch there.  I figured with the extra space it would be a good opportunity to move the treadmill over from the other side of the stairs and create a workout space.  This is interior redesign in its most basic form.  I tried out the new space and it works great so far.

Another issue in this space was the spider crickets.  I'm not posting a picture because, hello, no.  We found a bug bomb to be the most effective solution.  We lit it in the morning on a bucket and let it do its thing while we were all at work.  We rewashed all the towels stored in the area to be on the safe side then vacuumed up the still-twitching bugs that had crawled out onto the floor.  Over the next several months, we continued to pick up dead bugs which meant the pesticide was still working.  Yay for poison.

Corroded Battery Terminal

Cars break down, it's what they do.  My dad has had to remind me of that whenever things go wrong with my not-so-new 2001 Corolla.  Typically, I wouldn't consider changing a dead battery an issue, but it becomes one when the terminal breaks after years of use and corrosion.  It becomes an even bigger issue when the bolt connecting the broken terminal to the cable won't come loose, your car is parked half-way in the garage at night during a rain storm, and you have a dinner appointment with a friend in two hours.  After conferring with my friend Josh in AZ over text, using a lot of WD40, praying, and finally figuring out how to position two wrenches to apply enough pressure to loosen the bolt, I was finally able to replace the terminal 1 1/2 hours later.  The bottom right picture shows all that was left of the old terminal after the saga.  My arm was sore the next day, but my car starts now!