Guilty Pleasure

One of my guilty pleasures on TV is Ghost Hunters, which returns tonight with all-new episodes. In honor of the beginning of their new season, I'd like to dedicate this post to TAPS member Steve, who is notoriously afraid of spiders.

Three Day Project

I picked this kit up at HL on a recent field trip with HistoryDiva. I wanted to have it done and in the mail in time to make it to California for Grandparents' Day on September 7.

DAY 1

DAY 2

DAY 3

I can finish small cross stitch projects if I put my mind (and my fingers) to it!

George's Grand Exit

George was spotted leaving the men's restroom yesterday afternoon. I decided that we really needed to try to get the little guy back outside where he belongs, but as soon as I approached, he scurried back into the bathroom. I literally cornered him hiding with the plunger, toilet brush, and bathroom cleaner.

As I removed each item from the corner, he crawled under the plunger in his hasty attempt at retreat. I simply ran with his idea...

I knew our paper applications would come in handy someday! Now George is back outside, enjoying the afternoon sun on the deck as any good skink should. Doesn't he look happy?

Look Who's Back!

Our friendly trailer skink was out and about this afternoon. The student intern noticed him creeping across the conference room (aka our office). I got out the camera, kicked off my shoes, and went chasing after him to get another picture for the blog. I have named him George, just like all of Aunt CSI's classroom critters.

About 20 minutes later, the intern noticed George near the outside door. We were going to chase him outside, but he decided that he liked it under the intern's desk better. Not too much later, he ventured out again. I tried to corral him towards the door, but he went in the oposite direction and is now in one of the counselor's offices. We don't mind having a critter in our office trailer too much... he's better than the ant traps in the kitchenette.

Intruder Alert!

This little guy startled me in the ladies' room at work this afternoon. And now he is under the student intern's desk... lucky her!

Me vs. Nature

When I first bought my house, I had already targeted a few "psycho attack bushes" for removal (see pink X's above). The bush in the turquoise box was moved into the front planter area where it has much more room to grow. I wasn't sure whether or not it would survive the transplant because of all of the roots I had to cut, but it seems to be doing fine now. Compared to the giant bush next to the garage that was causing drainage issues, all of those landscape modifications were a piece of cake.

The project began by pruning the bush until the stems were too thick for my pruners. It took my a couple of months to get back to the project, hence the new leaf growth. Step two involved clearing away the mountains of pine straw and removing the roots that had grown up onto the driveway (causing some of the drainage issues).

Another month or so passed before I returned to the partially exposed bush. I thought a large planter would work well to hold the dirt from the hole... judging by the pile below, the dirt that filled the new planter was but a drop in the bucket.

Despite the giant pile of dirt and the fact that at least half of the root ball was exposed, the bush didn't want to budge. It was getting windy and dark, so I decided that this round went to the bush.

Two days later I started off fresh with the impossible-to-uproot bush and my giant mound of dirt that was spilling over onto the driveway.

After much digging though wet clay with a small shovel and my gloved hands, I found the root of the problem (pardon the pun). There was a root almost as thick as my wrist that went straight under my driveway.

I got the giant clippers around the root, closed my eyes, and prayed that they would be able to sever the bush from its last lifeline.

Nature finally gave in without much of a fight, and the bush was dragged to the back of the house where it was unceremoniously dumped in the thicket of weeds and thorns that compromise most of my sloped backyard.

Now I have a nice parking pad for my dumpster and hopefully no more garage drainage issues. Yippee!

Beijing Olympics

Congratulations to Michael Phelps for winning the record-breaking eighth gold medal in a single Olympic games this past weekend!