Disclosure: I am participating in the Verizon Health and Fitness Voices program and have been provided with the Motorola Razr HD and six months of service in exchange for my honest review and opinions about the product.
First, thank you so much for your kind words about my grandma and new job direction. Admittedly, I have never been good at expressing myself, nor have I ever really been a blogger who pours her heart out. Maybe it’s a side effect of years of technical writing, or just growing up in the Midwest, where it’s ingrained from birth that life is all about enduring and keeping your head down. Anyhow, for as much as I snark on bloggers for unnecessary overshare and being melodramatic, it is definitely not easy to put yourself out there, and I am glad that I did.
I enjoyed my first normal weekend in what I feel like has been a long time — meaning that I didn’t work on one or both days. Our big goal for the weekend was to get the porches and deck cleaned, prepped and sealed. This has been the mildest summer I think we’ve seen in a long time, so we gave the deck plenty of time to settle and then some because several of the weekends we had hoped to seal ended up being rainy, super humid or both.
Because the cleaning process involved bleach and a lot of scrubbing, we opted to leave our camera inside — so enjoy this shot of my breakfast instead:
After cleaning the deck and working a bit around the yard, I got a little ahead of myself and purchased this:
Our old mailbox fell and broke during deck construction, and since it’s in a covered, well protected spot, I thought something prettier was justified. What do you think? A bit of a tangent: I’m still completely up in the air over what colors to paint the doors and garage. I want something brighter, but I don’t want the garage to be too bright since the drain backs up sometimes when it rains. I know, old house problems. Can the garage and doors be two different colors? Oh I am so indecisive!
I also started packing up my home office to return to work. Yes, I am that dorky.
I also couldn’t resist some new paper goods. I have so many notebooks, but I couldn’t help myself. Martha Stewart’s line at Staples is impossible to resist.
Saturday evening was the first practice for the kickball team me and a few of the girls from CrossFit Fringe decided to join. I’ve been chomping at the bit for the chance to avenge my awkward childhood of never getting picked for anything, faking injuries to get out of gym class, and ducking and hiding from any kind of active game play. The bad news is that I’m still really awkward, but I’m faster with self-deprecating humor, so maybe that will save me. Otherwise I’ll just buy everyone beer.
I even get a t-shirt to play in, so official!
Afterward, Neil started the painful (for him) process of teaching me DOTA. With The International ending last weekend, and all the live streams he’s constantly watching (especially now that we have the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 around to play with — thanks Verizon!), I decided that it was time I gave it a try. It’s got quite a bit of learning curve, but I’m getting the hang of it. We also tried out the new Final Fantasy MMO that is in its last week of beta. It’s too early to tell, but I think it’s going to be fun!
Sunday morning I headed over to CrossFit Fringe early to take pictures of the Attitude Nation Seminar with Jon North. I was bummed about not getting to participate (need to save some $$), but excited to cover it for the gym and be there to help out. It was so awesome it necessitates its own post, so for now, here are a few pics…
The remainder of Sunday was spent sealing the deck. Because we were eager to get started, we didn’t take any immediate “before” or equipment shots. It’s fairly straight forward, so I’ll just say that we opted to use Sikkens Translucent Cetol SRD Exterior Wood Finish in the color “natural.” It went on absolutely beautifully. I can’t say enough how beautiful it looks. Take a look!
It feels so good to have this project checked off the list. It’s so much more vibrant now — so much so that we definitely need to get on painting the doors and garage so that it doesn’t seem so overpowering. In any sense, this weekend was amazing, it feels good to have them back!
Disclosure: I am participating in the Verizon Health and Fitness Voices program and have been provided with the Motorola Razr HD and six months of service in exchange for my honest review and opinions about the product.
