Weekend Stuff…

Chris and I started our weekend off right by going to see Mamma Mia at the San Diego Civic Theater. Mixed in with the excellent dialog, the cast sang ABBA songs. I, of course, SANG through the whole thing and bobbed my head to ‘Dancing Queen’, ‘S.O.S’, and ‘Mamma Mia’.

I looked at Chris halfway through and asked him why he wasn’t more into the music. He pulled his fingers out of his ears (I didn’t think I sang THAT bad – but of course, I wasn’t exactly hitting the high notes on the ‘Dancing queen, feel the beat from the tambourine oh yeeeaaah. You can dance, you can jiiiiive, having the time of your life’ part) and told me he didn’t know the music.

Didn’t know ABBA?!?!

How the …?!?! What the …?!?! GRR!!

He was robbed.

I’m ordering the CD off Amazon.com today.

In all actuality, he liked it the show. But how could you not? ABBA?!? Hello?!?!



Saturday we had everyone over to the house for a mini-BBQ. The food was fabulous and the four or so bottles of wine were great too. I was ‘researching’ for my wine class mom. ‘Reeeeesearching’.


Sunday we hit up a fabulous Irish pub called ‘The Field’ before the Padre game. I’m not sure what ‘boxty’ is but it was yummy! The service was so so but the food was amazingly good. I miss Ireland.
The Padres lost to the Dodgers but we were sitting in the air-conditioned comfort of the Western Metal Building with amazing seats near third base so I didn’t care.


Monday we worked on the house all day. Had my mom told me to work out in the yard in that kind of heat while I was still at home, I would have threatened to call the Child Abuse Hotline but somehow, when it’s your own place, it’s not so bad. OK. It was awful. It was stinkin’ hot. It was flaming hot and I thought I was going to die! But the yard is looking better. We planted two more Queen Palms (so very California I know) and three more bougainvilleas – the only two plant types I haven’t killed…yet.

Oh come on! They don’t call me a whiner for nothing!!

When Chris and I first started our search for a home we were VERY concerned about the size of the yard. We even turned down a brand new home because the yard was tiny – well that and it was in El Cajon. I have standards.

Stop it with the Santee/Santucky/Clantee jokes before you start.

If you’ve seen our house, you know we have a fairly good sized backyard. A fairly good sized yard that looks more like a compost pile than a landscape architect’s dream.

As I worked for hours outside this weekend I wondered over and over…



WHY IN HEAVEN’S NAME DID I WANT A BIG BACKYARD?!?!?!?!



I ruined a pair of jeans, tore a tank top, and got sweat in my eyes!

Let’s not even talk about my sunburn with a cute little armband of white left by my Ipod holder.



Don’t worry, there are some redeeming qualities.

1.) Weight loss.
2.) Great natural hair highlights.

But I was just trying to be Eco-Friendly!!

In an effort to ‘do my part for the environment’ and ‘stop the melting of the polar ice caps’, I decided to grow only native plants in our yard…

… Well, that or our home improvement fund went bust and we can’t afford plants until August.

It just so happens that the only plants ‘native’ to our yard are… weeds.

That news worries me because I struggle to keep them alive. Who can’t grow weeds?!?!

*I meekly raise my hand in surrender*

Maybe I can bring back the popularity of rock gardens.




As I trounced to my car this morning, I was slapped in the belly by a baby tree (the only thing LIVING in our yard) that – I swear – grew 3 feet in less than a week and is taking over our sidewalk. Had I pulled the darn thing when I first saw it wouldn’t have been a big deal but now I need a shovel and it just so happens… I don’t own one.

Now I hear ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ by Guns N’ Roses blaring in my head every time I leave or come home.

I guess I realized our yard problem when we first bought the house but obviously the problem has grown (or not - ha ha!) over the last month as we have received several business cards for landscapers stuffed in our door. Either a.) Our neighbors are trying to give us a not so subtle hint or b.) News of our yard is circulating in the landscaper underground network as a potential cash cow and everyone wants a piece.

Probably both.


Come over sometime. Listen to Axl Rose with me!