Back yard, etc.

Adrian has owned/lived in this house since it was built in 2001, and I since we were engaged. It has only been since last weekend that the back yard is finally completed.

Two summers ago, we had the trees planted, grass laid down, planters built, etc. Last year, I was very pregnant and then had a newborn, so did not lift a trowel or pull a weed all summer (and neither did Adrian). So, with the help of three teenagers, we made the final push and laid down weedmat in the flower beds, prepared the vegetable garden, planted shrubs and flowers, mowed/edged the grass, shoveled in 4 cubic yards of mulch, and pulled enough weeds and collected enough yard debris to fill up a dumpster. Needless to say, we were all exhausted.

In addition to the better-than-minimum wage the teens earned, they also ate the equivalent of two full meals in the space of six hours, plus pop, plus tea, plus bottled water, plus a few bags of chips. And, on the way home, Adrian bought them all ice cream. If they had stayed any longer, we might have had to BBQ the dog.

I'm growing lettuce, tomatoes, two kinds of peppers, squash and garlic in the garden.

Max still thinks grass is alive and dangerous. So if I sit him on a blanket in the middle of the lawn with some toys, he is essentially marooned. He will NOT move past the edge of the blanket....so that way I can get some planting/weeding done nearby and know he is more or less in one spot. Unfortunately, some day soon he will figure out that the emperor has no clothes, and then I'll have to get the play pen out. I hate the play pen (baby jail), but I admit it is the only way to keep them safe and get anything done that requires two hands.

In Grandma Mary's kitchen, with Cheerios.

Pearl St. Mall, springtime, with mommy.

Motivation

I've been teaching Max to use a straw for a couple of weeks now. He has mastered the sippy and regular cup (with help), but the straw has so far just been something to chew and play with. Last night, the family went on an evening car ride to Sonic for a treat. Adrian got a fruit slushy (Sprite, crushed ice and fruit) and gave Max a taste by sucking a bit into his straw, then taking it out of the cup and releasing the liquid into Max's mouth. It was the most wonderful thing he had ever tasted. As if the skies parted and a choir began singing Hallelujah!, Max grabbed the cup and began sucking on that straw as if his life depended on it. He drank until he had to come up for air. It was the funniest thing I've ever seen. Good part: Max knows how to use a straw. Bad part: Max has a powerful desire for fruit slushy.

Laws of gravity

This morning at 7 a.m., Max was up and Adrian put him in bed with me while he got ready for work. As usual, Max was ready for action and I was still trying to open my eyes. As he crawled around on the bed, I had hold of his ankle so as to keep him from launching off and onto the floor. Let's just say my grip wasn't strong enough...

Coming soon?

Our "coming soon" sign is finally up on the outside of our building and the contractor is busily hammering. I'm told we're to open sometime in June. You are all invited to our grand opening party, etc. Adrian and our partners Steve and Barb have been working night and day (literally) on finalizing our SBA loan, tinkering with the building contract, keeping our budget in line, etc. Our other partner, Deniece, is interviewing potential employees, which has been interesting...last week she talked to someone claiming to be a "dog whisperer." And, I'm focused on the grassroots marketing -- visiting local vets and groomers -- and working with the CBW marketing people on our soft- through grand opening media/pr. Next week I'll start approaching travel agents (we have a cross promotion program for them). It has been a long road, but it seems as though the end is in sight.

"Denny Crane"...er...I mean "Adrian Herrera"

Here's Adrian's latest quotable quotation..."Work is always a s*&t sandwich. When you go to another job, you're just trading one flavor for another...except hopefully with a little mayo."

Other eye-rollers include (as he looks in the mirror), "Daaaaaamn, I get better looking everyday." And (when he's off to the gym), "Time to improve on perfection."

Um, yeah. Folks, this is the world I inhabit. Send sympathy cards to: Leah Herrera, 1716A No. Main St. PMB 291, Longmont, CO 80501.

You had to be there

So, tomorrow my best friend Stephanie (we've known each other since we were 18, were sorority sistas and then roommates) are meeting some old college friends for brunch. These gatherings inevitably call to my mind myriad happenings from those wonderful days, which are now over a decade old. Most of them make me laugh uncontrollably, while others make me sigh with regret (not very many, thank God) or blush with embarrassment (there are lots of those).

In the midst of these memories, my husband usually asks me why I have such a strange smile on my lips...like I know a really good secret. I just shrug. Honestly, if I tried explaining what's so amusing, no one would get it anyway. As with many things in life, you just had to be there to see it for yourself.

For example, that old country song -- I think it's called Blue Bayou? -- came on the radio the other day. It was a song we played over and over again, singing at the top of our lungs, while driving around Greeley at all hours doing "drive bys." This is when you drive by a guy's house, apartment or workplace to see a) if they're there, b) who might be there with them and, c) if we can see in their windows to see what they're doing. I think the authorities call this stalking now.

Then there was the time Steph and I showed up at a house party and didn't know a soul...go inside to find the place packed like sardines, a wierd garage band playing in the tiny basement, and everyone passing around what we thought were cigars but turned out to be really enormous joints. We did not inhale. That's the same night there were two grown men, dressed as elves and wearing red/white striped Pippy Longstocking socks, taking turns pushing each other in a grocery cart around our apartment parking lot in the middle of the night. This is the same apartment where our roommate would hide her toilet paper (including the one currently being used) when she left because she didn't want us to use her bathroom when she was gone. She hid her telephone too.

Our friend Julie had this sketchy boyfriend for a while. He would get up at 3 a.m. every day to "go to work." He told her he was a stock broker and had to be at work so early because his clients were all from Asia and that's when their trading market opened. She was really impressed, until she found out he had a newspaper route. He also went to class and did homework...she found out later he was had been kicked out of the university months before and just kept going to class to hang out with his friends and pick up girls.

And I haven't even gotten to the funny stuff yet.

I could go on and on. It's all good, all worthy of the strange smile I have on my lips right now, and probably only hilarious if you were there and lived it. TTFN.