So Close, but no shower

I have given up on trying to catch up. The only thing to do is to forge ahead. Maybe some of the in-between stuff will make an appearance when it's appropriate. Maybe not.

At least I have an excuse from a doctor (see below).

I got all excited today -- the people who were making a new custom shower door for our new bathroom shower called to say that they finally had the piece that they had to special order and could they please come over right now and install the shower door. Who could say no to an offer like that? Not me!

However, three hours later, the installers came down to tell me that they were still missing a piece and that they would come back on Friday. So here's the almost-shower:

The door that is supposed to go in that big open space is resting against the opposite wall. I cannot tell you how tired I am of taking showers downstairs. Though I do have to admit that the downstairs tub shower is much nicer now than it was before we started this project.

This bathroom project, the one that was going to be finished in two weeks, is now about to enter its third month.

So... in my last post, a little over 2 weeks ago, I mentioned that I fell while working in the front yard with Sports Nut. I fell on a Tuesday and by Saturday night, I was trolling the internet because I had a strange (and painful) feeling that I had broken a rib when I fell. Sure enough, on Monday when I finally got x-rayed, I had broken not one, but TWO ribs. Oh, joy. At least it gives me an excuse to continue making the young men in the household do most of the grunt work.

Here's where I fell:

I'm including that picture because when I say that I fell and broke my ribs while pulling weeds, people are skeptical, at best. I started out at the top of the driveway, lost my balance, and ended up halfway down the driveway between the proverbial rock (the retaining wall) and a hard place (my car). All in a day's work, I suppose.

Unfortunately, Sports Nut and I have not gotten back to the project that preceded the fall, namely making a path across the part of the front yard that everybody walks on anyway. It's sort of one-third to one-half of the way done.

And yes, all of this is in aid of leaving Dodge. The front yard is such a disaster that we figured anything we could do would be an improvement.

The bathroom off of Media Guy's bedroom is finished to the point that we actually started painting it today. Future Vet and Sports Nut worked really hard -- they scraped and painted the ceiling, filled in some holes, and have painted 3 of the 4 walls. Since the fourth wall holds the vanity and toilet, they wisely put that off until the morning. Still, progress is being made.

The color doesn't show up too well, but the woodwork in this bathroom is currently purple. In the other downstairs bathroom, the woodwork is pink. I suspect the previous owners had daughters rather than sons. We're going with more neutral colors. The paint in this bathroom is a very pale gray, with dark gray wooodwork (which actually matches the woodwork in the adjoining bedroom). The other downstairs bathroom will be mostly green, which is handy since we put pale green tile around the tub.

And now ... since it is the first of July, here's a garden update. From our smaller vegetable plot, we are already picking tomatoes and basil. There are some green beans coming in and the romaine lettuce looks yummy. The cucumbers are vining and flowering, but we haven't seen any fruit yet.

In the large vegetable plot, the corn is not quite as high as an elephant's eye, but it's higher than any of the dog's eyes. As long as the dogs are standing with all four feet on the ground, that is. We have already picked and eaten zucchini and yellow squash. And as of yesterday morning, we have one cantelope ripening on the vine, with more to come.

We put in a few more perennials, another attempt to make the yard look less barren. They seem to be settling in nicely.

The flowers in the back yard, however, have suffered. The dogs figured out how to circumvent the fence and have had fun digging at and laying on the flowers. Poor flowers.

And the fruit hasn't done as well as we had hoped. Two of the blueberry bushes gave up the ghost, so we put in a couple more. Only one is looking healthy right now. Blueberries may not be a good match for the climate in Dodge. The cauliflower that Sports Nut wanted to plant is very leafy, but we haven't seen any heads yet. And the strawberry plants look lovely, but we haven't managed to pick any berries yet. We aren't sure what's getting to them before we do. We have a friend who says it may be cockroaches. Having seen the size of the cockroaches around here, she may be right.

We, however, have a different suspect in mind:

Seen here innocently chewing on some of the grass and other greenery that is growing wild in the yard, we know for a fact that this bunny can scuttle under low fences and outrun three determined dogs.

It should be obvious to those who actually read this blog, but I thought I would mention that Future Vet is back from the distant country in which he spent the last year. The Wizard and I picked him up at an airport about a month ago. He was a mere shadow of his former self:

On the way back from the airport, we had to stop and buy him some clothes so that his jeans wouldn't fall off and embarrass the whole family.

And that's all for tonight!