Home Improvement

Ugh, I was not a fan of that show. But go ahead and grunt if you want; it's cool. Those kid actors, especially the middle one, were totally going to be the next big thing, right? Sure. The only career I've seen for anyone beyond that show (save some terrible Santa Clause movies), is "I don't think so, Tim" on the Family Feud. Now there's a good show! We're playing the feud! I was always kind of a Ray Combs guy for the host. Or just the cartoon version.

Oh, and speaking of TV shows. LOST. WTF? So it's over and I guess good riddance now. As suspected -- wrote its way into a corner and very awkwardly escaped through the floorboards (and out the lighted toilet tunnel). Weak. Here's what I said to our viewing party by email:

Thanks for viewing with me last night. As I ate lunch I began to
search for those who best summed up how I felt about "The End." I
think these two are pretty good. Basically the island was the main
part all along and that was the adventure we watched for. But we got
the TV movie version of "The Five People You Meet in Heaven."
That's fine too I guess, and a perfectly fun plot device to mirror the action
this whole season as it did, but it came at the expense of being able
to wrap up why the first 5 seasons on the island (you know, in REAL
life) even mattered. As those bloggers note -- you could have had 5
seasons of disparate people struggling at work or an Outward Bound
trip instead of a mystical island. If you're going to pick mystical
island, then you better tie up its loose ends since it was (debatable)
the most important character in the show.

But, whatever. I didn't come here to talk about LOST. What happened, happened. Unfortunately. We here at the ranch actually have been busy of late with some home improvement. Gracie said her digs just weren't cutting it. So we've begun some projects outside just when it gets really unholy hot in Austin. Brilliant. First, an update to our backyard centerpiece. It can go by two names -- the Ollie Garden (like Olive Garden -- it's funny!), or the High Life Garden (for it's shape, as you'll see below). We started it last year after we lost "Ollie" (our embryo, pre-known-gender nickname; Gracie, as you may remember, was dubbed "Iggy" until the ultrasound showed us otherwise). Anway, just after completion last March:

You see the High Life resemblance now!

And now after some growth and the usual scorched grass :(


We've also gotten closer to a new driveway. You may recall we had them pour concrete under the carport to give us a solid surface to park the cars and keep dirt/gravel/etc. from tracking into our cars like it has been doing unfettered for 4 years. We bought what we thought was enough river rock gravel to lay down over the crappy gravel that had eroded for the rest of the driveway. Upon laying it and breaking our backs last weekend, we found we came up well short. So another big delivery truck of gravel should finish the job in a couple weeks when the temps hit triple digits! Before:

And not so much "after" but "during" I guess:


Meanwhile, Gracie's just hanging out inside in her ez-chair. As soon as she can figure out those opposable thumbs, she's grabbing a shovel.


Happy Memorial Day weekends to all! Austin was #18 this year for Memorial Day destinations across the U.S. Bam!