getting things done: day 4

Today I started off with indoor to-do's because I had a lunch with a friend and I actually got four things accomplished on my list (which is now up to 21 items):
-- Made a hair appointment for next week
-- Made a doctor's appointment for my annual checkup... at the end of friggin' May (I need a new doctor; the availability the last few years is insane and the service hasn't been all that awesome to make up for it.)
-- Officially signed up for my LA Kings playoff ticket activation... and renewed my full season seats for next year. This means I really need the "sabbatical" to end before July when they start charging me. (Although if the Kings blow it in the playoffs -- no whammies, no jinxes -- then my lockout credit will cover me for a while.) And before people start chastising me for spending that crazy cash, please note two things:
1) There's a waiting list for Kings season tickets. And as a long-suffering season ticket holder, I'm not giving up my seats to some bandwagon fan who just discovered that hockey existed 10 months ago! However, I will let them buy 75% of my tickets off the fan ticket exchange site once I choose the 10-15 games I actually want to go to ;)
2) I'm doing the 10-installments payment plan, so after my lockout credit is gone, I will have manageable payments.

Then once I got home from lunch, I accomplished one more full item -- uncovering, cleaning and setting up the patio furniture and grill. Yay!




Then I went back to the bane of my existence, the back of the house by the shed.

I finally got done raking up the leaves, sprayed the walls (and the cracks in them) with massive amounts of bug spray, dropped bug killer pellets all over the ground and behind the shed, and sprayed the entire area with Round Up to kill the grassy weeds' roots. Tomorrow, I will lay the weed blocker and start the fun part -- putting down the stepping stones, decorative rocks and rubber mulch ground cover.

These two photos may look like ugly, empty patches of dirt to you. But they are three days of hard labor to me. There were anywhere from 1-5 inches of leaves + grassy weeds covering these two sides of the shed, not to mention the massive brick pile, most of which is now far away from these areas in the leafy danger zone.

The evil leaves filled up the black can and black bag to the left, and the green bin and 2/3 of the black bin on the right. My gardener is gonna be SOL tomorrow when it comes to disposing of my mowed grass... oh well. Just as long as he doesn't dump them in my recycling bin.

And now, because I made you look at dirt and trash cans so I can feel a sense of accomplishment, here's a pretty picture of my first blooming red rose of the season that opened up overnight. This isn't even from the soon-to-be 6+-feet-tall plant that grows the ginormous red roses, but this one is pretty close to ginormous. Happy to see my pruning and feeding three months ago is paying off :)