What a diffrence a few days make

Good afternoon.
Well, it's turned out to be a pretty good week in the Salon. The phones been steady, and I'm also booked for tomorrow. Here's a pic I took when I got home today....

The snow hasn't melted as fast as I had hoped, but it is slowly going. It feels so good not being bitter cold.  :-)
And we received a letter in the mail from the ARC (Architectural Review Committee) approving our new security storm door for our Las Vegas Home. Next weekend, We will need to call and get it ordered and set up installation for when we are there next.
And I'm not having any luck on my Kia recall. After them not having the part in stock when I went out 2 weeks ago, I waited patently for them to call when it was in. When I didn't hear from them, I called and found it was in and they were holding it for me. I set up an appointment for them to come get my car from work, do the repair, and bring it back. That was Thursday. They never shower up. I thought maybe I had it wrong and it was Friday. Today, they never showed up. Sooo, I get to call again next week and see what the hell the problem is.  :-/
Well, time to go as Craig is fixing turkey cheddar sausages, and I don't want to be late.   :-)

a short post

Good morning.
It's a cold dreary Friday. 32 out this morning, and dark. The days are getting rapidly shorter. I now go to work in the dark, and go home in the dark on my 2 long days. It's looking to be only about 50 for the next several days and a chance of rain, so not sure what I'll do this weekend. We'll see.
It has been a busy week at the Salon. And other than that, not much to say.
Have a good weekend!

post #1174

Good morning.
Yesterday was mostly a wash-out. Drizzly rain, off and on all day.
Sooo, I spent a good part of it cleaning out the garage. That seems to be the accumulating point for everything. But I got it cleaned and straightened, and a car full of stuff I'm dropping off at Goodwill. Now Craig has room to park the Kia when the snow starts flying.
Craig did pick up his new glasses. And of course, balked at letting me take his pick for the blog. :-)
Today, I'm calling our electrical guy to replace a couple of sodium lights on the outside of the Salon. I think the sensors have fogged over too bad and the lights stay on most of the time., except one that keeps going on and off. I've tried cleaning them, but they're just too bad. And I know, "isn't that the landlord's job?" But anyone who's rented commercial space knows it's like pulling teeth to get any money out of them. And by the time they did get around to it, it would be spring, and the days are rapidly getting shorter, and the girls need dependable lighting at night.
Sooo, with that, its time to get ready for another work week. Looking pretty decent so far.

this and that

Good morning.
It's been a wet, cold, windy week. Everyday. But the weekend looks dryer.
Work has been steady this week, but not without issues.
I got to work Wednesday morning, and was straightening things up when I noticed we needed more coffee cups on our coffee stand in the reception area. As I got out more cups, I noticed quite a bit of water on the counter around the cups, and sugar and creamer container. I realized right away, the coffee machine was leaking. It's happened before. This coffee maker keeps a pot of water inside heated and ready whenever you want to make another pot of coffee. Because of that, the heating element eventually 'cooks' through the bottom of the water chamber, and it starts to leak. In our 14 years here, it's happened twice. So over to the store I went for another one.
I got the new one set up and the old one out in the trash. I then went out to get the mail. Our mail is delivered to a central location in the mall. It's not delivered to the individual stores. On the way back, I notice our open/closed sign was missing the lower half of it's P. It now looked like a small D instead of a P.
That's the problem with LED's. I've seen it on cars too. One section of lights go out, and the entire thing is ruined. So now we need to put that on our shopping list.
And it was time to order our pocket calendars that we hand out for Christmas.
We've done this for more years than I can remember. We don't give out near as many as we use to, with all the smart phones and such, but we still have a good size core of customers who look forward to them every year. So after our staff agreed to the style and number needed, I went online when I got home last night and place an order.
And now with that, it's time to get ready for another work day....

weather, water heater, and business

Good morning.
Yesterday was a typical fall day in Michigan. Cool and cloudy.
Craig got the yard mowed while I blew the leaves off the deck and vacuumed the leaves off the driveway and along the garage. The windy weekend blew a lot of the color away. Fall can be so pretty, but we often get wind and rain to spoil it.

Craig mowing the front yard.

Before and after.
Of course, this will be repeated time and again until all the leaves are down. Usually around thanksgiving.
And it appears we'll be getting a closed system water heater. The furnace guy said there's no venting problem with the vent he put on the chimney. He says it's more likely a faulty water heater. With the 6 in tube he put into the attic, there's plenty of make-up air and no reason air should be coming down the water heater exhaust. So we're kinda stuck between the furnace guy saying one thing, and the plumbing people saying another. Craig says he's just tired of it all and wants an end to it, and a closed system will do that.
So since we haven't had any venting issues since it's gotten colder, I've got time to get a couple more estimates, since it looks like it'll run a couple thousand dollars. :-(
In better news....
Craig has done the totals for the third quarter at the salon, and we are currently a little ahead of last year.
Business has picked up a little more. We've also seen a few new businesses opening up in the area. So some people must think the worst is behind us. We don't see much new hiring, but at least it appears to be no more layoffs. But with the economy so stagnate, I'm not sure it can get a whole lot better. Time will tell.
And with that, time to get ready for another work week. It's looking pretty good so far.

the water heater saga continues.

Good morning.
Our beautiful summer like weather is slowing coming to an end. High today in the low 70's, but by Saturday, only mid 50's. It was nice while we had it. :-)
Now on to the water heater. Michigan Plumbing came out in the morning, studied the situation, and decided since it's not venting into the house every time the air is running, there must be another factor at play here. He suggested wind might occasionally be blowing into the vent cover creating a negative pressure keeping the water heater from venting normally. He said to contact the furnace installer and ask if another type of vent cap is available. If the furnace guy doesn't think that's an issue, they'd be happy to replace our water heater. But for the expense, we should try all other possible ideas. I thanked them, and they left. In the afternoon, Moore plumbing came over. He also checked everything out, thought it was possible air could be sucked down the exhaust and said a self contained water heater would eliminated the issue. The cost? $2200.00.
I thanked him for coming out, and said I'd think about it.
Sooo, I think I'll call the furnace guy first and see if there's any chance the wind might be causing problems with the vent. I'm sure he'll say it couldn't, but it never hurts to ask. :-)
The rest of the day, I blew and vacuumed leaves. They're coming down pretty fast, and the trees haven't even completely turned yet. Very odd.
Craig returned home from the eye doctor. His overall vision hadn't changed much, but his reading did. So new lenses are in order. He also decided on the new frames. With the discounts he got, the exam, frames and lenses ended up costing $550.00. Not bad, really, since we don't have vision insurance.
And now, another work week. Looks to be fairly busy. That's good, we have glasses and possibly a new water heater to pay for. :-)

Friday

Good morning.
After a slow start on Wednesday, (at least I got my hair cut and highlighted and cut Craig's) the phone started ringing, and I became completely booked Thursday, Friday and Saturday. And actually working later Saturday than usual. The weather has been great, though I've been inside. :-( But it looks like it'll extend through the weekend. :-)
That will be good because I need to get out and start cutting back the perennials. A lot of them are way past their prime and the cold weather will soon be upon us.
The trees are turning quickly. We should be in peak color in another week or so.
And we've got a couple of companies coming out early next week for estimates on a closed system water heater. Even with the make-up air the furnace guy installed, we are still occasionally getting the water heater exhausting into the house. It isn't happening very often now since the air conditioning season is done, but when it does, the carbon monoxide detector goes off, and we get dull headaches. Can't be good for us long term.
Well anyway, have a great weekend!

back to work, again

Good morning.
Yesterday was a beautiful day. Sunny and near 70. Gorgeous! And of course, just as we get back to work, it's going to warm up. Mid 70's for the rest of the week. :-\
We did our usual Monday running around, bank, PO with a stop at Lenscrafters to get Craig's eyeglass nose piece fixed. One side came off during the weekend. He also made an appointment for an exam, since it's been a few years since he has had one. We then checked out new frames.
Here's what we picked out....
Back home, I spent most of the day, cleaning the mo-ho, cleaning bird baths, and yard work. Craig did book-work, laundry and vacuumed. I cooked chicken on the grill with skewered vegetables and served them with long grain wild rice.
We've got just 2 more weekend trips planned for the season as fall is quickly moving along. The trees have started changing, and we should be reaching peak color here in a couple of weeks.
I usually winterize the mo-ho by November 1st, as by then, the night-time temps are averaging around 32. We could use the mo-ho later than that, but there are very few campgrounds open after Oct. 31st, and we'd have to leave the furnace on to keep the pipes from freezing. All and all, it'll be time to but him in storage. :-(
And now, another work week is upon us. Not real busy looking so far. Maybe I'll be able to get a haircut. :-)

it's over

Good morning.
Yep, fall is in the air. It's all of 36 out this morning, going for a high of only 56. It's suppose to get back into the low 70's later this weekend, but you can feel that the seasons have changed. It happened the day after Labor Day. The 'heat' was gone. Cooler weather had arrived overnight. It's chilly in the mornings. And darker. The days are getting quickly shorter. I dislike and despise our long winters. But, as I do every year, I'll enjoy our last few trips, stretching the season as long as I can, then spend the long, cold, dark winter, planning next years trips.
Yes, I could plan a week in warmer weather, but it would go by so fast, and I'd still be stuck in the rest of winter. And that money could better go toward the summer trips I enjoy so much.
Anyway, the Salon has been busy. The phone has been ringing, and I'm completely booked the rest of the week. :-)
It's good to see business getting back to where we were before the recession.
Now, time to get ready for work...

What to do, what to do...

Good morning.
The weather has gotten back to 'normal' for this time of year. Highs forecast for the low 80's this week. :-)
We did receive an inch of rain overnight, so the grass should be nice and green for the wedding pics in a week and a half.
On the water heater front..... The tech came and accessed the situation. Couldn't understand why we were getting exhaust into the house. Everything looked just right. All he could suggest was maybe running another 6 inch pipe into the area with the other one to bring in more fresh air. He didn't think a power vent water heater would fix the issue. We'd have to go with a totally closed system like the furnace is. Would cost a couple thousand bucks. This just gets better and better right?
So I said we'd think about it. And we better think fast because later in the afternoon, it was spewing exhaust into the house again! The CO2 detector read a high of 127. A sustained level of 150 or more could be deadly. Fortunately we got the level back down to 0 in about an hour.
The rest of the day was maintenance stuff. One of the rug pieces on the mo-ho steps came off and I had to get some more sticky Velcro to reattach it. I also recharged the dump battery, and cleaned the mo-ho windshield. And of course, more weeding. :-)
And now, it's back to work for what looks to be another busy week!

yard, water heater, and the IRS

Good morning.

The week ended very busy. :-)
And the heat wave is back. 90 yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Sunday, I of course, cleaned the Salon, and spent the rest of the entire day working in the yard. This time of year, there's a lot of dead-heading to do. We also burned a pile of branches. Trying to keep up the looks of the yard for the up-coming wedding pics to be taken on the 13th.
For dinner we had tasty pork cutlets with a peach glaze, baked potato and grilled zucchini. Did you know, you can use almost any type of jam or preserve to baste meat with? Try it sometime, they're really good!
Anyway, this morning we've got someone coming out to assess our water heater situation. I'm thinking we'll have to bite the bullet and go with a power vent water heater. That well set us back nearly a grand. Oh well, you gotta do what you gotta do.
In other news....
Friday when I got home, got the mail, I see a letter from the IRS. That's never a good thing unless it's a refund check. But this wasn't. It was a bill stating I owed $887.22 from last year. With all ready added penalties and interest, $992. 57. Okay, this couldn't be right. I got a refund this year! When Craig got home, I had him look it over. He got upset. It doesn't take much to set him off, and a letter from the IRS would easily do it. He dug up last years return and remembered we received a letter in April stating we miscalculated our self-employment tax. They corrected it, and would correct the amount of refund we'd receive. How much was the miscalculation? $887.22. That's right, now they say I owe it back! But Craig went back through the return, and he did miscalculate the tax, and we were due that extra money! So I said I'd call and get it all straightened out, He immediately went for a cocktail, knowing this wouldn't be that easy. I called the 800 number, went through the many menus until I found the one that would let me speak to a live person. The recording said I'd be waiting more than 15 minutes. I waited.................10..................15...................20........................25.........then a real live person picked up, and asked, "how may I help you today". I explained the April letter, and the one I'd just received. She said that didn't sound right to her either. She took down the specifics, name, SS number, address and such to make sure she knew to whom she was speaking, asked me to hold a couple of minutes while she went through my return. She came back on to say I didn't owe a thing. Someone must have reviewed my return and mistook that April notice as a tax, not a refund. Anyway, she corrected it, said I'd receive another letter stating so, as was there anything else she could do for me today. I thanked her for her time, said all was good, and hung up. I was amazed and shocked how easy and quickly it was resolved.
Sometimes things do work out the way they should. :-)

weekend trip #6

Good morning.
This past weekends trip took us to a campground between the cities of Battle Creek, and Kalamazoo.
We arrived Friday afternoon, driving through a horrendous rain storm. But the storm had past by the time we got to the campground, so the set-up was easy. We took a walk around the campground to find it about 2/3 full. The park sits next to the Kalamazoo river, which is popular for boating. The river is still closed from the oil spill a year earlier. They estimate only about 10% of the oil has been recovered. The rest is sitting at the bottom of the river in various stretches. That may be why the campground wasn't full.
Anyway, we fixed turkey sausages for dinner and watched a couple of DVDs. No campfires this trip. 90 is too hot for a fire, although many campers had one.
I awoke Saturday morning to another rain storm. Thunder and lightening all over the place. Decided to put down the antenna. Just in case. By the time I woke up Craig, it was over. Had our coffee walk, and headed out to the MSU Bird Sanctuary on a nearby lake between us and Kalamazoo.

It was a really beautiful setting, with a large assortment of birds eager to get some of the corn they sell you when you come in.
The birds of prey they have are in small pens scattered through the park.
After that, it was off to the Taste Of Kalamazoo. We were quite impressed with the number of restaurants and the entertainment they had. We've been to the grand daddy of tastes, the Taste of Chicago, and this was every bit as good if not better. The food seemed expensive at first. Tickets were $.50 each and most things were 8 tickets. But we soon discovered that these were full size portions! I had some tasty ribs and a fried oyster sandwich, Craig gobbled down a beef tip wrap, and a beef burrito. Washed it all down with some beer, and to the sounds of live entertainment. A very nice afternoon. As the sky again darkened, we headed back to the campground, arriving just before another round of rain.
We finished the evening with cocktails, snacks and DVDS.
Sunday morning, I went for a bike ride, since it was a nice cool 73 out. :-) Came back, took a shower, woke Craig up, and had our coffee walk. Back at the campsite, fixed us breakfast of eggs, toast, and vegi sausage links. We really like these vegi products. Good texture and taste considering they're not meat. We use Morning Star brand.
Anyway, after breakfast we decide to get a little gambling fix. Fire Keepers casino is just a few miles down the highway. There, we spent a couple of hours, Craig losing as usual and me winning. Came out about even all together. We stopped at a Meijer store for ingredients for a pasta salad Craig was going to make for dinner. Back at the campground we decided to go to the beach. They have a nice lake inside the park.

Even with a rainy weekend, you can see how dry it's been here in Michigan.

We brought our camp chairs, relaxed on the beach reading the Sunday paper, and people watching. Back at the camp site, I helped Craig prepare the pasta salad, and as it 'rested', we went for a walk. They were talking of possible severe storms for during the night, so we broke down camp, taking down the lights, and rolling up the awning. I grilled chicken thighs and legs to go with the pasta salad. We finished the evening with more DVDs.
Monday morning, I went for another bike ride, and then strapped them back on the bike rack. Cleaned the grill and stored it away. Took my shower, woke Craig up, made him coffee, finished preparing the mo-ho for the trip home, and we arrived around noon. Another good trip!

good and hot!

Good morning.
The heat wave continues, and except for watering constantly, I'm lovin it!
Have been working in the yard, mainly in the early morning while Craig sleeps.
Many of my readers know, Craig is a car person. What I mean by that, is he gets personally attached to his cars. If we had the money and space, he'd still have every car he's ever owned.
He gives them names, he parks way out in the lot at stores. You get the picture. Well, he also has to make them special. I mean, they need to not look like any others. There needs to be something different. His Honda, he had the air foil thingy taken off and ground effects added. The PT Cruiser, he went on-line and found different tail lights. Even the mo-ho, which he named "big guy', he had a license plate with that name and it's on the front of the mo-ho. Sooo, you can guess where I'm going with this, yep, he had to modify the Kia also. He went on-line and salivated over all the things he could do to it.
He finally settled on the front grills....

Except for the silver trim around the top grill, both the top grill and the bottom grill were black. I thought of taking a pic after we had already installed the silver grill in the top one.

And here's the finished product. Silver grills and frames on the top and bottom. He even got a soul nameplate to put where a license plate would go. We don't need a front plate in Michigan, just a back one. Now his Kia Soul won't look like all the others. :-)
So with the searing heat, that's about all we got done yesterday besides mowing.
In other news, we're still getting an occasional venting into the house from the water heater. The fresh air thingy seems to be working okay, but it still sometimes sucks air in from the water heater vent. It appears we may have to go with another water heater with a power vent. They can't 'add' a power vent to our existing one. :-(
Anyway, it's time for another work week, and it looks to be another fairly busy one. Good, power vented water heaters are expensive.

A sycamore post

Good morning.
The heat wave continues.....91 yesterday with the same forecast for the rest of the week.
While Craig did his usual laundry and bookkeeping, I did manage to do a lot of weeding and deadheading despite the heat. Just took it slow. :-)
I also cleaned and filled the birdbaths.
Here's some pics of our still fairly young Sycamore tree.

See all the debris on the grass?
It's peeling bark, falling from the branches as they grow.
It does make for a mess, but that's also what gives the tree it's unique mottled look.
You can see up into the tree and see the bark coming off the branches.
This will last for a few weeks. The peeled bark is easily mowed up.
Dinner was ham steaks, steamed cauliflower, and mashed potatoes.
And that's all I got for today.

Good morning.
I've just returned from cleaning the salon, as usual.

It ended up being a very busy week in the Salon. It's good to see business picking up more after a slow 2008 and 2009. Craig actually said I had my best June in years. ;-)

And after drowning in our record wet spring, the rain has disappeared. Only 1/2 inch in over 6 weeks. Makes for nice weekends, but getting very dry. When we were in Toledo last weekend, the grass there was brown. It's been even hotter and dryer than here. I've been watering different sections of the yard daily in hopes of keeping it looking good for the wedding party pics scheduled for early August. Don't know if I'll be able to with such a large yard, and forecast temps around 90 for the next couple of weeks.
And here's my latest pic. The hair doesn't look as thin with it shorter. I should take a pic of the top so you can see how thin it is, but it looks pretty good in this pic so I won't. :-)
And now I'm going to work in the yard for an hour before my shower and wake up lazy bones. :-)

it's trying to kill us!

Good morning.
Well, it happened again! I was walking through the dining room when I noticed the co2 detector showing a 135! I opened the door to the water heater and sure enough, it was venting into the room again. So I opened the windows, and immediately called the company to have another tech come out. While I waited, I decided to try and find out why all of a sudden we are getting so much co2 venting inside. I tried a couple different scenarios. First I turned the water heater up with out the air on. It vented perfectly. Then I turned on the air, it still vented perfectly. Then I first turned on the air, and then the water heater. It vented into the room!
It appears the air running sometimes causes a downdraft on the hot water vent pipe, sucking air in from outside! If the hot water heater is already venting when the air comes on, the exhaust out the pipe is stronger than the pull from the air. So I recreated these scenarios several more times , and 3 out of 4 times it vented into the room. I felt I had some good info for the tech. When he finally arrived at 6:30pm, I explained my finding. He new exactly the problem. The air conditioner fan is pulling in more air than is sometimes available. He said usually, there's enough air leaks in a house to compensate for it, but our house must be fairly air tight. Good for insulating, but bad for air flow. Also, the air coming into the unit is from a small area. Since our house is on a slab, the 2 cold air returns are in the living room and hall. There's none in the bedrooms or TV room.
He said I'd have to call the furnace people and get a fresh air make-up air intake with a damper to allow enough air flow. In the mean time we can just keep the water heater on vacation until we need it and then turn it up when the air isn't running.
So now I at least know why only sometimes we are getting venting into the house. The water heater has to come on while the air is running. And we've run the air a lot this past weekend, and this is also the time Craig does a lot of laundry.
So while we waited for the tech to show up, we did get the lawn mowed. I cleaned out the burning hole and bagged up 7 bags of ash, and did some more spot weeding of the lawn. It's been a mini heat wave this week and today is suppose to hit 95 before cooling back down into the 70's this weekend.
I also managed to get the recipe's for the chicken and pork dishes we had this past weekend posted on Cooking with Craig.
Now, time for another work week....

a messy visitor

Good morning.
We dodged another bullet last evening as storms blew through Michigan, but missed us. :-)
Another gorgeous day yesterday, and I rather took it easy. :-)
I did manage to do a little weeding, and cleaned up the mo-ho for our next trip. But mostly, we relaxed and enjoyed our last day off.
With the chance of severe storms possibly disrupting dinner, we kept it simple with roast beef sandwiches and guacamole and chips.
We also had a visitor during the night........

He/she apparently liked the drippings from the chicken we grilled on Monday. And the raccoon tracked greasy footprints on my newly painted deck. But a quick soaping and spraying cleaned it up.

And like I said, now it's time for another work week, and it looks to be a busy one. ;-)

major projects done!

Good morning from a very warm Lansing.
It hit 90 yesterday. It was soooo hot! :-)
Here's a pic before and after of the driveway....

Looks better edged and sealed. I wouldn't say it looks as good as new, but a lot better. :-)

After I got Craig up yesterday, we went out and got patio paint for the front entry, another paint roller, and some grocery shopping.

Dropped that stuff off at home and went out to Claddagh Irish Pub for lunch. I had a chicken flat bread and Craig had the spinach flat bread. We split and shared so we had a taste of both. :-)

Back home, I got the rest of the deck stained.

Above, scraped and ready to stain, and below, done.

I also spot weeded the lawn again. It takes a few applications to get all the clover and creeping charlie out.

We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and enjoying the heat.

For dinner, I grilled chicken thighs and zucchini, and sided them with long grain wild rice. This morning, I finished organizing and pricing all the stuff for my yard sale next Sunday. Took a bunch of pics to post on Craig's list later this week.

I think today will be a laid back day for a change. I've got the majority of the spring stuff done now, so we can enjoy the summer. :-)

Right now, it's a little to early to wake up Craig, so I think I'll spray up and work in the yard.....

lucky again

Good morning. And a happy Memorial Day!
We were lucky again. Yesterday evening, powerful storms ripped through Michigan. One storm with 80mph winds ripped through Battle Creek, just 45 miles south of us, taking out trees, a number of homes and taking out power lines. But we were lucky, no damage here. :-)
Yesterday morning, I trimmed some bushes because Craig wanted to burn up a pile of branches later. So i had a very large snowball bush that needed trimming back. The branches get very heavy and hang, so I cut them up.
Here's a pic of it. It's full of white pom-pom like flowers.
After I trimmed that and a few others, I scraped the main deck in prep for staining.

Then it was time for a shower and get Craig up. He decided he didn't want breakfast, so while he showered, I ran out for the Sunday paper. After our coffee and paper, I called for a burning permit. It was a pretty decent day weather wise. Got up to 80, but mostly cloudy with a chance of rain. The rain held off until the evening where we got just over an inch in barely an hour. It came down in buckets!

Here's a pic Craig took of me with the the Tree Peonies and the False Rhubarb. He wanted to show how large the flowers are and how tall the rhubarb was. Tree Peonies have much larger flowers that the herbaceous ones.

Thanks to the very wet spring, there are like 687,000 mosquitoes this year (really! I counted!). The only way to go out in the yard is with deep woods off! I have a can just outside the patio door. It's the first thing I do when I go out. :-)

While Craig burned, I took all the yard sale stuff out into the garage. Today or tomorrow, I'll get it all ready for next weekends sale.

Dinner was pork cutlets, baked potato, and coleslaw.

This morning, I've just sealed the driveway. It took about 2 hours. I'll get a pic when it's dry. It was a nice 62 out. It's expected to hit 90 today and tomorrow, before dropping back into the normal 70's.

Now it's shower time, get Craig up and go shopping. I need another paint roller to finish the deck, and something for the grill today. :-)

4 days off

Good morning.
It's been raining for 2 days straight! Nearly 3 inches of rain total. It looks dry out right now, but a chance of rain all weekend. The good news is that's it rained on the days I'm working. :-) Also, it's just cold and rain, not violent deadly storms.
The Salon has been very busy this week, as it usually is before a big holiday weekend. The Salon will be closed Saturday and Monday. Yep, that means a 4 day weekend for me! :-)
But we're not going anywhere. Staying home to hopefully finish staining the deck, sealing the driveway, and finish up the yard's spring clean-up.
Have a great holiday weekend!