Niblings and Shed Update

I put the three-day weekend to good use, and got the two larger pieces of cedar trim nailed up onto the shed! The one in the back (which came out a little wonky, despite using a level) was 8 feet, while the side one was 14 feet. Honestly very proud of myself that I didn't smack any fingers with a hammer, though there was quite a bit of cursing when the huge-ass framing nails just absolutely resisted in some areas. I was lucky to be able to prop the boards up on the cinderblocks, but still had to kind of throw my body against the wood to keep it as flush as possible while nailing. I expected my left forearm to kill me the next day, but in fact it was my lower back and butt from that! Still to come are the additional trim pieces. I picked up some "regular ass" nails to use for those, now that the big pieces of trim are on. 

Jen and the boys came down Monday for what was supposed to be a pizza lunch, but we'd forgotten that not only was it a holiday, but all the pizza places around us are closed Mondays anyway. So it was lunch at the Hornet's Nest and then off to a park closer to the shoreline with a labryinth across from a tranquil lake. Well, as tranquil as the walking path was going to be with these two shrieking and hollering anyway - pictured here in a rare moment of quietude as they waited for us adults to catch up. 

Charlie, tiny demon of chaos, is going to be nine next month. Pictured here while we waited on the same bench later, while Mom and Uncle Sean attended to Leo's sudden "uh-oh, I have to poop" in the woods.

Leon, temperamental man of moods, is five! The forest poop was, happily, a false alarm, and we went to get ice cream and look at the skeletons on the Branford green. 

 

Birthday Update

 I turned 39 yesterday! For some reason, I like the number itself better than those on either side of it. Hopefully this portends good things! 

Here are some good things that have already happened:

• My exhibition formally opened on Thursday night! This is the fourth show I've curated at Fairfield (and will be the last for a fairly long time, given that our exhibition calendar is planned through 2029 or so), and I'm really proud of it. Since it's Old Master prints, it's not as eye-catchingly beautiful as the Kress exhibition - but it is, admittedly, hard to beat an El Greco.
• I deadlifted 135 lbs. yesterday! Technically I'd already done this in late July, right before we went to see Sara and Zach, but our August brushed with Covid turned into basically a month without working out, and I had to build back up to that. My birthday present to myself was 45-lb bumper plates! 
• My new plants are coming along! The wildflowers are sleeping under their burlap, but the ones I had to hack through clay and a rock mine to plant are doing well:

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I'll admit that neither set of hardy mums are exactly the color I was thinking - I thought the orange ones would be more the deep russet orange, and the smaller ones are a bit more pink than the deep red I thought they'd be - but I appreciate them all the same (and my other birthday gift to myself was a pair of dark orange mums in plastic pots for the front steps).

This past weekend marked 18 years since my mom died, which is kind of hard to fathom. Perhaps it's because we keep her memory so alive with our stories and jokes! But I'm grateful for the wonderful things I do have: Sean, my home, my family and friends, my general health. Here's to you, 39, may you be a very good year.