Administrivia . . . .

Don't you just hate that word? I do. Its like saying "guesstimate." Amanda and I have had a fantastic summer, full of travelling, eating, and sightseeing. But now are travels are over, and it is time to start buckling down, doing chores that we've put off all summer, and getting ready for school, which starts in a WEEK.

Since we got home from Edgewater Park, we have been busy "tying up loose ends," so to speak. Yesterday was a landscaping day, where I mowed and trimmed the yard, then edged out some beds. The lack of rain has had NO effect on the number of weeds growing in just about every place we want not weeds to grow. So I weeded a bunch. Then I patched up some bare spots with grass seed and hayed them. Then I fertilized the rosebushes. Then I put two coats of black anodized paint on our firepit. After this, I watered our "near death" tomatoes that didnt get enough water from the week we were gone--we have been getting some delicious tomatoes from our two plants already!

They have been doing work on our street now for the second summer in a row, and I think they are almost done, but I think, essentially, these chubby carhart wearing forty-somethings just never grew up and still love playing with their trucks. I'll get flack from someone for saying this, but its amazing just how "not" hard public works/DOT people work. I swear, seven stand around while one works. They are on a perpetual coffee break. If you don't believe me, then come sit out on the end of Bill Cyr's driveway with the rest of the neighborhood and look for yourself.

Today I continued with some yard work, and then ran some errands, first stopping at "Babe's Shoe Repair." Ask yourself this question: name at least three cobblers in your area? Yeah . . .me too. Babe's is awesome, for the way in which he is all about good old fashioned customer service, as well as the way he is preserving a lost art. I think, these days, kids and adults alike are prone to just "throw something away" if it is broke. I have had the same pair of ECCO shoes since I was a junior in high school, and I am heartbroken to say that they, only now, are un-fixable--even for Babe. I had him repair a pair of Birkenstock clogs two years ago, and I brought them in to have the sole re-glued. Not only did he do it while I waited, but he was adamant that I not pay him, since he was "not about to let [me] pay for [his] poor workmanship." Try and find a guy like him around these days . . . .

After Babe's, it was off to Mardens, where, last night, Amanda and I really did "bought it when we saw it . . .at Mardens!" We bought a great waterhog type indoor-outdoor carpet for the new room, and I went to go pick it up in the truck today. For those unaware, Mardens is like a Spags or a Building 19 in Maine. We got a super deal on this carpet, which I will install myself after Amanda finishes painting tomorrow. I also picked up some shelf brackets so I could properly display my beer bottle collection on the wall of the den. A sure conversation piece of "book club" meetings after school. And finally, I put down some of my homemade sauerkraut in a big crock which I keep in the basement--it should be fermented and ready to go by Labor Day weekend.

Amanda and I had a nice night which included Taco Bell, visiting G-pop and G-mom in Readfield, and then reading our books. We have both read so much excellent writing lately--everything from the Lemony Snicket books to Jodi Piccoult novels to my current book-du-jour, "When Zachary Beaver Came To Town," which is the story of 635 Zachary Beaver, the fattest boy in the world, who travels around the USA as a sideshow oddity.