Return to landscaping

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Our landscaping project is already done, but we didn't show you how it unfolded. The landscapers crafted a nice sidewalk form and laid out a tasteful patio of blue flagstone in the back.



One morning, a cement truck pulled up in front of the house. Out came a hose and several men who began smoothing the thick, gravely-gray mixture up the forms toward our house.




Claire was rapt with attention. "Brrrrooom, brrrroom!" she said when we showed her the truck. Outside on the porch, she said hi to all the workers. Inside the house, she quickly located her pottie-stool in the bathroom. She carried it out by herself to the living room and placed it beneath the window and stepped up on it. She looked out, straining on her tippy toes to see the workers pouring the step up the front porch. You could not peel her away from that perch.



The following morning, she woke up making her truck noises.

Phoenix, part III, or Why in the world did we climb that peak?

Oh yeah. My idea.


While Bobbi stayed home and watched and fed Hailey, her daugther and Hailey's mom joined me for a hike Squaw Peak.




It was a beautiful day. Only 10 a.m. but at least 80 degrees. The smog hung over the city like a thin blanket. Which is to say it wasn't thick comforter. The Squaw Peak hike lasts only two miles roundtrip. But you ascend more than 1,000 feet. At times, it felt like we were going up stairs as tall as a football field is long. It was a tough hike for the knees.



People ran by us the entire time we climbed. One guy said he was on his second trip up the peak that morning. We took our time, pausing to scope out the scenery, talk about our favorite Office episodes and snap photos, sometimes of ourselves.

The top did offer a great view. But there were fantastic views even halfway up.
I have no clue who this dude is, but he provided a nice contrast.

Phoenix, part II

A kind escort who described his last name as "Dill, like the pickle" gave Bobbi, recovering from a broken foot, a ride to the car after the game.


Mr. Dill seemed kosher with it all.




Claire got to cuddle with her Uncle Eric a lot while cousins Gracie and Hailey cuddled with each other on the floor of nana's condo.





As if a ballgame weren't enough, we spent one glorious Phoenix evening entertaining ourselves by riding papa's recumbent bike. Dad was kind enough to let everyone take a spin. His wife even climbed aboard, which nearly caused dad a heart attack, which would've required his brother to come out of retirement.



Claire really enjoyed watching all this....until mom got aboard.


She quickly realized mom was leaving and tried to follow her on foot. We got it all on tape.



Fortunately, mom returned minutes later, and Claire let us know all about it.








To no one's surprise, Claire quickly climbed aboard and started honking the bike's horn. We can only hope she becomes a mechanic.

Phoenix, or How we got some much needed sun, Part I

That's right! What would a trip to Phoenix in March be without letting our nerdy pride show at a Cubs game?



With the look on their faces, you'd think these guys were unaware of the last time the Cubs won a World Series. But who cares, right? It was 88 degrees. Gracie had her glove and a Sharpie for autographs. We had to get on the move!



Move we did. Gracie got two autographs. One came from a player we identified as Rich Fox, an up-and-coming cather who hit a home run the following day. The other player we couldn't identify at all. No doubt, he's a rising star who will one day get to bat in the Big Leagues before being optioned for good to Saginaw.


I debated long and hard about posting the following two photos. They show dad with his case of art supplies, ignoring the first four innings of the game to work on a banner. Then I realized that the photos might actually drive traffic to the site. Word of mouth would drive other bloggers in disbelief to the sight so they could see for themselves an Illinois native going to great lengths to craft a banner while ignoring a Major League spring training game.

Well, see for yourself:



Yes, it eventually got hung, but rather meekly. No telling whether the nearest WGN cameramen could even read the letters to decide whether to put it on TV.



With the Cubs jumping to a quick and decisive lead, attention spans waned. The Phoenix residents scrambled to shady seats while the Pacific Northwesterners remained in their purchased seats to soak up the sun. Gracie wandered down to the front row, wielding her glove and asking gently but repeatedly, "When were we going to get a ball hit our way? When are they going to throw us a ball?"

An answer came in the fifth, during Henry Blanco's 10-pitch plate appearance, when the catcher lined a foul tip directly at section 117. The ball shot like a bullet directly at us, curving away from Sarah's head just moments before impact. It dove into the concrete wall and ricocheted off a railing to the floor, where it came to rest, pinned beneath one of the seats on the aisle. As it so happened, the closest human to the ball was Eric. He'd been standing at the top of the aisle, in the shade nonetheless, watching the game like the cool Arizona cat that he is. We yelled and implored him to dive for it. Upon what seemed like 10 seconds of consideration, he did. His hand reached beneath the seat, but others soon followed. A scramble ensued. A full second passed with no clear winner. Then, in true Eric style, he rose, ball in hand, saying, definitively, "Got it!" He then hoisted the ball triumphantly in the air for Gracie - and those ambivalent WGN cameramen - to see.



Needless to say, Gracie was thrilled. Moments later, another ball, again fould off by Blanco, landed right near us again. One of the 7-year-old boys who Eric beat to the first ball got this one.



We took Gracie's ball to get it signed by Lee Smith, the great Cubs reliever who was sitting in the Fergie Jenkins Foundation fundraising booth. The boy who caught the second ball had just gotten his signed before Gracie. Somehow, someone mentioned to Smith that both balls came off the end of Blanco's bat. This prompted Smith to ruminate at length on why pitches get fouled off into the same part of the stands, and how pitchers today throw pitches differently than in his days, and how that affects foul balls. To tell you the truth, he lost me before he finished. That might or might not have had something to do with whatever was causing his noticeably bloodshot eyes. Either way, it was a treat to Gracie's ball signed by a guy who I would've died to meet when I was 13.



Claire loved her big cousin Gracie. She stood in awe as Gracie ran around their nana's condo, trying before long to get her little legs in running gear as well. Here you'll see the two huggin' cousins in action....





More to come...

I scream for ice cream...

...please.

Put them hardhats on again

Time to return to the other impetus for the blog.






The landscapers started on our patio/walkway on Thursday. You can see the fractures here. They resemble the fractures coursing through our bank account as we shell out for this project.






The guys took Friday off because of the rain and plan to resume Monday and Tuesday.



They worked pretty hard Thursday in the wet mud. I wouldn't have enjoyed working in our yard in those conditions. Claire sure relished watching them out the back door.





The patio will be made up of flagstone atop fine gravel and sand. The flagstones in the patio will have enough room between them to allow for small plantings of mint groundcover and for rainwater to filter to the roots of the cedar. The design, intricately devised with a spray-paint can, leaves borders along the fence for flowers, shrubs and CeeCee's treasures.














A flagstone path will lead from the patio around the side of the house and then diagonally through our garden to the gate. This will be a much improved course from the current muddy path we must walk to get from the front to back.




In front of the house, we'll tear up our cracked concrete sidewalk and replace it with an exposed cement sidewalk leading to the front steps. A flagstone path will curve off to the south toward the gate.






If only the rain would let up so we could grill out!