Lisa and Michael

Well that’s happening this September, but first we’ll let Oscar and Junior continue to enjoy vintage 1970s decor.

Oh, and Lisa and I continued with the backsplash, pulling all the spacers and mastic boogers yesterday, and completing the (dreaded) grouting tonight. I was a basket case, considering I’d never grouted a thing in my life. With me on the float and Lisa on sponge duty, we completed the grouting in about 3 hours. The result? It looks awesome! I really should quit worrying so much, Lisa was calm and composed, not a worry at all. All that remains is replacing the trim and outlet covers tomorrow, another sealer application in a few days, and pictures to prove that anyone can put in their own backsplash.

We just finished planting the garden this afternoon. A week later than we did last year since the weather has been cooler. We are hoping to have great results like we did last year, and crossing out fingers that it wasn’t beginner’s luck. We used Bonnie Plants exclusively, they did so well for us last year.

This year we planted tomato, broccoli, leeks, peppers, jalapenos, and squash.

Lisa reminded me we also have an herb garden growing, started a few weeks ago: cilantro, flat Italian parsley, sweet basil, Thai basil, Greek oregano, and German thyme.

We got up early this morning to take advantage of last night’s snowstorm, and wouldn’t you know, it was continuing today. We all loved it!

Oscar and Junior, a bit too much snow for the day. They’re getting tired:

Junior and Oscar

Only a few more weeks to harvest, but we’re already pulling tomatoes, broccoli, and yummy New Mexico chile peppers. Just check out those pumpkin leaves on the far right! Next year, they’ll be going on the tier above the garden where they can really have room to spread and grow.

Lisa is trying hard to figure out where we are going in September, we’ll see how close she gets.

Edited to add: New toy for Puppy and Oscar.

Lisa and I are off to Ouray, Colorado for the next few days to celebrate our 1st anniversary. It’s been exactly one year since we last went. Oh, and the pups are going, too. This will be the first real road trip for Bailout, and we’re going to try and get off-road as much as possible. More than anything, this trip will give us a chance to relax. I don’t know about Lisa, but I really need a break right now, and this trip will be a nice warm-up before the big September extravaganza!

Now this is a large radish!

Puppy hates baths, but man, he’ll whine like mad if you don’t point the hose at him.

Having a good time at Lowe’s.

We’re back from Orlando and we had a blast! The conference was good and Lisa really enjoyed her time at the resort, even if she did get a good burn on Tuesday. We enjoyed some great seafood and had an incredible time at Islands of Adventure and tons of success at the outlet malls. We did so much in just 5 days.

Plus, Saturday we planted the garden. Man, was that a lot of work, but so far, everything is looking good. Now, if we can just keep the dogs out of there! We’ve planted a variety of tomatoes, onions, peppers, and herbs.  We should be enjoying our harvest end of July, first of August.

Finally, Darrell, a Cardinals fan, made the mistake of leaving his Jeep at the house today:

There was some snow on Christmas, but we had to drive a few miles to touch it. It was another great Christmas this year, everyone had a blast and Santa was quite generous to everyone! Santa surprised me with a vintage orange Atari t-shirt and a quart of Weck’s green chile, plus some other cool stuff like a new New Mexico book to add to our growing collection, and two 12-packs of beer (yum!).

Oh, and Junior seems to be getting used to Oscar. We hope they become best friends.