Good Fences Make Great Neighbors

Who wrote that poem, Frost? I dunno, but whenever I hear that phrase I think of the Wilson character from the "Tool Time" TV show. Now I have something else to associate it with!

Ken said the neighbors just told him that they were putting up a fence this spring! I have been going crazy lately watching the snow melt and layers (and I do mean layers) of doggie-poo materialize in its place. On top of the mounds of gifts my two neighbor dogs leave behind, they also scare the heck out of Riley and Corey and assume my yard is a dog run. Although I love the neighbors and they are great people, this situation would have had to come to a head by summer! Soon to be rectified, I hope.

Ken worked on the ceiling again tonight. I only had to rinse one chunk of drywall out of my eye for ten minutes today and I'm pretty sure there's no lasting damage. Thankfully the drywall is all up because I just can't seem to keep myself from looking up when assisting and I'm not smart enough to don protective eye wear. Oh well, now we're on to mudding and luckily Ken has no faith in my ability to do anything related to this task. Darn.

Music of the day is "Flash Gordon," in relation to the new "Shannon wants you to know..." feature on the sidebar. It was suggested that I let the kids enter things they might want you to know, and so far Riley and Shannon have complied. Shannon, in particular, had an interesting school day. Enjoy, everybody!

Ken's Ceiling Take 2

Well today I've been in a real funk, but Ken has the energy of all three boys put together! He tore down his low-clearance drop-ceiling that he'd just installed, (a compilation of hundreds of dollars and numerous man-hours,) and began hanging drywall in it's place. All I had to do to help him was to run to the tool rental store, unload the drywall jack I rented, and assist in stacking tiles as they were removed. I think I put 40 minutes into today's work and Ken put in at least 8 hours! After the bedroom turned out so nicely, Ken decided that textured drywall was worth deconstructing a months worth of work in the play room... and I think he may be right! He's become a mini-expert with drywall and this ceiling is going up extremely fast! To top it off, Ken decided to help the neighbor with his basement installation after an already full day and I haven't seen him in two hours.

The kids were pretty good today and I had plenty of time to sulk by myself. I don't know if it's the long winter, February in general, or just PMS, (it DOES exist,) but I'd slap myself if I thought it would cheer me up! I finally forced myself to do a little housework and to make an actual dinner, but even my 'Famous Dave's'-style ribs and cherry cheesecake dessert couldn't bring me around. Ken was starving at least, so the decent food made him smile. Of course the first thing Riley did when he got to the table was remind me that he hates my food and just why do I cook stuff like this?

Yes, the Mommy Monster materialized. Yes, Riley survived my wrath. Yes, he cleaned his plate.

Some day they will all learn the lesson my siblings and I never had trouble comprehending: Mom doesn't care if you like it or not, if it's put before you, you had better just eat it!