Beached

It's hard to believe that it's been over a year since we moved into our little brick bungalow. I remember our first night in the old creaky house that smelled dusty and dank. It doesn't smell old now except when we forget to take the trash out after a few days. Two days after getting the keys to the new house Denver began the great renovation. He's done a ton of work on the house, the landscaping, and even the basement is getting organized. Nevermind that the entire back lot sits in disrepair, with dead weeds, piles of dirt and a couple of sagging buildings. Only the neighborhood cats enjoy hanging out back there, its kind of a legoland resort for felines. They poo in the nice soft dirt pile and romp through the weeds, climb the trees and poke their heads through holes in the fence. Well all this is about to change. (When I say "about" I mean in the next six months or so, so don't get too excited).

The plan is too build a garage/shop with a studio/apartment on top of it in the back corner of the lot. It's a great plan, but there's a hitch. It takes money to build a garage. We don't have any money. One way to have more money is to make more money, but that's easier said than done. The other way to have more money is to spend less money, which is probably even harder. Nonetheless, we are now on our second month of the "spend less, make more" campaign.

Which brings us to the best-ever, four-day, ultimate cheapskate, all expenses paid trip to O.C. complete with fresh seafood on the pier (many thanks to Adam's dad for this evening), a cocktail party, a taco feast, a delicious breakfast, free coffee and doughnuts at church, and some surfing just to keep from getting fat. I don't think we surfed enough. We shivered on the pier while waiting for an unwary lobster to wander into our hoop, (none ever did) and got to ride with Dennis and Diane back and forth from Reno (thanks for the lift!)