I started off yesterday morning by reviewing my things-to-do list for the past week.  I was on track for completing all major items, except attending the open house at Stockton, which I will be doing in 18 minutes.  I was totally unsurprised to see that the little rip in the bathroom wallpaper is still there after about a year.  My sock drawer is still a minefield and I have not made any headway on obtaining a new copy of my birth certificate, which is a 5-year plus project.  The only alarming item was planning lessons for Monday.  It is now Sunday morning and I will be gone most of the day.  So tonight I will be in my office pondering soil profiles. 

For now I will celebrate the things I did accomplish.  Yesterday I wrote an e-magazine article on Advent calendars which should appear on helium.com.  You can be assured that I will advertise this widely. 

I cleaned the garage.  This was motivated by the change of weather and not wanting to de-ice my windshield every morning.  I am also proud of having sorted and paired all but two gloves, and neatly stored a dozen or so hats, and 20, yes 20 scarves.  I also found a pair of girls size 7 snowpants, obviously out of commission for ten years. 

Then BP and I  winterized the back yard.  We dragged everything out of the shed, including the broken ice chest and the nonoperational snow blower.  We stacked up the umbrella, hammock, and cushions, covered the grills and air conditioner, and securely wound up the garden hose.  The ice chest is parked next to the ripped swing cushion, but we dragged the disfuctional snow blower back in the shed with the other stuff.  If it does not meet a mechanical by the first snowfall, it too will be taking a ride in the big metal truck.
Fifteen minutes later, cozy in the house, BP picked up the yard debris I tracked in.  "What is all this shit?" he muttered.  "Just a leaf," I answered as I picked up the last piece of foliage.  YUCK.  I checked unders my shoe.  I then went out to unwind the hose to I could clean off the dog poop that made the leaves stick so efficiently.