Worked some more on the patio tonight. I borrowed a roto-tiller from a friend (thanks, Dave!) and levelled out a few of the high spots and moved around a lot of dirt tonight. Then I put down the cap row, using landscape block adhesive to glue down the cap. I cut the landscaping cloth to about 2″ over the last block and then folded it under the cap and glued it in place as well. After all this, it was getting kind of dark, so I had to hurry up and take pictures; the flash didn’t work out as well as I’d hoped.

Anyway, next up is to get some sand to “fine-level” out the bed for the patio tiles. Then put down some black plastic under the air conditioner heat exchanger and lay the tiles. Hopefully I won’t come up too many tiles short so I’ll only have to buy a few. Here’s the pictures:

Come on, you know it’s funny! Slap dat ho!

Blatantly swiped from Dell. Check out Dell’s Diner!

Once again, it’s TV Tuesday. Your answers may vary… by the way it’s on time again; we’re setting a trend here!

Now that the Olympics have closed let’s review!!

1. How much of the Olympics did you watch?
I didn’t really watch much. KC watched pretty much all she could, but I only caught glimpses and then only what she was watching at the time. Does that make me unpatriotic?

2. What’s your favorite Olympic sport?
Is there any doubt? Basketball, baby!

3. What’s your least favorite Olympic sport or one you feel should be removed?
While there are a lot of “sports” that I think should be removed, my least favorite is wrestling. I have never really liked watching wrestling. Please don’t misunderstand - I think it is a very demanding sport but I would rather watch grass grow in my yard than watch a wrestling match.

~Bonus~ If you could participate in the Olympics what sport would you want to be in?
Again, is there any doubt? BASKETBALL!

So today was perfect weather and I really couldn’t do too much. Here’s the rundown:

• Pulled all the 16″x8″ patio blocks so I could begin levelling the dirt out.. I’ll probably have to bring in about a pickup load of dirt and or sand to finish the levelling process.
• Filled the V-shaped gaps with mortar to strengthen and “dirt-proof” both the south and west walls.

I have to wait for the mortar to dry to get on with the next step - levelling the area to the wall height. You see, I will be running a cap on the wall of the patio blocks so that when I lay the blocks back down they will be at the same level as the wall. Lots of dirt to move and bring in before that step, though.

Here are the pictures of the progress so far.
   

Here it is again, folks: the Friday Five. (And this week it’s on time again!)

1. It the election were tomorrow, who would you vote for?
I haven’t completely made up my mind yet, but it’s down to either Michael Badnarik or George W. Bush. Both of them have voted the way I agree with on key issues and both are saying thing consistent with their voting record.

2. What are the main things that lead you to vote for a certain person?
I definitely want someone who says things that are consistent with their voting records. I simply don’t waste time looking at candidates who say one thing and then vote a different way.

3. Where do you get your info on the candidates?
Definitely more than just the mainstream media. I get most of it from internet news sites - unbiased internet news sites. I think the major media are biased in one way or another, so I definitely get a lot of sources. I even go to the candidate’s web sites, but I don’t expect the whole truth there.

4. Who was president when you were born?
I’m really showing my age; it was Dwight Eisenhower.

5. If you could choose anyone, dead or alive, to be president, who would it be?
This is a tough one, but I’d have to go with former President Ronald Reagan. He was the best leader we have had as president in my lifetime. He got a lot of great things done and was not a chest-thumper in the process. And most of what he got done was with a Democrat Congress. He was a true leader.

Got home from work tonight and got busy on the patio. It doesn’t seem like much from the pictures, but here’s what I did:

• Dug out the two rows of stones on the south side of the patio.
• Dug a trench about 6″ below the current level of the ground. In this trench I placed particularly clean and flat stones from the two rows dug up earlier.
• Laid one row of retaining wall block on the stones in the trench, using block adhesive to make sure it won’t go anywhere.
• Cut the landscaping cloth and placed it on the newly laid south wall, to keep the dirt there and let the water flow through.
• Back filled the newly laid wall, then filled in the V-shaped gaps between the blocks with rock. Saturday I’ll fill in the gaps with mortar - won’t use as much by filling them with rock first!
• Back filled the second row on the west wall, now that I had more dirt from the trench. Also filled in the gaps with rock to be filled in later with mortar.

Next time I can work on this is Saturday, so I hope it isn’t raining then. Here are the pictures of the progress. Sorry for the poor quality on these. We have had one of the hottest days of the summer (we actually turned on our air conditioner for only the second time this summer) and it is extremely humid with all the rain we’ve had. That caused the camera lens to fog up and you get pix like these.
  

If I had a government job, this is where I’d like to work! How about you?

Yes, it’s true. The patio project is on hold for at least yesterday and today. Not because I don’t want to work it, but because Mother Nature is working against me. We’ve had rain the last few days and I am not going to try to dig a small trench in the rain. The rain will end up breaking down the walls of the trench as I dig it, not to mention the fact that digging out limestone blocks that weigh in excess of 70 pounds in the rain isn’t my idea of smart work. If it doesn’t rain today I can get some things done tonight, but tomorrow night is out - we have plans. Also, the weekend is pretty wide open at this time. It would be nice to get it done this weekend and clean it all up. The moral of the story is, don’t start a project with a high percentage of rain in the forecast!

Back again, it’s the Thursday Threesome!

Onesome: Cool– Well, summer is almost gone (except for those Down Under who are expecting it soon) and the cooler weather is coming. …and other than those who live in places like Hawai’i, things are about to change. Which do you prefer, the coolness of Winter where you live or the warmth of your Summer? I prefer the warmth of Summer in the choices listed. However, I really prefer autumn. The colors are amazing, the weather is nice - warm during the day and cool at night - and there is a lot of sports: Football, baseball, hockey, basketball. What more could I ask for?

Twosome: Blue– Today’s softball: blue or green. Pick one! …okay, if it’s a tie (high or low), what color do you prefer for decorating? For decorating, I prefer greens. “My” bathroom downstairs is done in greens and oak trim. Of course I’m a guy, so what do I care about colors?

Threesome: Mornings– Mornings, afternoons, evenings, nights… What’s your favorite time of day. …and what makes it so for you? Evenings of course. Afternoons are nice, but there is so much going on at night. And of course, mornings were made to stay up until not to get up for! I read somewhere once that you are at your physical and mental peak for a three hour period around your birth time. Since I was born at 1:12 am, that means I am at my peak between 11:30pm and 2:30am.

Ok, let’s play 50 Questions. (This meme was blatantly pilfered from Misty)

TV Tuesday is back again! Here is this week’s edition.

It’s that time of year again and everyone’s heading back to school! So we’ll talk back to school this week!!

1. What’s your favorite show that deals with school in some way? (Facts of Life, A Different World, Saved by the Bell, Fame, etc..) I’m reaching way back, but it was Room 222. I thought Pete Dixon was an awesome teacher in a difficult situation. Michael Constantine (that’s right, the father in My Big Fat Greek Wedding) is what everybody wanted a principal to be. And I absolutely fell in love with Alice Johnson; what teenage boy wouldn’t?

2. Which TV school would you have attended if given a choice? Fillmore High in the show Head of the Class. Doesn’t everybody want a teacher like Howard Hesseman?

3. What’s your favorite back to school commercial? Maybe the Dell Dude going back to school; I don’t really have a favorite or anything when it comes to commercials about back to school.

~Bonus~ Reality check! What’s your most memorable back to school moment? Junior high; sixth grade, I think. I was kicked out of school on the first day for wearing bell bottoms. Yeah, that’s right. I’m a rebel. Don’t get in my way or I’ll grind you up. My mom bought me these cheesey rust colored, yellow striped bell bottoms that was something straight out of The Monkees. How was I to know we had a school policy against bell bottoms? It was rescinded later that year, but a number of us were sent home that day!

To look at it, I haven’t done a whole lot. Lets see…

I moved the first three rows of patio tile so that I could dig out around the existing, falling down retaining wall. Then, I took out all the old limestone blocks on the west side of the patio border. Those stones were HEAVY! The biggest was 43″ long and 6″ thick and 9″ deep; I believe it weighed nearly 100 pounds. Most were around 36″ long, however and were somewhat lighter but still a bitch to move. Then I used a spade to clear out the edge; I put down black landscaping cloth so that water will continue to drain but the dirt won’t go through the wall. I then put down a full row of the 6″ retaining wall blocks I picked up at Menard’s. I put a partial second row; it has to be sloped away from the house, ya know!

Today looks like a day that I won’t get much done. It rained last night and was raining earlier this morning. I want to build the south wall before filling in behind the wall to level out the ground. Then I’ll lay down all the patio blocks to make a nice, fairly smooth surface. KC knows a guy where she works who will take the extra stones; also, this guy has some dirt that I can pick up to back fill behind the wall.

I’ve still got to figure out what to do with the area around the heat exchanger for the air conditioner, but that shouldn’t take too much to figure out. It’s not that big of an area. Anyway, here are the progress pictures: