Angela Law

animal lover, gardener, knitter, and gourmet cook
 
home improvements

sewer

We had the sewer lines replaced at our house last week, The good news is that the job is done. The bad news is that we have to pay for it and do a bunch of additional work (like repaint the floor in the music room, replace the floor in the bathroom, reseed the back yard, and clean up the mess).

We started clean-up yesterday and got pretty far with it–the shop and music room are almost back in order. We can’t fix any of the floors until the concrete cures for at least a month, so that is unfortunate. And it has been raining non-stop since they finished so we haven’t been able to tackle the yard yet, but this week’s weather looks better, so it’ll get done soon enough.

There was one thing that made us feel less bad about paying for this job–the main sewer line for the house was actually broken in half. The guys working on the project said they never saw one that looked that bad and still worked. So, I guess we dodged a bullet there.

This project has also inspired us to finish up some things in the basement (mostly trim) that have been put off for too long, so I guess that’s another positive.

movies

nocturnal animals

Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal starred in this thriller. In it, Adams received a manuscript for a novel from her ex-husband. So part of the movie was about the story in the novel, which was quite good. And the other part was about the main character’s relationship with her husband and ex. Good stuff.

My rating: 4/5
do-it-yourself, motorcycles

first ride

Brian and I just took our first motorcycle ride of the season. He’s been out on his bike a few times, but this is the first chance we had to go out together. We took a ride to the Conemaugh Gap Scenic Overlook as I needed a photo for Do Johnstown. Since we redid the site last year, it uses larger photos. We’re down to the last few that need to be replaced, and we’ll probably get those via motorcycle trips. Anyway, we did the Haw’s Pike/Cramer Pike loop. It was a nice day for a ride.

In other non-motorcycle news, I painted two of the walls in my “studio” yesterday. Why two? Well, this used to be Jake’s room and he wanted two of the walls to be dark gray and the other two to be turquoise. I wasn’t a fan of the turquoise, so I painted those walls off-white. It looks really nice with the dark gray and really brightened up the room. For someone who doesn’t like to paint, I’ve sure been painting enough recently.

do-it-yourself, gardening & landscaping

house & garden

I feel like we’ve been making good progress on both fronts. We’re trying to tackle some of the easy tasks around the house (like painting) just to get those items knocked off the list. And, I’m trying to do this kind of stuff when it’s not nice outside, so that I don’t have to feel like I’m losing out on my gardening time. Yesterday, we painted the ceiling in our bedroom and the previous weekend, we painted some trim and a door.

I’ve been making great progress outside, too. We’ve had enough nice days this month and I’ve been going outside as much as possible in the evenings. I feel like I’m ahead of the game right now (talk to me in July and see if that’s still the case). The yard work is under control and the garden is on schedule. We even bought new patio furniture today and Brian got that assembled. So, it’s looking good in the back yard (except for the lack of hedges).

books

scarpetta

This was a novel written by Patricia Cornwell, and was from her Scarpetta series, hence the title, I guess. While I read it quickly enough, I really wasn’t that into it. The main story centered around the murder of a dwarf, which seemed kind of superfluous to me. Like, why a dwarf? It could have been anyone, really. Anyway, it had this twist at the end that you couldn’t see coming–I hate those kind. Give me some clues, will you?

My rating: 2.5/5