Had a busy and somewhat productive weekend. Met with a group of neighbors Saturday morning to plan a new streetside Christmas decoration. The one we’ve been using is about 8 years old and a lot of new neighbors who want to participate are in homes where the previous owner either didn’t join in or where the decoration was thrown away when the house was sold. So we decided on a new decoration (a large star with the word Peace at the base) and we’ll start scheduling Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon work parties. The design is simple enough so that we shouldn’t need more than about 3-4 work days.

Spent the remainder of Saturday cleaning house…and boy did it (and does it still) need it! Things just got away from me with trying to paint my bedroom and travel back and forth to Seattle to help Kevin and S0ula with the big move. And speaking of Kevin and Soula, they are finally able to just work at home rather than going back and forth between the rental and their home. They’ve put up a temporary fence across part of the backyard that makes a dog run in about 1/3 of the yard. Kevin also took out a small wall in the laundry area so the washer and dryer now fit. Don’t know how the former residents used the space ’cause it was impossible to open the dryer the way it was set up. I think they are both exhausted from the move and will be spending most of the next few months just unpacking and getting settled. I doubt there will be any renovation projects until next spring.

Spent Sunday doing yard work, trimming until the yard waste bin was full. Probably have 2 more weekends of trimming which will work out well to get most everything finished before the end of daylight savings time.

Sunday evening was spent doing taxes. That’s right, still doing taxes. Promised a co-worker I would help with her taxes last spring. She wound up filing for an extension meaning her tax return is due on 10/15. Didn’t completely finish (she needs to provide a bit more info) but expect I’ll have everything completed before the deadline. She’ll be getting refunds from both the feds and the state, so she’s happy. And I’m happy to at last have all the taxes done for 2005…and not have to deal with taxes for at least a few months until it starts all over again in January.

Spending most evenings lately watching tv. So far am watching a few new shows as well as continuing with a few oldies. Desperate Housewives, ER, Grey’s Anatomy, Boston Legal and Numbers are the oldies but goodies from previous years. Heroes, Studio 60, and Jericho are the newbies that have made it onto my must see list. Still deciding on a couple of others, but don’t want to get hooked onto much more.