Weekend Wrap-up

Caption Contest Winner! For the second week in a row, Nadine is this week's winner with, "Another big party at the local Brat house."
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Weight Watcher's Update: Another slow week, but a loss nonetheless. This week's drop is another .2# bringing my 12w total to 25.6#; still 2#/week which is pretty aggressive.
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This holiday weekend was not relaxing. In preparation for Mal's upcoming birthday party at the end of the month Steve and I decided to sand and stain the deck; this, apparently, hadn't been since since the deck went up, as best we figure, judging by the way it was horribly weathered and the boards had been popping up and creating all sorts of splinters. Nails had been popped up as well, so Steve bought 4" screws to replace the 3.5" nails. Friday night we picked up a floor sander from Home Depot and Saturday morning Steve sanded the deck and I helped him sand the stairs.

The deck was previously a weathered stain, about the color of chocolate milk. Now it's a GORGEOUS mahoganey flame; medium- to dark-red. We used Cabot's Australian Timber Oil to do the staining. After a total of about 9h of staining, the deck floors, stairs, and banisters are done with two coats. I still have the top rails and and balistrates to do but the bulk of it is done and it looks so much better!

I also got some more transplanting done on Saturday. Some plants weren't too happy with the move and went into some heavy-duty shock. Hopefully the cooler weather and rain will help snap them out of it.

I'm almost glad to be back at work just so I can slow down and get away from the kids!!