And there were more. Many, many more.

So far I’m pretty taken with gardening. This is surprising as we have no garden to speak of, only stretches of weedy lawn and some dug up areas I have big hopes for. We also have a delightful shady spot at the back of the house with some healthy hostas, a spectacular number of weeds and saplings and an even more astonishing number of mosquitos. I received about 20 bites in 10 minutes on Sunday night trying to rip out some of the offending vegetation. Yesterday afternoon I wore copious and obviously poisonous amounts of bug repellant and only received a dozen or so bites after 30 minutes of weeding. The mosquitos in Northfield aren’t bad – about the same level of annoyance as in Chicago. It’s just our backyard.

I’m completely green (ha! ha! my first gardening pun!) when it comes to gardening. I joined the library yesterday and took out some books on Minnesota gardening. I’ve dug up the front garden and completely weeded it and turned over the soil. My next plan is to spread about 2″ of compost on the soil to let it settle in anticipation of Lucille coming next week when she and I can actually put in some plants (I’m thinking of tall wheat-y grasses, echinacea, black-eyed Susans, Russian sage, a smoke bush tree, and some purple-y groundcover stuff that I see everywhere). Any thoughts? Suggestions (we’re zone 4A)? My hope is when my mother comes in October we can also plant some bulbs

Our real world of pain, though, is the overgrown, weedy lawn. We ordered a push mower yesterday after reading a lot of glowing Amazon reviews and receiving reassurance from a neighbor that a push mower will do us just fine. It’s due to arrive tomorrow. I don’t know how long we’ll last without a gas mower and if a push mower is the ultimate in hippie hubris or what. Place your bets now.

The tool box

I’ve already had my bar mitzvah but, really, that counts for nothing. This year, however, has been more significant manhood-wise than any other to this point. To wit: I got a job, I finished my dissertation, we bought a station wagon, we’re buying a house, we’re having a baby. I am diving headlong into middle age. At least I still have my hair (go Godfrey genes!!)

Nonetheless, I lack a number of manly attributes. Perhaps the most notable is my complete lack of technical skill with regards to…well anything practical. Anything that results in something tangible, something someone might want to use. This is a, perhaps the, Groll male curse. Sadly, I have constant reminders of my incompetence: all three of my brothers-in-law have technical expertise up the wazoo. One is actually a contractor and the other two easily could be. I, on the other hand, do not even own a drill. My toolbox is literally a box, a cardboard box to be exact, filled with various odds and ends, a hammer, a screwdriver and whatever else I’ve had occasion to purchase over the past 7 years.

But, with an eye to being a homeowner, and as a veteran car owner, I am trying to rectify that. So, I have embarked on a mission to not run screaming from jobs I might actually be able to do myself. My greatest triumph until this past weekend had been replacing the sideview mirror on our old Civic. But this past weekend, with the help of P.’s drill (and P. himself), I hit new heights.

I decided we needed a net in the back of our station wagon that we could put groceries and the like into so that they wouldn’t go all over the back when we turned corners. What I didn’t realize was that the net would come with anchors that need to be drilled into the car. Me drilling into a car! What a ridiculous notion, sure to end in disaster. But, I remembered my mission and so called P. for the drill and his assistance.

The tricky part about the whole enterprise was that I needed to drill through the first layer of sheet metal but the not second (i.e. the car’s exterior). At this point, safe money would have bet against us having a car without holes drilled through the body. But I did it! The net is in place and it did a superb job holding our groceries this morning. I think my chest is harrier already.