Busy Monday

Took the day off work. By 8 a.m., I'd given the trim in one of the downstairs rooms its first coat. I'm sure I'm doing that room in completely the wrong order. First I did the floor (which is now covered in a sheet of plastic to protect it from the paint I will no doubt splash/spill/spatter). Then I masked off all the trim with blue painter's tape without really thinking, and it cost 6$ for the tape and an hour or so's work so what the heck, I painted it. Tomorrow should be paint-the-walls day and I'll finish up with final coat on the trim after that. Remembered to remove the masking tape soon after painting this time, cos no matter what they say about masking tape glue coming unstuck up to 60 days later, if it's covered in paint it will rip of part of the paintwork.

Then went to the insurance agent to pick up paperwork, then to the DMV again, this time for my truck. It now has some NY license plates which I must remember to swap for the California tags. And in NY, you insure the vehicle not the driver. Seems like a better solution to me. As long as you have a valid USA driving license, you can drive my car. With my permission, that is.

On the way back from DMV, went to Forge River Nursery to buy first plants for the pond. We now have one white water lily, one pink water lily (both hardy so they should survive the winter), one purple flag with varigated leaves, and one non-descript iris (label just said, "Iris", so that's what she'll be called). And they had HUGE koi. Almost as big as the dog. Well...OK I exaggerate. They were only as big as the cat. How much? A little more than the goldfish we used to win at the fairground by throwing ping-pong balls into goldfish bowls. Not that these monsters would fit a fin into a goldfish bowl.

I think they were gold-plated. How much?

Only Five Hundred Dollars!

Needless to say, I didn't buy one. Though I think the local raccoons would have met their match if they tried to snack on one of these babies. I'm sure they have teeth.

The lilies, irises and a few water lettuce are now installed in the pond. And I cleared about six more bagsful of overgrowing wild rose and brambles and grapevines and Goodness-Knows-What too. I'm glad no-one turned up while I was doing that because I would no doubt have slipped off the narrow ledge and fallen splash into the pond. Given the heat today, I was tempted to do that anyway.

And at the beach this evening, found out what Fury was so excited about under the boardwalk to the sand. Rabbits!!!!! (I saw one, Fury didn't notice!)