Yesterday's posting was short because I spent much of the day helping out in the yard.  Tom put in a solid 10 hours (!) weed-eating, mowing, raking, trimming, etc.  Alex was a big help (once I woke him up after noon) and major progress was made.  But Tom and I, at least, were totally worn out by dinner time.

It was a productive morning today, much of which was spent on the phone.

  

I made an exterminator appointment for tomorrow (we found some dead roaches when we got home, and Alex found a black widow while we were gone), talked to the bank (got a $25 'monthly maintenance fee' deleted), cleared up at problem with subbing at the District Office, changed a doctor appointment and a dentist appointment (will be subbing both of those days), took care of some AQG business, 'found' Carol (Bobbi C. said she was MIA), etc.  

Then Tom and I tackled half of the front yard; he mowed with the riding mower (it was so thick I never would have made much progress with the push mower) and I raked up the piles and dumped them in the big green can.  Just that one side of the yard filled one can plus a good portion of the second.  It's a tad warm (and humid) today, so I finally had to give up and transfer to the pool while he finished up.  He also mowed some of the back yard, so after yesterday's 10-hour marathon, and today's work, the property once again looks like people are actually living here instead of an abandoned property.  (And we didn't find any bikes 'growing out of' trees...)

I still haven't made time to deal with my vacation photos, but hope to work on that over the next few days.  I took 715 pictures, so it could take a while to resize and crop them.  But be patient... vacation pix are coming!