Saturday morning started out as it often does. I went to the YMCA for one of Ted's step classes. Michelle came along to use the cardio machines while the kids stayed at the Y's Kid Stop. On the way home Michelle mentioned that we should stop by the Home Depot. TruGreen Chemlawn had called late last week and said that they would do a lawn aeration on Monday. Concerned that the machine would hit a sprinkler head, Michelle wanted us to pick up some of those little flags that you put in your lawn to mark the locations of the sprinklers. As thanks to the kids for behaving so well that morning, we also stopped by Quikava after our Home Depot visit. When we pulled up at our house, the guy from TruGreen was already there. We mentioned that we were happy he was there but that we were expecting him on Monday. He had only done a portion of the lawn but we quickly flagged the remaining sprinklers to make it easier for him.
I always laugh once a lawn has been aerated. It looks like a herd of Yorkshire Terriers ran over the lawn. There were plugs of dirt all over the place. Since the lawn was now aerated, it was time to take the next step in our plans and overseed the lawn. I went to Blue Seal supply in Milford and bought 200 pounds of their “Classic Blend” of grass seed. Holy Cow! I have never spent so much money on something as boring as grass seed. For goodness sake! I could have bought something fun or a cool gadget like a wireless Palm Pilot. The bill ran around $320! For grass seed! I'm sorry. It's still sinking in even now. The bill for aeration was bad enough but this? Just for seed?! I got home and spent the next couple of hours applying it. Once it was over I was glad it was done. Michelle and I had been planning this aeration and overseeding project since we closed on the house. Now September is here at last and now it's behind us. The only thing that remained to be done was to reprogram the sprinklers for a more frequent but shorter duration watering schedule to help the seed germinate.
I picked up a couple of DVDs for the weekend after I left Blue Seal. The main reason for the stop was to get Monsters, Inc. but I also rented the girls Scooby Doo and the Cyber Chase and thought I'd try my luck with the movie Shallow Hal. The girls got a kick out of the first two but I haven't made it to Shallow Hal yet.
The highlight of this weekend happened early this morning. As Michelle and I were waking up, she said, “Put your hand on my belly.” There were clear distinct movements from the new baby! Cool! We went to 8AM Mass this morning followed by the usual breakfast downstairs. For a while there on the way home Claire droned on endlessly about wanting to go to a swimming pool. She was almost ready to cry over it. “Yes, Claire, soon, but not today.” In the afternoon we finally got around to taking a walk around the downtown Milford Oval to check out the stores and shops a little more closely. We followed it up by ordering some take out dinner from Milanos. We had to explain to Claire that this is the brief time when the boys are at just the right age that you don't want to take them out to eat. I remember this age with Claire years ago — when eating at a restaurant is more stressful than eating at home. In several months it should pass.
I did install MacOS 10.2 (aka Jaguar) and Photoshop Elements this past weekend. I didn't have a chance to really try them out though. I do like that Apple has toned down a bit the "gummy"-ness of their interface. Version 10.0 and 10.1 were just a little over the top with their button rendering. All the buttons looked like you could just pop them off the screen and eat them like Gummy Bears. They also got their Command-Tab key to work like Alt-Tab does in Windows. I know that is such a small thing but what a difference to my sanity it makes. I haven't signed up with iChat, Apple's new AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) program. If anyone is on AIM and would like to setup some buddy lists (Suzanne?), drop me an email. I'll likely be signing up for an AIM account soon. I just don't get a lot of time to sit at the computer desk. Perhaps what I need instead is a Mac laptop. It can't run much more than a half ton of grass seed... (smirk)