Patio Beast

The other day, I was sweeping the patio and I see this spider just chillin and I'm like...alrighty, spider, off you go. But he doesn't go. I get a little bit closer and see that he's a fat little guy. And also, he's dead. I blew on him several times to make sure. Then I notice a pretty little red hourglass on his belly and I think, well, shucks, that's a black widow. And sure enough, it was. A dead one, but one nonetheless. On my patio. And I've seen them before, growing up in the woods, but I haven't seen one in awhile and I just think they're pretty. Now, we know I don't handle spiders well, but this one was no longer with us and completely harmless. I blew several more times just in case. And I got some pictures...I was bored that day. But just look how shiny and black he is.

Alrighty...enough about Dead Spider. So, David and I have spent the last weekend and most nights this week reorganizing our garage. When we started the whole "house re-do" project, we overlooked the fact that we would be moving furniture here and there and getting rid of stuff in the closets, etc. So, the garage became a dumping ground for uncategorized items and boxes (yes, I am very much like Monica on Friends). We finished the dining room, office, guest room, and nursery and got everything cleaned out and straightened up. Then, we walked into the garage and gasped. How did we let this happen? How did we not foresee this? We only let two people see in the inside of the garage during this time...Zack and Sara. Zack helped David move boxes up into the attic and Sara sees and knows all, so it couldn't be helped.

And last night, we FINISHED! OOOhh, you should see it. So clean and sparkly and beautiful. I mean, not really, it's just a garage, but it does make me sigh happily. AND, the best part is, we went up into the attic and went through all the boxes up there and I tell you what, I got rid of soooo much stuff. So, now I have a HUGEnormous pile of stuff to sell in the yard sale. It's going to be awesome. We also threw away a lot of stuff. The garbage pick-up was yesterday. The front curb of our house looked like a colony of trash moved into the neighborhood. There was even a broken elliptical machine. Which, the garbage men did not take. I don't blame them. It was kind of big. So, I left it there all day and figured David and I could move it back into the garage and he could take it to the dumpster at work later. Well, David came home and said, "Did you move the elliptical back into the garage? Because, it's gone." I said, "Yep...sure did. Seumas and I lifted it up over our heads and carried it into the garage." So, apparently, one of our neighbors is the proud owner of a broken elliptical machine. Fine with me because I don't have to deal with it. Here are some before and after pictures of the garage...

Before

After

Of course, neither of these are our garage, but you get the idea. It was literally that big of a difference. Yay for cleaning!