D-E-D spells ded

[judecorp]

Man, I am Burned. Out. Whose bright idea was it to have a "long weekend of work?" Oh wait, that was me.

After finding unsatisfactory lawn mowers on Friday, we painted some stuff for the kid room and then I framed some more art that a nice friend of our friend Melissa sent us. And it was hot and sweaty and nasty and I was a cranky turd.

Yesterday we spent some time looking at lawn mowers online and trying to find local dealers (we were thinking refurbished) but instead said, "Eff it," and went to one of my least favorite places ever, Home Depot. (I find it thoroughly chaotic and overwhelming, not to mention C-R-A-Z-Y.) We checked out some lawn mowers and ended up getting an electric one. (Good call, lizardjee, though I didn't get your comment until today.) On the plus side, it is SO light and SO quiet and you don't need any gas or oil (so no smell). On the down side, you need a long cord to use it. We ended up getting a 50-foot cord and apparently 50 feet is not long enough to get to the far back of our back yard. Whoops. I think we're going to try to Freecycle a weed whacker.

I also attempted to plant some of the perennials we'd bought for the front of the house, and I am going to stop being smug about being all small and bendable or whatever because HOLY CARP, bending and crouching to weed the garden and dig holes KICKED. MY. ASS. I began to get all hot and cranky and out of breath and ended up on the couch like a wilted flower. Jen finished the plants and put the mulch down, thank goodness. Later that night we hung everything up in the kid's room: shelves, art, you name it. I have all the baby laundry ready to go, and we took the car seat out so we can install it in the car. I also went through the breast pump we bought from a friend and tossed all of the parts that I replaced with new ones. And then? Bed.

This morning Jen got us some Dunkin Donuts breakfast and we finished the back yard (well, as far as the cord would reach) and got 789798798432798 mosquito bites. We went to the mall to return some stuff, ate a quick mall lunch, and saw Pirates of the Carribbean: At World's End. It was entertaining, and it was nice to sit and not do yard work, but it was not my favorite of the series for sure. I felt like it was kind of jumbled and just tried to do too many storylines at once (same thing I thought about Spiderman 3, actually). And it was LONG. We got delicious DQ Blizzards after the movie and then went to Trader Joe for some groceries. And now? NOTHING.

Well, Jen is preheating the oven so we can cook some stuffed clams and I will microwave some vegetables, but other than that we have a big fat ZERO planned for the evening, which is just how I like it after all of the work this weekend.

Oh wait, I have to do all of that dang laundry. DRAT!

Comments

[hopemcg.livejournal.com]

We have an electric mower, too. It is a nice little machine, although we *are* on our second one already. I think we were a little tough on the first one. We have 2 50ft cords. The 2 50s is nice because you can separate them and just use one when you are weed whacking or something near the house.

[hoo.livejournal.com]

I also vote for an electric mower. They always start, every spring, without fussing with oil+gas mixture, clogged plugs or anything else. I grew up pushing a Black&Decker electric mower, and it lasted for 16 years. Big lawn too - 3/4ths acre. Mum is still using the second one, though on a smaller yard. That one is probably 12.

I've had one in this house for 7 years.

18" B&D Mower from Amazon

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's a nice mower that you have. It costs what we paid, although I would rather have had the free shipping. ;) And it's an actual brand instead of whatever we got.

Hopefully we will still have good luck.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Getting a second 50' cord is a really good idea. I'm sorry you've had to replace your mower already. What happened? I don't want to have to get another one any time soon.

[hopemcg.livejournal.com]

Um... The short version is that we mowed too many rocks. They border our yard and we often get lazy and mow too close to the them so we have to weed whack less. Bad idea...

I took it apart to fix it ('cause that's the kind of girl that I am) and it was seriously messed up. We had cracked some cheap-to-replace plastic parts that protect the expensive-to-replace motor stuff. We didn't notice and kept using it and eventually killed the rotor. That was going to be $60+ dollars to replace, so we just got a new one from ebay for not that much more.

Our fault, not the machine's.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Oh, phew. That makes me feel a little better.

Stay away from those rocks!!