Got the truck back...

It's only going to cost us........ $2.75.

The guys at A-1 Transmission started it up cold this morning and drove it around, then came back to the shop and added a quart of transmission fluid. They then test drove it again this afternoon and don't think there's anything wrong with it. About the time they called to tell me that, the guys at Don the Muffler Man (they're the guys who thought it might be a problem in the first place) called with their estimate of $325 to rebuild only the reverse valve. I've got to remember to call them in the morning and let them know that I won't be having them fix the tranny unless it develops a new problem.

I got the camera back, and have already taken ~150 pix with it. So far no problems. Now I need to get a new camera bag, since the old one doesn't fit the new camera.

It was a nice plan

When we did Family Construction Weekend at our house, one of the projects was to put pavers between Snakewyfe&Ringsnake's driveway and ours. Earlier this week, piles of landscape timbers appeared between each of the driveways on the circle, and then raised borders on all of the between-driveway grass sections started to appear.

Yesterday I ran into Dave (the maintenance guy) installing the borders, and asked him why he hadn't said anything before we went to all the work of laying the pavers and restoring all the bare spots in the lawn. His answer was that he didn't know until earlier this week that he and his wife were buying the three buildings from Francis (his uncle and our current landlord), and that his wife had told him what he was going to be doing to spruce the place up.

So, the intermediate phase:

large version
Next the space gets a weed=blocking fabric layer and then gets filled in with bark mulch.

We'll reuse one or two of the pavers in the back yard, but if anyone wants 3-4 18" diameter pebble-topped pavers, let me know.

Cute kitty pic

teeka just (quietly) told me I should sneak into her craft room because mumble.

Figuring it was something worth taking a picture of, I grabbed my camera and quietly went in. Teeka has a track light rail along the wall above her bench, and it has halogen lights on it so that she has enough light for beading. Being bright warm lights, they attract cats. In an attempt to keep the cats out of the middle of where she's working, one of the lights is pointed at a pillow at the end of the bench, to try to encourage the cats to go there instead of curling up on top of what she's working on. It doesn't always work. Today, however, Marley is sleeping there, curled up against the old stuffed bear who also lives there.

click for larger version.