I spent a lot of the day yesterday doing yard work, a completely new experience for me. Yardwork is different from gardening. It requires gasoline and makes a lot of noise.

Our landlord got his piece of crap riding mower fixed and I rode and mowed a lot yesterday. I had already done a little bit with Aidan riding with me the day before, I went really slow because its not terribly safe and then we ran out of gas. Several times I thought the thing broke on me. Well Aidan took a rare nap yesterday so I took the opportunity to really open her up - it has 5 gears and it can go really fast! I have to say I had fun. Aidan woke up just as I was finishing the front. He ate something and then went out to play in the dirt and I broke out the weed eater and cut down some grass that was on a slope that was up to my waist. We bought the weed eater last week and I insisted on the best one ($40 more) because I thought we'd be using it a lot. The thing is, it is incredibly heavy and my hands are useless for a little while when I'm done with it. I think that they still might be shaking a little bit from it.

My dad used to work for the guy who invented the weed eater. He owned the Westchase Hilton in Houston where my dad was the manager for a little while. He had this big sculpture in front of the Hotel. My dad explained to me one day that it represented the weedeater - and he told me how a weedeater works - that it is essentially string that spins around really fast. I was thinking about this while I was weedeating yesterday - and thinking about what it must have been like to be the artist who was commissioned to do that piece. I mean, its a WEEDEATER.

So I keep looking at my lawn and feeling so sort of proud - it was a LOT of work. I want to make a sandbox for Aidan where that really high grass was. Then I can use the dirt that he plays in to plant tomatoes.