In the Hot Red Light of a Black and White

News of the weekend in no particular order:

We've both been working full-time schedules. 

Mae can finally crawl like a regular baby.  She can "haul diaper" now, as we say, quite fast! 

Saw a motorcycle accident.  Not sure of the exact details since we got there about 5 seconds after it happened.  Emergency responders showed up within 3-5 minutes.  Came home and then the sheriff showed up in our neighborhood about 20 minutes later.  So I got slightly freaked out thinking that the accident victim was one of our neighbors.  But it turned out that the sheriff was looking for someone.  She got out and searched on foot.  Searched the green space across the street from my house (the duck pond).  It made me nostalgic for the Hollywood apartment near Griffith Park.  Ah, good times.

Mike and I did some spring cleaning.  Spent about 6 hours on it, I'd say.  Next we have to tackle the garage and finish redoing the backyard.  Our landlord said it's ok for us to get rid of the river rocks.  I'm hoping I can get someone to haul them away for free, but with all the labor involved and the fact that there aren't THAT many covering the postage stamp sized "yard", I'm not sure I'll get any takers.  I guess I'll wait a week and then get quotes on paying someone to haul them away.  Landlord suggested putting down grass (she vetoed my concrete idea, only because she can't afford it), but we don't have time to wait for seed, and sod doesn't work around here - too much rain. 

**As I write this, I just got an offer to take my rocks away!  Yippee!  Fingers crossed that it will work out...**

Anyway, after the rocks are gone I think I will level the soil, put down weed killer, and then bark dust on top of that.  I'm hoping then that the kids toys can go on top of that.  Libby has a playhouse and a slide, and I'd like to get a sand table too.  I've calculated that the usable area of our yard right now is only 90 square feet.  Removing the rocks will ADD 210 square feet of usable space.  Going from 90 to 300 square feet!! Can you imagine how excited I am??