More of this journal stuff. No way am I doing this every day.

I cleaned up the garage on Sunday, Alex's empty crates and junk, thinking I'll want to start using it as a workshop soon. Among his junk was a pile of coin wrappers, and, it turned out, $98 in coins. I borrowed a nickel wrapper for the $2 in nickels I'd had on my dresser for a couple weeks. Mmm, organization good.

Sunday night I browsed around to get some ideas on what I might want to build for a laptop stand. kareila had pointed out the Laptop Laidback which is ridiculously simple to build but can only be used in bed. I ran across something called a Reader's Table, which looks more interesting. The trouble with building either of these from scratch is finding the unusual hardware involved, so I did some searching and browsing and wasn't really able to conclude anything about what I'd want to buy or where I could get it.

Monday morning I noticed a catalog in Alex's pile of crap on the table, left open to a page that happened to include a slightly different reader's table. Total coincidence, Alex didn't know I was looking for that sort of thing. Also much less expensive than the Levenger, and with what might be construed as a more stable base (I-shaped instead of t-shaped). It doesn't quite do everything I want, like adjusting down to 24" which is about lap-height on the couch, but I might end up with one of these anyway.

I fixed the showerhead that Alex had managed to separate from its tubing and then went off to the newly opened Home Depot to look around a bit. I found an anti-slip pad for my new rug, and kareila called to say she was getting underway on the cruise. Bon voyage and all that. I didn't find anything that really inspired me to work on furniture, though. I didn't run across the necessary hardware or much in the way of hardwood lumber for that matter. I'd call it a reconnaisance trip.

As I exited the store it started raining and I remembered I was going to look at plants. So I went around and browsed the seedling trays in the rain. I found some very healthy pepper and tomato plants, and also picked up some basil to restock and maybe grow some outdoors. We have this one pathetically overpicked basil plant that lives in the kitchen window and needs some help. So yay, I got gardening stuff.

Alex and I played gin rummy and watched war movies all evening. Just about all night. Of course I won :P I managed to cut it off around 3:30 to get some sleep. I woke up around 8 in a gardening mood and went out to rip the weeds out of our unused garden area.

I was about half done with the weeds when I spotted Mr. Brown Snake. He's a mostly harmless guy only about a foot long and half an inch thick, but he was in my way, so I tossed him out in the grass with the handle of my shovel. I think he was a bit annoyed or scared at having taken flight, so he stayed still for a while waiting for me to go away. That was long enough for me to grab my camera, but he wouldn't stick his head out for a picture.

By 10 I had the weeds out, the dirt rearranged, and the plants in, and a thunderstorm even saved me the trouble of watering afterwards. Cool. I went off to shower (and miss bluedaisy's phone call, apparently) and find breakfast. From there, it's a day like any other day, where I sit at a computer and fiddle with web shit until after everyone else has left, then set the alarm and drive home with a headache. Oh well. At least I did something real this morning. I got my hands dirty and it was good.