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Oh, May… where have you gone? You were a busy lil’ month while you were in your prime, but now look at you. Reduced to a few measly days strung out at the bottom of the calendar, clinging to a page whose 44,640 minutes of fame are nearly over.

Erm… so yeah. I’ve been keeping busy, is what I’m saying. Work has been pretty darn busy, and June is looking even worse in that regard – workfriend Jeremy is moving on to greener pastures, so I’ll be picking up a little bit from him. And at the same time, they decided to ramp up the number of email promotions they send out. Brian is looking to hire a full-time email person to free me up a bit, but he’s out for a while because his wife is having twins tomorrow and he seems to feel that somehow involves him. So I expect to be pulling double-duty, in a sense, for at least the next month. I just hope it doesn’t turn into the six months of double-duty I had before we hired Jeremy.

However, I’ve finally got my evenings free again! Last Thursday was my last web class of the season. I’m not teaching anything this summer, so that’ll give me a few months off, at least. I’ll probably teach the class again in the fall, though, to help justify the time I put into the course packet and planning. So now that my evenings are free, I’m already looking for ways to fill them back up again. I swear: I’m the busiest lazy person I know.

CSSnewbie is still keeping me busy. You’ll be getting a 4-month update soon, but I’ll give you a sneak peek: numbers are about the same across the board, but I made less money again. Uhh… go me. Right now, I just have to tell myself that this is a long-term thing. If I keep at it, I’m sure there will come a time a year or two from now when I’ll look back and wonder what I was so worried about. Right now, though, it’s hard not to wonder if I’m not just filling my time with poorly-paid busywork.

Amanda and I spent our Memorial Day weekend in the backyard, cleaning things up. We borrowed a wood chipper from a work friend and spent one evening last week chipping up the last of the brush that was left over from our great de-Privet-ing adventure last summer. Then this weekend, we took our two wood piles (used for our wood-burning stove, theoretically) completely apart and reorganized them into one pile in one location (right behind the garage, for those that know the geography). It looks a lot nicer now, actually. And we have the concrete slab back there open now. I plan to build a compost bin on half the slab in the near future. Then I can clean up our very literal compost “heap” laying next to the slab — which is built on top of river rock, no less, which should make cleanup a joy.

So what’s the moral of the story? Well, that I’m pretty whiny, I guess. :) But also that I’m keeping busy. And that’s gotta be good. Oh, and I promised Amanda that I’d finally get around to putting up Europe photos in the near future, so that’s something to look forward to.

Amanda and I have been busy little bees these last few days. So has Miles, actually. Observe.

Amanda’s mom was in town over the weekend, so we spent a bit of time hanging out with her. However, Saturday morning/afternoon was deemed mother-daughter time, so I was stuck at home by myself. Struck by a bit of boredom-inspired productivity, I decided to clean and organize the back porch. The porch has been my impromptu storage room ever since I moved in to the house nearly a year ago. There have been boxes stacked everywhere, furniture shoved uselessly against the back wall, and random stuff my parents left strewn about. As of Saturday evening, though, it was clean and usable as, well, a back porch. Featuring seating for 8, even.

Miles was also productive during that afternoon. He used his spare time while I was occupied to learn how to jump over the back fence. He escaped the backyard four times in total. The fourth time, I had to drive around the neighborhood to find him, then wrestle him to the ground in a stranger’s yard to get a leash on him. And then I rearranged the stuff in the yard slightly to make it tougher for him to get out.

Sunday was friend Juan’s birthday, so we celebrated with a brunch at Hannah and Juan’s place. It was a delicious time – we had authentic Costa Rican breakfast cuisine, Bloody Marys, and coffee cake. Miles was kenneled, so he was generally good.

After work on Monday, Amanda and I decided to drive out to West Des Moines to go to Lowe’s and Petsmart. We picked up some sample tiles at Lowe’s to try out in the kitchen, as we’re planning on redoing the kitchen floor in the next couple of weeks. I also bought some grass seed and mulch so that I could try again for some grass in the backyard. We stocked up on pet food at Petsmart, and also got new a new toy, tag, and box of treats for Miles. I guess we were feeling generous. When we got home, we discovered that he’d gone Number Two in his kennel (which is in our bedroom) while we were gone. It was pretty nasty to clean up, as it required climbing headfirst into the kennel. I was feeling significantly less generous after that.

On Tuesday, we decided to let Miles back into the backyard in the afternoon while we were at work, since the drizzling rain was supposed to have moved off. Of course, it poured that afternoon, suggesting we’d have a soaked puppy when we got home. However, Miles was pretty dry when we got back after work, which meant he was smart for once and stayed on the porch during the rain. He must’ve gotten a little bored, though, because he chewed the arm off the wicker loveseat I had just gotten cleaned up and arranged the Saturday prior. I was fairly annoyed with him as I grabbed his water bowl and headed inside. He didn’t seem to notice, though, because he happily jumped up on me as I came in the door, sending the water bowl crashing to the floor, sending ceramic shards everywhere. My annoyance went up a notch or ten, and then a bit more when I sliced my thumb picking up the pieces. I spent the rest of the evening seeding the back yard, trying not to use my thumb. Miles spent a good portion of his evening in his kennel.