Hi everyone! August managed to whip right by us. Josh is now only 2 days away from his Senior year of high school and lamenting, just a bit, how quickly summer has gone. Of course weatherwise we've had another of those on again off again summers. August, for example was cooler than July overall and we even had a week or two where there was a definite nip of Fall in the morning air. Makes dressing for work a challenge!
Probably the biggest news we have for August is that Josh bought his first car. He finally managed to get a job over in Maple Grove at one of his favorite clothing stores but that meant he needed a car to get there. So, we did the usual searching and researching of various models until we found one we could all live with. He is now the proud owner of a 1999 Volkswagon Jetta. Navy blue, light grey interior and a trunk big enough to fit a couple bodies in. Seriously. The back seat folds completely flat and two adults could lay in there without much trouble. So far it seems to be running just fine; we can only hope that it won't give us any expensive problems down the road.
As for Josh's new job, he was pretty pleased to finally get in at PacSun over in Maple Grove. Panchero's, as you know, was giving him a bit of a hard time not to mention doing an admirable job of screwing up our holiday plans, so we're happy he was finally able to leave that job behind. Now he can say he's done his fast food stint! Now the challenge will be in reigning him in on his wardrobe spending. He gets a pretty substantial discount (actually we do too) so I'm sure we'll be having a few discussions about making sure we have enough moolah to pay for his new wheels, insurance etc. Ahh, the joys of automobile ownership!
School starts on Tuesday, and I think (hope) we are all ready. My credit cards are squealing a bit so I think that says it all. Anyone who tells you that boys are cheaper to outfit for school doesn't know Josh. Anyway, I think the only thing we don't have ironed out yet is his parking permit for school but that's a first day of school sort of thing. His class schedule doesn't look too terribly daunting and his tougher classes seem to be spread out pretty evenly so with any luck it will be a good year for him.
This weekend we're tackling a few of our leftover projects here at home before our weather turns ugly and we can't do them at all. Rich got the deck sealed a few weeks ago but we still have the pergola and the posts and rails to do so that was our project today. We finished the pergola except for a couple of outside boards and tomorrow we'll tackle the rails. Yay. I had hoped to paint the downstairs bath this weekend too but pitched in on the deck instead so Rich wouldn't have to do it all. This volunteer effort unfortunately included clambering up on top of the pergola to get all of the boards from above while Rich worked on them from below. I've never been a fan of heights but since I was the fool who suggested we do it that way I couldn't very well whine about it. I have a feeling my knees and back will be doing more than enough wimpering tomorrow though. Yeah, I know. Suck it up. On the up side (pardon the pun) it was a beautiful day to be outside in the sunshine as opposed to stuck inside painting the bathroom.
At any rate, I hope you're having a wonderful Labor Day weekend wherever you are. Now, I'm off to soak my weary bones for a few minutes...
