Moving On ...

I can't dwell on that mess with the robbing, lying thief anymore. So I'll post something more positive.

Today was awesome! The weather was beautiful, sunny and in the 60s. We finished up almost all the leaves in the front yard. There's just a few around some shrubs in my dining room garden area, and on the far side of the driveway. But tomorrow's supposed to be sunny and in the 60s again, so we can get back out there and do the last of it then. But the worst of it's done - two huge piles that were in the front yard. I'm really glad we got some late-season good weather to finish that up.

I got to take Tyler for two nice walks today, which he always enjoys. He had a vet checkup today, and blood work - to check his kidney function. After last time, I did about a month's worth of research, till my head was spinning and I couldn't take it anymore. I'd finally devised a diet for him I thought would be okay, but as the months have gone by I've been less and less happy with this current diet. No reason in particular, just ... not too happy. So I'm waiting to see what his blood test results are (will get them Monday). Hopefully, hopefully, his numbers will have come down - which will tell me this diet was, after all, working. If there's any other change, then I'm going to be changing his diet, although I don't know in what way yet. I'll burn that bridge when I come to it.

But the vet said Tyler seemed to be doing well, he commented on his strong, slow heartrate - a good thing, usually seen in more athletic animals. I have been taking Tyler for more and longer walks lately. Maybe that helped. And Tyler himself seemed to have a very good day - seemed in a good mood, enjoyed his outings and spending time in the yard. (The vet trip was stressful, but he bounced back nicely).

And, I started on my first real Imaginarium project. There's a small cubby in this one wall, sort of like a tiny closet with no shelves or door. I've decided to turn it into just that - a small closet with shelves, and not a door, but probably a decorative curtain covering it. I bought all the supplies last weekend - 1x6 for shelves (cut at the Home Despot where I bought it), stain, paint, etc. Today I begain staining the shelves.

They're not turning out quite as I envisioned, yet. The stain was lighter than I thought, and isn't going on particularly well. So I just put a second coat on, and it's starting to look better. They'll probably need one more, and if I'm still not getting what I want, I may look into getting a darker color (I assume I can stain a darker color over a lighter color, if I haven't polyurethaned them yet). But I'd really prefer just to get what I have to work - this project cost way more than I thought it was going to as it was (and I'm not really done yet, as I don't have the material for the curtain or anything for a rod to hang it from yet).

Tomorrow I'll get the support pieces cut, and work on starting to get them installed. Then I can paint (and continue to work on the shelves). Once the supports are installed and everything's painted, it's just a matter of slipping the shelves onto the supports, and hanging the curtain.

I'm excited ... my first Imaginarium project, thought up entirely by me, and put into motion. I hope I can finish it tomorrow (though that's going to be tricky what with needing paint and stain to dry, etc). When it's done, I'll post pictures.

On that note, I think I'm ready to go crawl into bed and read for awhile before a good night's sleep, and sleeping in tomorrow.