Lorena had a pickup load of dirt waiting for me when I got home last night. It was the last load we needed to fill in the area between the street curb and the sidewalk. It looks nice. Now all we need is to dig out some grass to give the yard some form and put in some barkdust and that part will be done. I am hoping I can get to that next week. We are houring each side of the lawn an hour per night right now so that we can get the lawn green in case we need to sell the house. The next and maybe last project (if we move) beside the patio and fence will be the burying of a drain pipe at the side of the house. We have to get a hole cut into the curb and dig a trench under the sidewalk, but it should not really be that big of a project.

It was really odd not to have Kelly in the house as she went to the sleepover at her friend Skyler’s house on Monday night. She slept fine! We were a little worried about that, but she had all her little buddies right there with her the whole time. Nevertheless, it was great to have her back.

Right when we were about ready to read our chapter of Around the World in Eighty Days, the doorbell rang. When I went to the door, Jay Nelson was there. He had the whole family in the car because they had run over to Jim and Joann Waldo’s house right down the street to pick up a stove because Jim had gotten a new one and given the old one to Jay. They came and and we had a really good time talking about this and that. The kids mostly played upstairs, but Kelly, Christian, Neil and Lenore put on a play for us as is Kelly’s wont! Only Jay, Karen, Lenore, Miles, Neil, and Phillip were there because Osten was staying with Karen’s folks for a couple of days. They kept trying to leave, but we were having a good enough time talking that they ended up staying until about 10:30 pm. It was great!

Last night was my 29th workout on the Nordic Track machine since May 2. My weight is down right about 10 lbs. and I am feeling a lot better for having exercised. I am not losing weight as fast as I would like, but that has more to do with the fact that I eat too much when I get home from work than anything else. It is really a little bit of a marvel that I have lost any weight at all given how much I eat. It seems like I drop the most weight when I both work in the yard and work out on the machine in the same day. Tomorrow, I have an appointment with a doctor for a routine checkup. I think everything should be OK. I will have him check a little skin growth I have on my back, but I think that is about the only really problem I have right now other than that I am getting older and cannot see as well as five years ago.