What I did over the weekend

Before I show the pictures, let me just say that I am a bleeding heart. Or a sucker for a sob story. Not sure which one is more accurate. As I was taking my after-shots, I noticed some men walking up the street. They had taken a break from doing some yardwork for one of my neighbors. Definitely a ragged bunch and obviously doing odds and ends to make a dime. They offered to help me finish removing the rest of my brush when they were done up the street. I politely declined. One of the men waited behind the others explaining that he was their captain so to speak and introduced himself with his full military title. I'm thinking to myself "oh great, he's going to ask me for money". As he starts the story, I realize that he is from North Carolina. Of course, I have this immediate bond with this man I don't know. He grew up in Kinston, he's around my dad's age, he's a Vietnam Vet and he's just trying to get by. Oh yes, the violins are playing. He never directly asked for money, just said that they were planning on buying some canned goods that would last for a while. And I, who have been called a b*tch and other nasty things by many homeless people and other's begging because I refuse to be guilted into giving someone money, gave this man money. Because for some reason, I walked out onto my porch, in my pajamas to take pictures at a busy time of the morning. Because I believe in angels and doing things not because you should but because you can.

Now for the real point of this post. RTL decided that what she really wanted for her birthday was to hire a couple of day laborers and finish ripping out the juniper.
( The Before Picture )

( Juniper Loses to Men with Shovels )

Now all I need is to rent a chipper/shredder and the victory will be complete. Now we've got to figure out what color to paint the house and what to plant in our "new" front yard. I just realized that you can even see the new front door in today's picture.

And the carrot cake was full-fledged no holds barred carrot cake.