Handyman

James had his spring break this week.  We made a "honey-do" list for him that kind of turned into just car stuff.  Pretty much, I lucked out on my hubby.  He spent almost his entire break on my car!  I guess the rest of the honey-do list gets to wait.

We had to get my car inspected and registered as it just became officially our car (thanks mom & dad!) and it turns out, Maryland is a more picky state (Michigan has no inspection at all) but much cheaper insurance-wise.  We failed the inspection in 3 ways - the brake light on the trunk was out, the guy didn't like my car-hanger creativity when it came to attaching my muffler to my car, and then there was this surprise rusty/hole-y section on the bottom of the driver doorframe.  The light and muffler ended up being cheap and easy fixes, but the rust holes was no easy fix.  James got quotes for $600+, but chatted with our ward friend who used to work as a mechanic.  Together, they filled in those rust holes with plastic and Bondo (car body putty)/sanded/painted and my car looks fantastic. 

 Even the inspector was impressed.  James spent so many hours on it, but we saved tons of money!  Here are the final results:

The black section used to be a huge rust hole surrounded by the blue paint.  They filled in the hole and painted it.  This is underneath the door so you can't see the un-evenness.  We didn't think to take a before-picture, but it looked something like this, only underneath (you had kneel down and look up at it):

So, they did a great job!  So proud.  And, he suffered through the MVA (Maryland's version of the DMV) lines on my behalf.  Poor James!

He did have some fun with the break though.  He slept in a few times, played lots of racquetball (he's in a league at the school-his first time playing competitively) and won, did spinning classes, etc.  

Now, it's back to school for him but I think he'll be ok with that.  Summer will be here before we know it (assuming the polar vortexes stay away).  We just are happy that we can spend the money we saved on other things than cars!  Car repairs can be so expensive.  Together, our two cars' mileages add up to 315,000 (eek), so it is probably not the end.  The rest of my car was in good shape though, so that's good news.

I pretty much worked as usual - lots of hours, including an overnight shift last night.  I have decided Sat night shifts are the worst.  They mess up Saturday day, Saturday night, and Sunday.  Whole weekend turned upside-down.  I tried napping unsuccessfully on Saturday, so I was exhausted this morning.

In between work and the usual other things, we played soccer with James' team, and then we've been excitedly watching my seedlings appearing!  I was a little ambitious a couple of weeks ago and bought lots of seeds for our little porch and stoop.  I don't think they'll all work out, but the seeds should last till next year so if 1/4 work each year, it'll be worth it!  We got mostly herbs and lettuces, but also are going to try tomatoes, beets, peppers, and cucumbers.  So far, the mesclun lettuce mix, the kale, and the thyme are growing after just 1 week!

I love recycling things, so I found some places that suggested planting seeds in eggshells.  You can then put the whole thing into the final pot and the eggshell provides some extra calcium to the plant.  I wasn't sure if it'd work so I am trying one batch each in the eggshells and then just a plastic tray.  Next step is to find some flower seeds so I can plant those in between our edibles!

James picked up some container gardening books from the library for me, so we are thinking about the best place/containers to plant these in when they grow up a bit and the weather stops having snow once a week.  Again, my recycling obsession rears its head and my favorite idea is this for the deck:

The problem is, our deck faces north so it's partial sun/shade.  I think that should be ok for herbs, lettuces, and flowers.  Our porch faces south, so that's the ideal place for tomatoes/cucumbers/etc, but not sure those are the most elegant container-plants. I think I'll try one each on the semi-shady deck and then figure out a way for the front.  Learning as we go- at least we have plenty of seeds if we need to try again!

Oh, forgot that we didn't post last week.  We started off James' break with a quick and windy trip to our beloved Assateague island.  Friday night was windy - setting up the tent was...interesting.  But we brought lots of blankets and were cozy.  Saturday's weather was great, and we met up with our friend Lauren for a bike ride and some beach strolls.  Perfection!  I had covered for someone in Feb so he covered for me last weekend so I had both Sat and Sun off.  Can't wait til spring is here to stay!