Home improvement projects, first-times, and cross training adventures

This weekend definitely cheered me up from my autumn/homesick blues.

On Saturday night, I went to a Maroon 5 and Counting Crows concert which actually turned out to be only Maroon 5. (The Counting Crows were apparently sick.) This was truly a bummer, as they absolutely make the Emily's Favorite Bands list. But I still loved the concert, and now I want to be a rock star.

In other news...

Ella, my landlord's 6-year-old daughter who lives here on the weekends, was promised a puppy if she could prove that she was "responsible." I guess she has done a good job, because the deal was that if the yard was cleaned up today, she would be allowed to get the puppy next weekend. But "yard cleanup" really entailed "bug-hunting" while the rest of us pulled weeds and cleared brush. In case you weren't aware, when you are a 6-year-old garden helper, every stray ant is cause for extreme alarm. More fascinating bugs, such as grasshoppers or spiders, must be shown to all adults present, and then smushed 3 times (just in case) and cleaned up by someone else. But we made it through the day; the puppy is coming next Friday.

The second home improvement project of the weekend was Maggie's rental property, at which she had a painting party all day today. A bunch of us from the training center went over there and her mom fed us delicious food as we sanded and painted most of the interior of the house. I only arrived at the tail-end of things, because I was busy smashing bugs and puppy-proofing the backyard.

The perfect end to the weekend was surfing under a full moon. We went to Imperial Beach after we'd finished painting. I have never been surfing before. In fact, my only experience with ocean waves was boogie boarding at Bondi Beach in Sydney Australia three years ago. A total ocean newbie, it was so miserable that I swore I'd never get in the ocean again. But gradually I've been working up to it and today I finally took a board out and did it!! 3 hours of sweet surfing. The waves were pretty small, according to the others, but they were plenty big enough for me to learn. I can't WAIT to go again!