Life is really, really good at the moment.

Even though it is AUGUST and this is what it looked like this morning:

No, that is not a blurry picture, that is RAIN. RAIN coming down in sheets in the middle of AUGUST.

I digress.

Today was one of those beautiful days where I just seemed to be on top of things, prepared, for once not caught with my pants around my knees in an important meeting. Not that I hate having my pants around my knees, you understand. Just, sometimes it’s not practical. Or professional for that matter.

I got so much done today AND garnered a few compliments from coworkers on my performance. I love it. I have always worked better with praise as a motivator than with threats of punishment. The carrot motivates me far more than the stick, as it were. Again, nothing against sticks, mind you. A time for everything and whatnot.

At any rate, nothing really on my agenda for this evening other than to try to get a little more caught up on blogs and clean house a little. The garden is coming along nicely, and the lumber for the deck is being delivered tomorrow (finally, after expecting it Friday then today, it will for sure happen tomorrow) and we should be sitting pretty on the deck by next week. Or most of it anyway.

Dad’s coming out this weekend to help with the rock wall out front, and by the end of the month, we should have TWO more items crossed off the goal list and be able to turn our attention to indoor projects.

Another thing I’m really excited about today is getting ahead on the finances. I was, for a while there, making my mortgage payment towards the middle/end of the month it was due because I ended up getting behind early in the year. So while I was never over 30 days late, I was racking up the late fees plus making my mortgage company very nervous.

So for the last two paychecks I have been making a full mortgage payment out of each check, which has left your happy heroine sadly short of ready cash. The good news is that the next one on August 31st marks when I will be paying my September payment and be completely ahead of schedule. After that, only half the payment will be coming out of each check and I will have gads of money with which to buy Christmas presents and take care of a few pesky bills that are perilously overdue.

I know you wonder why I garden and deck build when I have bills to pay but seriously. I need to refinance next year and we are getting to the end of the building season and a deck will make me very happy when the appraiser comes around.

So by the end of this year I should be relatively debt-free, ready to  refinance and ready to GET MY JEEP. 2008, I have decided, is the year of the Jeep. Most definitively. It is also the Year of the Refinance, Year of the Painting the Living Room Some Other Color Than Orange, the Year of Finishing the Patio and the Year of Organizing My Household. A busy year coming up.

So not much to say today really, I might blog a little later tonight about some stuff that Ruggi brought up in the blog last night, so in parting I will leave you with a few more pics from the yard/garden:

My baby gladilouses (gladioli?) are all growed up:

from  to !!!

The flowers have become yet more abundant:

and my little trumpet vine has started throwing out its little feelers. Observe:

then the long skinny things wrap themselves around the trellis so that it anchors and grows:

The blocks are all laid out for the deck:

The dahlias are flourishing:

My japanese maple is finally recovering to some extent from The Dog’s unwarranted attack in which he decided to lop off the top of the poor defenseless tree:

This petunia bush is OUT OF CONTROL. That thing is easily four or five feet wide. I’m not joking.

My other petunias are feeling the ill effects of the week of rain we’ve had. I don’t know what makes it eat holes in the petals, but PVDD is quite distressed:

AND I made my frist flower arrangement from my beautiful garden:

All in all, life is good. Especially if you’re The Dog: