mission accomplished . . .

well, part 1 anyway. my goal for the weekend was to pour the concrete slab upon which my outdoor kitchen will be built (hopefully next weekend!) before my mother comes for a visit in mid-september.

yesterday morning i headed off to lowe's to buy the supplies. i wasn't particularly motivated since i'd closed the florida room with anunce after being out most of the evening. we went to the opening of a great new store called olio united of all organic and sustainable clothing and housewares - anunce knew the owners. (shameless plug here – go support these guys. the clothes & housewares were awesome and they were really cool folks) of course i had to do some shopping! then headed off to kelly's olympian for a benefit concert for a co-worker of anunce and mfp's. show was decent ... i just have horrible memories of the only other time i've been in that bar. we dropped greg and mfp at home but decided we weren't done drinking so we headed of the florida room (never mind we'd *started* the evening there). at around 230a, i took anunce home and headed home to pour myself into bed.

so back to lowe's...i was fortunate enough to be helped by a lovely gay man named larry (at least my gaydar says he was ...it's been known to be wrong before) ... he walked me through what i'd need, suggested cheaper alternatives since i didn't need *professional* grade stuff, and even through in a few pointers. i had the 10 bags of 80lb quikrete loaded in the back of the wagon with a couple of 2x4s and the rest of the gear and headed home to start clearing the site. didn't realize until i got home how loaded down the car was ... the back tirewells were, at most, 2" above the tires. yikes! needless to say, i left the concrete in the car overnight!

i started working around noon and was able to clear the site and set the forms. i was pretty impressed by how much i got done. i called a neighbor and asked to borrow her wheelbarrow and set about doing other household chores (i've been very neglectful for the last few weeks given how much i've had going on).

so this morning, after another late night ... this time out dancing (more on that in another post later) ... i got back to work. unloaded 8 bags of quikrete and started mixing. man, they're not kidding when they call it 80lb grade ... it was heavy as all get out. seriously got my workout today!

but the end result is so worth it! i'm very pleased with it given that it's the first time i've ever done anything like this on my own. it looks great - not perfect but will definitely be workable. since it'll be under the eventual cabinet, i wasn't too worried about *perfection*.

am off to take a shower and then a cat nap. am having friends over to grill and get in the hot tub tonight. i've never been so happy to be a hot tub owner in my whole life ... well, except after i did the floors. hmm ... am sensing a theme.

anyways ... today i'm thankful for ... cooler weather and sunshine to help the concrete cure. oh yeah, and my hot tub!