Looks like the iPhone made a big splash yesterday. I don’t have one yet, but I think I’ll take the plunge in a month or so to replace my aging Motorola v551. It was pretty funny to see a local pseudo-celebrity make a complete ass of himself for the 11PM newscast; when I knew him seven years ago, he was Johnny shit-on-Apple.

Yesterday we spent a good bit of time selecting, refining, and printing some photos so that we could finally hang something on our living room wall. A few days ago we spent a pile of money at IKEA for some black frames in assorted sizes and came up with an arrangement that would make a design professor proud. Guests who’ve visited must think we’re strange because our house has featured virtually nothing on the walls in the main living areas—no pictures of us, no posters, wall hangings, tapestries, or animal pelts. I admit, that is pretty weird. After all the hard work we’ve put into this dump, it’s great to finally put our personal mark on the walls and see familiar faces looking back at us.

Finally, in preparation for the Fourth of July celebration (and to take advantage of the relatively balmy weather), we did some cleaning in the yard around the woodpile, which was threatening to swallow the southwest corner of the yard. Two trips and eight boxes of dead wood later, we reclaimed a good portion of our lawn from the creeping english ivy and dead brush. This makes absolutely no difference in the condition of the lawn back there, which looks like a patch of the Kalahari desert—my attempt at tilling and reseeding failed miserably. I’ve recently come to the sad realization that the only thing that will help our back lawn is about five cubic tons of fill dirt and a truckload of sod. And I’ll hire someone else to handle that project, for sure.