Saturday I decided to finally attack my back yard, since my parents brought their old gas weed trimmer down (my folks just have a lawn service now, and they also have an electric trimmer from before they started that because my dad hates small gas engines - I was the only one who ever used the gas trimmer) to give me.  Unfortunately, it's from circa 1995 and the plastic fuel lines and priming bulb were shot (or, rather, became shot as soon as I started using them).  So, I just ended up getting another one.  I may try to fix the old one and find somebody who needs it, or not.  Anyway, after a lot of uprooting of three-foot-tall weeds, and then trimming of the shorter stuff, and finally raking, my little patch of earth looks at least somewhat cared for finally.  I overseeded with some deep shade grass seed and we'll see if it helps.  What I will need to figure out is a solution for mowing.  Just using the trimmer isn't going to give me as nice a result as I want (I know just how ridiculous the whole American suburban culture of lawn care is, but I've always enjoyed it and love mowing lawns (note to my stalkers - I probably would also enjoy mowing lawns in the Target Women sense, but that's not what I'm talking about right now, get your head out of the gutter ;-)).  However, it's such a small space that getting a full-up gas powered rotary mower seems like overkill.  I'd like to investigate a manual reel mower, but they don't seem like they're right for my application.  First of all, only the most expensive ones seem to have a very high mowing height, and I know how important that is for a healthy lawn.  Secondly, there are all kinds of dire warnings about not falling behind the mowing schedule, which may be difficult for me, particularly if I end up doing Patience this summer.  Anybody have any practical experience with this?

The other domestic thing I did this weekend was finally get a grill, which, if you'd heard me whine and bitch for the six years I was living at my old apartment, you would figure was the most important thing to me about finally being in a house.  It it the same kind I got for my parents last year around Father's Day, and putting it together on my own was rather difficult, but it got done.

I went sailing yesterday, but we had to cut it short because of the 30+ knot north wind, which was blowing all the water out of the bay and worrying the skipper about being able to get back into the marina (we bumped bottom at one point on the way out) if we stayed out too long.  Also, it's kind of hard to drink or eat at a 45 degree heeling angle, which we had in the biggest gusts even with one reef in and all nine crew up on the high side.  A fun ride, but a little boring with nothing to do but hike out as much as possible to help balance the boat.