Inside vs. Outside

It is no secret that one, I am a bit of a homebody (primarily because I feel like I am away from it so much) and, two, I enjoy projects around the house. There is usually something being done to the house inside and for most of the year some outside work in the form gardening or lawn/tree maintenance is also going on. All well and good except when major indoor project completions conflict with major spring or fall outdoor work and that, dear readers, is what we have been dealing with at this moment.

The family room is coming to fast completion with much furnishing and whatnot going on, but the yard is also desperately calling for attention sensing that we will not have another weekend free to do it until after Turkey Day. So here are a few things that did get done and a few that didn’t in the great effort to balance the inside with the outside.

• We did manage to get the new corner TV stand together, place the new flat-screen on said stand and get the cable guy to hook up the high-def box in the family room. However, we did not find the hour or so needed to stay on the phone to reach a real human being at Verizon so we could upgrade to the full hi-def package—oh, you wanted hi-def on more than five channels?!
• We did manage to pull out the last of the greens—arugula, chard and beet greens—dig up some late planted potatoes for yummy garlic mashers to have those with a tasty pork tenderloin that had marinated all day in a bath of fresh herbs form the garden with those greens wilted with olive oil and kosher salt and local pears and apples diced over it all. However, I didn’t get any time to research better ways to dry the remaining herbs so we don’t lose all that wonderful rosemary, sage, oregano and thyme out there in the pots. Suggestions?
• I did manage to trade emails with College Roomy about the music care package he was putting together for me and I did listen to a few different discs I was considering burning for him while we made the aforementioned dinner, but alas dear friend, I still haven’t burned your discs.
• We did manage to get downtown to a cool opera for children at the National Museum of the American Indian called El conejo y el coyote/The Rabbit and the Coyote but did not find time to sit down with the Artist and work on a blog post over at the family e-home (if only he would stay up later!).
• We did manage to corral the majority of the 5 gazillion leaves in our backyard and the boys managed to trounce them endlessly, although unfortunately about half of those still remain in a loosely constructed pile in the backyard and the front yard is still unkempt.
• We did, however, manage to purchase the new couch (otherwise known as "the pit") for the family room, although we did not take any time to accessorize or take a part the futon we had just put together assuming we would not have a new piece of furniture so fast.

And so now, we must return to the list of all that must get done—or at least looking at, re-prioritizing and fretting over that list since, well, nothing on that list involves the things that actually take up the majority or our lives.