The area we reworked after our landscape design class a couple of years ago has finally begun to mature.  Thinning trees on the east side of the yard has helped the shrubs get just enough sunlight to fill out and the rhoddies have luscious blooms.

It’s officially summer… once Trisha adds flowers to the front window boxes.  I think our front entrance is finally set for a couple of years.  We like the dish rock next to the drive, the climbing hydrangea to the right of the front door has established itself, and the Japanese maples –after their fall pruning– look great.

With a new dish rock in place in the front yard and plants in waiting, we didn’t let intermittent showers stop us from working.  And I found a new use for my golf cart and umbrella.

I’m glad it wasn’t even close.   My nerves couldn’t have taken another hapless offensive performance with the defense hanging on for a slim victory.  After all those years following the pathetic Detroit Lions, the Seahawks have been to the Super Bowl twice since we moved here and now have a victory.  Very cool!

I did our first complete fill-up on the Lexus CT200h today and see we got 40.65 miles per gallon… just tooling around locally.  Almost no interstate miles.  I calculated driving the the same 322 miles in the Acura would have cost us around $8.37 more in gas. So just 5,000 more tanks of gas and the Lexus will have paid for itself!

I finally convinced Trisha to trade in her 2002 Lexis IS after nearly 200k miles.  We hope the new CT 200h hybrid will be perfect for all those short local drives, saving the Acura SUV for our long trips.  Size-wise it’s very similar to the old car but is supposed to get over 42 mpg.