Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 12:00 a.m. in "The City."

The current temperature is 58° under mostly cloudy skies. Today, the NWS is forecasting a 50% chance of showers/T-storms with a high temperature of 62°.

We planted our latest round of vegetable plants yesterday and it looks like we may have to add additional water for their health and well-being if the rains don't come. I did some trimming of the grass that grew extra long when we were OOT, so that's one thing off my list. I still have to mow the vast lawns of the PE, but that shouldn't take too long.

We are seeing the first blooms from the iris plants that I separated last year and they are looking great. Mary was prepared to consign the plants to the compost pile if nothing happened this year. Like her heirloom tomato plants from last year, I had faith, and it was rewarded.

I made all of my appointments on Monday and my hair looks better, my yak feels better, and I got more reading done. In short, all good.

We dropped Ginger off @ daycare yesterday afternoon and traveled to Muskegon to modify our carpet order and pick out some new furniture for the living and dining rooms. It will take up to eight weeks to arrive, but that's okay, we have the current furnishings in place, as of now.

We learned that the older part of the manse has southern yellow pine floors under the existing tacked-down carpeting, so we arranged to have those floors refinished rather than covering them with new carpet. We saw floors made of this wood when we were recently in D.C. @ Mt. Vernon, and the look is great and period correct for a home built in 1903. So, that is the reason for the modified carpeting plans. Naturally, new floors require new furniture. : - ).

Tuesday, John will be by to replace some weather stripping and the rear storm door off the deck and sealing some rather large holes under the sinks downstairs that look, and in fact are, all too inviting to mice in the spring and fall. At some point, he'll be doing the refinishing of the floors in the manse too, but not too soon, I hope.

The Cubs fell to the Giants Monday night by a final score of 4 - 6 in spite of some home runs in the bottom of the 8th inning. John Lackey surrendered some runs to the weak-hitting Giants early and the Cubs never staged a real comeback. They are still in 3rd place in the NL Central with an overall record of 22 - 21. The Cubs and the Giants play Tuesday night @ 7:05 p.m.

The Tigers fell to the Houston Astros, 0 - 1. That drops them to 21 - 22 in the AL Central, but they are still in 3rd place. They play in Houston again tonight @ 8:10 p.m.

My beloved Red Sox were off. They play tonight in Texas against the Rangers @ 7:10 p.m.

The Caps hammered the TinCaps 12 - 2 in Monday's game to move to 29 - 14 in the MWL East division, 1/2 game behind the Dayton Dragons.

Otherwise, I plan to read more, play with the girls more and generally kick back and enjoy retirement more.

The sun will rise on Tuesday @ 6:13 a.m. and set @ 9:10 p.m. Ciao.