Who knew the decal would be the hardest part of making a guitar?

This week has been quite relaxing. I found myself getting a little bored for the first time in what feels like 2 years. I've had a chance to catch up on things I used to do in my former life, like wash my car and take Lucy and Addy for walks downtown and in Lake Conestee Nature Park. It's been wonderful.

On Tuesday night Kristi made probably one of the most delicious meals I've ever eaten. I don't know what it's called, but it involves onions, mushrooms, chicken, and cheese. For the sides we had green beans and rice. It was fantastic, and I'm thinking about making it the "guest" meal, which is the meal we make when visitors come over. Up until this point we usually make this pan seared Italian chicken. Maybe we can rotate.
Today I finally got my waterslide decal onto the headstock of my guitar neck. It has been quite a frustrating process. The first problem was that I didn't have anything to fix the ink (make it not smudge). I thought I could just use a coat of lacquer, but it really didn't work very well, and when I stuck the decal into water ink went everywhere. So I bought some decal bonder on ebay, waited a few days for it to get here, and then sprayed my decals. After they had dried I attempted to stick one on the headstock. Unfortunately application of the 3 I had made were all unsuccessful. Those things are very hard to get on straight without the edges curling. So I made 6 more, and after the first 2 were failures, the 3rd was a winner. I kind of wish it was a tad higher, but it looks good so I'm not going to push my luck.
One thing I have really enjoyed this year in general is seeing how far our yard has come. When we first moved to our house in '08 there was little to no landscaping. Here is an old blog post with some pictures shortly after we moved in. We spent many hours doing back breaking work killing grass, creating mulch beds, and planting somewhere in the realm of 50ish bushes and 4 trees when all was said and done. And when I say we, really it was mostly me, especially the digging. We bought the tiniest bushes available (they are the cheapest) so it has been fun to watch everything get bigger. This year I've been tackling the grass, which was just as big a problem. I've sprayed weeds, pulled weeds by hand, and began following a fertilizing schedule that someone from Southside gave me. Things have gone better than I imagined, and the yard is looking great, grass included. I was admiring my work and thought, "hey, I should take some more yard pictures for my blog." So here for your admiration is the Stoeber's 2010 version of our yard.

Next week I am going to Hilton Head which is pretty exciting. I don't get vacations too often, so time at the beach is always appreciated, although I do admit I'm hoping the temp stays at least in the lower 90's. I'm thinking my chances are slim.