This morning, I got the idea that today would be good to start the annual Spring "poop patrol." What this means is even more disgusting than it sounds, and you know we must really love dogs to tolerate having to do it. But there would be no gardening and no barbecues otherwise. After a winter with two large hound dogs and a small yard, it is so gross, we have to scrape off almost the entire top layer of dirt. It's an awful task.

Anyway, there is still quite a lot of snow in most places, but the day was warm, and I thought, what if I get a shovel, and jump the gun a bit - I'll scoop up frozen turds and the surrounding snow, and it will be so much easier to do than waiting for a total melt and having to hunt around in the grass.

Guess again. In some places the snow is frozen into solid ice, meaning it must be chopped at with the shovel. In others it is soft enough so that I broke through when walking - but not immediately - so walking around is a hazard. Oh, I'll try again tomorrow, I guess.

Inside, we worked on finishing up the details in the kitchen, and unfortunately, all the tasks that are left are very hard jobs. I was scraping off some duct tape from many moons ago, that was intended to keep out drafts et al around a plywood platform that goes to the crawl space. It took so much elbow grease that I have revised my thoughts on whether duct tape could protect from terrorist attack. It is quite possible it could.

Now we are off to see Driving Miss Daisy, a play at Capital Repertory.