Hardcore Weeder

[First off, I wanted to let y’all know that I will no longer be able to do two posts per day for a while due to some interferences with my work schedule.  I have a feeling this could be a good thing though since I won’t be nearly as rushed and can really develop my writing style and photography for you!  Not that it will necessarily matter to most of you, but I just wanted to put that out there in case there were any questions :)]

That being said, hi there! 🙂

Today was a HECTIC day at work!  But our morning started out hectic before that.  We were both still suffering from lack of sleep yesterday and decided to sleep downstairs since it’s significantly cooler there.  I woke up super groggy and just wanted to stay in bed, but unfortunately work was calling.  I wrote my first blog post of the day, hurriedly got ready for work, and barely made it out the door in on piece!  We ended up stopping at the grocery store for some milk and breakfast sandwiches.  Nate got these Aunt Jemima griddle cake sandwiches:

They were actually really good!  I can’t say they were the best things for us, but they had about 350 calories and 8 grams of fat, which is actually significantly less than most frozen entrees.  Again, not that these need to be a staple in our diets, but they are far from the worst!  Nate made me another magical latte:

We’ve been using 2% milk in those, and I have to say I rather enjoy it.  I’ve been stuck on using nonfat for so long, but I really think that in a latte or cappuccino it’s good to have some fat involved.  It really helps to develop the milk’s sweetness when steaming it and makes for a much more satisfactory beverage in the end.  This morning moved like it was in fast-forward, and then it was time to eat!  Spicy Shrimp, Carrot, and Pea Penne was served in a mug:

I had about 1.25 cups or so and was stuffed the rest of the afternoon.  On my walk I sweated like crazy…who can believe it was almost 100 degrees in Colorado today?!  Let me tell you, I was NOT a fan of that!  I don’t mind sweat, but I’d prefer it be the result of me working hard, not just sitting still.  We rushed home to get my car and get it up to the tire place before it closed.  Dinner was a Subway sandwich eaten while we waited for Rolly to get her legs fixed:

Nate and I split that bad boy, but it was whole wheat bread, roasted chicken breast, pepperjack cheese, lettuce, tomato, red onion, banana peppers, and sweet onion sauce.  SOOOOOOOO good!  Tonight we are just relaxing and I know I’m hoping to get in bed early again…recovering from the weekend is hard work!

Funny story…my hamstrings are oh-SO-sore from weeding the other day!  The funny part though is I totally knew that would happen.  You see, just under 2 years ago, right after we moved to Colorado, I was desperately looking for a job because we were tight on cash from the move.  Nate was working at a local magazine and basically volunteered me for some weed pulling outside of the magazine’s headquarters!  I didn’t mind though…I needed to make some extra money and didn’t have anything better to do.  I asked him several times if they had watered the grass (since it makes weeds easier to pull), and he told me not to worry because they had sprayed the weeds a couple days beforehand with weedkiller, so he was certain the weeds would be no trouble at all to pull.  That being said, I decided to go on a quick hike before weeding that day.

Big mistake.

I didn’t find this out until I was about 3 hours into weeding in the hot, blustery, noonday sun.  Keep in mind that this was also after a 2 hour hike.  I kept thinking, “He said they sprayed weedkiller on this crap…” but was having no luck in pulling those stupid weeds out!  Not to mention the onslaught of spiders, roley-poleys, ants, bees, and wasps. I must have had about 3 gallons of water to drink that afternoon alone.  Come to find out…that weedkiller?  That weedkiller that was allegedly sprayed on the weeds?  That weedkiller that was supposed to make my life easy and get me some extra cash?  That weedkiller was diluted vinegar.  And that weedkiller was not effective.

Finally, after almost 8 hours of weeding and feeling like I would certainly die, Nate’s boss declared that I had done a good enough job and sent me on my not-so-merry way with a $20 bill in hand.  Yes, you read that correctly…apparently $20 is the going price for 8 hours of hell and a measly couple of gallons of water. But y’all?  That’s not even the worst of it!  You see, all day I was diligent in applying sunscreen, drinking water, and wearing a hat.  Upon inspection at home though there appeared to be one spot on my person that had not received adequate coverage:  the 2-inch piece of skin on my back, right above my waistband and right below where my T-shirt ended when I was bending over.  That patch of skin was RAW, red, already blistered, and brought tears to this grown woman’s eyes.  Without going into gory details I think it would suffice to say that I wore yoga pants for 3 weeks after that episode…as it turns out even the oldest and softest jeans feel like sandpaper on a sunburn!

And that’s just the external pain. Not only was I hurting from the sunburn, my hamstrings were sore for at least 4 weeks after that.  4 weeks I tell you! I think it was the combo of hiking and weeding for 8 hours, but it was painful in the most excruciating way.  And then there was the matter of my pride.  Call me crazy, but I don’t really feel that $4 per hour is fair when it comes to manual labor.  Especially manual labor I didn’t volunteer for.  I think Nate still owes me for that one 😉

Have you ever had an experience like that?  What have you had to do when it comes to manual labor? I also had to help my mom and dad pull out 12 cedar bushes that were about 20 years old in front of our house one day, and then a year later helped build a brand-new fence around our backyard.  I’m used to doing stuff like that, but let’s face it:  it still kinda sucks 🙂