theparkerfamily.org

Month: May 2012

  • back porch

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    back porch

  • guestbook: chrissy marie

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    chrissy marie

  • found: twinsies

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    found: twinsies

  • after dinner

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    after dinner

  • nanny share

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    [el español caliente]
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    it looks like our nanny share is winding down — sparklet’s boyfriend is going off to school in the fall, and is going to be gone on summer vacation for much of June. and, obviously, the mighty quinn is going to need some care once mommy goes back to work.

    so, we’ll keep going for a couple more months, and then just take over the “share” full time for now. by the time spring rolls around in 2013, we’ll have a better idea of what the future looks like — we’ll know what school sparklet will be attending the following fall, and quinney will be getting close to a year old.

    then, we’ll think about taking on another family. but, for now, it’ll just be sparklet, quinney and maria — which seems like it will work out just fine.

    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    nanny share

  • out: bancroft playground

    [el español caliente]
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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    out: bancroft playground

  • raining

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    raining

  • the tree

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    our back yard is dominated by a large, but sickly looking maple. it hasn’t been well maintained, a second trunk has grown out of the base at almost a 60 degree angle, and the whole thing is within 4 feet of the retaining wall that keeps our back yard out of the alley.

    the tree is actually on the opposite side of the fence with our neighbor, but it turns out that it’s actually (mostly) in our yard which is irritating on two fronts — we have to chip in on maintaining the tree, and we really need to replace our fence considering it was built about 8 to 12 inches on our side of the property line.

    fortunately we love our neighbor(s) so it’s all good.

    last week, we decided to take the tree down, so that it doesn’t fall over and doesn’t push down our retaining wall. we had an arborist come out, and he said it’s just under the size (55 inches in girth) where a permit would be required.

    when he started actually cutting the tree, however, another neighbor — not on our street, but on the other side of our back alley — came out screaming.

    neither the lady sparkler or i were there for the exchange, but the general gist was that she (strongly) believed we needed a permit, and even if we had one, we should let the tree live, let the retaining wall collapse, and then just keep rebuilding everything (wall, yard, fence) as often as necessary to keep the tree alive and well.

    so, the city came out to moderate the dispute, and the tree is right on the cusp of needing a permit (of two measurements, one was above the requirement and one was below) so they’ve asked us to apply for a permit.

    the bureaucracy/paperwork isn’t that big of a deal — if you complete the form, and have a good reason to take the tree down, you can — but the permit cost will triple the price of removing the tree.

    #hippies.

  • the path

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    home improvement projects have started back up again — mommy decided that she wanted the planting bed closest to our back patio gone.

    i managed to convince her that digging the entire thing up and replacing it with rocks would be a lot of shoveling, but that she was welcome to do whatever she wanted — oh, and here’s the shovel. within a couple minutes, i had talked her down to just cutting a path in the planter towards the back of the yard.

    it was still a ton of work (i had to move more dirt than i thought we had in the entire yard) but the final product doesn’t look too shabby — and it’s inarguably easier to get around the yard, now.

  • swinging

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    swinging