Pond in the Desert

I had no work today because of Veteran's Day. I say "had" because now it's after four so it feels like the day is already almost over. I loved having a day off smack in the middle of the week...it broke up my normally long work week into two much more manageable pieces.

This morning Clint and I went to the movies to see "Couple's Retreat." I wasn't blown away by the movie, but overall it was pretty cute. My favorite scene was when the little boy pees into the toilet at the home improvement store, which really has nothing to do with the overall storyline of the movie, but it was just so classic. I remember when we took Elijah off-roading in the jeep back when he had just recently been potty-trained, and he suddenly had to go "potty" really bad. There obviously was no bathroom around, and for some reason he couldn't stand the idea of just going in a bush. He was so little and we had done such a good job convincing him that "the potty is where the pee goes," so he couldn't comprehend that now we wanted him to go in a bush...to him this seemed like "bad" behavior to do such a thing. Finally, after many failed attempts, I found a nice hole in the ground near a dry riverbed and shaped the back of it to look more like a toilet. I convinced him that it was indeed a toilet, and although slightly skeptical, he was more than willing to sit down and relieve himself. Toddlers are funny like that. They just need to have some control over the world around them, even if that means sitting in a muddy hole to do their business.

After the movie, we came home and Clint worked on digging a giant hole while I took a nap. Clinton is currently building a pond in our front yard, a project that is sort of insane. It's just that it came out of no where, and we still have so many other unfinished projects that are so much more of a priority than building some silly pond right before winter, not to mention that we don't even have landscaping in our front yard. Isn't a pond supposed to be kind of like the icing on the cake of an already nice yard? But once Clint gets an idea in his head, he becomes nearly obsessive about it. We have this corner nook area right near our front door, and I had mentioned previously that I thought we should plant a little grass over there and install a fountain. Somehow my suggestion got blown up into an entire pond (still with the fountain and still with the grass). So last week Clint ordered the pond liner online, and he began digging out all the rocks, clearing out the area, and softening the packed dirt. That was a lot of work (for him, not for me...I just relaxed and took the dog for a walk). Today Clint dug out the pond itself, and I have to admit, it looks pretty cute so far. It's about seven feet by five feet, a foot-and-a-half deep, and shaped kind of like a kidney bean. Now the hard part is done, and we need to just wait for the liner to arrive so we can start actually creating Clint's vision. Once it's finished, Clint wants to put koi fish in it, but I don't think they will be hardy enough to withstand the cold temperatures, so we may have to wait until spring.

So nevermind the kitchen counters that still need to be replaced, or the jacuzzi sitting in our backyard with no power and no water, or the truck sitting at my in-laws house waiting for renovation...at least we'll have a damn pond.