Hold onto your horses, friends. Lots of pictures today.

First of all, let's take a minute to thank MLK Jr. for all of his contributions to this country, perhaps the least of which is having a holiday named for him and allowing me to spend this gorgeous day not working. After a killer upper body workout (during which my trainer informed me that I inspired/motivated him - go figure), I came home and decided to tackle the wilderness growing in my backyard. Unfortunately, my lawnmower battery - that's right, I'm green - wasn't charged. I settled for raking the leaves that have been filling my car and my living room for the last several months. Back in December when we had our first freeze of the year, every leaf on every tree around our house fell down in the same night and set up residence in our yard. Unfortunately, they like to latch onto my shoes and tag along on little trips everywhere I go, creating a constant mess. Not after today. Let us begin with a "before" pic:

Pictured: my driveway. No idea what that plastic bucket is, but notice the complete lack of ground visibility.

Now, onto the "after" shots:

Yes, I realize that there are still leaves. Unfortunately the before shot of this particular area didn't turn out. If you had seen it, you would be amazed at the fact that you can see the garden, or lack thereof, underneath. Also, I have no idea why my text is suddenly being underlined. I did nothing intentionally to initiate this and am too lazy to figure out how to make it disappear.

Ahhh, here is the same shot from the original picture. Notice the ground beneath the leftover leaves! (Help. I have no idea what's happening with my text. Why is it blue now?)

Ooooooh and paving stones! How delightful! (Seriously, now the underlining and color are gone? How?)

The end result: seven contractor bags of leaves.

Aaaaaaand I only tackled the driveway. Long way to go. Hopefully I'll have pictures for you soon of continued progress and maybe even something pretty growing in my garden eventually.

Despite said killer upper body workout, my yardwork adventure left me with a sore back and trembling (yes, trembling) legs. Tomorrow's pain should be interesting. Stay tuned for updates.

After my attempt at domesticity, roommate and I went to an Irish pub downtown to take advantage of our location in the Live Music Capital of the world. We listened to a couple guys play, had a delightful meal, and I got to watch basketball, including the beginning of what turned out to be Texas' first loss of the season. Way to go, K-State! Here's roommate digging our Monday night fun:

That's all for now. Back to the grind....