January 5, 2008 - Ellie had a CPR training course today, so I decided to do some work out on the yard. I called up Jamie and Casey, and they agreed to help me out. I started doing some landscaping in my backyard a few weeks ago, and today with their help I finished up the laying of mulch and a retaining wall. The basic process is simple, especially since my backyard is all sand. I first rake to clean up any debris, then I marked out the path for the blocks to go down. Next I tamp the path for the blocks. The blocks are put into place, and then packed in on both the front and back with sand. Then mulch is laid out and a pitchfork is used to spread it evenly. The need for help is because each block weighs 25 pounds, and a bag of mulch weighs about 20 pounds. After about 75 blocks and 20 bags of mulch, numerous trips to Home Depot, and lunch at the Smokin Rib Shack, we were done. Ellie and I took down the Christmas lights next, and then it was siesta time. Casey and Jamie came back over for dinner. We had sweet and sour chicken. They brought some board games, and I picked Life. After a game of Life and some brownies, Ellie and I drove with the puppies down to Brenda's apartment in St Pete to check on her cats. This brings us up to about 11:30 PM, and it's bedtime.