Have you missed me?

A few things have happened since we last spoke.  Just a few tiny little inconsequential things.  No big deal, really.  Let's take it in chronological order, shall we?

1. We sold one house and bought another on December 15.
2. We moved into the new house the next day.
3. Four days later, we left for Virginia and were gone for eleven days.
4. We remodeled yet another kitchen.
5. We have painted five rooms, one closet, one pantry, and one two-story stairwell.  We're about a quarter of the way through with the painting.
6. We are slowly "tricking out" our new backyard, as the kids across the street like to tell us.
7. B took the gifted & talented test and scored scary-high on verbal skills.  No surprise there.  The perennial debate gains importance with this new evidence though:  how to channel the genius toward good, not evil?

The key element in the "tricking out" of the backyard