Recipe for Making Stucco for our Foundation

"You take 3 shovels of sand, one shovel of cement, a quarter shovel of mortar, and some bonding compound and put that on there. Just before you put it on, spread some fifty-fifty bonding compound on the bricks and it'll just suck it up.
If that doesn't work, move."

- A friend of mine that is an expert in cement, on how I should fix my crumbling bricks around my foundation.

Cutting the Grass

The house next door is abandoned, and my back yard is a disaster zone.
It took me 7 minutes to mow my front yard, then about 15 to mow my
neighbor's front yard. The back yard, on the other hand, was a whole
different story. The grass was thick and 24-36 inches tall. I had to
mow forward 3 inches, then back 6 just to make it through. After about
30 minutes, I had made ONE PATH across the yard, and was ready to
start back when my wife showed up with the kids for a game of frisbee.

That was crazy.

I think I'll call the bank that foreclosed on it and ask them to mow it.

Either that or head over there with a machete next time.

The funniest part of it all was then a little boy that frequently
drives around his yard on a riding lawnmower like it's a go-cart said,
"Why are you mowing their yard?" and I wanted to shout back, "Why
haven't you?"

I don't know him close enough to talk that frankly back to him, but I
hope to.