Lacking the Main Ingredient

When the kids were here Chris and I picked up a pizza at Papa Murphy's. The sale price for this basic sausage pizza was $6 and he spiced it up by adding green peppers, spinach, basil and fresh garlic. After baking it at home, the whole family just raved over it and it was just as good the next day cold on the canoe trip. Last night Dix and I tried to repeat the experience and I picked up the same order. It wasn't bad but we were trying to figure out what was missing. Had to be the company.

This week is contractor week. My mason is dragging the mortar repair job out and it's good the price is by the job and not the hour. You cannot start a conversation or else you cannot get away. He seems lonely. Wednesday he got sick from drinking too much water in the hot sun. Had to shut it down for the day. Thursday he got into a confrontational right-of-way discussion with a city employee trying to utility-mark the alley. Looks like the neighbor needs to tear up the alley. I'll have to be on guard to keep them from burying my new gravel border.

The carpet layers did their prep work removing the old outdoor carpet on the front steps. I could have saved $75 had I done it myself. Took them 15 minutes to scrape off the old loose glue and they said it was not their job to fill in the gaps in the concrete. My mason did it for no extra charge but I had to listen to him for an hour and a half. Got two more days of this to go, hopefully.