I manually vacuumed the pool last night (love the Aqua Bug, but I love splashing around and getting exercise in the process even more). I’m very proud to report that all 8,500 gallons of water were still in the pool this morning.
A month or so ago, I had two companies come out and give estimates for the removal of a gumball tree (evil, evil things) + 7 bushes and all accompanying roots. First guy wanted $800; second guy wanted $375. Neighbor had a friend that would do the tree (but not the roots/stump) for $100, and would help me rip out the bushes with a chain + the Jeep (or his big truck).
$100 sounded better than $375, so I never called either of the first two guys back.
Skip forward to Tuesday of this week. I get a voicemail from the $375 guy saying that he wants to do “my job” tomorrow, and that if I call him back (and move the Honda out of the driveway), he’d be by the following morning. So I didn’t call him back, nor did I move the Element. The following morning, as I’m stepping out of the shower, I hear chainsaws and grinders. Even though I didn’t call him back (or move the Toaster), the $375 dude had already started the job. This kinda freaked me out a little (even though he’s highly-rated on angieslist.com, he’s a sketchy looking guy), so I lurked inside until he left.
End result is that he did an excellent job, and even though it will cost me $275 more than having my neighbor’s friend help out, the job is actually done. You may not have noticed this, but if it’s a project I scheme up, it takes forever to finish. 
Speaking of planning and not finishing projects, Carla (next door neighbor who has a house with the same floor plan as ours) is getting estimates to have her house’s interior painted. I’m going to get whoever she picks to paint the interior of our place too. Don’t know if we’ll get any discount for that, but this blue wall/blue carpet shit’s got to go. I don’t know if I’ll have them put the final coat of paint on the walls that I can reach, but I definitely want everything primed back to white, and I don’t want to mess with the cathedral ceiling nor all of the wood-stained trim (floorboards/door trim).