Nothing runs like a...

We got a new house. Great big new yard, which will someday (hopefully) boast a decent growth of grass. It's pretty pathetic right now. Seeding a new yard... well, it's a process.

But we're hoping for great things. So we got a lawn tractor.

I love this thing. Jeff and I argue about who gets to mow. The kids think we've moved wayyy up in the world. All this over a lawn mower. Suburban agriculture at its finest.

I felt a little guilty about it... is this the height of conspicuous consumption? Wastefulness? Sloth?

Pretty much.

To be completely fair, our yard is too large to manage with a push-mower. We figured that if we put it on some kind of rotation, we'd have to mow an hour every day to keep it mowed. No way. And I did bravely head out there with our push-mower a few weeks ago. Our neighbor felt so sorry for me that he brought his rider over and mowed our yard. Too embarrassing.

And our house came equipped with a dedicated "John Deere room." (Yes, it's really called that.) It's basically a garage stall in the basement. With "John Deere doors" (yes, they're really called that), so you can drive the cute mini-tractor in and out. How could we not get a Deere???

So now we have a tractor with a beverage holder, and Jeff cleans it off carefully after each use, and the kids feel really cool when they get to ride on it.

Someday we'll have grass that deserves such treatment.