uneventful weekend
June 30, 2014

A very uneventful weekend. We finished opening the pool, finally, and I actually used it twice on Saturday, and twice on Sunday. It was chilly, but bearable--topping out around 80 degrees.

Spouse had done some of the housework, most of the laundry, and all of the yard work during the week, plus he did pretty much all of the cooking so I didn't have a ton of domestic chores to deal with. After I took the B for his special Friday afternoon walk, we ran all our major errands (Walmart, Sams, Festival). And because Spouse wanted his particular favorite version of "Hawaiian Pizza" for Friday pizza night, we splurged on a pack of Canadian bacon. (That set me off; I, in turn, had to have English muffins.)

Pizza night rocked--I did mushrooms, black olives, green peppers, Italian Eggplant Salad (this is more of a relish than a salad, and it absolutely rocks on a pizza or an Italian sausage), pepperoni, and a blend of mozz and prov cheese, and Spouse made his with the back-bacon and pineapple. At my suggestion, he lightly sauteed the pineapple first, to dry it out a bit, and was thrilled that it didn't make his pie all soggy.

On Saturday morning, we took the leftover Canadian bacon and the English muffins, and made our own version of a certain well-known breakfast sensation. They were sooo good. Since we just had a few chores to do, I jumped in to get the remaining laundry dealt with, then Spouse and I did the pool tasks--put the ladder in, very carefully took the solar cover off and cleaned it, since it was full of rainwater and rotting vegetation from all the storms, vacuumed, skimmed, and then I grabbed a quick swim, and a water sample. After which I dried and dressed again, and we ran to the pool store to have the water tested, and the hardware store for a couple of honey-do items. Namely, I had Spouse set me up a small clothesline on the fence, for hanging wet suits and towels, and install a hook inside the front hall closet on which to hang B's harness and leash. (I got tired of using the 50-year-old bent nail that dumped everything on the floor!)

So we puttered, and swam, and relaxed, and Spouse cooked. He pre-baked the chicken for Sunday's dinner, and made a batch of homemade BBQ sauce, plus another batch of homemade Russian dressing. And he cleaned up all his messes, of course. For dinner, we had inexpensive sirloin steaks and baked potatoes on the grill, with a nice tossed salad, and fresh strawberries for dessert. Quite nice!

Last week, I splurged and ordered a DVD set from Amazon--the Ultimate Blackadder box set. Since it came on Saturday, we spent a nice evening watching some of the episodes from the second series (our mutual favorite).

Sunday was another putter-around day; after a breakfast of Spouse's pancakes with blackberry jam, I hit some of the clutter hotspots, tended the flowers, and took two swims--one in the morning shade, and one in the afternoon sun. Proud of me for not letting myself get burned up.

I somehow always forget how much good the pool does me...I feel relaxed and regenerated, and I sleep like a baby.

Spouse decided that we would have our main meal around mid-afternoon, since it was all going on the grill, and the grill is in the blazing sun if you wait till a proper dinner-time. He naturally preferred to do the cooking in the shade.

He put the pre-baked chicken in a foil pan, smothered it in sauce, and heated it up with indirect heat and a good dose of cherrywood smoke. Also on the grill were a pan of baked beans, and a load of corn-on-the-cob. Served with coleslaw and a roll, this was one fantastic dinner, no matter what time it got eaten.

We had dinner over and the dishes washed by 4:30! When my mom called! talked to her a while, talked to Dad awhile, and then we went out and covered the pool for the night, I did all my prep for Monday morning, and we watched some more Blackadder--before I settled into my chair to relax with my laptop and he stretched out in bed to watch TV.