casual weekend
May 27, 28, 29, 2006

Cripes, it was hot this weekend. Too hot, too early in the season. We had temps in the 90s, with matching humidity. And I have to say that it impacted my plans. I ended up being a lot more indolent, overall, than I had intended.

And since we kidnapped Nephew and kept him all weekend, I had a partner in indolence, which made it easier to be lazy.

Then we kidnapped Nephew. It's easy to do. He has his own set of toiletries at my house anyway, and can wear his uncle's clothes, so we didn't even need to stop at his house for a bag.

We headed to McHenry after that, to the Meijer for the sales. We got a lot of fresh produce, some nice steaks, and other meat, and a few things on the non-grocery side. I bought a silicone bakeware set containing a cookie sheet mat, a full-sized muffin pan, a cake pan, a loaf pan, and two potholder/trivets. It was only $20, which is by far the cheapest I've seen them. And I finally found a replacement flag for my banner-style flagpole. All I could find around here was the entire set, and as I didn't need a new pole or a new bracket, I was disinclined to spend the $30.00 or so. Meijer had a replacement flag, stitched stripes and embroidered stars, for $14.99. I love that place.

Spouse got his deck box, for storing the pool chemicals and accessories, and I picked up a few toiletries we needed. $263.00 later, we headed home.

I put away groceries and did housework all afternoon, while the guys worked in the yard. Spouse put Nephew to work on a landscaping project, re-doing the edging and lava rock under my bedroom window. It was quite a task, as he had to take out the rock, rip up the old, worn-out weed shield, put down new weed shield, tap the edging back in, and and replace the rock. He worked his but off for almost four hours on it, and didn't want to take any money for it!

So his uncle and I let him order something from Amazon, as payment. He picked the bound hardcover libretto of Rent. Such a Rent-head that kid is! It was only about $25.00 including shipping, so we felt like it was a good deal all around.

After the yard work and the houseowrk were done for the day, we had charcoal-grilled steaks, Alton Brown baked potatoes, and steamed corn-on-the-cob. With ice cream for dessert. And we watched a bit of TV, but we were all ready to crash after a busy and industrious day.

We all got cleaned up, and headed out to run a few errands. We went to Menards and got a bunch of picnic supplies to stock up for summer--colorful plastic cups, disposable flatware, paper plates, etc. Spouse bought a set of these (for only $6.99, though), and I found some pretty iced tea glasses, in the large size we prefer.

And I got some potted petunias for the front porch. The red, white and "we're pretending it's blue but they are really purple" mix, in terracotta colored plastic. Not too fancy, but they were 8-inch pots for $7.99. And it was too hot to garden, so I just went ahead and got 'em. I also found a cute little Air Force guy, saluting and holding a flag, to stick in the flowerbed for Spouse the vet. He thought it was kind of neat, so I couldn't resist.

After that, we ran to pick up some potato salad to go with the brats we planned to grill later. And I bought one of those sets for making fried "onion blossoms".

Then it was time to watch the race, so we headed home. Nephew puttered on the computer, read, and watched DVDs while Spouse watched Indy, I did laundry, and we all appreciated the chance to relax in the cool house.

After the sun went behind the trees, Spouse went out and finished his mowing, then washed his Sportster. When he finished, we had grilled brats and steamed sweet corn, potato salad and icy-cold watermelon for dinner. And then, we futzed around a bit more before hitting the hay. I felt tired out again, so I punked on the dishes and went to bed.

While he did that, I de-junked my car, preparatory to taking it for a good cleaning, and then Nephew and I got ready to head out, run errands, and take him home.

I was a bit ticked when I got to the car wash, only to find that they were closed for the holiday. After I dropped Nephew out in the boonies, I headed back to town and hit Wally's for a few things I needed. Aleve, and some new shorts, and candles, and coffee-maker cleaner. I got home about noon, and read for a while. Spouse came home at one, and we got KFC for lunch. I had planned to do up the dishes and clean the coffeemaker and do some beading yesterday afternoon, but instead, be were both lured by the sweet siren song of Miss Raji, and all three of us stretched out in the big bed for a generous helping of nap time. Nearly three hours worth!

We got up at 5:00, and I did the dishes and cleaned my coffee maker, grinder, and storage jars from top to bottm. Complete coffee maintenance.

We had plenty of KFC left over, so that settled the dinner question, and we followed up with more watermelon. We both continued the indolence thing into the evening--I played some Cubis 2 while he read a book, and before I knew it, it was bedtime.