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holy damn, I�m beat.
June 02, 2008, 6:16 P.M.
I had a busy summer weekend; Saturday we drove out to McHenry and did a mega-stock-up shop at Meijer. A long drive for grocery shopping, but they were having a great sale and the price of gas was more than repaid. Even after you consider the tax discrepancies between Illinois and Wisconsin, and the three gallons or so of gas, we still saved about $65.00. When Laundry soap is buy one, get TWO free, whole pork loin is 1.69 (and they�ll cut it into chops for no charge), ground chuck is 1.65, chicken legs are 1.42, bone-in rib eyes are 4.00 apiece, and bottled water 3.00 a case�you put the cooler in the trunk and go to Meijer.
Plus, they have the best damn fruit anywhere. I got cherries, peaches, and cantaloupe that tasted like high summer, not the end of May.
Of course, in addition to trekking out there, doing all that shopping, packing the car, and trekking back home, there is the fun of carrying it all into the house and putting it away. Including sub-dividing large packs of meat into meal-sized portions, and pre-fabbing some hamburger patties while you�re at it. Once I had all that done, I had no choice but to lie down and take a nap.
Once I�d had a nice, recuperative snooze, I got up and did some dinner prep. We�d picked up some baby gold potatoes, so I oven roasted them with a bit of butter and herbs and sweet onion. We both had a yen for produce, so in addition to the potatoes I steamed us each an ear of fresh sweet corn and made a generous tossed salad. Spouse did a couple of the cheap rib eyes over cowboy charcoal to round out a tasty, summery dinner.
After supper, we sat in the backyard for a while; Spouse with a cigar, Mr. B with his ball, and me with a conscience that kept reminding me the dishes needed to be done, until eventually I went in and did them. I hate that.
Then Spouse decided he needed some Dilly Bars, so we took a ride to the DQ.
Sunday was the day for slogging through all the work that I didn�t do on Saturday. All the work I could squeeze in, anyway. I got up at 6:15 and got through the dog chores�food, water, pottie�and made some coffee. As soon as I�d gotten a mugful down to start my engine, I was off and running. I threw in a load of towels, spent some time cleaning up the laundry room and catching up with the recycling�I tend to throw the empty bottles into one side of the deep sink, and deal with them once they start to overflow. Once I�d rinsed them all out and sacked �em up, I had two full blue bags, so it�s obvious I�ve been ignoring it for a while. Besides the two recycling bags, I managed to carry three bags of assorted trash up from the basement, as well.
Once the laundry ball was in the air and the laundry room was put to rights, I came upstairs and had my second cup, then headed outside to start the gardening. I�d gotten a bunch of new pots, bags of dirt, and young plants last weekend, right before the weather turned to shit and kept me from getting on with things. So I headed out and got planting. I�d miscalculated my pot sizes, apparently�I only managed get the tomato in the ground, and to get 2 large pots and a hanging basket done before I ran out of soil. So I came in, made out a garden center list, and hit the showers, so I could run out and get the supplies. Somewhere in there, Spouse got up.
I kind of punked on the baskets this year�since we were able to find some really gorgeous pre-done baskets at very low prices, we went with a lovely petunia basket in pastel lavender, plus a couple of Pentas�one pink, one red. They are very good butterfly-attractors, so I�m hoping we get some to visit. I did two baskets by hand�one all verbena, and one petunia and verbena. And I had one of each leftover, so I took one of my old stoneware pots and planted it up, for the front porch step.
On the advice of a gardener I know, I put blood meal in my low pots, since it is supposed to discourage bunnies and squirrels from digging up the petunias and eating the roots (yes, more petunias. I happen to love petunias.), but I noticed that it also seems to make them popular with flies.
And with Mr. B, who is going to need some training, so he stays away from my plants.
While I was busy with round two of the gardening--and periodically revisiting and advancing the laundry�and performing a cleanup of the area by the back door, where the neighbor�s trees have been dumping their shit since last fall-- Spouse was busy paying the piper for being too lazy to put the pool pump away last fall. Biiig old crack in the intake. Along with the biiig old crack in the skimmer, that�s $200.00 or so worth of new parts, and I guess I can kiss my ladder upgrade goodbye for this year. Pool budget�s shot and we don�t even have it open yet.
He/we did make a lot of progress on getting the pool open, but we aren�t there yet. After he replaced the skimmer assembly, it was leaking around the edge, so he needs to undo it and start over, re-seating the seal, before we can finish filling, and do the shock. But we got the winter cover off and the summer cover on, plus repairing the pump, changing the sand in the filter, and getting everything re-plumbed. It�s coming along.
By the time we got to a good stopping place, it was 5:15 and we were both starved, so I whipped up a batch of sloppy joes and threw some fries in the Fry Baby. Not the healthiest, but I was exhausted and hungry and I really didn�t care.
No guilty conscience about the dishes, either. I let them sit, popped some (forbidden!) Advil, stretched out on the couch, and watched the entire Fox animation lineup. Then I popped more Advil, and went to bed.
Monday Stuff:
Spouse had his knee MRI this morning, bright and early. He meets with his doctor on Friday to discuss the results.
Nothing like a day where your every hour is booked solid, and deadlines loom. Unless it�s a day like that�and your CEO pops his head out of the Ivory Tower and says �everyone take an extra hour for lunch today!�. Yeah, right. Which hour would you suggest?
I came home today to find two squad cars in my next-door neighbor's driveway. The good, nice neighbors. I wonder what happened? I don't like to pry, I'm just hoping everyone is okay.
Finally--I asked "what next", and I got an answer�Bo Diddley died. I think I need to go listen to something with a Bo Diddley beat.
Bomp ba-bomp ba-bomp, bomp bomp.
Reading: Back to "John Adams".
Beading: Bead order was shipped, but hasn�t arrived yet.
Surfing: Hello Kitty Hell. There�s some real sick crap being manufactured out there�
Listening: Warren Zevon, The Police, John Mellencamp, Dire Straits.
At Random: click here
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