jam-packed weekend
June 23, 2008

Friday
Girls night with W&T. We went to dinner (Cracker Barrel, at W�s request. Meh. Cost me $40.00 and wasn�t very good.), then took a drive, got dessert (Malts from Shirl�s Drive-In), and then went back to their place to sit around and gab till almost eleven.

Saturday
Up early, did two loads of wash, showered, dressed, and headed out for early errands. Gassed up the car, went to Thompson�s for a 4-quart basket of berries, came home and did another load of wash, talked to my mom for on the phone for 40 minutes (she called to say they wanted to come visit on Sunday), picked up around the house, and washed the dishes. Once Spouse was up and dressed, we went and did our household and grocery shopping, and then I came home, carried in, and put away. Once that was done, I advanced the laundry by another load (number 4, if you�re keeping track), and got ready to make and can a batch of strawberry-rhubarb jam. I soon realized I needed to make a run for some lids, since my recipe makes 7 jars and I only had 5 seals. So�a quick trip to the Piggly-Wiggly, and then home to wash berries, chop rhubarb, and get the jamming underway. The fruit prep, sterilization, actual jam-making, jar-filling, and processing takes about an hour and a half, and the clean-up takes another hour. At this point, it was 6:30, I�d been running all day. On two cups of coffee and a hastily nuked hot dog to alleviate a bout of dizziness. So Spouse and I went to GPWBLBNGTBIIAS and picked up a pie for dinner. After dinner, I mixed up a batch of vanilla ice cream mix, so it could chill overnight, and then cleaned up the messy kitchen again. At that point, I still needed to vacuum, dust, scrub the bathroom, clean my room, and finish the laundry�but I just couldn�t push anymore. So I went to bed at 9:30, resolved to get up early (again) and finish everything in the morning before my company arrived.

Sunday
And that�s exactly what I did. Got up and worked my ass off, scraping the major accumulations of dust, dirt, dog hair, and just-plain funk off of every surface in my badly neglected house. From 5:30 till nearly 11:00, washing machine, dryer, vacuum-cleaner, dust rags, disinfectant sprays, polishes, and the toilet brush were employed nonstop in my battle.

I finished in time to get myself cleaned up, and managed to grab a few minutes on my ass with my feet up before Mom & Dad (& their dog) arrived.

Had a nice visit with the �rents, and presented them with their Mother�s/Father�s day gifts. Mom was bowled over by the sewing machine (knew she would be) and Daddy got a kick out of his Dale Earnhardt doorstop�just a silly thing, but I knew he�d like it. And of course, he was extremely tickled to get his homemade jam�I always make it for him, and aside from the fact that he really likes homemade jam, it makes him feel special that I go to all that trouble for him.

After we had visited for a while, and Spouse had shown off the new Aqua-Critter (dad always appreciates a nifty piece of technology), we went to lunch at Famous Dave�s. It was okay, but the chopped pork tasted dry and the service was only so-so. Spouse made me pick up the tab, which kind of pissed me off, since I was ready to let Daddy do it. (That put me up to a total of one hundred bucks spent on mediocre food, for the weekend.) Then we took a drive around Kenosha, and let them see all the changes and old places they used to know when they lived up here. They had fun, and left about 3:15 or so, as the weather was looking threatening again, and they wanted to get home.

I have to say, they seem to be doing well. They�ve both gotten their cataracts out recently, which is a big load off my mind. Neither one of them had any business driving there for a while, with their bad eyes. And they�re remarkably ambulatory, considering. Mom still needs to get her other knee done, but doesn�t want to give up the time it would take, since she would have to be in live-in rehab for a solid month again.

Mr. B was a bit wary of Brissy, since the last time he saw her, she bit his nose hard enough to draw blood. But we kept a strong hand on them, and mostly kept them separated. B�s very well-behaved anyway, and quite likes other dogs. Briss is the problem; she�s quite spoiled and doesn�t play well with others. With humans, this often translates into shyness, but with other dogs, she gets very aggressive. But�all went well, they didn�t get in a fight, and I breathed a huge sigh of relief when their encounter was over.

After a big lunch and an exhausting weekend, I�d have been happy to just crash for the rest of the day. But Spouse had his heart set on a big dinner�grilled steaks, baked potatoes, tossed salad, and something he�d found at the grocery store, called Giant Bites. So I puttered on the computer for a while, set up the freezer and made the homemade ice cream, and killed time till about 5:30.

Then we pulled dinner together, which gave me a chance to use the new salad spinner I�d gotten myself on Saturday. Never had one of those before�it works great. The lettuce came out fresh and crisp and not soggy in the least.

I skipped the Giant Bite thingies�Spouse liked them, though. He said they were like onion ring breading surrounding Green Giant Niblets in Butter Sauce. To each his own, I guess. I was starting to seriously hit a wall by the time we got to the fresh strawberries and homemade ice cream, so I just rinsed & stacked the dishes, took the dog out, and stretched out on the couch, in front of the TV.

Whereupon I discovered that Sergeant Lewis had been promoted! I'm so out of touch with PBS, I'd had no idea.
I was only able to catch the last half-hour, but it definitely left me wanting more of �Inspector Lewis�. I�ve been bitching that HBO has left me without a Sunday night drama, but for the next few weeks, I will have an admirable replacement in �Inspector Lewis�.