|
navigation
current
archives
links page
profile
|
|
the calm between
July 23, 2012
We kept a quiet weekend; Spouse had finally made it clear that if he didn't get a cuple of days off he was going to be dead, so he was off from Friday morning until tonight. They also re-worked the hours for the men so that they can cover better without working 12-hour shifts, so he's working 5-1 tonight.
We were glad of a quiet weekend, as last week was Iowa for my class reunion and next week is Iowa again, for family this time.
Friday I came home from work and grabbed the cable remote, then darted back out to run up to the north side and exchange it for one that actually works. (90% of the actions in our cable system require the select button, so naturally it wears out years before the rest of the unit.) Then I grabbed some lunch and came home to spend a quiet afternoon reading and relaxing and waiting for him to be done sleeping. When he was, at abut 3:30, he announced that he wanted to go to South Woods in Cudahy for a steak dinner. Since that's the first thing he'd said for ages that had any oomph behind it, and since I've been trying to get a real meal into him for weeks, I agreed to it without really wanting to go myself. But it isn't like I hate the place; it's a favorite actually. I just didn't feel like getting cleaned up and driving almost all the way to Milwaukee for dinner. But I did. And then we took the opportunity to do a little shopping at the Oak Creek Woodman's on the way home, and took the back roads home. It was actually a gorgeous evening for a ride in the country; we had a beautiful lake breeze cooling things off on Friday.
On Saturday, we got up early, made coffee and cinnies for breakfast and did some quick housework & laundry before heading out to run some errands--we wanted to get to the Farmer's Market way early and snag some Mirai sweet corn, since we knew they were going to run out in no time. Then I hit Penney's for new bras (Good news: they had three of my same old style, beige, in my size. Bad news: I didn't WANT that style! But they didn't have one single bra of any color in my size for the new style I wanted.) and down to Zion to Wally's for the rest of the shopping. Where I usually do way better than I do at the Somers store, but...apparently they are traited very diferently in K-cups, because I couldn't find ANY coffee I wanted.
When we got home, we did some more chores, futzed around lazily and relaxed, then made dinner: beer brats on the grill, Mirai sweet corn steamed lightly, salad with beefsteak tomatoes, fresh lemonade shake-ups, and chunked up muskmelon from the Farmer's Market(same people who sell the corn, from Harvard IL). Spouse did a lot more sleeping on Saturday, working on getting rested up. It was nice to see some color return to his cheeks as the weekend progressed...he was looking horribly ashen before he got caught up on some sleep and meals.
Sunday started out kind of putzy, I did computer maintenance and Spouse did a sort of zen zone-out by doing minor maintenance on the cars (what can I say? it relaxes him!), then we re-did the B's bandage; cut off the old, washed his leg well, and then put on a new one with the no-chew wrap over it.
But then Spouse decided that he really needed to get some new work shoes bought (current ones are tearing his feet up), we still needed coffee, and he wanted better floor mats for the Ford. So we got cleaned up and went to Rogan's (the shoe he wanted wasn't in stock in his size, but they ordered it. It'll be in Thursday, we hope.) He has a 1/2 off credit coming from the store, plus reimbursement up to $75 from work, so they won't cost him anything out of pocket, at least.
We ran to Walmart in Somers for coffee and floormats, and then we came home where he crashed for another 5-hour nap and I threw a chicken in the crock-pot and sat on my behind all afternoon, reading and listening to some tunes. His daytime sleeping is a significant impediment to my activity; I feel like I caqn't make any noise that will wake him up. Like opening our increadibly squeaky back door, for instance. At a quarter past four, I went in and started the rest of dinner. Mashed potatoes, gravy, and steamed peas. Along with the crock-pot chicken, made a lovely Sunday dinner. After dinner I cleaned up, did dishes, and picked the chicken carcass clean, since we had enough for for another meal. I had planned to go swiming, but I just didn't have the oomph, so while Spouse toddled off to bed yet again, I ate Fla-Vor-Ice for dessert, played Pet Society, watched some QI, and killed the evening quietly.
Reading:"Cloudy Jewel" (1920), by Grace Livingston Hill. This one started out in quite a satisfactory way, with a spinster aunt going from a no-hope existence to being swept up in a beautiful fairy tale. Then BAM. Out of the blue, it turns into this heavy-handed pile of godbaggery that nearly made me vomit. The aunt, Julia Cloud (nicknamed "Cloudy Jewel" by her niece and nephew), turns out to be a fervent fundy who pretty much calls her niece out as a whore for wearing an evening gown and going dancing. I am trying to get though it, and for a while I was enjoying the heck out of the reactions of the niece and nephew to the whole concept of religion, as well as specific aspects of it like keeping the sabbath. They look at it as alien and bizarre and rather silly. Of course, their refreshingly heathen attitude cannot stand in a novel like this, and I even suspect that the nephew could end up as a preacher, so I go forward with much trepidation.
Also "The Carter Girls" (1917), by Nell Speed. Much better writing, but as with all the Nell Speed books, the southern perspective means a lot of casual racism. That's always a bit rattling; you are cruising along in a good book and you come around a corner and hit up against "the N word" so hard it knocks you right out f the story.
Listening: Boomtown Rats, Eve 6, Green Day
Surfing: .
At Random:
click here
|
|