best-laid plans
September 26, 2013, 7:02 P.M.

Okay. About Sunday.

Spouse and I had a specific plan for our Sunday: Relax, have breakfast, do the yard work, run out to Casual Male & pick him up some new tee-shirts--and make a lovely Sunday dinner of meatloaf, mashed sweet potatoes, and scalloped corn. Not too taxing; just a nice, easy Sunday.

So we got up, kicked around lazily, and eventually made some breakfast. I actually made myself soft-boiled eggs for the first time in years, and they came out perfect.

And just as I sat down to enjoy them...my phone rang, and it was Dad.
He & Mom wanted to meet up and have lunch in Lake Geneva.

Well, so much for planning. I told Spouse that he needn't go if he didn't want to, but he said he would. I ran into the kitchen and started pre-making the meatloaf, so it would be ready to go in the oven for dinner, and he zipped off to get cleaned up.

And my phone went off again.
Change of plans. They were coming all the way to our house. Mom had missed seeing Kenosha when she was up in July, and really wanted to see our new bathroom, and so they were just going to come up.

New plan: clean the house. Vacuum, dust, make beds. Sweep, swiffer, scrub, and scour. We threw ourselves into it and got the place looking pretty spiffy in a couple of hours. I even whipped up a meatloaf in there somewhere, and put it in the fridge to cook later. Got cleaned up, dressed, and then got a sudden whim to get the front yard done before they arrived. Which we did--just. We were putting away the mower when they drove up.

Spouse, to my eternal gratitude, had a grand idea while we were hard at work. It was a glorious day--instead of trying to find a place to eat where my mom could get around, and my dad could hear the conversation...why not have an impromptu picnic in the backyard? He ran over to the Festival and picked up some deli salads, fresh brats, bomber buns, and a six-pack. It ended up being the perfect thing. We had a great little cookout, and could have a conversation without bothering a restaurant full of people.

Spouse was so helpful and sweet. He did the shopping, the grilling, and all the clean-up, the big darling. And he drove us all around town so Mom and Dad could sight-see a bit, and even found the perfect place to stop so my mom could have an easy time going to the restroom (McD's).

They had a great time, and I really enjoyed it too. Poor Spouse, not so much, but he was very sweet to take on the grunt work so I could just hang out with the �rents. They were both very impressed with the bathroom, had a lovely time playing with the B, and just generally seemed to enjoy the lovely day and the nice, stress-free lunch. I�m glad they came.

I ended up exhausted, but I�m still glad.