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busy summer weekend
July 27, 2015
I wanted (deperately need!) to get my hair cut on Friday afternoon, but I had to stay home
and wait for the gutter cleaners. The window was 1-3, so that pretty much made other plans
impossible. So when I got home about 11:30, I did a little pen maintenance (flushed out my
Waterman), then hit the pool for half an hour or so. After I came in and changed, I threw in
a load of laundry, then made myself a PB&J for lunch. I was just taking my second bite at
12:51--when the guys showed up. That was quite a surprise! They were really efficient, too.
they did the whole thing, cleanup and all, in just an hour! AND they did a really good job! I
like this company, and I immediately posted a positive review on their FB page.
Because I was expecting all that to require me to be alert all afternoon, I had planned to
work on a craft project, but they were gone before two...so I took a nap, instead. (I'm never
going to get my pen boxes built!)
I got up about 4:00 and tended to the dog. Spouse got home early because of management
meetings on Friday, and after a brief discussion regarding preferences, he headed out to pick
up some supper from Culver's. Just as he walked out, my phone went off--it was Dad.
Feeling lonely and down (of course--that's the only time he ever calls me) because: spent too
much time alone all week, broke up with his "ladyfriend", coming up on anniversary of
Mom's death, he found their marriage license while cleaning out a drawer, and he's really
missing her.
On the plus side, he has one house sold, a nibble on the other, and plans made for moving
his stuff to AZ. But I told him he's like me--first, he's anxious because THE PLAN isn't all
hammered out, and then once it is, he's anxious to get the THE PLAN executed. I told him
"we don't like to fly by the seat of our pants". He said he could, but he likes to know what
direction he's flying in, at least. I said "I can, too, but I want to know what pants I'm
wearing!" Oh, we can both DO it--but we don't LIKE it!
Once Spouse got home, we wrapped up the call and it was dinner-time. Perfect time for The
B to walk up, look us in the eye--and heave up his entire dinner all over the rug. (He wasn't
sick--just a glutton. He'd eaten his whole bowl of food in about 10 seconds.)
Gah. Cleaned that up, scrubbed myself thoroughly, and sat down to dinner again. After we
ate, Spouse went to go read, and I worked on the laundry a bit, and did a bit of reading
myself. Since I knew I was going to have a busy day on Saturday, I hit the mattress a little
after nine.
Saturday, we got up, did a little housework, and then went out for breakfast at Tommy's before heading to the carwash, gas station, Costco (for meds), Meijer (for groceries), and Tenuta's Italian Deli (for goodies--including the triumphant return of Cardinali's bread!!)
We came home, did some of the picnic prep, then everyone had an early nap to rest up for the evening.
Got up to find that my ink order from Goulet Pens had come in the mail. I ordered five sample vials to take advantage of the sale--two each of the Waterman Tender Purple and the Sheaffer Skrip Red for mixing. I wanted my fifth ink to be Apache Sunset, but for some reason, the website wouldn't allow me to order it, so I did a "surprise me". The surprise one is DeArtramentis Document Red, which is weirdly opaque and I don't really like. Plus it's boring, and kind of disappointing, since I already have enough red inks. Including one of the two colors I'd ordered!
I didn't have time to mess with it just then, though--into the shower to get ready for the concert. We caught the train in Waukegan, so it was a bit of a drive before we could jump on the METRA. The train to Ravinia was crowded as always, but it was a limited, so we didn't have to make all eight stops between our station and the park. It only took about 25 minutes. Beats the heck out of fighting the traffic and paying for parking.
Once we got in, we stopped at the concert merchandise, and Spouse picked up an Aja teeshirt and his fourth Steely Dan tour mug. Now he has a set! (2011/Shuffle Diplomacy, 2013/Mood Swings, 2014/Jamalot, and 2015/Rockabye Gollie Angel.) Then we undertook to find a picnic spot, which is always problematic at Ravinia. We ended up in the same place we were last time: sitting on the wall of a flowerbed, down by the pavilion. This time, we brought seat cushions, so it was much more comfortable!
We had a lovely picnic. Italian bread with butter and proscuitto di parma, cheese, ripe olives, lots of fruit: strawberries, grapes, pineapple, and cantaloupe & honeydew melons. Italian butter cookies for dessert. Some nice wine would have made it perfect--but my husband, that child of the seventies, decided to take Boone's Farm wines to captuire the true, old-school concertgoing spirit.
I should have stuck to water, though--as always, if I drink in the summer, I ended up all sweaty, miserable, and with my face breaking out from it. And it wasn't even terribly hot!
But we had a nice time. Met a lot of friendly people, had great pavilion seats, and got to enjoy a great show. The Bobby Broom Organization opened again--Ravinia was the only stop on the tour where they weren't following Elvis Costello & the Imposters. From what I've heard, I didn't miss anything. And I love the BBO, so it's no hardship to listen to them. They played a short set, and then Steely Dan took the stage. Fagen was in good voice, and Walter even sang one! ("Daddy Don't Live in That New York City No More")
No Deacon Blues (just once, out of seven concerts!), but a good, solid setlist. Then it was the train to the car to home again--back before midnight! Another reason we love Ravinia. We're too old to be up all night, and because of its location, park concerts need to end fairly early.
I wasn't really psyched to go; this makes seven times we've seen them, and I am just not into live concerts anymore, no matter who it is. But I mostly had an enjoyable time.
Spouse was a powerhouse on Sunday morning--before I even woke up, he'd taken care of
the dog, cleaned out the cooler, washed up the dirty dishes, and put in a load of towels--and
was making sausage and french toast for breakfast!
I had a cup of coffee and made some blueberry compote--the fruit tray I'd bought for the
concert had fresh blueberries, and I wanted to get them used up, so I gave them a quick
simmer with a little water and sugar, to use as a french toast topping. We had our lovely
breakfast and watched Martha Stewart make coffee cakes, then did the dishes.
I threw on a pair of shorts and a teeshirt and went out front to dead-head & water flowers,
and pretty soon Spouse came out to vacuum the car. I finally got over procrastinating and
started trimming the shrubs with the battery trimmer, then Spouse plugged in the electric
and went at it with me. It is a project, but it really needed to be done.
After I got all that mess raked up and bagged, I came in and folded the clothes in the dryer
so I could put the towels in, while Spouse went out back and took the loppers to all the
overhanging branches from our western neighbor's "weed trees". They were really getting
bad again--one of them was hanging all the way over the pool. After I put the clothes away,
he came in to get showered & dressed, and I went out, to dead-head and water the flowers in
the back.
It was not terribly hot, and it was overcast so the sun wasn't beating down, but damn it was
humid. I had burning eyes from all the sweat running into them. Once I had the mess
cleaned up and came in the house, I had to sit down for a while, slug a bottle of water, and
sit quietly in front of the fan until the sweat stopped pouring off me. Once I was cool
enough, I grabbed a good shower, threw on some clean clothes, and we made a quick run to
the grocery store, because he'd suddenly changed his mind about dinner and wanted to make barbecue in the pressure cooker instead of pasta.
By the time we got home, it was about 1:30, so we relaxed in the afternoon. I thought about
taking a swim, but it kept looking so threatening out, I figured it was going to rain (it never
did). So I futzed around indoors, mixing up a batch of custom ink and playing with it, ordering a pair of shoes,
posting to tumblr, and finally having a quick doze before dinner.
Spouse made his barbecue, plus oven-browned potatoes, garlic toast, and corn-on-the cob.
A very nice dinner. I cleaned up and did the dishes, got my Monday morning prep done
early, and watched some old QI eps before heading to bed.
"Rebecca's Promise" (1919) by Frances Roberta Sterrett
A young schoolteacher has tea with an older cousin, who opens her eyes to the fact that she
is so worried about saving for her future that she doesn't allow herself to have a present.
After promising her cousin that she would "take out memory insurance" by saying "Yes,
thank you" instead of "No, I can't possibly" when opportunities arose to have fun, she finds
her life changed dramatically.
Listening:
In the mood for some across-the-pond girl soul: Paloma Faith, Duffy, Lorde, Birdy and Adele. And Canadian Melanie Fiona, who is from this side of the pond, but still falls under the long reach of Her Maj.
My dark red & black Bulow X450, with custom ink color Binder Burgundy.
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