Eventually
I couldn’t eat any more and my guests showed up — I think there was
probably a whole rack left for them. They enjoyed Liz’s deviled
eggs and her super potato salad. They brought a to-die-for
blueberry pie! WOW, it was good!
We
drank beer and talked and had a great time until about 7:30pm when I
took the kids in to get them cleaned up for bed. The guests left
at about the same time.
All
in all we had a very good time hanging around in the backyard. It
was so good that I want to talk to my carpenter friend about putting in
a deck on the back of the house. Its something we’ve talked about
but I think I’d like to get more serious about it — it will mean that
we can use the backyard in a very different way than we have in the
past.
Liz
received her new Harry Potter book — she’s very excited about
it. After reading the first couple of hundred pages she says its
quite good! I’m about a book and a half behind and will have to
catch up soon!
I
mowed the yard on Sunday morning. Afterwards I took the kids on
some errands with me for a few hours to give Liz some quiet time to
read her book. We had a good lunch at Bugaboo Creek steakhouse
and tried to find a new backpack at REI. My pack was larger than
a day-pack but smaller than a frame pack and it was very difficult to
find anything. We wound up at Dick’s Sporting goods where I
bought some new running shoes and a new Kelty Redwing
Classic pack. Hmm… I couldn’t find a picture of the one I actually
bought, but its very similar to the one Kelty is currently
showing. I got a very good price on it — half-ish of the
MSRP. It was just as big as the old one and was even a prettier
color!
Overall I was quite pleased with the purchase.
Then
I took the boys to get their hair cut. Finally, we were through
with all of our errands. Whew! It was nearly 3pm by the
time we got home. I had time to try to get the last of the
scratches out of the Odyssey. I used something called a
“claybar”. Its a putty that comes with a lubricant. You
spray the lubricant on the area and then rub this claybar over the
area. I thought it would fill in the scratch, but I don’t think
it did. Then I used a standard wax on the area to try and rub out
the scratch. In some cases it worked just fine. In all
cases it looked much better. In one case, it left a little bit to
be desired.
Oh,
and great news! Grace has only had ONE accident in the last
week! At first she would only use her little potty at home.
This was enough for me. I was just thrilled she wasn’t pooping in
her pants any more. Then she was more willing to start using the
big potty. Then yesterday when I took her out she pee’ed in one
potty and pooped in another!!
We’re so excited!! This is the first time in 9.5 years that we haven’t had someone in diapers!! WHOOPEE!!
In fact, I threw out the diaper genies last night.
Huge.
This is huge.
So, now we’re going to get a puppy! Just when you thought it was safe!
We
finished the evening off by sharing a little “grown-up dinner”.
This is a ritual Liz and I have where we feed the kids supper at their
regular time (five-ish) and then get something just for us around
8:30pm. Last night I grilled up some dogs for the kids and fed
them some of Liz’s home made macaroni & cheese with some
carots. Not gourmet fare, but they ate it.
I
had a fantastic white pizza from Polcari’s. It was one of the
best pizzas I’ve ever had. It was little — only 10″ but it was
wonderful! Liz got her usual artichoke margherita. They
have such good food there.
I
think that’s it for this weekend. The kids are in day-camp this
week and loving it. Even Grace! She’s not wearing any
pullups or daipers or anything either. Liz says its going well so
far. We’re going to start getting ready for our trip to
Smuggler’s Notch next week. We leave on Sunday and return the
following Saturday. I’m planning on taking off the following
Monday (8/1) as well.
I’d say that post is long enough. Back to the grind.
PS: Remember that green backpack
that got stolen? I found it under my
desk when I got to work this morning!!
It was never stolen at all! Crap, what
do I do now?! I think I have to see
if I can return the beautiful new pack.
Yeesh, what a dope.
I don’t know the full story regarding the whole “Not Afraid” thing, but
I guess it has to do with a web designer in London. He’s posted a
pretty cool mosaic web page here:
He posted hundreds or thousands of photos that people had sent to him.
They all say something about not being afraid. The underlying thrust
being that the terrorists will get nowhere by bombing subways and
towers of innocents.
http://www.splasho.com/mosaic/new/10map.htm
I put together my own picture:
Sphere: Related ContentTonight is the start of the second season of Battlestar Galactica!
At 10pm.
yeesh. What kind of old fart am I that the thought of staying up until 11pm makes me consider Tivo’ing it instead?!
Also Ron Moore’s podcast about the episode
has already been released. I could listen to it right away, but that
would spoil the episode.
Tomorrow, I leave early to go on a ride. I should still be back early
enough to get the kids their breakfast and whatnot. I’d also like to
try and go fishing sometime this weekend. I hope I can work it out.
We’re having a friend from work over for dinner tomorrow night. I’m
making ribs on the grill and cooking up some corn. I think Liz has
already made some potato salad. Should be a good meal.
OO! I need beer.
I think I’ll need to mow the grass. I may get more mortar to reinforce
Peterman’s Wall, too.
It should be a good weekend.