What did you do this weekend?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
41

Saturday am, took my boots to the Shoe Smith for spring re-heeling and to look at orthotic inserts while I was there. Left 45 minutes later about $200 poorer but with great orthotics and 2 pairs of nice looking flip flop type sandals that will actually support instead of wreck my feet.
Picked up my 91-year-old dad and his home care assistant and went out for sushi before the 1pm Gatsby matinee. After the movie, dropped dad & Kofi off, ran back home to meet my contractor to map out my bathroom renovation, demolition to begin Tuesday.

I had vague plans with a friend to go out for dinner - we knew we had to get away from campus (graduation weekend) so we drove about 1/2 hour away to some restaurant we’d never been to and had no reservations at. Wow, that was dumb. 1.5 hour wait? No thanks, so we strolled a little further down the way and found a place that only had a 45 minute wait and a decent looking bar. After we sat there for about 10 minutes being studiously ignored by not one but two bartends, we decided “Fuck this, I don’t need this lofty attitude from these provincial twats.” And left. Tried a third place which I know to be good and were turned away again. We were about this close to just going to Dairy Queen but we really wanted a nice cocktail, not soda, not beer, not wine.

So, we made one more attempt at one of the much much better places in town, figuring we could at least have a cocktail before settling for bad Chinese or pizza. To our delight, they seated us at the bar and suggested we eat there. And we surely did! House made burrata with baby peas and opal basil. Fresh ricotta ravioli in porcini broth with fresh herbs. And a lovely lemon cocktail made with limoncello and prosecco. Then a few glasses of prosecco, and a chocolate ganache and salted caramel tarte and a mind blowing key lime and basil chiffon tart. While we ate, we laughed at several hilarious tales and memories of our late moms, who were two cantankerous old peas in an ass-kicking pod. Awesome end for what could have easily been a ridiculously annoying and unsatisfying evening.

Yesterday I killed myself preparing for the bathroom reno: take everything that isn’t attached out of my one and only bathroom, remove everything on and around the bedroom wall against the bathroom, try to make everything fit in my tiny house and garage. Collect all the fixtures and stuff to be installed and put in one area of the garage. Now the big project: get my newly acquired '93 Winnebago Warrior set up to act as my bathroom while the renovation goes on. Here’s about a hundred things I’ve never done before, so consult the manual and the Internet for every goddamn step to flush out the water system. Got that done before I finally crapped out in the evening, having not accomplished getting the hot water heater started up, nor my 5 loads of laundry that has to go to the laundromat, oh and now that the water system is flushed, I have to take the RV out to the highway truck stop and learn how to dump the (now full) gray & black water tanks.

Plus I have to get all kinds of documentation coordinated for my refinancing project, and some unrelated attack from the IRS who are attempting to collect taxes owed by my dead brother from my dead mom’s estate. Mmmmyyyyeaaahhh I don’t think so. I love my lawyer.

Decided to take Monday off or totally lose my mind.

42

Saturdays are an early start - out in the garage at 7:30 with the punchbag for 20 minutes, up to the gym for 30 minutes barbell work, 45 min spin class, 1 hr body blast (circuits, really). Sauna, shower and home about 11am.
Did some chores, had a power smoothie. Into town because I had to pick up some new gym shorts, and a friend was opening his new venture (an Indian deli, with takeout indian pots. Ate a nice tikka. Also got some sweatbands, and a few bits of food.
Back home, watched some TV, played some guitar (not good enough weather to take it to the park, sadly). In the evening watched a bit more TV, skyped my wife for an hour or so (she is in NZ, I am in the UK), and went to bed.

Sunday was church in the morning - I was playing guitar and used my laptop rig, which worked absolutely fine (just gaining confidence in the setup). After church I went to friends and laid ethernet cable to their office which didn’t have wifi reception. Nice run outside the house, and the connection worked first time. They fed me mid afternoon, and I went home for a snooze and a DVD. In the evening I made a huge pot of pasta with the remains of a hot chicken I got on saturday - 2 weeks worth of lunches. I talked to my wife again, then off to sleep.

43

The same thing Madame Pepperwinkle and I do every weekend: try to take over the world.

We moved a couple of dozen boxes of books out of storage and tried to find room for them on our bookshelves. Almost successful.

44

I was woken to an eggs and sausage breakfast. I was given a card, a coloured picture (framed) a charm of the world plus a sun, (from my son!) some coasters and a recipe book for cocktails and fancy shot glasses and measuring things (from husband) Then we went to Church,my son and I helped with the greeting and I did collection, then after the children presented all Moms with tulips and their own mothers with freesia bouquets. After, we went to the bank and listened to Vinyl Cafe on the radio. He really enjoyed both the stories and songs. We came back and played dominoes, then I went for a nap and then my big boy and small boy prepared a fondue dinner. Afterwards, Miles and I went for cheesecake, then cuddled up and watched tv.

It was wonderful and all planned out by my son with shopping and cooking done by the husband. It was thoughtful from morning to night. I felt spoiled and loved.

45

Mother’s Day in Thailand is not until August 12, to coincide with the queen’s birthday. Otherwise cleaned house and went to Tawandang with some friends on Sunday night. Always a good show there. We have a member card that gets us 15% off of everything including the excellent beer.

46

**Saturday - **
carried six picket fence sections uphill from the backyard to the curb. Pushed broken lawnmower and broken pressure washer and broken bicycle uphill from the backyard to the curb. Didn’t push old but working lawn mower to the curb. (Wise Decision) Greeted wife who came home from shopping. Listened to wife’s lecture about my heart condition and carrying things uphill.

Put together Craig’s list ad that said - FREE STUFF ON THE CURB
Started cleaning nails from six picket fence sections by the curb. Talked to guy who came for all of the scrap metal. He didn’t want wood.
Talked to 4 other people who wanted metal, not wood. Removed add from Craigslist

Sunday -
Put together another Craigslist add that said - FREE OLD WORKING LAWNMOWER TO ANYBODY WHO WILL REMOVE MY SCRAP WOOD
Everything gone in an hour :smiley:

47

Played a lot of Bioshock 2

48

Saturday: Futzed around burning some DVDs and copying files between the network storage box and a hard drive in a USB enclosure. Watched some months-old TV I had sitting around from before I turned off the cable. Did a cool brainstorming exercise for my online writing course.

Sunday I went to church and dinner with my family; my Mom’s church. She was getting baptized, and wanted us all to be there for her. It was a little weird sitting through a sermon for the first time in years, but I think I actually got something useful out of it, as the sermon was about keeping the Sabbath, and touched on workaholic stuff and pushing yourself to be productive without taking breaks. :slight_smile: