Of shopping in Yonkers, Newark Airport at 5:30 am, and the search for a new mailbox
The weekend was good.
I wound up working about four hours on Saturday after all. But since I wasn't under the gun as far as my route went, and it was such a beautiful day, I found I didn't mind it so much.
After working I went to Stew Leonard's, which is a mega-supermarket. They're in Connecticut and the Brewster, NY area, and there's also one in Yonkers, which is fairly new (well, a few years, but I believe it's their newest store). Yonkers is closest, so I went to that one.
Bad idea. Mid-afternoon on a holiday Saturday is probably not the best time to check out a place like that. Very crowded, and difficult to maneuver. I felt as though I was constantly fighting the flow of traffic, and people were just blocking the aisles mindlessly. Very frustrating. Good thing Hal opted not to go with me.
Still, I found that they have a great selection of produce and meats. Very good prices, too. I picked up some veggies and berries and a London Broil. I also checked out the rib situation, and found to my delight that they offer family packs of baby back ribs. A very good price. This is where I'll buy the RibFest goodies.
They also have a garden section, so I picked up some impatiens for the barrels out front and some pansies and petunias for back garden. Hal helped me plant them when I got home, and things look much better now. Always nice to have some flowers around the house.
I was pretty tired and went to bed early, which was a wise thing anyway, because I had promised my parents I would take them to the airport Sunday morning. They're in Hawaii to attend their granddaughter's high school graduation. My sister is not considerate enough to live nearby. Lindsay's graduation didn't entail any more travel than, like, five minutes. Hmmph. The nerve of some people.
But I had to be at Mom and Dad's at 5:00, so I set the alarm for 4:45. Drove them down to Newark, dropped them off, and scooted back home, detouring for fresh, hot bagels on the way home.
Took a nice nap that afternoon, too. I really needed it. Then I grilled the London Broil and the veggies I got at Stew Leonard's the day before. Very nice dinner.
Not totally an anticlimax, because I had the day off, and got to sleep late and do whatever I felt like doing. But the day was chilly and damp. It even rained some, so it's good that I did the grilling the day before.
In the past, we've had a get-together with the local family, but my brother and his family have moved from the next town over to Virginia, and, as I mentioned, Mom and Dad were in Hawaii. So we went to Home Depot to pick up a few things that I needed, such as charcoal, hickory wood chunks, and a new mailbox. Our original one was rust-pocked to begin with, and the door fell off last year. Pretty shabby-looking. It was a long time coming, but it's one of those things you just never seem to get around to doing.
While were there, though, we walked through the garden store and decided that interlocking bricks would be a good idea to replace the gravel walk in front of the house. We've never liked it. It's a stretch of gravel in front of the house leading from the steps to the driveway. We use it all the time, but it's unstable, uneven, and since we have to clear it when it snows, we've wound up with almost as much gravel on the front lawn as on the path.
Perhaps as work evens out toward the end of summer, I'll be able to take a weekend and get that going. It would be a vast improvement, and look right smart, too.
I wound up working about four hours on Saturday after all. But since I wasn't under the gun as far as my route went, and it was such a beautiful day, I found I didn't mind it so much.
After working I went to Stew Leonard's, which is a mega-supermarket. They're in Connecticut and the Brewster, NY area, and there's also one in Yonkers, which is fairly new (well, a few years, but I believe it's their newest store). Yonkers is closest, so I went to that one.
Bad idea. Mid-afternoon on a holiday Saturday is probably not the best time to check out a place like that. Very crowded, and difficult to maneuver. I felt as though I was constantly fighting the flow of traffic, and people were just blocking the aisles mindlessly. Very frustrating. Good thing Hal opted not to go with me.
Still, I found that they have a great selection of produce and meats. Very good prices, too. I picked up some veggies and berries and a London Broil. I also checked out the rib situation, and found to my delight that they offer family packs of baby back ribs. A very good price. This is where I'll buy the RibFest goodies.
They also have a garden section, so I picked up some impatiens for the barrels out front and some pansies and petunias for back garden. Hal helped me plant them when I got home, and things look much better now. Always nice to have some flowers around the house.
I was pretty tired and went to bed early, which was a wise thing anyway, because I had promised my parents I would take them to the airport Sunday morning. They're in Hawaii to attend their granddaughter's high school graduation. My sister is not considerate enough to live nearby. Lindsay's graduation didn't entail any more travel than, like, five minutes. Hmmph. The nerve of some people.
But I had to be at Mom and Dad's at 5:00, so I set the alarm for 4:45. Drove them down to Newark, dropped them off, and scooted back home, detouring for fresh, hot bagels on the way home.
Took a nice nap that afternoon, too. I really needed it. Then I grilled the London Broil and the veggies I got at Stew Leonard's the day before. Very nice dinner.
Not totally an anticlimax, because I had the day off, and got to sleep late and do whatever I felt like doing. But the day was chilly and damp. It even rained some, so it's good that I did the grilling the day before.
In the past, we've had a get-together with the local family, but my brother and his family have moved from the next town over to Virginia, and, as I mentioned, Mom and Dad were in Hawaii. So we went to Home Depot to pick up a few things that I needed, such as charcoal, hickory wood chunks, and a new mailbox. Our original one was rust-pocked to begin with, and the door fell off last year. Pretty shabby-looking. It was a long time coming, but it's one of those things you just never seem to get around to doing.
While were there, though, we walked through the garden store and decided that interlocking bricks would be a good idea to replace the gravel walk in front of the house. We've never liked it. It's a stretch of gravel in front of the house leading from the steps to the driveway. We use it all the time, but it's unstable, uneven, and since we have to clear it when it snows, we've wound up with almost as much gravel on the front lawn as on the path.
Perhaps as work evens out toward the end of summer, I'll be able to take a weekend and get that going. It would be a vast improvement, and look right smart, too.