wow! (a weekend)
[subtitled: I slept really well last night.]
so many great things about this weekend! plants, kitchen wall progress, good cooking, and Dad home from the hospital. that's the short version. for the really long version, read on.
Friday night I trimmed the yard and the jungle. David came home while I was doing so, and made a scrumptious dinner all by himself. it had baked chicken topped with sauteed red pepper and onion, fresh basil, and parmesan cheese blend, plus tossed salad and mandarin oranges on the side. we so have to find out from Tony what kind of cheese he uses in that parmesan blend, because we want to make it. it's fantabulous! a mix of really high quality stuff, and Hy-Vee brand cheapo for bulk.
anyhow, Saturday, didn't get to sleep in as long as we wanted, because we also wanted to go to the farmer's market. the only actual foods we saw there were asparagus and morels, plus the typical jams, jellies, and baked goods. I didn't have $15 in cash for the morels, so we went home empty-handed. though we did run into Colette, who was looking at what the farmer's market did have, which was flowers. I really wanted to buy flowers, but we really didn't have the money. so, as mentioned, we went home empty-handed.
post office stop, to pick up postage for our invitations before the rate went up. some of them went into the mail already, so we could use up our old postage, which were pretty flower stamps. the rest are still sitting in the living room, next to the ho-hum liberty bell forever stamps we bought.
grocery shopping, which by itself isn't terribly interesting, but since we were on that side of town anyway, we found our way to Sherwin Williams to inquire about ways to get the stuff on our kitchen walls that just won't chip or steam off. we came home with a new kind of stripper that's supposed to be environmentally friendly, and some spackle.
met with the ministerial candidate in his office for about 20 minutes, so that David got a chance to meet in him person. finished grocery shopping, went home, put groceries away, and started up the beef stock and beef burgundy. the bones and veggies for the stock first got put in the oven to be roasted for a couple hours. the round steak for the burgundy needed to be browned first, the sauce made, and then put in the crock pot.
then it was off to the mini dog park. the real dog park is still unusable right now. the fencing needs to be restored to upright position, washouts under the fence need to be filled, and trash needs to be picked up. naturally, this is all done by volunteers, so it might take a while, depending on how much help can be drummed up. obviously, David and I didn't make it out there this weekend to do any of the work, which always makes me feel like one of the chicks in the story about Henny Penny.
anyhow, in the meantime we have a mini dog park in town - Colette's house. she has a half acre, much of which is garden, but a lot of which the dogs can chase around. Judy was there when we arrived, with Ripley and Reggie, who were really happy to see us. it's been a while since we've gotten to the park the same time as Judy. I threw the ball for Reggie a bit, and was covered with dusty dog paw marks. the greyhounds did their things for a while, and meanwhile, Colette gathered plants for me to take.
as mentioned, a great deal of Colette's yard is garden, so she pulled starter plants of several kinds for me. I got a bleeding heart, some jacob's ladder, yellow hosta, and a couple other things I can't remember for the front yard in that shady spot under the tree. for the sunny jungle, I got a half-something cranberry bush, a butterfly bush, some "happy returns" daylillies, hardy mum, bee balm, seedum, and a handful of other stuff that I can't remember. plus some iris bulbs, which I'm not sure where I'll be putting them. David was feeling rather overwhelmed at that point, undoubtedly because he knows about the plants that died on the patio last year because I never had time to put them into the ground.
she recommended I plant the bleeding heart right away, so we did the shade plants when we got home. the others sat in the garage over night until I was able to plant them on Sunday morning first thing. in the cold, windy, rainy morning weather. but that was later.
back to Saturday night, we played DMB 3.1 for several hours while the beef stock - now in a pot with water - simmered and simmered and simmered. I made tabbouleh. the beef burgundy wasn't ready after 5 hours, but was quite good after 6. we realized we had forgotten to buy pasta, so we ate the beef burgundy with couscous [which was alright, but not ideal]. I tried calling my mom a couple times, and finally got through and chatted for a bit. Dad was at home, and Bryan was there visiting. we went to bed.
Sunday was even busier. I got up early and worked on planting in the jungle. it was very wet, and quite windy, so I wore David's poncho part of the time, but at least it wasn't hot. I got everything planted before church, including a long line of seedum that I hope will take root and help keep the edge of the bed looking nicer. I was able to divide the daylillies into four plants, and basically spaced everything else without any real idea of how tall or what color they would end up. eh. it's a garden; if I don't like something, I can pull it up and plant it somewhere else.
I also was able to plant some seeds that I had gathered last year. two kinds of decorative grasses, some tall something-or-other flowers that I thought were attractive but don't know what they are, some magnolia from Joe, something viney from Colette last year, and some flowery things I got from the big pots outside the UI library. I figure, someday I can either look these things up and find out their names, or just not worry about it. [I'll probably settle on option two.] I'm planting things there mostly because I want that section of grass/weeds behind the fence [on the alley] to be overrun with pretty things, rather than having to hack the weeds down periodically when I remember to.
speaking of which, it was handy that I had actually gotten out there on Friday to hack the weeds down, so I could plant on Sunday. otherwise the things from Colette would probably still be in our garage, waiting for me to have time to trim before I could dig holes and plant. and while I was doing the planting, David washed dishes and tidied the kitchen, in preparation for us to work on the walls. we wanted to finish stripping the walls, and begin the spackling/patching process. [we'd like to finish spackling and sand next weekend. hopefully.]
after all that, went to church, which included a congregational meeting afterwards to vote on whether to extend a call to the candidate. the vote was in favor, so we'll give him the paperwork and see if he accepts. after that, we had brunch at the Butterfly Cafe before going home and beginning work on the kitchen.
that took several hours; I think we put in four good hours of work. we chipped and scraped and steamed. and chipped and scraped some more. parts of the wall look like someone spackled and then never sanded down. or something. I tried that new stripper on some of the very bright pink paint behind the stove, but it didn't seem to work very well. the problem, from what I could tell, is that this stripper is a liquid. the highly toxic stuff my mom used to use was a goop, so it pretty much stayed where you put it. since the stuff we bought was a liquid, it just ran down the wall. so... not sure whether we're going to try using it in another venue, but we decided to just either sand the stuff off the walls, or just sand it down enough to paint over it. there are just a couple patches of bright pink paint that won't come off. otherwise, the walls are all clear.
spackle, spackle, spackle. I like doing that. as David said, it's like frosting a cake. except, I added, you don't have to be tidy about it. then we had to clean up and put everything back. and feel utterly exhausted.
we took Andy to the mini dog park again, where Reb led the three of them [Reb, Andy, and Athena] on quite a race around the yard. unfortunately, Andy wasn't smart enough to run around the stepping stones that she recently put down near the house. so his poor footsies got a little dinged up. nothing major, but we gave him a Bufferin when we got home. after Colette's house, we went to Papa Murphy's, then home to bake pizza and crash.
except, I needed to go back out to the jungle and water the plants, since it didn't rain after all. I filled the watering can and went out there, to find that the neighborhood kids had already had a go at my plantings. okay, I'm guessing it was kids, though there might be other explanations. either way, two plants were uprooted, and one is gone completely. not sure on the logic behind the destruction, since the ones that were disturbed weren't next to each other or near the front of the bed. regardless, one plant was just lying somewhere else, and the other group of plants were strewn about. so I had to gather them up and take some time to replant them. I watered everything, put markers [popsicle sticks] next to where I planted seeds, and went back inside, feeling much more cranky than before.
more DMB with pizza. called Mom to say Happy Mother's Day! severely crashed a little after 10:00, and slept soundly the whole night through. luckily, Andy also slept through the night, since he went to the mini dog park later in the day than normal.
so many great things about this weekend! plants, kitchen wall progress, good cooking, and Dad home from the hospital. that's the short version. for the really long version, read on.
Friday night I trimmed the yard and the jungle. David came home while I was doing so, and made a scrumptious dinner all by himself. it had baked chicken topped with sauteed red pepper and onion, fresh basil, and parmesan cheese blend, plus tossed salad and mandarin oranges on the side. we so have to find out from Tony what kind of cheese he uses in that parmesan blend, because we want to make it. it's fantabulous! a mix of really high quality stuff, and Hy-Vee brand cheapo for bulk.
anyhow, Saturday, didn't get to sleep in as long as we wanted, because we also wanted to go to the farmer's market. the only actual foods we saw there were asparagus and morels, plus the typical jams, jellies, and baked goods. I didn't have $15 in cash for the morels, so we went home empty-handed. though we did run into Colette, who was looking at what the farmer's market did have, which was flowers. I really wanted to buy flowers, but we really didn't have the money. so, as mentioned, we went home empty-handed.
post office stop, to pick up postage for our invitations before the rate went up. some of them went into the mail already, so we could use up our old postage, which were pretty flower stamps. the rest are still sitting in the living room, next to the ho-hum liberty bell forever stamps we bought.
grocery shopping, which by itself isn't terribly interesting, but since we were on that side of town anyway, we found our way to Sherwin Williams to inquire about ways to get the stuff on our kitchen walls that just won't chip or steam off. we came home with a new kind of stripper that's supposed to be environmentally friendly, and some spackle.
met with the ministerial candidate in his office for about 20 minutes, so that David got a chance to meet in him person. finished grocery shopping, went home, put groceries away, and started up the beef stock and beef burgundy. the bones and veggies for the stock first got put in the oven to be roasted for a couple hours. the round steak for the burgundy needed to be browned first, the sauce made, and then put in the crock pot.
then it was off to the mini dog park. the real dog park is still unusable right now. the fencing needs to be restored to upright position, washouts under the fence need to be filled, and trash needs to be picked up. naturally, this is all done by volunteers, so it might take a while, depending on how much help can be drummed up. obviously, David and I didn't make it out there this weekend to do any of the work, which always makes me feel like one of the chicks in the story about Henny Penny.
anyhow, in the meantime we have a mini dog park in town - Colette's house. she has a half acre, much of which is garden, but a lot of which the dogs can chase around. Judy was there when we arrived, with Ripley and Reggie, who were really happy to see us. it's been a while since we've gotten to the park the same time as Judy. I threw the ball for Reggie a bit, and was covered with dusty dog paw marks. the greyhounds did their things for a while, and meanwhile, Colette gathered plants for me to take.
as mentioned, a great deal of Colette's yard is garden, so she pulled starter plants of several kinds for me. I got a bleeding heart, some jacob's ladder, yellow hosta, and a couple other things I can't remember for the front yard in that shady spot under the tree. for the sunny jungle, I got a half-something cranberry bush, a butterfly bush, some "happy returns" daylillies, hardy mum, bee balm, seedum, and a handful of other stuff that I can't remember. plus some iris bulbs, which I'm not sure where I'll be putting them. David was feeling rather overwhelmed at that point, undoubtedly because he knows about the plants that died on the patio last year because I never had time to put them into the ground.
she recommended I plant the bleeding heart right away, so we did the shade plants when we got home. the others sat in the garage over night until I was able to plant them on Sunday morning first thing. in the cold, windy, rainy morning weather. but that was later.
back to Saturday night, we played DMB 3.1 for several hours while the beef stock - now in a pot with water - simmered and simmered and simmered. I made tabbouleh. the beef burgundy wasn't ready after 5 hours, but was quite good after 6. we realized we had forgotten to buy pasta, so we ate the beef burgundy with couscous [which was alright, but not ideal]. I tried calling my mom a couple times, and finally got through and chatted for a bit. Dad was at home, and Bryan was there visiting. we went to bed.
Sunday was even busier. I got up early and worked on planting in the jungle. it was very wet, and quite windy, so I wore David's poncho part of the time, but at least it wasn't hot. I got everything planted before church, including a long line of seedum that I hope will take root and help keep the edge of the bed looking nicer. I was able to divide the daylillies into four plants, and basically spaced everything else without any real idea of how tall or what color they would end up. eh. it's a garden; if I don't like something, I can pull it up and plant it somewhere else.
I also was able to plant some seeds that I had gathered last year. two kinds of decorative grasses, some tall something-or-other flowers that I thought were attractive but don't know what they are, some magnolia from Joe, something viney from Colette last year, and some flowery things I got from the big pots outside the UI library. I figure, someday I can either look these things up and find out their names, or just not worry about it. [I'll probably settle on option two.] I'm planting things there mostly because I want that section of grass/weeds behind the fence [on the alley] to be overrun with pretty things, rather than having to hack the weeds down periodically when I remember to.
speaking of which, it was handy that I had actually gotten out there on Friday to hack the weeds down, so I could plant on Sunday. otherwise the things from Colette would probably still be in our garage, waiting for me to have time to trim before I could dig holes and plant. and while I was doing the planting, David washed dishes and tidied the kitchen, in preparation for us to work on the walls. we wanted to finish stripping the walls, and begin the spackling/patching process. [we'd like to finish spackling and sand next weekend. hopefully.]
after all that, went to church, which included a congregational meeting afterwards to vote on whether to extend a call to the candidate. the vote was in favor, so we'll give him the paperwork and see if he accepts. after that, we had brunch at the Butterfly Cafe before going home and beginning work on the kitchen.
that took several hours; I think we put in four good hours of work. we chipped and scraped and steamed. and chipped and scraped some more. parts of the wall look like someone spackled and then never sanded down. or something. I tried that new stripper on some of the very bright pink paint behind the stove, but it didn't seem to work very well. the problem, from what I could tell, is that this stripper is a liquid. the highly toxic stuff my mom used to use was a goop, so it pretty much stayed where you put it. since the stuff we bought was a liquid, it just ran down the wall. so... not sure whether we're going to try using it in another venue, but we decided to just either sand the stuff off the walls, or just sand it down enough to paint over it. there are just a couple patches of bright pink paint that won't come off. otherwise, the walls are all clear.
spackle, spackle, spackle. I like doing that. as David said, it's like frosting a cake. except, I added, you don't have to be tidy about it. then we had to clean up and put everything back. and feel utterly exhausted.
we took Andy to the mini dog park again, where Reb led the three of them [Reb, Andy, and Athena] on quite a race around the yard. unfortunately, Andy wasn't smart enough to run around the stepping stones that she recently put down near the house. so his poor footsies got a little dinged up. nothing major, but we gave him a Bufferin when we got home. after Colette's house, we went to Papa Murphy's, then home to bake pizza and crash.
except, I needed to go back out to the jungle and water the plants, since it didn't rain after all. I filled the watering can and went out there, to find that the neighborhood kids had already had a go at my plantings. okay, I'm guessing it was kids, though there might be other explanations. either way, two plants were uprooted, and one is gone completely. not sure on the logic behind the destruction, since the ones that were disturbed weren't next to each other or near the front of the bed. regardless, one plant was just lying somewhere else, and the other group of plants were strewn about. so I had to gather them up and take some time to replant them. I watered everything, put markers [popsicle sticks] next to where I planted seeds, and went back inside, feeling much more cranky than before.
more DMB with pizza. called Mom to say Happy Mother's Day! severely crashed a little after 10:00, and slept soundly the whole night through. luckily, Andy also slept through the night, since he went to the mini dog park later in the day than normal.