Not excuses, just explantions

I’ve been shamelessly neglecting my Space & friends this weekend. My only excuse is that the weather has been too lovely to stay inside beyond what was absolutely necessary, as the weather is due to change again Tuesday. Many apologies and I will be by to visit you all soon (probably when I get back to work )

We had a nice dinner Friday evening, once we found some place we could actually get a seat: Texas Roadhouse- 2 hour wait; Olive Garden- hour & a half; Chevys- not answering their phone. We finally remembered that we hadn’t been to our favorite Chinese place, Happy Dragon, in a while. It’s a little, family run place, near where Sam takes karate, and everyone knows us there. We got all our favorites- pot stickers, orange chicken, sweet walnut prawns, & Dragon chow mien- and as usual, had enough leftovers to have late night snack & lunch the next day.

Saturday was spent running errands, after heading to the gym. I signed up for another Swap-bot exchange and I had to get the package in the mail; this one was a Winter Warm-up Kit: a mug, two servings of a hot beverage, yarn, needles, & a pattern to make a cozy scarf. I did a Costco run, and then home to get some lunch before doing the rest of the errands. Chris saw I was dragging a bit (for some reason, I woke up at 6:00 am) so he offered to go to Target and Home Depot for me- isn’t he a sweetie? I grabbed the opportunity to take a nap- Ahhh, what luxury! - I awoke to the guys washing and vacuuming my car. Yes, I know that I’m a blessed woman.

That evening was the Sweetheart Banquet at church, an annual tradition for us, particularly when Valentine’s Day falls during the week. The meal was excellent, catered by a member who is a local restaurateur, and the entertainment was fun, featuring… the audience! The evening was a series of contests, starting with one couple from every table, with the top 50% moving to the next round; there were word puzzles, a pillow race, match the show to the wife, a G-rated version of the Newlywed Game, & the final contest- dressing each other while blindfolded. Prizes were awards, bragging rights earned, and plenty of laughs all the way around.  

Sunday, we headed down to San Jose after church, the cars loaded with boxes, tools, paint, and cleaning supplies. Why? Because Saturday was Jessica’s 21st birthday, and we were giving her a birthday present. She is without a roommate again, and is being forced to move out of her apartment (something I’ve been encouraging her to do since September), so we decided to clean it for her. I won’t go into too much detail, but it will suffice to say… YUCK! It took us 5 hours, a full bottle of Lysol, and 25 garbage bags to get the place just approaching respectable. That girl is definitely missing the “clean” gene; our home is lightly cluttered, but clean, and her father’s house is nearly hospital sterile, so I’m not sure what happen with Jessica. She was absolutely no help whatsoever- she had been out “celebrating” since Friday night, so was extremely hung-over. Once we did all we could and received mumbled thanks and hugs, we headed home for In & Out burgers. I ended the evening filing her tax return online, and thinking about all her unpaid bills & collection notices I found all over the apartment. (Can you tell I’m feeling some stress over this child? A few nights ago, I had a dream that I had given her poison in some orange juice, then buried her under a tree in my Mother’s backyard; I woke up thinking I had better go to the police and confess, since I couldn’t bring her back to life, and wondering if they would let me knit and does the prison library would have cozy mysteries. It took a full 5 minutes for me to convince myself that it was just a dream, and even then I couldn’t go back to sleep.)

It was so nice to have another day off and I spent it being domestic. I managed to sleep in for an hour, cleaned up the kitchen, started some chicken stew in the crock pot, and then headed out for a wind-blown walk. After a quick run to the grocery store, the rest of the afternoon was spent baking orange currant scones- eleven dozen so far, and nine more to complete. Huh? I know you are asking “Why so many?” Well… I’m not going to tell you yet! It has to do with my new project, part of my goals for this year, but I’m still not ready to reveal all. Not to worry- I will ‘fess up soon, once all my ducks are in a row, so to speak.