Long weekend

For the past several years we've spent the long President's Day weekend at the beach, and this year was no exception. Only this year we didn't 'go away' for the weekend, we stayed home, since we live at the beach now.

We decided to take advantage of the long weekend by doing some more unpacking, organizing, and getting settled. We’d gotten the house ‘functional’ so now we wanted to get it more settled.

We started by putting down the dining room area rug and then arranged the furniture until it felt right. Unfortunately that also entailed moving out a bunch of stuff that didn’t belong in the dining room to begin with. But in less than an hour the furniture that belonged there was in place and the stuff that had been removed was stacked in the walkway between the dining and living rooms.

Next we went to the 3rd floor where we had the movers put all 3 of our vintage sectional sofas. The pieces were all piled on top of each other all over the room, along with tables, boxes of vintage decorations, and the TV and TV stand. I took a deep breathe and wondered how we’d ever make sense out of this room.

It didn’t come easy. We separated the pieces of the 3 sectionals and began moving them into various arrangements. (Insert grunting, groaning, and a little bit of arguing here.) It wasn’t until about the 5th attempt that we arrived at an arrangement that worked. So we vacuumed and Swiffered the floor, put down the area rug, and sighed a huge sigh of relief.

It was after 1:00 so we decided to break for showers and then walk into town for lunch. It was very cold – only about 30 degrees – but it was sunny outside and we were up for the walk. On the walk back home I got a call on my cell from our friends Mike & Clark. They were in town for the long weekend with friends and wanted to see if we were available for a quick visit. They were only a block away so we turned around and walked back to town and met up with them. They came to the house with us and we showed them around, and then accepted their invitation to join them and their friends for dinner that night.

After they left Joe & I unpacked all of the boxes that had come from our dining room in VA. Then we unwrapped all the barware from the beach house. We grouped all of the stemware, platters, bowls, plates, and various serving pieces and began to display and store them in the china hutch, side board, buffet, and corner cabinet. To my surprise everything fit beautifully.

Sat evening we met up with Mike & Clark and the group of friends with whom they were spending the weekend: Maurice & David, Mark & Randy, Mary & Lynn, Michael & Bob, and Bill. Most of them were staying in 2 weekend rental apartments that had kitchens so they had made dinner. We brought 2 bottles of wine in case anyone wanted some with or before dinner. But first we started with cocktails. Mary made Cosmopolitans, which are right up my alley! We met all the friends and quickly got along splendidly with everyone. As it turns out, 3 of them are teachers for the same County school system for which my friends Kerry and Alex work. And one of the teachers teaches at the same elementary school where Joe’s nephews attend. A later conversation with Joe’s sister revealed that her sons both knew the teacher.

On Sun we had breakfast at the Dirty Finger and then did a little shopping. We looked for curtains at a few stores but didn’t buy any. After deciding on the ones we wanted we returned to the store to find they only had 3 panels left – and we needed 4. We did buy another mailbox, since our original mailbox was never returned. Afterwards we went to a special film screening for Film Society members like me. It was called ‘Coffee Date’ and it was really good! Then we unpacked more boxes and did more organizing. We had dinner at home and watched Rome on HBO.

On Mon we unpacked more boxes, did some laundry, and went back to the store where we’d seen the curtains. A 2nd employee checked the back stock and reported there were no more. She called another store in the chain but they didn’t have any at all. To make up for our disappointment we had lunch at one of our favorite lunch spots in Rehoboth: Café Sole. We both ordered our usuals: Turkey Stuffer for Joe (Thanksgiving dinner on a roll) and Fried Oyster BLT with Brie for me. Oh, and a ½ of a deviled egg for each of us, thank you. Now, I know that sounds like a big, rich lunch for 2 guys who claim to be watching their weight, but we decided that would be our big meal for the day. Dinner would be a smaller, lighter fare at home.

After lunch we took a very short stroll on the boardwalk. It was just too cold and windy so we headed back to the car while we could still feel our feet. More unpacking and organizing followed by breaking down the boxes and loading them into the Suburban. Joe cleaned the bathroom (because I hate doing that) and I vacuumed the 1st and 2nd floors of the house. Then we watched some TV and spent some time on the computer.

It was a really nice long weekend – thanks to the Presidents.

Drag Queen name of the day: Amber Light