Weekend highlights

We had a very low-key weekend.

Spouse went for a work out at his new gym. While there he met an older guy who said he was a recovering alcoholic and asked Spouse all kinds of questions, as if they had been introduced by a mutual friend. Spouse found it kind of odd, but I reminded him that people around here are friendlier and more talkative than where we were raised. While Spouse learned more about his new gym buddy, I relaxed with coffee and watched back-to-back episodes of "Sell This House".

That afternoon we went for a nice, long walk around town. We walked a block over to the park where we walked around the pond, then out of the park and around the neighborhood, surveying the new homes being built, and then down the main street, across the canal bridge and down to the bay, and then back home. It was a warm day for late November; perfect for a good walk.

That evening we went to a glass-blowing demonstration by our friend and local glass artist Deb Appleby at her studio. She and her interns made some large glass ornaments and 2 lovely scallop-edge 'spin bowls'.

(Two years ago we bought one of her 'spin bowls'.) Steven & Thad met us there, and we also saw Rick & Nick there. Afterward, Steven & Thad and Spouse & I had dinner at Saketumi.

Spouse & I got up rather early for a Sun morning, and decided to go for a walk on the boardwalk. It was more chilly and breezy than we'd expected, but it was bright and sunny so we enjoyed the walk anyway. Afterward we picked up some things from the grocery store, relaxed at home for a while, then had dinner at Steven & Thad's house with our friend Thatcher. It was a very nice, fun evening!

Fun and productive weekend highlights

Sometimes we spend our weekends having fun. Sometimes we spend our weekends doing productive things. But my favorite weekends are when we have fun AND do productive things. That was the kind of weekend we just had, and it was great!

I had a relaxing Sat morning drinking coffee and flipping back and forth between "Sell This House" and "My Big Amazing Renovation" (shows Spouse would rather not watch) while he was at his personal trainer appointment. After I showered, fed and walked the dog, and ran the dishwasher, Spouse came home and we went to lunch before doing a little shopping. We bought an old, dark-stained oak chest of drawers from an antiques and collectibles shop for our bathroom.
This will give us easier access to all of Spouse's health and beauty products. Although I'm usually not a big fan of oak furniture, this piece is stained dark and really coordinates nicely with the wainscoting and vanity.

I changed the sheets on our bed and then put on the new king size duvet and bedskirt we bought last summer, right after the addition started. Its amethyst in color, with a bronze border, and looks really nice with the area rug in our room. Since I still loved the queen size comforter set we used to have on our old bed, we decided to swap out a lesser quality comforter set upstairs with the one from our bedroom, which included taking the mattresses off the beds to change out the bedskirts. Definitely a 2-person job. Next I put up some temporary (paper) shades in the bathroom and closet windows so Spouse would finally start using those areas. Despite the fact that no one is looking in our windows, and even if they were they wouldn't be able to see us from the street on the 2nd floor, he feels every window should have a covering. I am temporarily obliging him while the stain glasses panels are being made.

Next we went to the storage unit and finally brought Big Ella home to live in her new garage. We'd been planning to do this for 2 weekends, but were unable due to my being sick one weekend and the film festival and rain the following weekend. She fits beautifully in her safe and dry home, with plenty of extra room for storage.

Our friend and neighbor Jared went with us to a glass blowing exhibit at Deb Appleby's studio. Then we had cocktails and a great dinner at Rigby's. I had pumpkin risotto with wild mushrooms, Spouse had beef stroganoff, and Jared had pasta bolognese. It was a really enjoyable night.

Sun morning Spouse & I had breakfast, then did a little more shopping at Wal-Mart and our fabulous Dollar Store. On the way home we stopped at the stained glass studio to get an update on our window inserts. They'd ordered a specific glass color they needed and had been told it was on back-order. Then when the supplier was ready to ship it there was some problem with having it delivered. The long and the short of it is that it will be at least another month before the window inserts are ready.

Once home, Spouse & I sorted through all of his health and beauty products, which had been temporarily stored in laundry baskets when the addition project began. Some stuff went into the trash, while the keepers were placed in clear, rectangular, plastic containers (from the Dollar Store) and then into the drawers of the new chest. We propped a vintage etched glass mirror on top to see if we like it before mounting it over the chest. Then I placed clean towels and new rugs (from Wal-Mart) in the guest bath, in preparation for our Thanksgiving houseguests. I washed some dishes and wiped off the counters before going to Five Guys for burgers and fries. Spouse was in the mood for cheeseburgers and I was in the mood not to cook them or clean up afterward.

And while all of this was going on, our yard guy Ray powerwashed the exterior of the house, our bikes, and all the porch furniture from both porches. What a difference! Its unbelievable how dirty the exterior of the house got from the neighbor's construction last year, the street reconstruction earlier this year, and our addition. But it looks clean and beautiful now.

So that was our fun and productive weekend. What did YOU do?

Crush du Jour: Pascal Elbe

Weekend highlights

I'm sick. I started getting a scratchy throat on Thurs. Fri morning I woke up very congested so I took Claritan-D and went about my task of writing and addressing my Christmas cards. Sat I felt and sounded worse, but I could feel the 24-hour Claritan-D kicking in on its wonderful, time-release schedule. Sun I sort felt like I was in a fog, but didn't let it stop me from what I wanted to do.

Sat afternoon we went to our friends' George & Steve's for their annual Christmas tree trimming party. They had a tall natural tree in their family room and a shorter artificial tree in their living room. They hauled down what seemed like an endless chain of plastic storage containers full of ornaments, old and new, from their attic and we unpacked them and hung them on the trees. Of course there was food and drinks, Christmas music, and friends to chat with. This is our 3rd year going, and we always have a nice time.

Spouse had made a beef stew in the crock pot before we left for the tree trimming party, so dinner was done when we got home. Rick & Nick came over for dinner, which was nice, simple, and easy. They noticed our crystal chandelier still in the box in the dining room and asked why we hadn't put it up yet. Spouse & I looked at each other and he said "We've been busy" while I simultaneously said "We've been lazy." We all laughed, and Nick volunteered to hang it for us so we said "Sure!". It was done in less than 5 minutes, which really made us feel stupid that we'd put it off. However, I'm sure if we had attempted it multiple things would have gone wrong and it would have taken us 3 hours.

Sun we did some light housecleaning, hand delivered Christmas cards to some neighbors, then made a trip to Lowes for more ornament hooks (we had about 8 ornaments still waiting to be hung) and two dimmer switches. When the chandelier was installed it seemed rather 'bright', so we are going to put it and the living room light on dimmers before our holiday party on Sat.

From Lowes we met Rick & Nick at Deb Appleby's glass blowing studio for 'Delaware by Hand', a collection of artists who show and sell their art/jewelry/pottery/glass/etc. We went to this lat year, too. We bought a beautiful vase from Deb's imperfect collection. From there the 4 of us went to Millsboro to the grand opening of BJ's Wholesale Club. It was fun to look around but we decided not to join, as we felt we can often do as good or sometimes better on prices by shopping the weekly sales at the grocery stores without having to purchase a membership.

When we got home I put up the last of the ornaments and unpacked Joe's Christmas cookie jar collection. We ate dinner and watched "The Poseidon Adventure" on cable. We love that movie! It was a great way to wrap up the weekend.

Crush du Jour: Matt Bushell

Friday fragments

Last Sat it was 70 degrees during the 'Join the Impact' rally. 4 days later it was 33 degrees and we had snow flurries. We are getting snow flurries again today. I suppose it is that time of the year.

Work has been super-busy this week. One of my colleagues is "no longer with the company", and when our manager and other colleagues tried to transition her work, they found all kinds of 1/2 done stuff and stuff that should have been done but wasn't. They found all kinds of hand written notes on her desk with various bits of client information. Yeah, a real mess. So I have been trying best I can to help out with the clean-up.

Since work has kept me busy non-stop during work hours, I've not been able to visit and comment on many blogs. I was going to do it last night, but Spouse got a little irritated so I didn't. "You're on the computer all day long. How can you be on there at night too?" I'm sure this seems like a logical argument to him, but not to me. Using a computer for work and using a computer to visit and comment on blogs are 2 entirely different things to me. Anybody else's spouse give them a hard time about evening/night computing?

This weekend weekend we'll be preparing for having company over the Thanksgiving weekend. We need to do a super duper housecleaning, go grocery shopping, make the guest room beds up, and be sure that guest baths have towels, TP, soap, etc. Real exciting stuff!

On Sat we're going to glass art show and sale. Our friend and glass artist Deb Appleby is having her annual holiday open house. Last year be bought this as our Christmas gift to each other.
I doubt we'll buy anything this year, but it is always great to look at all her beautiful glass work.

The garage called today regarding my baby's check-up. I gave them the go-ahead to proceed with the work. It'll be at least a week before she's ready, because the new exhaust has to be special ordered and then shipped to the garage. But I can be patient because I know when she comes home she'll be purrin' like a kitten.

Crush du Jour: Bryan Thomas