A Saturday at Home

Woke before 7:00 and padded out to the living room about 10 minutes before Evelyn was up. It was gray and rainy outside, and we stayed inside reading and eventually eating some coffee cake and peaches for breakfast. Wendy had said she could Skype "later morning" for us, so I went to the grocery store about 9:00 since it was chilly and damp outside but the promise was for a pretty day in the afternoon.
We talked to Wendy for 90 minutes or more. She told us the harrowing (that's actually not too strong a word for it) story of her tending to the delivery and ultimately (after more than 24 hours of labor) Caesarean birth to a minister's wife who had come to the center with him for the current training session. Wendy was up and working for 30 or 36 hours. Evelyn and I were talking about it at supper, and we agreed, "Only God and adrenaline gave her the ability to do that, because she just isn't a stay-up-all-night kind of girl."
We ate after we talked with her and then headed outside to clean the garage. I love the kind of day when you can jump into a project and work at it for as long as it takes, without worrying about a time deadline or a schedule. Evelyn and I spent the rest of the afternoon working in the garage--I hosed off my potter's bench and a set of plastic bins/shelves, rearranged all the stuff on the utility shelves, helped Evelyn decide where to put what in the white cabinets and what could be donated or thrown away. Evelyn swept and Shop-Vac'd the whole floor, and since the Shop-Vac was out, I swept out my car and then washed the windshield and back window in and out. It was cool outside, but the sun was warm. It was a great day to do this work, and I feel really good about it.
After a shower, I cooked some hamburgers on the grill, and Evelyn made cole slaw and heated up a can of Bush's baked beans. It has been a good Saturday! We're adjourning to the family room to watch a movie before we go to bed.

Before

After--actually the picture doesn't really show
how much better this looks!

Here Was My Saturday

Here was my Saturday:
Up before 7:30, which for me is sleeping in.
Sorted mail. Paid bills. Skimmed Facebook. Read the headlines (the front page was full of details about the mass shooting at an Aurora theater Thursday night/Friday morning). Decided about supper with Evelyn, and she made a grocery list.
Went to the grocery and stopped at the bank to a) get some cash for the trip next week and b) inform them that I might be using my debit card at an ATM in Brazil.
Went to get my haircut.
Got a phone call from Marshall Hayden on my way to the Cincinnati Bell store and sat in their parking lot for several minutes talking with him about some Publishing Committee business and the cruise we're hosting with him next summer.
Talked to the helpful fella at the Cincinnati Bell store about how to use my cell phone while we're in Brazil (not a bad deal: $1.99/minute for international calling; 100 texts for $9.99).
Picked up some shirts at the dry cleaners.
Home for lunch (Evelyn made egg salad).
Talked with Geoff on the phone.
By then it was 2:00 p.m. and HOT outside (but not nearly as hot as is HAS been). But I still proceeded with checking the next item off my list: cut the grass. About half of the yard is yellow, but there are significant green spots, in the shade and where we've watered the trees. Evelyn came out to finish the job after I was a little more than half done and I moved on to watering plants and chopping down some overgrown perennials. Then I cleaned out the downspouts on the front of the house.
Dashed inside to get my shower and then stretched out on the recliner for a 10-minute nap before helping to get supper ready.
We fixed chicken and vegetables on the grill for Dave Lautzenheiser for supper. We had invited him when we learned he was spending the weekend alone (because Mary was visiting Laura and her husband in Tennessee).
I got the vegetables ready while Evelyn cleaned the chicken and made potato salad.
Dave arrived a little after 6:00 while I was cooking on the grill, and we had a great time visiting with him and enjoying a great dinner. He left around 9:00 after we talked garden and I gave him some plants from our wedding center pieces that I hadn't been able to find a home for in our yard.
As we loaded his car, the air was pleasant, and the sunset was beautiful. It had been a good and productive day.

Evelyn cleaned up the kitchen, and we retreated to the family room to watch a show she had recorded: "30 Top NBC Olympic Moments."

A Nice, Relaxed Saturday

I love a Saturday when you can start a job and stick with it till you're finished or you're at a good stopping point--instead of rushing to quit before you have to go do something else. This Saturday morning was like that. I plowed through several tasks that I had been putting off: tackling a pile of papers, receipts, and reports that needed to be filed; sorting through the folder full of information we need before we can do our taxes; figuring out how to get the balance from our Flex Savings Account online (I finally had to call 'em); ordering some books; balancing the checkbook; and paying bills. I wasn't able to cross everything off my weekend to-do list, but I was pleased that I had the chance to get done as much as I did.

Evelyn and I took a walk too: 50 degrees, sunny, and not much breeze. A perfect day to go to the park, which was also the conclusion of a couple dozen people (and their dogs) we saw there. One little group was even having a picnic of sorts as they huddled in hoodies around pizza boxes. (Best sight of the day: a 10-year-old on skates being pulled down the asphalt path by an enthusiastic dog on the end of the leash he was holding.)

Yummy appetizers at our dinner:
homemade hummus with roasted
tomatoes and pita wedges . . .

This evening we went out to eat with Dan and Cindi Cooper. We told them we wanted to take 'em out sometime soon after Cindi's Dad's funeral last weekend. We went to Teller's in Hyde Park--I think we got the last available reservation they had open this evening. The place was packed. The food was good. The conversation was a good mix of laughter and catching up and considering all they've been through in the last couple of weeks.

. . . and buffalo chicken egg rolls,
an especially wonderful treat!

After dinner we window-shopped for a few minutes in Hyde Park Square, and then Evelyn suggested we drive down to Grandin Drive and gawk at the mansions behind the iron fences on either side of the street. We decided we need to come back in the daylight--maybe some summer weekend evening--when we can see more.