The weather continues to be perfect, into the second week of June.
Jay and Zack took a road trip this week to Cleveland to watch the Cavs. They left on Tuesday afternoon with a buddy of Jay’s at the wheel. They were gone for three days and two nights and had a fantastic time, even though Lebron & co. lost the game. Up by six with under a minute to play…that’s basketball for ya. Zack’s ticket was up in the nose bleed section. He announced to all and sundry that he’d come all the way from Minneapolis to see the game and a couple sitting behind him said “We came from Brooklyn Center!” He invited them to come to Frankie’s when they got back to town. That’s basketball, too.
They came home with a fun experience under their belts, T-shirts and light up bracelets from the game.
I had two and a half days at home, all alone: my favorite thing! I don’t think I went upstairs to my office once while they were gone. I had a lot of other things to do. They hadn’t even reached the highway Tuesday before I was mixing up crinkle cookies. Jay hates them because they’re so messy to bake. I love them. I mixed them up and stuck the batter in the fridge because they need to refrigerate over night.
Before I could bake any, I had an errand to run on Wednesday morning. Actually, it was a date. There’s this guy, who lives in an awesome loft downtown…
He’s three weeks old and his mom had a dentist apt. and a babysitter emergency.
Like I was gonna say no to that.
You can always tell when its summer in Minneapolis, since every major street in town will be under construction. For many years, I’ve suspected that the University is doing a study on us to see how crazy they can drive us drivers by making it impossible to get anywhere. To make driving even more fun, the idiots in charge have decided to make most of the main arteries bike lanes as well as roads. Several of the previously lovely roads have been defaced by white pylons decorated with what looks like duct tape. I’d like to pull one out of the asphault and beat the mayor with it but I’d hate to be mistaken for an anti-fascist. Or even a fascist.
All of that is to say that a drive downtown that should have taken me 20 minutes took me over 40. Thanks to construction and detours, it took me 15 minutes just to get out of my neighborhood. No matter which route I tried, I wound up getting shunted back to where I started. I already knew that the way I’d usually take to get where I wanted to go was all torn up so I took a back way that I’d only previously ridden while Jay was at the wheel. I was within spitting distance of my destination when I found myself in the wrong lane and just like that, was on the wrong side of downtown.
I almost cried.
But I didn’t give up: Just like last week in Eden Prairie (I hate downtown, too) I persevered until I reached my goal. It was worth it. I got to hang out with a tiny baby all morning in a beautiful loft with a view of downtown. I managed to get home without running into any construction at all.
I baked my cookies and ate them for lunch.
I finished painting the wicker chair I’d gotten at ARC. I’d been looking for a small, lightweight chair to replace the wicker rocker on the porch. I need the seating but the rocker just takes up too much room. I’m giving it to Xena, who asked for it the moment I said I wanted to replace it. I looked at chairs at Marshall’s and saw some I liked but the second I saw this one at ARC (for $10.00) I knew it was perfect. It was white but three cans of Rustoleum later, it’s now espresso, which fits the décor on my porch much better. I shopped around for a new cushion but none of my go-tos had the right size or cushions that I liked, so I’m keeping the old one. It looks great on the porch and fabulous on an espresso chair.
In between eating cookies and reading my book, I looked online and around for the things I need to turn the secret backyard into my outdoor painting studio. In my hunt for cushions, I went to World Market. No cushions the right size but their outdoor plastic mats are on sale. I decided one of those would be a perfect base until I decide (if ever) to put down a rock patio back there. Then, all I need is a patio umbrella w/base to shade my easel, which I already have.
I’d forgotten that we actually have a patio umbrella we’re not using. I’d promised Katie the green patio table that we just replaced but I told her she couldn’t have the yellow umbrella, since I needed it. I got a new base for it and I’m good to go! I can set up all kinds of things back there and no one will disturb them, or me, while I work.
Maybe I’ll do a painting of that wicker rocker before Xena takes it.
Friday, I once again spent a few hours navigating traffic and construction trying to get downtown. It wasn’t my idea. Long story short, I dumped my old, sick, crippled Uncle on a corner (what? It looked like an okay neighborhood!) in the 90 degree heat and went home. I had stuff to do!
Oh, he’s fine! He’d have walked if he had all his toes.
Anyway, he told me it was his belief that everyone should just keel over and die when they reach 70. According to him, he reached his sell-by date eight years ago. Whatever happens, he’s good.
I couldn’t hang out downtown with him all afternoon because I had dinner plans with Katie and Boopity Boop. I hadn’t seen the girls in a week and I get nervous when that much time passes. At their age, they become completely different people in a week, with new skills, knowledge, etc. I’m always afraid they won’t remember me.
I’m sure they remembered me this time, since they both burst into tears the moment they saw me. I assured them that I wasn’t there to baby sit; Mom wasn’t leaving them. Boop calmed right down; she can turn it on and off like a light switch but it took Boopity a few minutes. Her emotions are a lot harder to whip up but they’re also harder to turn around. When both girls were calmed down, we took them out on the deck and gave them dinner. Katie recently started them on oatmeal. Boop likes it but Boopity is very suspicious and doesn’t buy our assurance that it’s food. She spit it out faster than I could shovel it in. Smart girl: outmeal might qualify as food but it’s gross.
Katie ordered take out for us. Before it arrived, we gave the girls baths and got them into their jammies. They were clean, fluffy and ready for bed by the time we ate our dinner. They napped while we ate but both of them woke up long before the movie ended. We were watching Dr. Strange and Boopity couldn’t take her eyes off it. They were both wide awake and playful, so Katie started The Secret Life of Pets and we played with the girls. They are so much fun! I had to come up with new ways to make them laugh since all my old jokes were old hat to them. We played and laughed until it got ridiculously late. We finally wrapped them up and put them to bed (perchance to sleep) at quarter to midnight. I hope they let Katie get some sleep.
I slept like a rock.
Today, it was really hot out. Hot and very windy. A perfect day for wind surfing but not much else. Zack put down our patio umbrellas before they could get blown away. We’ve lost a lot of umbrellas over the years because we didn’t pay enough attention to the weather. Jay has a class on Saturday mornings so he rode his bike downtown. You can get from all the way from our house to his school on parkway with dedicated bike paths. It’s a gorgeous ride. But he had to ride home with gale force winds right in his face. When he finally came dragging back up the drive mid afternoon, he told me he hadn’t been sure he would make it. I got him some ice water and told him to rest because in an hour or two, he had to cook me some dinner. A man’s work is never done!
I had to work all day to make up for goofing off with Mickey all Friday afternoon. I did take some time off to water all the flowers Jay planted last week. I do what I can to help out. Then, I kicked him off the deck and made him go to the grocery store. He’d been lying around for like, twenty minutes!
He came home with a spectacular cowboy ribeye, which he tossed on the grill while I made coconut bars for my nephew’s high school grad open house tomorrow.
Summer time and the livin’ is easy.