This is such a short week for us up here as we all had a 4 day weekend because of the July 1st national holiday yesterday. It still feels like Monday morning. Weird.
We had our annual picnic in the back yesterday, a beautiful, gorgeous day, absolutely perfect. The usual suspects all came, lots of food, lots of laughs, but today I'm exhausted. Ted usually helps me so much but I wouldn't let him do much of anything except flip burgers, so I was running back and forth like a crazy person. We ate in 2 shifts so Tony could take his family home early (they ended up staying until 8 anyway) and that translated into twice the work. The fourth load is in the dishwasher now.
What's up with you kids today? Other than driving Ted back and forth for his first day back at work (just a 3 hour day - one meeting), I'm doing nothing but unloading dishes. There are enough leftovers so I won't need to cook today. YAY!!
Kae don't you just love dishwashers. Oh they are wonderful at holidays. This week is short for me and at the same time it isn't. I don't have to work Friday but unless I want to miss out on those 8 hours I have to make them up in these four days. So 10 hour days are not fun at all. I have had a hard enough time filling 8 hours adding 2 to the day has been horrible.
I am looking forward to the whole fireworks thing this weekend. Hopefully Jolene will be able to watch without being afraid like she was last year. I doubt it. Seems the older she gets the more aware she is that certain things are scary, among them loud sounds like fireworks.
Anyways, I am off to work. This program that I work with has so many bugs its not funny.
For befores, we had a cheese tray, raw veggies and fat free dip (sour cream and a package of Knorr cream of leek soup mix - easy), and a Greek thingy from my Greek butcher shop - filo pastry stuffed with spinach and feta in a coil - just bake for 40 minutes at 400 degrees.
Then we had potato salad, Caesar salad, corn on the cob and burgers - home made with beef, eggs, bread crumbs, Romano cheese - huge mess to make but the guys insist on mom's "real" burgers. Dessert was ice cream cones. Lots of red and white wine, light beer for Bob and Nick, a punch I always make with cranberry juice cocktail, ginger ale, a scoop of lemonade concentrate, maraschino cherry juice and spring water. Vanessa calls it "Nanny's fizzy pink juice".
The only thing I didn't make from scratch was the Greek thing.
I used to ask people to bring a dish to save me work, but now I only ask they bring something to drink, and most people bring a bottle of wine or a six pack of beer. That way I don't have leftovers that go bad in the fridge, and I can control quantities and balance of the menu. Tony always brings me a bag of ice for the bucket we stick the wine and beer bottles in. It's conveniently on his way to stop by a gas station and pick it up for us.
The guys always fill the dishwasher with dinner plates before they head home, Ted and I put the picnic tables back in place, haul in the chair cushions and stash under our bed, hose off the patio so critters don't have a banquet (kids drop lots of food, lol, as you know), put wine and beer in the basement fridge, soak pots and burn off the bbq. It's about an hour's work after the last guest heads out. We finished last night at 11. Then I sat up until 1 just staring into space.
I just got back about an hour ago from a workshop (dolls, of course) up in Rockville, MD. I'm tired... We're working on another deadline, for a display case this time, and I have a lot of stuff on my mind. Time seems like it's flying by.
No plans tonight. Tomorrow Jim and I are taking my girlfriend out for one last dinner at our favorite little family-owned French restaurant that's been around for years , and she's coming back to our house on Friday night to chill with us, and watch our son put on his annual fireworks display. LOL...!!!
My friend leaves for Florida early Saturday morning.
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"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"
(Dumbledore to Harry Potter)
I really want to see both of those movies. I am going home here in a couple weeks, maybe we will take the kids to go see it. That will be nice. Thanks for the review. I have heard mixed things about the Will Smith movie. Still want to see it though
