Father's Day...

Got up around 6:00 AM. Tiptoed around (Jake and Carla are still sleeping) and made some coffee and some pancake batter. Drank my coffee out on the front porch. There is a 60% chance of rain today, but looking at my grass, decided I couldn't take that chance, so dragged the hose around and started watering the front lawn (its burning up!)

When Jake and Carla got up, Jake made link pork sausage and pancakes for my Father's Day breakfast (I wasn't allowed to help). Carla still needed some more ingredients so they left for a short shopping trip and I shaved and showered.

After they returned, Jake helped me put up the new swing chains. Fairly simple, right? Not if you don't have anything that can cut through them! But we improvised and finally got it done. Carla was our test pilot. They worked, but made a creaking sound (I'll put some grease on them, one of these days).

Jake had to wait for his pants to wash and dry (they were light colored and got a bit dirty during the Frisbee game yesterday) so he started to spead woodchips under the play structure while Carla got cleaned up. He eventually got that done, but no pants yet, so he started using the wheel barrow to fill in spots in the back garden that had settled, or been disturbed when they built the wall. He finished all that, and I still have a good size pile in case of more settling! Thanks, tree guy! and thanks, Jake!

Melissa called and wished me Happy Father's Day around noon.

Jeremy, Jyl and the kids came around 1:30 PM. We all visited for a while (I had a vegetable tray with a blue cheese dip and some tortillia chips and salsa, and Jyl brought a watermelon, carved into a basket, filled with strawberries, blue berries, cantaloupe and, of course, watermelon. So we had plenty to munch on.

Then Carla started prepping for the sandwiches. Oh, forgot to mention, Carla needed Greek yogurt, but couldn't find it. Jake said it was like regular yogurt, only drier (how he knew that, I don't know). So, he put regular yogurt in a coffee filter, in a sieve, over a bowl. You would have been surprised at how much liquid drained off!

All three different kinds of sandwiches were made on the grill. We had Tandoori spiced chicken breast with grilled tomato jam and herbed yogurt sauce, served open face on pita bread. We had grilled vegetable sandwiches (Japanese eggplant, red bell peppers, tomatoes and onions, brushed with olive oil and grilled) served with a sherry vinaigrette and Manchego (Spanish) cheese on Ciabatta bread. But the hit of the day was the black pepper crusted steak sandwiches, with aged cheddar, horseradish mayonnaise and watercress, served on big croissants.

I think we all ate too much!

Jake and Carla refused all help cleaning up (I think it was so Jeremy and his family could visit, since they don't often get a chance to come here) and left shortly afterwards. Jeremy stayed until around 6:30 and then departed.

I watched a little TV and then went to bed, a contented Dad!