Satisfactory Sunday

I got up at 6:45 AM, warmed up a cup of coffee and went outside in my shorts and T-shirt to water the front lawn. It's just over 40 degrees F, so that T-shirt and shorts decision was a bit chilly!

This is the first time I have used my new sprinkler and its amazing! I figured out the exact center of the main front yard and set it there. Each sweep goes from the road all the way to the front garden! So, there is only one small area that, when the drought comes, I will have to water separately. In contrast, my old little sprinkler had to be moved four times to cover the same amount of grass!

Meanwhile, I worked in the house on miscellaneous things (emptying the dishwasher, washing the upstairs bath and deep-cleaning the downstairs bath). I also made some breakfast around 9:00 AM. I scrambled eggs with chives from my garden (they are up now) and the last of the bacon, crumbled, along with two pieces of toast. Very tasty! I boiled a box of rotini to al dente and then, after shocking it, put it in the fridge so I can make tuna salad next week.

I worked on the downstairs shower the longest, I believe. But, finally, it was time for me to take a shower, not clean one. I have to be at Jake & Carla's at 1:00 PM. They have a bubbling fountain they don't want and, in exchange for that, I am going to try and help identify either weeds or plants in their many gardens. Damn! When I went to put my "work around the house" pants on, I found the button had come off. Luckily, I found it in the dryer, so I got out some black thread and a needle and sewed it back on.

I got there exactly (and I mean exactly) at 1:00 PM. We had talked about trying to make those oversized, warm pretzels and Jake ad the dough already made and resting. I went outside with them and they showed me what they had accomplished yesterday (a LOT) digging out evergreen bushes and plants from the garden they want to grow herbs in (there were some nasty, big roots on those bushes, BTW). The soil in that garden is perfect loam, so I don't think growing anything in there would be a problem.

We went back inside and took turns trying to roll the dough balls out to 24 inches and then forming them into giant pretzels (with some predictable hilarious results). We got eight pretzels. I made an egg wash while Jake boiled them. Then Carla brushed on the egg wash and salted them with Kosher salt. Jake put the two sheet pans in the preheated oven (400 degrees F, I think) for 15 minutes, rotating the pans once. Meanwhile Carla made a cheese sauce for the pretzels with fortini and sharp cheddar cheese. Finally they were out and rested, and we dug in. Delicious! Jake's lessons learned was NOT to put them on parchment paper (like the recipe called for and we did) so they would brown on both sides and to find and use real pretzel salt (the Kosher salt wasn't big enough chunks).

We loaded up the fountain and as many rocks as I thought the car's springs could take, along with the pump and a set of low-voltage lights that were used as accents in the garden they tore out (they would be unnecessary in the herb garden).

Carla gave me a care package of pretzels and I left. I got home just after 4:30 PM. I used the wheel barrow and got the rocks and fountain back to Jake's patio and the lights and pumps into the garage. Then I started back on the mulching plug for the riding mower.

I got the last three holes drilled in the plug and the deck and then bolted the whole thing on. I did have to use the rubber mallet again to get things to fit and this broke off chips of paint. So, I taped it of with masking tape and repainted it on the mower, outside the garage. Note: Only part of this paint thing is because I like things to be "finished" correctly. The main reason is I don't want it to rust. I did more three coats of paint and, during the drying times, I got out the weedwacker for the first time in 2008 and edged the front yard on both sides of the driveway.

When I finished, I figure there was no time like the present to see if all my efforts on the blades and the mulching plug were worth it. So, I checked the gas and oil and got the key out of the house. I fired that puppy up and cut the front grass. Eureka!!! No dust! It's actually mulching the grass clippings!!! I swear I can't stop smiling!

When I reluctantly finished, I pulled in the garage, turned off the mower and, taking the key with me, went into the house. For the first time I can remember, I don't need to take a shower after using the mower. But, all the laying on the garage floor, tightening bolts, did trash my clothes. So, I gathered up all the used kitchen towels, bathroom hand towels, my clothes, etc, and started a medium load. Since I was wearing just my birthday suit anyway, I did get into the shower, but more to clean off the dirt from the garage floor and the sweat than any dust the mower generated.

When I was over at Jake and Carla's, Carla was telling me about her latest rendition of tuna salad for tonight's dinner. I wish I could remember all her changes, but I don't. The biggest substitution was, of course, "something" instead of steamed and shocked peas (she HATES peas). Last time it was broccoli, but this time she's using fresh asparagus. Anyway, it sounded delicious, and, as a result, I moved my making tuna salad up from "later this week" to tonight.

I used my recipe, but did have to get a bit creative about the "one bunch of scallions, both green and white." My "bunch of scallions" had gone a bit past its prime. Now, as any good cook knows, you can peel back the outer layers of a tired green onion and get to the fresh parts. But, by the time I got to the fresh parts on this bunch, I had very little "green" left and the whites were only equal to about half a normal bunch to be honest. So, since they are coming in so nice right now, I picked a bunch of chives and snipped them into the salad mix to compensate for the lack of scallions. I got the tuna salad into the fridge to cool, the bowls and knives I'd used for prep washed and in the drying rack and the clothes into the dryer, by 7:00 PM. I am feeling pretty damned pleased with myself, I might add. This has been one hell of a productive weekend!

I hung up the clothes in time to watch my first Sunday show, Extreme makeover, Home Edition. My daughter Melissa called after 9:00 PM and we chatted a bit. I ate dinner later than usual, but that's okay, it gave it a chance to get nice and cold.