Labor Day Weekend, Day #1

I woke up without the alarm on Saturday at about 5:30 AM (big surprise). So, I laid in bed and watched the news (both local and national) until about 8:30. Then I shaved and showered, and headed out about 9:15 for my morning errands.

First stop was the barber shop. From there (looking good!) I went to Westborn for all the ingredients of this weekend’s meals (I am determined to start cooking real food again!) The only impulse buy was a ten-year old white cheddar sharp cheese.

Note to my daughter Melissa: This is the only place around here that I can find your recommended “William’s Cheese Spread” (Kroger’s and Meier’s do not carry it here). I have tried the Sharp Cheddar (and it was great) and they also have Cheddar and Smokey Bacon (which I bought today) and Cheddar and garlic and something, but I CANNOT find the Cheddar and jalapeno you recommended. Any other suggestions on where to look? I have a bag and a half of pretzel rods waiting on your answer! Then I stopped at CVS and got the rest of my Celebrex prescription.

So, having raw chicken breasts, heavy cream and cheese in the car, I went home to stash the stuff in the fridge. Since I was there, I set up the oscillating sprinkler in the front yard and turned it on. I was amazed to see that the stump of the bush (that I had feared both because of my recent back problems and because I really needed to plant that arborvitae) was gone! Apparently my neighbor had come through! I went across the street to O’Reillys who had advertised a free “Check Engine Light” code thing.

So, they checked out the car (which has had a “Check Engine Light” on forever, but recently has been stuttering when I hit it on the Expressway and the turbo kicked in). They found two codes: a #4 cylinder miss-fire and a low coolant sensor. Note: They do NOT do repairs, just report.

I had just got back from there and opened the hood of the car (so it could cool down and I could then check the coolant level and the spark plug wires), when the phone rang.

It was Jake and we talked for a while. I recanted a recent unpleasant experience I had on Facebook and he reiterated that the whole damn thing is one big security concern. My response was that my Blog is one, too, as I cannot control who reads it (which is why I never say I’m going to be gone for a while so bad people don’t break into my house).

He said it was possible to set it up so that only people I allow could read it. I said, “Brilliant! Can I get them to pay like $25 a year to read it?” He said I “could” but then NOBODY would read it. Ah, my gentle readers, you disappoint me…

After we hung up, I got busy on tomorrow’s dinner. I am planning to make chicken roll-ups with those twice-baked potatoes as the side again. But, I thought I would bake them the first time today, so I could handle them easier tomorrow. I put some olive oil on them and a lot of Kosher salt, wrapped them in tinfoil and stuck them in a preheated 400 degree oven. I set the timer for an hour and went and took a nap (for the first time in a long time).

The timer woke me up, as I knew it would, so I took out the potatoes and let them cool. Then I got everything ready to plant the arborvitae. I had my trusty wagon with a bag of mulch, a bag of Miracle-Gro garden soil, the shovel and the arborvitae. I put on my work gloves and pulled it out front. That wagon is very handy, BTW.

My neighbor saw me and he came over to chat for a bit. I thanked him for pulling out the stump and he said it took three tries to do it! I went back and got the wheel barrow full of dirt that I had removed from around the stump, because I had to fill in some of the hole first. It was too deep for the root ball.

But I got it set at the right depth, then filled in most of the hole with regular dirt and put the bag of good garden soil around the root ball. I tamped everything down, put a section of landscape fabric in and then topped it off with mulch. I planted grass seed in the areas that had been disturbed outside the garden and then watered the hell out of everything (I’ll water it again Sunday morning).

I went back inside and got everything put away. I was surprised how late it was (after 8:00 PM) but it had been overcast most of the day and it was difficult to judge the actual time by the sun.

My daughter Melissa called and we talked long enough that dinner was a ridiculous idea (I was lucky I got that nap in earlier). So, I ate a snack and went to bed.