Sunday

Day two of my return to the Blogosphere. Today was a good day, and I'd like to note it for posterity's sake.

Last night we slept with the window open, listening to the storm. I love the sound of rain, especially at night. When I was younger, whenever a storm came through, I'd sit on the porch with my parents and watch it. The neighbors across the street did the same, and we'd Ooh and Ahh over the particularly bright flashes of lightening and loud peals of thunder. Growing up in a poor neighborhood, we took our excitement where we could find it. Although I wouldn't have traded those evenings on the porch for any number of video game consoles.

I awoke around 9:00 and realized that the room was freezing. That's because at 9:00 my wife woke up and informed me that it was freezing. It's a service she provides for me, knowing how much I hate to wake up on my own time and realize for myself what the temperature of the apartment is. So she got up to do yoga (which is a Japanese word meaning, "You put the dog out; I'm busy sitting on the floor") and I got up to play Settlers of Catan online.

For breakfast Christine made polenta with butter and vanilla which we enjoyed with coffee (espresso for me, Americano for Christine). It was delicious. After breakfast, I put together rolls for dinner. As I was playing my second game of Settlers while the dough was rising, my brother (hereafter referred to as "Evan") called to invite me to my sister's (Dana's) for lunch. I told him I could be there when my rolls were done at around 1:30, and he said he'd confirm with Dana and call back to let me know what I could bring. He never called back, so I didn't bring anything.

After game three the rolls were glazed and ready to go into the oven. The recipe made too many to fit on one baking sheet, so I got out two smaller sheets. One of the smaller sheets had been put away dirty. Does this happen to anyone else? No amount of scrubbing could remove what I believe was congealed olive oil, so I resolved to use the large sheet and one smaller sheet. The problem was that the large baking sheet and the small baking sheet did not fit into the oven at the same time, which meant the large pan of rolls would come out of the oven five minutes before I had to be to Dana's and the next batch would be done fifteen minutes after I left. My wife, who stayed home to grade college English papers today, graciously agreed to take them out when they were done. I had time to split one roll from the first batch with her (they were awesome) before I left.

At Dana's I was greeted by my nephew, who smiled at me but refused to talk, and my niece, who extended her arms and demanded, "Up!" to everyone except me. Perhaps I need to babysit more often. My brother-in-law (Daryl) and soon to be sister-in-law (Kara) were there as well. We had tacos, chips and queso, and cheesecake for dessert. We discussed wedding plans, the hypocritical political positions our acquaintances hold, and whether Kara or my cousin Chris had worse taste in movies. Chris arrived shortly thereafter, and we never did settle the debate. Daryl was in another room watching the Tigers vs. the Royals, which I realized with some dismay was a sporting event, not great cats mauling European monarchs.

After lunch, I kept suggesting a game of Settlers of Catan, which got a tepid response, so when Evan and Chris went outside to "have a catch," I left to run some errands. We had run out of the organic dog food we started buying when we realized we love our dog (Lily) and probably shouldn't be feeding her sawdust and reconstituted fish bits. She loves it and has much more energy and much less body mass. It also make her obnoxiously regular. I'm grateful that we live on a ground floor apartment, but picking up a bag of poo in my pajamas is not how I want to greet the world every morning.

I got home shortly before Christine who was taking a break by doing the weekly grocery shopping (I've done it the last three weeks in a row and was just plain not going to do it today). I did help bring in groceries, including oil which I needed to make mayonnaise, and we made dinner together.

Dinner tonight was portabella mushroom burgers on the aforementioned homemade rolls, topped with caramelized onions, feta cheese, artisan lettuce, homemade mayonnaise, and Dijon mustard with roasted potatoes. It was delicious. While we ate, we watched the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders. Now Christine is on the couch sleeping off a migraine, and I am playing my fifth game of Settlers of Catan and enjoying my two-day writing streak. Soon I must wash dishes, hang up my work clothes, and go to bed.

It's been a good weekend.