The eleventh week of summer was an odd one, full of intentions that didn’t go quite to plan. My parent’s were gone on vacation and I was left in charge of their plants. Now I am not the most faithful at watering plants so I was a wee bit concerned. Luckily it all worked out and I managed to keep them and their cat alive – hooray!
Outside of family ‘duties’ I had made several plans, some of which that didn’t quite work out. On Thursday I had planned to go to a Drive-In movie (Guardians of the Galaxy) with my friends. Mother Nature had other plans. The week started with rain and kept up on Thursday. So rather than sit in our car and watch it through windshield wipers we, being a flexible bunch, altered our plans. Instead we went to an Irish pub for dinner and went to the theater to watch it. (Clearly NOT seeing the movie was no longer an option. We were all rather excited to see it). It was awesome. I recommend it.
I had the day off on Friday so I continued leisurely working on the basement. I FINALLY completed muddying and sanding the last of the drywall. (Hint – this is very very exciting.) I also got said room primed. What what! Work continued on Saturday when I painted the stairwell. After so much productivity I decided to pack up and go for a hike. It did not go quite to plan either. I made it about 1/2-3/4 of a mile in before the mosquitoes got too bad and I had to turn around. They’re wicked little blood suckers. I think I’ll postpone that hike until the fall when the they’ve gone for the season.
Sunday rolls around, the day that I had planned to go to an outdoor concert. I was kind of excited to see Ingrid Michaelson but earlier in the week I discovered the concert was cancelled. Presumably because of the rain (I’m guessing that don’t blend well with an outdoor venue). So the plans for the day rather cleared up. I was feeling rather productive when I woke up so I went ahead and got the bedroom painted. So all in all, despite the week not going to plan it was still quite lovely.
Until next time
~Q
Summer Series: Intro | Week One | Week Two | Week Three | Week Four | Week Five | Week Six | Week Seven | Week Eight | Week Nine | Week Ten
Daily Writings: August 5 | August 6 | August 7 | August 8 | August 9 | August 10 | August 11
Summer 2014
Nap in a HammockHave a BonfirePlay Sand Volleyball- Visit an Iowa Winery
- Go to the Zoo
Eat Sushi- Go Stargazing
Christmas in June- Rainy Day Picnic
Make a Summer Soundtrack- Visit a Bed & Breakfast
Ride a CarouselGo Camping- Watch a Baseball Game
- Harry Potter Non-Stop Movie Marathon
- Radio Silence (no music, tv, computer or phone for 24 hours)
- Watch a Movie Outside
Go Roller BladingGo to a Concert- Go Wading
- Go Bowling
- Make Caramel Apples
- Meal Over a Fire
Launch a FirecrackerUrban ExplorationHave a BBQ- Make a Quilt (started)
Blow Bubbles on the Porch- Play Bocce Ball
- Go People Watching
- Fill the Tank & Drive
- Make Wind Chimes
- Draw a Landscape
- Go Berry Picking
- Take a Weekend Trip Alone
Paint a CanvasDo YogaMake a Meal using only Farmer’s Market FoodSpend the Afternoon on a Riverbank- Watch a Sunrise
Attend a Street MarketListen to Rock Music from a different countryPicnic in the Park- Start a Wish Tree
See a Drive-In MovieMake SangriaGo for a Hike- Go to a Fair
Make a Banana SplitSketch Everyday- Give to Others (donate old clothes to charity)
After touring around the market I returned home and was already muddying my bedroom when my mom called at 9:30 to see where I was. To say she was surprised would be an understatement. Who sleeps in on weekends?
A very slow week, last week, for yours truly. Well I say that. There was stuff happening. The week just ended rather quickly. Between all the random things going on (house work, summer shenanigans with friends, family time, etc) I did manage to get something checked off my list! 
My coworkers and I volunteered to run the town carousel for a few hours on Sunday. While running it, my parents brought my nephew around and we all took a ride. That’s it though. So besides celebrating my mom’s birthday, attending a farewell potluck for an acquaintance and getting to have a drink with one of my besties who was in from out of town, that was my seek.
Last weekend ended up being quite the weekend! My family and I went to my sister’s place in Minnesota for a camping weekend. We haven’t been camping in a couple of years because the last time we went was an unmitigated disaster. Well, in some respects it was, in others it was quite fun. Part of the reason it was so terrible was that it randomly rained. However, the rain was nice enough to only rain at night. My sister and brother-in-law might disagree though. Their air mattress turned traitor in the middle of the night and deflated. The tent joined the party and leaked so that caused the two of them to wake up in water the next day. So that was a whole thing.Then we were up on the bluffs playing a board game when it rained bugs. You might think that’s hyperbole. Let me be clear. It’s not. We were under a tree and out of no where these little black gross bugs started falling. I still don’t really understand what the deal with that was, but once we heard it was suppose to rain during the second night as well we bumped up our departure from 10 am the next morning to 8 pm that evening. We were all happier for that choice.
Now you know some of the baggage we all had going into this weekend. This weekend we decided to test the waters of camping by just sleeping in tents in my sister’s back yard. It was the first time sleeping in a tent (and outside I believe) for my nephew (who is three). I am pleased to announce that from that stand point (and many others) it was a resounding success! Little squirt loves camping and all that comes with it. We slept in sleeping bags and tents. Had a fire, roasted marshmallows for smores. (He helped me and when we lit some on fire that no one would eat, he sided with me stating
that he liked burnt marshmallows. He then proceeded, like I did, to eat the burnt ‘mallow sans smore. Best. Ally. Ever.) My sister also surprised us by having a fireworks pack at her house. I forget it’s legal to have them in Minnesota. They let me light most of them, but honestly that was to add to the show. Shenanigans all around, but I didn’t burn myself, anyone else, or the tent. Although that last one was a concern at first.
The next day we lazed about before packing up chips and drinks and heading to a deli. After securing sandwiches we went to a park along one of Minnesota’s many lakes for a picnic. It was a delightful afternoon. After our picnic we took a quick trolly ride. Although it only lasted a few minutes we learned a lot about the history of the trolly system in the cities. Quite fun. After that we went to a play structure and while nephew climbed to his heart’s content my sister’s and I played speed dominoes. (Dominoes is a thing in my family, however I had never played with sixes and less. With that set-up the game flies.) After that we decided to rent a paddle-boat and go out on the lake. 
I remember doing paddle-boats at summer camp and I don’t remember it being quite so difficult. Maybe it was because we were a man down. We rented a four-person boat and manned it with myself, my two sisters and my nephew. He couldn’t quite reach the pedals yet, so he got to ride completely. It might have gone better if I was more effective. I was laughing so hard it made peddling difficult. My bad.
That, in a nutshell, was my weekend. Lots of laughing, family bonding, and games. Then we got back and my mother and I attached the basement with avengence. My parents are headed out west in a couple weeks, and I challenged her (and myself) to get all the little tweaks done before she left. We had some random patching that we needed to get done before I could finish up muddying, spackling and priming. So while my parents go out west for a wedding I’ll stay home and hopefully get the walls all done. Pipe dream perhaps, but I’ll keep dreaming it. It just might work out.
A match made in heaven, right? There were several close calls but I stayed on all eight wheels. To help facilitate this I made a bee-line to the elementary school parking lot and J4 roller rinked it. Just went round and round listening to my music until I was ready to slowly and carefully make my way home. Rollerblading across train tracks is not the easiest thing. All-in-all the first go went so well I went again this weekend, only the second time I sent to the high school parking lot (well high school when I went there, now it’s the “intermediate” building – or something like that). It’s a bit bigger and close to the middle school and new high school so I can just go from lot to lot. A much smarter idea for me to stay off the streets.
Q the Adult 