We did, as usual, the usual Saturday morning thing this Saturday morning. My plan, after the Brucey Cuddle Time and whatnot was to go to Lowes to pick up a few things, including new blinds for the living room. Moo had been intent on sitting in the windowsill, and the blinds have suffered for it. I ended up not going though, since Amanda’s parents were coming and her dad, Phil Mercer, wasn’t sure yet what we’d need to fix the bed in Renee Sikes’s room and I didn’t want to have to make extra trips.
In regards to what Amanda heard about how much it was supposed to rain today, it drizzled some off and on, but it never flat-out rained. Amanda and I spent most of the first half of the day cleaning up. I finally mailed off the laptop rebates for the laptop Amanda’s mom, Karen Mercer, had bought for her son, Michael Mercer. While this was going on, Amanda discovered that one of the cars, either Mr. Cobblepott or Moo, had peed on the bed in Michael’s (the Orange) Room. My wife wasn’t a happy camper after that debacle.
But we got the house cleaned. Amanda vacuumed and steam cleaned all the carpet downstairs while I finished cleaning up the office upstairs. When she went out to Wal-Mart to pick up stuff for dinner I did the upstairs carpets. Karen and Phil got here shortly after I was done with that, so Phil and I grabbed a bunch of trash (well, recycling) and headed out. First stop was to drop off the recycling trash at the Lowes Food, then we went by the kayak place on Eastwood near Racine. Since that was so close to Home Depot we just stopped by there to get the bolts and such to fix the bed. We spent a whopping $1.26. Since I hadn’t eaten anything at all today at that point, with the exception of a freezie pop, we went by Jeter’s Hotdogs to pick up a bite to eat. I was good and didn’t get a soda.
Just last night Amanda and I were discussing at dinner how neither one of us used to drink soda. I started by giving it up for Lent one year, and Amanda had gone six years without. We both started up at my parents’ house one time. There was nothing to drink but beer or soda, so at some point we both drank some pop. It was a slippery slope from there, but I’m going to try to be better about it again.
We went home after that to find Amanda and Karen hanging things on walls. Amanda’s diploma from Campbell (which her grandpa has been meaning to frame since she graduated) went at the top of the steps and an old mirror that belonged to Karen’s grandmother went in the living room, facing the hallway. It’s a little odd walking down the hallway and seeing a mirror, but at the same time I kind of like it.
Phil (and I, but really it was Phil) fixed the bed in Renee’s room, then we took a look at the kitchen table. Aunt Robbie gave it to me quite a few years ago; I’ve had it since my second apartment in Greensboro. The table has a leaf that can go in it to extend the length of the table, but for quite some time nobody’s been able to get the table to open up enough to put the leaf in. In fact, I think the last time the leaf was in it was in that apartment in Greensboro. Anyway, Phil had the idea for both of us to pick it up and each take a turn yanking hard on our side of it. It took three pulls and it snapped right open. Judging from what looked like a broken piece of a screw fround afterwards on the floor, that’s what was gunking up the opening track.
To finish out the afternoon’s work we ran some cable from one of the crawlspaces to Michael’s room and carried a desk from his room up to ours. Michael will be moving in here on Wednesday, so for about a week and a half we’ll have a pretty full little house.
After all the work Phil and I had a couple beers and watched some Bonanza. The Frazelles (sans Hannah, who has yet to visit this house) got here after a little bit in their new Mercedes SUV. Anna’s doing well. She had a little trouble getting up the steps, but other than that I think she got around pretty well. They haven’t been here since we finished the painting and got the kitchen floor tiled and they liked what they saw. Ben and Jessica Lambeth got here not long after them.
We had tacos and corn and such for dinner. All the ladies ate outside, the menfolk inside. It just sort of worked out that way. We had some cheesecake that Amanda made for dessert. She makes her cheesecake with Splenda and it’s really good. Surprisingly, I liked the regular cheesecake with the graham cracker crust better than I liked the one with the chocolate-caramel pieces and Oreo crust.
Everybody took off shortly after that except for Ben and Jessica. They stuck aroud to watch a movie. I asked Ben what he wanted to watch, knowing full well that the answer would be V for Vendetta, so we watched that. Ben and Jessica both said they liked it better than they thought they would. I was glad Jessica said that because I don’t think she had any real desire to see it in the first place.
It was a pretty full day, all in all. I have to be at church tomorrow at 7:00.
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