Each of the past three years, my parents have bought Brian and I play tickets for the Mountain Playhouse for our anniversary gift. We went there last night to see “Incorruptible”. It was a farce about a bunch of monks that go to extreme lengths to further the works of their church. The first half of the play was kind of slow, but the second half was pretty funny. Going to plays isn’t something I’d want to do on a regular basis, but catching one per year allows me to refill my “culture” meter every summer.
the in-laws
I had planned on doing some much-needed yard work this evening but the rain put a damper on my plans (it’s amazing just how much yard work is required to keep things looking good). So, I decided to iron some clothes and watch the tube instead. HBO was showing The In-Laws tonight, so I watched it. It’s not like there’s anything else on TV. The movie was about an undercover CIA agent (Michael Douglas) who was in the middle of an operation during his son’s wedding. He, of course, gets everyone in both families involved in the situation. The movie was OK, but it’s certainly not something I’d watch again. But, it certainly filled the void this evening.
fourth of july
We started off the holiday weekend with a party at our friend Lish’s house on Sunday. Jacob had a blast because there were a bunch of kids for him to play with there. That night, we came home and took the pups for a walk. Once it got dark, we had a fire in the chiminea and watched everyone’s fireworks while Jake played with his sparklers.
On the 4th, we didn’t do much. Jake went to my parent’s in the morning and came home around supper. While he was gone, Brian and I got caught up on our work around the house. Then, the three of us had a little cookout for supper. Last night, we were hoping to catch the fireworks that were going on downtown, but they couldn’t be seen from our place. And there weren’t as many fireworks going off yesterday as Sunday so we didn’t catch too many (much to Jacob’s chagrin).
fruitful day
Today started off with a picnic at Shawnee State Park. We had some lunch and then Brian and Jake hit the water. I’m not much of a swimmer to begin with (let alone when water that fish are actively pooping in is involved) so I sat under a tree and relaxed while they swam. Somehow, I still got slightly sunburned. Apparently dappled light from the shade of a tree is not equivalent to SPF 45. Who knew?
On the way home, we stopped at Giant Eagle and bought 16 pounds of strawberries. What are we doing with 16 pounds of strawberries you might ask? Well, the girl at the checkout counter wanted to know, so I’ll tell you, too–we were making strawberry wine. I’ve been waiting for a good sale on strawberries, but have not seen one. Giant Eagle had them on sale this week and I didn’t want to miss the summer “strawberry window” so I bit the bullet and bought them today (though they were certainly not at the best price I’ve ever seen by any stretch of the imagination). So, if you see strawberries on sale from this point forward, I don’t want to know about it. Making strawberry wine sure is a lot more work than the grape wine kits I usually make (particularly when your helper is out riding his motorcycle for the first 90 minutes of the process). But, the deed is done and 5 gallons of strawberry wine are currently fermenting in the kitchen.
Now for the computer problem of the week: our cable modem was not working again today. For the average person, the lack of internet access might not be a big deal. But, we have Vonage for our phone company, so it is more than a mere inconvenience for us. Luckily, they have a feature that when the internet (our our network) is down, our cell phone will ring at the same time as our house phone so we don’t have to miss any calls. But, this is certainly not as nice as when everything is working properly. Given this, we went to Circuit City to buy a new cable modem this evening. Before we left, I checked to make sure our cable modem was still broken. It was. When we returned home with the new cable modem, I checked ours again. This time, it worked (of course). So, I left it plugged in for now. I didn’t have a whole lot of confidence that Atlantic Broadband could activate a new cable modem at 9:00 on a Saturday night. What do I hate more than computer problems? Well, a couple of things, but I can’t list them here so we’ll just go with that for now.
nine years and counting
Today, Brian and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary. We (all three of us) went to dinner at Rizzo’s Restaurant in Windber to celebrate this evening. As luck would have it, Brian had a meeting in Richland at 4:00 today, so he was able to get home early enough so that we could go out for dinner.
Brian and I had some delicious home-made ravioli along with some equally delicious valpolicella wine. Jake had spaghetti and meatballs. It was a good meal. It’s been a few years since we’ve eaten at Rizzo’s. Of course, we don’t eat out that often. When we do, it’s usually for a special occasion.
Next year, we’ll hit the big “10” year anniversary. I already know what I’m getting Brian. I like to plan ahead in case you haven’t noticed. I’m not sure what we’re doing to celebrate, but I’d like to do something special like go on a little trip or something (without the kid). I want to go here. All I need to do is convince Brian. Good thing I have a year to do so.