The weekends are never long enough
Mood:  hungry
I don’t think I have fully recovered yet from the weekend. I am sore and a bit crabby today.

Friday night Lennie was going to come over and acid wash the patio but he didn’t show up till 8PM and it was getting too dark to do anything so we went out in search of some food instead. Being a new homeowner I am getting a bunch of coupons and gift certificates from local businesses. I had gotten a coupon for a free meal at this new place that opened up behind Triangle Town Center called the Bakehouse Bistro. We tried it a couple weeks ago and although the service was a little poor the food was great so we decided to head back there for dinner. They have this man made pond there and the businesses surround it with plenty of outdoor seating and a stage at one end where they have live music. Friday night they had a jazz/blues band. We sat outside eating our skirt steak and just relaxed…enjoying a night away from working on the patio. Once the music stopped I could hear bullfrogs calling. Upon closer inspection I spotted 5 fairly large frogs in the pond. I also noticed a female mallard with 5 little chicks in the pond as well. The bad thing about the pond is that is surrounded by a concrete wall.

There is no way for the frogs or little ducks to get out. The little ducks were all huddled on the fountain platform getting wet from the fountain mist but I guess it beats trying to swim around for hours on end. Our waitress said that people have been feeding them and that they may call animal control to try to get them out. Poor little things.

Saturday Morning we got up and Lennie headed over to help his friend Todd fix the AC in his car. The plan was that he would work on the car then come back to acid wash the patio. Well the AC repair took longer than expected. It was almost 4 by the time he showed up. I read the instruction for the acid and it said we needed to wear rubber clothing. Well I don’t own any rubber clothing so we decided to nix the acid and just wash the patio off with some water and a broom. It got most of the dirt off. When we finished we got cleaned up and headed out for the Irish/Scottish Ex-Pat’s meeting and Kilt Night at Tir Na Nog. But first we had to stop by and pick up a friend’s camera from here brother who was hanging out at the Ale House. Of course we couldn’t just run in and grab the camera. Lennie made us stay for a drink. The only thing I had eaten all day was a bowl of oatmeal so the glass of wine I had went straight to my head. We finally arrived at the pub…an hour late… and sat down to chat with friends. They had free beer and appetizers so I was content. Lennie made his rounds and left me to chat with the girls. We finally got home about 1:30AM.

Sunday morning I got up and felt like someone had cut open my skull and took a dump on my brain. In other words….I felt like crap. I just can’t drink like I used too. I made us some breakfast and then drove Lennie downtown to pick up his truck. He went home and put some scruffy clothes on then cane to pick me up so that we could load up the cement mixer to take back over to Todd’s. I absolutely adore Todd and Maria. They are such a nice couple. Maria and I laugh that we were separated at birth because when we go out people think we are sisters. The plan was just to drop off the mixer and head to Home Depot to pick up some concrete stain. Well they had other plans for us. When we got in the house they put some lamb on the grill and we sat around and ate and chatted for a few hours. They have a really sweet Jack Russell Terrier named Dempsey and I spent a lot of the afternoon tossing the ball for him. Almost made me wish I had a dog…almost. At one point this Pitt Bull wondered into the yard. We were all panicked because Pit Bulls have a reputation and didn’t know if it was there to attack Dempsey. They sniffed each other for a few minutes and then started to play. I noticed the Pitt Bull had a collar on but when she finally allowed me to approach her I saw that it didn’t have any tags. She was very skittish and when you went to pet her she would cower and shake. I am pretty sure this comes from being beaten. She also had an injured hip and you could tell it hurt for her to sit down. She didn’t seem to have a desire to go home and spent the whole afternoon hanging out with Dempsey. We finally left about 4PM and headed over to get the stain for the patio. Both of us were stuffed and tired but we were determined to get this patio done. Of course nothing ever goes according to our plan but finally at 8:30PM we had the paint down. It looks really nice. I love the color. Lennie wants to put another coat down but I fear it will make it too dark and I like the way it looks now. Tonight, as long as the rain holds off, I am going to get the edging and soil for the flower beds as well as the sealant for the patio. Lennie is going to drill the holes for the support beams for the Pergola. Hopefully everything will come together before the house warming. *keeps fingers crossed*

There is this one item that I want to get but I just can’t decide if I want to spend the money. Todd and Maria have this really cool wireless speaker that they got at Brookstone. It is $150 but it would be so cool to have it out on the patio the night of the party. *sigh* I just can’t decided.