John and I kicked off the weekend with a lovely al fresco dinner at home with steamed mussels—finely chopped shallots, garlic, and fennel, plus thyme, diced tomato, and red pepper flakes sautéed in olive oil. Then a dash of Pernod and a half cup of white wine and 1.5 pounds mussels, covered, to steam for five to ten minutes. All served right out of the sauté pan, with a baguette and a leafy green salad and the rest of the white wine—I love summer evenings. The kids? They were content to have a “picnic” in the den, with a cheese pizza and Ice Age: The Meltdown.
We puttered around the house on Saturday, which always makes me feel at loose ends…tasks begun never get completed, the boys, not sure how they fit in the run-around, seem to become even needier. Finally I left the house to run some errands. John took a nap and the boys shot at each other with (Nerf dart) guns. And by the time I returned home, the atmosphere was much calmer so I treated myself to some cooking. Later, friends came over for a quick brats and baked beans dinner, thereby laying a hearty foundation for a massive junk food gorge at the DRIVE-IN.
With a couple families, we schlepped to Cottage Grove to see Transformers 2, which was a loud mashup of machines and special effects. Simon declared it the best movie he had ever seen. The junk food was the highlight of my evening—dill pickle potato chips, taco Doritos, salsa rice chips (quasi-healthy? I doubt it), brownies, shortbread cookies with Hershey’s kisses, red licorice, Buddy’s grape soda, Point root beer, oh, and some white wine sangria with strawberries and white peaches for the adults. And no one threw up!! On another flip side—because you can't have an outing like this and not have it become an adventure—my car battery died just before the start of the second feature—Star Trek. We had to stick around for it so we could get a jump. In the meantime, I crawled into the backseat to nap—because I found myself suddenly very tired, uninterested in any more junk food, and worried about getting up for the 8:30 a.m. yoga class. Needless to say, we got home just fine but very, very late (3 a.m., yowza!).
Who thought this Sunday morning yoga routine was a good idea?! The class had a substitute teacher who was terrible. Uninspired and bored, she rushed us through each asana. I had a hard time keeping up. That said, my balance was amazing. I transitioned through many one-leg poses like a champ. After class, my friend Helena offered to take the boys off our hands (less a favor to us than a way to keep her kids occupied during a home-bound day) so John and I had a date at the St. Paul Farmers Market in Lowertown. I was verklempt—and not at all embarrassed to nearly weep—when I saw peas, potatoes, and zucchini, all making the season’s debut! I bought kohlrabi, small yellow creamer potatoes, a baby zucchini mix (yellow, green, and frosty light green), and snow peas. We will eat so well this week!
Moments later, my phone rang at Cheapos, where we were making an ill-advised music splurge. It was my mother saying, “How would you like company?” She and my father had came to town for the day because their plans were rained out and they wanted to see their children and grandchildren. We had a really nice time sitting on our patio, on the first bright but cooler and low-humidity day we’ve had in almost two weeks. We chit-chatted and drank wine and waited for brother Nik to finish a shift. Then we all went to Salut, where the food was large portions of mediocre, but we sat outside and everyone remained civil. My parents and brother left immediately after dinner, with hugs and "it was really good to see you's" all around. And, both boys, who stayed up stupid late the night before and spent the afternoon running with friends, crashed dead-asleep before the sun dropped on the horizon. I could not have imagined a lovelier day.
How was your weekend?
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