Suburban Weekend

On Friday night, Adam went out with friends after work, and I hung out at home watching tv he doesn't care about and spinning. I am in a fiber club and the latest offering is half silk, half baby camel. This sounds wonderful, but in fact I'm finding it really hard to spin. My regular method of spinning, for which I don't know the name, doesn't work with this fiber combination - the silk gets taken up and the camel gets sort of edged out sideways. So I started spinning from the fold, which has allowed me to control better the way the fiber gets taken up and I can spin the two types together better. But it's still extremely frustrating and I'm not really enjoying it too much. And it's too bad, because it's really beautifully dyed, and I think probably it is I who is doing no justice to the fiber, rather than the fiber doing me wrong. Oh well. I am finding out what I enjoy spinning and what I find too challenging. So Friday was spinning "to the pain" and watching L&O episodes.

Saturday was yard work, because it didn't do the rain they predicted. Over the past two weeks, the maple tree in the front yard has spewed helicopters and polleny florets all over the front yard, so yesterday I spent a couple hours sweeping it up and bagging it. Adam mowed the lawn, front and back. Together we generated two full bags of vegetable matter. Our composter has been full for months already so we can only bag it for pickup. (On the plus side, most of what's in the composter is almost dirt, finally. How cool is that?)

I planted some radishes and some okra seed (since the okra seedlings I transplanted outside died) - if I get one viable okra plant that'll be plenty since I'm the only one who wants okra in any capacity. Fried is my particular favorite - there was an Indian restaurant near my office that made fried okra in an especially genius way - they sliced them lengthwise, extremely thinly, and fried them so they were light and crispy and fantastically delicious. It looks as though that restaurant is either getting a facelift or being replaced by something else, though, so I may have to figure out this fried okra method on my own.

Adam installed the outdoor speakers in the back yard, so we're one step closer to being ready for the keg party he is throwing over Memorial Day weekend in honor of his sister's graduation from college. We're probably going to get a bigger grill, too, although it'll remain charcoal grilling only in this household. Adam's preference.

Saturday afternoon Adam went to his comic book store (it was national Free Comic Book day) and I hung out in the back yard, sat in the sun and read. I'm reading a really engaging book about the cholera outbreak of August 1854, and the events which ended in the invention of epidemiology. It's fascinating, if a trifle gnarly. It's called The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World. I have another of his books on deck, The Invention of Air, when I'm done with this.

Last night we had our first cookout on the grill, speaking of, and it was great. Adam made steaks and shrimp skewers and grilled tomatoes and peppers, with sauteed mushrooms to top the steak. To finish it we made smores! It was fantastic.

This morning I made lemon pancakes, and since the rain arrived today we stayed in. I read some more until Adam put on the TV with things that distracted me. We started watching the Starz show, "Party Down" which is pretty damn hilarious. We had an ep of that plus some other of our standbys.

For lunch Adam used the leftovers from the cookout. I got a salad with steak and grilled toms and peps, on a bed of home grown lettuce, and he had a sandwich instead of a salad, with same. It was really good. Tonight I am making sloppy joes. And thus ends another lovely weekend in the suburbs!