Ahoy Matey!!

On the deck working my boat cushion project more flowers Todd's pop jaw makes good for blowing out b-day candles (Mindy's younger bro Todd, his daughter Mia, Mindy's mom, and Bella) I crawled out from under the covers at 8:30am sharp after what amounted to about 9 hours of sleep. And you would’ve thought that having nine hours sleep and only a few beers the night before that I’d be feeling incredibly rested. Well, I didn’t feel bad but I didn’t feel brand new either. I was still a little stiff from the excessive yard work that Mindy insisted I do yesterday. At one point, somewhere near 3am, I woke feeling completely rested. That usually spells trouble for how I feel when it comes time to really get up. I fell back to sleep after about half an hour of tossing and turning. Like usual, Mindy was bent on some snuggling before hoping out of bed. But she also knows me well, and only required snuggling for a few minutes. After some quick business, I was downstairs making the morning’s coffee, choking down a vitamin and anti-inflammatory, and cranking out my exercises. By 8:50am Ykraps and I were walking about the neighborhood in what seemed like very chilly temps. I must be adjusting to warmer temps already. Not more than a month ago, 47 degrees at 9am would’ve been considered mild if not warm. The coffee was ready when we returned, and I noticed the sun making brief appearances from behind the thin cloud cover as I poured coffee for both Mindy and I. I delivered Mindy’s cup to her bedside since I know that makes her happy. I returned downstairs where I did a little surfing and addressed a few minor chores. Mindy joined me shortly there after – somewhere near 9:30am. We enjoyed each others company over coffee for the next hour. At 10:30am I readied for a run and hit the streets. Still the sky was more cloudy than bright, but one could tell it was improving by the minute. And by the time I had finished my run, the sun was out pretty much to stay. Once again, Mindy had prepared breakfast while I ran. We considered it a fair swap given that I had made dinner the night before. And again today, we enjoyed eggs, bacon, and fruit. We finished our breakfast close to noon, and Mindy decided to get a shower and run a few errands. I got busy on my boat cushions. While Mindy showered I cut the three pieces of treated plywood into seat cushion bottoms using the old rotting pieces as a template. I had done this before with others so I knew exactly what to expect. I had all three cut to size and drip holes drilled in 30 minutes or so. Just as I was preparing to reassemble the first cushion, Mindy returned from the shower and was readying to leave. After a quick goodbye, I returned to the boat cushion project. I had all three completed in just over an hour. After cleaning up some of the construction mess, I prepared a bucket of warm soapy water to scrub them down since they were so dirty from the wet, old rotting plywood. They cleaned up almost like new as I had hoped. I had spent a total of $28 on the plywood – the stainless steel staples I already had. If I would’ve ordered new cushions I would’ve, could’ve cost me $500-600! As a final touch, after allowing them to dry for 30 minutes, I treated the marine vinyl cushions with a turtle wax for vinyl (much like armor-all). They looked great when done. After cleaning up the cushion mess, I moved on to seeding the bare spots in my lawn. And by now the temperature was approaching 70 degrees and the sun was shining brightly. It was shirtless weather to be sure. Nothing but blue skies looking westward. I seeded the area where I had removed the tree stump and had backfilled with this year’s flower bed edgings along with three other areas out back. After seeding I watered it all in. My next project marked the first official flower planting of summer 2006. I transplanted the wave petunias I had purchased Friday afternoon into their permanent hanging basket that hangs from my hot tub pergalo. That went fast having done this a number of times over the years. About that time, Mindy returned from her mini-shopping spree. I continued working at a feverish pace wanting to get as much accomplished in the relatively short amount of time I had. The last tow projects I address were scrubbing the deck chairs and hot tub cover. After scrubbing the hot tub cover I used some of that vinyl protectant on it too. I couldn’t seem to get the mildew off of the plastic – stackable deck chairs, but I was able to get most of the green moss and mildew off of the fabric chair cushions. By then it was time for Mindy to head to her mother’s and for me to get in the shower. I had a productive afternoon in the sunshine, and that’s always a good thing! I had to move quickly with the shower and organizing everything I needed for Mindy’s mom’s. I had to bring my volt/ohm meter and hand tools to once again look at one of her security lights. In addition, I had to grab my camera for pictures. I was out the door by 4:20pm. I arrived at Mindy’s mom’s at 4:32pm. Aside from Mindy, I was the first one there. I didn’t want to be the last since I know that her mom is sensitive to those arriving late. After a hug hello, I got the ladder out and began looking at the security light. Mindy’s mom came to the door and said that it had been working just fine of late, so we decided not to mess with it. Just then Mindy’s sister and brother-in-law showed up, too. They had brought a fireman’s rose for Gloria, and Larry went right to planting it out back. Dinner was ready as soon as Todd and Missy arrived. Today was Todd’s birthday dinner (his real b-day is Wednesday – May 10). For dinner we had lasagna, salad, rolls, fruit. For dessert we had lemon cheesecake and fudge. Most of Mindy’s family goes ape over Gloria’s fudge. It’s most interesting observing family tradition at work here. It seems that Gloria’s fudge making has always been a rare event – only done when one of the kids did something extraordinary over the years. Most were salivating awaiting their fudge. Today’s occasion was for Jacob’s outstanding report card, Joe’s Stellar award, and Todd’s … I don’t know what? I opted for the lemon cheesecake. It was very yummy! But to see what all the fuss was about, I tried a small piece of fudge too. It was tasty, but different than what I am used to. Mindy had at least three pieces. Unbeknownst to her mother, Mindy didn’t eat a lick of lasagna. Instead, she slickly slid her portion onto my plate, and stuck with salad and fruit. At 7:15pm we packed up the kids and headed to Mindy’s house. The kids, as usual, rode with me. I’m still a bit of a novelty to them. They are getting more and more comfortable with me everyday. Today they had a screaming contest all the way home. They can scream extremely loud. I thought about pulling out my excruciatingly loud scary scream but didn’t want them to cry all the way home. Once at Mindy’s we quickly got the kids to bed and settled down for some Fox programming around 8:15pm. I appreciated Mindy reminded me that Family Guy was on tonight. That is one of the funniest shows ever! After two Family Guy’s, we tuned into American Dad – another Fox cartoon. At 9:30pm I left for home. When I got home I was greeted with an incredibly wonderful surprise from Ykraps. It seems he was paying me back for the countless times I make him hold it. That, or the bacon grease I poured allover his dog chow earlier today didn’t agree with his system. He shit, puked, and slimed, all over the house in every room he had access to (family room, living room, dining room, and hallway). And of course he didn’t do it on the ceramic tile in the kitchen. That would’ve been too easy to clean. And man did it stink! What’s worse, there were three piles in each room. This was bad! I cleaned for about an hour, or until I couldn’t take it any longer. I was getting tired and really wanted to rest. After I finished cleaning up the mess, I carried in the boat cushions and popped myself some popcorn, then checked the Reds score. They won 9-8 over the Rockies. Finally, after a long day, it was time for bed.