Nights in White Satin... or was that Semi-Gloss?

I woke feeling really good. It was only about 7:30am. Out the bathroom window I could see dappled sunlight striking the tree tops – a clear indication of more good weather ahead. I quietly slipped out of the room and headed downstairs to begin making coffee and to get my exercise routine underway. Ykraps and I headed out the door for our morning walk still before 8am. We shuffled our walk a little to avoid other passing dogs. I had my camera in tow but didn’t take any pictures. Our lawn was looking fabulous, by the way.

 I poured some coffee and sat to enjoy it in front of the PC. There I reviewed all the college football scores that I missed. All totaled number 1, 3 & 4 got beat. Penn State, #6,  beat the daylight out Wisconsin, all but ensuring them a lofty ranking later in the day. 

Just after 9am I delivered Mindy‘s coffee. It wasn’t long before she was up and downstairs with the family. I already had Bella’s breakfast underway – mini-waffles. She really wanted bacon but that wasn’t in the cards. Mindy was planning on attending church and taking the kids to boot. She was looking forward to seeing the new sanctuary being dedicated at this morning’s service. I begged out. 

Mindy headed up to shower around 9:30am. I helped the kids get ready for church before dressing and leaving for a run. I ran along Trabue and Hague once again. This time I didn’t bother stopping by my dad’s. I could see that he wasn’t home anyhow. About a half mile from home Mindy & the kids rounded the corner heading for church. Just smile & wave. I was back from my run before 10:30am. The first thing I did was make myself a burrito with the leftover taco meat from last Wednesday’s potluck. It was delicious. I wasted little time changing into some comfy summer clothes and heading out in the BM’er destined for the Grandview Sherwin-Williams. Their Sunday hours were 10am-400pm. I picked up a quart of extra-white satin Super Paint to finish the ceiling patch in Gloria’s lower-level. Once there I couldn’t remember whether she told me it was semi-gloss or satin. I worried that I bought the wrong finish – oh well. If it was, I could use it at our house. I was back at home before 1115am.

 Before going inside, I gathered all the tools I’d need later at Gloria’s and left them prominently positioned on my workbench. My plan was to finish my work on her ceiling and gutters this afternoon. 

For the first time in a long while, I didn’t have any pressing tasks to complete at home. That felt great. I thought about sneaking a nap but wasn’t tired. I ended up going out back to trim the honeysuckle growth from along the pond so that it doesn’t smack me in the face when I mow. I also remembered to recharge the Toro electric-start battery. I hadn’t charged it since last spring (2007). It was getting weak. After carrying all the honeysuckle trimmings to the compost pile out back, I did some trimming around the compost pile and kiddie swings. There’s poison ivy out there needing killed too. Perhaps another day.  It was now about 1pm and Mindy still wasn’t home. I went inside and put away all the clean dishes and tidied up the kitchen a little. Mindy & the kids got home sometime after 1pm. Mindy was soon off to the grocery store while I stayed home with the kids. They weren’t much trouble. They were mostly off playing with friends. I kept a loose eye on the Vikings game via Yahoo. It appeared that their defense was playing well but the offense, well, was downright offensive! Mindy must’ve got home around 3pm. Soon after, I finally took my shower. Afterwards, I put all of the tools necessary for Gloria’s into my tool murse for ease of transport. We were ready to head to Gloria’s at 4pm sharp. I took one more look at the Vikings score before leaving. There were just seconds left and they were driving towards a winning field goal. I was on pins and needles. They won – 12-10! It shouldn’t have been that close. 

We left for Gloria’s with me now in a wonderful mood. We arrived ten minutes later. Somehow, Mindy & I forgot and left Bella in the Trooper. She threw a fit, even though she knows how to undo her own seatbelt and open the door. She wasn’t a happy camper. Geesh!! 

Meanwhile, I went straight to work on raising the gutters. It went much smoother than I expected. I opted to not use her ladder as it looks like an injury waiting to happen. I was able to use her back porch to reach & ultimately remove the eastern most downspout. Once down, I cut off about 6-8 inches of length before reinstalling it. Now water would run downhill through the plastic extensions I bought to force water flow away from her foundation. I repeated the same step on the opposite side only this time I didn’t remove the downspout from the house. Actually, brother-in-law Larry helped me out and did the sawing. We were done in no time. Glad that job’s done. We went downstairs to check the lower level wall to see if it’s remaining dry. It is. I love success. 

In passing, I asked Gloria what type of paint covered her ceilings, satin or semi-gloss. Semi-gloss, she said. Damn! She said she didn’t care if I used the satin, but I did. I’ll get a quart of semi-gloss this week.  Before calling it an evening for chores, I sawed off the 16” bolt protruding from her post light siding the driveway. Chores done. 

It wasn’t long before dinner was served. We had lasagna. It was delicious. I had two monster helpings. We were loosely celebrating Katie’s 21^st b-day. We got her a card and a gift certificate to the Cheesecake Factory. Katie’s so pleasant! After dinner but before dessert, we played Apples to Apples, a new card/board game. It was a lot of fun. Check it out. Julie won both games. Man! 

Soon dessert was served. We had apple pie and brownies to select from. I had three brownies. It was getting late and Mindy really wanted to get the kids home, bathed and in bed. We were home by 7:30pm. Jacob walked Ykraps with me. He dropped Evan’s Star Wars gloves on his porch as we walked by. Back at home Jacob went for his shower. I waited patiently for their showers to end. As soon as they did I started the sprinkler on zones #1 & 2 for 20 minutes each.  I shut the system down afterwards. After tucking in the kids, Mindy & I watched Sunday Night Football until 9:30pm. At that point I was falling asleep. We promptly headed off to bed.