Pricey Putter

I was up around 7am feeling pretty good after almost 8 hours of sleep in my own bed. I started coffee then played on the internet. I left for a run early in hopes of beating the morning heat. I was out the door just before 8am and ran the usual weekend 3 three miles.

The McVey’s vehicle was in the driveway. They made it home safely too it appeared. Surprisingly, Glenn was the next one up back at the house. That happened twice during his stay, which might be a first. He was up around 9am. Mindy was up a short time later. Both kids slept until almost 11am. They were tuckered out.

I spent most of the day working in the yard, whipping it back into shape. It was again near 100 degrees. Given my druthers, I would have chilled in the AC, but the yard needed attention. I mowed, trimmed, edged, blew and watered. I raked up all the fallen sticks from the big storms too.

Glenn’s friend Scott stopped by mid-afternoon to visit. The two of them left again soon after his arrival. After a shower, Mindy and I left for a trip to Whole Foods and the Market district to pick-up some cookout goodies. I wanted old fashioned grilled burgers.

I wasn’t happy with the limited meat selection at Whole Foods. We bought a six-pack of 400 pound Monkey IPA but nothing else. We headed just up the road another mile or two to Market District. Where we spent another $100 on meat, cheese, sides, buns, dessert, wine, and then some beer for Glenn. We happened upon Grandma Sharon passing out samples. It’s a role she plays often. We exchanged our Edwards Key Lime pie for a freshly baked version after trying her sample. Almost forgot, we bought the stuff to make risotto balls too. I plan to give that a try soon.

We headed home. Mindy asked me to handle prepping the burgers. I made sure to buy 85% lean meat. You really don’t want anything leaner for burgers, that is unless you like them firm and not juicy.

Fired up the grill around 545pm. Mindy boiled a half-dozen brats too for grilling. I grilled 8 burgers, 6 brats and a package of hot dogs. I cracked open a 400 pound Monkey IPA while grilling. Yum! Dad arrived near 6pm. We had the boys and Lindsey over again too.

Darwin and Connie stopped by while were busy putting the finishing touches on dinner. We offered them to stay but they declined. Darwin wanted to introduce Glenn to Connie. We chatted briefly. Dad and Darwin talked for a while too. Darwin confirmed that the church is eager to buy dad’s house/property for parking lot expansion. I encouraged dad to sell if the price is right and downsize now while he’s got quality year ahead of him.

Dinner was good, and the burgers were fabulous. Glenn confirmed plans for dad to give him a ride to the airport on Monday afternoon around 130pm. We in turn made plans to visit the new Whittier St. Audubon park that same afternoon. We also loosely discussed plans to attend Charles’ birthday celebration at Tommy’s place Monday evening. It felt awfully nice to have another week of vacation ahead of me, although still lurking in the back of my mind was that monthly report I needed to get finished and sent out by Wednesday.

After the others departed, we hung out on the deck sipping a couple more beers. And then after dark neighbors Teri O. and Kenny stopped down to say farewell to Glenn. Both had a good beer buzz going. Kenny shared that he had to be up and on the road for Indy by 430am. Yikes. That cant’ wouldn’t be good. Also, during his brief visit, we made a bet on the up coming presidential election. We bet a new putter. If Obama wins Kenny buys. If Romney wins, I buy Kenny one. We capped the limit to $300. Once again, the sleepies befell most us early. We all headed for bed relatively early, though I believe Glenn stayed up later than the rest of us.