and just like that, it's gone...

 The weekend...so anticipated, but like a vapor.  Our Saturday was spent working at the house across from Sam.  I painted trim and more trim. (I do use an old wooden chair...when I do painting I can do from sitting, I sit...) Char and Cam rolled paint, and cut in, and got so much done.  Paul installed a new bannister rail, and cut things and worked on things, ha, I wasn't really paying attention.  It was a sunny day, and it was hard to be inside, but it has to be done.  

Sunny and Newton, Nate and Paul

It is looking good!  Old houses do have character!

On the way home we stopped at the store and got more ribs for Sunday.  I seasoned and prepared five racks, then made two big pans of macaroni and cheese, all ready to bake on Sunday.  Then we made ice cream cakes for Miss Charlotte Claire, who turned 19 yesterday.  

Those ribs though.  So good.  I do the 3-2-1 method, loosely.  Three hours smoked unwrapped, two hour slathered in sauce (I mixed Sweet Baby Ray's with brown sugar, lime juice, salt, pepper, and lots of cajun seasoning), then wrapped tightly in foil...I cheated and used foil pans, with foil on top, so much easier!), then one hour unwrapped...just took the foil off the tops of the pans.  

Suri is not doing well.  She doesn't always eat her food.  Jamie, just turned two in March, was not having it.  EAT!  he would tell her!  She cannot hear, but she took the food from him, ever so gently, and she ate.

Miss Char....the birthday girl.

When she was in Paris last summer:)

Sonja K. being a fun Auntie with cousins Ruth and Rhys

When Char was little, and Sunny was little too...so cute!

Jamie with ice cream pie...

Ruth

Rhys...

Today we had a brilliantly sunny and warm summer-like day.  Sonja had the day off, she took the girls shopping then came here with sandwich stuff, a bag of ice, a new kiddie pool, and a huge-0 package of water balloons!  Grace and her kids, and Wulf and Tennyson got here when I got back from the pool this morning, then Kathryn came over....then Sonja and the girls...

Ah well....it was a good day.  Sonja and Oscar are moving into a bigger apartment.     

 Char and Cam went to help her a bit, Grace went home, just Kathryn and her kids were here.  I held baby Ellis while Kathryn seared up some steaks in the iron frying pan.  I heated up mac and cheese for the kids, they had some steak too...then Sunny started barking, and there was Joseph coming across the lawn from his car, carrying this lovely plant that he potted himself! 

Shh, I haven't even scrubbed up the chairs and table I bought from marketplace yet, but this looks lovely there I think.  It was a nice visit with Joe.  Paul got back from doing some work on the house, and brought out his guitar, so he and Joseph could be music nerds.   

I got some lovely plants and flowers from the kids...

...the kitty on the table!  

Joseph was still here when Oscar and Sonja came, after signing their new lease and bringing a load or two of things over to their new bigger place.  Char will help them with more trips over there today, but Camille is going to make the macarons for Evelyn's wedding, and I have to bring her to a dentist appointment too.  

I think I'll bake the cakes tomorrow, then freeze them...make the cupcakes Thursday, frost them Friday, make the frosting for the cakes and bring them frozen to the Airbnb and frost them on Saturday, the wedding is Sunday...so many details!  I have to make a huge list so I remember everything, as I'm buying all the food for the Airbnb weekend too.  

Ah well.  It doesn't help to get stressed about it, but I still have to prepare...it's challenging these days because of physical limits, I can't just push myself to go go go, I have to sit and rest in between or my poor leg won't bend, and when it finally does, it screams at me for a while before turning into a managable dull ache.  The "good" knee has a mind of it's own, and it's not a good one.  One little twinge in the wrong direction, and stabbing pain...I wonder if a chunk of something is broken off and in there...even in the car, a sharp turn, if I don't hold that knee, it yelps.  I don't mean to complain.  It's just my life right now, and it's still a wonderful one.  I have so much to be thankful for!  But I try to be real.  

The birds are singing, there are a few windows open, and that fresh spring morning smell is here, and I love it.  Yesterday we had kiddie pools on the deck, and popsicles, it was 82 degrees and sunny, it's wonderful.  You all have a nice day, and enjoy the weather...it's cloudy and cozy here, with rain in the forecast...