Holiday Weekend

Yesterday was Memorial Day, fka Decoration Day. Thank you to corporate America, the general public follows the traditions of barbecuing and searching for big sales at Sam's Club, instead of taking time to decorate the tombstones of fallen soldiers, remembering the sacrifice they all made for our country. Ashamedly, I am one of those citizens that shopped and failed to recognize the reason for the holiday. So, for that I am sorry.

So, with that confession said, I'll give a re cap of my 3-day weekend. Friday night Brad and I met up with some friends at Mars Hill Cafe for dinner. Thank you, Corky, for the amazing dinner and the mango tea. Saturday I don't remember the details. I really hate when that happens. I do remember that I slept in some, worked out at the gym and went to see the new Indiana Jones movie with Brad, Will met us there. Thanks Will, for saving us seats.
I really liked the film. It got rave reviews from tough Hollywood critics, but the general public is kinda "meh" about the whole thing. I thought it was great.

Sunday we went to the morning service at church, People of Mars Hill and then I did some grocery shopping. I also bought a jalapeno plant. That day Brad worked in the yard and I cleaned the house. We had our "small group" friends over for a grill-out that evening. We wanted to do one big get together to visit before Brad left for his long trip. Man, the food kept coming! I made baked beans (for the first time, my own recipe), roasted potatoes, queso dip, and a strawberry shortcake. It was a bring-your-own-meat deal, and I filled up the grill three times, I think. It was a great night. Brad was awesome, he did most of the clean up while I was still visiting with friends.

Monday we really took the day off. I meant to go for a run, but it didn't happen. We slept in, watched some Monster Quest on the History Channel, then decided to do some shopping. He needed electric guitar strings and I wanted some more herbs. So we went to Musical Walmart, I mean, Guitar Center, then to Lowe's. We bought a few hanging planters, a thyme plant, and a cucumber plant. So now, in the yard we are growing:
tomato
cucumber
jalapeno
thyme
sweet basil
rosemary

Over the weekend, we discovered we have 6 gladiolas plants! For the past 3 years we thought they were only tall decorative grass. This year they are budding in bold red flowers. I am ecstatic! We plan on laying a pallet of sod in July. Our backyard is shaping up beautifully.

I took a few pics of some things we are growing and I also got a few of the babies.
Here's Lucille looking like she wants to kill me.

Here's a pic of my sweet basil plant, and you can see Arwen in the back ground going to town on a rawhide.

Here's Batman with HIS rawhide, in his favorite "chew spot".

And last but not least, is our fearless feline, Robin.


I finished the 6th Harry Potter book last night. I wanted to re read it before the movie came out. It'll be released in November, so I'm kinda ahead of myself.
Now I will finish reading Echoes of His Presence. I should have that done by next week if I don't allow myself to get too busy and distracted. After that I'm going to dive into more C.S. Lewis. I'm not sure where to start. I began to read Mere Christianity this past fall, I may just start that one over and go from there.

Today is a weight lifting day. I'll do that after work, hopefully I'll have time to put in some good cardiovascular exercise afterward. I have already cleaned the house for small group tonight so I have no excuse.

I'm looking forward to our discussion tonight. Jack's teaching this past Sunday was really good. I need to listen to it again though.

Hummph... I'm having a hard time getting into the swing of things today.

About my Saturday, and well Sunday, too.

I'm pretty tired now, so I'll try to keep it short. It's already past my bedtime.

Saturday I slept in just a bit, then headed over to Fairhope to hang out with Whitney and Craig. We had a great time, of course. We ate at a restaurant called Panini Pete's (i think is the name) and Oh mah gah. It was good! I had a mozzarella, basil and tomato panini. I loved it.

We looked at some boutiques, I got a rockin pair of white shades, and strolled through a few art stores. That was really interesting, given Craig is a great artist. He painted an incredible piece for Brad and I, I'll post a pic later.

After we said our goodbyes, I met with Brad and hung out at Felix's for a while. He was working a table for the Crawfish Bowl, featuring some bluegrass and folk musicians. The proceeds of the event went to the LARSH foundation in Mobile.

Once he was done we set out to our favorite restaurant, Big Time Diner. It was great, as always. We saw a late movie, Prince Caspian.

um, it was meh. See, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe film followed the book very well. I was pleased. This however, did not. I knew it would happen this way because there's a lot of dialogue in the book and the action, though good, is not very frequent. So, there's some added fight scenes, and a love connection which I did not approve of since it wasn't originally in the book. I mean, I'll watch it again, but I wasn't overwhelmed with joy once the credits rolled (like Ironman).

Today we went to the 11 o'clock service at church, did some grocery shopping, then I made lunch. Seraph played at a local church and I stayed at home and did laundry, cleaned bathrooms, cleaned floors, watched Raiders of the Lost Ark and read a few chapters of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. The HP is a re-read. I'm preparing for the film.

Robin, the kitty-son, got hurt today. Brad thinks he got hit. His back leg is real swollen, but it's not broken and his skin is fine. He's shut up in our bathroom with the necessities. I found some pain medicine I bought for Batman when he was neutered. I broke it in half, minced it and put inside some leftover shrimp. Hopefully he'll be okay. That darn cat has been injured more times than our other pets combined, and he's the youngest.

Well folks, time for bed.

Good Movie

Brad and I saw Ironman last night. I was very pleased with how Marvel handled the film. Now, I'm not too familiar on the story of Tony Stark. Some extremists may be upset with how the suit didn't fit exactly to the storyline of the comics, or maybe his hair wasn't parted like the original drawn character. But being a novice to the story I greatly enjoyed it. Ask anyone who's known me for a long time and they'll tell how much I love super heroes. My favorites are Wonder Woman, Batman and the characters of Xmen.

The movie was clear of all crude language, which surprised me. There was one blip at the beginning where it showed a naked woman, covered by sheets, but that was it. The violence was no more intense than the Spiderman movies. I would feel alright taking a kid to see this film.

I really liked Robert Downey, Jr in this movie. He showed us all what happens when arrogance meets good intentions. I give it 4 stars.

Today I am about to get ready to meet up with Whitney and her husband, Craig, for lunch. Brad got a last minute call to do some work at a Crawfish Boil today at Felix's Fish Camp. He's going to work on the sound; there's going to be live music at the event. I may catch up with him there later. If time allows we'll go see Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. I re-read the book a few months ago, Brad read it yesterday.

My summer reading list includes lots of C.S. Lewis' works. So far, I've only read the Chronicles and a portion of Mere Christianity. We have a good collection started of his books. Brad is a huge fan of Lewis.

On a side note, I need some summer clothes...