Back o' my neck gettin' dirt and gritty...

Yes, it's hot in Florida, but what else is new? It has been in the high 80's to 90's for the past few weeks, and we're ok with that. But the Hot Time, Summer in the City moment of the week comes to us courtesy of Lennox, the manufacturer of the broken air conditioner outside my place of work. It went out yesterday around noon and the part isn't going to be here for 3 to 5 days. By the end of the day yesterday it was about 85 inside, and today it's just muggy. We're thankful to have this day of rain, which is soooo necessary, and it's also bringing down the temperature. But I pretty much need a full scuba setup to breathe in here. It's almost 1 p.m. and I'm leaving around 1. Everyone else has gone, and I'm just waiting for Brad to pick me up-- his car is being worked on for a strange noise it makes when the wheel is turned all the way. Still under warranty, thankfully, so I think our bank account hemorrage that we had with the Mercedes is over.

In other news, we had a smashing weekend. I've been making purses as I think I've mentioned before. Sewing and creating is just so darn satisfying for me! I've had a break from it (not voluntarily, just busy and cramped for space) since living in Baltimore, almost 4 years, and I'm loving having time to nurture this side of me. I'm looking up pictures of purses online, creating my own patterns, and then creating the bag from some cute chic fabric I got at Joann Fabrics. The first bag is much too floppy, so I took it in to the store and they introduced me to the world of interfacing-- stiffer fabric you iron onto other fabric to stiffen it. The first grade of stiffener didn't cut it, so I went back on Saturday to get the highest grade you can get, short of makeshift solutions (I did entertain the idea of inserting pieces of 3-ring-binder, cutting off the covers and using parts of those to keep the thing from flopping over.) I promise to post the picture I took of the floppy purse. I have it at home.

So on Saturday we got the stiffer interfacing, took care of some things around the house, and planned for Mothers Day at our house. We were all going to go out to brunch but there was some confusion as to who was going to spearhead that, so with no reservations made we volunteered to host. And it was magnificent. The menu was super easy-- roast in the crock pot with onion soup mix and cream of mushroom soup and carrot, mashed potatoes from the (gasp!) box with butter, garlic, sour cream, and cream cheese thrown in, spread into a 9 by 13 and sprinkled with paprika for eye-appeal, and green bean casserole with the mushrooms strained out! I love that casserole, but I hate mushrooms, so I did my best to pluck them out of the soup I put in with the roast. Did a decent job, but then I got smart and diluted the soup with the milk and strained it for the green bean casserole. Voila! Yummy taste, no fungus! We also had rolls and salad and Beth and Rico brought two delish pies for dessert. It was relatively easy, especially the potatoes from the box, and compliments abounded.

But the food wasn't all of the fun. We also set up the tables to be one long table in our living room, so everyone could sit together. When we all get together there are 8 adults and 3 kids-- who has a table big enough? So we all end up eating all over-- at the kitchen table, on the lanai, on the couch on tv trays, etc. Totally well and good, but for a special occasion, I really wanted us all to be at the table. So Brad scoured the big table and got the layers of dirt and dust off of it, brought it in, and then also brought over the kitchen table. We got out linen table cloths and napkins, two forks even, stemmed glasses, etc., and it was just a ball. I wanted Chris to feel honored and I think she did. It was a blast. And when everyone left Brad and I crashed for a long winter's nap.

On Saturday night we ran a marathon of errands-- to Joann to get the interfacing, also to Ada's, a natural grocery like Whole Foods that has a waterfall inside and coi pond, and on Saturdays has lots of things set out to try-- samples, I guess you'd call them. And a big ROOM of bulk foods- 25 kinds of granola, lots of rices, flours, nuts, sugars, coffees, you name it. And you can sample stuff in there, too! We'll be back. We also went to Bed Bath and Beyond and got some fun brown velvet pillows to go on the church pew we have in the living room. The pew is from my early days-- Mom and Dad got that when I was a wee one and it has been in their house ever since. Dad gave it to us when we moved down here and we love it. But it doesn't love our be-hinds. It's not so comfy, so we were thrilled to find perfectly sized cushions on sale for $10 apiece.

So that was our weekend, pretty much. Went to early church in order to get ready for lunch, and then napped for the afternoon. We ended the evening with some meaninful reflective time where we mulled over the problems of the world and solved most of them. Er, actually we watched the E! True Hollywood Story of Simon Cowell's life (judge from American Idol).

And one last thing- happy news from Jamie of Room In Roppongi- Jamie delivered a baby girl early Saturday morning! See a picture of squeezable Izumi on her blog!