Saturday, July 10, 2010

It's Saturday morning and I'm waiting for some books to download so I have some new listening material so I thought I'd say Hi!

Last night the weather was pleasant for a change.  We went to the diner for dinner .  We usually go somewhere for dinner on Fridays and the diner is close and cheap and the food is good.  I wanted a burger and they make wonderful burgers.  They actually taste like meat and don't give me all kinds of intestinal distress like the burger places tend to. (I like McD's for breakfast but the burgers make me ill, literally, so I avoid them). 

I noticed that the humidity wasn't too bad and the temps were more moderate.  It was probably around 90 degrees but after hovering around and over 100 all week, 90 felt absolutley balmy!  Pk went off in search of more wood stash (he and Patrick loaded 300 pounds of wood into my long suffering car and brought it home) and I got a glass of iced tea and some mindless knitting and a great mystery story and sat out front with Hobbes.

He was so happy!  He likes to be outside but he wants company out there.  It's been too hot but last night was a lovely night.  I was afraid of skeeters but I remembered this thing we bought a few weeks ago.  I do not like to spray myself with insect repellant and don't like to spray the outdoors either.  It feels wrong to release great quantities of poison into the air.  We saw this little device at the grocery store and were intrigued.  Pk needs something for the small area of his workshop and this is a fan driven device that releases repellant slowly in  a small area.  I think it covers about 12 sq feet.  I clipped it to my chair and I didn't get one mosquito bite in 3 hours.  That's some kind of record around here where we joke that the mosquito is the state bird. 

So, I sat outside with Hobbes and we enjoyed the soft evening air.  I was listening to The Chopin Manuscript by Jeffrey Deaver.  And oh my, it was a good story.  It's one of those stories where 14 or so different mystery writers all write a different chapter.  Jeffrey Deaver started the story and then it made its way through all these disparate writers and ended back with Mr Deaver to tie up all the loose ends and make a sensible ending.  I love these kind of books.  I'm familiar with some of the authors and so I listened for their "voices" but these writers all blended seamlessly to tell a wonderful story of espionage and murder.  It's ready by Alfred Molina who does a great job with the accents and voices.  What a good read (listen).  I'm now going to try (for the third time) to listen to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (S. Larsen).  I say third time because I've tried twice and can't seem to get into it.  It's this wildly popular book (and soon to be movie) and I don't get it.  I also didn't like The DaVinci Code, so maybe it's just me.  Anyone read TGWTDT?  Did you like it?

This is a no obligations weekend.  I have laundry to do, which I will start soon and then if the humidity isn't too bad, I'd like to spin.  I can smell the rain so it must have started.  I love the smell of summer rain, especially wet asphalt.  It's so evocative.  We are supposed to get rain today and tomorrow.  We need it and it's something of a relief not to have the sun blazing overhead.  The clouds are more restful.

So, anybody doing anything interesting this weekend?  Pk and Kate and El will be watching Holland play Spain tomorrow.  Pk's hoping to catch the 3rd place game today so he's outside right now cutting the 300 pound log down into manageable chunks.  Ah, the sounds of chainsaws in the morning!

Have a good weekend!

14 comments:

amy said...

It's a no-obligation weekend here, too. Husband is cutting the grass and hopefully finishes before the big ol' line of thunderstorms I see on weather.com moves over us. The Tour is on TV, I'm doing laundry, and I vacuumed first thing so I could take a shower when I was done (still humid here). I'm glad I took the kids to the beach yesterday since the weather is going to be iffy with thunderstorms all weekend.

Enjoy your weekend!!

Jeanne said...

No obligation weekend here too - and I'm hoping to get in a nap and some spinning time. Its raining here too and it is so nice to see it after all those weeks of no rain!

Have a great weekend!

Rose Red said...

The smell of summer rain, when it breaks the heat, is one of the best smells ever!

roxie said...

Ladies' Knitting here today. And the beloved husband fixed the A/C, so we can be cool and fresh, rather than steamy and wilted at the end.

Hooray for a good rainstorm. Just drive carefully because the streets get so slick.

DPUTiger said...

I had a fairly busy day today. The usual 10-5 shift at the LYS, then trooped down for a successful outlet mall excursion. 1 pr shorts, 1 raincoat, 1 string backpack to replace a dead one I miss terribly, and almost exactly the tiny little clutch bag I wanted.

For tomorrow, I need to go to the gym and want to watch the World Cup final. That's about it. Oh, and sleep in. That's a very high-priority item. Hope you enjoy your weekend!

Louiz said...

We've got Himself's sister staying this weekend, as well as Kathryn's recorder class concert yesterday. It's not as hot today as it was yesterday, but I still did some knitting in the sweltering heat. I can see big clouds forming overhead now, so I'm hoping for summer rain too.

Bells said...

it's the end of my fairly obligation heavy weekend here - but it was all good stuff so I'm not going to complain.

I'm not keen on all the chemicals in repellant either. It just doesnt seem right to me so alternatives are good to know about.

Bezzie said...

I'm jealous you got rain. It tried SO HARD to rain here but we got nothing. I've got a ton of bird poop on my car and no hose. We need rain! LOL!

Saren Johnson said...

I'm very glad to hear the clip-on works. We've been thinking about getting one, but wasn't sure.

Sheepish Annie said...

A no-obligation weekend is just about the best thing ever! In fact, I am devoting myself to having a no-obligation week for the next five days, too!!!

Experimental Knitter said...

I haven't read the Larsson books yet. Liked The Da Vinci Code, meh about Angels and Demons, hated The Lost Symbol. Don't even bother with it.

As for bugs- I planted lots o' lavender around the yard. The honeybees and butterflies like it but not other bugs. And I spray this stuff aht's a mix of baking soad and plant oils like cinnamon oil around - good to kill aphids, repel Japanese beetles, and keeps fungal stuff at bay, yet safe enough to use around food crops.

Anonymous said...

well i hated the davinci code but have read all three of the larsson books and seen the movie (totally fantastic), and loved them. the first one takes a while to get going, he handed them over as manuscripts and then died so theyve been published mostly unedited, but stick with it, once he gets past all the description it really picks up. i am also reading the Wallander series at the moment by henning mankell, a little more accessible. hope the heat eases up a bit, we have been hearing about it on the news here, which makes us laugh a bit cos its like that all summer here, but we do know no horrid it is!

Amy Lane said...

Wow-- sounds like a LOVELY evening (and I'm glad you got some break in the heat!) Our weekend was... well, overplanned.... but you probably saw that:-)

Dianne said...

I was just looking at that clip-on thing in the store the other day, but I put it back on the shelf. Now I am kicking myself. I've got to get one on my next shopping trip!

Happy Sunday!  I am sitting here working on my sweater made with the cashmere yarn my husband gave me for my birthday last year. I’m further...