In an effort to get away from what has turned into an inadvertent habit of only posting twice weekly the past while, I thought I should at least summarise the awesome Canada Day weekend just passed. And totally without the aid of pictures, no less!
One of the best parts, in hindsight, was not having to cook a single dinner all weekend. Saturday, we went to my best man's parents' house for an impromptu barbeque and to get the first glimpse of his new son, not quite four months old. The mosquitoes and a whiny younger son of our own prompted the farewells. Best Man's Mom gave her son the sage advice that early departures from social events at the behest your younglings is something that he'd better get used to as well.
Sunday was Canada Day proper, and we drove to the north side of Edmonton for another barbeque and the early celebration of the second birthday of the son of more friends of ours. (It's actually today, but convenience rules you know.) Spectacular weather, too much food, frisbee with their dog (a Black Lab - Dalmation cross, strange looking fella), capped off with a canoe ride with my older son and a couple other guests' boys. It's been a few years since I had the opportunity to practise my J-stroke, but I still got it baby!
Holiday Monday we were invited to my mom's house for a casual roast on the back patio. The barbeque played a strong theme for us this weekend apparently. Before heading over, Amy and I took turns watching the boys while th'other'n of us got caught up on some long overdue yard work. The grass got mowed for only the third time this year, our patio was swept and de-cluttered, I went all "bonsai" on the encroaching bugle pine in the middle of the back yard and there's now a monster pile of branches that need to be hauled to the compost dump. The eavestroughs were drained of the decomposing fermentatious stew and, while up on the roof, I realised that new shingles will have to be added to the growing list of home improvements to be tackled in the next couple years.
But the barbeque at Granny's was nice and tired the boys out so they were both asleep by the time we got home. Which is what allowed us to get the last of the yard work done while ther was still sun in the sky. Nothing quite like being up on your roof, knuckle-deep in a miasma of fetid flora sitting redolent in your eavestroughs at 10 PM while the sun still shines brightly on the last day of a long weekend.
(Getting the hose up on the roof to spray out the last of the gunk was pretty fun, too.)
Hey...what's the matter with only posting twice a week? ;)
However, I'll admit that in a totally selfish way, I loved last November when you were posting every day. Totaly selfish because I've never mustered better than a three-post week.
Anyway, I'm glad to hear your Canada Day went smashingly well. BBQ overload!! And I enjoyed your story and your multi-contracted use of the language...even if I did have to scratch my head a bit to figure out what an eavestrough was.
Posted by: Moksha Gren | Tuesday, 03 July 2007 at 02:09 PM
Moksha, what do you call them? Rain gutters? I may be spoiled for terminology because my wife used to work in housing construction growing up, so I have been forced to become familiar with words like "soffit" and "facia" and the like. (One of the reasons I think she's so dead sexy is because she used to lug around a hammer and know what to do with it, in addition to driving a 5-speed pickup truck. Construction chicks who drive manual transmission trucks are totally hot!)
Posted by: Simon | Tuesday, 03 July 2007 at 02:24 PM
Now that I finally live in a house without trees to fill my gutters (eavestroughs), I have no gutters. Waaahhh!!
Glad you guys had fun. Grilled meat... yum.
Posted by: Mark | Tuesday, 03 July 2007 at 02:29 PM
Yeah, just gutters. I know terms like facia and soffit, but no one down here calls 'em eavestroughs...although the term make sense.
As for construction chicks...I couldn't agree more. Kari Byron on Mythbusters for instance. And I'm sure Amy would look equally hot swinging a hammer.
Posted by: Moksha Gren | Tuesday, 03 July 2007 at 03:35 PM
BBQ is summer. Plus, it tends to have a good influence on our summer diet, as we'll usually cook nice steaks or brochettes on it with fresh steamed vegetables to accompany it.
It's nice you could enjoy so many friendly celebrations throughout the weekend. I'm not quite jealous - fatigue these days would have drained me out of those parties after the first two hours - but it gives a long holiday weekend its full meaning. Go Canada!
Posted by: Émilie B | Tuesday, 03 July 2007 at 05:48 PM
well it looks like we will be continuing the BBQ theme this weekend with Amy so gratiously inviting us over. Thank you so much. Look forward to seeing you all.
Posted by: TerriTorial | Tuesday, 03 July 2007 at 08:54 PM
Congratulations on retaining your j-stroke from your pioneering Ontario roots; perhaps we'll meet someday in the Quetico....
Posted by: rick | Thursday, 05 July 2007 at 12:16 PM