i am living with an almost thirty birthday boy. thirty is a big year, isn’t it? i thought it should be celebrated in style, so…i planned. and i planned really well. first, i invited a friend to come surprise Andreas. don’t ask me how i kept it a secret for t-h-r-e-e months, but i did. Robi, arrived on wednesday and they have been the dynamic duo living it up midwest style including: jack stacks, baseball, worlds of fun, fork & screen, summer heat and the pool, mexican food, cuban cigars and good wheat beer.

second, another adventure was checked off the list today – skydiving. not my idea, not my idea at all. but i am supportive and we have life insurance, so i said do it once. Robi and Andreas flew up 10,000 feet in a dinky plane, risked their lives, experienced 45 seconds of indescribable free falling to be followed with parachuting to the end. it was hard – i made him say pet gracie before we left, ask where he wanted to be buried and told him he could back out any time. but they loved it, and if asked i’m sure they would do it again.

came to visit this weekend. a surprise visit, of sorts. we talked, ate great food, laughed and shopped. all that a weekend should be.

did I mention that we ate this weekend? not only did we eat, we feast on delicious food. it all started with lunch at this place. lunch was a feta and spinach quiche for me. grilled chicken and red pepper panini for amanda. and tuna salad for mama. we all gobbled down the best homemade tomato-basil soup. i’ve had dreams about it. we finished lunch with a moist red velvet cupcake with yummy butter cream frosting.

dinner was a homemade pizza – half cheese and pepperoni and the other half veggie. i think veggie pizza should be required at least once a week, perhaps twice. amanda, made homemade tomato sauce. we licked the pot clean, it was that good. and to finish just saturday, a blueberry cobbler with vanilla ice cream. i seriously forgot how good cobbler is. yet again, there seemed to be a problem with taking a picture of the cobbler before it was eaten. must work on that.

every sunday should be started with flaky biscuit, homemade honey-butter whipped (yes, butter. yumm. oh so good) and jam strawberry jam. of course, only to be followed by a famous fried chicken at stroud’s. wondering how we ate all this food? well, the better part of sunday we sat and watched mad men. one must recover from such an eventful weekend, agreed?

memorial day.

jack fork river.

hots dogs and s’mores.

warm fires.

summer rain storms.

perfect calmness.

lots of turtle spotting.

There will be more white coming this weekend – heaps of snow is what they are calling for.  Humph… I should not be surprised, this is Kansas after all where we say “if you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes.”  Maybe it’s okay to bundle up one more weekend, it will be my motivation to finish those wool socks since my deadline is quickly approaching.  And it gives me reason to make this and with all this snow talk and my heater going I’ve been craving this with something from here.

Happy Weekend!

The cooking grove that is – this weekend was filled with good recipes and good food.  I was not planning to cook this much, it just kind of happened.  Friday evening we gobbled down deluxe BLT sandwiches and ice tea. I heart BLTs – it reminds me of summer and since we  had great weather it seemed fitting.  No basketball game is complete without pizza, so Saturday afternoon we watched the KU game with the best homemade pizza.  Andreas had been asking for chocolate chip cookies, so Saturday evening I whipped up a batch (I never use to whip up cookies, it feels so domestic).  I am making him take the remaining cookies and three diet cokes to work tomorrow so I am not tempted.  On Sunday, which is soup day at our house, I made a great minestrone and finally tried the no knead bread recipe.  Numerous people had raved about this recipe so I had to tried it.  It’s a keeper – crusty on the outside and soft on the inside.

Oh, there were other important things happening this weekend besides cooking – pantry shelves were built, holes were puttied, shelves painted, some knitting, an ass kicking by KU men’s basketball team, seeds planted and a spring-forward nap.  There were some things that didn’t happen this weekend as well – we still have to pink chair (Andreas promised to have mercy for one more week), one wool sock still in progress, my kitchen…read above and you get the picture, and dirty laundry is still waiting.

The weather man just reported that on Tuesday it is suppose to be 74F and on Wednesday…32F. I have no words.

I think it’s time we had this discussion, actually it’s been a long time coming.  You see, I do not know if I am strong enough to handle your unpredictability anymore – back and forth, warm or cold, snow or heat.  I’m beginning to go batty and I do not want to become one of those that constantly complains about you.  I want to be able to count on you – to trust you.  But when you change your mind so drastically and so quickly, it is hard to trust.  I didn’t want to be the one to have to tell you this, but there are others that feel this way too.  So please would you make up your mind? I would be forever indebted.

Yours Truly,

Lindsay

Yes, the weather here has been crazy, it snowed four inches last weekend and yesterday it was a balmy 74F.  If I have to change out my shoes and jacket one more time (it’s suppose to snow next week)…I might have a fit. But it’s the weekend – well the start of the weekend and I am ready! No major plans to speak of but I am ready for great weather and to have Andreas home for two full days, all to myself.  I do have three lofty projects that are on the to do list: finish one wool sock, re-upholster a chair (purchased at Goodwill for $4.98 – sporting a dusty rose 70’s fabric – imagine it next to my red couch) and plant my seed starter box.  I think it’s doable – the chair is priority because I have seen Andreas starring it down and I know exactly what is going through his head, “I can put it in the dumpster while she is gone, she’ll notice but is too short to retrieve it.” And rightfully so because it is ugly right now, but if the chair turns out how I have it pictured in my head, Andreas I just saved you $95. So for the sake of the chair, a marital spat and good taste, it’s priority.

Bonne weekend!