Juddmansee.com

Ok, this isn’t a novel title, but I’m not feeling very witty.

We didn’t make any big plans for the weekend, but we had a string of fun activities that made for a nice end to the summer season. Friday evening we hosted friends from church for our Natural Church Development kickoff. After enjoying Brian’s excellent cooking, we had a great discussion and came up with lots of ideas for new activities and getting more people involved.

Saturday, Brian got to spend time on line with his friends and changed my burnt-out headlight, while I dusted the car interiors, enjoyed catching up with 30-year-old Carolyn (just before she attended her first Michigan football game, and Michigan lost!), and squeezed in a run before heading to Scaz and Kristi’s for their Pirate Party. They have a beautiful mid-1800s farm house, a pool, and plenty of room to host a whole passel of pirates (and their mates, and their kids). It was a bit of a hike to Cheshire, CT, but a good excuse for us to finally go see them, and lots of other friends who make the trek from various points around New England.

Sunday morning was church, a easy-to-apply sermon to Do One Nice Thing (D1NT), meeting some visitors who ended up in town when their boat broke down but are making the best of it, and bringing home a plethora of tasty vegetables from the ever-generous Eatons. The banana-shaped peppers were definitely hot, evidence being Brian’s taste buds and my burning nose (don’t rub your nose after slicing the peppers. Phew! Opens the sinuses!). More evidence was burning contact lenses that held onto some of the pepper oil on my hands, despite a careful cleaning, as well as a red spot on my cheek from a thoughtless brush with the contaminated hand. This is actually good news, despite the mis-marketing, as it provided a new opportunity for pickling. By the start of football next Sunday, we should have sweet/hot pickled peppers to enjoy. On Sunday after church, I spent a little time in our garden, picking another 2 gallons of greens and a few tomatoes and green beans. Then it was off to Dan and Nate’s to watch the Red Sox and have lunch. We had an impromptu feast of grilled tubular meats, garden salad, and beer. Yum.

On Monday, despite how tempting it would be to hike, I opted for dispelling the grey cloud of work hanging over my head instead. I knew I needed to get a couple pages written for a proposal, and I hadn’t checked email since Friday afternoon. I was done with my “must-do” work by 1:30pm so Brian could get his head shorn and we could take a leisurely walk around town. It was still very busy, with plenty of residents and visitors attending the Busker’s Festival. There was a warm breeze but fall is still in the air. It’s always fun to walk our errands, and we decided to swing for a few minutes at the play ground on the way home. We’ll wrap up the evening by cooking hamburgers on the grill and getting a few more tasks off the “to do” list.

We’re excited for our town to return to “normal” and for football to begin. Happy Labor Day, gateway to autumn in New England.