Plotbunnies' Paradise

So I didn't hit the store last night. I was tired after work (final huge report was VAULTED!!) and I sat and spun for a bit while meat for dinner was defrosting. I made dinner (my panko encrusted chicken dish) and once we were done with dinner i trudged outside into the grey not raining evening for a walk. About 5 mins in it had started to drizzle but I trudged with a podcast in my ears just a bit over a mile. I was wet and bedraggled when I got in so I changed clothes and put my hair up before sitting down to spin some more. I finished up the 3rd bump of fiber out of the 5 and got the 4th started before it was bed time. I had a nice shower and then set down to finish my book. I was writing up my good reads commentary when mel came to bed and then I pulled up my next book #16 Bitter Waters by Vivian Shaw which is a novella in the Dr Greta Helsing Series. I then crashed.

Today is a flurry of performance reviews and a data dive into an issue and then I'm off work for 10 days. Tomorrow will be a crazy train of banks, county offices. Tonight will be knitting. I hope to get going a bit earlier this week so I can eat dinner before going. The shop doesn't have a central table to sit at...just a circle of chairs and a coffee table so I don't want to be awkward. Heck, I may just grab a sandwich at home to eat on the drive. I also need to hit the grocer for milk products but will do the main shopping this weekend with Mel. I'm excited to see the family who will arrive some time on Sunday.

Well the drama of the dishwasher meant we headed up to Sioux Falls after work to check out what was available and what we like. I will admit I'm annoyed at prices and the dearth of selection of things I like like no buttons on the front and not shitty design button on the top and no handle that sticks out into the galley kitchen. I like the 3rd rack but Mel hates it, i also like adjustable second rack but Mel doesn't care. Also, their delivery radius is 20 miles, not the 50 miles we are used to. Sighs. we are 47 miles from the store. But we hit 2 stores, and then trundled to the local shire Archery practice.

The practice was small and we chit chatted. A doe was hanging out here and there around the field which was nice and the field is covered so the misting of rain didn't hamper us either. We stayed for quite a while before I made sure we could get dinner (Midwest downs, even when they are the largest in the state close things weirdly) at a nice upper scale place called Roma kitchen. It had bourbon and BBQ on the menu and Mel approved. I was happy to walk into a BBQ place that didn't have mesquite. I had a spiced pear mule and he had a beer followed by a top shelf old fashioned. For food he had the brisket mac/cheese and I had the panko encrusted walleye with wild rice and veggies. The food was tasty, the drinks were nice and we had a nice evening. Then it was a drive home and to bed by 11pm. I was tired.

Its raining again today a nice steady dripping with some more strong soakers. We are expecting almost 2" by Thursday night. I'm looking forward to the weekend cause starting Thursday at 5pm I don't work until July 7th and the family is coming in on Sunday. Depending on the weather will depend on if we do a tourist excursion to Desmet, Prairie Village, or Okoboji Lakes, IA. Or we could stay home and work on projects and clean house. We shall see.

We should have stopped by the grocery store last night on the way home but I can run into town for milk tonight. I will do a quick run and then back home to work on pulling out china to count for storage buys, pick out the ceiling fixture I want for the dinning room and get the pride shawl figured out from where I left off. we shall see.

I did get back into reading my book last night and that is good and am still reading #15 for the year Taming Demons for Beginners.

Thursday I trundled up to town to head to Prairie Road Yarns kniting night. I was a bit worried about how the circle of people would be but I wore my Tee Turtle "I like Dark Arts and Crafts" Tshirt and I walked in and immediately someone stated they loved my shirt...so yes, inclusive and nice yarn shop and I was one of the older people there. But I managed to cast on a sock. The Pride shawl requires my attention to figure out where I effed it up but I did get an idea to just make a simple shawl from some sock yarn I have with me and add some beads to it as well. The gal on my right was knitting her first big shawl and it inspired me. Lol. The colors will be highlighters. But I had a nice time. I will try to get there a bit earlier and have a plan for my dinner on the drive up. Afterwards I hit Lewis drug (local drugstore/everything store chain) and got some of the things we've been missing.

Friday I managed to get the 56 page report out for peer review. It was tough at the end and sharepoint kept messing with things. But it was done. Benton and I headed to Canton to the meat locker for steaks (I had just enough cash to cover since they only take cash or check), and then to the grocer for some essentials like cheesecake for mel's bday and the like. We got flowers for mom's grave and stopped off at the cemetery on the way home. It was feckin' wimby...like blowing the car around bad. We left flowers with mom and then a single flower for my Aunt Helen. Everything was very lush and green. We took the back way home and then pulled in to unload things for birthday dinner. But the wind was even worse. I would not be grilling on the exposed deck. So we pivoted and while I didn't want mel to have to cook on his birthday he made a very nummy stir fry and I did the dishes. We hadn't planned on it but we matched theme for his birthday. We knew it was the 50th anniversary of Jaws but we didn't know his bday coincided with the day it came out. His presents were a Jaws shirt from box lunch and a Jaws button down from RSVLTS. Plus a few small botanical legos I found at Lewis the night before after my knitting adventure to town. I had also picked up a Whirlypop for $24 but that wasn't a bday gift.

He loved the shirts and then we wanted to watch Jaws but didn't have it so I got it on prime but only the downstairs TV would run it. So we encamped to there and watched it in 4k. While some of the upgrade was good...other parts of it were jarring but overall it was good. We thoroughly enjoyed it and it was nice to sit and watch a movie as a family. Even one we've seen dozens of times.

Mel and I planned an antiquing expedition for Saturday and when we'd had a coffee and some breakfast we drove south to Elk Point to a shop there and found some neat finds. Then we headed into Beresford to the shop there where we found a few treasures including a drop leaf table with two leaves and table covers for $100. Its mahogany veneer but over 7 feet long when extended. So mel is going to do some work on it for restoration and it will go down as a table for the family room for games etc. But we took the Rav and not the van so would have to pick up on Sunday. Then we grabbed lunch and Benton at home before driving to Tea for 3 antique shops and a makers space/cafe. We did some good bargain hunting there and got more uranium glass and the boys got some tools. We did not find a love seat or couch we liked for a price we wanted. We ended up heading to Granite city Brewing which had expanded since i was last there. The food was good. The beer was interesting. Their East Coast IPA was weird on the back end and called Wicked which fine. The good ipa was The Duke...cause of course it was. :P

Sunday I didn't sleep great so I was up a bit early and sat and spun for a bit. We had an idea from Friday night to rearrange the dining room and set to work on doing that. First we had to remove everything from the hutch and then move the grill to the patio (still too damn windy to grill gusts to 40+mph) and moved it to the northwall from the west wall. This opened up the space to allow the table to rotate out for ease around the room. There are parts of this house that I can't fathom how a family of 6 fit anywhere. The dining room is tiny and the kitchen eating side is as well. We struggle with 4 people and when we have the full 7 complement its kids in one room adults in the other. But we maximized the space and went through the crazy amounts of glass and crystal there. We put a bunch in the goodwill boxes. Sets of things I just didn't like or were from the 1980s or just not functional for us. We then swapped out to use things like the depression glass bread platter for the bread on the counter and a pretty small tray to put the sugar, frother and stir spoon on. And Mel got out one of the fancy butter dishes cause why not?

I also want to smack my aunt, my grandmother and my mom for using pledge on the 60 year old Ethan Allen hutch. There is so much wax build up that gave up a bit on the cleaning. I will get some of the orange furniture restorer stuff to strip off the buildup cause ugh.

I then realized that with the extra space from stuff we removed we could set the table top portion up as a bar and did so. It looks great. Then we headed to pick up the table and mel got a $35 dresser from teh 30s to tinker with in the garage. (eye roll), we then hit the local furniture outlet and found two sealy brand "gamer chairs" which are perfect for the kids in the family room. But with the table/dresser and the paneling we picked up at the hardware store I had to come back for the pick up. NBD. Benton came with on that trip and we also grabbed a few groceries from the tiny grocer in Beresford. Then it was home to unload things and have dinner.

Mel wanted to do hand pies but my flaky pie dough doesn't really handle that well so we made a modified shepards pie with refried beans, mashed taters, pulled pork, spices, leftover veggies from tacos. Topped that with my crust and it was super tasty when it came out of the oven. After dinner and dishes we headed down to the family room to rearrange and purge the dry sink and the other buffet (it had been upstairs when I took the house over). Got rid of the kitschy xmas plates but I know there are more lurking in the old kitchen. So that is tonight's job. After I take a good walk and do some spinning.

So yeah we are getting small things done and its supposed to rain a bit this week (had overnight thunderstorms) and much cooler and normal temps too. hoepfully I can grill on Friday.