Monday, September 07, 2009

Summer's End

This year was the "longest summer possible" in the USA. Memorial Day was as early as it can be, and Labor Day was the latest it could be. So summer is "over", even though the calendar and the heavens may indicate otherwise.

Y-Chromo went back to college last weekend. X-Chromo goes back to high school tomorrow. TV & I went to the local AAA baseball team's final home game of the season today.

Overall, it was a glorious weekend. The weather was wonderful. TV grilled burgers on Saturday, and I made a new dish that I'd had on my August writing retreat: butternut squash, red pepper, and sweet onion drizzled with olive oil and grilled in foil. I didn't grill it quite long enough on Saturday, so I took the leftovers to my family's picnic on Sunday.

What a feast we had! Everyone brought their own meat and a dish to pass, except most of us brought two dishes to pass (I made a fruit salad in addition to the grilled veggies). I usually hate picnics because everything is loaded up with hard-boiled eggs and slathered in mayo. Sunday was different. My sister made her macaroni salad -- the only eggy, slimy dish on the table. She also made her broccoli salad (pictured above, in the front, next to my grilled veggies). My sister-in-law did something sinful with shrimp and fruit (pears, peaches, pineapple). My mom provided sweet corn-on-the-cob and salt potatoes; Jell-O with raspberries; and two kinds of fruit-based desserts.

We left my folks' house late afternoon and stopped at a local orchard to buy early apples: macintosh and ginger golds (pictured above). Mmmmm.

(Also pictured are the blacked-eyed Zanas that X-Chromo picked for me, and a wilted cucumber salad)


Then TV went to a baseball game with a neighbor and I wrote.

Today, we went to the baseball game, then came home and transferred my exercise machine from the front porch to Y-Chromo's bedroom. What SARK calls a "micromovement".

Tomorrow, life resumes with it's hectic schedule, claims on our time, and obligations.

But there was this glorious weekend.