Super Duper Weekend

Dave had a late meeting on Thursday night so I suggested that he spend the night in Gualala and just drive home the next day.  Sometimes he likes to just power through and drive late, late at night, but it makes me nervous.  So I called his mom early Thursday afternoon and asked her if she could "encourage" Dave to just spend the night.  It worked!

He was planning on getting home around 10am on Friday, perfect timing for me to get to lab by 10:30 to start the second run on my instrument (my intern starts one at 8am everyday so it isn't ready for the next sample until 10-10:30am).  But I got a text from him at about 10 saying he'd just left!  Ack.  I had a LOT of time sensitive work to do that day, so I just took Eddie to school with me.  He was a pretty good boy--eating snacks and watching some Netflix shows on my laptop while I got my compost jars sealed and incubating for two hours.  When we were done with the sample prep, we walked back down the hallway to my office.  He knows that Lucas (ex-roommate) works here, too, so he kept yelling, "Where Wucas??"  It was super cute.

Finally, at about noon, Dave showed up at my building to collect Eddie.  They scooted off to Home Depot to buy a replacement dishwasher and get a few things at Costco.

Initially, we'd scheduled Saturday for playing in the snow (the dogs and Eddie have never been to the snow).  We want to take Eddie to one of those snow parks with a magic carpet lift up to the top of a sledding hill...but those are all about 2 hours away.  And since Eddie slept in until 9am (!!), we decided not to go.  Instead, we went to the lower site of Cache Creek regional park.  I wanted to go on a hike and then have a picnic, but since the creek was so close to the parking area, the canine and toddler members of our family go distracted playing in the water.  We we found a sandy beach area where we threw things for the dogs and ate our picnic lunch. 

Cute fellas checking out the picnic spots.

I brought the hiking pack for Eddie...but he wasn't interested so I hauled our lunch cooler in it instead.

Doggies are ready for someone to throw a stick into the water!

Eddie found a stick...

...But then realized a rock might be more manageable.

He got so dirty playing in the water and sand that we wouldn't let him touch the food. So we fed him with our clean hands.

Attempt #1 at getting a group shot.

Attempt #93746401202 at getting a group shot. Eventually we gave up.

Once the beach fell into the shade and we got cold, we moved back up the bank to a sunny picnic table to finish eating.

Wadamus was tired from all the playing so he gladly climbed into the pack for the short walk back to the car. He is soooooooo heavy.

On Sunday morning, while I prepped our Super Bowl Sunday snack feast, Dave dug a two foot deep hole under the bathroom window, searching for the sewer line.  We want to install an outdoor clean-out just in case we ever need it.  Eddie inspected the hole for a while and approved Dave's work.

The city records of our house plans don't indicate the location of the sewer line OR the sewer manhole.  Isn't that weird?  I think I found the manhole, though, in the park next to our fence.  He never did find it, so he'll dig a trench along the back of the fence some other time to look for it.  

Later, Dave removed the old dishwasher since I'll have the Home Depot delivery guy take it away when he delivers our new one tomorrow.  First I harvested all the goodies from it that might be useful some day.  We took off: the electrical cord, the springs, the rollers (those might be fun when Eddie starts building things in the garage in a few years), and the racks.  With all the cooking I do, I often end up with an overflowing drying rack (even with a working dishwasher).  So I swapped out the small countertop rack with a dishwasher rack.  I love that we have lots of counter space in this kitchen so it doesn't make much difference to have a giant drying rack.  

Instead of a dish towel underneath, this one requires a (folded up) bath towel.

I'll put the Super Bowl snacks and recipes into another post.  We didn't really watch the game...only the halftime show.  Which, by the way, I thought was pretty awesome.  But I think halftime performers should avoid wearing giant heeled boots next year.  Last year I could hardly watch Fergie dance because it was embarrassingly awkward looking and this year Madonna almost fell (but of course, that could be age, too).