Happy Sunday!

Good morning. Is the sun shining in your part of the world? I woke to thunder. And pouring rain. Now the sun is shining. Hello world. Thank you for this day.

My Saturday was typical. Work. Good work. Then Borders. Good drink. I read Us and People instead of PC World. Ask me anything about Jon and Kate. Or not. My friend Kit called asking what I was doing. I didn't have any plans, and we talked about the possibility of going to Annapolis. It was a gorgeous day and one to spend outside. Then she called to see if I wanted to go to the restaurant OYA in DC with her family and I said YES! I love DC, but don't know my way around, and Kit's worked there for most of her career. There were 10 of us for dinner. It was perfect! I had a cold pea soup to start, scallops, pad thai noodles and hen-of-woods mushrooms with truffle jus for my entree and banana bread pudding topped with rum raisin ice cream, caramel sauce and coconut with a slice of caramelized banana on the side to top out the meal. Delish. Kit, her neice Kelly and I spent the next few hours walking the Penn Quarter part of DC. It was lively and exciting and I'm ready to go back. I'm not saying I don't enjoy my nights at Starbucks, but...




I surprised my neighbor last night. I'm sure he doesn't read my blog so I'll write about it. I live on a nice cul de sac. Everyone keeps up with their yards and homes. Except for one of my next-door-neighbors. He's an engineer. No offense to engineers, but anyone I know who knows one says they have certain known traits. My neighbor starts a million new projects and never finishes one of them. He'll start mowing his lawn, then spend the rest of the day digging rocks out of his yard. When he moved in about 5 years ago, he was required to change the color of his deck to match his fence. He was given money by the sellers to take care of this. It's still not done. For years he had plastic sheeting over his deck rails to cover the ongoing project with water-filled gallon jugs to anchor the plastic. That's gone, but the fence and deck are still two different colors. His house needs power-washing bad. He has a rotting bay window. Wood from his fence in his back yard that has to go. Two garage doors that need painting. How do I know all this? The covenants committee sent me the letter with all of his violations by mistake. As soon as the weather started getting nice, he started working on the garage doors. I should say that every owner on my cul de sac has replaced the original cheap wood/particle board garage doors with really nice vinyl ones. Except him. The single engineer with no wife or kids and a really good job. He used a power washer to start, and it peeled away all the paint from around the square panes of the doors, and the wood above and below the top and bottom of the doors. He's placed cardboard on the driveway just below the doors. And it's stayed that way for almost 4 weeks. From talking to the neighbors, I learned he's gotten an extension till September or October to remedy his violations. Boy is this getting long. Anyway...we were talking yesterday after he showed me the duck egg he found in his yard (MY duck egg!). I asked, nicely, when he was going to start working on his garage doors again. He asked, "Why? Is it bothering you?" I'm sure he didn't expect my reply. I said, yes, it is. He thought I was kidding. I said, "Look around. Eveyone keeps up with their homes and yards. We have a nice cul de sac. Look at your garage doors. They're an eyesore that all of your neighbors have to look at every day." He didn't seem offended, but like I said, surprised. I don't think there were any hard feelings. Like I said, I spoke nicely. Will he work on this project or start another that he won't finish? I'm betting on the latter. PS. I got an extension on my violation too. I have exposed dirt under my deck that faces out to woods. Go figure.

OK. It looks beautiful outside. I've got to get out there. Even if it's just to lay on the hammock.

Happy Sunday.