Angela Law

animal lover, gardener, knitter, and gourmet cook
 
holidays

memorial day 2005

The day started off crappy enough–cold and rainy. We had some running around to do this morning–Home Depot to get some mulch and other things. Then we had to go buy some “product” for our respective vehicles (Brian’s motorcycle and my car–we’re actually going to try to keep both of these clean) at Advance Auto parts. Finally, we had to stop at Giant Eagle for some cough medicine for Lizzy. She seems to have acquired a mild case of kennel cough during our vacation. After that, we came home and had lunch.

The afternoon was a blur. It mostly involved cleaning various items (such as clothes, kitchen, and grill), napping, and riding motorcycles.

Luckily the weather cooperated this evening and not only were we able to have a cookout, we were also able to eat outside. What a treat! And speaking of treats, I tried a new method of grilling this evening called plank cooking. Basically, you soak a plank of wood (of which we have no shortage of around here) in some water, char it on the grill for a bit, and then cook your food on it over indirect heat. It was so good. We had oak-planked pork tenderloin with potatoes and some grilled corn on the cob. I’ll definitely be trying that method of cooking again.

After supper, we spent the rest of the evening doing yard work (gardening included). We’re hoping to get (mostly) caught up with that by the end of the week. There’s always yard work to do if you’re looking for it, but at least the bulk should get done by the weekend. The weather is supposed to be pretty nice all week and this week is the official kick-off of summer, so what better time to get the yard in shape?

Now, it’s time to relax before returning to the old grind tomorrow.

celebrations

birthday week 2005

We don’t just celebrate birthdays for one day per year around here–usually they’re drawn out for at least a week…

Today we went to my parent’s for the annual “birthday dinner”. The dinner was for both my brother and me. His birthday is on May 18, so we always have the “birthday dinner” at some point between the two birthdays (mine’s on June 5). Usually we end up doing this over Memorial Day weekend.

Today, we pretty much had a Thanksgiving feast–turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, etc. Everything was quite delicious. Oh, and my grandmother made a lemon meringue pie for dessert. Yum!

I got some cool gifts, too. I got a whole bunch of stamping supplies, some clothes, and a book about how dogs think (that should be interesting). All in all a good day. Except the getting older thing.

auto

scion tc

The loan check for my car arrived in the mail yesterday, so we set out to buy a new car. We went to Laurel Scion (which is at Laurel Toyota), grabbed a salesmen and quickly agreed on a price. The price on the Scions are not negotiable, so that part was easy. And, they gave us exactly what we wanted for our trade-in, so that didn’t present a problem either. However, we were at the dealership for 3 1/2 hours! This leads me to believe that car salesmen are sadists–since they were not able to torture us with a price, they tortured us by making us waste our entire afternoon at the dealership.

I don’t know what took so freaking long. I know it was a while until they inspected my RAV4. And then it was another long while until they cleaned the car, and then another 30 minutes were spent gassing up the vehicle. At this point, they realized that the car didn’t have a stereo in it, so there goes another 30 minutes. I guess it all adds up. Brian and Jacob were getting antsy, but I guess that’s because they weren’t getting anything whereas I was getting new wheels.

The salesman must’ve realized that we were getting pissed by this point because he had them put in a 6-cd changer instead of the single cd player that they were supposed to install. Nice. I guess this is why this was my 3rd vehicle purchase in a row from Laurel.

Anyway, the car is great–it’s loaded with every feature you could possibly want except 4 wheel drive and leather seats. Of course, there aren’t any sports coupes with 4 wheel drive, but unfortunately leather seats are not an option for this car, so I guess I’ll be stuck with dog hair all over the seats yet again.

Here is a good picture of the car. And here is a picture of Jacob demonstrating the proper usage of a sunroof.

This car certainly isn’t practical for family use, but at least I got my mid-life crisis over with early.

tv

deadwood

The season finale of Deadwood was last night. It’s a show that takes place during the gold rush in the old west. Not normally my kind of show, but I really like it–it’s probably because of all of the cussing. And sometimes they do it in such a unique manner that you really have to be paying attention. I like that. Unfortunately, I can’t print any of the gems here because this is a family blog, but it’s definitely a show worth checking out. And, Al Swearingen is my favorite character since Tony Soprano.

I did learn one thing last night. In the days before television, apparently people sat in their living rooms–just as we do now–and stared at the drapes instead of the TV. Interesting.

Normally I am sad when the season ends for one of my beloved HBO shows, but another favorite, Six Feet Under, is starting up in a week along with Entourage and a new one called The Comeback (starring Lisa Kudrow). So, it looks like I’ll have something good to watch all summer. Thank you, HBO.