Holiday Weekend with the family or not too much time for reading...

You know, sometimes you just don't have a subtitle for a day's topic and today my problem is I haven't anything really exciting to share.

Memorial Day weekend was spent with the family -- I went to a funeral during the rain on Saturday, very appropriate weather I guess. It wasn't bad because I never met the woman and it seems odd to meet at a funeral, but, it was important to go, so we went. Enough said, although I've never heard so much Willie Nelson before. So my reading for this part of the day consisted of finding the funeral home, reading the mapquest instructions and road signs. We did make it safely and in time for the event and didn't get lost leaving. Two big pluses in my book.

Then we traveled through a heavy North Texas down pour from Arlington to Richardson to meet the kiddos at the VW dealer. G wants a car by the end of summer, so she needed some impetus to save the money. Very interesting shopping for a car in a torrential rainstorm. I did get to read the marketing brochures for Jettas and Passats so didn't totally waste my time. Another plus, the salesman had tootsie rolls, I'm a pushover for a tootsie roll.

Off to get some supplies for Memorial Day celebrations -- we found humongous (not a word I'm sure) hamburger patties at Sam's Club and some vegetarian treats (very large mushrooms which the men called by a not-so-nice name) for our little veggie. Sunday was the big grill day. Since it was still raining and T had to go into the office, we ate out and I read 1)the menu, 2)the signage, and 3)other people's t-shirts. What can I say, I'm compulsive.

Later that night (Saturday) I did get a chance after moaning over the loss of my server and sending frantic email messages to support, a calming book. I chose -- Mennonite Community Cookbook. For some reason, the family insists I make potato salad the old fashion way, with mayonnaise from scratch. So I lost myself in "the book." I have two copies of "the book," one my grandmother gave me in 1970 for my sixteenth birthday -- see you figure out the math -- and one I purchased in the 80s after Gwen was born. I knew I'd have to have one for each child. This is the ONLY cookbook I need to survive. And the recipe for potato salad with dressing is the very very best. Actually, I combine it with the one for macaroni salad since we like it a little sweet but with lots of mustard. The other problem is as with all the recipes in "the book" you can't cut it down and it is for a family of eight, so we'll be eating potato salad all week.

Moving on, so this isn't a terribly long ordeal, we saw Star Wars Episode III on Sunday, watched the final episodes of Deadwood, Desperate Housewives, Lost and the latest Good Eats. What can I say, we're slow and we love our TiVo. The Star Wars wasn't the best in my opinion, I really didn't feel the motivation for Anakin to go bad, or Padma to just give up life. It was really nothing more than flashy special effects. I did like rewatching Episode IV and V, better character and story development. I am glad I didn't see it with the BIG crowds on opening weekend, it was full enough in a smallish theatre on a Sunday afternoon.


I finally had a chance to re-read Goodnight, Sweetheart by Suzanne Simmons on Monday night. I needed something soothing and romantic after watching the remake of Texas Chainsaw massacre complete with commentary from Miss G late Sunday night. I knew there was a reason I really didn't like slasher movies and I don't really care if the original was a ground breaking production, or what props and features were from the original or how the effects were done. It was just over the top and I can understand why it's banned in the UK. On the other hand, Eric and Sydney's story of finding love in a small town in Indiana and uncovering a romantic old secret was a soothing read that settled me into a sound sleep.

So, there you have it, boring but true -- Memorial Weekend 2005.