Weekend Plans Post: Post Revelry Relaxation

Featured image is ““low battery” by twicepix and is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

The best social events are the ones that are unplanned in advance.

I’m not talking about game nights, of course. Those are awesome. I’m just talking about the last minute “I’m not doing anything, are you doing anything?” and then you go and hang out. Last weekend had *TWO* of those. Friday night we went over to one of my friends’ house and we sat at the dinner table and had some cake. Then we went outside and their daughters served us small rocks on playroom tiles and we were told what flavor the rocks were. The rocks on the green playroom tile were mint, you see. The rocks on the purple playroom tile were grape. We sat and talked with the grownups and, when the girls weren’t looking, tossed the rocks over our shoulders back onto the rocky area where they originally came from. “Mmmm! Good!”

Saturday had an awesome new card game that we played (Core Worlds) and I can’t wait to tell you about it.

Sunday had our friends that, pre-pandemic, had barbeques for all three of the big summer three-day weekends and, last year, we couldn’t go. THIS YEAR WE COULD! So we went and ate smoked meat and pasta salad and then they dragged out a firepit and we toasted marshmallows and made s’mores as their neighbors shot fireworks up into the air.

“The sun isn’t even setting!”, we said to each other. “That one even sounded expensive but the only thing they’re getting is the noise!”

Maybe they were doing it for kids who had an early bedtime.

We tried different toppings for the s’mores. Using Reece’s Cups is a development that has been around for a few years. If you ask me, the peanut butter doesn’t add anything that the graham cracker doesn’t already provide. I’d have been happier eating the Reece’s Cup by itself. We also tried some of those fancy schmancy gourmet chocolates. The Lindt Intense Orange Dark Chocolate was really interesting. I’m not a fan of dark chocolate, really, but I did really enjoy the play between the orange and the marshmallow. If you’re a dark chocolate fan, you ought to pick up one of those for your next s’mores session. I remain a fan of the traditional Hershey’s s’more. At the end of the day, putting stuff on top of that just seems like gilding the lily.

And after a weekend full of playing with little kids, learning new games, and eating smoked meats… I am ready for a weekend where nothing interesting happens. Maybe a trip to Costco to get some more Hecho en Mexico Coca-Cola and bacon bits. Maybe a baked potato on Saturday which, the website says, will be a cool enough day in the morning that we won’t mind the oven having been on. And getting the laundry done so we can put it away on Sunday.

But it was so nice to have our batteries drained quickly by doing things with friends than by the parasitic power loss of the last year. It makes recharging something fun and pleasant again. Hello basement! I’ve missed you!

So… what’s on your docket?