Weekend Plans Post: Gosh, It’s Hot
It’s hot. Like, “80 degrees inside” hot. Like, remember when we talked about the various kinds of popsicles last year? It’s that kind of hot again.
Like, we’ve found two more kinds of popsicles to help.
First off is the Safeway O Organics Lime Fruit Bars. No, not the costs-twice-as-much Outshine bars displayed just a little more prominently. Get the store brand ones. They’re tart. No, tarter than that. Like, the Outshine bars taste tame. These? You pucker after the first lick. Like, I recommend only eating them after dark so you don’t get phytophotodermatitis. They’re *THAT* good.
“Eh, I don’t have a Safeway in town. We’re a King Sooper’s neighborhood!”, I hear you brag. Okay. King Soopers has an amazing store brand as well: The Kroger Grape Fruit Bars. No, don’t even look at the Outshine ones that are in the spotlight. Get the store brand.
The other store brand pops these two stores have are pretty good, I guess. Nothing to write home about. But those two variants? Out of this world.
And, yes, they help when it’s 80 degrees inside.
(We have AC for the bedroom but, hey, we don’t really need AC otherwise! Except for a couple weeks out of the year. And this is one of those weeks.)
Going to work offers some respite during the worst part of the day, of course. But there are Saturdays and Sundays and, golly, it’s hot. We have entered the part of the summer where it rains every day and that’s nice but then you get the humidity (that, I’m sure, people from Michigan would laugh at) and then it’s just blah. Hot.
So, come the weekend, it’s usually a good idea to figure out whose house to go to.
We’re going to visit my sister. The nephew just finished Boot and this is his first trip home and we are in charge of the ice cream. It’ll be good to see him.
We are continuing to clean the house as well. In the last week, we’ve plowed through about 400ish books that were in boxes and they have now been sorted into either the “we need to read these someday” section or the “we can give these to our friend who is running a handful of Little Free Libraries up in Denver” section. We’ve given about 200 books to these little libraries and that number is going to turn into 300 before the end of the month. 8000ish to go, I guess.
But, mostly, I’m just looking forward to maybe next week will have things calm down. Won’t that be nice?
So… what’s on your docket?
(Featured image is “How many of those are you gonna take?”, photo taken by Maribou.)
It’s the weekend of the annual baseball trip my son and I have been doing since he was about 10. We’re adding a rare major league stop this year, seeing a Brewers game on Sunday. Too much bad food and just enough great company.Report
Nice. Always enjoyed the St. Paul Saints games when we lived up there.Report
Not just hot, but the monsoon is blowing. I’m tired of getting flash flood warnings. None of which apply to me, since I don’t live up by the big burn scars. OTOH, according to this week’s monitor, we’re a local exception to the ongoing western drought. On another hand, this week the Platte River at Columbus, NE dried up — no surface water flow.Report
And… here’s today’s flash flood warning, until 5:00 pm.Report
I’ve got to do some running around this morning so I can get home in time to watch Arsenal at 1300. Right now I’m enjoying a leisurely breakfast while watching Aussie Rules Football and recovering from the surprise going away party oldest boy threw for his friend who is studying abroad beginning this coming semester. The surprise was that he a) didn’t tell us he was throwing a party, b) didn’t tell us that his friend’s parents were coming, and c) didn’t do a gods-damned bit of cleanup before anyone showed up. The guest bathroom and the kitchen were absolute disaster areas.
Luckily we’ve met this particular set of parents before and they’re excellent, easy-going people and the kids did a great job of carrying their own party with little to no support from any parents present, so not so terribly terrible once everyone arrived and things got settled in.
Our altitude and positioning in the trees gives us a massive advantage over you city dwellers. We can typically turn off the AC and open the windows by around 7-8, and the temps drop down into the 50-60 range at night, so that’s nice.Report
excommunicable offenses, IMO.Report
Just got in from coast-to-coast redeye flight, and boy are my arms… what was I talking about?
Middle son, Middle March (if you will) actually completed the 11 week Marine OCS school at Quantico and graduates tomorrow. He gets to finish up is Fourth Year at UVA then graduates with a commission – should he decide to accept it. Since he simply walked in to the Marine office on campus and was selected for OCS based on an application – he is a proper Gentleman Officer who may accept or decline his commission without any sort of college indenture. If nothing else, he’s earned his Eagle, Globe and Anchor…
We aren’t exactly ‘surprised’ he completed the program; mostly relieved he didn’t sustain an injury that would wash him out – which would have devastated him – but ok, maybe little surprised… it’s tough (45% attrition) and the Marchmaines are not exactly front line infantry types… more like aides-de-camp: Note taking, Sparkling Conversation, and Scouting out all the best places to eat.
Some highlights he shared:
Dumpster Juice to Hot Dog Water : Official Candidate Platoon progression scale
Treading water for 4:25 minutes in combat gear (less packs) – he’s a strong swimmer and said he almost fainted.
Sergeants got bottlenecked on some courses… so had to pick-up all the leaves in a wooded clearing for two hours.
Being kept up all night with final 5-hrs lying prone in firing line… the day before O-course test.
Memorizing all the night coordinates for his SULE because he was afraid to get exposed via red-light: which=auto-fail.
SHOUTING KNOWLEDGE
… and much much more.Report
Congrats!
We’re fixing to go over to the sister’s in a few minutes and I am planning on telling the nephew “Get into signals. Figure out how to do joint operations with the Space Force. Space Force bases have golf courses and medians with flowers.”Report
My plan is to eat as many peaches as possible. Last weekend we went out to the pick your own crops farm, as we do spring-fall, and got way too many peaches. We’ve made 3 massive jars of jam and a peach cake. We’ve given a bunch to my parents, my grandmother, and my son’s godmother. We did peach daiquiris. I’ve been trying to eat at least 6 a day and I’m still not sure it’s enough.
Other than that maybe try to get in a bike ride and take in a game involving the surging Baltimore Orioles. As a Marylander I’m immune to humidity and it will not stop me from outdoor activities.Report
To be frank there really is no question where eating many fresh peaches is a bad response. God(ess?) I love peaches. If only they grew in colder climes.Report
My whole week has been like that Presidents of the USA song, and I’m not tired of them yet!Report
I am consumed with envy, damn you!Report
Strawberry “Italian” ice (at least, the version grocery stores sell). That’s my jam
We didn’t really do popsicles when I was a kid; my mom was a bit of a Health Mom (And my brother had some health issues that some doctors of-the-time said could be caused by artificial colors) so we froze grape juice in paper cups instead.
I guess I was shaped by that; I’d rather have something like a “frozen fruit bar” or a paleta if I’m getting something like that. (But really: I prefer ice cream)
This weekend, I dunno. Painter guy right now is doing something – pounding on the siding? – and I can’t see what it is because they’ve taped Visqueen over all the windows to prevent paint getting on them when they finally do paint. I’ve been told they “might” spray the primer this afternoon, but I presume painting won’t happen before Monday or Tuesday at this point, so I’m stuck looking at just hazy nothingness outside my windows for a few days.
I don’t like it. I find it more unsettling than I should. I could open the front door and latch the storm door and see outside, I guess. I may have to figure out somewhere to scram to for part of the day tomorrow so I don’t climb the wallsReport
Yeah, we did the “orange juice popsicles” thing. It was healthier, I was told. We had some cartoon character molds, though. (Holy cow, I’m pretty sure it was these ones!)
Hrm.
Now I’m tempted to make some…Report
we had similar ones but the cutouts in the handles were generic animal shapes. I think there was a lion and an elephant, among othersReport
Was it these?
One of the neighbor kids had those, I’m pretty sure.Report
Yes, that model or one very like it. I remember some of the “handles” as being blue but I could be misremembering.Report
Settle a family argument:
Yay or nay on drinking milk outdoors on a hot day.Report
Yep, but you gotta drink it fast. That stuff warms up in a hurry.Report
William Henry Harrison advises against it.Report
I find chocolate milk to be the absolute best post-workout drink.
But I tend to drink it within a minute of staggering inside.
I imagine that it wouldn’t be that bad if I wandered outside to the deck to finish it off…Report
This morning’s adventures in bicycling… the small flock of wild turkeys on the trail, being arrogant as turkeys will. And the young woman on inline skates who took a spectacular-looking fall. Kind of muggy, for Colorado values of muggy. Needed to get my ride in today, the NWS has already hoisted the flash flood watch flags for the urban corridor for tomorrow.Report