Weekend

Seriously, I woke up in another state. This weekend has been absolutely glorious. Sunny skies, light breezes and warm temperatures. I normally wouldn't be so excited about this weather except that 1) it is November in Michigan and 2) we still had a ton of leaves that needed to be hauled to the curb. There is nothing worse than hauling leaves in the rain and snow. Trust me on that.

So with the weather on our side, we got an early start on leaves and were done long before lunch. We had lots of help from the Handsome One (supervisory of course) and enjoyed some wonderful sunshine in between rakes and tarp pulls.

The whole "tarp pull" thing was new to me upon arriving in Grand Rapids. People with large yards (such as ours) load up tarps with piles of leaves and haul them to the curb. Fortunately where we live, our leaves are collected at the street (when they actually show up) and we don't have to bag them. Given that we have six oak trees, it's a lot of blowing with the nuclear-powered leaf blower, raking and hauling. And it wouldn't be fall if Samson didn't charge through the large piles of leaves, scattering our work. Crazy dog.

Last night, Deb joined us for dinner. Paul made a magnificent beef tenderloin in a mustard-shallot sauce and Amy recommended a wonderful Spanish wine, Vina Alberdi. We spent the night around the table with good food and drink, watching the Red Wings smash the Anaheim Ducks and in between periods, sitting in front of a lovely outdoor fire.

Today is all the things I didn't do while enjoying the weather - laundry, general clean up, football and some ironing. I am trying a new meatloaf recipe today, with the help of Ann Marie and need to get our entropy reduced! Happy Sunday!