Weekending

Better late than never on the weekending post, right? And it was a whirlwind, chaotic and fun weekend so it’s worth giving you the update.

Friday was a Jackie day. Usually I have him for a few hours in the afternoon but this week his dad had a dentist appointment so I got him first thing in the morning and we had fun! We had breakfast with a friend and then we headed home because the rain and the wind from the storm was crazy. We spent the day napping (Jack), reading (me), trying to roll over (Jack), and keeping a 4 month old entertained (me).

Jack hadn’t been gone long when our power went out. And it didn’t go out in a series of flickers, as it generally does, it went out in an instant! I’ll admit I hadn’t really expected this to happen but I quickly located our big flashlight and then I turned on all of the battery operated twinkle lights and lit some candles. Dale was delayed getting home by about 90 minutes but once he arrived we had our (sort of) usual Friday night. I say sort of because we had snacks and cocktails but we didn’t have music (which I missed a lot) or TV (and I had planned on watching The Florida Project that night.) First world problems, right?

The power was out all day Saturday and, while that’s inconvenient, we are better equipped to be without electricity than a lot of people since we have a wood stove for warmth, a gas cook top for food, a gas hot water heater, and a dirt cellar which doesn’t come with the worries of flooding that so many of our neighbors had. Jessica lives on the other side of town and she had power so I headed over to her place after my shower to do my hair and snuggle with Jack. In the afternoon Dale and I took a ride around to assess the damage and boy did our area get nailed! So many trees were down, some pulled right up from the roots and some snapped off higher up. We had burgers and beer at our local 99 and then headed back home, hoping the lights would be on.

They weren’t.

But still, we had a fundraiser to go to the night with friends and it was a great opportunity to not only support a great cause (raising money for canine bullet proof vests) but also to enjoy electricity and music! Dale even won a big ticket raffle prize, a new circular saw. At about 9pm I got a text update from the electrical company telling me that power would be restored by 11:45pm on Tuesday. Yikes! But within 30 minutes of that update I started seeing Facebook posts from friends and neighbors saying that power had been restored. I texted a friend who lives up the street from us and he confirmed that power was back. When we got home that night the whole house was lit up and it was a beautiful and welcome thing to see.

On Sunday we puttered around, I went to the grocery store and then prepped some Oscar show snacks.

A special cheeseboard, complete with different cheeses (3, to be exact, for 3 Billboards), and other yummy goodies.

And deviled eggs (Shape of Water) and crostini with tomato jam (Dunkirk). Hannah and Mikey were supposed to make stuffed mushrooms (Phantom Thread) but the power outage got their schedule mixed up so we didn’t have mushrooms but we did have peach cobbler (Call Me By Your Name).

The show was great, I thought. The stage was beautiful and Jimmy Kimmel did a terrific job being funny but also being serious and talking about the issues when it was appropriate. There weren’t any surprise winners and Dale and I were both thrilled when Shape of Water won Best Picture.

So. How was your weekend?