We will start this week with birthday wishes. Sunday, September 13 was daughter Darcy Alessandra Picken Covert’s 33rd birthday. Our “baby” is now all grown up! Also, Sunday was the 2nd anniversary of Darcy & Maria’s relationship. Today is niece Claire Covert Bybee’s 43rd birthday. Congratulations to all!
The weather this week has been marvellous and almost makes up for the fact that we continue to be in a drought condition here in Omaha. We have been very social, although distanced, this week. We started last Friday with our bi-weekly cocktail Zoom with Tom and Kevin in Tucson. We again solved all the political problems of the day (thoroughly dissecting the most recent failings of the Great Entertainer) and learning of new landscaping plans for their desert home. Saturday, we drove to pick up our Biden/Harris yard signs and spent some quality time in the three lane street crawl cheering as we waited for them to put the signs in our trunk.
We then went to Abigail’s house to move furniture around in the living room in preparation for the next week’s painting project. We capped off the evening by ordering takeout from one of our favorite neighborhood bars - Paddy McGown’s. We picked up a pair of huge club sandwiches and an order of their Ruben Egg Rolls. These are delicious and if you have a chance to order them, we encourage it. If you are not familiar, they are chopped up corned beef, combined with some cheese and coleslaw, filled in a wonton style wrapper and deep fried! We then dip them in some Russian dressing!
Sunday was a lazy day at home reading the papers. Darcy and Maria dropped by Sunday evening to celebrate her birthday with some Prosecco on our back deck. After they left, we finished the evening with the remainder of our club sandwiches and commenced on a binge watch of Doc Marten TV shows, which will probably continue for a few weeks as there are a lot of seasons and binge watching for us is a two hour stretch, with at least one of us dozing off towards the end of the show.
Monday we commenced the painting project at Abigails’s. We are putting a coat on all the living room and hallway walls, then repainting the window trim and baseboards. We will finish it off with the head handyman (Mark) installing quarter round at the baseboards of the hallway and then crown moulding at the ceiling line of all the rooms and hallways.
At 5:00, Deb attended a short cocktail gathering on the patio of Char Thiessen along with the other members of the book club carpool group, Zoe, Beth and Jan. Oddly, they all drove separately! Then we met Deb and Tim Duggan for hamburgers and a drink at our favourite Tracks Bar on its patio. This has become a highlight of our world and we look forward to good food and great conversation.
Tuesday took us back to Abigail’s as the updating project continued and then home for Tuesday Night Drinks group for Deb. They met at our house on our patio, and it stretched from 5:30 until after 8:00 as they again discussed the world but also began digging through the boxes of pictures that Deb is slowly sorting on our dining room table. She has promised to get it cleared off by Thanksgiving, but that could be a monumental task.
Wednesday we were back at Abigail’s, finishing up the painting and acquiring the materials for the carpentry work. Mark brought his chop saw, compressor, nail guns and other assorted tools over and set up shop in the garage. We ran home for a quick shower and clean-up and then back to Abigail’s as the three girls were preparing us a dinner on the patio as a thank you for the work we are putting in. We brought some steaks, which Maria placed in her new sous vide cooker and then finished off with a quick char in the cast iron skillet.
This was accompanied by Deb’s seared baby potatoes, a caprese salad utilizing some of our tomatoes, and pan fried green beans from Abigail’s producing garden. A very enjoyable meal.
Thursday, Mark was in for an early morning annual physical, wherein his physician pronounced him essentially healthy, although the doctor was chuckling as he checked Mark’s feet. The doctor said that even though they have been friends for over 25 years, he still gets a chuckle at what he terms Mark’s “Fred Flintstone feet!” Mark did get a referral to an orthopaedic guy for review of his continuing arthritic hip. Then over to Abigail’s to work on the crown moulding while Deb took the weekly trips to the grocery stores to restock the larder. Thursday evening was our biweekly dinner with the Needelmans, this time on their patio for wine and Asian carry out. The evenings are becoming cool now; with the pandemic continuing to take its toll, we are beginning to wonder what will become of our socializing when it is too cold to be outside. Maybe we will bundle up around the fire pit!
It sure seems as if we were very busy this week and now it is Friday and we will head back to Abigail’s to try and finish the project. Stay safe, keep washing those hands, and, no matter what the wannabe dictator says, wear your masks!
