It has been a very busy time in Central Omaha this week. Birthdays, babysitting stints, painting, gardening, and general busyness characterized our days. First to the three birthdays celebrated this past week. Our daughter-in-law, Audrey Covert in Pleasant Ridge, Michigan celebrated her 42nd on Saturday. On Monday, March 29, brother John Covert passed his 70th gloating over his new small camper. When asked what kind he received, he stated that he hadn’t checked on the box yet, but he was having a great time playing with it! He was going to put it in the back seat of his car and bring it over for Mark to play with sometime.
Also on Monday the 29th, our friend Zöe Highland celebrated her 38th birthday. We walked around the corner to her house on Monday morning for a quick party, meeting with her friend Char Thiessen and Zöe’s children to celebrate with some cupcakes, and bubbles blowing across the yard. Parties are so much fun with toddlers running around, at least in the morning.
Sunday evening we had our first indoor dinner party in over a year. Our friends Deb and Tim Duggan, both fully vaccinated, joined us for dinner. Deb prepared a Shepherd’s Pie, an amalgam of recipes from various cookbooks and her friend Glenda’s recipe. We sat down to a dinner at the dining room table after spending a cocktail time around the backyard fire pit soaking up the heat and dodging the smoke while munching on Deb Duggan’s hors d’oeuvres of sausages wrapped in pastry. The evening ended with a large helping of Deb’s world famous cherry pie. Deb was so tired from all the baking and mixing that she didn’t make a salad and Mark hadn’t made any bread. The beautifully presented casserole was unceremoniously placed on the white plates, looking as though it may have already been digested, but it sure was tasty! A great evening and a long time coming.
Monday, after the birthday party, we headed to Menard’s for a major shopping expedition. We ordered 2 X 10 treated lumber, thirty bags of topsoil, a dozen 16 x 16 concrete stepping stones and a bundle of 8-foot base molding. As this was too big a load for our Subaru, we rented a truck from Menard’s, had them load our haul, and then headed out to Abigail’s, first stopping at our house to drop of the mouldings and pick up our large wheelbarrow.
Upon arrival at Abigail’s, the three of us unloaded the truck, stacking the lumber and stepping stones by the drive and piling the bags of soil at the top of her inclined front yard. Abigail was in the truck lifting the bags of soil and handing them off to Deb, who spun east, then south and trotted up the incline to hand them to Mark who stacked them in a neat pile, ten bags high and three across, which promptly started slipping down into a large random pile.
Mark then hopped in the truck to return to Menard’s. We had the truck for a total of 2 hours and it cost us under $40.00. A lot less than a delivery would have charged. By the time he returned to Abigail’s the girls, with Darcy’s invaluable help, had moved all of the stepping stones and half of the lumber to the rear yard. While Darcy’s young legs and strong arms wrestled the balance of the soil into the wheelbarrow and around to stack on the patio, the three remaining Covert troupe finished with the lumber. We then sat for a rest, opened a bottle of wine and rested before dinner. Abigail prepared a great Caesar’s Salad and Mark threw hamburgers on the grill for a well earned meal.
Tuesday we arose early and walked over to Zöe and Garth’s house to arrive by 8:00 AM. Our assignment was to babysit for 2 1/2 year old Esmè while Zöe and Garth attended to an OB-Gyn appointment for checkup on Zöe’s pregnancy and an ultrasound and photo of the impending new-born. We were lucky in that older sister, 4-year old Iris, was being dropped off at pre-school so we two septuagenarians were able to gang up on Esmè alone. Mark has dubbed Esmè “Princess Running Mouth” for her constant chatter; not baby talk but adult language and she knows everything!
We set a stellar example by setting her down in front of the television and the three of us watching two hours of educational video. She consumed 6 marshmallows (three over the stated parental limit) and finishing most of her cut up kiwi fruit snack. As our own five grandchildren all grew up at least 1,000 miles away from us and we only saw them annually, and never in an in-charge situation, our parenting skills are some 30 years out of date. However all three of us survived the ordeal, and parents returned home with wonderful photos of the coming being and Esmè was reunited with them without incident or injury.
Tuesday afternoon we continued to paint the lower level room, applying a first primer coat to the ceiling and all the walls. The room is finally taking shape and beginning to look like a real living space.
While Mark painted, Deb worked upstairs in her office handling some client requests. For dinner that evening, Deb prepared some pan roasted Yukon Gold potatoes, some butter roasted green beans, and Mark pan fried some thick cut Duroc pork chops. Delicious and Mark topped his chop with a helping of Glenda’s home made elderberry jelly. Truly a feast with an ending of the final slices of the cherry pie.
Wednesday, Deb was up early and working in her office handling a group of final payments for clients headed out on cruises in the fall. Then it was all hands down to the basement where we began the second coat on the ceiling, and a first coat of “Contemporary Grey” to the walls. This was an all afternoon process but the room is really taking shape. With both of us painting it was a true team effort and both of us gaining ownership of the project. Deb had some Italian sausage left over in the refrigerator and also found some tomato tortellini in the pasta drawer so dinner was a quick water boil and pan fry with the sausage and the last of her homemade tomato sauce from last summer’s crop out of the freezer.
Thursday, we again attacked the basement, putting the final coat on the walls and touching up any missed on the ceiling. Then we headed over to Abigail’s again to help with set up of her new patio table and chairs. These were all delivered the day before on a pallet placed in front of the garage door. We unpacked and carried the table parts and chairs around to the deck and spent an hour or so assembling the lot. then back to the driveway to break down all the cardboard involved in shipping.
Under it all was a plastic pallet which turned out to be the property of the U.S. Postal Service. Mark called the number on the pallet, and after two transfers, was able to convince the USPS to come pick up their pallet as we had no vehicle large enough to return it. We stumbled home in time for Deb to log in only a few minutes late for her “Girls Drinks” Zoom meeting.
We dined on the remains of the Shepherd’s Pie and Sausage Tortellini leftovers, washed down with some red wine. We watched three episodes of a series before Deb realized that she had already watched it. Fortunately she can’t remember how it turns out and Mark is into the story so we can continue to watch in future evenings.
Friday morning was a repair day, The repair being to fix one of Mark’s screw-ups. We have joint banking which makes it easy for Deb who does most of the buying and all of the bill paying but Mark only has one credit card that is in his name only. The down side is that Mark can never buy something without Deb knowing. So, in an effort to surprise her at Christmas, Mark used his one card to buy some presents on Amazon. Due to lateness of date, he opted for Prime delivery. Little did he know that the card was then billed $14 per month for his Prime membership giving us not one but two prime accounts for the past 5 months. It took lots of digging, after locating his account password, to cancel the 2nd membership. If Deb hadn’t noted this when paying the monthly bill for the credit card, he would have been charged until death. Smart sleuthing on her part, but now she will never receive a surprise purchase from Mark!
That wraps up another exciting week in the Midlands. Keep you vaccination appointment, wash your hands, stay away from strangers and wear you masks! We hope to see you again soon, hopefully sometime in 2021.
