You git out mah hous!

Since I wrangled AJS into barbecuing for a large picnic this Wednesday (170 people), he insisted that cooking would commence on Friday and continue through Sunday. I stayed out of his way. The kitchen and backyard were HIS DOMAIN. He smoked 8 pork shoulders, 4 briskets, 6 racks of ribs, and 25 lbs of chicken wings (that's hella lot o'food). So, the winkies and I took off at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday and didn't come home until bedtime!

Saturday morning, we were well met by the Os at a park in Greenbelt, had much fun throwing rocks into a streamlet (Yay! More ROCKS!) and stayed over for lunch. Thanx for cooking, Kelly! Mwah! The kids entertained themselves surprisingly well until we were leaving, on our way to the car and Dash somehow managed to turn a garden hose full blast while it was aimed at Thea's face. Yikes! He gave her a hug, but it looked like it would be a while before she was getting over that one. From there, the kids crashed out on the drive from College Park to Mount Vernon where I dropped them with my parents and Auntie M. I left and flew solo to the house to whirlwind-clean for a Sunday visitor (the boss). Three hours later, I buzzed back at my parents' with Indian carryout in tow! We had a fabulous meal and whiled away the time until 7:30 or so and then went home to bed.

Sunday, we rose early and left for a walk around Roosevelt Island with a mom's group I joined recently. I tried to enlist Auntie M. into the walk, but she bowed out about an hour before we were to meet. With 40 lbs of Rosie in the stroller and 29 lbs of Dash in our Maya Wrap on my back, the three of the Strings traversed the 1.6 miles of trail. Without a jogging stroller, we fought our way over errant tree roots, large rocks and erosion barriers. Rosie was riding in a standard stroller because I quickly discovered that this was an Exercise Walk, not a stroll, with other moms decked out in running shoes and workout clothes (I was wearing jeans and rubber-soled mary-janes); Rosie would have quickly been left behind. On our way home, anticipating my need to collapse, we stopped by the video store, picked up 4 movies (Mulan 2, some Thomas movie, a Barbie-Mattel placement feature, and Clifford) the Barbie one stank, but anyone could have told me that it would. We were all exhausted (read: me) and just skulked around the basement until our visitor arrived.

My boss, who was arranging the picnic (with 170 people) wanted to get a tasting of the food that AJS was cooking, so popped over (1 hour drive) to hang out for a bit and got to try some brisket. I brought Weegee out for entertainment value and he did a few bird tricks. He's gotta get out more often, poor little guy. He really enjoyed getting some one-on-one time with me. The boss-guy seemed more than satisfied with the tasting and after a while caught on to how tired we all were and was on his way.

Another highlight: I am getting much closer to finishing that monkey shirt for AJS! I hope to have it done by Wednesday so he can wear it to the picnic. If he wants to, of course.