Sunday, August 12, 2007

Working weekend

What a busy (and productive) weekend this has been. Reminds me of last summer when we were finishing and moving into the house and I felt like I had to go back to work to get a rest. We’ve had a break from construction though since last year this time so it really is time to get on with the list.

Friday I arrived home to find that the cleaning lady had visited. I’m guessing she wasn’t much more than through the door when she realized I’d forgotten or she forgot to tell me which day she was coming. As ridiculous as it sounds there is cleaning required before the cleaning lady arrives and no it’s not because I don’t want her to see the dirt but because she has to have surfaces to clean.

Not as nice as the surprise that daughter #1 provided when she arrived with supper almost done, finished it up and she, her Dad and I had a scrumptious meal. We had marinated pork chops, couscous salad, potato salad and frozen yogurt with blueberry sauce for dessert. Yum. At any rate that was a very nice wrap up to an iffy week at work.

Saturday was spent in the gulag (as my summer neighbour calls it) while I stained deck planks for the patio being built beside the side of the house. The foreman didn’t arrive until 7 p.m. due to fish issues so I did get a bit ahead of the construction schedule. Sunday was a repeat except that the foreman was on site cracking the whip. It did help quite a bit with my motivation when he computed the labour as $5000 for a comparable project for his plant secretary, which the contractor who had built our house had done. He is definite that the structure will be done 'by this weekend' but I'll settle for the 26th when we're having a Bon Voyage BBQ for the baby daughter.

I was disappointed to miss attending the writing group meeting but there are just so many hours in the day. I told myself that since the deck is being guaranteed (by the foreman) to last 30 years this won’t be the excuse again. This weekend was one of the warmer ones we’ve had this summer so even with the sunscreen there was some lotion required on pink backs this evening.