Back to the Grind

It was back to the grind today for me and many of you as well I would assume. It's always hard to go back to work after a three-day weekend. I really did not want to get up this morning, but I did and made it through the day just fine. We'll have another holiday before you know it as July 4 is just around the corner. The bad thing about that holiday is it is on a Wednesday - so work two days, have a day off and work two more. That's kind of weird. I always say if you can make it to May then you're down the home stretch because beginning in May you have at least one holiday every other month for the rest of the year.

So, the weekend was not very busy for me, which was nice and also strange as it seems most every weekend recently has been too busy. Thanks to my dad doing all the yard work last week, there was nothing to do around the house other than the normal house cleaning chores which didn't take up too much time.
Friday night I went to my parents' house for dinner. My mom got my dad a wok for his birthday and he has been cooking up a storm with that piece of kitchen equipment so he prepared a beef dish for us that was really quite good. I need to get some wok tips from him because I've had a wok for years and have used it maybe one time. After dinner I tried to hook up their wireless printer but sadly it was not a success. Their computer has some issues and after a call to Cannon customer service it was discovered that the computer would have to be repaired before the printer could be hooked up. My dad and I then did some perusing on Ancestry.com and then The Tide and I loaded up and went on home.

Saturday morning brought with it the DirecTV man. As you may recall, when my dad did all the yard work last Thursday night he cut the line to the DirecTV. My time slot was between 8:00 and noon and the guy called about 8:45 and said he was on his way. He arrived around 9:00 and worked for about two hours. Turns out my dad only cut two of four lines and the new DirecTV system only requires one line. So, the guy, who was probably the best DirecTV guy I've ever had come to the house, upgraded my system and hooked up my main receiver to the internet which had never been done before. He really took a lot of time and got everything situated as it should be and I'm about 90% sure I won't be charged for the cal as originally thought. I pay a protection fee each month so that I don't have to pay for service calls but because the line was cut by a third party, I was going to be charged. Then, I think, since the system was upgraded, etc. I ended up without a charge. I'll obviously keep an eye out for the charge, but I'm pretty sure there's not going to be one, which is super nice!

Saturday afternoon I had a facial thanks to a gift certificate I received for Christmas 2010 - nothing like waiting as long as you can to make use of a gift. It was relaxing and lasted about an hour and a half; after which I made my weekly Publix run. Saturday evening I just watched TV and tried to keep cool. It was really warm here this weekend as you probably know. Sunday was a pretty boring day as I only left the house to go to church and didn't do anything else other than nap and watch TV - so exciting!

Monday morning was the Cotton Row Run, or Trot as slow folks like me prefer to call it. I knew I wasn't going to do ay running because of the shin splints I've been experiencing. A friend from work, Ambrey, and her husband Steve picked me up around 8:00. Steve dropped Ambrey and me off at the start and went to park the car. We met up with some of Ambrey's friends and waited for the race to get underway. I ran into my cousins and talked to them for a good 30 minutes or so. The girls had run the 10K and my cousin Benny was going to walk the 5K - a man after my own heart. The girls walked with him as well. Ambrey had plans to walk with me and when the race got started, we both started jogging, but I quickly changed to walking because my shins started hurting. I let Ambrey trot on ahead - I didn't want to cramp her style. A few times when I saw the cop car closing in I picked up the pace so as not to finish dead last. I finished in a terrible 56 minutes walking, which sadly isn't the worst time I've ever had. I think my Liz Hurley time last October was worse. It was hotter than blazes out and I had put sunscreen on my face and arms but forgot about my chest and got a little sun from my V-neck shirt and also on my back where the skin was exposed. Someone said last year's Cotton Row was hotter than this year. I can't imagine. A lot of the houses in the neighborhoods had set out sprinklers for us to run/walk through which was so refreshing! After the race, I met back up with Ambrey and her gang of friends and a little before 11:00 we left downtown and they deposited me back at my house.

When I got home, I made some coleslaw and deviled eggs (I had made a cake first thing that morning) for the cookout my parents' had that afternoon. We had burgers and hot dogs, potato salad, watermelon, etc. There was a lot of food and it was all good. After the cookout I headed home and watched the first part of The Hatfields and McCoys on History. It was really good. If you missed it, see if you can find it in your TV Guide or online because it was quite entertaining and part two is tonight (Tuesday) and part three tomorrow night (Wednesday).

So, that about sums up my weekend. I hope yours was a lot of fun as well!

 Cleaning up after dinner Friday night

 Hoping for a crumb!