Whew...

Just sat down for the first time today -- pretty much -- and I'm not sure I'll be able to get up again. Have had quite a busy 24 hours or so. But productive, so it's good kind of tired.

Yesterday afternoon I took advantage of our "summer hours" getting home early deal to pull some crap out of the formerly nice landscaping area turned weed festival in front of the house. Put it this way: I want a nicely manicured lawn. I just don't have the time, patience, skill or ambition to maintain it. So I "fix it" on occasion -- and the upcoming grad party demands some sort of fix-it.

I took a break in the evening so we could go to the races at Golden Sands. It was Chicken Night, which means they were having a sale on chicken sandwiches and strips, had an egg toss between fans and drivers, and required drivers in Victory Lane to do the Chicken Dance in order to claim a prize. Yup, it's entertainment on a Friday night in Wisconsin!

When we walked in, the announcer guy asked Carter if he wanted to do the egg toss with his favorite driver. Since his cousin Colin was already spoken for, he chose the next available guy that Dad knew. They started off doing well but Carter let the egg slip between his fingers and that was that. No win. No prize.

Good thing Colin had a better night. He had the fastest qualifying time again, finished OK in the heat race and gave us quite the nail-biting show in the 20-lap feature. He started back in the 10th or 12th position and gradually moved his way up.

There were 4 or 5 laps to go and he was in second but with a few car lengths separating him and leader. We really didn't think he'd be able to catch this guy. And when they started their final lap, he still hadn't. It was evident that they were eventually going to lap two slower cars at some point near the end. Colin took the outside lane -- which proved to be the smart move -- and when they came around Turn 4, he got past them and then, right at the finish line, got past the leader. He won by a foot, I swear. How exciting! (And yes, he did the Chicken Dance!)

Then it started raining and we decided to go home. We'd seen the main event in our minds.

This morning, I dragged Carter with me to town. We stopped at Home Depot to pick up some plants and flowers on sale. Then made a few more stops, including Wal-Mart. Carter just got another belated birthday gift this week in the form of a gift card (yes, he's spoiled by his aunts and uncles) and it was burning a hole in his pocket. So he picked out a stop watch (which has been on his list to buy for awhile now) and a Pink Floyd beach towel. That's our boy!

I spent most of the afternoon planting and piling on black dirt while Carter played at a friend's house and hubby mowed. (I have not had so much dirt under my fingernails since I was a child slave weeding my mother's garden!) I could have done more around the yard but opted for a shower instead.

After we picked Carter up at 5, we grabbed a pizza on the way home and then I did my domestic goddess thing and made banana bread (thankfully I could borrow 2 cups of flour from my neighbor) and the "dough" for my mints I'm making for the party. Then I decided to sit down.

I can tell you right now, I can feel the heat of a major sunburn on my neck and shoulders... and pain in my lower back. I think Jim and I are getting too old for this physical home maintenance crap. It's time we got some slave labor out of that spoiled 11-year-old freeloader -- says the tough mom who just cut him a fresh slice of banana bread while it was still warm from the oven...