Sounds like a great weekend David! I hope you find some great cukes and that the weather cools enough for you to want to can. It is bloody hot here too and even though I had all these ideas of getting stuff put up and entering it in the fair in a couple of weeks, it is again over 100 and canning is the last thing I want to do. Have fun with the friends and relatives and staying in to play a foodie game sounds perfect.

The boys had practice this morning, and we are now home doing a little picking up. Tonight we are going to a local place to hear a reggae band. Tomorrow is a few home projects (moving out of the BR again to put the oriental rug back) and just relaxing in the 98 degree heat. Pool is a definite.

Sunday is the car show in my little town, I am working at the registration desk, DH and the boys are helping to direct traffic and park the show cars. We will be done by 2 and off to one of the patio bars in town to listen to a Jimmy Buffett cover band and have cocktails (and "mocktails") on the patio.

Have a happy and safe weekend everyone!

Alexa

Sounds like a perfect weekend, David--- and your's sounds like fun, Alexa.

We have 2 weddings tomorrow-- one at 10 am then one at 4 pm.
Sunday's helping to get things ready for Fire Dept Field Days next Thu-Fri & Sat and another couple of pecks of cukes to pick up for dills.

I can't imagine going to two weddings in one day! But it sounds nice.

We got our hot tub installed in the patio on Tuesday, and tomorrow we are going to stain the concrete. We probably should have done that before we got the hot tub, but it took that to get us motivated, I guess. It's been in the mid to upper 80s, which is very hot for our neighborhood, and so we have the tub set at 99°. We discovered that we seriously need to build a pergola over the tub, due to the intense sun we get in that area, especially in the afternoon. I think we will appreciate it more in the winter, when the days are shorter.

If the stain job works out well, I'll post pictures of the patio and yard. We've made a lot of changes in the back, including removing the firepit (which had been installed with liquid nails and therefore easy to take up), putting up a gazebo, installing a teak bar, and removing some unwanted plants. We've landscaped the front with succulents, and several of them are blooming now.

We're going to have to make time for a barbeque on Sunday as well, and I think we'll have Algerian chicken.

Lars

Hello all~

My boy had his swim meet yesterday; he placed in all but one race. Yay! 2nd and 3rd place.

Tonight hubs and I will go out for dinner; not sure where yet.

Tomorrow night we are meeting friends for dinner.

Sunday we are meeting up with our daughter and her friends for some wave runner play in the lake and a bbq. It's our daughter's 26th birthday.

Lars, you will love that hot tub in the winter! Oh yes you will.

David, those frozen drinks sound nice.

Alexa, enjoy the reggae band.

craftyrn, wow 2 weddings in one day! Nice that they are spaced enough that you can attend both of them.

OK folks, have a pleasant weekend~

Not much going on for me this weekend it is HOT HOT HOT. The high today is supposed to be upper 90s with heat indexes in the 110 range. David your pool must be inground I have an above ground and our water temp has been like 90 degrees, seriously hot enough to take a bath in. Saturday is girls day out with my sister to do some shopping and movies out. Sunday is church and relaxing and hopefully some pool time if the fountain cools it off. Maybe some BBQ ribs too.

I agree Alexa it is too hot for canning, I have probably 20 gallons of wild blackberries ready to be jelly but it will be waiting for a cool off maybe even into October.

Everyone have a great and safe weekend.
Melissa

It's hot here too. I will be grilling outside as well.

Lars, I'm also in the middle of outdoor renovations. Tomorrow will be trips to the stoneyard and plant nursery before the usual ping pong lessons.

Clink to everyone later with something refreshing on ice!

David, Okie and Gina.... I'm with you on the pool and the heat... hot here too and I've been using our pool as a giant bathtub all week to clean off at the end of a day outside!!
Crafty.... Two weddings!! Hopefully they'll have champagne to go with the cake!! mmmmm!
Have fun with that Hottub Lars.... here in Louisiana we only use ours in the fall, winter and spring... too darn hot to think about getting in hot water during the summer!
Shaun, I had a son who did swim team too... such fun. I was always envious of watching them glide through the water since I sort of thrash around!

As for me we'll be sorting through a closet and also loading more things into our 3 horse trailer/RV for a trip at the end of the month to Virginia. We're bringing a load of things up and renting a storage place to start getting a headstart on the move. This trip will be odds and ends from the garden, garden shed and workshop.

I'll clink later with a little homemade blueberry liqueur!

Grace

Alexa, I have a second range in my gargage that I do my canning and baking in during the summer. Love it! Still hot though....I wait until later in the evening when it's cooled down into the mid 80's to can. LOL. I've been know to stick window unit ac and turn it on too. Love live music so both the reggae and the JM bands sound good to me. Have fun at the car show too!

Diane, two weddings in one day...wow. Hey, at least you will not have to worry about cooking and there is nothing wrong with two servings of wedding cake in my books.

Shaun, congrats to your DS! That is too cool! Have fun on those wave runners. I was a more than sore a couple of weeks ago after riding them up at the lake.

Melissa, inground pool here but I have the same challenge with warm water. We had heavy storms a lots of rain up here last night and that knocked it down to about 85. Just checked and it's back up to 88 tonight. I have a fountain too but it doesn't do much good when it's still in the eithties at midnight. LOL

Lars, love to see some pics of your staining when your done. I'd love to get a hottub one of these days. I/we really enjoy them in the winter months not so much during the summer here in OK.

Gina, keep us posted on your backyard renovations too. I'd love to see some pics when you have time. Ping pong lessons??? I'm thinking you should be a pro by now my friend.

Grace, sounds like a lot of work in this heat. Don't work to hard and keep us updated on your move. I just read about it on conversations.

A little pop up thunderstorm just moved through and the temp drop from the ninety something to eighty. Lovin' it!

David

It's hot here too, my inground pool has water that's hovering in the high 80s to around 90, not very refreshing but better than nothing.

Lars, Elery had a hot tub which was nice in the winter but we never used it any other time, so he sold it to his son. It felt really good to run outside in the snow and then jump into that hot tub though. I'll be watching for pictures of your yard work!

David, I hope you get your pickles canned. I ought to be canning here already, but it's just too darned hot.

Alexa, enjoy the cars and the music.

Diane, TWO weddings in one day? Wow. I agree, though, double cake!

Wow, Melissa, what a great haul of blackberries. Put them in the freezer and make jam later, though. Even as far north as here in Michigan the temps are in the 90s in the day, 70s at night. It's just weird.

shaun, congratulations to your son!

Gina, I'd also like to see how your renovations are going, I'll bet they're beautiful.

Grace, good luck with that move. And homemade blueberry liquor? How do you make THAT and what do you do with it?

Here I watched my niece and namesake, Angel, win a blue ribbon at the county fair for Western Pleasure, another blue for English something-or-another, a blue in barrel racing and a second place in flags. It was fun, she's 12.

We made a side trip to the local farm market and bought red potatoes, corn on the cob, parsnips, beets, some SunGold tomatoes and a pint of fresh raspberries that we ate on the way home to save ourselves from having to make dessert, LOL.

Elery is here, tomorrow he's going to finish painting the house while I go to the farm to run the rototiller and pick beans. I think Amanda and Dave are going to bring the kids for a cookout and a swim in the pool later in the day, we'll start working early in the morning to miss the heat, it's supposed to be hot again tomorrow.

Sunday Mother is coming over and we'll probably put some salmon on the grill, we'll see.

Clink, and TGIF.

Annie

Sounds like lots of summer fun going on and home work going on!

It's hot here too but the lake really modifies the temp and there is no humidity so I'm loving it! Not much going on here. Haven't heard of any dock side get togethers but it's only 8:30 AM!!! I have a pork loin and a pastrami ready to go in the smoker. The pork loin is for what you folks call Canadian bacon....I call it smoked pork loin! LOL . I'm also going to make up some sui mai and spanikopita for the freezer.

Clive bought a new Wave Runner so I suspect this afternoon will involve some show and tell with his new big boy toy!

Happy weekend all!

All quiet here. HOT! Working both days this weekend. Ordered a PBR on the bar at 11:15 Sunday night.... new bartender gotta train her.

It is coming back already and has happened before but the very upper portion of our planets atmosphere collapsed. One of my co-workers noticed the sky was a funny color.... pastel pink in the evening.

: )
lyra

Hey David, thanks for starting the thread! California can join the rest of the nation with obscenely high temperatures. We had a dose of humidity for a few days too and boy can I feel for those suffering from both!

As some of you already know, I'm on major Grandma duty these past two weeks. I had scheduled time off work to attend to remodeling plans and catch up on bookeeping etc. UNFORTUNATELY DD's ovary had another plan and after a few days of extreme pain, she had surgery 9 days ago. As usual her DH was scheduled to travel to PA for 10 days so I moved in. The DGS are 3&5 and I've been the 24 hr nurse, chauffeur and Nini!
I'm back home at night now, DD is feeling strong enough to manage after dinner on her own. Hopefully she can drive the short distance to the little one's camp this next week.

I've left our weekend plans open but you can bet it will include swimming here and some kind of family bbq!

Have a great weekend everyone and STAY COOL!

Annie, I made the bb liqueur 2 years ago.... not sure if I'd do the same recipe again. Basically it's either gin or vodka (I can't remember!) and the blueberries steep for a few months, then you strain and add sugar. It's not bad, but nothing to get excited about and I'm not sure it was worth the 2 quarts of blueberries that I sacrificed to make it!
Now my peach brandy on the other hand is divine!

Grace

thanks, Grace, I guess I'll save my blueberries for Grandma's blueberry crisp!

Now, spill about the peach brandy.

Annie

David (and anyone else interested), I posted a picture in the gallery section of the stain job we did in the patio last week-end. I took the picture this morning, and so the light made a bit of a glare, but I think it's okay. The patio came out better than we expected, but it was a lot of work. Like Ellen said, it's been getting hotter here, and last week-end it was near 80°, but then I'm in one of the cooler areas and it will only be 72° today. Last week it got into the upper 80s, however. We're really glad that we don't have to look at the glarin white concrete any more, as it was blinding.

Lars