It is a hot, windy Labor Day on the plains, and the humidity is covering everything in a bright white haze. Today has been the laziest day I can remember in a long time. I did accomplish two goals that I have been procrastinating for quite a while. The first was fixing our front sidewalk. A few months back, we received a certified letter from our city with several photos of "deficiencies" in our sidewalk, and a deadline to fix them. This was surprising, since our sidewalk looked fine to me. It turns out that almost everyone got these letters, and our problems were relatively minor. the expansion joints between sections had eroded out a bit. To fix this, I had to buy a couple large tubes of "professional self-leveling vinyl sealant", dig out the dirt and bits of debris from the gaps with a screwdriver and a Shopvac, then shoot the goop into each gap with an industrial-size caulk gun until it was full. It was an easy fix, and it should keep the soon-to-arrive ice and salt from breaking up the sidewalk. I think I will get some more of the stuff and do the driveway next.
My other accomplishment today was going to war against a nest of yellowjackets that took up residence in our patio umbrella and stung Sarah when she tried to open it last week. I hate yellowjackets. So, other than those two minor accomplishments, I have done nothing today. I fell asleep on Asher's floor, watched hours of Hurricane Gustav, and I am now semi-watching the Chicago Cubs try to score some runs to come back in the ninth agains the Astros.
Our weekend has been great! On Saturday afternoon, Sarah's parents arrived for a short visit. With them, we went and saw a huge grill that was cooking brats outside the supermarket. No, you don''t understand...this was a HUGE grill! It is made out of an entire semi tanker trailer, cut in half so it opens like a grill.
After a couple of brats, we headed to the zoo. Asher had fun showing the Des Moines zoo to his grandparents, and we got to see the baby giraffe for the first time. We bought some sweet corn from the back of a truck on the way home, and had a dinner of sweet corn and a BBQ pork shoulder that I had been cooking all day. After dinner, Asher had a great time playing bubbles with grandparents out on the deck.
Yesterday morning, we said goodbye after brunch at the Iowa Machine Shed:
After saying goodbye to his grandparents, Asher was very sad. We cheered him up with the news that we were heading to an Iowa Cubs game! Driving down the freeway, I said "Asher, are we going to the doll museum?" Asher very calmly said "No, Daddy. That's not a good choice right now."
The baseball game was sunny, and a lot of fun. I caught a T-shirt (size medium) that was shot out of a T-shirt cannon. We had to put on our rally caps (see below) to get the I-cubs to tie it up in the 9th, but they unfortunately lost the game in the 10th.
Today was the last home game of the regular season for the I-cubs. They do start the playoffs next week, though. Asher is a huge Cubs fan. When he hits the ball off his tee in the backyard, he yells "Go Go Cubbies!"
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