Visits Galore IV

Saturday
Saturday was pleasantly low-key. Our main objective was to get some furniture for the deck, since all I had out there were some el-cheapo plastic molded chairs that came with the house. There are two problems with these: First, they were obviously used when the house was painted, because they are covered in white paint splotches. Second, they must biodegrade in the sun or something, because they are always covered in a dirty black powder. I basically have to clean them off everytime I use them, which means that I don't use them very much.
At any rate, we started with the local Lowe's, but it would seem that we're at the end of patio furniture season because all they really had was one model. I liked the one that was there, but we wanted options, so we trekked all over, even up to Waldorf, to discover that no one had anything. Long story short, we looked around all day and ended up buying the first one we saw. This is the table and these are the chairs. We are now go for deck parties! I think I do want to get some sort of lounger to go with them at some point to read/play DS in.
So of course we sat out on the deck for a while. I usually say that moving to Maryland has made me a wuss about the cold without gaining any heat tolerance, but I was fine outside while the Michiganders were "sweating like dogs" as Karen put it. Apparently I am comfortable outside in the mid-90s. Who knew? I still hate to run in the heat, though.

Sunday
The only thing on the agenda for Sunday was dinner. Karen masterminded the kitchen while I "helped" and we made chicken with a lemon-parmesan sauce (and other stuff like corn and garlic bread). The amazing thing was that she made it look so easy. It's enough to make me think that maybe I should try this cooking thing on my own some time. I think the most complicated cooking that I regularly take on is either mac n' cheese or those Lean Cuisines where you're supposed to microwave it for like 5 minutes at half power, stir it, then zap it for like 3 more minutes at full power. God forbid it's one of those where you're supposed to remove the film over one portion of the tray but leave it intact elsewhere. I think I do what pretty much everyone actually does and just pick a nice intermediate time and power level and let it go. If it's cold, then nuke it some more!

Back to Sunday, the main event for me was making my Grandma's lemon meringue pie. I was surprised at how easy it went together, so I may attempt it again on my own later. Maybe even bring it to a gathering, but I don't want to go too crazy.

We wrapped up Sunday with a couple of movies. Like I said before, we had been wanting to watch National Treasure ever since we saw the archives- many people will tell you that I am "that guy" that likes to announce "Hey, I've been there!" while watching a movie. Actually, one of the pictures on IMDb says that they rotunda scene was shot at a sound stage in LA, but I watched the "making of" feature on the DVD and they make several references to filming on-location and at the archives in particular. And if that was a set, it was huge and very accurate.
Anyway, I had only seen the movie once previously, but I think it totally held up fo a second viewing. There were several little plotholes, most of which fall under suspension of belief. For instance, yeah, all the 200-year old stuff probably wouldn't work, and yeah, the DoI would probably just crumble if you took it out of the case- those I can get over. It's a movie. But there is one thing that actually bothers me. When the good guys are stealing the declaration their plot hinges on first getting it sent to the preservation room, then getting in sneakily to take it. The bad guys are just busting in to take it, but they're breaking into the preservation room, when they shouldn't have known it was there. Maybe they were on their way somewhere else. I don't know. Flaws and all it's a really fun movie and I definitely recommend it if you haven't seen it.

When that was done we turned off the DVD player and Pirates of the Caribbean was on TV. We watched it up until the first commercial break, then decided we should just watch the DVD. This also is a really fun movie, but something bothered me . If they killed "Bootstrap" Bill Turner by strapping him to a canon and throwing him overboard, only later to find out they were cursed and couldn't die, why do they think he's dead? Hmm.

So that's last weekend, and this coming weekend I'll be heading up to Connecticut to visit Daniel and Carly. I'm sure that will involve lots of hijinks, so look for an update next week.