Sunday, October 13 2019

Dear Journal,

Good morning everyone! Hope you're having a good Sunday so far. I just finished a wave of dishes, and the house is slowing waking up. We're all eating breakfast at the table now. You got to love later church. The extra time to get ready almost feels unbelievable. As I was laying in bed browsing reddit, I kept thinking "OK NOW I bet I'm running late," but not even close.

Yesterday had a lot of action. We had a big early breakfast, then headed outside as a family to clean the shed. It had been about a year or so since we gutted it, and it actually wasn't as bad as we thought it would be. We took everything out, sorted it on the driveway, threw the garbage in the car, then swept the shed. The most exotic things we came across were two dead field mice (one of them was reduced to a little clump of hair) and a big rusty axe wedged high up by the ceiling that must have been left there from the previous owner. I was at first pretty excited to retrieve the axe thinking it may have been left over from the twenties back when this was a farmhouse, but flipping it over I found a price tag sticker on the handler. What a letdown.

We also found a few bags of concrete left from when we first built our backyard fence. I remember it was a soft powder when I slid it under the shelf for storage, and now the bags were solid bricks. Disposing of them was a real chore - I had to break up the bags with a shovel and scoop them into buckets.

Marissa drove all the garbage to the dump, and I finished tidying up with Rodney. When she got back, we put everything back in the shed. There's nothing like the satisfaction of a clean shed. I almost wanted to leave the garage door open all day out of pride.

We went inside for some lunch. I heated up leftover hutspot and rigatoni. After lunch I took Rod to the grocery store. Later, Alex and Cassie were coming over for dinner and I wanted to make some deep dish pizzas. Rod and I also swung by the liquor store to pick up a bottle of tequila for Alex.

I put Rodney down for a nap, then started on making the pizza. Being unsatisfied with my deep dish dough last time, I decided to swap out the olive oil in my recipe for melted butter. The dough was much caky-er, like a pie crust. While waiting for the dough, I busied myself with other things around the house, starting a load of wash and tidying up the deck. I was enjoying all the cleaning momentum from doing the shed that morning, and I guess I wanted to keep the cleaning party going. When I got to a good stopping point, I joined Marissa who was napping on the couch and played an hour of video games.

Rod was slowing waking up from his nap, and I went back into the kitchen to make the sauce. Deep dish sauce needs to be chunky, and the best way to get there is by simmering the sauce for a few hours, which also makes the sauce more concentrated and acidic, which can be fixed by adding sugar. Yesterday I made the realization that this is probably why Chicago style red sauce tastes so sweet.

Before Alex and Cassie arrived, Marissa tidied up the house while I made a salad. Rodney and the dogs got really amped up for company, and for about an hour the play corner felt like a dog & toddler circus.

We had a wonderful time catching up with Alex and Cassie. We ate diner, put Rod to bed, shared stories, and drank some tequila.

After they left, Marissa and I finished Minority Report, which really took a turn for the best. "Basically, the movie got good after Colin Farrell died," recounted Marissa.

Today, after church we're going to go grab some tacos for lunch, then we're taking Rodney to a pumpkin patch. I think with fall weather this good, it might actually be a crime to not carve a pumpkin at home with your family.

Have a wonderful Sunday, everyone.