leisure

Today is our day off. Thursday, the sixth of May. Mario and I decided last night we would make the most of our day and be blobs.

As I type this now, Mario has just woken up from a nap and is walking around like a five-year-old boy with chinese eyes and a mop of silver hair in a heap. I am happy to say that I had been sitting on the couch prior to blogging. I ate lunch in front of the TV...which was rather a sedentary thing to do. My healthful chicken breast (complete with fresh broccoli and carrots and mushrooms) was accompanied by a diet coke ....and five cookies. Ha!! Only on a leisurely day do I get a chance to do this kind off garbage.

On our day off, we tend to schedule stuff we want to do, rather than stuff we have committed to do.

This morning I had breakfast with Suzanne, my friend (and lead elders' wife). We chatted and chatted and chatted... This was followed by a workout with Natalie, the most incredible trainer. I looked up in the middle of sweating and saw the most amazing hunk on the machines in the cardio area. He was wearing a new beanie that he got at the petrol station the night before for free when he bought a large pump water and two power-ades. Thank God I married this guy!! Cute and practical.

After about two weeks of non-stop begging, Mario agreed to go check out a Jack Russel puppy at the SPCA that I thought would be a suitable companion for our psycho dog, Zuzu. She was already adopted. While we were there, we checked out the thrift shop on site, and bought lots of cool stuff: Trivial Pursuit, Balderdash, a standing mixer, a crystal beer mug...and a cribbage game.

Since we were in separate cars, I asked Mario if I could do a quick grocery shopping, and headed off to buy essentials.

I came home to a clean house because Lorraine was here (the girl who helps with housework) but soon rescued her from the bathroom, where a water pipe erupted and was splashing hot water everywhere. After shutting the main water source off we summoned help, where our resident plumbers (We live on a property with 5 houses and an office for a construction company) told us we needed new parts, since the rusted pipes gave way. I asked if they could wait twenty minutes.

I finished cooking lunch for Mario and I, and also our friends, Terry and Manny who have been in the hospital for three days with their son, Calvin, who has had a variety of health concerns. I had whipped up a curry and rice with a couple of sauces...and gave a box of cookies for dessert. (I actually was surprised when I found them. "Hey!! Where did these come from? We shouldn't have cookies in the house!! I'll eat all of these.") Behind the first box of evil cookies there was another one. Kept those.

I drove Elvis (our plumber...yes, that's his real name. Black. African. Elvis.) to Terry and Manny's house where I dropped off the meal... and woke her from a nap. I apologized and handed off the food. Kiss, kiss, gotta go buy plumbing parts...

Builder's Warehouse is a terrible shop that wants to be Home Depot. Both stores drive me nuts, but Builder's Warehouse drives me insane with schizophrenia. We bought new pipes, new faucet, a new wrench (a dog and a wrench...I guess we're planning on filing for permanent residency here) and checked out as quickly as I could. On the way home I chatted with Elvis about south Africa and traditions and God.

Home. Mario napping, Lorraine cleaning, kitchen spotless... no water. The guys worked furiously and repaired everything in twenty minutes. I sat down with my lunch determined to eat healfully and stay on my diet.... Until I remembered the cookies.
Yummmm....

Zuzu thought the cookies looked like her dog biscuits, and she has mastered the yearning look -- one that can say she would like to be given a dog cookie since her master's wife is enjoying human cookies. I caved in and gave her a beano (the name of the dog bicuits here) and hide one in the room (her favorite game is to sniff it out).

I was watching an old DVD - "Shining Through" - where Melanie Griffith is actually good and still has the body and face God gave her. It's a cool moment...until I remembered that I wanted to blog.

Boom... 6:15 p.m. That is a faithful narrative of our day off so far.

I am going to tell Mario to hide the cookies.

I can't sniff them out like the dog.