No point in making you wait, let’s jump in to the most popular feature of the week, after which everything will be a big letdown, but that’s the risk I run on Mondays. If I run this part late, you might skip everything else in disgust, or just go elsewhere. If I do it early, everything else has to be compared against this cuteness.
I mean, really.
I’d like to know what it is about the landing Phoebe likes so much. Good vantage points to both parts of the house? The ability to stop foot traffic? Because that stops traffic every time.
I understand, at least, the naps and stretches in the sunlight.
Most of our windows face either east or west, so they get good daylight. Not quite as good as being outside, though, right Poseidon?
He got outside once this weekend, and in the garage several times. He’s pretty good at timing his sprints. He has no idea what to do when he gets outside, but he makes a big effort. And he’s judgmental when he fails in the effort.
But he’s also trying a new tactic. If he can hide in the grocery bags, maybe no one will see him, and when we move them back to the car, that’s when he’ll make his break.
He’s hidden so well, no one can possibly know.
How can anything else compare to all that cuteness?
Saturday we played in the water. Scrubbed and treated and vacuumed, anything to stay out of the sun and heat. Also, some of it was easier to do in and under the water than above it. And, when all of that was done, I spontaneously decided to go for a swim.
And so it was that I slowly accumulated enough laps in the pool to be able to tell you that I swam 1,650 yards. This was my fifth swim in the last two weeks. It was also my first mile since the 17th. Of November. November 2015. Somehow, I was still able to move my arms afterward.
That evening we got dinner at Barnsboro Inn:
On March 19, 1776, John Barnes petitioned the judges of the Gloucester County Court to license his house, at the intersection of five main roads in Mantua Township, as a tavern. “An Inn at this said house is much wanting,” he stated in his petition, “as there is not one on said road nearer than eight miles on one side and five on the other.”
[…]
In Barnes’ honor, the community, originally called Lodgetown after an early settler, Benjamin Lodge, was renamed Barnesborough, later shortened to Barnesboro. For reasons not wholly clear, the settlement at one time was known as Lousetown.
The Tavern itself has undergone name changes during its nearly 300-year history. It was known as the Spread Eagle, the Crooked Billet Inn, and the Barnsboro Hotel before its present designation as the Barnsboro Inn.
Lousetown: one of those names you’re glad you learn about after your visit.
We had ice cream at a local overpriced ice cream place, and then caught dusk in the car.
We lounged about the rest of the weekend, visited a farm market and got some produce. I walked through the pretty things in our yard. I pulled weeds and started studying up on peaches because …
Later, I’ll learn all about grapes.
Also, the hibiscus just exploded seemingly overnight.
And I killed three lantern flies. You’re welcome, America.
Last night we dined on the sidewalk in front of place called The Red Hen. We were sat by perhaps the most aggressively no eye contact person I’ve ever met — and we just moved here from the midwest. To make up for it, the waiter was full of eye contact. I had the chicken sandwich … it was right there in the name … and it was good. Everyone enjoyed their meal and the pleasant evening temperatures and it was, all around, just a lovely little weekend.
Before I share a few more clips from the concert we attended last weekend, let’s look at the sign on the side of the venue. A classic.
I bet that came with the 2018 renovation. The Metropolitan Opera House was built in 1908. At the time, it was the largest theater of the sort in the world. A big handful of opera companies used it into the Great Depression. At times it was a movie theater, a ballroom, a sports venue and, from the 1950s to the 1988, a church. Now it’s a concert venue. This sign is definitely original.
And since the name is right there on the sign, let’s hear some music. Here’s the classic, “If I Had a 1,000,000.” Sing along.
And there was also a Harry Styles, a-ha, Rodgers and Hammerstein medley. There’s always a medley, I just want to know how they get from A-B. Soundcheck must be amusing.
I’ll put the last couple of videos from the show up tomorrow. For now, I should find something to be productive about.
