TUESDAY

I drove Wanda to her morning doc appointment, and afterward we shopped at 35th Ave.  I used Teri's GC to buy some lighter blues for my current jellyroll sizzle.  

Then it was off to lunch at Scrambles, a new restaurant for me.  My spinach salad was delicious. and exactly 'what the doctor ordered' on a hot day.  (I did have them leave off the blue cheese.)

While I was gone Tim had done the pool pump replacement, but when I got home I was surprised it wasn't running, to start the much needed cleaning.  When I couldn't get it to turn on I called Tim, who said I needed to prime the basket - but I didn't have enough hand strength to open the lid.  He added that he likes to let glue set for 24 hours, and offered to come by on Wednesday to get it running.  I accepted his offer. 

Alex arrived home early evening while it was still light, and gave his approval of the house painting.  It was nice to have him help with irrigation, especially when it's "late" in the evening.

WEDNESDAY

My bladder let me 'sleep in' until 5:30, even though it was one of those rare nights when I'd slept through the night (!)  Spent a few hours on post-irrigation weeding until it was time to shower and head to Busy Bees.  The caricature self-portraits were due, though I never made one - because I'd wanted a CLASS, not a challenge.

I was able to identify the three faces in the top row, 

but think Betsy's was the closest representation:

I handed over Mia's baby quilt to Monica, along with the bright yellow Minky for the back, and look forward to seeing it once she works her magic.  

Pennie presented June's tip-of-the-day, and had three, all of which I found quite helpful.

Around the time I got home from quilting Alex came over to 'keep me company' while he worked on his expenses. I invited  him to go out to dinner that evening, he accepted, and chose a 5:30 rendezvous time.  

Tim got the pool primed and running (and showed me how to start it, a good thing because it's an entirely different set up than before!)  However right away I noticed another leak (at the filter) so he was going to need to come back on Thursday to do that repair.  

At least I could run Creepy!  It was surprising how quickly it got the dirt vacuumed up, especially with me in the water to keep him on track to catch spots he missed.  That was my first time in pool this season, and sadly the water temp is already approaching bathwater.

As for dinner, when Alex didn't show up at 5:30 I simply figured he got busy with something at work.  Turns out he'd gone to the gym and then was helping Will move some furniture; he called me around 6:00 when he realized that he'd spaced out our dinner plans.  

Happily we were still on for Carrabba's, just closer to 7:00.

I enjoyed my yummy Salmon Vezzano dinner, and for dessert Alex and I shared their decadent chocolate cake.  

This week Alex has received a wedding invite and a baby shower invite.  Forget how he phrased it, but at dinner he asked if I was looking forward to being a grandma.  

"Being a mom is the most important job, but being a grandmother is the most fun."

Though in no way am I pressuring him to get married, or start a family!

Saw this grandma's license plate at the gym the today.

After dinner we shopped at Home Depot, for front porch light fixtures and a sawblade for his fancy drill so he can lop off a dead limb out back for me.

THURSDAY

Today was a successful session at the gym, though I was still happy when my time was up.

I told Antoine I'd thought of him when this funny came across FB.  

After sucking up all the dirt from the bottom of the pool yesterday it was no surprise that the system would really need to be backwashed this morning when Paula serviced the pool.  Talk about muddy, muddy water! 

Tim returned to fix the other leak, and then I wrote him his hefty check.  

This afternoon Alex installed the LED porch lights.  

The first install went fine, but with the second fixture there was an issue with the grounding screw.  Despite his valiant attempts eventually I ended up taking it back to Home Depot for an exchange (no point in going into another long story) and his the second attempt was successful.

I'm looking forward to seeing how bright they are when it's dark.  They are a major improvement over the old (ugly!) ones - and there are no light bulbs to change!

Late afternoon Alex called to see if I wanted to accompany him to Savers.  He needed to pick up a dress for Corwin, who lost the Fantasy Football pool and so tomorrow night will be performing karaoke in Scottsdale (in full drag) and then have to post it to his Instagram.  Alex tried on a lot of dresses (Corwin is about the same size) though most were too tight.  We settled on this one, which actually zipped all the way up.

But it was "too long" (the guys wanted something mid-thigh) so I removed the two lowest tiers.

He'll take pix of Corwin tomorrow night, and I of course I will share the laugh.