July 4: Year two, things learned, plan in place.

Friends. In a few short days, we will be embarking on the July 4th that will be perfect. After last year’s lessons learned, we are modifying our plans, and making a lot of lists. Are you ready for this?

To bring:

For entertainment…

paper (for M.A.S.H., keeping rummy scores, etc.)
cards (playing and/or pinochle)
crossword puzzles (both from the paper and in books)
books
ipod
ipod boombox
frisbee
football
camera

For the day…

sun screen
bathing suits
hat
first aid kit
chairs
towel (1 per person)
blanket
toilet paper roll
hand sanitizer
sun umbrella
comb
detangler for hair
goggles for the water
hairs ties (for braiding, etc.)
bobby pins
plastic baggy (for covering valuables/phones)

For the night…

bug spray
lantern
Flash light
head lamps
layers
change of clothes
wood

For cooking…

skewers
cooking utensils for grill
grill
lighter fluid
lighter
charcoal
paper towels
plates
utensils
cups
soap
cooking water
trash bag for garbage
folding table for laying food out
cooler for drinks and food
ice for cooler
thermos (coffee)

For eating…

breakfast
lunch (sandwiches, wraps)
snacks
veggies for kabobs
burgers
condiments
pasta salad
water
beer

Anything I am missing? I am sure I will think of a few things, but let me know what YOU bring the beach to make it an excellent day.

Last year’s event…

That's the sound of sunshine comin' down…

Guys. It’s Friday. Almost the weekend! Summer hours! Things on my plate include:

A fabulous day tomorrow of either sightseeing or getting my house’s act together. An equally fabulous Sunday that involving the beach and a bonfire, complete with a cast of friends that I haven’t seen in too long. A return to a summer-abundant farmer’s market. Returning to my kitchen, and loving it like I haven’t in weeks. Produce in my fridge. Maybe, just maybe, reintroducing coffee into my diet this weekend (slowly, for my stomach does not like volatile things messing with it.) A magazine or two, a crossword or two, some pages of some books, and maybe purchasing a new one (because I owe the library SO BAD and I need to finish this book. Silly library – why aren’t you more like Netflix?)

Summer projects:

Finally staining that table.
Cleaning and reorganizing my closet.
Reorganizing my bookshelves.
Signing away some books to paperback librarian.
Getting rid of old clothes — getting new grown up clothes to prepare for fall.
In the meantime, building a summer wardrobe, both work and life appropriate.
Dusting the corners. Dusting the floor. Dusting everything.
Cleaning out my drawers.
Finish filing. It needs to be done.
Reorganize my kitchen.
Use my flours.

Any summer projects in the works for y’all?

And we disappear…

These past 10 days, in case you didn’t know, I’ve been hopping along the east coast, from Boston to New Hampshire to Boston to Connecticut back to Boston again. It was a lovely, trip, but it is good to be home.

Things I loved: a fantastic wedding, full of lovely family and friends; lots of time in the sun, rejecting tons of sunscreen for a sun kissed look; a trip to the book barn and a discovery that I am flying Southwest in July, which means I could get as many books as I wanted and send them home with my mom, only to retrieve them in Chicago in a few weeks; sitting by the pool, playing pinochle, with my favorite babies, who continued to say, “I’m ready to play, I’m ready;” quote of the weekend: “Is the water going to turn black? Into soda?”; pizza nearly every day (Pepe’s, Zuppardi’s, etc.); friends on roof decks with beers and snacks; walks around Boston just like old times; drinks by Fenway; seeing my fave pen pal, and chatting about school, baseball, and guitar; snuggles on the couch; best friends together again; new friends to the old; Palluzzi Pizza in Boston; Jeff’s meatballs with Kate and Tom; walks to the beach; new flip flops; iced coffee for old time’s sake; crepes; crosswords; iced coffee for old time’s sake number 2; figuring out family secrets (with Uncle Tony spilling only a minute after arriving, and when asked about it, claimed, “Well, I’m a Palluzzi…”); Jeffrey finally understanding where I get my ugly trait of continually interrupting other people to tell my own stories; Seeing my baby cousins all grown up; Megan’s graduation song; seeing my baby cousins growing up; Jeff exclaiming, “It’s not fair, your family is huge, like four times the size of mine,”; “Who is that? How are they related to you?”; Lenny and Joe’s; home.

Pictures to come. 🙂

Sunday is…

Sunday is…sleeping in past the time you think you’re going to sleep to. Up to rain, knowing that North = sunshine (maybe.) Picked up by a best friend. Wandering around Target for 30 minutes looking for a non-highfructosecornsyrupy snack. Peanut butter and bread. New stickers. Little Miss Sunshine. The best Yoda shirt in existence. A knife somewhere in the car. Driving, Third Eye Blind, DMB, The Script….driving. Arriving to a less cloudy sky. No draws in the car — meeting up with a friend, borrowing hers. Two climbs, in two hours or less. Getting to the top. Twice. Even when I wasn’t expected to. Scrapes, scratches, success. “Why can’t we have a boom-box in the woods??” Driving. Driving driving, Third Eye Blind, Tonic. A gallon of water shared between the two. Picking up my fave Hayford boy. Driving. Massachusetts. Salem. Engine House and Drew. Watching the Celtics game, enjoying company, and Sam Summer. Eggplant parm, and salads made especially for the veggie-hungry girls covered in dirt in the booth. Learning how to drive stick shift. Driving all the way home. Pissing boys off at a stop sign because I was too nervous to shift into first. Getting yelled at by Jeff and Lauren, encouraging me that I can do it, and then I did. Scrabble. Muddier. 50 point bonus. Coming in second anyways, because checking in at home = more important that winning Scrabble. Shower, cleaning the dirt and the reminder of the success of the climbs. Sleep at midnight. Another LAP-JLP perfect day.