Seating now available on the patio...

What a gorgeous weekend we had (that's two in a row!). The heat on Saturday was almost in the oppressive category (90 degrees +) when you weren't in the shade. Lucky for us, our home is surrounded by giant pine trees, so we were shaded most of the day, and the temp never rose above 74 in the house (even with no A/C - wahoo!) - so that made me happy.

Over Memorial Day weekend, we attempted to buy patio furniture at a local retailer (initials F.M.). In fact we DID purchase patio furniture from F.M., but when we drove around to the loading dock to pick it up, we were told they we out of that particular set, but if we drove to their other store (15 minutes east) we could pick it up there. Lo and behold, we showed up at the 2nd F.M. store and THEY didn't have it either! We were more than a little annoyed, but as I told Steve on the way home, clearly we weren't meant to have that patio furniture...at least last weekend!

Everything happens for a reason...because we found out that a different retailer was putting all their patio furniture on sale Saturday for 50% off - and it was BETTER quality furniture! So we got up bright and early Saturday morning at were at the store at 8 a.m. sharp to pick up our furniture - YAY! We were even able to get it all put together before the heat of the day:

Later in the day, we visited the local fish market so I could buy ingredients for grilled fishkabobs (halibut, jumbo shrimp, sea scallops, onions, peppers and my secret marinade) OMG! they turned out amazing!

The only downside were the mosquitoes, which required "deep woods" skin repellent and a couple of citronella candles to dispel. I guess our incredibly "wet" (a.k.a six feet of snow) winter weather makes for even more mosquitoes than usual this summer. Annoying. Oh well, when you live amongst pine trees, you have the pleasure of feeling like you're camping in your own backyard...and that includes mosquitoes I guess!