I learned three very important things this weekend.

First I learned that if I refrain from eating some of the cookie dough while I mix it up,

I can actually get 30 cookies out of the batch, rather than 25.

 

Second, I learned that I don't have to pop out of bed right away when I wake up on Sunday morning and walk the dogs,

and that it's okay to stay in bed and read for awhile.

Third, I learned that you should never put me in charge of the flowers.

These are my daylillies, which bloomed for a whole week this summer before packing it in. 

Here are the flowers on the deck.  I watered them diligently but by the end of July they were pretty much fried.



Not all is lost though.  Look at what I found growing in the rocks under the deck.

This weekend we made what has become our annual family trip up to Pelican Rapids, MN for the Wallwork Regatta.  Despite a lack of wind in the early mornings they managed to get in all five races as planned.  Hans and Jason won four of the races which made them the overall winners of the C-Fleet.  It turns out I took 250 photos(!) so I will summarize the weekend.

Here are the C Scows on the starting line for the 5th race.

Jason and Hans cruising through the race course. 

   
  

Jason saying a few words after winning the regatta.

After the regatta was done we picked up pizza for everyone and then it was the kids turn to get out on the water. 

Brianna was enjoying herself so much she started singing.

Colin got bounced around a lot but loved every minute of it.

Both of the kids held on and were only tripped up when the boat made a sharp turn and caused the tubes to bonk together, usually making one or both of the kids fall off the tubes.

  

Awww, we're done already??! 

Lately it seems as though when I sleep at night either I have no dreams, or I have really active dreams.  You know what I mean, those kind of dreams where lots of things happen and when you wake up you feel more tired than when you went to bed.  The most frustrating part is that most often I don’t get to finish the dreams because I am rudely awakened by my alarm clock, so I can’t psycho-analyze myself and try to figure out what the dreams mean.  I also forget my dreams within minutes of waking up, which leaves me doubly frustrated because then all I know is that I forgot something.

The other morning I woke up peacefully.  Don’t get me wrong, I was still awakened by my alarm clock, and I still forgot the dream, but most importantly I got to finish the dream and I know it had a happy ending.  How do I know?  The big musical number was just fading out as my alarm clock started beeping, and as everyone knows, happy endings are always accompanied with musical finales.

Either that or I have been watching too many musicals lately.

Hans had a big plan for the weekend.  Nevermind that none of us (including Hans) knew exactly when it was going to start, but once it did, there was no turning back.  For the past few years, Hans has been wanting to get the garage cleaned up and epoxy the floor.  On Thursday he and the kids cleaned all of our crap, er, stuff out of the garage and Hans cleaned the floor and filled in the cracks.  That evening we made one (only one, that's a record!) trip to Menards to get the epoxy kits, a second broom, new shelves for the garage and other various items.  On Friday (the 4th of July) we got up early and I applied the acid wash while Hans scrubbed the floor.  After spending the morning at the Yacht Club helping with the picnic setup we cut out early so we could get home and apply the epoxy.

It was then that I found my calling in life.  I'm a really good Sprinkler.

Perhaps I should explain.  Hans applied the epoxy with a paint roller and worked in 4'x4' segments.  Then it was my job to apply the decorative sprinkles. 

Here is Hans working is way through the garage, careful to not paint himself into a corner. 

Here is what my hands looked like when I was done.  I shouldn't have had the grey epoxy on my hands but I helped pour the epoxy from the can into the pain pan and I've never been known to be neat and tidy when working with paint.  After working with the paint I went back to my sprinkling, hence the very messy hands.

And ta-da!  Here is what the epoxy looks like when the sprinkles are applied.

It takes true talent to apply those sprinkles.  Heaven forbid you just throw them on and end up with clumps in one spot and no coverage in another.  And there was no clumping going on here.  If it weren't for the fact that garages are usually hot, the job requires you to be on your feet for long periods of time (the epoxy must be applied within 1-1 1/2 hours of mixing, depending on the temperature and humidity outside), and the pay for professional Sprinklers is probably not a livable one, I might have found my new career.

(Staycation = A vacation that is spent at one's home )

I know I complain about our dogs a little (okay a lot) and tell people they are not so bright.  But I got to thinking the other day, wondering what they do while we are not at home.  I joke about their morning, late morning, early afternoon and late afternoon nap schedules, but really, is that all they do?  So I setup a few cameras around the house and found out they don't just nap all day long.

First they did a little gaming on the XBox 360. 

In the early afternoon Senshi worked out on the weight machine...

while Max used the free weights.

Then in the late afternoon Senshi read a little Steinbeck...



and Max got caught up on his fitness magazine.

I didn't even know the dogs wore glasses!

** Updated to add:

Before anyone gets too impressed with Senshi reading Steinbeck, I'd like you to see what I found tucked under her bed last night.

I guess like most girls, she likes to delve into a good old romance novel once in a while.