We had such a lovely weekend. Friday night I picked The Scientist up at work and he took me out to dinner at a new (to us, and also new-ish in general) seafood restaurant. My food was divine - I had a green salad with a dill and champagne vinegar dressing, lobster-stuffed jumbo shrimp (just four of them, but that was more than enough) with risotto and spinach, a glass of Pinot Grigio, and a decadent key lime tart for dessert. The Scientist had a spicy Thai soup, grouper with mixed vegetables, and a chocolate tart with hot caramel and chocolate sauces. Mmmmm...

After dinner we went to Whole Foods to pick up a few groceries for our trivia party on Saturday night and then went home for a relaxing evening in.

Saturday we got up and interspersed housecleaning (floors, bathroom, kitchen, laundry) with relaxing (me - books and TV; The Scientist, ACC basketball). The weather was so beautiful that we opened most of the windows in the apartment.

My friend and college roommate M. came over in the afternoon. She was in Milwaukee for spring break and drove down for a quick visit. We walked to a nearby coffeehouse and had a strange experience on the way. There was a large group of bikers waiting at a red light and about half of them decided not to wait and drove onto the sidewalk, straight at us. We quickly moved over to the side and got out of the way, but it was bizarre to have large hairy Harley Davidson driving men roaring down the sidewalk as we small pedestrians attempted to, you know, walk on it. Coffee was fun, I was only sorry M. couldn't stay longer.

We had people over on Saturday night for food, drinks, and trivia. We had wine & beer, chips & salsa, a selection of cheeses, apples, cantaloupe, carrots & hummus, and for dessert strawberries and melted chocolate sauce. Everyone loved the food and ate most of it by the end of the night (that's perfect for me - when people eat almost all of the food I put out, signaling that they really liked it, but leaving a few choice leftovers for me to eat the next day). The trivia game was hilarious and tons of fun. We played Trivial Pursuit Millennium Edition and while The Scientist and I did not win, we put on a good showing. Technically no one won because we had to quit the game before we finished (it was getting late), but another couple was clearly in the lead.

Sunday was a perfect spring day. I had a leisurely morning while The Scientist finished packing for his trip. I took him to the airport at 11 and it was so beautiful outside that instead of going home, I started driving around. I filled the car with gas and got it washed and even though I spent 30 minutes at the car wash (there was a long line) I enjoyed my time listening to the 80s radio station and reading the car's owner's manual - I know, it sounds super dorky, but I had never looked at it before so it was kind of interesting. After the car was clean I went to Marshalls for a little discount shopping. I got some shoes, sports bra, a pair of pants ($12!), sunglasses, some mini muffin pans, and a wooden cheese board ($3!). Nothing was over $12 even though most of it was name brand. I love discount shopping.

The one bad thing about discount shopping is that there are no public bathrooms, so after a too-lengthy check-out process (the woman in front of me was trying to write a check with no ID), I dashed over to Borders (I must be out of the loop because I just found out right now that they've joined with Amazon.com) to pee and look at books. I picked up something fluffy and entertaining and a new classic and plowed through both of them in the afternoon.

When I got home I had a snack and realized that I hadn't eaten all day and needed more food so I got my canvas shopping bag, new sunglasses, new book, and some water and headed off to the co-op grocery store down the street. I got some lunch (marinated tofu and roasted red pepper sandwich and a slice of carrot cake) and some groceries (mostly organic veggies) and went to the park. I sat on a bench in the sun, read my book, ate my lunch, and listened to two guys playing really good bluegrass on their front porch (one had an upright bass and the other had a banjo). I stayed there until the sun had moved enough that my bench was in the shade and then walked home to put away groceries, finish my books, and relax. The Scientist called to say that he had arrived at his destination and I stayed up late reading.

Really, it was the most perfect weekend and perhaps the last before war breaks loose in the world. I tried to live for the moment and enjoy my small slice of uncomplicated time.