at least there weren't zombies

so, the weather this weekend was CRAZY. tornadoes friday and saturday, and serious storms most of the rest of the time. saturday afternoon, oliver and i went to mom and dad's house for lunch. we were planning on having some smoked pork butt for dinner, so i set up the electric smoker while he was down for his nap. after his nap, he, shannon, and i headed to the mall. we were in boston store for about 30 minutes when someone came on over the loudspeaker and alerted everyone of the tornado warning, and directed everyone to gather at the bottom of the escalator in the center of the builing. so, we were locked in the mall! unfortunately, not quite as fun as it sounds, especially since oliver's dinner time came while we were locked in. luckily, shannon and i were able to distract him with toys, a snack (dehydrated apples - which i think led to some tummy trouble... too much fiber), and a mirror. after they let us go, we got out pretty quickly. we never did make it to ann taylor so... i'll have to go back!

of course, the rains shorted out the electric smoker (or something - it turned off), and our pork butt was no where near done. soooooo, mom was quick to think on her feet and made some sausages to go with shannon's cornbread and corn on the cob. we took our rhubarb pie (with rhubarb from our garden!) and baked apple slices to go. i was very glad we were driving the suv, since there were flash floods everywhere. some areas were too deep even for the jeep, and after a few detours and wading through some deep water, we eventually made it home. luckily, though our street flooded a bit, our basement did not.

that night around 12am, our sleep was disturbed by drunk people "swimming" in the flooded back yard. they were shouting and shrieking and diving into the flood water. which, i'm not sure they knew, occurs because a) the grounds are saturated, and b) the sewers overflow. i contemplated calling the police because of their noise level, but didn't. i consoled myself by thinking they'll probably get worms from playing in dirty sewer water.

oliver fought his naps most of the weekend, the only time taking a good long nap at mom's while we were waiting to go to the mall, of course. he just seemed fussy and uncomfortable most of the weekend. his allergies were on full alert all weekend (he got some benedryl last night), and i'm keeping an eye out for new teeth but we'll see. it was also very hot and humid most of the weekend, and i found that turning on the ceiling fan provided some nice cool air AND white noise for him. friday night, he only woke up once, which was pretty awesome. saturday and sunday nights we were back to our 2 feeding sessions, which wasn't too bad. he's still a whole mess of cuteness, so i've decided to keep him.

bryan and dad banged out some good work on the kitchen over the weekend. they got the new ceiling in place, and the first layer of spackle over everything. it's looking good! the plan is to get that finished today (provided it's not so humid the spackle won't dry) so that bryan can begin priming. he is also taking out the last set of upper cabinets, removing the tile backsplash, and patching up that area of wall. my assignment is to settle on a paint color (no, i haven't been able to yet) by tomorrow night. i got a new stack of paint swatches and hope i'll have time to sit on the floor in there and stare are them for awhile tonight. we did decide to move ahead with the alabaster viole countertops, big holes and all. we really like the pattern and color, so we're keeping our fingers crossed.

i think that's it: kitchen, tornadoes, flooding, locked in the mall, cranky but adorable baby. this week, we'll be working on that kitchen. cabinets get installed next week, so we have a deadline!! shannon's boyfriend arrives in town friday, so we finally get to meet him!