Hammock Is Up!

The hammock arrived on Thursday afternoon, and unfortunately the weather was not cooperative Thursday and Friday. It was rain, rain, rain. So we had to wait until Saturday to put it up. After a quick trip to Lowe's, Scott had it up in a jiffy. It looks great! Feels great, too. More on the hammock later. It wasn't the ONLY excitement this weekend.

My parents came up on Friday night and met us for dinner at Melito's. They are known for their "World Famous Hotdog", and I think the one I had was actually called a "Garbage Dog". Appetizing, yes? It has chili, mustard, onion, coleslaw, relish, & bacon. It was pretty good.

Saturday, my parents were doing the Strawberry Festival in Ashland. They left early to go set up, and I headed off to a couple yard sales. I came home early because a) I wasn't feeling well, and b) we had to take Simba to the vet at 8:30 am. After his appointment, we came back to the house, and decided to pull out the hammock and see how big it was and what supplies we would need to hang it up. As we were coming back inside, the hammock got caught on the backdoor, giving Simba the opportunity to make his escape. We spent the next 45 minutes chasing him around the backyard. By the time we got him back inside, Rory had come by to visit. We all decided to head up to Ashland to the Strawberry Festival and see how it was.

It was a very big festival, and I wish I'd had more time to look at all the vendors, but that's not something Rory nor Scott have much interest in doing. We grabbed lunch (I had the best corndog I've ever had) and then found Anne & Scotty's booth. We hung out for a while there, and I bought a really cute apron at the booth next to theirs. The lady who made it has a website called www.apronsforafrica.com and all the proceeds go to Africa via the Childrens HopeChest. Check them out, and get a cute apron while helping a child in need!

We also picked up a tray of the most ginormous strawberries I've ever seen (delicious, too!) before heading back to the house to finish installation of the hammock. We had to take a quick trip to Lowe's to pick up some supplies, and then Scott had it up in just a few minutes.

I quickly found out that mosquitos can really ruin your outdoor fun. As soon as I laid in the hammock, there must have been 10 mosquitos flying around me. That couldn't be had, so we took a trip out to Target to buy a couple citronella torches and some Off spray. We also stopped at Home Depot, grabbed subs at Jimmy Johns, hit up Michael's, and then came back.

The torches and Off spray seemed to do the trick! So I spent the evening relaxing in the hammock and reading until it got too chilly outside. Then I came in to take a bath, and when I got out, my parents had come back. We all sat down to watch a movie, which I fell asleep watching, as usual.

This morning, we had breakfast at The Silver Diner before my parents went back to Lynchburg. Today, I've just been doing laundry, working in the yard, and of course, reading in the hammock. I've found that its also a great place to bird-watch. It's so quiet that the birds don't even realize you are there after a while, and they will land quite close-by, completely unaware of your presence. I'm hoping to get some good bird pictures this way. It's about time for dinner now, and I have laundry to finish up. Back to work again tomorrow. The weekends just are not long enough.