The weekend of nothing special

I got Friday off work, but we had a decidedly unambitious weekend. We lazed about the house Friday morning, which is always nice. Then we picked up some groceries at Walmart, which apparently was a huge mistake. Walmart is always crazy on the day before a holiday. Incidentally, I just realized that I had typed Walmart instead of Wal-Mart. I guess they officially changed their name to remove the hyphen when they redid the logo. I happened to see a newly constructed Walmart in Ohio last week, and it had the new blue and yellow color scheme with the sunburst design. Our local store, however, is stuck in the mid-90's. It's pretty much the worst-managed store I've ever seen. Nothing is ever in stock and it's kind of shabby. But it's close and cheap, so it gets my vote every time.

We tidied up the place a little bit on Friday afternoon because Becca's sister came to visit. We had been planning to have her visit for a while, so it was fun to see her. She brought a couple Wii controllers and wheels, so we played four-player Mario Kart Wii with her and my daughter. My daughter definitely dragged down the team score, spinning circles and falling into lava the whole time. But she was so enthusiastic that we didn't mind, and we won most of the time anyway.

Becca's mom and brother ended up coming to visit for the weekend, too, so they came around lunch time. We had considered a busy day of parades, boating, and fireworks. But the Firstborn probably wouldn't do too well with fireworks, and taking a 8 1/2-month pregnant woman water-skiing probably isn't a good idea. So we had a more laid-back Fourth of July, doing some shopping at McKay Books, our favorite used bookstore, and Trader Joe's. I actually like Trader Joe's. I hate Whole Foods with a passion, but Trader Joe's is okay. Don't know why I make that distinction, but there it is.

It ended up pouring rain while I was trying to grill up hamburgers and grilled veggie-kebabs, but we eventually got the job done on the porch with an umbrella. We didn't see any real fireworks, but we watched some on TV and made fun of a Neil Diamond concert. That was the extent of our ambition for the evening. That's pretty much all the adventure we need right now. And with Little Girl #2 coming within the next two weeks, we'll have plenty of adventure ahead of us.