The last two days I've been working at staining my sister's deck. Why I get roped into all of these home improvement projects at her house, I couldn't say. So now it's that kind of bluey-gray that any "country" knick-knack (the type of thing you pick up at a craft fair and/or is made of wood and/or says "welcome friends") seems to have somewhere on it. I got some on myself, and it soaked in pretty well, so I pretty much look like I have some Grade A varicose veins. Good times.

We'd meant to do this ages ago, but it keeps raining. Every day for the last month or more, it seems as if it's either rained or looked like it was about to rain, it was good to get out and do it already. But the funniest bit of the whole deck stainin' experience was this robin who had its nest under the deck. I was a bit worried for her and her babies, because the stain tends to drip through some, but it all seems okay. The bird, however, was a lot more worried about us getting near her precious nest, particularly my dad. She (and eventually another robin who we assumed was the original robin's babies' daddy) chirped at us quite a bit, and finally started dive bombing my Dad while he was under there. More good times.

And my Mom capped off the day by making one of my favorite meals, stir fry. I feel bad, because she's been feeling really sick lately, I should probably cook myself some. She doesn't like to let me cook though, because she feels like it makes a mess of her kitchen even if I promise to clean up when I'm through. Suffice it to say, I've been eating a lot of fast food and frozen food lately. So I was sitting out on the porch before dinner tonight, smelling stir fry, and listening to Ben Folds on headphones feeling very content. It doesn't get much better than that.