The Ninth Week (May 11-17): Rain, Yoga Pants, Restaurant Updates, Zucchini

Monday, May 11-Wednesday, May 13
My work week focused on pushing forward with the big proposal with the quick turnaround time, so I didn't have much brain space for other projects, especially during the work day. Mr. E and I played some wall ball tennis on Monday evening. We had thought to check out the newly re-opened courts at Southside Park but the threat of rain urged us to stay closer to home in case we needed to curtail our activity. Luckily, we had just a few sprinkles at the beginning of our session but not enough to deter us and send us back home.

A rainy Tuesday morning marked my 6-month anniversary at FoundationCCC. At least I've lasted there longer than at CalSAE! And it's a much better fit in so many ways, for sure, although there are times that I still don't know if it's where I belong or for how long I'll manage to last. Once the weather cleared, I headed to the Starbucks on 10th & L to pick up breakfast for Mr. E and me.

At this two month mark, my resistance and resolve have finally lowered... yoga pants and comfy shoes all week! The only real difference is the footwear, as most of my yoga pants are work appropriate anyway and often serve that purpose, but I did finally give up on saving the Skechers only for the weekend.

On Wednesday, Mr. E noticed signs for two more restaurant re-openings: Ma Jong's on L Street and Iron Horse on R Street. Both of these eateries are part of the same local restaurant group, so we're taking it as a good sign that they're gradually starting to re-open for take-out and curbside pick-up, as they've been closed since the initial Sac County public health order was issued in March. During my Pilates workout this evening, Calypso decided she wanted to ride on the reformer while I was doing leg slides -- too bad I didn't have a camera to capture the moments of her gliding back and forth!

Thursday, May 14-Sunday, May 17
Mr. E got takeout dinner from Vito's on Thursday, and I finally got fed up and did some DIY trimming of my hair before refreshing the color. So much better! But still actually a bit longer thatn I prefer...

Friday should have been the last show of the season for Sac Ballet, but instead we hosted our weekly patio party with E&C, which featured dinner and cocktails from Iron Horse. Yay! So nice to have a few more options for local food spots! The weather cooperated for us to eat outside on the patio before coming in to finally try out the Star Trek board game that E&C had brought over a couple of weeks ago. We accompanied the game playing with several bottles of J Pinot Noir since we had just received our May shipment. The new game took quite a bit longer than we had anticipated, but Mr. E finally claimed victory. It will be odd not to see E&C next weekend for our regular gathering since we'll be in Denver for the holiday, as these weekly get-togethers have been such a wonderful and energizing part of our pandemic-influenced lives.

On Saturday, we focused on house and garden projects. I took care of the Market 515 grocery list in the morning before brunch, since we were out of eggs. Then Mr. E took another trip to Lowe's, where he procured more patio lights but didn't find a satisfactory selection for the bougainvillea, and I stocked up at Target on espresso, new tennis balls, two books, a yoga block, several birthday cards, and four bags of Swedish fish. We attempted to play tennis at the Southside Park courts in the evening, but both courts were claimed when we got there, so we turned around and biked back to our wall ball alley instead. After about 35 minutes of play, we returned home minus 1 tennis ball. Oops. I focused on doing a bunch of meal prep (salmon with veggies and pearl couscous) while Mr. E finished off the day's errands with a trip to Safeway.

Sunday morning started off with brunch followed by some online research for a comfy set of chairs for the patio. We've been spending so much more time out there, but our current chairs with the table aren't really comfy for just lounging or reading, even with the cozy cushions. We found a few options at both Target and Home Depot that were an appropriate size and scale for our space and include ottomans that tuck under the chair when not in use. However, we weren't super excited about certain aspects of either set, so I kept looking on Amazon while Mr. E headed off to Home Depot to look for more plant items. I found a set that was about half the price of the others and should arrive next week. Now we'll just need to get some patterned pillows to offset the plain blue of the cushions, but that can wait until we actually have the chairs and table here and assembled.

During a break in the on-and-off rain, I walked to the Little Free Library near the Midtown Bark Park and was surprised to see how empty the Library was. I left my four books and took one in exchange: Thunderstruck by Erik Larson, which I've already read but am looking forward to re-reading since I just love his writing and how he interweaves diverse story strands into a coherent non-fiction account. Mr. E harvested our first zucchini crop from the garden tonight! We also should have some yellow squash very soon, and the tomatoes and eggplant are looking promising as well.

Mr. E made a pork chop and sausages with veggies for his dinner and seared a piece of ahi for me. We wound down the evening with wine on the patio, admiring the new bougainvillea in the big blue pot (really, it's blue!) that Mr. E had successfully procured at Home Depot.

Just before I went to bed, we saw on the local news that Specialty's Bakery has closed all operations, which is such a shame. The location on Capitol Mall had been open this whole time, and I thought they were doing relatively OK since a decent number of state workers in the nearby buildings are still going into their offices. I've ordered from Specialty's several times in the past couple of months, and I'm sorry to lose out on that nearby takeout option.