A bonus entry! Today is a holiday at my office, so I wouldn't generally write. But I know you're all out there on pins and needles just waiting to find out about my weekend, and I couldn't disappoint my four loyal readers like that, now could I?

We had invited Braz and Kris Brandt to spend the weekend with us. Kris had had to work the night shift on Friday night (she's an oncology nurse) so she took a nap Saturday morning and they arrived late Saturday afternoon. Matt and Braz are both the sort of people who enjoy being silly. When you put them together, the effects increase exponentially. They gave Kris and I a demonstration of how, if you pop bubble wrap in your mouth, you get a nifty, echoing effect; and that by changing the shape and tension of your lips, you can change the tone of the echo.

Yeah, the whole weekend was pretty much like that.

Every now and then, I feel a little sorry for Kris when the four of us get together. Braz, Matt, and I are all computer geeks, and while Kris doesn't mind using computers, she doesn't really get the same visceral thrill from them that the rest of us do. Unfortunately, since she's outnumbered three to one, we spend a lot of time on computers when we're all together. However, Braz's latest acquisition - a Mac G3 Powerbook - had a built-in DVD player. So while the boys hopped on my computer to check their fantasy baseball statistics, Kris and I fired up Contact and spent some time drooling over Matthew McConaughey. (Well, Kris did most of the drooling. No, really!)

When I was a kid, it was a Fourth of July tradition in my family to make homemade ice cream and homemade butter. Matt and I have an ice cream maker that Jeff gave us as a wedding present and we hadn't yet gotten around to using. So I suggested that we could make ice cream - an idea which was quite well received. (I didn't suggest butter because it's very time-consuming and it wasn't something we could just start and then leave for half an hour like the ice cream.) The ice cream recipe called for two eggs, and since you can't buy just two eggs, I made a batch of meringue kisses Saturday night while I was making the ice cream base. (The ice cream base had to refrigerate overnight.) The meringue kisses, also, were well received. Sunday morning, after Matt shot down the idea of having ice cream for breakfast (what a party pooper!) we made waffles. The ice cream followed by only a few hours.

That evening, the boys grilled hot dogs and hamburgers for us while Kris and I made mac'n'cheese and baked beans to go along. The heat index was somewhere over 100(F), so we decided to have our picnic inside. But in a flash of inspiration, I dug my picnic cloth out of the closet, and we had our picnic on the living room floor. It was a lot of fun, actually.

Later, we drove over to Jeremy and Elizabeth's apartment - they live not far from Colonial Williamsburg, and had suggested that from their apartment complex we might be able to view the fireworks without having to fight the crowds. We wound up having to crawl through some bushes to get a really good view, but WOW did we find a great view! We're going to have to remember that spot for next year! Afterwards, we sat around talking (and the geeks now outnumbered Kris five to one) and trying to convince Braz that he wanted to move back to Williamsburg.

Braz and Kris will be heading home today, and Matt and I will have to do the laundry and go to the grocery store (for something like the fifth time this weekend) for the real groceries. But I'm feeling energized and excited about the week coming up. Even if I don't get a project at work, I'm deep into the planning for my first AD&D game, I've got some pictures to upload to my photo album, and I've recently picked up playing Moria again. Also, I'm planning on taking Friday off from work (I keep saying I might take only a half-day, but that won't happen unless I get a project to work on) to spend with my brother.

All in all, it's been a great weekend. Good friends, good food, lots of fun. I got to use a variety of kitchen gadgets that I'd almost forgotten I had, and I got to have fun cooking a lot of yummy food.