A good kind of sore.

I love weekends!  When all of the activities make me sore on Monday, I know it was a great weekend.  This one was simple and fun!  As always, I didn't get everything accomplished I originally hoped to, but that's how it normally plays out.  With no creative intro...here's a recap, with photos!

My first priority was returning my craptastic carpet cleaner I bought from Kohl's two weeks ago.  For anyone out there in the market for a carpet cleaner, I do NOT recommend the Hoover Dual V Steamvac!  I spent over $200 on it, then proudly took it home, assembled it, and got busy cleaning carpets.  With Brinkley, Milo, Brent, and me marching all over a small one bedroom condo, the carpet gets dirty and smashed down pretty quickly.  I like to clean my carpets pretty often and have been borrowing my mom's old school Hoover over the last few years.

Her cleaner always did a good job so I thought I'd buy a Hoover also.  Bigger and fancier is not always better.  The Dual V has a separate cleaner dispenser, which means there is a small tank next to the clean water tank that holds the carpet shampoo.  In theory, and according to the manual, any cleaner not used can be stored in its tank after use.  So that's what I did.  A few days later, Brent ask if there was supposed to be goop in the clean water tank.  He picked up the tank and showed me.  Rolling around the bottom of the tank was all of the cleaner.  The seal between the cleaner tank and the clean water tank was broken!!

Just to make sure I hadn't lost my mind, I googled and found that the cheap plastic seals between the tanks on these Hoover models with the shampoo dispenser break early and often!!  Cheap, crappy plastic!  So, I took my vacuum back.  I hauled my still-assemble cleaner into Kohl's and told them I wanted to return my piece of crap carpet cleaner.  Needless to say, I'm once again in the market for a carpet cleaner.  Sigh.

On a slighty funnier note, when I walked into Kohl's carrying my cleaner sticking out of it's box, one of the cash register ladies told one of the cash register guys to come over and help me.  He asked if I needed any help and I said I was almost there, but thanks for the offer.  The high school kid looked so familiar to me.  And as I was winding my way through those little rope lines to the Customer Service counter it hit me.  I had to write that kid a ticket for Careless Driving last week.  That was my first civilian encounter with someone from something work related.  It was weird.  I can't say that I'm keen on the idea of that happening often.

The second thing I wanted to accomplish over the weekend was getting Brinkley in somewhere for a haircut.  He desperately needed a thorough bath, shave, nail clipping, and ear cleaning.  He's only had two haircuts before, once at Camp Bow Wow and once at Petsmart.  I figured any place was cheaper than Petsmart's $75 bill for a head to tow cleaning.  And I knew Camp Bow Wow required an appointment on selected days.  So, I settled on the Biscuit's Dog Pawlour.  It's been open for a couple of years.  They have self-service stations for washing dogs, doggie day care, and somewhat drop-off pawlour services!  Brent and I killed a few hours shopping in town while Brinkley was made into one handsome pup!!

I'm not sure what he thinks about his flame bandana, but I think he looks cute!!  He seems much happier without all the fluffy hair keeping him hot this time of year.  And I know he loves the extra petting and loving because he's so soft and smells good!!

Saturday night we celebrated Father's Day for Brent's dad.  We went out to dinner at Fatso's in Loveland.  It's in the old A&W building.  While it's no A&W, it was pretty scrumptious and I would go again.

Sunday morning the alarm went off early considering our late night. I had to roll myself out of bed to meet my Mom at Green Acre.  We did a little work in the garden and did some clean-up.  Our tomato plants starting turning yellow last week.  Between the non-stop raining for days and the wind beating them, it's hard to know for sure why they are unhappy.  They don't appear to have a fungus or bug or anything so hopefully they will pull through.  They sure don't seem like they have grown much in the last two or three weeks.

The corn has definitely grown.  We have three rows of about 8 inch tall corn!  We only had one pumpkin plant sprout.  One out of four hills worth of seeds!!  So I planted more pumpkin seeds hoping they will fair better than the first round.  I also had to thin out some cucumber sprouts.

While I was playing farmer, Mom got out the little red tractor (riding lawn mower) and hooked up the trailer.  We made about dozen trips from the side of the garage to the barn with mini-trailer loads of cinder blocks.  Someday those will make a nice raised flower bed or retaining wall!  After the heavy lifting, I tore up some yard lights and an old water pipe to throw in the dumpster.  Bit by little bit Green Acre is getting cleaned up!  There is always something to do up there.

Sunday afternoon we celebrated Father's Day for my dad at my parent's house with taco salad and ice cream sundaes!!!  My nephew Moxon provided the entertainment.  I can't remember what we did before he came along.  We played sidewalk chalk and kick ball.  We looked for and tried to catch a frog.  My parent's have a bird's nest on a downspout so I picked Moxon up to take a peek inside.  When he saw the eggs inside, I asked him how many, and he held up his hands and counted out his fingers, one-two-three!! Green and blue!  So, I had to get the ladder to see if he was right...and to take pictures, of course!!  He was right!

It was a great weekend!! Lots of fun with my dog, my man, and my family!  I even did a little knitting last night!  But that's a whole different story for another post!  I woke up this morning feeling sore all over!  And it was that good kind of sore all over.  You know, where the aches remind you of the fun weekend and actually make Monday's a little easier.  I'm already looking forward to next weekend!!!