Sunday, April 15, 2007

Weekend Warriors

There are a lot of great things about being a stay-at-home wife, and things have been going pretty smoothly around here, so I'm not complaining. But there is one drawback--all the days run together and weekends aren't that big a deal. Because Al works during the week, many of our weekends are spent doing yard work, cleaning cars, fixing things around the house, and if he's the one doing the work outside, I'm usually doing something like laundry or cleaning or knitting while inside. And that's just not much different than what I do during the week.

But this weekend, no work, only fun.

Saturday I went to the ladies' spring luncheon at our church. We learned how to arrange flowers, which I've never been very good at. By the end of our lesson, each of the groups had made a lovely arrangement.

The man who was our teacher was a retired chemistry teacher. For his retirement, he's been growing irises and entering flower arranging competitions. He was really very helpful because he put flower arranging in very concrete, almost mathematical terms. First choose a line (like a tall iris or a cattail) and put that in the center. Then choose your focal flower (peonies today), something bright and big, and put those (for example, two in the front) on either side of the line, forming a triangle. Then add all the fillers around to cover up the foam you've been sticking the flowers in and to balance the other flowers. Oh, and don't forget the long, skinny blades of grass--they look very cool in the arrangement. It helped me to think of analytically--my creative mind tends to lean towards the technical sometimes, so this was a nice way to use both sides of my brain.

But here's the funny thing. At one point he turned around to us and said, "I hope these colors look good together. I'm color blind and it's hard for me to tell." What? A color-blind iris grower and flower arranger? Purple looks blue to him. That's just too wild. No wonder he uses the overall shape to dictate the arrangement.

Anyway, we had a nice lunch of salads and dessert (everyone brought one or the other), and I won one of the flower arrangements. I rarely win door prizes.

The best thing, though, was that while I was at the luncheon, Al went to the open house at the BMW motorcycle shop, so I didn't have to go! They are very nice people, but they like to talk about their near-death experiences on the bikes. It's not something I want to hear as I'm watching Al suit-up to test ride an R-1200. So, it was nice to have an excuse to miss it without hurting his feelings.

We went out to dinner Saturday night to the new brewery in town--Lazlo's. The beer was great, the food was awesome, and we talked all through dinner. This is a pretty momentous thing because Al is really quite, even with me, and we've had many a conversation-less dinner.

Sunday was just as busy and a very fun day. The weather was gorgeous--not a cloud in the sky and mid 60s. We put the top down on the Miata and headed out.

First we went to Mahoney State Park for an Art Show and Rib Fest. Now, these aren't as polar opposites as you would think. Most of the paintings and photographs were wildlife art. So, somehow looking at paintings of pheasants, wolves, and bears fit right in with the cowboy-themed rib dinner outside.

The art show was in the lodge:



And we rode the trolly around the park before heading out.



But we didn't eat here because our next stop was the Czech Folk Festival, and we both were salivating for kolaches.

Who knew there was such a large Czech population in Omaha, NE?!? The place was packed!

There was band



And polka dancing





And there were booths of games for the kids and products from the Czech Republic for sale (mostly Christmas ornaments and crystal).

But *sniff* all the kolaches were gone *sniff*. And we were so looking forward to those. I was going to use up all my extra calories for the day on one of those *sniff*.

Oh well, it was fun anyway. But we didn't stay much longer once we realized there were no more baked goods. Instead we went to Paradise Bakery and split a chicken sandwich and a chocolate chip cookie. It wasn't the same but it was damn good.

So, banner day for Kell. It actually felt like a weekend.

9 comments:

Jay said...

A Czech folk festival in Omaha. Not exactly what you would expect. But, remember that Cech lady we met at the German beer joint? So I knew there were at least a few there.

And, a color blind flower arraanger? Now I've heard everything.

Betty said...

A color-blind flower arranger, an Art Show/Rib Fest and a Czech Folk Festival. Oh, yeah! Nothing like a rousing polka to get your heart going. Seriously, did this seem like a rather "surreal" weekend?

Anonymous said...

That sounds like so much FUN!

Both us still being unemployed, the days all do run together. It's completely weird waking up and thinking, "Hmmm... Wednesday, huh?" instead of being excited it's only 2 more days 'til the weekend.

Glad to see you had a great time.

katy said...

glad you had a great weekend but please do tell what is a kolaches?

Newt said...

Wow, that does sound like a wonderful weekend. I think it's the bikes. I think they make him more talkative :-)

Peggy said...

No kolaches!!! The horror! In my hometown of Mt Vernon, Iowa the annual summer festival used to be called Kolache Days. It is now called a more insipid Heritage Days (ick). Having said that, it is still kolache intensive. The cherry, apple and apricot ones always go first. If you get there too late, it's poppy seed for you. Later still and you're outta luck.

Now you know. If it's a Czeck based festival GET THERE EARLY or you'll miss all the kolaches!

Tink said...

No picture of the winning flower arrangement? That class sounds awesome. I'd love to get involved in something like that. I've also considered a kick boxing class. Totally different ends of the spectrum huh? :)

Kell said...

her indoors--kolaches are yummy pastries with either fruit or cheese in the center, like a cheese danish. They can also be savory, as a sausage roll. We got hooked in Texas. Go here to see more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolache

Newt--I think it was the bikes, too.

Peggy--Believe me, next time we'll be there when the doors open!

Tink--you just have varied interests!

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a fun and varied weekend! I stick at arranging flowers, just stuff them in the vase is my rule of thumb. I can't imagine MATH making it any better