Can there be a fireworks display in the rain?

This holiday weekend cannot come fast enough. Tomorrow night directly after work Doug and I are making the 4+ hour trip to Burlington, VT, for a little get-away. Sort of a belated birthday/engagement anniversary trip. I hope that it's not a washout weekend. I have heard that in Boston it is supposed to rain through Friday, but who knows. It's probably going to rain forever (my abilities to be optimistic about the weather are non-existent). But Burlington has a big fireworks display planned for Friday night, and we hope to get in a tour of the Ethan Allen homestead, the UVM morgan horse farm, the Magic Hat Brewery, and maybe a trip across Lake Champlain to New York. These plans are basically contingent on the weather, so you can see why I am eager for NO MORE RAIN. We have snails in our yard and mushrooms growing all over the place... It's just so damp.

This past weekend we did have one sunny day, though - Saturday, my brother's birthday. Doug dropped me off at the fabric store in Manchester, CT, and there I met up with my mother and sister. I bought the fabric that I need for the first part of my quilt, and then some other fabric that I need for another of my sewing projects, spending WAY too much on fabric. But I got some good patterns, so I guess it's okay.

To celebrate my brother's birthday, my mom, brother and I went out to dinner and then to a play at the Hartford Stage. Dinner was good, as it always is at Alfresco's (I am amazed this place has a website). The presentation of the food is so nice there (see below) and the quality is very good, but the atmosphere lacks something. Then again, it is on Burnside Avenue in East Hartford, so I shouldn't really be asking for fancy decor.

The play was good, too (Dividing the Estate), but was a little long. It lacked a real plot. The children of this old lady are urging her to divide the estate before she dies, and then she dies without dividing it. Does one need two hours and fifteen minutes to relay that story? I liked the acting, though, for the most part. The people behind us hated this play, though. Hated it. They spent all of intermission ripping it apart (overacted, no plot, too long, caricatures, blah blah blah) and trying to decide if they should stay for the rest of it. They stayed, but my goodness. They were more annoying than anything about the play. Post-play we had a bit of birthday cake, the cake (and cake-decorating) courtesy of my dad. Birthdays just aren't birthdays without a little cake.

The next day my mom, brother and I took Tyrone for a walk, but he ended up getting lost half-way through our hike and so we spent a lot of our time looking for him ("Tyrone! Tyrone! Come, boy!"). The photos of the hike were taken before the dog got lost. After the dog got lost I lost my enthusiasm for picture-taking, as I was dreaming of being stuck in the forest at midnight still looking for the dog. Apparently it's been done before.

Overall, though, the weekend was a very good one for me, and for Doug as well. He enjoyed his time in Monroe, traveling to Southbury and to several garden stores looking for a birdhouse. He came home with three - one new, and two from his dad's shed. Now we just have to put them up outside and hope that the birds come!

And speaking of nature, Monday night we took advantage of the dry weather to mow the lawn and trim the trees at the front steps, so now we don't have to do this for another four weeks. Note to anyone doing yardwork - get it done before dusk. Man, those mosquitoes are killer.

But before I end... congratulations, Chris and Chris, on the news of a healthy girl! Can't it be November already? We want to meet her!