Today was about as perfect as a Saturday can get. A great blend of hard work, family time, fun and good weather.
To start, it was sunny and about 50 degrees. February in Ohio doesn't often get better than that. We started our day with breakfast at Cracker Barrel. Eating out is always fun, but breakfast out is really special.
When we got home, I got started putting together a little wall cabinet Maria bought a couple of months ago for the kid's bathroom. Who knew that a cabinet that cost, like, $20 could consist of so many pieces. Over 30 I think, plus screws, latches, etc. It was nice to get something done that had been waiting for a while, and before Maria asked me when I was going to get to it. :-) It was also an excuse to use my laser level and new Fat Max tape measure I got for Christmas.
After that, I took advantage of the good weather to climb up on the roof and take down the rest of the Christmas lights. I hate climbing on the roof, especially getting close to the edge to do the lights. The sun and warm temps made it a little more bearable.
Since the weather was good and I was on a roll, I went out and picked up a new mailbox to replace our old, rusty, door-less mailbox. I got one of those rotomolded ones from Step2. It was a simple matter of getting out my Ryobi cordless reciprocating saw and cutting the old one off and bolting the new to the remaining 4x4. It took all of a half an hour. Emily (7 1/2) came outside after I had cut the old one off. She said "Daddy, you cut down the mailbox! How'd you do that?" "I used my saw." "Daddy, you're awesome." I love my kids.
After that, we all piled in the van and went to see "Racing Stripes". A cute movie and the first one we've seen in a theater since Nemo. I can remember going to see movies as a family when I was a kid. It was fun, I always got Milk Duds. Those were different days. With no DVD's, no VCR's and no cable (at least for us), if it didn't get seen at the theater, it didn't get seen. Now we get the DVD at the library and watch it 3 times (plus deleted scenes, bloopers and commentaries) before returning it.
We got home, got the girls showered and grilled steaks for supper.
All in all, I couldn't ask for more.
