Long Weekend-ing

Well - it's not Monday y'all - it's Tuesday because the past weekend was a long weekend! Can I get all the hallelujahs for that? Although sometimes that makes a Tuesday feel like a Monday, but so far today has been lovely and not at all like a Monday!

The weather is unseasonably warm; the high today is 76 and the high for tomorrow is 80, which means the only thing I really want to do is being lounging on my deck reading a good book. Alas - duty calls and I have to be a functioning member of society and contribute, ha-ha! But back to the weekend...

Black Panther came out this weekend and my friend Jennie, her son Jimmy and I went to see the 6:15 showing on Friday night. Happily I got off work early on Friday and was able to spend some time relaxing at home before heading to the theater - it was so nice. The movie really was excellent and I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would; I'd highly recommend it, and you don't have to have seen the other Marvel movies to enjoy this film. I was far too tickled by the tweet that I posted above - it made me giggle, so I couldn't resist sharing.

After coming home on Friday night, I finished up The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Amazon - has anyone else watched that? Thoughts? I did a little reading before going to sleep and looking very forward to sleeping in on Saturday!

Saturday dawned oh so bright - which as I mentioned in my post from Sunday, was not at all a harbinger of the weather to come. I did a little reading from my very cozy spot in my bed and Watson served as a wonderful foot warmer, basking in the sunshine. I had my beloved coffee and began going about my Saturday business.

I made a quick Target run and while I didn't get anything too crazy, I did happen to stumble on the perfect ottoman to go with the chair in my bedroom and so I couldn't pass that up! I made the Target run in jeans, a long sleeve tee and my lightweight jacket and I honestly figured that the whole chance of snow; especially 3+ inches, was just another weather report gone wrong...

  

I dedicated an entire post on Sunday to how wrong I was about the weather. It started snowing around 2:00 on Saturday afternoon and heavy, wet snow fell for the next six hours. It was enough to cover everything in a perfect blanket of white and make everything look positively enchanting...

Watson spent a good portion of his Saturday being lazy and begging for anything I ate when meal time came around - that dog has perfected the art of begging; he's got the look down pat. And when a look won't work, he even incorporates some mournful cries...

Once the snow tapered off around 8:30, I took Watson out on a walk. Earlier in the day when the thick snowfall was coming down he'd had no interest in being outside and traipsing through the snow...but our evening walk was a different matter entirely. He bounded through the drifts and buried his nose deep into the snow to seek out whatever might be buried under all the white.

  

 

Sunday morning again dawned bright - the sun was out in full force on Sunday morning and of course, all the bright white from Saturday evening began to melt in force. I snapped some pictures of funny formations on a grate outside my living room window and managed to capture a drop of the melting snow as it made it's downward drop toward the ground...

 

I also couldn't resist taking video of the sounds of the snow melt - our backyard sounded like the deck had been positioned on the edge of a river, the water rushing along as the snow melted. Watson was eager to be outside but when he ventured onto the deck and heard the rushing water, he thought twice and made his way back inside...at least for a little while.

Around noon, Watson and I took a ride to the newly opened Burger King to grab some lunch. Watson thoroughly enjoys all rides in the car and he especially enjoyed the ride after it was scented like a delicious cheeseburger, ha-ha! To his credit, he only once tried to poke his little nose into the bag and sniff out what was in the bag... once we got home, he definitely parked himself at my feet and begged/waited patiently for bites of my food. We watched a season one episode of Home Town while having lunch and then it was back to business.

By 2:00 on Sunday afternoon, all signs that there had ever been any snow were almost completely gone. I took a break from my Sunday afternoon spent with my head buried in a book, laced up my sneaker and took Watson on a long jaunt through the neighborhood. It was so warm out that halfway through the walk I ended up undoing my jacket to let the breeze cool me off. It almost defied belief to think that exactly 24 hours before the snow had begun and covered everything in a layer of white...and now we were marching along on dry ground under blue skies.

 

Watson spent a large chunk of his Sunday afternoon lying in the sunshine on the back deck and at one point came to the door, tapped with his paw and then when I opened the door, he sat and waited expectantly for me to come outside. I suppose he wanted some company and so I took some time out and went to sit in the sunshine on the back deck with him. It was almost warm enough that I didn't need my jacket but it was nice to have as I leaned against the railing and soaked up the sun.

 

I passed the rest of Sunday evening eating some leftovers alongside a half of a sandwich brought to me from Macado's (seriously delicious sandwich place), watching the Olympics and watching Victoria. I read before finally falling asleep - and it was such a nice thing to know I didn't have to wake up early on Monday!

I slept in on Monday and had my coffee and breakfast with my Mom before getting ready for the day. I finally made myself get back to exercising (in the two weeks since my grandmother passed away, I've really been a slacker) and hopped on the elliptical for thirty minutes before getting ready to head to Tyson's.

My Mom and I spent the afternoon at Tyson's Corner Center - a huge mall about an hour from our home in NoVa. We had a delicious lunch at Cheesecake Factory and split a decadent piece of cheesecake - because we are firm believers that one cannot simply eat at Cheesecake Factory and not get cheesecake! We spent a few hours shopping and running errands before heading home - I got a really cute red dress on sale at Lou & Grey (do y'all know Lou & Grey, it's the best) and a cold shoulder sweater from Loft - gotta love those President's Day sales!

The weather on Monday was misty and dismal and I wish I'd have taken the time to snap a picture of all the buildings in McLean disappearing into the fog on Monday evening...but alas, I did not.

I had some delicious leftover lasagna and watched an episode of Home Town with my Momma before taking some headache meds (boo to a persistent headache that hung around as a dull ache all day long...) and hitting the sack! Thank goodness for long weekends, we all need them from time to time and I thoroughly enjoyed mine!