Labor Day Weekend: Burnt Ribs, Board Games & Too Much Coffee
Updated: 4 hours ago
It only took me four days to write this and get it posted, but whatever.
I tried to update it as the weekend progressed, but it’s now Wednesday morning, and I’m finally hitting publish. I guess that means you’re getting two posts today—this one and this week’s Meal Plan.
Friday: Carnival Food and Accidental Date-Night Research
What did we do Friday night? Oh, right - the school carnival.
It was pretty lame, but Joey had fun playing soccer, so at least someone enjoyed himself. We tried some bougie food for dinner, but it was too expensive to order enough to feed everyone, so we still needed a pizza afterward. What we did eat was fucking phenomenal, though. D.J. and I will definitely be going back to Bistro 36 for a date night. I’ll be having the scallops and polenta, unless the daily special is impressive enough to knock my socks off. The service was outstanding, and our waitress spent the evening joking around with the boys.
10/10. We’ll be back.
Saturday: Cars, Coffee and More Games We Don’t Have Room For
We started Saturday with a trip to Dutch Bros and were surprised to discover it was Cars & Coffee. We got to see some pretty fucking cool cars, both old and new-ish.
The Del Sol brought me right back to high school and college. I should have taken a picture because it was mint green and absolutely adorable. Joey schmoozed his way into getting a closer look at a ’52 Chevy and even got to sit inside it. Anthony got to sit in a ’60 Thunderbird. Joey also spotted a Maserati and has apparently reconsidered his plans to own a Lamborghini.
Afterward, we traded in some board games. We haven’t sold any since Night Owl went out of business, so the trade pile had gotten pretty big. We added Barcelona to the stack and headed up to Black & Read.
They gave us $130 in store credit, and we walked out with:
Mountain Goats: Legacy
Three Sisters: Harvest Edition
Wooden tiles for Bonsai
Piñatas
Warp’s Edge, a solo game
I also bought myself Dungeon Crawler Carl because apparently the giant stack of unread books in my house wasn’t enough.
After the game store, I took a little snooze. The boys went to the pool, and then it was time for dinner. The grocery stores had some great meat sales for the holiday weekend, so we had diner-style steak and eggs. I didn’t take a picture because I was too busy sucking the fat off the ribeye bone. Priorities.
We ended the night with Mountain Goats: Legacy, which Joey won, followed by a couple of live games on Board Game Arena with Ashley. Which honestly, might have been the highlight of the weekend. I miss that girl SO MUCH. It's weird when your sister who you saw every fucking day moves away. I feel lost.
Sunday: Fantasy Football, Two Rib Runs and Caffeinated Chaos
D.J. made me a delicious coffee to start the day, and then it was time for our fantasy football draft. Puka Nacua had better show up this week! I’m pretty happy with my team, although I wish I had a little more depth at running back. It’ll be fine. Probably.
After our late start, and spending 30 minutes searching for D.J.’s wallet, we cleaned the house a little. He came home with flowers and coffee, though, so I suppose I’ll keep him.
Then we started the ribs for lunch. Everything was going well until we realized no one had been paying attention, the grill was too hot, and we had burned them. D.J. went back to the store for more ribs. Unfortunately, it apparently didn’t occur to anyone that the replacement ribs were still frozen, so I had to send them back to the store a second time. The third rack of ribs turned out wonderfully.
When Ryan and Stacey arrived, we played Bonsai to test out the new wooden tiles.
Then we ate ribs, corn and the delicious homemade Boston baked beans Ryan brought.
After lunch, the adults took a child-free trip to the record store before picking up the adjacent teenager. When we got home, the boys housed even more ribs, followed by peach pie and ice cream.
Then we played Ready Set Bet, and it was entirely too much fun. The race got heated, horse number three won more often than expected, and Anthony did a fantastic job calling the races.
After the first round, we paused to make caffeinated beverages. D.J. was in charge of coffee, and I handled the energy drinks. Using Dutch Bros as our inspiration, we made homemade Golden Eagles and Electric Berry Rebels.
For the Rebels, we had peach, strawberry and blue raspberry syrups. All the boys, including Ryan made theirs “dirty” - we just added a little cream to it. D.J. made Stacey’s Golden Eagle picture perfect. He and I ended up sharing one because we ran out of ice. I don’t have one of those fancy in-door refrigerator ice dispensers. We can either scoop regular ice from the freezer drawer or use the little ice maker in my bedroom. The bedroom machine makes the good nugget ice, so naturally, I stole that for my drink.
By 8:43 that night, I was lying in bed writing this on my phone and completely exhausted from being awake all day with only a short nap. I love perimenopause.
Monday: Leftovers, Lost Memories and One Lonely Rib
What the hell did we even do Monday? It’s Wednesday as I’m writing this, and honestly, I can’t remember. I know it was a whole lot of nothing.
The teenagers went to the roller rink for a little while. Anthony hates roller skating but went with Nic anyway and seemed to have fun. I took a little happy nap or attempted to. Someone or some dog disturbed me every five minutes, so I don’t think it technically counts.
We played a couple of games, which was nice because it meant getting more games off the shelf and onto the table. What did we play? I have no fucking idea. That was two entire days ago.
I did get to watch my hometown CFL team play in the Labor Day Classic, and it made me happier than I expected. So many memories of the Ti-Cats came flooding back from watching games on TV to attending them in person and even working events selling merchandise. I don’t miss Hamilton, but sometimes I miss how simple life felt back then.
We went with leftovers for dinner. I managed to get exactly one rib and ended up eating Uncrustables at midnight. I suppose that’s the sacrifice Mama makes when her little man wants to eat ribs like a caveman. Honestly, watching him eat them made it worth it.
So, that was our Labor Day weekend: burnt ribs, replacement ribs, board games, coffee, cool cars and absolutely no memory of what happened Monday.
What did your Labor Day weekend look like?
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