A few days ago one of my friends told me she couldn't wait to hear about which exciting place we would visit this weekend. We didn't go anywhere exciting.  My husband spent the weekend dodging raindrops to fix rot on the back door. 

     I would have grilled this weekend...but our grill never made it from San Antonio. It never got tagged or inventoried. One day I was cooking in the kitchen on a cold and rainy day, while I was dreaming of grilling.  Hmmmm, where was the grill?  My husband called the movers and they knew there was an unidentified one out there. The driver still had it and said he'd pay us for it. In the meantime we continue to be grill-less. 

     I considered the family making hand crank ice cream. I had a feeling my husband would be too busy for this, and he was. This would have been fun and tasty, because we've yet to find tasty ice cream in Virginia. We miss our Blue Bell Ice Cream made in Brenham, Texas "where the cows think it's heaven."  We stayed with friends in Maryland in March and every time we had ice cream, we raved about Blue Bell.  They thought we were crazy!  Then they went to Texas for a few days and had some Blue Bell. Now they know!

    So what to do to make the Memorial Day weekend special?  I forgot all about it (shame on me since we now live in the Washington DC area).  My husband reminded us about the National Memorial Day Concert at the US Capitol in Washington DC held every year that is shown on PBS.  No, we did not go in person because my husband was busy and I've already done the metro during the Cherry Blossom Festival. There is no way we are going to do that for a major event again! We are perfectly happy to watch from the comfort of our living room, especially when there are storm clouds in the area.  

     While I sewed the Civil War costumes for our upcoming unit celebration, we watched the Memorial program on PBS.  To our surprise, they talked about the Civil War.  Did you know that Memorial Day first started a few years after the Civil War?  This is one of the best programs we have seen from Washington for a few years. It was patriotic and touching and prepared us for meaning behind Memorial Day. Thank you to everyone who has served our country!  You have sacrificed family and personal interests to allow us to keep our freedoms!  We appreciate you!