As always the beginning of the fall semester is kicking my butt at work. September is always my busiest time, and this year is no exception. It’s nice to have a little forced break in the midst of the crazy. I could never take a vacation day, but a holiday I’ll take it. My weekend wasn’t too busy, just the right amount of full with relaxing fun and friends. It was nice to get some down time.

Friday night we just stayed home. It was mostly about ice cream. We of course went to the Charmery to get some ice cream after dinner, and I also made some home made ice cream to take to a party on Sunday. I made cookies and cream ice cream, which is my favorite flavor, but kicked it up a notch by using the Peanut Butter creme Oreos. I am interested by the fact that when the first came out they were branded Reese’s peanut butter, but now they’re not. I wonder what went south in that relationship? I can’t tell if they actually taste different now or not. They still taste good, so I suppose it doesn’t matter. We also watched the movie Wild, which was fine.

Saturday we went to the farmer’s market as we do every Saturday. It was the stupid Charles Street 12 miler, which I hate. It’s literally a race that runs down Charles street, which is the major north-south street in Baltimore and cuts the city in half. Sure it’s a great idea to make a race cut off one side of the city from the other. The farmer’s market is on the other side of Charles Street from us, so it’s always a pain to get to the market during this race. It’s even more annoying than the marathon that runs right along the side of where the market is located. We just drove and parked as close as we could get and then walked the mile to get to the market.

I was a little sad because Blacksauce Kitchen had their fried chicken and spicy honey biscuit sandwich, which is their best one, but I already had brunch plans so there was no way I could eat that and go to brunch. Now I wait the many months until it comes back around in the rotation. I met my friends Lesli and Emily for lunch at Woodberry Kitchen. It’s been a long time since I’ve been there, so it was nice to go back. We had a delicious meal, and then I took Emily to the library to get a library card. I had to pick up a book on hold and she is new to Baltimore and said she wanted to get a card. I of course am always happy to get people hooked into libraries. We walked around the neighborhood and did a little shopping after that. I finally popped into the new little tea shop that just opened. I was hoping they would have loose tea, but they didn’t. I still bought a tin of pomegranate oolong iced tea, and I have my eye on some other things for when it actually gets colder and I start drinking hot tea again. I spent most of the rest of the day reading as I had three library books come up for me at the same time even though I requested them at different times and was different places on the hold list. Never fails though. I don’t understand.

Sunday morning I went to church. My church normally has two services, but once a quarter they do what they call unity service and have just one service either with a potluck breakfast before or lunch after. This time it was breakfast, so I got to spend some time eating lots of delicious breakfast food and chatting with friends before the service. Sunday afternoon we headed up to our friends’ Kevin and Tracie’s house to swim in their pool and pick crabs. Well only a few of us actually picked crabs. Most everyone else just got crab cakes. Wimps. Maryland blue crabs are expensive and it is a lot of work for a tiny bit of food, but it is delicious and I feel like a rite of Maryland summer. I only like to do it once a year, and I almost let this summer get by without doing it. I managed to get it in just under the wire. It was a lovely afternoon with friends and delicious food. It was a great way to end the summer.

Monday I didn’t really do anything, and it was wonderful. I finished the 700 page book I was reading, started another one, listened to some podcasts, and watched a little bit of Alias which is the current old show I’m making my way through. It was a nice lazy day and hopefully one that leaves me rejuvinated enough to make it through the next few crazy weeks at work.