This morning I was on a mission to get Ashley and Eric's deck stained. I was up early and began with re-staining the benches and other vertical wooden surfaces. It took several hours to brush in the stain across all the various surfaces.
After a quick lunch break, I returned to staining, this time working on the floor of the deck itself. Due to the age of the wood and its deterioration due to countless Portland winter rains, I took the time to brush the stain into the wood, working patiently on all crevices and the spacing between the decking boards.
After a nine hour day of work, the deck was almost completely re-stained. Eric made it home from work just as I was finishing up the day's staining. After a much needed shower, I joined he and Ashley and we made a quick decision to go out for Thai food.
We went to a favorite Thai restaurant close by the house. We ate sumptuous appetizers including Thai spring rolls and Bean Thread soup. For entrees we ordered some Beer Skewers with Sticky Rice, my favorite Thai curry Gang Panang, and Dracula's Revenge, a Thai dish loaded with ounces and ounces of caramelized garlic in the sauce. Dinner was wonderful, and while eating Eric and I began talking about ice cream, which led to a discussion about Mayberry's cake dish sundaes which we ate as children back in Charlotte.
This led to a post dinner search for a cake dish sundae creation. First there was the stop at the grocery store. No luck there, but Eric left Ashley and me in the store to go to the nearby Baskin Robbins. He came back with a large frozen ice cream cake, and we headed home to add hot fudge and to gorge ourselves. We capped off the evening with more episodes of the 3rd season of 24. I'm hooked.
The foot continues to heal very slowly...each day the opening of the incision closes a little...but it's taking forever! The good news is that there are plenty of projects to keep me occupied until I return to the trail.
