A Quiet Weekend

Saturday was another beautiful day.  Rich and I decided to spend some time at our lovely pool.  It was so refreshing and relaxing to swim, and then read by the pool.  The water is usually warm, because the temperature doesn't usually get below 77 degrees, and it usually gets up to about 90 degrees every day.  It has felt a little cool a couple of times, when the wind picked up for an upcoming storm, or right after it rained, when the sun hadn't had a chance to warm it up yet.  They also have lots of shade around the pool, so that we ghosts from Chicago won't burn to a crisp.  The last thing that makes it very comfortable is the fact that they spray for bugs very regularly.  I cringe when I think what this does to the ecological balance, but it does make it pleasant by the pool.  Also, I have not seen any cockroaches in my apartment.

After lunch, we headed back to Liang Court (the furniture mall).  I wanted to show Rich the giant Japanese grocery store.  He had ordered a printer, and had gotten a call that it had come in.  We wanted to look for an electric grill, too.  So, we headed to the appliance store first.  We picked out a grill, and told the salesperson that we wanted it delivered.  It wouldn't arrive "til Monday, killing my grilling on Sunday plans, but I didn't want to be schlepping it around!  Then we went to pay for the printer, and have it delivered it with the grill.  It somehow happened that they gave us a two-wheel cart and bungee cord for free, so we took everything right then.  Sunday grilling was back on!

Now it was time to take our big old cart, with the printer and grill bungeed to it, into the giant Japanese grocery store.  I got a regular cart, and put my little wheelie grocery cart on the bottom.  Being a Saturday, the grocery store was much more crowded than when I visited on Tuesday evening.  I am sure that Rich and I didn't make any friends that day, as we wheeled our two big old carts together through the store!!  My wheelie grocery cart was so full, that I had to tie the bag of bananas to the handle.  Rich was very excited, though, because he found Johnsonville brats.  Now, we had a grill AND brats to cook on it.  Rich was a very happy Wisconsin boy!

I am very embarrassed to say that we went back to the Wine Bar for dinner on Saturday.  We had a great sauteed vegetable salad, and croquettes made from prawns, salmon, and herbs.  Rich had very tasty salmon ravioli, and I had cheese and spinach ravioli.  Our waitress was a flake.  She came to get our order within 1 minute of us being seated.  Then our entrees were delivered 2 bites into our salads.  Finally, napkins must have been at a premium that evening, because we asked her for more twice, and we never got any!  But the food is good, and reasonably priced, and the restaurant is close.  What I was embarrassed about, though, is that there are probably as many restaurants within walking distance of our apartment, as there are in the whole tri-city area (Batavia-Geneva-St. Charles).  I have been doing research, to try to find other restaurants to visit, but haven't found anything yet.  There's still time before Saturday date night!

Sunday, we visited the pool again, as the weekend is the only time Rich gets to swim.  After lunch, I locked him in his room, so he would study for his securities test, that he would take on Monday.  We fired up the electric grill, and had the salmon and asparagus that I had gotten at Tiong Bahru Market.  It was quite tasty.  Rich tried another of the Badger beers - "First Gold"- and liked it as well.  We ended the weekend in the hot tub, something that I hope will become a Sunday tradition!

The front of the Badger "First Gold" beer label...

A pound of strawberries is $19.99!  I think of all the strawberries I wasted....

Making snowmen at Liang Court.

...and the side of the label, with the Badger head.

Because Singapore is 14 hours ahead of Chicago time, the Oscars weren't on in Singapore until Monday morning.  I am not usually an Oscars fan, but something about this show appealed to me this year.  Maybe it just represented America to me.  I watched it all the way through.  I was very short with Rich when he called me to tell me that he passed his test, because he called just as they announced the Best Picture.  I told him that I would have to call him back.  When he arrived home, I made him watch the re-telecast.  He watched it all the way through, too.  He doesn't remember the last time he did that, either!  Absence makes the heart grow fonder...