Well, this past weekend went according to plan. I was able to sleep in two mornings in a row (which, of course, meant that I would open my eyes and be fully awake at 9:30 am both days, but I was able to laze and doze thereafter, so it was still amazing). And I did manage to get a few errands done making me feel pretty productive.

Bryan and I actually decided (well, I decided, he graciously assisted) to hang a wallpaper border in my bathroom. It is not a large bathroom and we bought all of the necessary supplies. Easy, right? When will I learn? We followed the directions on the border to a T, even listening to my wallpaper guru (mom) and buying paste in case the pre-pasted stuff sucked. We wet and stuck and pasted and re-stuck and smoothed and sponged and pressed. And the damn stuff came unglued in pockets and bubbles in various, random places as it dried throughout the evening. The next day, we re-wet, re-pasted, re-smoothed,re-sponged, re-pressed. To no avail. The good news: the pockets and air bubbles are growing on me.

We also went to Os-car's to get an oil change for my SAAB. Os-car's is a tiny place in downtown Framingham (read: Brazilian) with one mechanic named...Oscar. I have been bringing my car there for about a year and I love it. Everytime I go, Oscar lets me stand right there as he puts my car up on the lift and drains the oil. He walks me through the entire procedure, usually scolding me for the too-black sludge that emerges when he loosens the bolt on my oil tank. And without fail, three to twelve or more people stop by while he is changing my oil. He talks to everyone as he moves around his small, two-dock garage. This time I met his 3-year old son (Surprise, surprise: named Oscar), his wife, her sister, her son, his surrogate father and a few neighbors. I love the bustle of the shop, seeing what delicious-looking food his wife has brought him, feeling like a member of an elite community where everyone seemingly knows everyone else. And I got to see the finger that Oscar recently lost half of (now mostly healed). All for a $20 oil change. Not bad.

Went to see dingers last night with Bryan, his cousin Jeff and his Uncle Burt from California. It was probably the last live game I will see this season and it was pretty painful. Pedro pitched a gem, but so did Kazmir, a twenty-year old pitcher who just shut down the Sox offense. Nixon hit a great, crowd-ralllying 2-run homer late in the game, but the Sox could not climb out of a 5 run deficit. Uncle Burt got to see Fenway for the first time, but he did not get to experience the ebullience of a win there.

Going to watch dingers in a bar in Cambridge tonight. Maybe we'll have better luck with that. Keep your rally caps on and your cheering voices ready - we've got our eye on October.