I feel like an army of midgets have been hitting me with baseball bats, but the first stump is gone and all the sidewalk is broken up.

I don’t know how we packed all of that action into two days, but we did. Early Saturday morning I rented an electric jackhammer and went to work on the left-hand stump next to the front door, which has been sitting in a 1-foot deep crater since last weekend. I excavated another foot all the way around the base, then used a combination of jackhammer, sawzall, and axe to hack away at the root structure that I could see. The bush had been planted far enough back that it was hard to swing at the rear of the root ball without hitting the house, but I learned to work lefty quite well by the end of the day. During a break, I broke up the sidewalk on the right side of the house and gathered it all into a pile. By about 3:30 or so the stump was moving slightly when kicked, so I threw a chain on it, put the truck in 4-low and pulled it out with a minimum of fuss.

Our old friends R&K arrived from Easton at 6, and we introduced them and their son to our babysitter. She and the two kids got along like old friends (it’s gratifying to have Finn run up and give our babysitter a hug when she walks in the door). Then, dressed in our going-to-town clothes, we drove to Petit Louis for reservations at 7. Cocktails were poured, laughter ensued, and we all had a fantastic meal in the absence of our children. We were all able to COMPLETE ENTIRE SENTENCES! WITH EACH OTHER! It was incredible. The food was better than we hoped (and remembered) it would be, and the sommelier paired it all with a fantastic bottle of red.

After dinner, we dropped off R., who was fading after having worked overtime that morning, and went out to the Pure Wine Cafe in Ellicott City for after-dinner drinks. We were surprised to find we were still there—and awake— at 1:30 in the morning.

Sunday morning I had a slight hangover. We adjourned to brunch for tall Bloody Marys and wheelbarrows full of food to soak up all the wine in our systems, then wandered back home to clean up and nap. On the way to the car in the parking lot, my glasses slipped off my head and landed directly in the path of Finn’s shoe, where the right arm came to grief. Sigh. To be fair, they were getting scratchy, and the arms were in desperate need of adjustment, but I wasn’t planning on buying an entirely new pair.

I hit the front yard to begin excavating the second stump and got about halfway down before pausing to run to the mall to have new glasses made. By the time I made it back the sun was low in the sky, so I aimed the jackhammer at the other sidewalk and worked my way down to the driveway. By the time I’d finished I had blisters at the tops of both palms and I could barely lift the hammer up onto the Scout.