Saturday we did a lot of errands, and after getting home we did a bunch of work in the backyard. Finn and Jen worked on shoring up and mulching the rear flowerbed while I looked over the rear of the greenhouse, which had blown out during the last windstorm.

When I’d removed the middle polycarbonate panel last spring I made it very difficult to replace due to the way the greenhouse was constructed: the panels slot into a thin channel at the top and bottom, and are sandwiched in between two vertical rails. Because I couldn’t fit the panel back into the top last fall, I sort of half-installed it and hoped it would stay in place, which it obviously didn’t.

I took the panels apart and reinstalled the two sides with new screws, and then thought about how I was going to work with the center section; ultimately I reinstalled the chickenwire plug and put the panel behind that to hold it in place. The eventual goal will be to cut the middle panel down to an 8×8 square and reinstall the top section permanently, then find a way to put the bottom half in as either a door or a removable panel.

While I had the back walls off I removed the insulation blocks from the south wall, which had been left over from before we moved in. It’s amazing how much more light gets in there now, and it’ll get even better after I’ve replaced the plastic. It also laid bare just how janky the footings are (the wood along the bottom in the picture above), so I’ve got to get on replacing those first when the weather is a little warmer.

Sunday we were invited to brunch at the neighbors’, and planned on making some egg nog french toast to bring. Jen and I made the nog from scratch on Saturday evening (result: it was tasty but it’s much easier to buy it at the store) and Sunday morning I cooked them up before we walked over. There were a bunch of families we haven’t seen in months, and while the kids all ran and played outside we adults ate and drank and caught up. Somewhere around 12:30 or so I noticed I had a pleasant day drunk on, and a little while after that I was  convinced to have an Irish car bomb/cement mixer with a bunch of other folks (I declined the second one). We stayed until about 6:30 and walked back home, pleasantly squiffed, ordered a pizza, and kissed the rest of our day goodbye.

Which meant that this morning, my birthday, I was feeling a little rough when I first woke up.