I love Mondays this year. 

The symphony always has Monday off.  It’s their weekend (or at least part of it, occasionally Tuesday or Sunday as well.)

Last year I made the schedule error of working all day on Monday.  This meant I could never stay long at Sunday night symphony gatherings, which made me bitter and cranky.  It also meant that I wasn’t around on Chris’s day off and we were never able to do anything together on those days.

This year I only teach at home Monday, so I can sleep in if needed, go out to lunch, or whatnot.  It’s glorious!

In any case, the weather last night was absolutely glorious, so we decided to grill.  We invited our friends Jon and Laura over for an impromptu barbecue.  (Not barbeque.  Remember, that’s one of my spelling bee words, like separate.)

No gathering is complete without cheese and crackers.  It’s my biggest weakness, yet the easiest way to make your guests feel fancy.

While waiting for our guests, we did a little photo shoot.  We tried to remember what we had learned the day before.

I use a more gentle, ladylike hold on the cat.  I tried to get her to kiss me back but she wasn’t having it.  (Wait, did this turn into a Caturday post?  It’s TUESDAY, not Caturday!)  And please ignore that first picture of me that looks like I have a weird skin disease.  I don’t, I swear, it’s the flash!  That circle on my arm doesn’t exist in real life…

Okay, ANYWAY. 

I naturally took no more pictures during the course of the meal.  We had burgers, cole slaw, and a garbanzo bean salad Laura brought over. 

And then for dessert they brought over a few brownies, which paired perfectly with what I got at the grocery store.

When I brought it home from the store, Chris gave me a LOOK.  (We don’t generally purchase ice cream, or junk food, because then we eat it.)  I told him we had two choices, we could serve it to our friends, and since one container serves four (according to the nutrition information) that would be perfect, or we could leave it in the freezer and I would eat it all alone one night, while crying in the dark. 

You can guess what we chose.

Jon worked really hard to evenly distribute the ice cream.  And by that I mean he TOTALLY gave himself the most and pretended it all looked even.  Which was fine, I didn’t need much anyway, just a taste really.

I wonder, were we the first people to ever put a pint of Ben and Jerry’s into four bowls for four people to split?  Does that happen often?  It’s gotta be pretty rare.  That’s healthy living, people.  Splitting a pint of Ben and Jerry’s amongst four of you.  You heard it here first.