After working more than ten and a half hours today (with about five minutes of down time), I’m going to dispense with the usual weekend update and just post photos from our 4th of July weekend at the cottage. Lots of fun was had by all:

Fireworks at Ty’s House

Fireworks at Ty’s House, #2

The Southers Brothers on the boat

Brandon and Marina on the boat

Boat hair

Best 4th of July sunset ever

Aunt Stefy and Brandino

Fun with sparklers

Ice cream at Cook’s

Okay, so I’ve been sitting on these for the better part of a week, but better late than never. Here are a few photos from Morgan’s last softball game of the year:

She didn’t have the best performance of her four-game career, but her team still won the game, meaning they were able to finish out the season with a perfect 10-0 record.

Hey, anyone remember when I had enough free time to post on this blog almost every day? Me neither. Here are a few highlights from the weekend.

Friday: For some dumb reason I felt compelled to buy a Little Caesar’s Hot ‘n Ready pizza for dinner. This is a mistake I will not repeat again any time soon. Other than the bad pizza, there wasn’t much to report on from this night… just some down time in front of the TV.

Saturday: I slept in past 9 a.m. for the first time in I don’t know how long. Most of the morning was spent lying around the house, before finally getting up and around for a town hall with the boss in Charlotte. We had a pretty decent turnout at the event, and even though our opponent’s campaign manager was there (which was a little weird), I thought it went well.

Stef arrived at my place later that afternoon after spending the day out at the lake with the Southers family. By the time she got there we pretty much had to turn around and leave for Brian’s barbecue. We had a few raindrops while we were there and the mosquitos went to town on my legs, but other than that we had a really fun time. Brian always has a good crowd at his events.

Sunday: We did a little shopping at Target before grabbing lunch at Max & Erma’s on our way to see Wall•E yesterday afternoon. For a story about a robot living on a deserted planet with very little dialogue, this was honestly one of the best love stories I’ve ever seen in a movie. I keep waiting for Pixar to come out with a dud, but so far they’re still batting 1.000.

Last night we decided to experiment in the kitchen by making homemade guacamole and chicken tacos, and both turned out reasonably well. Stef and I have basically settled into a routine where she’s the Executive Chef and I’m her Sous Chef. No matter what’s on the menu, it’s always fun to make a meal together like this.

Anyway, that’s it for now. I have no clue how much time I’ll get off for the 4th this Friday, but tomorrow and Wednesday could be pretty hectic at work, so it might not be another week until I’m able to check in again.

So I finally had a chance to finish season two and the series finale of ‘Extras’ on DVD over the weekend. It’ll never live up to the original Office in my book, but there were plenty of bust-a-gut moments, like this:

“If we were to draw a graph of my process — of my ‘method’ — it would be something like this: Sir Ian, Sir Ian, Sir Ian, ACTION! - WIZARD! YOU SHALL NOT PASS! - CUT! Sir Ian, Sir Ian, Sir Ian.”

There’s not a lot else to report on from the weekend. We had a coffee hour with Mark in Dimondale on Saturday that went well, and I was finally able to carve out some time to knock doors for Brian’s campaign as well.

Stef’s stopping by for a visit on Thursday, going home on Friday, and then coming back to Lansing on Saturday, so it’ll be nice to spend some time with my girl this week. Morgan’s last softball game is on Wednesday, so I’ll be going to that as well, but that’s about it (so far) for this week.

Here are my top three picks for Colbert’s Green Screen Challenge to make John McCain Exciting:

Blue Suede Shoes

Dinosaurs fighting

Old time footage

So I came home after a long day today. After eating nothing but finger food at a fundraiser tonight, I was hungry for a snack by about 10 p.m.

I walked into the kitchen… nothing in the fridge, no milk for cereal, nothing in the freezer, nothing good to munch on.

Not even a box of Junior Mints.

The only thing I could find was bag of popcorn that my mom had put in my Easter basket this year.

Now, I have a college degree and a pretty decent job. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say I’m relatively smart. And yet, apparently, I can’t microwave a bag of popcorn without burning it.

Seriously, this has to be the worst smell ever… it’s still lingering in the air after more than an hour.

I would try to figure out a way to get rid of the stench, but it’s late and I’m feeling lazy. I guess there’s a reason I don’t have any food in the apartment.

The weekend (such as it was) is already a blur, but I’ll try to re-cap the highlights. On Saturday morning I got up at the crack of dawn and drove to Battle Creek to get some footage of Mark working the crowd at the World’s Longest Breakfast table event. They basically line up picnic tables end-to-end through the heart of downtown and serve up free bowls of cereal from Post, Kellogg and Ralston. It was actually a lot of fun — I tried a bowl of Fruit Loops with Marshmallows (sugariffic) and got to see our guy in action shaking hands and kissing babies, so it was worth the trip.

I made it back home by late morning, and got to spend the rest of the day with Stefy as she came through town on her way back to Chicago. We didn’t really do anything that special, besides take a short walk through the Beal Gardens and hang out at my place. But that’s exactly what I needed… some time to relax.

Most of Sunday was spent in campaign meetings, but I didn’t feel to bad about not seeing my old man on Father’s Day since he was (ahem) out of town on vacation anyway. Of course, I still made all the requisite phone calls during my drive home yesterday afternoon, and even managed to squeeze in a short visit at my grandma’s house on the way home so I could spend some time with my grandpa for Father’s Day.

So yeah, that’s basically it for the weekend. I don’t mind busy days like that, but the thing I missed the most was the ability to sleep in past 7 a.m. Guess I better get used to it.

On an unrelated note, I am now officially hooked on Viva La Vida: