Sam & Marcy's weekend overview.

I love productive weekends, don’t you? Sam and I managed to fit in lots of exciting activities in addition to several naps. For instance:

A junket to Costco. On Saturday morning while I shoved a cart around the store buying marinated shrimp, organic raspberries and a gigantic bottle of salsa, Sam hung out at the AT&T booth and got us some new cell phones. It’s a remedial Motorola model and exactly what we wanted: free, easy to use, huge keys and no fancy doodads. (See photo below.) I know some of you will find this hard to believe, but the only thing we use them for is PHONE CALLS. Don’t tell anybody.

A long ride across Dallas. Early Saturday evening we drove Northwest Highway from our house in Mesquite all the way out to suburban Coppell ... about 40 miles each way on surface streets. Sam and I love driving around together because it’s like being on vacation. Plus we get to suck Altoids and wear seat belts.

Adventures with Cincinnati Chili. I bought all my ingredients on Friday and made the recipe Sunday afternoon for the first time in more than 20 years ... and it turned out GREAT. Sorry, but I didn’t invite anybody to share it with us because leftover Cincinnati Chili is awesome.

Yard appreciation. Our lawn is the envy of our subdivision. In the last few days three neighbors, an exterminator and a Schwan’s delivery guy have stopped to comment on the condition of our front yard, which is a thick, weed-free carpet of green. Trust me, this is no accident. We have excellent landscapers who mow and edge for us once a week, but it’s Sam who pulls every weed by hand and fertilizes the grass.

Turner Classic Movies. This weekend’s filmography included: 1) Double Wedding with William Powell and Myrna Loy; 2) a dopey British film about a goat called A Kid for Two Farthings; 3) The Rising of the Moon, a trio of weird Irish short stories directed by John Ford; 4) a terrific comedy called Captain’s Paradise with Alec Guiness; and 5) Tarzan the Ape Man with Johnny Weissmuller, Maureen O’Sullivan, C. Aubrey Smith and Cheetah. Incidentally, when we aren’t watching movies we like to watch “Cops.”

Thank you for reading this.