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Do any of you have friends with whom you can sit around all day, doing practically nothing, and be happy for the experience?  If you don’t, then I’m sorry for you; that is, perhaps, the mark of a truly great friendship.

Saturday was a much less structured day than Friday, but that didn’t make it any less lovely.  Gerry and I spent much of the morning sitting across from each other at the table, our laptops open back-to-back, scanning our morning reads and talking about everything and nothing.  He is a man of much thought, this friend of mine, and I think it delights him to have someone to speak those thoughts to; we had a lovely morning.

The adults decided that Saturday would be a day of few organized plans.  Honey and I headed to the grocery store to procure ingredients for our evening meal; rice and cheese for Honey’s rice balls, eggs and milk for my creme caramel (give me a day or two, then watch this space for a special edition – specifically requested by Beanie – of In The Kitchen with Chili).  Since both of our meals required some pre-preparation – risotto and custard are not for the impatient – we women headed for the kitchen and got to work (with Punkin’s help)  while the men played on their computers and watched a little t.v. and Beanie played on Poppy’s iPhone.

Our meals prepared and chilling for the last steps of the recipes, we decided to head for the beach to do a little sea glass hunting.  Since it is Labor Day on the Cape (hello!?  You think we’re the only ones here?!), Honey thought it best that we make for her friend’s beach, which is “private” for the community in which she lives.  Mr. Chili and Gerry decided they were going to ride bikes there, and it takes significantly longer to bike there than to drive, so all the girls piled into the car and headed for downtown Falmouth to do a little shop browsing.  Honey needed to head to the Black Dog to buy a toy, Punkin’ decided she wanted a shirt from the shop, and I picked up a Black Dog ball cap for my beloved.  A cruise through a couple of really cute shops yielded glitter balls for Beanie and me.

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We called home to find that the men hadn’t left yet, so we found ourselves with more time to kill.  What’s a great way kill time?  CUPCAKES!  We girls ducked into a cupcake shop on Main street (despite Honey’s telling us that it’s wasn’t THE cupcake shop) and had ourselves a little snack while we waited for the guys to get a move on.  I shared a carrot cake with Honey (my carrot cake is much better, but the frosting was heavenly – I do love cream cheese (cheesy, cheesy, creamy cheesy!) frosting), Beanie got a cherry vanilla, and Punkin’ got a chocolate mint.  Honey was right; they weren’t as good as THE cupcakes, but they weren’t exactly awful, either.

Cupcakes consumed, we headed for the car and, from there, to the beach, where we found a handful of glass and had a lovely time.  Gerry’s philosophy (and I agree completely) is that it’s not what one comes back with that matters – one could comb the whole beach and not find a single speck of anything worth picking up – it’s the time spent in a lovely place with people one cares about.  Amen.

After a sufficient time on the beach (and in the sun) we all made for the house and dinner.  Punkin’ and I formed rice balls around chunks of cheese and pureed mushrooms while Honey manned the fryer, then we set the table and tucked in.  We had exactly enough – each of the grown-ups had 2 1/2 rice balls and a nice bit of salad, each of the girls had one and some carrots and ranch dip – then we busted out the dessert.

I’ll explain my relationship with custard over at The Kitchen, but suffice here to say that I was a little nervous; I had a tough crowd to play to, and I wanted to get it just right.  Imagine my relief when the custards plopped obediently into their plates, little pools of dark caramel spilling down their sides.  Every last bit of the sticky-sweet stuff was consumed (we even thought, for a brief moment, that Mr. Chili and Honey might actually lick their plates) and I heaved a huge sigh of relief.  It was a lovely dinner, and one that I hope to repeat at home sometime soon (though I’m thinking of adding a nice tomato-and-cream soup to the mix; that’d make a perfectly scrumptious winter supper).

The rest of the evening was spent in what Gerry calls “sloth and idleness” (which is a term I love).  We had some college football on the t.v., the computers were buzzing, and general amity filled the house.

Sigh.

We’re not sure what’s on the agenda for today, though the idea of going to Chatham to look at the sharks has been floated (yeah, yeah, I know, bad pun).  We’re definitely having pizza (they’ve got a killer pizza place here; in fact, Paul’s was one of the things on my very short list of stuff to do while I was here), and there may be more glass hunting.  I fully expect, even if we don’t do “anything,” that we’ll have a wonderful time.

Mr. Chili and I have pretty much decided that we’re going to head for home tonight after dinner; for as much as we’d love to stay, we don’t want to cancel out all this relaxation and good mojo by sitting in Labor Day traffic tomorrow.  I’m very much looking forward to seeing Morgan and her beloved tomorrow, too.

It’s good to be me right now.