The day is sunny, but the humidity has returned, and a thunder shower is predicted for late this afternoon. I find days like today, sticky days, are best spent sitting and doing as little as possible, and I am quite good at that.

Movie night was great fun. We watched M.A.S.H., a film none of had seen in a very long time, and we still found it funny and laughed out loud. The only glitch in the evening was caused by Miss Gracie. She found the meat, ready for the grill, in a bag on the kitchen counter and helped herself to the burgers. Some had disappeared entirely and the rest were gnawed. Luckily there was more meat so we all got a burger, though not special Tony burgers, the highly anticipated dining highlight. Later, during the movie Gracie, exhausted by her escapade, fell asleep on her afghan on the deck.

My brother and I had a similar experience with Duke, the Boxer we grew up with. He found my mother’s roast beef defrosting on the counter and helped himself. Luckily, we caught him almost in the act and were able to wrest away the roast. Boxers are gentle dogs so we didn’t think twice about saving the meat. When we looked at the roast, we saw teeth marks all across the sides. We washed the meat then spent time pushing and pulling and smoothing until the teeth marks were pretty much gone. We put the roast back on the counter far enough from the edge that Duke wouldn’t be able to grab it again. We never told my mother.

The roast was delicious and we kept looking at each other during dinner and laughing every now and then. Nothing brings a brother and sister closer than a shared conspiracy.