Get a kayak. Build a website. Buy a dress.

That’s what my to-do list looked like this week.

This morning, I spend a couple of hours lounging comfortably in sweatpants and a t-shirt, settled in a reclining chair with my laptop open, working on a website. I had fun fooling around with the drag-and-drop website builder that a friend had recommended. Building a website turned out to be way easier than I thought it would be. I love it when I have the leisure time to learn new stuff.

Then I went shopping. I usually avoid buying clothes whenever possible, but I’ve got a bunch of weddings to go to this summer. Some of the out-of-town weddings involve more than just a reception — I’m invited to dinners and brunches and events where I suspect my cut-off jean shorts leftover from the 70s might look a little out of place. I have one nice dress that I wear to weddings — if you’re friends with me on facebook, you’ve probably seen it — but when I looked at my calendar, it became clear to me that my faithful blue dress might not stretch to match every occasion.

Luckily, I didn’t have to brave the clothing store alone. Beautiful Piano Teacher agreed to come with me. Actually, the shopping trip was her idea. All I had to do was mention that jeans skirt I’ve worn for the last twenty years, and she said, “That’s it. We’re going shopping.”

Shopping with Beautiful Piano Teacher is fun because she does all the work. She goes through the racks at the discount clothing place, yanks out anything she thinks will look good on me, and then tells me to try everything on. In the dressing room, she talks about whether or not the clothes are in fashion, while I do calisthenics to test them for comfort.

We ended up finding two dresses — one that’s casual and one that’s more dressy — and I bought them both. In less than an hour, I managed to triple my summer dress wardrobe. By then I was getting the zombie feeling I was always get when I’m in a clothing store, so we went out to lunch.

After that I stopped at my parents’ house to show them the two dresses. We had tea while we talked about the most exciting of the upcoming weddings: Urban Sophisticate Sister and Tall Architect are getting married in Big City Like No Other. They are only inviting immediate family, but that’s twenty-six people on our side, all congregating in the city for the celebration. It’s going to be fun.

My youngest son With-a-Why and I have decided that we are going to arrive to the wedding by kayak. It will take us over a week of paddling to get there, but we figure it will make us the coolest guests at the wedding. So that led to chore number three: I went to several stores to look at two-person kayaks. I’ve already got five canoes and a single kayak, and I want to add to the fleet. As much as I hate shopping for clothes, I love hanging out in boat stores, looking at kayaks and sailboats and canoes, discussing the possibilities with the salespeople.

That was my day. I love summertime.