Home Alone

What do you do when you have the house to yourself?

When Sam and I moved in together I was a little worried about not having space and time to myself. But our schedules are not very congruent, and I end up having several evenings throughout the week all to myself. They're nice. I make plans with friends a lot of the time, but sometimes I just go home so I can hang out and do nothing. At least, my version of nothing:

Gardening: I use this term loosely. We have a couple garden boxes planted with tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, carrots, and peas. "Gardening" involves watering these plants and then looking at them. Seriously. I just kind of stare at them with this immense feeling of satisfaction. Sometimes I pick at a stray weed. Attempt to thin the carrots or lettuce out (My thinning attempts are pathetic because I feel bad about pulling them out). Redirect the pea plant tendrils. Mostly, I just stare at the plants. Also, I get the potting soil out and start repotting plants. Sam comes home to find random piles of dirt scattered around the garage.

Accordion: I feel like there are only certain hours in the day that I can play. Too late and your neighbors will be bummed. If I come home within the acceptable window, I play the accordion. The neighbors have been subjected to "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" lately. Lucky them.

Cook: Rare. Quite rare. But it's usually an all-evening affair and then requires an extensive amount of follow-up kitchen cleaning. I feel like cooking usually pushes the other activities to the wayside (yet another reason to avoid it), I'm all about free-time maximization.

Dance Aerobics: Sam will never see this in action. I put music on, pull my hand weights out, and I do random movements, off-the-cuff routines, various calisthenics, and muscle-building exercises. Not for the eyes of others. Sometimes I wonder if the neighbors can see me. I like to think that they can't.

Artistic Forays: Writing, drawing, painting. These things don't happen enough. I think I allocate too much time to gardening.

I'm interested. What do other people do? Is this pretty on par? I know Kyle Arthur likes to drink beer and work on websites to all hours of the night. I don't think I've ever done that.