First Full Day of Fall

So, the baby girl is away at college, the boulevard maples have already lost almost all of their leaves, giving us the fall color show in August and September instead of just starting now, I have finally cracked the eating and exercise code (with some help from the blogs I follow) for myself, and I decided to get back onto the writing portion of this blog, instead of just checking in on the ones that I follow.
Last weekend we enjoyed some time at our favorite B&B and found a nice wine bar - in July, I visited some Michigan wineries with a friend and learned I have a 2 winery (per day) limit. I have just learned about some Minnesota wineries I'd like to check out.
In August, I learned about something that I believe will change the face of energy production (go check out Daniel Nocera of MIT) and was inspired to study Organic Chemistry - just for the fun of it. Go figure! I have also been checking out some of the old "classics" (rhetoric, logic, etc) besides reading some fun stuff besides. Oh, and go see Food, Inc, and then locate a source for grass-fed beef. Read the Vegetarian Myth by Lierre Keith to see why you should be eating meat in the first place. :-)
My job continues to be finding joy, and I am getting very good at it. If you want to find out what I think is the key to solving the eating/exercise mystery, email me and I will certainly be happy to let you know. It is so simple that it is ridiculous that it took me 56 years to figure it out, or should I say - to remember!
Have a great fall!

Daylilies

The daylilies are blooming like mad, about 10 days or so ahead of their usual schedule. July is chilly so far, with a sprinkling of hot and humid - not much of that. Not bad, but it is surely weird to have to have a heavy sweatshirt zipped all the way up for a morning walk in July, as I had yesterday...today a long sleeved shirt sufficed.

Had a wonderful trip to Michigan wine country a week or so ago - and learned that I have a 2 winery limit. Lovely wines to try and buy - I needed a bigger vehicle! And only locked my keys in the car one time - on the one hot day so the top was up and I couldn't just crawl in to get them - figures. New rule - always carabinerize the keys to my belt loop BEFORE I get out of the car.

I am feeling really great these days. My new habit of walking first thing on days when I do not have sprints to do, followed by coffee and sudoku, suits me. I especially love getting out by 6:30, before the sun is high enough to get into my eyes. The world is especially beautiful then. My flowers are doing well, and need extra watering...not much rain in these part. I read yesterday that we are about a foot behind the typical rainfall amounts for this time of year. Yikes!

The windchimes sound good this morning - just a little breezy, unlike yesterdays gale force winds. Nice to be out on the deck...and those daylilies - I believe there are 5 times as many blossoms as we had last year. I love them - they are so easy. Just like the rest of my life. Easy and fun. How's yours?

After

Ahhhh....the big event is over - our daughter's grad party. Whew! Lots of prep for a possible big crowd. But the event turned out to be not so big and the weather was a big if. A few pavilions and the little bit of rain we did get was not a factor, thankfully! Kind of a small group of kids, but about 50 people over all, big enough for fun and small enough for lots of leftovers - oh great! ha ha ha

I am enjoying my sprinting sessions and the jump board on the reformer during my Pilates sessions. Feeling really nice and fit. Plans are now for a river cruise from Paris to Normandy and back next spring. Sounds like fun eh? That's what life is for, folks - lots of fun!!!

Have a wonderful day, week, month, life!

later

Perfect Morning

I am having a perfect morning. First, I got to sleep in an extra 30 minutes (got up a little after 6:30), then enjoyed a lovely cup of 1/2 decaf coffee, ran my sprints, jogged and walked another 20+ minutes, enjoyed a lovely iced coffee, colored my hair, took a bath, then a hot tub soak, then a hot/cold shower, another hot coffee, read a couple storied, enjoyed a lot of the above out on the back deck on a beautiful partly sunny, calm, 72ish morning.

Finally!

Here it is, June 11! I am finally able to enjoy my coffee on the deck on a sunny, calm morning! It has been a long time coming. I believe by this time last year, I had been out most mornings for at least a couple of weeks! It's good to see the sun out! The last 6 mornings have been dark. YEA!

So, an open day with a couple of errands - nice. I have 2 days of HIIT behind me already this week, one more to go, tomorrow. I feel really good! The bunnies are out in the back yard and the cottonwood "snow" drifts lazily by. It's nice to enjoy the relative quiet - oh a few birds singing accompanying a little distant traffic noise, but mostly quiet.

How's your day going?

I do want to make a "baffle" for the screen tent door so I don't have to zip and unzip...I don't know what happened to the old one - it was a few years old, so it needed to be replaced anyway. :-) One of the errands, today.

We have been wading through hundreds of unorganized pictures, looking for the gems for my daughter's grad party picture board. Oh my. How the house and yard have changed over the years, not to mention us! Wow. I am glad I appreciated my life all along, and continue to appreciate all I have attracted. Life is really good! REALLY GOOD!!!

Third rainy day in a row...

Oh sure - we need the rain, but still! Lucky for me, the weather does not control the way I feel! I do that. But I would be lying to say it doesn't have an impact!

Things are really green out there. The yard looks great - my daughter has successfully graduated, the party is in a couple of weeks, my birthday season is about done, but we are still in the middle of my girl friend's birthday season, so it's all good.

I am feeling well and healthy and fit and slim. I enjoy my free time and my busy time. The coffee tastes especially good this morning. And the gray skies still seem a bit strange after so many sunny days in a row! I believe the sun will be back tomorrow, though. Nice. Anyway, it's not the gray skies that are the problem, if you ask me - it is the sub 60s temps (with added wind) in June, for crying out loud. Let's have some summer weather, shall we?

Have a great June day, no matter what the weather!

Could It Be Any Better?

Of course it could - it will always get better and better. Doesn't mean I don't appreciate how "perfect" it already is. My two new red bud trees are waiting to get placed. The flats of impatiens are waiting to get potted. The hanging impatiens are waiting to get hung - I can't reach. Spring is greener and greener by the day, except for the pink and white blossoms popping up everywhere! What a glorious season it is.

I had a wonderful birthday/Mother's Day season - I am enjoying my life immensely. I feel so good. Ain't it great? I love my life! It's all good!