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Fabulous Sunday

It was a fabulous Sunday for the Mayor and I at the homestead. The Hubby spent the day working at a side job up in Jupiter. Meanwhile, Goalielocks slept at a friend’s last night, so they could hit the road early to get to Orlando when the parks’ opened. They spent the day at Universal’s Volcano Bay. Truthfully, I was a bit nervous over this whole adventure.

  • Zach playing Jake in Chel 21

This morning the Mayor, greeted me eagerly as soon as I woke up. He was hoping to drive me to Dunkin’. Admittedly, I was nervous as Boynton is a six lane, crowded road. Moreover, the drivers that crowd it have driving skills that are quite questionable. In fact, I’m sure most of them wouldn’t be able to pass their driver’s test. Unsurprisingly, we almost got side swiped while on our way to get coffee. Fortunately, the Mayor was paying attention and honked the horn before we got hit. At any rate, my nerves were shot by the time we got to Dunkin.

I drove home from Dunkin’, so the Mayor could play Pokémon. However, I think both of ours nerves were shot after the drive there. On the way home, we made a quick stop at Target to pick up my prescription. Thankfully, we were first in line at the pharmacy. While I grabbed my prescription, the Mayor grabbed a Lunchable.

Here’s a throwback

I spent the rest of the day watching The Office and organizing our room. It was a fabulous Sunday from a production stand point. I got a lot done and even thinned out my legging collection. Thanks to the Roombas, I was able to vacuum and mop the kitchen and living room floors while I cleaned my bedroom. Honestly, the Roomba is the best invention ever.

I capped off my fabulous Sunday by making grilled chicken tacos courtesy of Blue Apron. The recipe was super easy to follow and execute. Since I’m not a grill aficionado, the Mayor helped get the grill setup and started for me. The chicken turned out perfectly as did the zucchini, salsa and lime crema. I have tried Blue Apron, HelloFresh and HomeChef, Blue Apron had the healthiest options and the highest quality of meat. If you haven’t tried it yet, you can follow click on the link below to get 8 free meals!

Get 8 Free Meals* and Free Shipping When You Switch to Blue Apron. 

Here’s a list of our day’s activities:

*I read the Norse Queen by Johanna Wittenberg.  I love it. In fact, I have started researching Queen Asa.

*Goalielocks headed to Orlando do for a day at Volcano Bay.

*I ran 2 miles and walked a mile. It went really well, which was fantastic.

*The family and I are watching Thirty Rock now that we’ve finished our movie and dinner.

*I made a wonderful Blue Apron meal kit for dinner. Tonight we enjoyed the chicken tacos. It was super yummy!

*After dinner, I attempted to make ice cream. The task is still underway, so stay tuned for the results tomorrow.

*My favorite surprise on the underwater cams, I watch during work, is seeing an octopus. Today I watched the safari cam, which never disappoints.

*Today’s word of the day is shibboleth.

*I took my puppies including sweet Anakin for a walk. Today he didn’t pull my arm off or anything like that. I put on his harness, so I’d have more control over him outside. Also, the flies are still here. Did I mention I hate gnats, flies, and mosquitos? I was finally able to hang the fly traps. Nobody loves flies.

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Long Day

It has been a long day for this lady. Especially given the late night and martinis from dinner last night. My long day started with a 6:00 am wake up, so I could take Goalielocks to practice. My saint of a Hubby was kind enough to run to Dunkin’ after hitting the gym, so I had coffee as soon as I woke up. Yep, he’s totally a keeper!

Me thinking about going to bed after waking up at 6

Of course the early wake up was well worth the pain. I love getting to spend time with my Goalie and time was plentiful since we drove to Miami. Additionally, I love spending time with some of my favorite hockey moms. A morning with them, even at the crack of dawn is a morning well spent. Obviously, it’s also fun to watch practice.

Post-practice I had trouble extracting myself from the couch. I was tired and love watching re-runs of The Office. Eventually, after the episode where they said goodbye to Michael Scott, I was able to peel myself off the couch to run. Thankfully, the last couple of runs have gone fantastically. Also, it woke me up.

I spent the rest of my afternoon rearranging my closet and dresser drawers. In fact, I even managed to get rid of some clothes. Baby steps. As I cleaned, I watched 8 Mile. Twenty minutes into the movie, the Mayor joined me for the movie. He loves watching tv from our bed. As for the movie, obviously, I’m a little late to the party on this, but it was really good.

Afterwards, I took the dogs out. The last couple of days, I’ve been taking Anakin to get the mail with me. This didn’t go so well. First of all, I thought about taking him for a walk in the circle. However, I abandoned this plan given the sheer number of basilisks running through the yard. Secondly, as I grabbed the mail out of the box, Anakin pulled hard to chase a lizard. In the process, I was pulled into the mail box hard. Consequently, I ended up bruised and scratched while the mailbox looks like it got hit by a car.

Here’s a list of our day’s activities:

*I finally finished Demons, by Dostoevsky. It’s my favorite book of his by far. I really enjoyed it. Last night I started, The Norse Queen by Johanna Wittenberg.

*I drove with Goalielocks to Kendall for hockey practice.

*I ran 2 miles and walked a mile. It went really well, which was fantastic.

*The family and I are watching Thirty Rock now that we’ve finished our movie and dinner.

*I made a wonderful Blue Apron meal kit for dinner. Tonight we enjoyed the sweet and spicy chicken. It was super yummy!

*My favorite surprise on the underwater cams, I watch during work, is seeing an octopus. Today I watched the safari cam, which never disappoints.

*Today’s word of the day is incandescent.

*I took my puppies including sweet Anakin for a walk. Did I mention I hate gnats, flies, and mosquitos? I was finally able to hang the fly traps.

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Slow Day

You ever have one of those days at work that’s just a super, slow day. I mean the clock didn’t move at all this morning. By noon, I felt like I had already worked 18 hours. Perhaps it was because everyone I picked up the telephone, the person on the other line was looking for something free. Every time I looked at the clock, only five minutes had passed.

The start to work was so absolutely slow, I actually went to lunch on time. First of all, it is nice to have job where you can actually take a break. For lunch, I had the steel cut oats I had prepped on Sunday. I eat them with unsweetened vanilla almond milk, mixed berries and local honey. It’s definitely not a sexy meal, but it certainly hit the spot. I capped off my lunch with a nice cup of coffee.

Thankfully, my slow day finally started to pick up after lunch. I was on a pace for an okay day, but nothing spectacular. Fortunately, I crushed the second half of the day. Finally, the day was moving and the policies were being written! Huzzah, my slow day was at an end. I’m now pacing for a record setting month during the historically slowest month of the year.

Here’s a list of our day’s activities:

*I read Demons, by Dostoevsky. I am really enjoying this book so far.

*I absolutely slayed my day at work! That’s right two days in a row!

*I ran 1.5 miles and walked a mile. Instead of working out in the morning, I decided to run after work. These past couple of weeks, I’ve been relaxing before work and the results have been awesome.

*The family and I are back to watching Thirty Rock. We’re almost through season five.

*Goalielocks, his girlfriend and I made homemade pizzas for dinner. It was a lot of fun!

*My favorite surprise on the underwater cams, I watch during work, is seeing an octopus. Today I watched the safari cam, which never disappoints.

*There were big thunderstorms today all afternoon. I really need to look into a surge protector for my work equipment.

*Today’s word of the day is tide pool. I can’t wait to go back to the beach and explore the tide pools.

*I took my puppies including sweet Anakin for a walk. Did I mention I hate gnats, flies, and mosquitos? Thankfully, the fly traps arrived today. Emphatically, I’m absolutely sick of those little buggers.

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Anakin vs. Critters

The last two days has felt like an episode of Anakin vs. critters. Yesterday he had a run-in with a very large red ant pile. Fortunately, we were able to brush and wash the ants of quickly because it could have been so much worse. Nonetheless, his left paws and lower legs were littered with ant bites. We’ve been treating them with calamine lotion and Benadryl. Fortunately, it doesn’t seem to be bothering him.

Episode two of Anakin vs. critters happened tonight. When we take Anakin out, he’s immediately on the hunt for any critter he can catch. Whenever he’s outside, no matter what the reason, he’s ready to hunt. Tonight was no exception. Unfortunately, his hunt was successful and he captured a toad. The problem was the toad he caught was venomous. Immediately, the Hubby brought him to the front of the house to wash out his mouth with the hose. Thankfully, he’s a big dog and it was a small toad. These toads can get gigantic and are definitely a threat to dogs’ lives.

Surprisingly, this was the first time he caught a toad. Usually, he catches a gecko of large basilisk. He loves to bring his catches to me, which I dread. I usually have to get Goalielocks or the Mayor to get the lizard out of his mouth. Anakin also enjoys trying to catch butterflies, dragon flies, birds and flies. Most of the time Anakin comes out on top in the Anakin vs. critters game.

Here’s a list of our day’s activities:

*I read Demons, by Dostoevsky. I am really enjoying this book so far.

*I absolutely slayed my day at work!

*I did no exercise today. I woke up with the intention to run, but my neck was stiff and I just didn’t feel up for it.

*The family and I are back to watching Thirty Rock.

*I spent my day with the puppies. This evening I worked with Anakin on some training skills. He did a great job. Of course, I rewarded him with kielbasa, which is his favorite.  We’ve now gone through two kielbasa’s this week. 

*My favorite surprise on the underwater cams, I watch during work, is seeing an octopus. Today I watched the safari cam, which never disappoints.

*There were big thunderstorms today all afternoon. Thankfully, the tropics remain quiet.  Certainly, it wasn’t a good afternoon for those reliant on solar energy. Albeit, the rest of the day was sunny.

*Today’s word of the day is magnanimous. I’m not quite sure what it means. 

*I took my puppies including sweet Anakin for a walk. Did I mention I hate gnats, flies, and mosquitos? Thankfully, the fly traps arrived today. Emphatically, I’m absolutely sick of those little buggers.

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Exhausted

Living exhausted has become a part of life as we all now it. It’s also exactly what I’m feeling today. Fortunately, I’m exhausted due to an action packed weekend. Since the pandemic started, we haven’t done much socially outside of hockey. As the pandemic has abated and people get vaccinated, life as we knew it is slowly going back to normal.

Yesterday, I finally got back to running. I got in two mile run plus a mile walk, which felt good. We spent most the day getting stuff around the house. Afterwards, we headed to Boca to have dinner with Goalielocks, his girlfriend and her parents. It was our first time meeting them. Fortunately, it went really well. They’re great people, which came as no surprise given their daughter is absolutely fabulous.

After dinner, we dropped the kids off at out house and headed to a concert. Our friends live in the neighborhood next to us and their community put on a concert featuring the Turnstiles, a Billy Joel tribute band. They were phenomenal, however, watching a concert outside in July at dusk is just torture. Not only was it wicked hot, the mosquitos, flies and gnats were out in full effect.

The heat and bugs was too much for all of us, so we headed back to John and Hanh’s during the band’s first break. We had an absolute blast drinking and snacking with them and their neighbors. It was an awesome evening. The Mayor even texted and called us several times to ask when we were going to be home.

We finally got home just before midnight. Yesterday was night two of our Anakin sleeping out experiment. So far he’s passed the test. He slept between the hubby’s and my feet. Thankfully, he had no accidents and was a quiet and still sleeper. In fact, the only time he stirred is when I came back to bed after going to the bathroom. It was super cute!

This morning we took the puppies to the wildlife refuge for a walk. Fortunately, there was plenty of cloud cover and a nice breeze. We ended up going just under two miles. Unfortunately, Anakin found himself walking through a large fire ant pile. We urgently poured water in his paws and swatted off the ants. Luckily, we were able to get the ants of pretty quickly. Sadly, he still has a number of any bites on his paws. Thankfully, they don’t seem to be bothering him too badly. We’ve been coating them with calamine lotion and gave him some Benadryl.

I was exhausted today, so I made use of our newest driver. Since he got his permit, the Mayor wants to drive all the time. Consequently, he drove me up to Publix to pick up some stuff for dinner. Later when I needed to get stuff for Anakin’s paws, he drove me to Walgreen’s. Honesty, he still has a lot to learn, but he’s doing great for a new driver.

Here’s a list of our day’s activities:

*I read Demons, by Dostoevsky. I am really enjoying this book so far.

*I ran two miles and walked a mile yesterday. It went actually went really well. Today, instead of running I took the dogs for a walk in the Everglades.

* I bought more cherries and cream, so I could attempt the cherry custard again. Last time I overcooked it. 

*The family and I are back to watching Thirty Rock.

*I adapted my mom’s maple glazed pot roast recipe for the Instant Pot. It turned out fantastically. I’ll be adding the recipe to the blog under a separate post.

*I spent my day with the puppies. This evening I worked with Anakin on some training skills. He did a great job. Of course, I rewarded him with kielbasa, which is his favorite.  We’ve now gone through two kielbasa’s this week. 

*My favorite surprise on the underwater cams, I watch during work, is seeing an octopus. Today I watched the safari cam, which never disappoints.

*There were no big thunderstorms today, which was nice. Thankfully, the tropics remain quiet.  I’m sure we’ll have another reality check soon.

*Today’s word of the day is calumny. I’m not quite sure what it means.

*I took my puppies including sweet Anakin for a walk. Did I mention I hate gnats, flies, and mosquitos? I’m bought some fly traps. I’m absolutely sick of those little buggers. Pretty soon they’ll get a reality check of their own!

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Reality Check

After yesterday’s disappointment, I was handed a reality check. For the last several years, I have volunteered for PanCan as the Teams Chair for the Broward/Palm Beach affiliate. The journey of a patient and their family is arduous and fraught with fear. Fortunately, most of the patients I’ve know didn’t lose their job or benefits during treatment. This gave them one less thing to worry about. Can you imagine the horror losing your benefits in the middle of treatment? Unfortunately, I know this isn’t always the case. Hence, the reality check and utter disappointment.

Consequently, this is also how I know I’m on the right place career wise. When my colleague, who was a seasonal hire, got seriously ill with COVID, the leadership team worked with HR to protect his job. They didn’t have to do this, but their willingness to do it for a seasonal employees spoke volumes. Coincidentally, I also think it speaks volumes for the employee in question. Perhaps this is also why my employer has repeatedly been named as one of the best employers in the country.

Anyway, my day at work was slower than yesterday, but still extremely productive. I’m happy with the pace of my production. Meanwhile, I’m waiting for the Hubby to return from Orlando. They headed out several hours ago, but I noticed on the Life360 app that they were headed north on the turnpike instead of south. Whoops! Needless to say, he’ll be home a little later than anticipated.

Last night we decided to see how Anakin would do sleeping out oh his crate. I left the door opened a crack. When he realized his crate was open, he ran into our bedroom and jumped on the bed. He spent two minutes on the bed and then went back to the living room. Ironically, he was laying in his crate when I went to check on him.

Goalielocks brought him upstairs to see if he’d sleep up there. Again after a few minutes, Anakin wasn’t having it. He whined until Goalielocks took him back downstairs. Afterwards, he did come into the room for a bit, but then headed back to the living room. I don’t think he likes to be separated from his sisters.

Here’s a list of our day’s activities:

*I read Demons, by Dostoevsky. I am really enjoying this book so far.

*I thought about running, but decided to rest my knee.

* I bought more cherries, so I could attempt the cherry custard again. Last time I overcooked it.

*The family and I are watching the Stanley Cup Finals in lieu of continuing our Thirty Rock binge. Thankfully, our power is flickering now that the storm has passed. Consequently, it knocked out the wifi too. Apparently, technology is my nemesis tonight.

*I spent my day with the puppies. This evening I worked with Anakin on some training skills. He did a great job. Of course, I rewarded him with kielbasa, which is his favorite.  We’ve now gone through two kielbasa’s this week.

*My favorite surprise on the underwater cams, I watch during work, is seeing an octopus. Today I watched the safari cam, which never disappoints.

*There were no big thunderstorms today, which was nice. The lightning tends to interfere with my work phone. Thankfully, the tropics remain quiet.  I’m sure we’ll have another reality check soon.

*Today’s word of the day is free. I got my free coffee today at Dunkin’. Free coffee day is always the best!

*I took my puppies including sweet Anakin for a walk. Did I mention I hate gnats, flies, and mosquitos? I’m bought some fly traps. I’m absolutely sick of those little buggers. Pretty soon they’ll get a reality check of their own!

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Twenty Years

Today marks twenty years that my Hubby and I have been married. I can’t believe how fast the years have flown by and how much has changed. Twenty years ago we were a young family of three. Now we’re a family of five plus three puppies. Interesting fact, when we first got married I was terrified of dogs. Our oldest has flown the coop and is doing great in the service.

Twenty years ago we were still living in Minnesota. Four years after we married, we decided to move to South Florida. Our original intent was to stay for two years, but South Florida quickly became our home. Despite moving out of Minnesota, our kids still fell in love with hockey and ended up playing the sport. We’ve already have a decade of hockey parent life under our belt.

Over the past twenty years, so much has changed and some of the people we have held nearest and dearest to our heart have left us. Luke’s grandfather left us in October, 2020. He was always our champion and helped us get established. Grandpa Ed will always hold a place near and dear in our hearts.

In 2011, we lost Luke’s mother, which was a devastating blow. She was one of our biggest cheerleaders and supporters when we first started dating and when Jake was born. In fact, she spoiled me and we started dating. My hubby got me the best presents for Christmas, Valentine’s, our anniversaries, and my birthday. Of course, I know realize that she was the genius behind the presents. Now as my boys get older and have serious girlfriends, I relish the opportunity to do the same.


Through all the up and downs, one thing has remained consistent. We were nerds than and are nerds now. That and the fact that my Hubby will forever be my person. I’m lucky to have found my person so early in life and look forward to many more years of nerdom and adventure.

Naturally, we’re celebrating our anniversary by watching the Stanley Cup finals. Well, at least we’re trying. Hulu’s inability to maintain NBC consistently has been beyond infuriating this evening. Athena always hates when we watch hockey because we all scream, yell and jump. It’s a bit disconcerting for her.


For dinner, the Hubby grilled brats, tator tots and sweet corn. Since it’s the middle of the week and the Hubby is headed to a trade show tomorrow, we’ll celebrate with a nice dinner out over the weekend. Thankfully, the Hubby will have a good travel day as Elsa has moved off to the north and east. We’ll miss him while he’s gone, but I’m sure he’ll enjoy some peace and quiet. Two things that don’t exist is this energetic household.

Here’s a list of our day’s activities:

*I read Demons, by Dostoevsky. I am really enjoying this book so far.

*I thought about running, but decided to rest my knee again. Instead I looked for great photos of us.

* I ate the rest of the peach crisp today. This time I mixed in one white peach for a little of variety. Honestly, I didn’t notice a difference.

*The family and I are watching the Stanley Cup Finals in lieu of continuing our Thirty Rock binge. Thankfully, our power is flickering now that the storm has passed. Consequently, it knocked out the wifi too. Apparently, technology is my nemesis tonight.

*I spent my day with the puppies. This evening I worked with Anakin on some training skills. He did a great job. Of course, I rewarded him with kielbasa, which is his favorite.

*My favorite surprise on the underwater cams, I watch during work, is seeing an octopus. Today I watched the safari cam, which never disappoints.

*I’m back to work and Elsa is gone to Georgia. Thankfully, the tropics are quiet.

*Today’s word of the day is silvery. The water had a silvery look.

*I took my puppies including sweet Anakin for a walk. Did I mention I hate gnats, flies, and mosquitos? It’s definitely much worse in the morning and am. Fortunately, it’s not too bad at lunch.

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Not too Shabby

I have to admit today was not too shabby. Since it was the first day back after a long weekend, my expectations for the day were quite low. I mean, it always sucks coming back from a long weekend of vacation. Of course, the gloomy and windy weather courtesy of Elsa wasn’t helping my outlook. Nevertheless, today was a success.

After the turtle’s pace that was work Friday and Saturday, my expectations were that today would be a boring and unprofitable day. Thankfully, the opposite proved to be true. I was slammed all day, which made the day fly by. Moreover, everyone was a buyer today. Obviously, these are the best kind of days in sales.

Elsa had stayed far too the west, so our weather was not too shabby today. The morning was nice albeit extremely humid. This afternoon brought some rain squalls courtesy of now Hurricane Elsa. These storms are so unpredictable. They expected it to weaken, but here we are Tuesday night and it’s a hurricane again. It just proves that you always need to be prepared whether it’s a tropical storm or hurricane approaching.

This evening the Hubby grilled some great steaks form Butcher Box. We had the top sirloins and ribeyes, which were mighty tasty. With the steaks, we served grilled potatoes and corn on the cob. Usually the sweet corn here is abysmal at best, but this corn was not only not too shabby; it was good. We bought the corn at the Farmer’s Market after our walk in the Glades Monday morning.

Here’s a list of our day’s activities:

*I read Demons, by Dostoevsky. I am really enjoying this book so far.

*I walked 2 miles with the puppies and it was great!

* I made another peach crisp. This time mixed in one white peach for a little of variety. I’ll let you know how it tastes. 

*The family and I have been binge-watching Thirty Rock. It is such a good show. We’re two days in to our binge and man is this show good.

*I spent my day with the puppies.

*My favorite surprise on the underwater cams, I watch during work, is seeing an octopus.

*I’m back to work and still tracking Elsa.

*Today’s word of the day is upheaval. Our neighbor Kirk was setting off fireworks at a frenetic pace.

*I took my puppies including sweet Anakin for a walk. Did I mention I hate gnats, flies, and mosquitos?

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Long Holiday Weekend

The long holiday weekend has been low key and fabulous. After my short work day Saturday, we spent the day chilling at home. Sunday morning we headed out to the Arthur R Marshall National Wildlife Refuge with the younger two puppies. Unfortunately, the weather was too hot for it to be safe for Maya, so she had to stay home.

Dogs are only allowed on the boat ramp and levee, so we walked a mile south on the levee. The weather was beautiful with some clouds overhead. Thankfully, the clouds provided a brief respite from the strong, South Florida sun. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any alligators in our Saturday hike. We did, however, see a bunch of beautiful butterflies, birds, one scared turtle and gigantic grasshoppers. Anakin was obsessed with catching the grasshoppers.

We brought plenty of water for us and the dogs, but it got too hot for all of us. Despite all of the water we brought, I think the dogs were overheated at the end. Consequently, when we got home they got hosed off to help the cool down. They recovered well and spent the rest of the day chilling. It was amazing. I’ve never seen Anakin so calm.

Sunday night we headed to our neighbors Kirk and Angie’s for a 4th of July barbecue. We had a blast hanging out with out neighbors and their basketball families. Even though our kids play hockey, we all encounter the same peaks and valleys of youth sports. The peaks, especially the fabulous relationships, outweigh any of the negatives. At the end of the night, Kirk put on a spectacular fireworks display. It was incredible!

We spent our morning of the long holiday weekend back at the wildlife refuge with the puppies. This time we brought some cold packs to help cool down the dogs if needed. Since the puppies, seemed to struggle yesterday, we went earlier in the morning and cut down our distance. Today we saw three gators, which was cool. Gators pack that place, so it’s almost unnerving when you don’t see one. We had a beautiful walk thanks to some nice cloud cover and a nice breeze.

As for tonight, we’re chilling at home relaxing with the dogs. We’re baking homemade pizzas for which the boys are pumped about. Currently, I have another peach crisp in the oven. This time we’ll eat it right as I have ice cream and whipped cream on hand. The weather is starting to deteriorate a bit. Elsa is going to miss us by Miles’s, but we’ll see rain and storms out of the system. Queue the winds and heavy rain. Literally, as I type this the winds have picked up and it’s about to rain. Cue the deluge. Thankfully, we don’t have to go anywhere tonight.

Here’s a list of our day’s activities:

*I read Demons, by Dostoevsky. I am really enjoying this book so far.

*I walked 2 miles with the puppies and it was great!

* I made another peach crisp. This time mixed in one white peach for a little of variety. I’ll let you know how it tastes.

*The family and I have been binge-watching Thirty Rock. It is such a good show. We’re two days in to our binge and man is this show good.

*I spent my day with the puppies. Maya is feeling great and is super playful with her siblings. We are all relieved and grateful that she rebounded from her illness.

*I’m enjoying the long weekend and tracking Elsa.

*Today’s word of the day is frenetic. Our neighbor Kirk was setting off fireworks at a frenetic pace.

*I took my puppies including sweet Anakin for a walk. Did I mention I hate gnats, flies, and mosquitos?

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Tracking Elsa

All of Florida is tracking Elsa as she makes her way into the Caribbean. Right now we’re out of the cone of uncertainty, but that only means the center of the storm isn’t going to track over our area. Regardless of where Elsa ends up, our weather will suck Monday and Tuesday. Naturally, the poor weather falls on a Monday we all have off. Obviously, Elsa’s timing sucks.

In between Tracking Elsa updates, I worked for a bit this morning. Unsurprisingly, work was dead. Fortunately, we got to quit early due to the lack of volume. After work, I managed to go for a two-mile run. I didn’t feel like running in the morning, so opted for a post-lunch run. It went well, but my knee/it band was quite stiff at the end.

While I was running and couch surfing, Hubby took the Mayor to practice driving. The Mayor loves to drive and asks several times a day to practice. This is a huge contrast to his older brothers, who never wanted to drive. He’s a good driver and will be more than ready for his license when he turns sixteen. Meanwhile, Goalielocks recuperated from his early morning hockey practice with a nice nap.

After the Hubby finished washing the cars, took a shower, and came out wearing a shirt Jake and I bought him in Helsinki. It’s the first time he’s worn the shirt since we bought it. Undeniably, it brought back great memories of our travels in Finland. One night Jake and I found ourselves, perusing through Stockmann’s Department store off the Esplanade. It’s an incredible store! Jake and I try to buy a shirt every place we go as a unique, but practical souvenir. He bought something at Stockmann’s and I bought a shirt from Marimekko. I can’t wait until we can travel again!!!

Here’s a list of our day’s activities:

*I read Demons, by Dostoevsky. I am really enjoying this book so far.

*I ran 2 miles and walked a mile and it felt great!

* I made a new roast recipe in the Instant Pot tonight. I didn’t super love the recipe, but the roast was extremely tender and tasty. Truly, I was pleasantly surprised as the roast wasn’t completely defrosted when I put it in the pot. Now that I know the Instapot does a great job on frozen meat, I won’t be so frantic if I forget to defrost something.

*The family and I have been binge-watching Thirty Rock. It is such a good show.

*I spent my day with the puppies. Maya is feeling great and is super playful with her siblings. We are all relieved and grateful that she rebounded from her illness.

*I’m off to the long weekend and tracking Elsa as she looks to disrupt my long weekend.

*Today’s word of the day is venation. It has to do with insect veins, which is really more than I ever wanted to know about that. 

*I took my puppies including sweet Anakin for a walk. Did I mention I hate gnats, flies, and mosquitos?