whew.

It has barely started and fall has been busy. Yesterday alone we had swimming lessons, a welcome-back-to-school picnic (for which I made 50 pumpkin whoopie pies), I made 50 birdseed hearts for a wedding and I attended a friend's bachelorette party. I've decided I'm too old to be up until 2:30am.

Sunday...ugh. 5 hours of sleep doesn't make for a productive day. Made 60 more birdseed hearts. They have to be delivered on Wed and I want to make sure they're completely dry. Grocery-shopped (that is it's own special kind of hell.) Attempted laundry and vacuuming. Didn't get as far as I'd hoped.

Even Zeep felt a little pitiful today. I guess he didn't get his beauty rest after being awakened at 2am.

Dragon threatened to eat all the deserts at the picnic. Deserts were saved by BubbaLou. Photo is slightly deceiving...dragon back is about 6' tall. It's a great feat to be able to climb up to the top of the dragon's tail, back & head because if you can't get down by yourself, you can't go up.
Next weekend, wedding. Weekend after- VT sheep & wool. Weekend after that- Warner Fall Foliage Festival. Weekend after that- birthday party season officially starts. I 'owe' two women baby sweaters. I think I'm gonna have to knit 12month sizes at this rate.

Hounds and the dog days of summer...

I have officially begun the search for another wolfhound. Preferably an adult in need of a loving home. And a little girl who will call him a little brother, like Zeep-y. Zeep's human 'Mama' just let me know they're hoping for a spring litter...there may be a baby in my future.

Now for the dog days of summer...kind of. School is about to start, the tourists are going home and I get to enjoy the warm, sunny days of September sitting on a quiet beach and swimming in water that's still pretty warm (compared to what it was like in June.) And BL will have all the beach toys to herself (if they haven't been locked up yet.)

Aaahhhh.
I love where I live, but when I visit a 'tourist town', I sympathize with them.

Stand Tall

We Are Great!We Are Strong!We Are Giant Dorks!

We also know how to have more fun than Bubba Lou at the new local playground.
Seriously...they have these super-duper spinning things...just asking for a group of tipsy "adults" to play on and be video taped for youtube.

Pin Drop lll

BL had a hearing check up w/ the specialists on Friday.

Her hearing couldn't be better. No more fluid at all.

Now there's no excuses.

Let them eat cake...all of it!

I've spent the last 5 days making what felt like hundreds of 6", 10" & 14" cakes, and tons of Swiss Meringue Frosting. Literally tons of it. My arms will vouch for me. And I cannot thank 'Sis enough for letting me borrow her Kitchen Aid (hers-red, mine-blue...very patriotic.) Saved me hours of washing out the large bowl to beat egg whites into submission.

I do not own a turn-table. My creativity kicked in...what does BubbaLou own that spins? She's got to have something...think, think, think.
The infamous Sit-N-Spin!Flip it upside down, place over two chairs...voila! Instant turntable.
And if you accidentally bump the "top" of the red part, it plays a jaunty little tune.
Damn near lost the cake the first time it went off.

Final result:

Not as perfect as I would have liked, but over 80 degree temps and no A/C in the reception hall was not very kind to the frosting (all that butter.) Touch-ups were almost impossible, especially with no running water (cold or otherwise) in the place to be able to cool the spatula down. Groom and Mother of the Groom were very pleased (not as type-A, OCD, perfectionist as me.)

Very happy to be done. Tomorrow will finish cleaning the kitchen and mopping up the floor (scraping up dropped frosting & dried bits of cake trimmings.) Will also throw away any leftover cake so I don't eat it all. The thought of eating cake & frosting kinda makes me sick right now anyway.

Bee Balm

Close-up of bloom in the afternoon sun.
The bloom on top is actually coming out of the center of the lower one.
It's like fireworks.

An unopened bud.

This one just opened yesterday.
No fireworks yet.

Last summer my Mom gave me 2 Bee Balm plants that came from my Nana's Bee Balm plants. I have a huge patch this year over 6 feet tall with so many blooms in the most wonderful shades of hot pink, plum and frosty green. Wherever my Nana is, she's smiling. I don't see or smell these without thinking first of her, then my Mom, then BubbaLou.

I love how the pictures came out. I have a new camera (Canon SD1400) that I've been playing with. I'm no expert (not even a good amateur) but I'm quite happy with how the close-ups came out. I've also managed to get some cute shots of BL and Zeep. One of the neatest feature is being able to shoot the whole picture in b&w except for one color. Very neat with BL's pink lips standing out in a picture I took against a pretty white, bright background.

These boots are make for walking....

Well, actually they're sneakers.

I've started walking to work and home every day that I don't have to take BL to daycare. One tiny step for the environment and my wallet (haven't even started my truck in 4 days), many giant steps for my rear end. It's only 1.5 miles each way, but the way to work is mostly uphill and the way home mostly downhill. Each has it's own 'challenges' and uses different muscles. Muscles I forgot I had in my rear end, lower back, thighs and calves. Did I mention I carry a pack (Gregory- My "I love it so much I'll cry when it falls apart" pack) with my shoes, change of clothes, small toiletry bag, calendar, wallet, and lunch? It's motivation not to gain any more weight and loose the 10 I've put on (and several inches in multiple places that have gotten soft and squishy.)

Today is Day 3 in a row. I'm pretty proud of myself, especially since if I didn't walk I could leave the house 45 minutes later (and sleep later.) The walk takes me a half hour right now, but I'm hoping to get it down to 20 minutes by the end of July so I can leave a little later and still have time to freshen up at work. This morning was the worst so far.

What keeps me going is the hope that tomorrow will hurt less if I just keep working through it.
I'm optimistic.