The weather sure has turned here this week. The overnight lows have gotten into the upper 40s!  That’s pretty chilly. I’m going to have to bring in my passion flower soon and see if I can get it through the winter.

Time for warm breakfasts:

Oat bran. I cook this with a mashed banana and whisk in egg whites. It’s very filling.

I had to dress a lot warmer for my ride today.  I was out getting my hair cut last night and stopped at Peter Harris (aka Label Shopper) and they had fleece tights for 99 cents. 99 cents!  So I grabbed a pair to wear under my bike shorts:

Riding in style 😀

I spent a good chunk of the afternoon dealing with credit card stuff.  I got a fraud alert text on my phone about a charge for $790 from Apple.  Um… no. This is the only card that I use. I pay it off each month and collect the rewards on it.  So, I logged in (even though I did last night) and sure enough, there were 5 unauthorized charges. Apple, Nordstroms, (laughing as anyone who knows me knows I would never shop at Nordstoms). Plus Uber and Lyft. So, I got the card cancelled and then had to go and change all of my automatic payments to something else.  So freaking annoying and it makes me angry that some jackass is just trying to steal stuff. Ugh.  Obviously somewhere I shopped got hacked.

Anyway, the football picks have started and I lost the first week. Boo. So, John chose his dinner at Cooper’s Cave.  They are a local brewery and ice cream shop. I haven’t had the beer, but the ice cream is yummy!  The restaurant sits right on the bike path about 1/2 mile from our house so we walked down. First time eating food there, too.  I loved the decor:

Want.

Malt vinegar on the table:

John had falafel tacos and I cobbled together a meal with sides and soup. I didn’t feel like a big entree. I got the steamed veggies, a slice of cornbread and buffalo chicken soup:

I like Dizzy Chicken’s soup better, but this was quite good.  The veggies were pretty buttery for being steamed, I have to say, but it was a nice big bowl and I ate them all.  We definitely want to come for happy hour some time and try a beer.

It was time to do some harvesting at Radiance Manor. Our decorative gourds:

They are really cute. I left one on the vine still as it was smaller. There are other flowers on the vine, so we might get a couple more before frost if we’re lucky.

Cool night and we are going to relax by the fire pit!

It was nice to get past this weekend. That relieved some stress and now we can concentrate on our vacation coming up!  Woo Hoo!

I was up working at 6 a.m. (thank you insomnia) to start getting stuff caught up at work. Since they still haven’t gotten anyone to help on my account, I had to catch up all that didn’t get done Friday. So annoying, I have to say.  And a cause of stress. However, I did get it caught up and the account is current. Phew.

I was able to spend some time in the garden this evening – the days are getting so short now! I’ve started moving some plants around and cleaning up weeds and deadheading. All that stuff that got neglected for a couple weeks.  We won’t even talk about the master cleaning list!

I was trying to befriend the neighborhood cat who happens to be the culprit eating Pixie’s catnip. She was coming very close and then Pixie started meowing out the window and got the kitty’s attention:

She’s a beauty, but I wish her owners would keep her inside.

I do have to say that I’m worried I might be getting sick. I think I overextended myself a bit. Just a funny feeling. I hardly ever get sick, so I might shake it off. I hope so. Or if not, get it over with so when vacation starts in 2 weeks it will be gone.

We had to shop for groceries last night since I had the car all weekend. Look at what is in stores now!

Nothing like good fresh candy corn.

I had gotten some questions about how well Pixie likes her harness, so I thought I would post a video of her trucking along.

She likes it and we have created a monster. 😀

Now for some Monday Night Football and relaxing!

I am home and pretty tired. The show was long (3 days) and not great.  The nice thing is the same promoter does a show in November and he offered me a half price booth for that show if I wanted it since attendance was lower than expected at this show.  That was nice of him. I might take him up on that for November, although I am not a fan of the 3 day shows. Gotta sleep on that.

Back to work Monday, unfortunately, to catch up on what wasn’t done Friday.  Then I am promising myself some time in the garden 😀

Just a quickie post to let people know I’m still alive 😀

Just busy. The show I’m doing is this weekend (not the weekend before our vacation).  So, a lot of trying to get the final push done.

I have to show you these cute shopping bags I got:

Aren’t they cute?  I have the handled bag for bigger stuff and this bag for smaller things. They are made from recycled paper – and made in the US.  Nashville Wraps.

This is a picture of  one of my potpourris. I need to get all of them onto the website as well.

Another new soap, too.

It’s patchouli and spearmint. Very interesting combo.  I have a feeling this one will be very popular. Then again, I could be wrong LOL!

On the Pixie front, I bought a pot of catnip for her. I was keeping it outside and away from her since she is such an addict.  Well, recently the neighborhood kitties have been coming and knocking it over and eating it.  So I brought it inside and hid it on top of the fridge.

Apparently not hidden so well. I came home the other day and see this:

You can see how one side of the plant is mowed down. Pixie does not understand the concept of moderation…

Gotta get back to work!

Saturday I needed to have a relaxing ride. After a really crappy Friday morning, riding was necessary. John was out of town, so I was solo riding.  I would have liked to go to Saratoga, but I had so much stuff to do that it had to be a shorter ride.

To the lake it is. I did question that decision as I got closer because it was a holiday weekend. There were a lot of tourists.  Not so on the early  part of the ride.

Country Club:

I always have a mild fear going down this section of road because you can hear people whacking the golf balls and I am just waiting for the day one hits me LOL!

Nice shady part to the path.

There are historical markers along the way, but we are usually just whizzing past them. On this day, I stopped wherever I felt like.

As I got to where the path end at the village, there were orange cones everywhere and then I saw people with bibs on. There was some kind of event, possibly a triathlon because I saw racks and racks of bikes by a finish line.  I figured I would take a picture on my way back out, but the race was over and they were tearing down by the time I left.

Meanwhile at the lake:  This is what Lake George looks like from an aerial view.

There is an acoustical anomoly right here. If you stand where the X is in the above picture and face the lake, when you make sounds it resonates right back to you off the circular stone walls. We haven’t done this yet. Maybe some time when nobody is around. 😀

It kind of makes you want to run down that and jump in, doesn’t it?  I had a mission though, and that was a treat!

The village of Lake George is a mix of the beautiful and the tacky with stores like this:

Stay klassy, Lake George…

I stopped at The Lake George Baking Company and picked up an almond cookie then grabbed a cup of coffee. I found a nice shady spot with a view:

Noms!

Then I meandered a bit.  Some of the beaches are closed right now. It’s usually some kind of high E coli or some other bacteria level that does that.

Wave hi to the Adirondacks!

Back around to home. This part of the ride is my favorite section.

Rocky section:

It really annoys me that people feel the need to deface stuff.

It felt really good to be in that shady part and there were very few people.  Then back to open path:

And home sweet home:

Nice 20 mile ride on the day.

I was quite a bit on the go and ended up walking 5 miles this day as well! I was surprised when I checked my phone at the end of the day.  It’s that time of year where my legs are in great endurance shape and rides feel great (and walking, too).

That was the “me” time of the weekend.

Life is cruising along fast. I can’t tell you how much I look forward to Wednesday Bagel Day.

I know some people do, but I don’t have treats every day because then they aren’t so much like treats.  Bagels are one of those things. I hardly ever eat them at home, so it is a real treat twice a week to look forward to.  Having them planned in makes it easier to stay on track with my eating knowing those are coming up.  Cupcakes are like that as well. Pretty much only on long ride days or a rare occasion. Makes them taste better 😀

It’s also nice to be out. When you work at home, it’s easy to forget there is a world out there sometimes LOL!

We have a little over 3 weeks until our vacation and I need it so bad. It’s been a couple years since I have had more than a long weekend off from work. That’s scary.  My peeve now is that in July… JULY… I told my account supervisor that I was going to be on vacation and wanted someone else added to one particular account — of which I am the only one working it. That means if I don’t do the work, it doesn’t get done. So I asked for help just on that basis, but also because I’m going to be gone. Every 2 weeks when I submitted my lines, I asked for an update. Still haven’t found anyone. Here it is almost September and they still have not gotten anyone on the account. I don’t understand this because the other MTs are complaining that work is slow.  Hello?? The new person has to get trained on the software and all that before I’m gone. This is going to be a problem for them because I will not be working or even answering the phone/email from work for the whole week. It’s not my problem. Thank goodness it’s in the works for me to be leaving there.

Anyhoo – shall I share another annoyance? The espresso machine went on the fritz today. We’ve had this 4 or 5 years? I can’t remember. It was sent for service once and has been fine, but now all the lights are blinking and it won’t do anything.

Lori is an unhappy camper with that.  At least I have the Aeropress so I can make a pseudo latte.  Later I will have to look at the manual and see what’s up.

My big show is coming up in 2-1/2 weeks (the week before our vacation) and a lot of soaps are being boxed and labeled plus new products.  I need a lot of add-on stuff to cover a wider range of people since the booth was kind of pricey.  So, I’m doing some potpourri.  Some matching scents to soap and others just fun stuff like rose:

And a Pumpkin Patch one (won’t show that because Labor Day hasn’t passed yet 😀 ).  I’m also hiring my niece to help out on Saturday, which will be the busiest day.  Lots of stuff to do between now and then.

It’s been a while since we did a cupcake ride. I know you all missed it 😀  So did I!  The weather was a little hotter than we would have liked, but no rain was forecast.  We did have to get a project underway before we left.  Chores first, right?

We had our driveway paved just about a year ago and it needed to cure before sealing, so it was time.  That was the project for the morning, complete with an extra trip to the hardware store in the middle — like any project requires 😛

We were sweating away and working when a woman pulled over and called me over. She said she was glad to finally catch us outside because she wanted to let us know she loved the work we have done on the house. Another random stranger comment on our house!  It’s kind of weird feeling sometimes how much people pay attention to what you’re doing and you have no idea.

Then it was off to Saratoga after lunch while the driveway dried.  Like I said, it was sunny and hot – 88 degrees, but sometimes some fluffy clouds blocked the sun, which was very much appreciated! I had also liberally applied 50 SPF sunscreen. We had a few shady spots, like this one:

The option was on the table to turn around and go home if it got too hot, but those periodic clouds really helped.

Our sweaty selves arrived just fine.  I always bring a hat because helmet hair is never a good look.

At 48, I don’t really have much in the way of wrinkles yet (good genes); however, my forehead crease makes up for that LOL. Too many years of squinting in the sun, I guess.

We were ready for cupcakes and iced coffee!  We stopped at Parkside Eatery.  I was taking a picture of my cupcake and the owner came out and asked if I was the blogger who biked and ate cupcakes.  Yes, that’s me 😀

We ended up getting 3 cupcakes as they aren’t really big. We each had our own and split the other one.

Chocolate for John, of course. We split the carrot cake one.

I had peanut butter:

I love any and all nut or nut butter products.  Especially in frosting form.

We relaxed for a while, but then realized that by the time we biked home – it would be dinner time!  You forget sometimes that it’s about 1 hour and 40 minutes each way,  Another layering of sunscreen and we headed home. No picture taking as we were cruising and making good time.

41 miles. It’s that time of year where we have good bike form and riding feels good even at long distances.

We arrived home to our freshly sealed driveway ready for foot traffic.

No car for 24 hours. I love how it looks. It’s a shame it can’t stay this way forever 😀

It seems that I am always working on a project and now I’m experimenting making a portable backdrop to take to my show in 3 weeks (ack!!). I’m hoping my idea works.

I also spent time with my mom at Lowe’s picking out stuff to redo their kitchen. For their 50th anniversary, John and I gifted them with the labor to redo their kitchen.  Along with putting in a dishwasher, we are doing countertops, paint, and lighting.  This is the countertop sample along with what will be the tile backsplash.

The tile is more white than the picture shows and has some sparkle pieces in it.  I actually am thinking about incorporating that into our upstairs bathroom remodel that hopefully will this winter some time.

I am really needed our vacation in 4 weeks, I must say.

Last gratuitous shot of Pixie doing her best job:

She’s a champ at relaxing. My goal is to be like that when I relax.

Back at the beginning of the year, I didn’t make it an official goal, but when we booked our trip to Ireland for this fall, I made a mental goal to try to lose 20 pounds by then. That would put me comfortably into my clothes (some of which were too tight) since I had some creep happening.

Anyway, this morning I officially made that goal!  Yay!  I’m wearing my size 10s easily again, which makes me happy.  I really did it by just staying around 1500 calories a day with more on long ride days in the range of 2200 to 2500. One thing that helped was to keep my exercise on the non long ride days to an hour.  Doing more than that was counterproductve and trying to force weight loss with exercise just doesn’t work for me.  Anyway, I actually acheived a date goal, which I almost never set.

That cooler weather blew in this week with a vengeance!  Overnight the temps dropped 20+ degrees along with lower humidity. We had an overnight temperature of 47 degrees, too, which is crazy. I had to jacket up for morning riding.

It’s been nice not sweating profusely all the time, too. I was getting really tired of wiping my upper lip LOL.

It even called for warm evening drinks.

One of my favorite snacks when it is cooler.

Even though it feels like fall, it’s not and I don’t want to be seeing this in the stores.

Gah!  I took this picture when it was sweltering hot, too.  Go away.

We have a house project we are working on now.  Over the winter, we noticed a leak in one of our basement rooms that is directly below the garage. We kind of freaked out and had a couple structural engineers come in to make sure our garage was okay. They said the house was very solid, but there are a couple depressions in the garage floor where water pools under the car tires and seeped through some cracks to below.  The solution is to level the depressions and epoxy coat it. Phew!  Of course, in leveling the depressions, we removed some loose concrete skim coat and now have a bigger project.

That’s getting patched:

The sticks are there to prevent anyone walking across this. And by anyone, that would be me because I almost did!  Once all this is dry, we can do the epoxy floor coat to seal it up. That will make it look nicer, too.

Some plants are arriving as well!

These are some heuchera. There are 9 plant plugs in all here, surprisingly.  Most of these are going to go by our water feature since it is semi shady.

So there is no shortage of projects going on around here.

It’s back to the warm weather now. I sure enjoyed that coolness while it lasted!

I don’t want to complain about the heat considering how cold our winters get, but goodness! Actually, it’s the humidity that’s getting to me rather than the heat.  We just aren’t used to such prolonged humid spells.

Since we have radiator heat, we can’t put AC in our house other than window units. We have one in our bedroom, but not the first floor because our house usually doesn’t get that hot with the thick brick/cement walls. However, enough hot days in a row and it gets warm.

The humidity does put a little damper on riding – not to mention the threat of thunderstorms.  Saturday morning rain looked like it was going to come in and I wanted a ride, so we took a 12 mile loop and hit up the farmer’s market.

It was pretty bustling, too, which is good to see.

These are vegan cookies and some are gluten free as well.  They are quite good, so we picked some up to take home.

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We actually bought a bunch of stuff and crammed it into our bike bags. Then we rode the mile home. We had yogurt, so we kind of wanted to hurry a bit. There is a cheese and yogurt maker at the market that makes great stuff, so I got a couple yogurt smoothies and John got a big container of yogurt. Here is our haul:

I’m going to be eating patty pans this week! I wonder if they spiralize?? Not pictured are the cookies, but I’ll show you the vegan gluten free oreo:

It’s a bit crumbly, but very good.

Pixie got a new present. We occasionally will take her out on a leash, but she could twist herself out of it and we certainly don’t want her roaming. Those days are long gone for her since her stray days. We’ve had her for 9 years, which I can’t believe.

Anyway, I picked up a harness that would be more comfortable for her and something she can’t slip out of.

And it’s pink LOL! She seems to tolerate it much better.

You can see how fluffy she is by how much her fur compresses. It’s not tight, I promise.

And if you think you’re going to rack up steps taking Pixie out, it’s not going to happen. She creeps around the perimeter of the yard and stands there.

Now she is a monster wanting to go out more, so we have to be very careful to make sure the screen doors are fully closed so she can’t get out.

On Sunday, I did manage to get in 28 miles of biking. It was sweaty, sweaty and icky, but it was morning and there was cloud cover. Have to take the conditions that make the riding possible in weather like this. It was good to get in a longer ride, too.

On the last note, I found a cool feather in the yard:

This is from either a downy or hairy woodpecker. We get both regularly in the yard, but this feather was under the tree that the downys like, so I’m going to say it’s one of theirs.  Very pretty, don’t you think?

Goodness time gets away from me and I’ve been neglecting my part of the internets. Not really a lot exciting happening around here, though.

Lisa asked me if I took my good camera on bike rides.  I do sometimes. It depends a little on where we’re going and if I have room in my bike bag. I did receive a nice case (my link) to be able to protect the camera in my bag for my birthday. This is neoprene and stretches out. I don’t have it on quite snug enough in this shot, but it suited the purpose for riding.

It’s inexpensive, too.  It’s long enough that I could use my 70-300 lens in it, but that lens won’t fit very well in my bike bag.  At least it beats the bubble wrap I was using before!

On another shopping note — we are gearing up for football season around here. I was bummed the HOF game was canceled. I know it’s just preseason, but we’ve been waiting months! Anyway, I guess I am a sucker for targeted ads on Facebook.  When these came across my screen, I clicked and bought.

It’s actually very cute and I can interchange with any kind of 20 mm snap I want, so it doesn’t have to be just football. I love this.

How about a lazy meal, but kind of fun?  This is one of those Bird’s Eye steamer meals. It’s actually Star Wars.

That’s supposed to be yoda, I think? The package picture seemed more like yoda instead of pasta blobs with ears 🙂   This was okay and fine for a quick dinner, but not sure I would get it again.

On a good note, I am almost at my Ireland goal. Just 1.5 pounds to go.  I’ve been working hard at it this summer, but also being smart.  Daily ride:

This ride took me just under an hour as my average speed was 12.8 mph.  I’ve learned that an hour of exercise is good for weight loss. More than that and I start to get too hungry and will eat back too many calories.  Long ride days, whatever, but the every day is what’s important.

I’ve been back stirring the soap cauldron this week.  I have a show I’m doing in September and it’s a big one – and expensive to get in, so it had better be good.  I am topping off my inventory and adding a couple new soaps.  Since soap has to cure, I have to make it well in advance.

Newly made is Bay Rum and Lime.  Something for the men, even though I hate gender labeling.

Freshly cut and stamped. I still need to clean them up a little bit, but that happens after they harden up.  I’m bringing in more soap to the store in the Shirt Factory this weekend. Lemongrass is the popular one there and they are almost out.

I have some tall plants in the garden this year.  My cardinal flowers in the back are way taller than I expected!  Me for reference.  Last year when I put these in the ground, they were only a few inches tall and stayed that way all season. First year sleeping indeed.

The hummers love these.

Anyone watching Perseid this week?  It’s actually perfect for my type of insomnia, which is falling asleep easily, but waking up a couple hours later. However, I’m not having insomnia right now. Is that irony?  It’s supposed to be clear tonight, so we’re thinking of getting up to watch some.  Maybe I will try to take some pictures, although meteors are harder than moon pictures.  We’ll see if we get up 😀