I biked . . .

. . . to work and back today. First bike commute this week. Ahhhhhh!

The morning bike ride to work was a great 30 minute commute. The ride home was even better, if that is possible. Relaxing on my way home, a beautiful Thursday afternoon, my last work day for the week, what could be better? Plus I stopped at the Pilates Spa and attended a 1 hour class. The only thing I didn't do was run today.

Backing up to the morning. It was a late evening last night because of Concerts on the Square, I didn't get home until 10:15 and it was 11:00 before I was asleep. For me getting somewhere around 8 hours of sleep is instrumental on how I feel. This week I have not been getting great nights of sleep, which tends to wear on you as the week goes on.

 

Getting ready to bike home after Pilates

Miles biked this year through the end of July 1224. I am hoping to top 2000 miles this year, which should be doable based on past history.

Less words than yesterday . . .

Enjoy the moments!

 

 

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Another day . . .

. . . and I didn't bike to work today. I love to bike to work, so when events occur during the day or evening that just make it difficult for me to bike, I get down. Today's reason was that I was invited it Concerts on the Square by a consultant group that is assisting us with a Peoplesoft software upgrade project.
Most people bring a blanket and some food and drink and sit on the Capitol lawn, but we were invited to the US Bank building and were on the 3rd floor balcony. It was a beautiful evening to be outside enjoying the lovely weather, eating good food and having a drink or two! Although we couldn't see the orchestra we could hear them and the setting was lovely.

Can you see the sliver moon?

A few words to mark the day, nothing fancy - that is what I am aiming for, and for this I am happy. Today was un-eventful, yet the simple Concert invite combined with the absolutely beautiful setting and weather made for a memory most certainly.

 

Enjoy those moments!

 

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Lucky for . . .

. . . the fox picture 'cause that was the only picture for the day!

Wow, it was a tough morning to get out of bed. I was tired from yesterdays bike trip to New Glarus but I also didn't sleep well. I woke up and was not able to return to sleep. I know we all have times when we wake and then that is it, we just can't fall back to sleep, but why does it happen when we are really tired and want to sleep? Anyway, last night once I was awake, I did get up and had a glass of milk. Do you think that drinking milk puts you back to sleep? It usually works for me, but not last night. It seemed like I was up for at least 2 hours shifting from one side to another . . . ARGGGGGG. And why does it seem like when you are laying there awake, your husband started to make noises! Does he normally make these noises but since I am sleeping I don't hear them? Whatever the answer, it was driving me crazy last night. Eventually I must have fallen back to sleep, because the next thing I knew my alarm was going off. I promptly reset it to 6:00 to give myself a little more sleep. I never really know if that helps or not.

Finally up and going with the normal morning routines - let the dog out, make a cup of coffee, clean the litter box, let the dog in, feed the dog, feed the cats, let the outside cat out and this morning, since I was running late, no run with Sophie. Although I had wanted to bike to work, considering that I was already running late, I decided that I should drive. I made my lunch, got ready for work and headed out the door. At the corner, who should appear, but one of our neighborhood foxes. We have a couple of adults and at least 4 kits living in the neighborhood. Sophie and I have run into them while running and we often see them running through the yards and across the streets. While I know they are wild animals, they seem to have adapted to life in the neighborhood and other than being cautious when their babies are around, they appear not to care about us.

Tonight was our second to last Tai Chi class. I haven't figured out if I like it or not. It is relaxing and I know that the Chinese have been practicing this for centuries, but I just don't understand the chi piece. Do I have to believe? Is this actually something that you really feel? I sort of get it. We are living breathing creatures, there must be an energy source within us. But can the "average joe/jane" actually feel Chi flowing through their body? Or are we simply feeling our blood flowing? I will continue to practice and learn.

Enjoy the moments!

 

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Biking . . .

. . . through Wisconsin.

The day started with a walk around the yard to check on my gardens and to deadhead the day lilies. Why oh why do these beautiful flowers only last one day. Couldn't someone develop a day lily that lasted more than 1 day? It can be called the several day lily!

Day Lily

Front garden

Bee balm

I took today off. It is probably the first Monday I have had off from work since the end of February, not counting Memorial Day. Another big project at work is making to hard to take much vacation. This totally sucks because the same thing happened last summer and I and my staff were hoping that this summer would be different, but it isn't much different. Dang!

On my day off we decided to bike to New Glarus today. I love this little town. We made a day of it, first stopping at the fudge store, then Fat Cats for a latte and sandwich. Finally ending up at The New Glarus Brewery for a beer and tour. We have never been at the brewery when they were bottling, so were quite excited to see the operation.

Spotted Cow

The weather was cool but breezy. There were 15+ mile winds from the northwest - since New Glarus is southwest of Madison, the wind was over our right shoulder heading to New Glarus, but seemed almost head on when we returned. I knew the ride back would be windy and didn't complain. Last year we had a ride to New Glarus that I swear was into the wind both ways, which is highly unlikely, but I swear that is what happened.

Bridge in Bellville

A great day and a great 42 mile bike ride!

 

Last Thursday's bike ride

Adder: this is from last weeks bike ride.

Enjoy the moments!

 

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Life gets . . .

. . . in the way!

I don't know about you, but this summer is flying by. Does time really go faster as you get older? Or are you just more aware of all the things you want to accomplish and feel like there is not enough time to get it done?

My goal, my want, my dream is to post about life, work, running, biking, gardening, cooking each and every day. How hard can that be? A few words typed onto a screen, a few pictures from the day. Obviously I am a bit lackadaisical regarding that goal. I say I want to blog every day, yet I don't. No one is stopping me. Most evenings I should be able to devote 1\2 hour to writing and publishing a post. Seriously what is up? Kids are out of the house and Todd is retired as of July 1 and is doing quite a good job doing work around the house. Enough complaining . . . .

Saturday morning started with a little 2 mile run with Sophie, then I biked to a 1 hr Pilates class. Honestly the rest of the day was relaxing, pulling weeds, watering the gardens, doing a little cleaning.

Sophie relaxing on the deck after her run.

Recipe challenge update: I continue to work on making recipes from Jenna's blog, Eat,Live, Run - here. Slowly but surely I cook. So far I have made 46 new recipes including tonight's dinner zesty crock pot chicken and potato stew. (Green beans added from our garden) Do you realize how hard it is to cook new recipes all the time? Will I complete my challenge before year end? Who knows, but almost each and every recipe has been great. At a minimum I will have expanded my go to meals and I have used a variety of new ingredients!

Stew on the 27th of July! Not your normal summer dinner? Well, the weather was anything but 'normal' today. I don't think it could make up its mind. Sun, clouds, wind, rain, wind, clouds, sun. Back and forth all day long.

This is what it looked like when we came off the water.

Windy days generally mean great jet ski weather. I think I was a little hesitant to head out on the lake because the temp's were only in the mid 70's, not the warmest weather to get wet. But we did anyway and we were rewarded with white cap weather and hardly a boat on the water. Because of the cool air temp's the splashing water was a bit of welcome warmth, albeit short lived. Because as soon as you got wet the winds chilled you down. But we were constantly getting soaked, so it was a balanced day on the water!

I want to write about my biking and running and Pilates - but in an effort to keep this short and because other than a quick spin around the neighborhood on my bike I did neither of the other two activities today. And after all, I want my blog to be about today, and maybe just a little of yesterday because that is when I started this post!

Enjoy the moments!

 

 

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