Four or five miles at Rodale last night and about 20 out to Herman's Drive-In in Topton tonight. I discovered Herman's from friends and while I was there somebody suggested a nearby bike store that I really liked; there's been much lamenting in this space over the years about the condescending nature of the cycling community but this place is not like that. I dig.
After that it was a bit of house-cleaning, chasing the cats, making Important Homeowner Phone Calls, and catching up with Jenelle.
Flying solo this week while Jenelle vacations in the yoop. Before that started, though:
Big work week last week and ditto this. As a result my evenings have grown shorter and extra-curriculars have taken a back seat to sustaining day-to-day necessities. Jenelle's been picking up much of my slack on that front and we've deferred some of those 'nice to get that done' jobs until fall/real chair production.
Over the weekend we camped at -------- ----- --- (name redacted to keep crowds down) with Ryan, Petra & Co. Friday night was the boys' intro to camping, replete with hot dogs and smores. Saturday we ran the lower Lehigh with the neighborhood gang to celebrate a birthday; it was fun but low Class III and no guide in the boat made it a different kind of rafting experience than I've had over the past decade or so. Back at the campground we met an AT through-hiker and shared some fruit and pasta salad, picked a mess of raspberries, and decided to skirt the impending rain and head home.
Work was long and late tonight despite being busy all day. This whole week, in fact, has been a blur of ongoing frenetic product development that is leaving me tired and geared up for tomorrow at once. I've noticed, though, that summer is marked by a distinct lack of BB emails after roughly 6pm. It's like a holiday. Unless you're still at work after 6pm, which then makes the whole thing pretty academic.
Meanwhile Jenelle has been maintaining a scorching pace at home: applesauce yesterday, banana and zucchini bread today, and countless other 'little' things which are only little when considered in isolation. We've gotten a bit of rain, perking the outside up a bit and providing the season's first tupperware-full of cherry tomatoes.
I played volleyball - 2 on 2 on grass - at a coworker's house after work on Wednesday, my fourth or fifth such outing. Slowly things are coming back but there's been a whole lot more 'whooooops there goes that dig, sailing out of bounds' than I'd like. Weather and footwear have kept me sidelined from frisbee for a couple of weeks and that's making me feel lethargic about getting back, but maybe next week will be the week for that.
Back at it after guests over the weekend: Grandma & Grandpa Irish were here from the yoop. It was not a strenuous weekend but between garden tour at home plus "Parade" at the Civic on Saturday and a major tour of the val on Sunday I think they got the flavor. It was fun to share home and life and cats with them and hear about new things from their lives, too. Mostly it was great to have a few days of un-shared time with two people who are at the center of every family event they attend.
Too busy to even blog about it. Neck is sore from indeterminant injury/crink/thing. Work is post-ribbon cutting/pre-production frantic. Evenings are full of getting home late, of anniversary celebrations at country gourmet destination Glasbern Inn, of volleyball with coworkers, of haircuts and Home Depot, of getting ready for guests this weekend.
posted at 9:42 PM - comments
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Jenelle told me to post about the little kid whining from across the gravel two-track in the dark: "That was my first sleeping bag and you melted it!" We like camping.
Camping was the best way to make State College's Art Fest accessible. Reeds Gap SP provided lodging and we met Ryan, Petra & Co. with some of their friends for the day. In lieu of a rainy evening in town we grilled out at Curt's house with some new folks - fun. We loved State College/Penn State main, too, though. Berkey Creamery and College Ave lived up to their lofty reputations and this logs in as a great Big11Ten town close to home. See you in fall, PSU?
Back on the volleyball courts last night. I say 'courts' because I played both grass and macadam and 3-on-3 and 6-on-6 games. It was fun and frustrating because I am not that good and if people embrace that great; if not... less great.
At home, gearing up for a weekend of camping at exploring more of the middle of the state. Sports opportunities have shortened my evenings but Jenelle's been going wild during the day and there's always something excitingly different or organized or clean when I walk in at the end of the day.
I always forget stuff.... like Friday night's trip up the hill to BCMR for a round and an appetizer, like frisbee toe/nail/not, like asparagus and asiago linguine, like Gram's travels way south around San Blas, like great wedding photos from spring nuptials, like Sunday night fireworks in Macungie and Kutztown from the window seat. So it goes when posts dwindle.
Last two nights have actually been pretty relaxed around the house. We played frisbee and made burgers last night and tonight looks like library and salad night. I'm digging summer evenings and somehow feeling a calm (eye of the storm?) that hasn't happened in a few weeks.
Happy belated birthday, America. As I suspect the Founding Fathers may have, we slept in on July 5th. They were probably tired from writing one of the great revolutionary documents in all antiquity, we were tired from staying out late in Philadelphia watching the big fireworks.
Philadelphia makes a big hoo-ha about their Independence Day celebration, street fair, etc, etc. We thought that sounded historic and nice... it wasn't. Everything that wasn't a national fast-food/convenience chain was closed, the street fair was mostly just bad singers screeching loudly at the Ford karaoke stand, and the fireworks - despite a pretty monumental grand finale - were likely not the nation's best. It wasn't something we'd tackle a million people to do again, but now we know.
We had a whopper of a deck bbq on Thursday night to ring in the holiday... and summer to a certain extent. People turned out in droves but didn't really hang out on the deck or eat the bbq, which was unexpected but a sign that we're the Midwesterners without kids and our friends aren't. Anyway, I had ribs and dessert and grown-up Arnold Palmer and enjoyed it and I think Jenelle did, too.
Mom was off Friday morning and we were not far behind, joining the neighborhood gang for a picnic day at Lake Nockamixon State Park. In the evening we found/discovered/went to a new (for us) indie theater in Allentown and watched "Away We Go." It was great and a break-through for both of its previously-small screen stars. Today we went for a bike ride through the fields west, over a chipmunk's tail, past the new DC by Quarry Park, and home. Now it's afternoon, we're wishing we had a canoe, and tomorrow is back to the grind.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009