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When Hubby is Away…

Hubby is in Chicago as I write this. He left on Sunday morning and is coming home on Monday. It’s some work thing. There’s a factory tour involved, but I forget what factory. He went to a baseball game on Sunday, too.

As everyone knows… when Hubby is away, ToadMama will PLAY. I have to whoop it up every now and then, right?

I didn’t really whoop it up, but I did have fun. Shannon, the oldest kid (and my most-frequent blog commenter), came over for dinner.

We started off with modified Insalata Caprese, which is tomatoes, provolone cheese and balsamic vinegar. Typically, you use mozzarella cheese. Fresh basil, too. But provolone is all I had. And it was way too hot to run out for different cheese.

I have to say, the tomatoes were AWESOME. They were grown by my Dad. But they were just the appetizer. We topped those off with…

… steamed shrimp. The only thing missing was corn on the cob. But we ate enough Insalata Caprese to make up for it.

And we washed it all down with our new favorite summertime beverage (thanks to Kathy and Barry Spice for this one). Fresh blueberries (slightly smashed) topped with crushed ice, Stoli Blueberry vodka and Simply Lemonade. I suppose any lemonade will do, but Simply Lemonade tastes just like fresh-squeezed. And you can use a less-expensive blueberry vodka, but Stoli gives it a much better flavor.

Enough about the food and beverages, let’s talk about Shannon. Have I mentioned here that she’s planning a trip? It’s not just any trip, it is an around-the-world voyage. Literally. You can read all about it on her blog, Where’s Shan Now?. She’ll be backpacking (traveling on the cheap, staying in hostels, etc.) around places like Barcelona, Prague, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Singapore, etc.

She got her hair cut for ease of care during her trip. Not like THIS though, much to Hubby’s relief. I made a comment on her blog that, if she came over on Sunday, I’d take some pics so she could show the world her new hairdo.

So (drum roll, please), here’s Shannon and her very cute new do.

Doesn’t she look fabulous? And worldy? And cool? (Did I mention it was oppressively hot yesterday?)

She’s very photogenic. Unlike someone else we know and love.

I was making her laugh. This is probably not one of her favorite pictures, but I love her smile.

Belle wanted in on some modeling action, too. We had to cut the shoot short anyway, the mosquitoes were eating us alive.

This is my favorite picture from the shoot. Gorgeous, ain’t she? And brave! She’ll be gone for a whole year (at least). She’s going by herself, too. Around the world!

I’ll miss her terribly, but am very excited for her to be taking advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

She’s leaving on October 1. Be sure to visit her blog to see how she’s doing, where she is, etc.

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Where in the World?

Which of these four things do you think Hubby and I did yesterday?

a) Visit Paris
b) See the War Correspondents’ Arch
c) Walk the Appalachian Trail
d) Ride an automobile ferry
e) all of the above

Come on, give it some thought. We couldn’t go to WV because Hubby flew off to Chi-town this morning for a work thing.

Give up? You’ll never guess.

We did all of the above!

Our trip to Paris, Virginia was brief. So brief, in fact, that I didn’t take any pictures. But here’s a good one that someone else shot.

We were exploring Northern Virginia, between Leesburg and Winchester, for a possible relocation destination. Any move would be quite a ways down the road.

Since we love back roads, and I love cool, quirky stuff, Hubby plotted a route that took us across the Potomac River at White’s Ferry.

This is near Poolesville, Maryland, at mile 35.5 along the C&O Canal. There used to be around 100 ferries facilitating river crossings on the Potomac, but this is the last.

It is used by a variety of vehicles. We’ve been across it before, twice I think, on our motorcycles.

We passed a gazillion bicyclists yesterday (not one was chubby!). That’s our green car in the foreground. Hubby is behind the wheel, but you can’t see him because of the glare.

I think the ferry can hold about 21 cars.

It is actually quite efficient. I had just enough time to hit the potty and snap some quick pics before we boarded.

Notice the horse trailer? I told you it carries a variety of stuff.

Here come some bikers. It was a gorgeous, summer day. Too bad my bike is at the WV place.

This is the Virginia side of the river. It’s just outside of Leesburg.

This is a view of the river, from the ferry, looking northwest.

The area around Paris was gorgeous. East of there, towards Leesburg, is horse country. Lots of very large horse farms. West of there is the Shenandoah River. It’s sort of mountainous there, too.

On the way home, after crossing back over the Potomac at Harper’s Ferry (no longer a ferry), I saw a sign for Gathland State Park. It’s a Maryland state park I have never seen, and have always wanted to, so I said to Hubby, “Turn there!”

Of course he listened. He’s pretty good about humoring me.

This is the War Correspondents’ Arch. This is why there’s a Gathland State Park. If you really want to know more, follow the link. I don’t feel like recounting the history here.

I was sort of excited to see that the Appalachian Trail goes right through the park.

Since I’m sort of fascinated by the trail and anxious to hike on it (not the entire 2,000+ mile length!), I just had to walk on the trail.

We didn’t go far. It was sort of hot and VERY gnatty (as in bugs). But I did get Hubby to agree to return later in the year for a 12-mile hike! (Remember what I said about him humoring me.)

The arch is sort of cool, I guess. Again, one of those odd, quirky things. I suppose if we were Civil War buffs, which we aren’t, it would’ve been more interesting.

There were some picturesque buildings there (the remains of the summer home of the guy that built the arch). I like stone buildings.

Since I didn’t get to take any pictures in Paris, at least there was something interesting to capture images of to share with my blog audience.

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Wanna Know Where I’ve Been?

You know, the funny thing about being a blogger with a general interest blog like mine is that I am constantly wracking my brain for stuff to write about. Well, not constantly as in all the time, but a lot. I mean, I have to keep folks entertained, right? So they’ll come back again and again, and log on to the Internet at least 57 times a day just to see if I have said anything new.

That’s what I’ve always thought. But I haven’t posted anything since last Friday. I skipped four whole days. And not one person said, “Hey. Where have you been?”

So I figured I’d just cut to the chase, you know, be up front and honest, and ask if I have been missed.

Well???

Seriously though, it’s just been one of those weeks where not a lot worth writing about has happened. Instead of writing about one big event, I’m going to share some scintillating (or not) tidbits…

Motorcycling in West Virginia

Know why we like motorcycling in West Virginia so much? Cause it’s just a durn purty place. With lots and lots of cool roads like this that meander through the myriad mountains and valleys.

Hubby didn’t feel like riding on Saturday, so I went out exploring on my own. Which is why, even though I finally found a spot to take a picture of me and my bike in front of a field of cows, you don’t see me in the next picture.

Saturday was a very nice day weather-wise. A bit overcast at times, but pleasantly cool. It was so cool, I was wearing a long sleeved shirt and wishing every now and then for a jacket.

Back in 2003 or 2004 when Hubby and I took our first bike trip through WV, the trip that convinced us we should actually buy some land there, we came across this neat little stretch of road. I sort of knew where it was, at least the general area, but we’d never managed to find it. Well, on Saturday, I found it. It’s called Greenland Gap Road. It runs through Greenland Gap. Which happens to be the home of the Greenland Gap Preserve.

In the above photo, you can see the rocky cliffs that rise 800+ feet on the northern side of the gap. There was a cool little waterfall, but nowhere safe for me to stop, which is why there’s a link to someone else’s picture.

It wasn’t the smoothest road, but it was certainly picturesque.

Besides an abundance of scenic beauty, know what else WV has a lot of? Twisties!

This particular twisty, which is actually a series of sweeping curves, is on US Route 50 just east of Mt. Storm. There are quite a few others. But it isn’t always convenient to stop. Even if there is space alongside the road for me to quickly zip in to, the surface is usually dirt or gravel. Motorcycles don’t take well to “zipping in” to dirt or gravel. Especially big, heavy motorcycles.

On Missing Grandma…

Hard as it is for me to believe, it’s been a whole year since my Grandma Saxton passed. I’ve been thinking of her a lot lately. This morning, while enjoying (not!) my 15-minute jog, I passed a crepe myrtle bush in full bloom. It was gorgeous. Maybe tomorrow I’ll go take a picture of it to share with you, since I can’t share it with my Grandma. It would’ve made her smile and say, “Wow, that’s really pretty.” I can still hear her voice.

Engrish Lessons

Tacky segue? Grandma wouldn’t think so. She had quite a sense of humor. “Engrish” is simply humorous English mistakes that appear in Japanese advertising and product design. The site’ll really suck you in, so be careful. Here’s one of my favorite Engrish pics. This lovely note is one of their most popular posts.

Newest Blog Addiction

I stumbled across the blog, So About What I Said…, a couple of days ago. It is written by a 27-year-old woman named Melissa who has Freeman-Sheldon Syndrome. It is a rare genetic condition, which causes physical disability. It’s not the syndrome that has me so fascinated, it’s the girl. Wowee, can she write! She writes a lot, too. I keep poking through her archives to read more and learn more about her. Her biggest issue, at least the one that is most frequently discussed, is with dating. It is really quite eye-opening. If you ever, even remotely, wondered what it is like to have a physical disability, you gotta read some of Melissa’s blog.

Army Ten-Miler Training

I’m still at it. I’ve been running 15-minute stints. I am supposed to run 15/walk 5/run 15/walk 5, but I can’t seem to bring myself to do that second 15. It’s mental, I swear. Once I stop jogging and walk after the first 15 minutes, I just can’t bring myself to start jogging again. So I am just going to start adding 5 minutes to my jog times. The next jog is supposed to be 20 minutes. I’ll let you know how I do.

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That’s it for now. I’m looking forward to tomorrow night. I’m having dinner with two friends who are former co-workers of mine. Usually, we do lunch, and it’s always rushed. A relaxing dinner will be a nice change of pace.

Tomorrow night, the girls and I will be driving out to the WV place. Hubby will ride his bike out on Friday afternoon. Here’s hoping for more good riding weather!

You may not hear from me again until Sunday. I hope you’ll be okay without me again for the next few days.

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Mostly Uneventful Weekend

Not a whole lot happened this weekend. Not that’s worth blogging about anyway. But I didn’t want my faithful fans wondering at my absence, so here’s a summary.

Friday pretty much stunk. It was supposed to be my day off, but I ended up working. And even though Hubby took off early specifically so we could leave by 1:00 p.m., we didn’t get to leave until about 2:30. We hauled the motorcycles along in the trailer, which slowed us down, and had to stop at two different Lowe’s stores to buy a screen door. Then we had to find a place to eat. It felt like it took us forever to get there. But we finally made it around 7:00 p.m. At least it was still daylight, which was nice for a change.

Saturday was a great day. The weather was perfect for a nice motorcycle ride through the countryside. We topped it off with a nice meal at El Puente, the yummy Mexican restaurant in Capon Bridge.

Sunday was our day to goof off. Well, it was my day to goof off anyway.

I read a large chunk of a very good book… Seabiscuit. Yeah, I know I am very late on that bandwagon, but I had no idea it would be so good. I bought it months ago at Ollie’s for $2.50. It’s been sitting on my nightstand at the WV place as my fallback book. Who knew non-fiction books could be such gripping page-turners? I kind of want to see the movie now, but I know I’ll be disappointed. There are way too many character nuances and too much key background info to come across on film. It’ll probably be entertaining though.

When not reading, I did some walking with the girls, which is when I snapped the cool bug pic you see above. I pretty much stick to the roads since it is summertime and I’m scared of ticks.

Speaking of the girls…

Belle has a new nickname. Pigpen.

I realize this isn’t a particularly good picture (blurry). I had to snap it quickly, because she hates posing for pics. But if you look closely, you’ll see the top of her covered in grass seed and her underside covered in mud. My cute little princess of a Tinkerbelle, who we also call Killer sometimes since she’s managed to dispatch both a squirrel and a groundhog, just loves running through tall grass and boggy swampland.

She has so much fun doing it, I can’t get mad at her. Once she dries off she isn’t so bad. Plus, it gave me an excuse to read some more while I sat outside waiting for her to dry.

On a final note… I drug myself out of bed at 6:10 today so I could train before it got too hot. I made the first 10-minute jog/5-minute walk. Then I pooped out and only did 3 jog/2 walk/3 jog/7 walk. But I am still plugging away. As I was finishing, the sun was rising above the trees. Even when temps are in the mid-60s, the sun beating down on you makes quite a difference. I guess I’m just going to have to become a morning girl. Either that, or run at night. I’ll have to see which works best.

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At a Loss

I’ve been quite busy with work. And I didn’t sleep at all (literally) Tuesday night. So, not a lot has happened. I’m going to take the easy way out and post a picture I doctored a bit with Photoshop.

I think it looks sort of cool and retro, don’t you?

I actually took it on an unplanned stop in Mystic, Connecticut last year on my way to Maine.

No training yesterday due to a combination of work and no sleep, which are directly related by the way. But that’s a whole ‘nother story. I hope to get out there today.

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My Food "Issue"

I have this thing about food. I get cravings, hankerings for a particular thing, and that’s all I want to eat for a week or so. Not “all” as in eat nothing else, but “all” as in can’t get enough of.

My latest obsession? Blueberries.


Throughout most of the year, fresh blueberries are prohibitively expensive. I mean, I could buy some if I really wanted to, if I could get past paying like $6 for half a pint.

Now that summer is approaching, blueberries are coming into season. So they are much more reasonably priced.

Case in point… last night, I got an 18-ounce (about 2 pints) box of fresh California blueberries for $4. They are the fattest, juiciest, most perfect blueberries ever. Click on the image above to get a close look at my beautiful blueberries.

Since I am trying to lose weight, I try to snack on lower-calorie, healthier fare. My strategy is working, too. Just from eating less, eating better, and exercising a bit.

I’m sure the blueberries, help. Lucky for me, the sale runs through Tuesday. I’m envisioning daily trips to Safeway…