Today Was a Long Day

Today was a busy day at work followed by a long session at the gym. I walked three miles on the treadmill tonight. I'm up to 4 mph, which is pretty good for me. The facility manager and one of the trainers taught me to use a few of the weight machines. The plan is to work on my upper arms and thigh muscles for the first two weeks. Hopefully this will help my "wings" become a little less flabby.

After the workout, I hurried home and out to the garden to give some much-needed water to the potted plants. It's been very dry and in the 90's here for the past several days, so this is a daily ritual.

The veggie garden is really coming along. I picked three perfect strawberries.

We have two small eggplants -- not sure why I didn't notice these before today.

The Brussels are sprouting.

The green beans are grabbing onto the trellis and starting to vine.

And, the zinnias are blooming!!!

I didn't know that we were expecting a storm this evening. After I got everything watered, the water feature cleaned out and the bird bath cleaned and refilled, the skies really broke loose and we had a major thunderstorm.

That was about the time Bruce called for a ride home from work. He drove over to visit his grandmother and when he was ready to leave for work, his truck wouldn't start.

He had to get a ride to work and after work, we called AAA to tow it in for repairs. By this time, it's too late to cook dinner (plus I'm on cooking suspension), so we got carryout from Taco Bell. Being ever so health conscious these days, I ordered mine without cheese.

How NOT to Cook a Steak

I don't recommend using your Pfalzgraff dinnerware as a cooking surface. Bruce was warming up the George Foreman grill and had the steaks laying on a plate next to it. We always put the George Foreman on the stovetop so we can use the range hood to absorb the smoke.

I turned on a burner to heat up a pot of water for the corn on the cob. But, I accidently turned on the wrong burner. Instead of warming up the water, I warmed up the plate of steaks to the point of medium rare.

I suggested to Bruce that I be banned from cooking (at least for the rest of the summer) as a way to learn a lesson from this ;-)

Getting in Shape

I told everyone I saw this past week that I was going to join a health club on Monday. The reason I did this was to help hold me accountable for doing it. So, Monday after work I joined the O'Brien Recreation Center in South Bend. I chose O'Brien because it's on my way home. I figured, if I went home first, before working out, I'd come up with many excuses for not going.

Day one was pretty easy. I signed up, walked a mile on the treadmill and took a self-guided tour of the facility. It would have been nice to have one of the staffers give me an official tour with instructions. Basic things they should share with new members are pretty obvious: How to enter the facility (scan your ID card). Clean the machines after you use them. (I learned this by observing everyone else do it.) How to measure your heart rate, and how to determine a target heart rate.

I signed up for 30 days... let's see how it goes!

July Showers bring September Weddings

Sunday afternoon was spent catching up with many friends, both old and new, while we watched Cheryl's soon-to-be daughter-in-law open her bridal shower gifts.

We wish Gretchen and AJ much happiness in their life together as husband and wife.

Summer Reunion

Our weeklong July 4 celebration ended with a "summer of fun" squeezed into one day at Jerry's place in Lafayette.

We started with the annual oldies vs. youngsters kick ball game.

It was so hot, we didn't get to finish the game, but when we stopped, we had one bruised rib (I fell over myself running for first), one knot on knee (Kelly) and a few heroes on the oldies team.

Next was a dip in the pool to cool off and several trips down giant Slip 'N Slide.

Jerry's neighbor was so generous to donate the tarps for the Slip 'N Slide, and the labor to set it up. The kids had a blast on it.

Dave's sister, Denise, came out for a visit with her new baby David. Denise is adopting this beautiful little boy from Guatemala. Tabitha took her new cousin into the pool -- he was very quiet, but enjoyed the attention.

After a quick game of pool limbo (ducking under the net), it was time for several games of pool volleyball.

By this time, everyone had worked up an appetite so Kenny and I cooked up 38 brats and hotdogs.

Jerry and Tim had already cooked up 20 pounds of chicken wings, plus Kelly made several side dishes so we had plenty to eat.

Fully nourished, it was time for the evening's activities.

Fireworks -- Bonfire

Midnight Swimming

Guitar Serenade

Cards

Camping (some with tents; some without).

It was very nice to get together with our Lafayette and Evansville friends. We don't get to see each other that often, but when we do, we have a great time.

Saturday Morning in the Garden

While strolling through the garden at 7am this morning, I saw the first zinnia blooms.

A grand-daddy long legged spider rests on the fringed Shasta daisy.

Good Day, Sunshine!

Another beautiful, sunny day in northern Indiana. We visited Mike, Cheryl and Gizmo at the lake in LaPorte for a day of boating, jet skiing, tubing and fun in the sun.









Gizmo is the cutest little Boston Terrier. Full of puppy kisses for Bruce. He's a great swimmer. Here he's drying off in the sun.





We drove up to Michigan for dinner at Redamak's -- for the hamburgers that made New Buffalo, Michigan famous.







I wanted to drive over to Wako beach after dinner, but made a wrong turn and ended up in Michigan City. We made the best of it and visited the Blue Chip Casino, where we managed to spend $27 in less than 10 minutes.



On our way home, we stopped to watch a hot air balloon travel across the skies of Osceola.