Well, I'm back from having 5 glorious days off in a row. Unfortunately, I didn't get as much relaxing and resting and staying at home getting stuff done, as I wanted. Of course, I got to do great things and see both my girls over the weekend, so I have absolutely nothing to complain about. Except for...Yawn. I'm pretty tired.
John went to his mom's house on Tuesday evening for dinner. Which meant, I did get some glorious time alone.
Mostly, I spent time in my reading room, getting into the scary book, Henry James' "The Turn of the Screw. Speaking of scary...Archie held me hostage by lying on top of me with his 21 lb frame.
There was no counting the amount of body parts that were cleaned while he was lying on me. Suffice it to say, I found him a little annoying, which didn't stop me from photographing his every movement.
From all of the "alone time" I spent taking photos of Archie while John was at his mom's house, I decided it would be really bad for me if John were to dump me. I would become one of those people who did nothing but obsess on their cats. I'm sure Archie would be all for that.
After the reading, I decided it was time to start wrapping John's birthday presents. Once again, Archie was there to "help".
Which forced me to take even MORE photos of him. Seriously, how could I not?
John's actual birthday was another nice, mellow day. At least for me. John went to the Johnson County Fairgrounds to work on the Jingle CX course. I stayed home and tried to get stuff done around there. I marinated and cooked some beets, went on a little run, and started cleaning the hell out of our bedroom. That was supposed to be one of John's birthday, presents, but it might take a little longer (like everything in my life) than I thought it would. It sounds kind of weird to give to him as a gift, but John isn't a big fan of clutter and, surprise, surprise, I don't really even notice it, so I was trying to at least get rid of some of my crap.
I started out really well. I got the vinegar and water out and scrubbed our ceiling fan, the ceiling and about half of the walls. I took down our shears and washed them and hung them on the line. I washed the bedding and started in on my dresser. I did my top drawer, which has become my own personal junk drawer. The stuff I found in there from the last 20 years was a little overwhelming. John came home and I took him out for lunch at Short's. Then he came home and took a nap and I went to the store to get some stuff for his birthday dinner.
I marinated and grilled tuna steaks, made honey sriracha brussel sprouts and beet salad. I also made blue cheese stuffed olives, so John could have a lovely martini while we sat out by the fire. Ahhhhh.
The next day was Stinky's 24th birthday and I had to wake-up with a migraine. Since it was the first one I had in about 3.5 weeks, I couldn't complain too much, it was just bad timing.
I had to go back to bed for a bit after I took my meds and rest for a few hours. When I finally woke up, I made some lunch for us. We were originally going to ride our bikes to Solon and meet Stinky for her birthday at happy hour at Big Grover Brewery, but I took the migraine meds and there was no way I'd be strong enough for that kind of ride. Instead, we rode a few miles to the new permanent cyclocross park the city is letting us use to check it out. Basically, it's a big mess right now. It's right by the river and the bugs were eating us alive and it was clear people were going to do a ton of work to make most of it rideable, so we went back home and our friend, Burne showed up to ride bikes.
John and Burn headed to Solon and since they were going to take over an hour to get there, I stayed home for a bit and made pumpkin bars, before I drove there to meet them and Stinky and her boyfriend. We had a great dinner and got Stinky a piece of birthday cheesecake.
I drove Stinky home, but the sky looked a little scary, so I told Burne and John to text me if it started to storm and they needed me to pick them and their bikes up. By the time Stinky and I got back to Iowa City, the rain was coming down in sheets and they winds were crazy. Stinky said we should go look for the guys and pick them up. So, we headed down the road they would be riding and by the time we caught them, it was sunny and nice and they were looking at us like we were nuts. They said the whole way home, all they ever got was a sprinkle. Iowa weather is just insane.
The rest of the night, John and I got to hang-out and chill-out and get ready for the Jingle CX madness that we would get to experience for the next three days.
The other thing that's been going on in Eastern Iowa is flooding. Iowa City is a little soggy, but North of us there has been some serious flooding. I believe the water is going down now, but this weekend, was pretty rough for a lot of my friends.
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