Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Beautiful People Everywhere. The Way They Show They Care Makes me Want to Say, It's a Beautiful World


It was one hell of a lovely four day weekend. We got so lucky with the weather and both of my girls are living in town and we got to hang out with our friends too. Boy howdee! I honestly don't know what could have made it better. Maybe if it were even longer...


On Thursday, we got up early and headed to the local Catholic high school for their annual Thanksgiving Day trail run. I ran with Stinky. So, it was the first time I ever did it without trying to go as hard as I could. I went at Stinky's pace and walked when she wanted to walk and it was really fun. We weren't going to win any medals, but who cares?


After the run, we went home, I made the dressing, stuffed the turkey, threw it in the oven and John and headed to the Rec services building, where we didn't work-out, but instead, we sat in the Jacuzzi and watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade on the big screen TV. It was completely decadent, ie, perfect.

We got home and cleaned and cooked and Coadster came over. We had a nice dinner, and I was sure I made too much food, but Stinky and her fiance showed up around 7:30 and they and Coadster and John all had another meal with it then. I, of course, didn't indulge in that because I wanted to save all my stomach room for pumpkin cheesecake. Ahhhhh.


After (the second) dinner, our friends Chelsea and Burne came over and we played some Cards Against Humanity...Because we are just THAT classy.


On Friday, I slept in and it was marvelous. I slowly got moving - and by that, I mean, I made some tea and moved upstairs to my reading room to put on the fake fireplace and read a book in the prone position.


You'll all be happy to know that I did eventually get my ass in gear to enjoy the unseasonably amazing weather. I ran my 3.5 mile route first.


There were tons of people outside playing. It made me so happy that people were playing instead of shopping.


After the run, I heated up leftovers for lunch (I wish they could last forever), then we met some friends to ride mountain bikes on the trails.


As you can see, I rode in shorts, at the end of November...In Iowa! Holy guacamole! did that feel good.


After the ride, we went home and had a drink on the porch and gave Archie all of the attention we could manage...Which still isn't enough for him.


For our evening entertainment, we played Scrabble and John beat me by at least 10 points, as usual.


Watching Archie try to fit in the Scrabble box, was also fairly entertaining.


Saturday was a little cooler out, but I still got a run in and John and I got back out on the mountain bike trails, since they will close for the month of December for hunting season, so it was our last chance.


On Sunday, the winds had calmed down some, so we decided to do a 50 mile road ride to Kalona and back.

My girls and some of our friends drove there and met us for a late lunch.


We had a strong headwind on the way there, but on the way home the winds had died down some and we had a slight tailwind (which was much nicer).


It gets dark so early now, that we were distracted by really cool looking shadows on the fields as we rode...


...And speaking of distractions, the sunset was beautiful enough to wreck my bike over. We did see cars pulled over on the side of the road taking pictures of it. It's a beautiful world.


On Sunday evening, my girls came over and we painted homemade Christmas cards. They also had to watch the Sunday night football game. Coadster is a Packers fan and Stinky is a Steeler's fan. It's damn good thing they have plenty of things to bicker about.


Here are our cards. I made a couple of cards that weren't Christmassy, so I can use them for thank-you's or birthdays and Stinky made some that were just a straight color, since she had gold and silver pens at home that she could write "happy holiday's, or Kwanzaa, or Hanukka, or New Year or Christmas or whatever you like to celebrate this time of year.

Soooo, I am full of seasonal goodness and happiness, even though (or maybe because) the weather hasn't been very seasonal. I hope your holiday filled you with goodness as well.

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