All About August

Wow…no blogging for a month.  Lucky you 🙂

I have to admit, August was pretty busy for us… A little vacation, back-to-school (college) prep, and beginning my physical therapy…which, I have to admit has knocked. me. out.

(If the first six weeks of this injury was a painless breeze, the next six weeks are making up for it in spades).

Anyway, this briefly, was August:

 

8/1 We finally have a family getaway scheduled for later this week!  We decided to do an in-state sampler (New York, fyi) of places we’ve never gone to as a family.  Main rule: feed them when they’re hungry.

8/2 Cracking the whip on the family for clean bedrooms in advance of our little excursion.

8/3 Want a clean house?  Invite someone to dog/house sit for you!  It would be so nice if we actually lived like this!

8/4 With all the rain this summer, the pool has been a recurrent algae farm.

8/5 Day one of our family getaway.  Six adults, one mini-van, no fighting, no biting. Fun family dinner on our first night!

 

8/6 The kids decided to bypass the second destination in favor of fair weather activities in Lake George, only to find the fair weather was NOT fair enough.  Light wind = no parasailing 🙁

8/7 We returned to the bypass destination only to wish we had more time there!  Saratoga Springs is lovely and we definitely decided we are coming back!!!

But on to Lake Placid.  Checked into hotel and since it was raining, we decided to make this our shop day in town….

 

8/8 …only to discover the “experience” activities the kids were looking forward to (bobsled run and tubing on the ski jump are closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays!  Still, a wonderful day touring the Herb Brooks Arena (home of the 1980 “Miracle on Ice”),

 

enjoying a gondola ride up Whiteface Mountain,

 

and taking a ski lift AND elevator to the terrifying view atop the ski jumps…. There isn’t enough liquid courage to ever make me think about taking that leap!  (Remember ABC’s old “agony of defeat” video?)

 

8/9 A visit to Alexandria Bay and the Thousand Islands (well not EACH of them) was highlighted by a ferry ride and tour of Boldt Castle)…then home to see our puppies!! Yipee!!

8/10  Happy to be home!!!  It was a Wallyworld trip (poor planning/misadventures), but we had a great time.

8/11 Laundry, laundry and more laundry….how long were we gone, anyway!?

8/12  Enjoyed the afternoon at the Lewiston Art Festival…but we didn’t look at art…we parked ourselves outdoors at a favorite restaurant…then saw some folks we knew and invited them to join us.  It turned out that the Mrs. recently completed therapy for her fractured knee…so she directed me to her physical therapy group.

8/13  I have the crazies today….Who lines a leg brace with plastic foam?  My leg brace manufacturer, that’s who!  I spent an hour with a glue gun and black cotton knit and brought cool comfort to my not-so fashionable orthopedic accessory.

8/14  Visited my Ortho, who cleared me for PT…LET’S GET IT STARTED ALREADY! I’d like my life back!!

8/15  My good hair month is DEFINITELY over!

8/16 Happy to begin physical therapy today to rehab my fractured patella.

8/17 Happy to NOT have physical therapy today…wow…that’s killer!!!

8/18  Mr. and I had a lovely evening dinner here

via Robert Kirkham:Buffalo News.com

in historic East Aurora, NY.  We had the perfect street side table…right behind the sign.

8/19 Mr. and I were planning a quiet dinner at home with yesterday’s delicious leftovers (i.e. NO COOKING!!!)…until Number Three (Buck) said…”I think I’ll hang with you guys and watch movies tonight.”  Hasty dinner.

8/20 Just a low-key movie day…sometimes a comfy sofa and a quiet house is NOT a bad thing!

8/21 I wasn’t too interested at first, but all the youngers were so excited about the eclipse, that I caught solar fever in the nick of time.  Loved the skewed shadows from our riverbirch tree that were all over the sidewalk.

8/22 Grilled some chicken yesterday in anticipation of this evening’s dinner…For some reason, I have trouble getting the temperature up after I grill chicken.  Then I cook beef or pork and their juices clear away the chicken clog….weird!  So, my first effort at pizza on the grill was a little compromised by lower than desired temperatures, but the outcome was still great!

8/23 With a little physical therapy comes a little retail therapy….

8/24 Attended new student orientation at our alma mater….Now, all six of us will have attended the same college!

8/25 I have decided to nickname my PT “Torquemada” (torturer-in-chief during the Spanish Inquisition).  Holy Whoa…this is where all the missing pain was!

8/26  YIKES!  We let Jack out this morning and he very nearly got skunked again…in the daylight!!!  I saw the smelly violator just in time to call Jack back.  Later that evening, our smelly intruder not only returned to the scene of the crime…he spend a looooong time digging in these boulders next to the house.  Then he’d show up on the other side of the house… NOT HAPPY!

8/27 It was Skunk Deterrent Day at our house… eliminating the food source under the boulders (which involved a couple of bee stings for Mr. D&D and a hilarious limp/run display from me).

8/28  First day of college for our youngest!

8/29 Revising my grilled pizza experiment tonight with proper cooking temperatures. The first pizza had a charred bottom in three minutes… I guess the lower temps for grilling pizza are better IF you don’t have a stone top to reflect the heat back down for even cooking.  We are definitely loving this experiment!!!  Yummmmm

8/30 For 12 years we have put off fixing this disastrous “retaining wall” our builder left for us.  Erosion, a collapsing air conditioning unit, pressure on the foundation and now, a potential skunk habitat, are making us finally address the problem.

8/31 Oh, no!!!  Mr. has an idea for a new outdoor project!  I don’t know if it will happen, but here’s a hint….he’s REALLY liking the pizza 🙂

Click below for other Sentence-a-Day-ers…and thanks to Leslie at http://www.onceuponatimehappilyeverafter.com/ for inviting us!

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11 comments

    1. Hello, Leslie!!! THANK YOU on SO many levels for commenting.

      1: Had it not been for you I wouldn’t have known that I had missed other kind visitors here… A very rude way for me to treat a guest! Somehow I was not getting notifications…until your comment.

      2: I was BLOWN AWAY by your thoughtfulness to check in on me!!!! How nice are YOU!

      It’s been pretty busy around here (by my standards…which are MUCH lower than most people’s). Been spending a LOT of time with therapy…which has been very productive…and exhausting (again, by my standards). And since I had not accomplished the ONE THING I most wanted to finish from my bucket list…I’d imposed a “punishment” on myself: NO Blogging related activities (which I greatly enjoy) until I finish the big Kahuna. I clearly have a self-discipline problem 🙂

      I AM finally making progress! But more than that, I am so touched that you reached out to me! Hoping that by NOV 1, I will be back in action. My self-imposed “grounding” is intended to get me moving…which it has. And while it keeps me from writing, it has also kept me from reading mostly everyone but Jodie (who has almost single-handedly kept me from folding up my blogging tent, lol).

      I look forward to catching up with everyone’s Sentences-a-Day and other adventures very soon! YOU ARE AWESOME!!!

      1. So glad to hear from you and to know you are doing well…plugging along with therapy which will undoubtedly soon have you good as new! We miss you and will be glad to hear more from your adventures once you are back to 110%. XO

  1. Ditto what everyone above has commented; your pizza looks delicious. I have never tried making pizza on the grill and rarely make it period. Might have to give it a go. Wonder if you husband has in mind building a pizza oven outdoors!?

    I am so sorry the physical therapy is painful. Hope your friend’s suggested therapist will be able to provide you with less painful therapy. Maybe your progress will e some remarkable that you will graduate soon and be back to normal.

    Giggled at the description of your vacation. Sounds like it all turned out well but I get so frustrated when my plans don’t work out. We are going to Germany for a week and are torn between trying to drive all over the country to see (glimpse) as much as we can or spending more time in fewer places.

    Thanks so much for joining up with us. Hope by this time next month you are up to running and dancing and hopping on the bum leg.

  2. Glad to see you continue with the Sentence-a-day link up, Em. Do you still have issues with posting your comments on other blogs? Hope you heal soon and PT wouldn’t hurt too much.

    1. Hi, Natalie! Wow…where did the time go!!!?? I was able to comment on all the nearly all blogs I visited. Been away for a while but hope to be back in action in November! Thank you for your comment and my apologies for the time lapse!!!

  3. Oh my, your pizzas look fabulous! Lake Placid also looks lovely. It’s one of the reasons I’m enjoying this sentence a day thing is being allowed to have sneaky peeks into life on the other side of the world. Hope you heal soon.

  4. Oh that pizza looks amazing! And I love the getaway pictures. I need to get to NY again. I went once when I was 6. Can’t remember a thing about it. Love reading these brief outlines of someone elses days.
    🙂 gwingal

    1. Hello, Nikki!

      Caught a quick glimpse of YOUR August… we have matching nail polish this month 🙂

      The pizzas are pretty epic…the outside is so flaky crispy and the inside puffy with the right amount of goo. We’re gonna keep playing with this! 🍕

      But when ISN’T pizza wonderful?

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