Weekend Wrap Up - I'm Tired!
I sometimes wonder if there will come a time in my life when I'm comfortable just 'being' and not 'doing,' which is not something I do well currently. Once upon a time my dad said to me, "You and I have a hard time just being still." This, from a man who still goes on multi-state motorcycle rides and overnight kayaking trips at close to 90 years of age.
Yeah, pretty sure there's no hope for either of us, so here we go again . . .
Friday - Enjoyed an on-my-own 8 mile fast paced walk as I now start to implement a training schedule for my upcoming organized hiking and kayaking trip in the Maritime Provinces of Canada. Focusing on increasing mileage for now, with hills added once I'm comfortably at 10 miles of walking and hiking distance.
Once back home from the walk I showered and took a nap (I was wiped!). Read this book for a bit, checked out from the library of course, which I'm thoroughly enjoying (this is my first Anthony Horowitz read) -
- then my spouse and I got a little dressed up and headed to our membership winery for complimentary glasses of wine plus a flatbread pizza to share. We do this twice a month, generally on Friday nights, at a cost to us of about $25 a visit, since the wine is gratis per our membership.
I did the math on this once, and the cost of our annual fees divided by the number of bottles we take home and the complimentary glasses of wine we receive at the winery comes to about $5 a glass. The wine is excellent (award winning, actually), so we are very good with the current annual membership cost. And the setting alongside water is so enjoyable, plus cozy and friendly - lots of spontaneous talking ensues. It definitely feels like 'our place,' which is really nice.
Saturday - Met my beach walking group in the AM for a 6.5 mile walk. So enjoy this weekly date on my calendar, today electing to walk to the starting point from my home in order to add a little extra mileage.
Home for a quick cleanup and lunch, then my spouse and I left to attend a matinee live theater performance of The Sound Of Music, which exceeded all of our expectations. Having only seen the movie previously, but multiple times, I wasn't sure how 'exciting' seeing it as a live musical production would be - but the theater company knocked it out of the park - it was amazing! I don't know where the director located his talented cast from, but they were absolutely outstanding, each and every one. And the set direction was likewise clever and extremely well done. My spouse and I kept turning to each other and saying, "This is sooo good!!!"
So, so good.
We'd originally planned to go out to dinner afterward, but I switched around our dinner plans when I realized I'd forgotten we were also going out to eat two times next (now this) week due to already scheduled midweek commitments, so instead I started a halved half rack of pork ribs (so a 1/4 rack) in the slow cooker in the AM, which along with a baked sweet potato and green beans, is what we had for dinner.
Sunday - On Repeat for now - I was up bright and early to reserve our park concert spot by laying out blankets and chairs. Afterward I did some yard work, and got dinner started in the slow cooker, a new-to-us Pork Chile Verde recipe that smelled good even before I started it on Low cook setting, yeah.
We walked to the concert, always enjoyable, and the concert, a country music band, was outstanding. I loved that so many of the attendees this weekend came in cowboy and cowgirl gear, and wished I'd thought to do so as well! The event started with a short line dancing lesson - so fun! - and then the concert kicked off. The band had a female fiddler, and she was fab-u-lous! (She's on the far right in the photo below.)
Today, Monday -
I'm leaving shortly for a six mile walk, then home to do some light chores before getting dressed up for our annual attendance at Laguna Beach's Pageant of the Masters. This year we're taking my mom for her first time, starting with dinner at an Asian-fusion place we love, where she'll also be trying sushi for the first time. In that the restaurant's sushi is delicious, and we have second row seats at the Pageant, currently entering its 93rd year, I think she's going to have a wonderful evening out, as are we. It wouldn't feel like summer here without attending this event, which is how we used to feel about the Hollywood Bowl summer fireworks shows when we lived on the other side of L.A. from where we do now. The Hollywood Bowl is much to hard to get to from where we live now, so the Pageant has taken its place as our annual summer tradition.
A quick note: The intention of this blog is primarily to keep me focused on living as big as possible for whatever time and energy I/we have left. It's meant to incentivize me to keep on keeping on. Plus, I do deeply love a good value, so there's that here as well!
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Inquiring minds want to know - how was your weekend???
