Brian’s parents hosted an Italian wine tasting party last night. The food was good, the drink was good. What more can you ask for? We got to try a lot of nice wines. I just love these parties! We’re going to have to host one soon…
mini vacation
While Jake was away, Brian and I headed to York on his bike. That’s right–I left mine at home. I’m not quite ready for prime time yet. We left at lunchtime on Sunday and arrived in York just before supper. We went out to eat with my friend Laura at a really nice restaurant called El Serrano. It was great to see her again as it had been a long time. After dinner and the chit-chatting was over, Brian and I hung out in the hotel room and read for a little bit. Then we went to a restaurant by the hotel and had a nightcap.
On Monday morning, we went to the Harley Davidson factory and signed up for the factory tour. While we were waiting for our turn, we checked out the little Harley museum they had. Among other things, they had all sorts of bikes you could sit on. It was pretty fun. I tried to get Brian to sit in a sidecar they had displayed, but he wouldn’t go for it. He’s a party pooper. In the meantime, he took pictures of me on every bike I sat on. Lucky for you, you’ll be spared from all but one of them in our slide show. We didn’t get a lot of pictures this trip, but that’s because cameras were not permitted in our main focus, the factory tour. It is unfortunate they don’t permit photography on the tour because it was really something to see, but I guess I can understand why they don’t.
Today could hardly be called vacation, but we didn’t work, so I guess it was a vacation for us. The day started off by picking the pups up from the Cozy Inn. Next up was a nice bike ride up 271, turning around at the Laurel Trail. This time, I did ride my own bike. We stopped for pizza at Pizza Man’s on our way home. A little later, we ran over to Sam’s club to pick up some stuff. They had a coupon in last week’s paper for a one day membership. I was there one other time, but I didn’t have as much fun this time. Perhaps it was because we were in a hurry because Brian had a meeting set up for 4:00. Anyway, I think I’m good on Sam’s Club for a while. I do wish we had a Costco around here, though. After supper we went outside and trimmed the hedges. That took the rest of the evening and here I am now. Do I really have to go to work tomorrow?
another party
Doug had another one of his monthly booze parties tonight. This evening’s theme was vodka, though everyone I saw was drinking beer (perhaps we didn’t stay late enough). We had fun like we always do. Kids were invited to this one, so Jake had a blast playing with all of the kids that were there. We had to cut this party a little short, though, because we had to drop Jake off at my parent’s this evening because they are all leaving for the beach in the morning.
As a bonus, one of my former co-workers now makes wine and she wanted to swap bottles with me. I came out on the better end of this deal–we were supposed to swap six bottles, but she brought me seven. I can’t wait to try all of the new wines. I’m going to try to hold out a little bit because they were all bottled this year and could stand some aging. But, I’m guessing the first bottle won’t make it till the end of the week before we try it.
Doug’s parties always seem to be ridiculously fun after dark. Maybe it is all of the drunk people–I don’t know. He already has plans for a September bash so I’ll have to test my theory then and stay late for that one.
cookout tonight
There is this couple at our church that we’ve been friendly with since we’ve been going there. We’re always talking about getting together, but before today, it never happened. So, we made the first move and invited them over for a cookout this evening. They have two young kids, a girl and a boy–2 and 4 respectively. They’re a really nice family and it was a very enjoyable evening.
Two of the neighbor kids showed up at some point. You should have heard the racket! Five kids can make a lot of noise. It’s hard to believe someone didn’t call the cops.
The evening ended with a marshmallow roast in the chiminea and Jake has a bellyache to prove it.
we’re not in kansas anymore
Or are we? I was about ready to head for the storm cellar today. We got hit with two major thunderstorms–one this morning and one this afternoon. When this morning’s storm rolled in, I thought it was the end of the world. It was that dark. I had to shut my work pc down for about 15 minutes because I didn’t want it to get fried.
Then, this afternoon, another one rolled in. Brian and Jake were heading out for a bicycle ride and I checked the weather only to find that another storm was going to arrive in a few minutes. So I went to tell them and I returned to see all of the office pcs in various stages of reboot. I guess the power must’ve flickered when I was away. I called it a sign and called it a day–it was just about quitting time anyway.
The garden/yard is a little worse for the wear from these storms. Everything is tipping over. One of my tomato plants is broken in half. Our one (newer) tree in the front was just about uprooted–I need to take care of that tonight (somehow). I was planning on planting a fall crop in my garden this year. The beginning of August is the time to do that, but the weather just has not been cooperating, so the crop has not been planted.
We would’ve had one fatality from the storm had it not been for Brian’s quick work. This morning I went downstairs to grab a snack and noticed there was a bird stuck in the bird feeder! The bird feeder has been empty for a few days so this bird must’ve crawled under the glass partition while looking for something to eat. Due to all of the rain we’ve been getting, the top of the bird feeder was stuck shut, so Brian had to break one of the parts in order to get it to open. I guess that’s another item he can add to his “to do” list–fix the bird feeder. Though I think this little incident will probably work in the bird’s favor–I bet Brian doesn’t let the feeder get empty again.