Tuesday, August 13, 2024

Weight 120.8. It's 6 am and in a little over 2 hours we leave for the next adventure. We meet DH's daughter for lunch, then stay in Saratoga Springs for the next 2 nights. We go to the racetrack tomorrow and hopefully I will come out ahead with my $2 bets (last year I lost about $8). This will be my fourth time going. Thursday we drive to Lake George to stay with friends from Florida. Friday we move on to Burlington VT to stay for a night. Saturday back to Massachusetts but staying in Central Mass after the family dinner (the engaged couple's families). Sunday is a Woosox baseball game with some of the group from dinner, then back home after the game.

I'm feeling exhausted already. Justice is going to his fun place again - one downside of DS leaving is there isn't anyone here for Justice to stay with. Potentially he can stay with DH's daughter and husband in the future as they have offered watch him now that their dog and Justice get along well, but it wasn't convenient to do so on this trip.

And my car is still at the dealer waiting for a replacement part that the rodents chewed up! They don't seem to care that I will have their loaner car for another week. I sure hope my car is ready when we get back.

Time to finish packing. Have a terrific Tuesday!

Have a great trip, Liz. It all sounds like fund to me.

Have an awesome time, Liz. Saratoga and Lake George are favorites from growing up in the capital district. I'm loving hearing about eyeryone's new chapters being started and current chapters being completed. Debby has finally, fully moved on. I'll post a picture of the FULL pond off my porch on TT. Grateful it didn't come IN my porch ! Sadie has had lots of rinse offs this week as she is a mud magnet. She just crawls on her belly and rolls in the muddy puddles. It brings her such pleasure ! I have court on Wednesday and believe my third case will be closed. My fourth is nearing resolution and I'm just picking up my fifth... a real doozie. I'd love to get some possible TT gathering dates on my calendar! This tribe inspires my heart !

Good to hear you're still standing after the Debby deluge. I was wondering how you fared.

Bless you for your service to children at a tumultuous time in their lives. I hope your input has brought a better outcome for them.

Sounds like you are doing a compassionate job helping people deal with the court system.

Sounds like a busy week. I remember being amazed the first time we drove through upstate New York. I had no idea it was so beautiful. The whole area is amazing. On a trip to Lake Placid we took a ferry across Lake Champlain to Burlington. We only drove through. I'd like to go back.

I've tried to figure out how to make hopping from one hotel to another each night go smoother. I use packing cubes, and sort by category, one cube had bottoms, one tops etc so I don't have to dig through all my clothes, just unzip each cube and take out what I need. My BIL and SIL traveled all over in their SUV. They had a clothes pole across the back of the hatch, and a lot of their wardrobe on hangers. When they arrived at the hotel for the night, they would open the hatch and pick out what they were going to wear the next day, and only bring that and their toiletries bag in. Or I could try to be like my son who has one of those deluxe backpacks for work trips. That and his laptop is all he brings.

The visit with my parents went pretty well. I made dinner Sunday night and BFF and my Aussie sister and her husband came so there was good conversation. Monday DH and I went kayaking on my parents lake. The lake was so calm, the sky blue, and no other boats in sight. The only snafu: my parents don't put a dock out anymore, so DH and I were scrambling down the bank (about 6feet) and DHs kayak got away from him and floated off. We VERY carefully launched mine so it didn't suffer the same fate and I was able to get in and go retrieve his.

Monday evening, we met up with some more high school friends to go to the corn festival in my little home town. Smalltown parade with lots of floats featuring the "royalty" from neighboring small towns, and of course our own Corn Carnival Queen, followed by pork chops from the Lion's booth, pie from the Lutheran Church stand and ice cream from the Rotary Booth. Sadly, the free sweetcorn didn't start until Tuesday night.

Tonight meeting some work friends for Happy Hour, and tomorrow night having dinner with BFF, her son, and his family.

We've strung together more than 3 days without rain, and the temps have returned to the mid 80s. Feels like summer!

One of my favorite "things" about my Wisconsin/Minnesota/North Dakota trip was the fresh roasted corn on the cob dipped in melted butter. The sweetness and crisp texture was AMAZING! I don't think I have ever enjoyed roasted corn on that level.

We bought 2 dozen the other week, cooked it then cut off the cob to freeze for the winter! Tastes summer good all year!

I haven't had any fresh corn this summer! Need to put that on the to-do list!

What a lovely description of small-town Americana. Corn queens!

And on the corn front, we've had sweet corn on the cob the last two nights. It's incredibly delicious!