Summer Vacation

What I did on my summer vacation...

Part 1:

Last week I was happily able to take a week off to relax at home. Usually when you take a vacation people ask “Where are you going?” “What will you do?”. My answers were simple.

No where

Relax

I try to take this kind of vacation at least once a year and it does usually involve some kind of house chore that I do not seem to ever get to on the weekends. I did still do a lot of relaxing though. Here is what my week looked like:

Friday:
Stayed late at work to finish up items on my ever growing to do list. Husband not to excited about his b/c I have been at work for 10 hours and thinks I am working to hard...probably right. Get home, eat dinner, which husband has prepared (loves him very much!). Go out to Kohl’s and BBB to look for ice cream maker and bread maker. End up buying bread maker and pasta rolling machine. Want to buy lots more at BBB, so many fun kitchen items, darn BBB. Husband starts making bread right away...very good.

Saturday:
Get up early to run a women’s 4 mile race. Didn’t really train for race and have not run 4 miles all summer, so was very nervous. Husband comes to cheer me along. Ran best pace EVER in a race: about 9:30 (37 minutes, unsure of seconds). Went to Farmer’s Market, which was very busy since we were there later than usual. Bought very yummy foodstuffs. :)

Later...made homemade pasta with new pasta roller. Way better than rolling by hand. Glad we rolled by hand at least once, but will never do again after using pasta machine. Made spaghetti and fettucini. Ate former, dried and stored latter. Sooo good. Could actually taste egg in pasta dough. Spent evening relaxing.

Sunday:
Slept in...yay! Can’t remember what else I did, but may have involved laundry and reading my book. Made roasted chicken with sautéed fingerling potatoes and salad for dinner.

Monday:
Husband had school in AM. Woke up early with him anyway. Ate breakfast and watched the TODAY show...got sucked in, even though topics were only so-so, and ended up on couch for couple of hours. Read emails and surfed internet. At 11am went for 1.5 hour bike ride on trail near apartment. So nice! Saw many birds and enjoyed sunshine and fresh air. Showered and watched Martha Stewart Show. Made vanilla yogurt (best batch I have done yet). Dinner for husband was left-over chicken sandwich, dinner for me was chicken salad.

Tuesday:
Started on one of my home projects: Cleaning office, filing bills, throwing out papers I don’t need. Worked on that all morning. Grocery shopping in afternoon. Bought ice cream maker. Chicken salad dinner and lazy evening.

Wednesday:
Woke up early with husband (school) and went for run through park. Again, one of best paces ever! Approximately 9:15 min/mile. Ate breakfast and watched TODAY show again, and again got sucked in for a bit. Continued on office cleaning project. Going though bills and papers was kind of like going back in time over last few years remembering when different things were happening. Chicken soup in slow cooker and salad (with first tomato from garden!) for dinner. First attempts at making ice cream...ice cream not cold enough before putting in maker, had consistency of malt shake...still tasted wonderful though.

Thursday:
Slept in. :) More cleaning. :) Made car reservation for trip home to MI. Had to take cat/child to vet for shot. Measured weight and said she needs a diet. Poor kitty. We are switching to diet food and hope she likes it. Husband makes more ice cream...it is more firm this time and still very delicious.

Friday:
Woke up sort of early (going to bed later and sleeping in longer...reverse from the practice you use to do as a child to get ready for back to school...oops). Went for run on different trail...was great! The weather all week was cool without any humidity. It felt a little like fall and was so great for running. More cleaning and organizing, then trip to laundromat to wash down comforter (had been meaning to do that since early springtime). Cost was $3.50 and time was 1.5 hour. Trip to Goodwill to drop off items. Took very bad route and ended up stuck in middle of road at intersection b/c traffic was backed up due to road closure. Had old guy yell “Lady, you’re blocking traffic!” to which I replied “I know, I know!” Was glad to get out of there and took freeway home to avoid any further traffic and bad driving on my part. :)

Went to matinee movie, The Ugly Truth, it was okay but very predictable. At least tickets were cheaper due to matinee. Went to target so husband could buy oils for making soap...yes soap!

Saturday:
Woke early for Farmer’s Market. So many good buys and fun chatting with vendors. Lots and lots of cleaning in afternoon. Husband makes butter for second time (First time was earlier in week). Butter is actually really easy to make. Just whip heavy cream until it looks pale yellow and curds a bit and buttermilk is released. Husband then made homemade buttermilk pancakes, eggs, and sausage for dinner. Had with homemade bread. YUM! Attempt to give kitty some wet food, but only licks once and then does not get close to food again. Ugh.

Sunday:
School night. :) Minor cleaning, but mostly relaxing. Finishing up office organizing project. Made homemade yellow butter cake with chocolate buttercream frosting for husband’s birthday. Husband makes soap with olive oil, vegetable oil, and lard with lavendar essential oil. Had homemade ravioli (frozen from previous pasta making), with homemade tomato sauce and sausage for dinner. Watched Gilmore Girls (started watching whole series from beginning again...unsure of how many times we have done this, but this show never gets old and is so good) and had ice cream. Great way to end vacation.

Somewhere in there I also finished the book “Julie and Julia” by Julie Powell and started reading “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” by Barbara Kingsolver, both very good books.

Very sleepy at work today, but was so busy the day just flew by. Only one more week until....

Summer Vacation Part 2...Trip to MI