a day a week, day four
What a lovely Sunday!
I slept in (after the big ride, that doesn't surprise me at all) but "sleeping in" these days is like...8am. Still, it was a good snooze and my body felt pretty good considering. After some coffee and snuggles, we started our day with lunch at a decent little place by a nearby lake. They had Oktoberfest specials, meaning pretzel and beer cheese. I've stopped drinking alcohol, which is a little sad considering the season, but it's been a significant positive change and not at all difficult. There are so many good NA options on the market when I really want something that tastes like beer but isn't. Plus, mocktails! I'm still dreaming of a seasonal shrub from Dusk in Santa Barbara this past summer.
After lunch we hit Lowe's for some supplies including a long pole, squeegee, and window washing pad so I could wipe down all the window exteriors. With another year of dealing with bats, we still had some guano and other bat trailings on a lot of them. The house looks nice and shiny now and for less than an hour's worth of work, it's probably a good monthly activity!
We also picked up a few groceries, more than I expected since we keep talking about going to Costco and decided this is the week. But the stuff we got is good for a few days and also included hot pot supplies. Napa cabbage, two types of mushrooms, silken tofu, kabocha, broccoli, and expensive ribeye all made it in. I really don't think I'd do beef again, maybe some meatballs or something, it's just not really worth the cost and effort. The tofu was great along with the veggies, and it's not like the ribeye was bad. Just that boiling steak is kinda blah. It was hub's first hot pot and while he was on board, it's not a format that works very well for him. I don't know that I need to do hot pot all that often myself but it was fun all the same.
We're getting our trees pruned for the first time since moving in, kinda funny that we have trees to worry about at all. Our biggest and most beautiful tree, a huge old maple, grows out over our neighbor's yard so there's a little bit of coordination required. We caught them just in time as they got home from a trip today and finally exchanged numbers which feels good. All the neighbors we've met and talk with regularly have been friendly, it's a good little area and though not perfect, I think we're both pretty happy here. It's tough owning a home, constantly minding it and all, but it also feels pretty good to have our own little slice of the world. The more time I spend here, the more it feels like home.
Lots of good little moments today, and while I had intentions of getting a few hours of work done before the week started, I'm just now laying down and writing. Maybe I'll get up early, hopefully feeling good and just get started a little earlier, or stay a little later. There's things I want to do and considering we have our big Engineering get-together next week there will be a lot to do!