Still behind, but reporting a milestone

I'm still behind in my blogging but I wanted to report a cool milestone. We got new bikes in April and have a bike trip coming up in two weeks. I wanted to log 500 miles on my bike before the trip, and this weekend, I passed that mark. I will post details and more pix about that trip later on. But for now, here's the pic of my odometer on the bike:



I would also like to point out that I'm doing the 100 push-ups program, first mentioned by lunacow. I've been doing a modified version of the prgram because the jumps between some of the weeks are extreme. For example, between week 2 and week 3 you were somehow supposed to be able to go from sets of 5-5-4-4-6 to 15-12-12-10-15. I already knew that wasn't going to happen. When I started I could only do 2 good form push-ups. So I did week 1 then did each column of week 2 for weeks 2-4, then week 3's first column was my week 5, and now I'm lingering on week 4's program like I did on week 2, and am on week 8 of my own. So yesterday, I did 27-20-20-17-27 push ups. I've added elevated feet to the last set each day so that last set was really more like (20-7) because my arms were jelly. But I'd say that doing 111 push-ups is pretty impressive for somebody who could only do 2 before. My resting at the dashes is pretty long still, but I'm going to keep at it. I"m not sure where to go after the end of this week, but I'll figure it out. Looks like the numbers drop but the rest period is supposed to shorten. Hmmm.

Another catch up posting

08/10/2008 - We had J&P over for dinner. J is JK of the Yarn Boys. It was a low-key evening. I made planked salmon two ways: rubbed with Williams Sonoma potlatch seasoning (which we love) and the Kingly Salmon rub from Smoke & Spice (a mix of brown sugar, dill, salt, and pepper). Trying to remember what else we had. I made summer sweet corn and basil polenta (from The Complete Vegetarian Italian Cookbook), and something else... maybe mixed green and yellow beans. (I seem to remember the green beans being from B's secretary's garden.) I did a nice cheese course with Vermont and Quebec cheeses. Dessert was blackberries marinated in balsamico topped with greek-style yogurt and honey with a slightly brulée'd top. (This was the weakest part. I'd dried the sugar in the oven, but it didn't crush small enough. I needed to use a blender.) It was a fun evening. I'd only met P once, so it was nice to hang out, see them together as a couple, talk about being auslanders in Vermont.They stayed later than they had planned; I took that as a good sign.

08/13/2008 - We went to Stowe, to Trapp Family Lodge, to rendez-vous with one of B's former coworkers from his job in Virginia, DK along with his lovely wife and two nearly-all-grown-up daughters. They are a charming family and have vacationed up here often. D was the one who first suggested B's current job to him while we were enjoying drinks in a bar after some theater. They cooked for us, so I made some bread to take along and B stopped and got some Cabot cultured butter with sea salt (which we highly recommend if you can find it: the salt isn't dissolved but is in the rich butter as little crunchy crystals). They made all Vermont food that they got from the Stowe Farmers Market: sausages, with pasta and sauce (probably not from Vermont), hand salad (crudités) and cheese and an apple strudel for dessert (since we were at Trapp, it was totally appropriate). Lots of tasty goodness. The wine kept flowing. When it was time to leave, B was pretty gone, so I drove. We got about 1/4 mile down the road and we saw a big lump in the road. I stopped the car. It was a dead porcupine and a live one attending to it. Our first live wild porcupine. But how sad that it was at a funeral. B got out of the car to see the live one trundle into the weeds by the road. The dead one stayed behind, of course.

08/16/2008 - We went to the Valley Stage music festival in Huntington, Vermont, meeting up with A&M from the VerMontreal bike trip. We had lots of good food, good music, and good weather. I took my knitting and basically did an entire foot of a sock (that I later ripped out because I didn't like the toe). Also at the festival were D&V, the other couple we'd met on the same bike trip, and W from the bike trip (with his girlfriend who was not on the trip). It was a little bit crunchy granola, but not too bad. We brought picnic foods and ate really well. We did a mixed tomato salad with goat cheese and Greek seasonings, and the juice from that was excellent for dipping bread. We also brought woopie pies from Mirabelles, which were good, but "not their best offering" according to somebody (maybe M). There was much laughter and teasing among the four of us. A good time was had by all, I think.