Neat Things

The past three days have been gorgeous, if not better. Where have days like this been all summer???? Mon we took the kids to Michigan's Adventure, a theme and water park near Muskegon. What a great time! I must have been even more excited than usual since, on the drive home, Michael exclaimed, "Even Grandpa went on six rides!" Actually, when we added them up, it came to eight. I don't care for rides, preferring to watch the kids have their fun. We just got off one of the tunnel water slides and Matt asked me what time I thought it was. We arrived a bit before noon and I thought, "It's about 2:30." Matt thought a bit later than that. I asked a guy with a clock and he said, "It's a little after 4:00." Whoa!!!! We stayed another couple of hours, but time sure did fly.

Michael Holmes and I had a great workout this AM. He's my blind running buddy. We're trying to get us in shape for the Crim 10 Mile, only ten days away (already!). We warmed up a couple of miles, then did 12 short (40-50 yards) hill bursts, followed by 4 longer hills (almost 200 yards). Whew! It rained a bit on us, which was good considering the last three or four weeks we ran in soup, the humidity being so high. So, getting wet from the rain was preferable to getting wet from the humidity. I did "schweat" a lot, though, even this AM.

I like food (excepting vegetables, which probably aren't real food; try this: throw out some squash or zucchini or tomatoes and watch how animals won't touch them!). It can be eats such as pizza from De Luca's or Buddy's, seafood linguine at Antonio's, pork fried rice from Phooey's, or corned beef pitas from Jennifer's. Holden's or Chicken Shack fried chickie is heavenly. (KFC, I think, has lost me--likely when it changed from transfats. The food Nazis are going to ruin everything.) I love Subway's toasted tuna grinder, with only lettuce and tomato, and Jimmy John's hunter's roast beef grinder (only mayo, lettuce, and tomato). I don't think I'd turn down a Wendy's double stack, certainly not for 99 cents. But even the simple, make-at-home stuff is just great! How about grilling natural-casing franks (Kowalski or Koegel) or a peanut-butter-and-jelly!?!? Oh, yummy! Without all that exercise and yard work, I'd likely weigh 300 lbs!

On that same note, how disappointing is it to go to a restaurant, hungry and ready for something delectible (maybe or maybe not so salubrious) and get a mediocre meal? We had that happen the other night, at Friday's. I find that often to be the case at these types of restaurants--Red Robin, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Chilis, Applebees, etc. The food is OK, but not worth writing home about, certainly not nearly as good as the above places. I suppose it's the nature of the type of restaurant and not really anyone's fault. That's why, when K suggests those places, I shy away unless backed in a corner. I never recomment or suggest them.

OK, call me crazy, but I enjoy mowing the lawn. I've said it before, but cutting the grass yesterday afternoon/evening was fun, yep, fun. No, I don't have a tractor or even a self-propelled mower. I supply the power! I was tired yesterday and wondered if I should wait a day, but was glad I didn't. Of course, a beer right out of the freezer afterward didn't hurt at all!

I don't care for red wines or, for that matter, most whites (the exceptions being Rieslings and Piesporters, perhaps Grewurtztraminers). But I enjoy cherry wine. Go figure.

Speaking of meals that disappoint, what about books? I just finished a slue of Vince Flynn/Mitch Rapp books. Just terrific, they are. I also enjoy Jack Higgins, esp his hero of the last decade or so, Sean Dillon. That said, his latest, At the Wolf's Door, is a bit of a disappointment. Oh, the plot (do these types of books qualify as having plots?) or storyline is OK, entertaining enough (although not as riveting as past books of Higgins/Dillon). But it's not as well written. It's especially lousy with the grammar and syntax--lots of run-on sentences, esp. Maybe I just notice them and others don't. But they interrupt my reading/train of thought. When I see them my mind goes a bit haywire, almost as reading a sequence of numbers and find one egregiously out of place. Again, maybe that's just me.

OK, the dryer buzzer just went off and it's time to fold some clothes.