Weekending

 Good Morning All,

How are you?  I'm a bit drowsy this morning.  I slept in which felt wonderful...not getting up till 7 a.m.  Now I'm just sipping my first cup of coffee.  The warmth of it is delicious.  Hopefully it will kick in soon and I will feel more awake.

I shut down work email Friday evening.  That felt strange and wonderful.  Usually I check work email a number of times over the weekend, but I decided I'm on vacation and there is no need!  Liberating.

Our weekend was busy - mostly vacation prep stuff.  It always seems to take forever.  I ran some errands Saturday morning including buying wine for the trip (a priority for sure and I made sure to get all screw top bottles to make it easy!!).  Saturday was also Fletcher's birthday!  So, I baked a cake (devil's food) and made a maple buttercream frosting.  Yum!

Saturday morning - just for Fletcher's birthday!! - our first morning glory blossom opened.

Look at that shade of blue!  So gorgeous.  Fletch planted the seeds late this year, so I'm not sure how many more blooms there will be, but at least there was one.

Sunday morning was busy cooking.  Bonnie & Zhongren (Mailing's parents) had invited us for dinner on Sunday and I made a corn and black bean salad to take over.  I also roasted eggplant in preparation for making eggplant caponata to take on our trip.  We will be cooking dinner for Lois & Dick one night - grilling hot and sweet sausage, and Fletch wanted me to make the eggplant dish to go along with that meal.

I also managed to pack my clothes Sunday morning, but I need to re-look at that.  I know I've packed way too much.  Fall is such a tricky time to travel.  We can have any kind of weather - warm or cold - so you really need to take a bit of everything.

Anyway, back to dinner on Sunday.  Zhongren grilled beef skewers and shrimp skewers which were delicious.  There was a noodle dish, some winter melon sauteed with soy sauce, ginger and ground pork, some sauteed onions and the corn and black bean salad that I brought.  For dessert - strawberry shortcake.  Everything was delicious.

Over the summer Zhongren built a shed in their backyard to store their mower and gardening tools.  Look at how gorgeous it turned out!

Such details - I LOVE the windows, the rain chime hanging on the left, the window box and the light.  If you look closely you will see that a passion flower is blooming in the planter to the left of the shed!

So, we take off tomorrow!  We will be in NY, VT and NH.  We'll get back on the 5th in time to meet up with Colin & Mailing and Bonnie & Zhongren (and maybe Anna) for dinner at a local restaurant.  C&M fly in that day for a weekend wedding and Wednesday night is the only night they are free to get together.  It will be tight with us just getting in sometime in the afternoon, but I didn't want to pass up a chance to see the kids again.

While we are away I will not be posting, but will be reading blogs occasionally...but on my phone and probably will not comment.  We may not have internet everywhere we are either.  Our neighbors, Rob & Eva, are set to watch Mabel - coming over to feed her and let her in and out.  Fingers crossed she will be fine (I'm sure she will be - all our other cats have fared just fine when we have gone away).

Time to pour a second cup of coffee and try to wake up!