Keep On Keepin' On ...

Nothing really newsworthy to report today, but I suppose I can scrounge up enough for a post. My morning workout was the most sweat-producing workout I can ever remember. Totally soaked. All good.

Earlier this summer I submitted all my favorite recipes for an A.L.S. Cookbook which has now been published. It will be available for sale at the A.L.S. walk (10 AM Saturday at Silver Lake) next weekend ($18) or if you want a copy, shoot me an email and I will contact my friend Georgia.

4 of us gals are now planning to run the Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco next October. If we get in the lottery that is. With the way my luck has run (I've never gotten in one) we will have to make alternate plans. :-(

Justin and Jan Murray once again offered me pears from their pear trees.

He said that the plum crop was really poor this year, so no plums. So ... in a few days I will have some canning to do! Thank you again, Justin and Jan. I think this is the 4th year in a row they've shared their bounty with me.

A couple of notes from my 78.55 mile bike ride last Thursday: 1) When I rode from Rochester to south of Rock Dell backwards from the direction I usually ride it, it looked SO much different. Hardly looked like the same route. 2) I had 2 water bottles with me and that wasn't enough for almost 80 miles. So I needed to refill them. I was out in the country when I ran out. I thought about going over to the High Forest truck stop, but didn't want to leave my bike outside, unlocked, and didn't want to bring it inside. So I thought maybe I could find some public place in High Forest (pretty unlikely). On the north side of H.F. I saw a nice new house with a bunch of kids playing out front. Looked like a day care crew. So I pulled in the gravel drive and asked the lady of the house (looked to be 30'ish) if I could use the hose to fill my water bottles. Well, she said, "Let me take them inside and fill them on the fridge." How nice. She actually filled them with crushed ice and cold water. Nothing could have tasted better than that ice cold water after having been drinking 80 degree water for a few hours. I offered my profuse thanks and was on my way. As I peddled along, I decided I'd like to thank her somehow so tonight I'm making some cookies to bring by. I don't know as she'll be able to give them to her day care kids, but I would like to thank her somehow. So I will drop them by tomorrow (I will give her my name in address in case it's weird to be getting cookies from a stranger) as I am most likely going to be running into Stewartville with my sewing machine ...

I've had this unfinished quilt for many months now and am finally finishing it. Today I pin basted the layers together.

I'm going to quilt it with monofilament thread, but that has been giving me trouble on my machine. So I think I will bring it into All in Stitches in Stewartville (they sell Pfaff machines) and have Sandy or one of her gals get it set up correctly for me. It's something in the thread or bobbin tension tension ... I get these huge loops of top thread underneath and the bobbin thread can just be pulled right out.

Here's the deal on the General Mills cereal at HyVee this past week (thank you Lin for the heads up): buy 6 boxes and get $10 off and a coupon for $6 off at your next visit. Well, they had 8.9 oz boxes of Cheerios for $2.69 and also had 14 oz boxes for $2.69. Go figure. So I got 6--14 oz boxes for $16.14 and an immediate $10 off at the checkout. And a coupon for $6 off my next visit, so the net cost was 14 cents. Even if you discount the $6 off coupon (which I've already used), 6 large boxes of Cheerios for $6.14 is a very good deal. Eric is the Cheerio eater around here.

I finally gave in and ordered a new iPod from amazon.com. It's hot pink (though it looks red in the pic).

 My old one was so unpredictable ... sometimes I could power it on, sometimes not, I could never power it off (I had to either let the battery run out or if it was a lucky day, I could get to a menu and spin down to the last song and play it and then let it power off after a period of time), I could never back up to the previous song, and sometimes I could spin forward/adjust the volume but sometimes not. Very frustrating.

We had a very productive LUABC meeting on Sunday. (John, me, Lin, Laura, Kristin, Angie, Amy). John was havesting his Bee's Knees honey and couldn't get away. :-)

The event is going to be held at Mayo High School next year, which we feel will be a good change. But it means a new course, and 2 courses to certify. My punch list: getting prices for chip timing, pricing thermoses  and insulated lunchbags for giveaways, getting a Rochester Women ad/story and typing up the minutes. The current board was re-elected unanimously: Laura--Chairman, John--Vice Chair, Lin--Treasurer, myself--Secretary. We discussed the silent auction and are going to revamp it this year. The things that sold the best and got the most money were baked goods, so next year it's going to have a "foodie" theme--baked goods, food baskets, donated meals, etc. We won't be giving away cookies with the food, but they will be available for sale/auction. I have a feeling I will be baking up a storm. :-)

Running options this week: Team R.E.D. Thursday at Bear's Den in Byron, long run at the RAC at 7:00 AM Saturday. Meet at 6:15 AM if you want 4 extra miles (for a total of 20).

Here are a couple more photos from the Square Lake Sunday ride ... such a pretty spot.

That's all I have. Good night.