Soccer mania

Storytime at the library: 4 grandbabies and a daughter hidden within

Maya finally got up to dance

Geraniums doing fine

mother and child. Maya's hair has a lot of red in it

Maya keeping her distance from the ponies



Allie at dinner last night

Inside our Milford restaurant though we ate on its pretty patio

On the streets: a pretty town that reminds me of those up north

Blurry as everyone was in motion but I like this shot

Allie's official 10 month portrait. Note new front teeth. In general, she looks like a Julie clone but here she really looks like baby Josh

Real Madrid and Manchester United are in town to play a sold out game in Michigan's 110,000 capacity stadium. Naomi has been hanging around all the town soccer parties hoping to catch a glimpse of the most beloved player Cristiano Rinaldo. When Josh offered to take us out for dinner to compensate for our week  of babysitting more than a month ago, we were going to stay way clear of Ann Arbor. So up north to Milford, a very pretty town to eat outside, despite the forecast for thunderstorms that never came. For me, a pomegranate martini, blackened salmon, Brussels sprouts and fancy mac and cheese. Steve had the Michigan mainstay whitefish. (Crabs are to MD as whitefish is to MI). A pleasant night with Allie charming everyone who saw her. A pretty little girl.

Above are photos representative of my life since I returned.

Although I haven't biked much, I've been running a lot helped by the extra cool week we had. Two funny things. For most of the summer, in the school's parking lot, they have been having some sort of bicycle camp. Instead of having just 5 and 6 year olds, they seem to target older kids, preteens, and adults that for some reason never learned to ride. On graduation day, they slowly rode in a pack in matching tee shirts through our neighborhood into my running path.
Walker ahead!!!!
Prideful Sue instantly corrected that with Runner Ahead! so the whole chain of them repeated that.
Sadly the truth is that  some could probably walk faster that I run. Oh update! Steve has started running again!
Other funny thing: while running, an older man started honking for me to stop and rolled down his window to tell me he's been watching me for years and how much he admires me. That I have lost so much weight! yada, yada, yada.

Have I lost weight? Maybe, due to stress about that M and S house. Right after my bike ride though I went shopping for capris due to my DC trip and due to having none left. I sadly noted that I seemed to need a more ginormous size but Suck it up!Buttercup!, I needed pants. Then in the next 2 days, I shrunk peeing out all this water weight that my leg muscles retained from overuse. So now I have new pairs of very baggy pants. First world problems as they say.

But in the past, when I was obsessive about weighing myself (which if I were serious, I should start again), I was dismayed to find a similar weight GAIN after long trips of 400 miles! that should have resulted in a weight LOSS but no. But an amateur exercise physiologist  friend of mind said this phenomenon is common and temporary.

Yet more storms are forecasted but will they come? I will spend the day chillaxin'.