What I Did This Summer

Do you remember writing these essays back in the day?  I do!  While I have a lot of content in here about random things that tickle my fancy, I don't think I've honestly tackled what has been going on in the Real World. 

We went traveling at the beginning of summer.  We went to Colonial Williamsburg.  We visited Yorktown and Jamestown. I love visiting those historic sites and understanding how we came to be where we are now.  We went to Kansas for the 4th of July.  Not only did we get to see the fireworks, we were there in time for several World Cup matches.  We did not attend the matches, but we did enjoy a watch party, and we had so much fun meeting people from all over the world.  The breakfast area in the hotel lobby was a very fun place to be!

One of our children has gotten engaged! They have chosen a venue!  I got to go to the tasting with the caterer, and soon I get to tag along for the dress shopping.  I did not have a wedding planner back when I got married, I did all the work myself and forgot many things until the very last minute.  These kids have the benefit of having a dedicated wedding planner who is helping them out with all of the details big and small.  I enjoyed planning my own wedding, but my gosh, a wedding planner makes such a difference.

Bulgogi-Mushroom Bowl from the tasting.

We emptied out the storage unit - onto our carport.  Most everything has been sifted and sorted.  I now have several very large empty plastic bins that I need to deal with.  I'm honestly not done yet.  Now that we are about to deal with the water in the basement, we are going to have to clear out the basement.  OK - at least pull everything 5' away from the wall. So... I might be packing up stuff.  AGAIN.  I still have stuff down there that I have put off sorting through the first time.  Before all is said and done, we really will have significantly downsized.

We've been to see a play: Mean Girls.  Which, in some ways, reminded me more of being a mom of young children in the hyper competitive world of children's soccer than my high school. Don't get me wrong, my high school definitely had those cliques, but this band geek was completely out of the loop of that drama.  

We've been to a couple of free outdoor concerts this summer.  My favorite summer activity is taking a picnic dinner out to some outdoor venue and listening to free music!

Picnic with Banana  Pudding!

I've worked a lot. Too much.  I'm trying to work harder on work-life balance.  It hit me this summer that I don't have that.  I really need to improve that!

I've worked out a lot. The front desk staff at the gym knows me by name now.

Oh, and I've had a couple of incidents where I've been sick this summer.  Once with Heat Exhaustion (that wasn't fun) and once with food poisoning. (also not fun)  I have to say, both times, the cat has decided that she is my mother in those instances.  She comes over, runs her paws through my hair and grooms me just like a mama cat would with a kitten.  It's both very sweet and very disconcerting!  

How was your summer?

 

Raleigh Tavern Bake Shop

 Located in Colonial Williamsburg, behind the Raleigh Tavern is the bake shop.  Loaded with all of the carby goodness your heart desires while roaming through Williamsburg, there is one perennial family favorite.  I discovered this on a trip to Colonial Williamsburg back in the 1970's.  It's a Ginger Cake.  Fresh out of the oven, hot and delicious, these things are the best. Everytime that we have been back to Colonial Williamsburg since that initial trip, I have made it a point to stop and get a couple of these delicacies.  Don't let the name fool you.  They are less than a cake, and more than a cookie.  They're very dense and hearty and so good!

Somewhere along the way, I started adding Root Beer from the tavern.  They have other food at this little Bake Shop. I looked at it.  But to me - this taste is the taste of Colonial Williamsburg.  

Honestly, there's a part of me that loves to think that our founding fathers nibbled on cookies just like these!

Colonial Williamsburg

We spent a long weekend in Colonial Williamsburg in June.  We happened to be in Williamsburg the same weekend that the tall ships were in Norfolk.  While we did not make it down to Norfolk for the Tall Ships, we did discover that it happens to be the perfect weekend to visit Colonial Williamsburg.  People flocked to Norfolk, and we had the historic area to ourselves.  We were able to spend a lot of time with the Historic Interpreters - we had a great conversation with Patrick Henry - no waiting for any of the buildings, tours... it was a great experience!  

Have you been to the Museums at Colonial Williamsburg?  For the first time ever, we roamed through the museums and stopped at the Museum Cafe for lunch. 5/5, would recommend that experience!  The food is fantastic, and the staff is lovely.

A handful of pictures from our trip:

The Witching Hour!  We were sitting at a patio, just outside of the Historic District.

The Capitol.  The tour guides were great!

The Governor's Palace.

It rained a bit while we were there!  Loved the rainy adventure!

The absolutely awesome lunch we had at the Museum Cafe!

The Bake Shop. Williamsburg Virginia

In my continuing quest to sample the baked goods of multiple bakeries in the Mid-Atlantic Region, we ventured to the Bake Shop in Williamsburg while we were there in June.  Located close the campus of the College of William and Mary, and just outside of the Historic Area, this wonderful bakery is a staple of Williamsburg.  

The Bake Shop has sourdough bread... it is to die for.  They make their sourdough fresh each day.  It goes on sale early and when they are out for the day, they are out.  Personally speaking, I think it is worth the effort to get up early and get over there by 9 am when they put their bread out for sale. It goes fast, because it is absolutely amazing!

In addition to the sourdough, we "forced" ourselves to try a croissant breakfast sandwich and sticky buns.  They were beyond words GREAT!  Alas, we were so busy enjoying the town, eating our breakfast in the Historic Area and people watching that I did not take any pictures of the food.  

So instead of food pictures, I give you the link to their website. The website has mouthwatering pictures of their food! 

If you are ever in Williamsburg and want to step out of the Historic Area for some most excellent baked goods, this is the place to go!

The Bake Shop - website

The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst

image: worldcat.org

This wonderfully sweet story follows Kiela, a librarian for the Imperial Library.  Kiela flees the imperial city with many boxes of books and a sentient spider plant when rebels take over, kill the emporer and torch the library.  She flees by boat to her home island of Caltrey and moves into her parents long abandoned home.  

Caltrey is suffering at the hands of the empire.  No sorcerers have been to the island in years, and the island is suffering.  Water isn't flowing, the merhorses aren't reproducing, crops aren't producing, and the magical storms are destroying the island.

Armed with her illegal books, Kiela sets out on a wild plan to help her save Caltrey by opening a Jam Shop.  And maybe selling a few illegal "cottage remedies" on the side to help revive Caltrey.

Kiela's attempts to make new friends and integrate herself into island life take an unexpected turn when an Imperial Inspector shows up, searching for the unregistered sorcerer who is making such an impact on the island.

I loved this sweet story!  If you enjoy cozy fantasy, this is a great choice.  I especially loved that there was no violence.  No sex (there was a kiss).. and the problem solving of the women who find ways to get things done without relying on a member of the opposite sex to save them was heartwarming.  I always appreciate strong female leads who are able to keep their femininity!  Thank you Sarah Beth Durst!  There are other books in the series.  Once I catch up on some other books sitting on my desk, I will be reading the rest of them!

My Wayward Laptop, part the last

 The continuing trials and tribulations of my laptop.

My laptop came home.  I thought that we were all set to go!  I turned it on - and for the first week, it worked. Seven days later, it died for the last time.  I ordered a new laptop.  Upgraded model and memory.  You know there's a chip shortage, right?  That's the biggest reason why I wanted to fix the old laptop, if possible.  

Anyway, many weeks later, and I finally have a new laptop.  It works very well.  Ultra fast processing speed!  And it's so light and airy!  It doesn't have all of the stickers that my last laptop had on it, but over time, I'll find them!  I think the sticker I will miss most said "Easily distracted by cats and books."  A friend gave that to me a couple of  years ago when she got promoted.  I think of her every time I look at it.  

So, I am looking at the queue of posts that I had started on before the laptop died the last time.  They need some work - but I will start scheduling those this week.  Believe me, I have a lot to say!

I hope your summer has been going well!

2026 Goals - July Update

4th of July!  Fireworks!  Picnics!  Parades!  

What are you doing to celebrate the 4th of July?  We will traveled to spend the weekend with middle child. It was a great weekend!

1) Lose 25 pounds.  Gain 10% muscle mass.

I changed this goal last month.  I am concentrating more on gaining muscle and worrying less about the stress of losing weight.  For right now, that goal is gaining 7 pounds of muscle by the end of the year.  This month, I gained 0.5 pounds of muscle.

2) Visit 1 new to me state.

Hawaii

I'd love to visit another new to me state this fall!

We have a destination in mind!  We need to make some reservations soon.

3)  3 repairs/improvements to the house.

Project #1: Add surge protectors to the heat pumps and the house.  It's not a sexy fix, but it will definitely keep the heat pumps around for a longer period of time!  We've noticed an increase in the number of power surges we've had lately. The newer HVAC systems are very sensitive to power surges and they can damage the equipment. Honestly, who wants to spend to replace an HVAC system?  They are not cheap. I want them to last as long as possible.

4) 40 Bags in 40 Days Challenge

It's been a while since I've done this.  You get 40 bags or boxes of stuff out of your house over the 40 days of Lent.  I did NOT get 40 boxes out over the course of Lent.  I got rid of 6 boxes.

I'm beginning to realize that I did this a little backwards.  My goal is to empty out the storage unit - and I'm making excellent progress on this particular project.  Once I get everything out of the storage unit and really begin purging things, then I will get the 40 boxes (and then some) out of the house!

Boxes out of the house during March: 6

Boxes out of the house during April: 4

Boxes out of the house during May: 2

Boxes out of the house during June: 6

Total to date: 18 boxes

5) Organize old correspondence/letters

I found a treasure trove of old letters and notes from high school.  I have them in a box to sort through next month.  The bigger question is - what gets kept and what gets thrown out?  Do I really want to save any evidence of high school me?  Most likely, NO.

On the other hand... I was given a box of old papers from a historical organization that I volunteer with to organize.  I was in my happy place, organizing that mess!  Many of the documents were of historical value, and there were a lot of photographs.  The photographs have been placed into acid free albums and labeled to the best of my ability.  The documents were sorted and organized into binders in acid free pages.  The next step - for someone else - is to digitize those documents so that back up copies exist somewhere.

Update on this: the letters are somewhat sorted.  I thought I would put them in binders and shove them away somewhere.  Some of them have been organized and put into binders.  This is a much bigger task than I originally anticipated.

6) Big backyard garden project.

I want to put in some sort of shelter for the local pollinators.  I've been searching through the garden catalogs for just the right thing.  I saw something when we were in England a couple of years ago that really tickled my fancy!  I have thoughts.  I just need to make some things happen!

I found the first part of my thoughts on this while in Old Ellicott City last month.  Once the weather cools down a little bit, we're going to look at finding a way to install this in the backyard.

7) Finish the cross stitch project I've been working on for 3+ years.

This is finished! Well over 3 years after I started, the project is finally finished!  I need to block this out and get it professionally framed later this year.  I finally got around to blocking this project, and I dropped it off at the framing store.  Finally done!

From the end of February.

End of March

Finished!

8) Transfer Dad's slides to digital.

See my post here about transferring the slides!

9) Put those images into an album.

See my post here about the album.

10) Fill my America 250 Passport with lots of stamps!

New Additions this past month:

Colonial Williamsburg

Historic Jamestowne

Historic Yorktowne

11) Clear out the storage unit.

Done and done.  4 years after we started clearing out the house to get "a little" work done, we moved most of our possessions out to a storage unit.  And now, almost 2 years after the work was finished and we moved back into our house, we finally got all of the detritus out of the storage unit. Much of what was left went directly to the dump.  Rodents had been all over what was left, and there was mouse excrement everywhere.  It's all gone now. 

Being perfectly honest - there is still some stuff laying around on the carport.  Okay, a lot of stuff.  And no porch pirates have bothered to relieve us of our miscellaneous junk.

12)  Do one totally irresponsible and fun thing each month! 

I took a day off of work and played!  I went to a Zentangle class.  I spent the morning at the gym, and went out for dinner.

13) Go see Falling Water. (Frank Lloyd Wright) 

This is a Bucket List item. 

14) Visit 12 new to me bakeries.

        1) Eli Mochi Donut

        2) The Reister's Daughter

        3) Leonard's Bakery (Honolulu)

        4) Tour les Jours

        5) Paris Baguette

        6) The Bake Shop - Williamsburg, VA