We’ve spent the last two days exploring Zion National Park. This is the first national park we’’re visiting this week. Tomorrow we’ll head to Bryce Canyon for our second park of the tour. Zion absolutely lived up to our expectations. We will be back. When we return, we’re going to complete the Narrows and Angel’s Landing hikes. We were unable to complete the Narrows today due to weather and the risk of flash flooding. Before you go, here are some things to consider. The busy season run from April to Early October. And it is busy, plan to get there early in the morning if you’re not staying i ..read more

Eeek!!! This time tomorrow I will be with my oldest in Utah. I’d say I’m excited, but I’m afraid that’s a bit of an understatement. Honestly, I’m over the moon. Our neoprene socks arrived today, so now we’re all set. I picked up the altitude sickness medication and new Epi-pens, so I’m really ready. Okay, maybe I’m more than ready to go. The afternoon at work is going to be way too long. Eeek! In the interim, I’m just enjoying having the Mayor home for a bit. We had dinner from Sushi Yama last night. We’ve been eating there since they opened when the boys were small. I’ve never had a bad meal ..read more

I had a great time this weekend with the puppies traipsing through the neighborhood. I spent much of it at home binge watching Sex Education on Netflix. The show is both well written and well acted. Gillian Anderson’s performance is amazing. Needless to say, the show is really entertaining and provided a good backdrop to my weekend and my weekend chores. I have to say it’s nice to have full authority over what I watch on television. It’s been a long time since that’s happened. Saturday afternoon I made it out for my good friend Lisa’s birthday party. Lisa is one of my favorite Kaplan people a ..read more

We’re going into the weekend with an unclear path forward. I hate to be vague, but I can’t at this point be really specific. In time, once the dust has settled I’ll be sure to share my thoughts on the situation. To be clear, it’s really put a damper on the end of the week and made hubby’s trip to Vegas a bit complicated. Unfortunately, the Hubby’s flight was also super late as the inbound flight was diverted due to weather. He decided to fly to Nashville last night instead of driving through severe weather to get home. This weekend it will be just me and the puppies. Tonight I’m binge watchin ..read more

Is it too soon to be thinking about the holidays!? Today’s prompt has me looking ahead to December and winter break. My busy season ends after the first week n December, so I’m thinking Goalielocks and I may fly up to Minnesota for a visit. The Mayor has a showcase in Tampa the following weekend, so I’d like to be back in Florida for that. Once the showcase is over, he’ll be on winter break too. How do you celebrate holidays? We celebrate the holidays with family and friends. I bake a lot of cookies some with the boys help. If my mom’s in town, we’ll get more ambitious and make lefse. I’d sa ..read more

Write about your most epic baking or cooking fail. Today prompt is about my most epic baking fail. While I’ve had several, but if I were to pick my most recent one it would be a frosting fail. A couple of weekends ago I decided to make homemade toaster strudel. This was a part of my prednisone fueled baking fest. I also baked an apple tart, kouign-amann, and short ribs that weekend. It’s not wonder that prednisone makes you gain weight. The recipe was super simple and easy to make. Yet, I managed to royally screw up the frosting. I mixed everything together and it looked super clumpy. As an ..read more

It was a quick weekend and here we are back to Monday. It’s as if the weekend never even happened at all. We did have a busy weekend planned. The Mayor’s first games of the season were this weekend in Fort Myers. Consequently, we planned to drive over both days for the games. This plan was obviously not great, but that way we didn’t have to find someone to watch the dogs. We left the house Saturday intending to drive to Fort Myers for hockey. As we were driving on the Sawgrass, the Mayor texted that he was a scratch. Since we hadn’t driven that far and I was nursing the remnants of a nasty he ..read more

It’s game day! We’re headed to Fort Myers for the first game of the junior season. The change from youth to junior hockey is big. I’m excited to see what the season brings. Hopefully, the drive across the peninsula is quick and uneventful. I’m bringing the big camera, so hopefully I’ll have some good pics to share. How often do you walk or run? I run six days a week for usually forty five minutes. I’m loving Apple Fitness + treadmill workouts. The coaching and intervals are really helping whip me into shape. After a month of doing these workouts, I see a big difference in my fitness level ..read more

Oh yeah, it’s Friday. I’m counting down the hours until the work week is over. It’s been a long week and I’m ready for a break. I don’t know if there’s something in the water, but people have been extra special this week. Although I have to say today has been a fruitful. Hopefully, I end the day strong Anyway, the weekend is quickly approaching and I’m ready. I should share one bright spot in my week was when Chewy (the online pet store) sent us flowers in memory of Athena. It was such a sweet touch. The Mayor has the first game of the season over in Ft. Myers tomorrow versus the Atlanta Mad ..read more

What day is it? I woke up thinking it was Thursday, but my work computer must have thought it was Monday. Google Authenticator threw me into a death loop of back-up codes that lasted nearly an hour. During this time I couldn’t access anything on my laptop. I was completely sidelined for the first hour of the day. Unfortunately, I was not the only one locked out by Google’s duplicity. Fortunately, I was the first to get a hold of IT and got my issue resolved pretty quickly. Nonetheless, it cost me an hour of day, which does suck. Last night we watched the Mayor’s team in its first scrimmage. A ..read more