my birthday night, when the lights on the umbrellas were lit, plus all the rope lights around the deck railings…it was quite nice.  lovely.  we had a grand time, including a boat ride.

it seems that it’s rained quite a bit since then, though, and we haven’t been on the boat again.  but soon, hopefully starting tomorrow.

we did start TRAINING ON OUR BIKES the day before yesterday.  we’re taking a bike trip.  two years ago, it was the danube in austria.  this time we’re going to scotland.  it should be very lovely.  we’re spending a few days in edinburgh at the end of the trip, and i’m looking forward to all of it quite a bit.

we weren’t sure if kevin could even take a bike trip because his knee never competely recovered after his fall at work and his knee surgery to repair his torn meniscus.  he can’t run at all now and sometimes he’s sore after walking.

i kept saying WE HAVE TO START RIDING OUR BIKES in order to see if he can handle a bike trip, and even though he is VERY VERY BUSY for great swaths of the entire month of june, we finally started biking.

after a half hour ride the day before yesterday and an hour yesterday, he’s decided he’s just fine to bike.

me, on the other hand…now, on our other bike trip we biked anywhere from about 16 to 35 miles a day.  never a huge amount, and rarely uphill even.  but just about every night after biking (which was FANTASTIC), i was really really tired and always wanted to go to sleep before kevin, which has always been unprecedented.

i did have some jet lag issues; the second night of the trip i was awake for three hours, and i just couldn’t get my body to adjust to the time change until i finally started taking sleeping pills that i’d been hoarding.

i just checked my calendar from two years ago and was a little surprised to see that although i’d been running consistently, i only started riding my bike two weeks before our trip.  i went for at least an hour, and up to three hours, at a time, but still…two weeks, not enough time.

we have over six weeks now before we’re going, so maybe i’ll be more prepared this time.  we were going to ride again today but so far it has been cold and raining all day and even though it might be cold and raining in scotland, there’s no need to ride in weather like this right now.

if you’re reading this and you happened to write me something nice about my birthday on facebook, thank you!  i didn’t even turn on the computer for quite a few days.  the cleaning frenzy has died way down, even though there’s plenty of stuff i could accomplish on this rainy thursday.

ok then,

nearly the end of the week grace.