Weekly Round Up: The One Up

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads. 

Last month during Boy Scout camp weekend: I went on a solo long weekend trip

This month during Boy Scout camp weekend: I did a one up and invited my SILs and nieces to come along on a long weekend trip!

I started planning this trip almost as soon as I got back from last month's trip.  The location was "The Leafery" which is a rural setting a few hours from home that's a very popular vacation spot and is considered to be the Prime Leaf Peeping location in the area.  I asked my two in-town SILs and an adult niece who lives a few hours away what they were doing that weekend.  By some miracle not only did they not have any plans, but the adult niece one-upped my one up.  It turns out that it was her birthday weekend and her mom was coming to see her, so the timing could not have been better.  We had seven people in all: SIL #1 and "Adult Niece", SIL #3 and SIL#4 with one teen aged daughter each, and yours truly.  We got ourselves online and found a very nice cabin with a hot tub and the deal was sealed.  

The next order of business was food.  One member of our party has celiac disease, so we planned to make most of our food so that we wouldn't have any gluten mishaps.  In true family fashion, we divided meals up so that everyone did a little bit of work but no one had to do too much work.  I signed myself up for a taco dinner on Friday night, which is the only gluten free meal in my repertory (at least it's the only GF meal that I know of...I'm coming to learn that the GF game isn't quite as hard as I thought it was).  In other words, I did a total repeat of the menu for my stepson's birthday earlier this year and yes I used the same online taco calculator to work out how much food I needed;-)

Friday morning: I left my house with four ripe avocados, onion powder and salt, assorted taco shells, gluten free taco seasoning, and two bags of tortilla chips. 

Friday day: I went on a sight seeing binge on the way down.  Late in the afternoon I stopped at a grocery store and picked up two pounds of ground beef, cheese, sour cream, tomatoes, lettuce, green onions, cilantro, mild salsa, and one lime.  With all of the goods on hand, I headed to the cabin.

Friday night: I did all of the slicing and dicing for the tomatoes, lettuce, green onions, and cilantro while SILs 3&4 & nieces rolled in.  When we got to the point where it seemed like SIL #1 and Adult Niece were 15 minutes away I cooked up the taco meat and made guac. 

By then it was completely dark, and we saw headlights coming up the drive.  We ran out to greet the latecomers, jumping up and down, yelling, and waving like idiots.  Is anyone surprised when I tell you that the car belonged to a complete stranger who had gotten lost and was a bit taken aback by the welcoming committee?  Anyhoo, he got back on the road and SIL #1 and Adult Niece showed up for reals.  Dinner was ready and Girls Weekend had officially begun.  Tacos, guac, and margaritas went down and we spent the rest of the night in the hot tub.

Saturday morning: SIL #4 and niece made some very yummy pancakes with a gluten free mix.  SIL #1 and adult niece loaded up the crock pot with dinner.

Saturday day: let the Leaf Peeping begin!  We went on a ton of hikes.  We had planned to have lunch on the road, but when the time came we didn't have any cell service so we headed to the nearest town and took a chance on a random hole in the wall diner.  The gluten free member of our tribe had a grilled chicken breast, bacon, and french fries, and the rest of us had yummy hole in the wall diner food.  We got back on the trails until we were exhausted.

Saturday night: we got back to the cabin and the crockpot aroma made our mouths water and our stomachs growl.  SIL #1 and Adult Niece made us a Rachael Ray meatball "stoup" that they served over pasta.  We filled our bellies and then took it to the hot tub.

Sunday morning: SIL #3 made eggs, bacon, and hash browns.  We started packing but vacation was not quite over yet.  Adult Niece's brother was going to drive down to meet us halfway home and have lunch.  The plan was to stay at the cabin for a few more hours until check out time and then go up to meet him.

One of the SILs said casually "oh that's right, there's an Ikea on the way to lunch".

Half an hour later we were out of the cabin and headed for Ikea.  And then we met up with Adult Nephew for lunch and everyone headed home.

Workouts

I finished the one week Caroline Girvan Pyramid series this week.  I got my first taste of her HIIT workouts and I liked it a lot and am looking forward to doing more.  Once I finished pyramid I filled up the rest of the week with two one-off workouts: her celebration videos for hitting one million and two million followers.  The "two million" workout was a 20 minute full body workout and it was great.  The "one million" workout was a no equipment calisthenics workout which was notable for being...not my cup of tea!  Yes I finally found a Caroline Girvan workout that I don't like, largely because there were a few moves that I wasn't familiar with so I had to modify the crap out of it and skip a few things.  Oh well, no harm no foul, the price was right;-)

Next up: the two week Beastmode series (with a name like that it has to be good) and then I'll move on to a longer program from there.

Watching

I finished Hatufim (the Israeli show that was the basis for Homeland) and it kept me on the edge of my seat until the very end so I recommend it.  The rest of my TV time this week went toward Leaf Peeping and hot tubbing.

Reading

A hit and a miss!  I finished The Love of My Life by Rosie Walsh and am giving it the official thumbs up. My only complaint is that the title is sappy and I feel like the author must have had another title in mind that the publisher didn't like.

Then I started a best seller by an author that I used to really love...okay okay fine I'll name names.  I started The It Girl by Ruth Ware but gave up in the second chapter.  I just couldn't get into Something Awful Happened in College and we're going to go Back and Forth between Present Time and The Past for the whole book until we get to The End and it's time to Explain It All.  I loved loved loved In a Dark Wood, The Woman in Cabin 10, The Lying Game (hmm...as best I remember it was also a Something Happened in School book),  and I especially loved The Death of Mrs. Westaway.  I enjoyed The Turn of the Key and then barely got through One by One so I think I am done with this particular train.  But it was a great ride while it lasted.  I don't have anything else on tap so I may take a reading break until the next one comes along.