Well it’s now eight nine eighteen because I kept getting distracted yesterday when I started writing this post! But let’s just pretend:

I just love today’s date 080818. I felt it deserved a blog post title and so I’m writing this post just to make it happen 🙂

I’m making such progress in clearing out my house before the closing. Tossing, donating, packing….

bubble wrap is my life right now

Said goodbye to the late hubby’s skiis (and most of his other stuff too)…I can vividly remember watching him ski out of the trees up in Vermont. I never felt comfortable enough to attempt skiing through the trees. Donated 3 car loads of stuff so far.

who saves drawers from a dresser they haven’t owned in 20 years?

Shredding years of paper

My attic is now officially empty and I’ve shredded almost 20 years of important docs. Seriously what was I doing? Clearly I didn’t need tax docs from 1997! I did save this one page from my 1999 taxes.

As of now it looks like I’ll be closing at the end of this month. But this weekend I’m going to officially move into Mr. SOTSS’ house. I want Duncan settled and out of this house before I really start dismantling stuff. He’s definitely starting to wonder what the deal is.

Yesterday my piano went. I donated it to a nonprofit called The Society of the Unique Artists.

I had to explain to Duncan they are only taking the piano and not him. He was confused for a second.

Other than packing and purging I’ve been doing the usual. Walking, working, a little running and a whole lot of Duncan cuddling. We have just 2 more nights to share a queen sized bed just the two of us! It’s a luxury I’m going to miss as we double that count….And Chester is an 85 pound lab which basically means he’s like another human.

A 3 miler the week before last

And a 4 miler last week! Yep, I went an extra mile because i was having such a good run. And then I took what will probably be the last sweaty selfie post-run at this door. I was reminded on this run that I can always count on 2 things: How i feel about running and how Duncan feels about me 🙂

Last weekend Mr SOTSS and I went to a hot air balloon festival.

I was being such a pain about getting a good selfie that we ran the potential of the balloons leaving the frame before we snapped the pic. Sometimes you just can’t dilly dally.

Well, we actually just sat in the parking lot with our picnic dinner and drinks to watch them all take flight.

French fry face!

rosé

Last year we paid the $35 entry fee each (and we had his two daughters with us too) and realized there wasn’t much to do and really we just wanted to see the balloons at the end of the night. We noticed people in the parking lot with lawn chairs and thought that was genius. And last year was too windy so they balloons never left the ground. It was a bit depressing. But this year was quite spectacular. A beautiful sight.

Oh yeah, and I got stung by a bee! I hadn’t been stung in about 35 years and apparently I am allergic. My ankle swelled up and was painful for about a week. Thankfully my breathing was not affected.

While I’ve spent many a day and night at Mr. SOTSS’ place, I’ve never been there more than 4 days consecutively. So everyone will be needing some time to get adjusted to the full time “roomies” situation.

Mr. SOTSS built me this awesome room last summer and it’s supposed to be my private oasis kinda thing….like a she-shed. But apparently everyone just flocks to me. We’re all squeezed into the 7×7 room. HAHA!

Chester will love that I can feed him at 5pm sharp now so he doesn’t have to wait for his dad to get home for dinner.

I’ve gotta drop the doodles off at the groomer. Hope you’re all having a good month.

What’s new with you? Do you have a date like eight eight eighteen that you like? I remember 9-10-11, 10-11-12, 11-12-13 and 12-13-14 like they were yesterday 🙂

I miss blogging! Haven’t been here in a month so I just wanted to pop in and say hi. Hope you are all enjoying your Spring wherever you are located—I love that I have readers as far away as New Zealand!

Real simple, I’ll let you know how my month has been going in about 3 bullets.

  • I’ve been running 1 or 2 times a week. I’m slow but steady and have adjusted nicely to this new norm of decreased speed, duration and distance. It’s nice to have it back in my life consistently since being sidelined so much in 2017. As for races. They’ll be few and far between. I’ll be running the Spring Lake 5 (miler) in a couple of weeks and couldn’t be more excited for it. Hoping for decent weather.
  • I’ve been working all day e’ryday. Yup, not lying here. Upwards of 12ish hours daily.
  • And any remaining hours have been either eating, sleeping—or of course, walking Duncan. There were a few family highlights as well sprinkled throughout. Mr. SOTSS turned 45 and my niece turned 18. She had accepted admission at the University of Pittsburgh but only a week later found out she was also accepted to NYU’s (New York University) Applied Psychology program so she is switching gears and will be attending NYU instead. I’m a very proud aunt.

I’ll leave you with a few highlights of the last month in pictures. Now tell me some of YOUR highlights from the last 30 days!

Running highlights:

This past Saturday I had 59 minutes left to Deena Kastor’s book “Let Your Mind Run” and ran until the book was finished 🙂 I highly recommend the book. As a side note, I heard her on a recent podcast episode say she didn’t run for like 4 months straight while writing the book.

The trees have been blooming like crazy here. This was another easy weekend run

There was the 7 miles I ran at the beach 3 weeks ago with a few minutes of bench sitting…. (highest distance so far this year!)

And realizing my average pace was 11:11 “make a wish” pace. Do you make a wish at 11:11? I’ve been doing this since high school.

And an after-work evening random evening run.

Working highlights:

a 12 foot x 2 foot sign we created and installed recently for a new cooking school in New Jersey

A large key that I printed, applied to foam board and hand cut for a mortgage lender

Some vinyl graphics we applied to the window above this company’s entrance

And everything in between:

My niece all ready for her next chapter. Class of ’22

Can’t forget about watching Desi win the Boston Marathon in that cold/windy/rain. Amazing!

More Spring beauty on another evening stroll with the pooch

Seriously this is a highlight. I got a new toilet seat and installed it myself. 🙂

We are representing the business in comfy fashion 🙂

As seen while walking Duncan one evening. So pretty

Evidence of the coffee i spilled on Mr. SOTSS’ birthday card. Typical Sally. I spill coffee on EVERYTHING!

Mr. SOTSS making a wish on his birthday

An afternoon jaunt to Asbury Park one weekend and a fun place for a photo op.

And of course, my daily highlight.

Hi there.

Happy Spring. Here in New York City we got a big dump of snow thanks to Nor’ Easter Toby. But it has mostly melted.

at the beginning of the storm

at the beginning of the storm

the morning after the storm

the morning after the storm

I got back at the beginning of the week from being away for 17 days. Away from home, away from Duncan. Needless to say it was tough. But it was for something very exciting…

Mr. SOTSS is opening a business. It’s a franchise called FASTSIGNS.

Welcome to FASTSIGNS :)

Welcome to FASTSIGNS 🙂

Basically a business that creates visual communications like signage for other businesses. In addition to traditional signage there is digital signage now added to the mix and even vehicle wraps. When Mr. SOTSS made the decision to do this I immediately jumped on board because I knew I could help him design the signs. He was really excited about the production part of it (actually building the signs). So this seemed like a great combo. This has been in the works for well over a year now and over that span it became clear that he, as the franchise owner, would be busy with many tasks at first, including the very important task of sales and that the production part is really more a dual role for the graphic designer…moi. I knew this would be a challenge for me, and as I learned while we were away, challenge is an understatement.

Let me back up for a minute and tell you about the trip which was to the corporate headquarters of FASTSIGNS, in Dallas, Texas. We had to complete a 2 week intensive training.

a little bag of snacks was given to each of us to help us get through the training weeks. And a BIG BINDER that was full of info by the time we left

a little bag of snacks was given to each of us to help us get through the training weeks. And a BIG BINDER that was full of info by the time we left

We set out back on March 2nd on a drive that would ultimately land us in Dallas, We were originally going to take our dogs which is why we opted to drive. We also thought it would be fun to see a bit of the country as we traveled (I think we covered 15 states total—New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansa, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Virginia, Maryland).

I insisted on taking photos of each state. If I was driving then Mr. SOTSS took the photo

I insisted on taking photos of each state. If I was driving then Mr. SOTSS took the photo

We ended up not bringing the dogs (HARD THINGS #1: Leaving my dog for 17 days! and HARD THINGS #2: Leaving my home for 17 days when I’d never been away for longer than 8 days before.)

We started the drive through a snow storm and the first 6 hours of the trip were very stressful for us but more so for me. I legit had a panic attack in the car and asked if we could pull over. And so we found a WalMart and he got new windshield wipers and I took a few deep breaths. HARD THINGS #3 was definitely getting through the snow storm. There was an 18-wheeler trying to make it up a hill on the Interstate and kept rolling back. We were the vehicle directly behind it.

But after that we were smooth sailing and made it to Ohio where we slept for the night.

Happy road trip AFTER the storm

Happy road trip AFTER the storm

The next day we drove through Kentucky and into Tennessee and when we got to Nashville we walked around for a few hours.

Hi, from Nashville

Hi, from Nashville

nashville-cashmuseum

music-row

 

silly timer-camera stuff

silly timer-camera stuff

sweet treat stop at Goo Goo Shop

sweet treat stop at Goo Goo Shop

Hi, from Nashville

Hi, from Nashville

nashville-cashmuseum music-row

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Another Memorable Winter Vermont Weekend

Well hello strangers?

I cannot even believe it’s been almost a month since I last posted. Well, yes, I guess I can. It’s becoming quite apparent that my blogging frequency will remain this way for a while. My feet are improving slowly and I’m going to test the waters with some easy run-walking starting next week and I truly hope to run a few 5ks this spring. I also registered for the super popular Spring Lake 5 miler that I have run a few times and spectated a few times. That’s in late May. I actually ran it last year as my initial toe injury was healing but just a month later I was back to limping 🙁

 

I got back Sunday night from such a lovely weekend getaway in Vermont with Mr. SOTSS.

A historic beauty!

The Inn at Weathersfield: a historic beauty!

This year’s trip was a little different than our last 3 trips because Mr. SOTSS’ sister was getting married. So instead of going at the end of January we went a month later. And instead of going to West Dover, VT we headed a bit further north to Perkinsville, VT to the Inn at Weathersfield, where the venue of the wedding would be.

inn-weathersfield

(You can read about our previous ski weekends here, here and here) First, let me say this Inn was the most quintessential bed and breakfast and the owners Richard and Marilee were so welcoming. I couldn’t help but notice this note that Marilee wrote to Thomas, the original owner of the Inn (when it was just his residence back in the late 1700s)

IMG_5057

We arrived Wednesday night just before dinner and basically had dinner and settled in.

A toast by the fire.....welcome to Vermont!

A toast by the fire…..welcome to Vermont!

Fresh baked cookies were waiting for us in the room daily!

IMG_5054

It was really a bizarre weather day, reaching 80 degrees at one point on the drive up. But thankfully Thursday morning we woke to temps below freezing because that’s what a Winter Vermont weekend getaway should be! Breakfasts were AMAZING!

Farm fresh eggs with lots of veggies, homemade sourdough toast, bacon and potatoes along with the very important first cup of coffee....heaven

Farm fresh eggs with lots of veggies, homemade sourdough toast, bacon and potatoes along with the very important first cup of coffee….heaven

Michael, the awesome chef made a veggie scramble. We’re talking eggs with carmelized onions, sauteed spinach and peppers and fresh sharp cheddar cheese. They source locally for all their ingredients. Oh and homemeade sourdough toast and even homemade grape jelly.

IMG_5071

Next up was a day of skiing. We went to Okemo Mountain which was about a half hour from the inn. I struggled a bit at first because there were some icy spots and a lot of groomed trails. But eventually my confidence gained and I felt less wobbly.

 

Still sporting my 25+ year old skis. I always giggle because NOBODY has skis this old anymore. But they work and I'm not ready to invest in new equipment that I only use once or twice a year.

Still sporting my 25+ year old skis. I always giggle because NOBODY has skis this old anymore. But they work and I’m not ready to invest in new equipment that I only use once or twice a year.

Okemo

Okemo

chairlift selfe

chairlift selfe

 

Friday and Saturday we got to snow shoe on the grounds of the Inn. We went as a group with the bridal party on Friday and then just the two of us on Saturday. I love being outside in nature and I love snow. It was so quiet and beautiful and I just couldn’t stop taking pictures.

:)

🙂

I love the way the tree trunks and limbs create such a beautiful pattern here

I love the way the tree trunks and limbs create such a beautiful pattern here

Hi there

Hi there

And the light filtering through the trees.....sigh. so beautiful and serene.

And the light filtering through the trees…..sigh. so beautiful and serene.

snow shoers

snow shoers

even a pop of blue sky

even a pop of blue sky

group shot!

group shot!

"just pretend we're having a casual conversation"

“just pretend we’re having a casual conversation”

 

And then the reason we were all there…..the wedding…

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