Oooooh!

A whiff of lilac greeted me as I took the dog for a walk last night! There's a gigantic bush just around the corner on our block... and I had forgotten this was their time, even though the little bushes in my own backyard are starting to bloom. "Thanks for taking me on a walk, Doggie Boy!" And it's funny... that's pretty much what it was like. I had taken him outside to go potty and he went and sniffed the mailbox and then went further like he wanted to go on. And it was a beautiful evening, almost as nice as Wednesday night. No golden sunset with peaches, purples, pinks and blues, but it was clear skies.

I've been keeping pretty active: on Wednesday night after work (and after a lovely dinner of meatloaf and potatoes - Mom's meatloaf is yummy!) I went for a bike ride on the Sammamish River Trail. There's a park in downtown Woodinville that I like to start at; it's a good point to either go north to Bothell, Kenmore and Seattle or south to Redmond. Now the last time I went out, I had a flat rear tire from a thorn that went clear through the tire to puncture the tube. When I had it fixed last week, the technician commented that the last people to work on it had my brakes way too tight, so he fixed that too. So when I started to pedal, the resistance was much lighter than what I've known recently, so I really flew. I biked to downtown Redmond, all the way to Hwy 202; I forgot about taking the turn that would take me to Marymoor Park. Anyways, the distance is 7.5 miles between the cities, so I finished after an hour with 15 miles. What's great is that the posted speed limit on the trail is 15 MPH. I was really struck by the gorgeous sunset when I turned around to return. The pinks and yellows were reflecting in the river. And the whole time I was treated to the singing of many different callers... but most of them were hidden in the trees or bushes. I did see ducks on the river and a rabbit on the green, though. Thank the Lord, it's Spring!

After work yesterday (Thursday the 15th - Happy Taxes, everyone) I went to Jazzercise. Because my knees felt so tender last week I opted to do some of the moves "low impact" (not jumping, but marching instead, still with intensity) and it really helped them. It was another teacher I had never seen before, but she did great. Good routine, especially the abdominal work at the end. Mom and Dad were just off to their Bible study when I got home, but spaghetti with Italian sausage meat sauce was waiting on the table upstairs. I'm very proud of myself for only having one serving. Usually I can't stop eating the stuff, it's so good. I took the dog out, cleaned up all the dishes and then Zac called! And he was in unusually high spirits, and we had a nice little conversation. I then read some more of "I, Freddy", a hysterical story about an intellectual hamster. I read the second one last week - Meg found it at the library, and the first one is even funnier. They were written in the late '90's and translated from German. The illustrations rather add to the merriment. :) I just finished the story this afternoon.

Work has kept nice and busy this week, thanks to the quantity of MO's that my coworker got. I got some of my own yesterday, but without those from Deanna on Wednesday and today I would have been twiddling my thumbs.

Jp