I Hope I Survive August

I hope I survive August. Many of you who know me know that I keep busy, but that is normal for this girl. No big deal. To give you a feel of how busy August will be: August is so busy it seems overwhelming even to me!

As of today, here is what I have going on this month:

• Reading:
• Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (11 August 2010)
• The Hunger Games (July 2010)
• Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone (dropped)
• Knitting Night with girl-friends (tonight!)
• Turkish Dinner at Bosphorus Lounge with book club friends (this Friday!) (moved to September)
• Sand Volleyball and Cookout at Matt's (this Saturday!)
• 5th Annual Moss Park 5K (this Saturday, but I'm thinking of skipping this since I've not been training... kind of forgot about this race...) (skipped)
• Eat Pray Love movie night with girl-friends (13 August 2010)
• Heather's Birthday Party (21 August 2010)
• Homeless Children's Birthday Party with Jessica and her volunteer group (have to work instead)
• Lockheed Martin ISLDP Leadership Development Conference I (I will be in Lansdowne, VA from 16-20 August)
• The August Book Club (for The Hunger Games)
• Kristin visits for a long weekend! (we're super excited to experience The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, a girls' night in and a night downtown!)
• Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring movie night (10 August 2010)
• My class(es) for Penn State begin (23 August 2010)
• Church with Kayelee & Chelsea on Sundays (22 August 2010)
• Brunch with Kayelee & Chelsea to discuss our upcoming Bible study group! (22 August 2010)

Shew! It was tiring just blogging all of that!

Can you believe that in addition to all of that I am working on putting together a karaoke night with the book club and also a Euchre/Spaghetti Pitch-in night! Those things may have to wait until September rolls around. Oh! And I want to get over to Melbourne. I am itching to visit friends, Aunt Joan and the beach!

Anyway, I hope your August is off to a great start!

WL Dog Park

Tonight I had the great pleasure of spending the evening with Heidi at a new dog park: the Waterford Lakes Dog Park. It's a stone's throw away, has friendly folks and dogs, water, a dog-i-pot, benches for the humans and GRASS rather than sand which is outstanding! The weather was super cooperative after a really hot and humid day, so we were there for a couple hours. I always mean to get some reading in while Heidi frolics around, but I really enjoy watching her play, dog watching and chatting with the other dog owners. It all makes me smile.

Heidi with Bailey (Boston Terrier exiting the photo) and Max (whom Heidi romped around with quite a bit)

There was a sweet, old Great Pyrenees and his nice owner was the favorite among all the dogs because he gave them really great back scratches. He gave Anslow (his Great Pyrenees) a back scratch and caused some shedding; as you can see, Heidi caught some of the fluff and just left it there for a good while.

Scratchin'. It's what dogs do.

A new favorite photo of me and my girl!

In other news... Work went along okay. Busy in the morning, training in the afternoon. The training is good, but time passes slowly. I didn't get up early enough to run with Heidi, but it turned out to be a good ting since it was ridiculously humid even at the early hours of the morning. I'm going to run with her tomorrow morning, weather permitting. So I guess the running this week will be Tuesday, Thursday Saturday again. That's fine.

Normally grocery shopping wouldn't be considered news, but I stumbled upon a gem! P.F. Chang's makes microwavable steam meals!!! I had one over the weekend and am awestruck! The General Chang one is good, and tomorrow I'll try the Ginger Chicken & Broccoli! Mmmm!

I announced the book for August tonight: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Anyone read that one? I read up on it, and it sounds really good, so I'm excited!

Shepherd's Kitchen

If you can imagine the orange cat as a grey one...

(Thanks for sharing, Grandma!)