Gray skies are gonna clear up!

Ah, weekends. I spent a lot of time with just myself this weekend, but I never felt alone. The strangest thing I realized after an errand-busy Saturday, was I had this perma-grin on my face. There was nothing particularly humorous on TV at the end of my evening. I was just smiley. Weird. It was a good day.

I was the early bird on Saturday (up at about 8 a.m.), with a visit to Crocker Park, to ultimately return white shorts to Express that I will never wear, but had an opportunity to wander around the art walk and finally shop the farmer’s market.

One of the booths at the art fair was that of Chris Maher from Michigan. Of course, nude photography is enough to make anyone’s head turn to look, but his figure work and smoke pieces were incredible. I stopped and chatted with him for a while about his models, his inspiration and the overall power in a woman’s body. Unfortunately, art is not in my current budget, so I’ll have to wait a while to purchase another piece for my home.

Then, over to the farmer’s market! I picked up some fresh peas, strawberries and a mixed batch of squash and zucchini. My sister suggested an awesome summer dinner recipe with the squash, so I was excited to find it here. Hopefully I can eat all these strawberries before they go bad. (The vendor guaranteed me I would).

Since Trader Joe’s was right there, I decided to do some additional grocery shopping. And I bought myself some bright colorful flowers to go along with my organic chicken.

While running menial errands as dropping off dry cleaning and bringing shoes to the repair shop (yes, I do that), I noticed a new(er) bike shop had opened in Rocky River. Performance Cycle has been there about a year, but apparently I never pay enough attention. The sales people were all nice and helpful with my new car rack purchase (yeah, on sale!) and a bike lock (which I cannot get the bracket to STAY on my bike! ARGH). The owner gave me 15% off (I suppose because I was a new customer) and told me about ladies’ night on Thursdays (another 10% off anything). I’ll try to get up there soon to meet some new bike buddies.

Knowing I was making a good dinner later, I decided to walk over to Rossi’s and pick up a bottle of Chardonnay. I’m not much of a white wine drinker, but a light pasta would not fare well with my usual Shiraz favoritism.

And seeing the skies were keeping away any inclement weather, I took the bike out for a spin. It was a long spin… I left from the Rocky River/Westlake border, down HIlliard, turned down Wagar to Detroit, took Detroit to the Metroparks… then of course, got lost somewhere in the Metroparks and 10 miles later ended up on the Lorain Road bridge at Story Drive. *sigh* Then I had to peddle all the way back home. Two hours of riding, it was impossible to get up the hill back to Lorain, so I had to walk my bike. Awesome. I’m surprised I didn’t pass out on Center Ridge.

After showering off all the mud, sweat and remnants of an up-hill battle, I opened up the wine and started a fantastic chicken and pasta dinner with the squash and zucchini I purchased at the market, tossed with some olive oil and garlic. Of course, I had strawberry shortcake for dessert. While I know this dinner would have been better had someone joined me, I really didn’t care. I was in my house, doing what I love — cooking — albeit different things that might not particularly turn out as planned, but who cares if I am the only one eating it!

I instilled a 5 p.m. curfew for the television at home, where on weekends I do anything but sit and space out to the TV. After 5, the night is mine with attempting to get in five channels with my cable-less antenna. So, I read my new book for a couple hours. (I’ll tell you all about it when I’m finished).

For Father’s Day, I drove out to Punderson State Park for brunch with the family. I brought my bike along to ride around the lake. Surprisingly, there were not really any bike trails, but a lot of hiking trails, which were a little too steep for my novice biking abilities. I did take the main roads around the lake though and through the campsites. It was a beautiful day and very peaceful being out in nature. So, I guess I crossed a couple more things off my 43 Cleveland+ list this weekend! I didn’t go camping in Punderson, but the visit itself was good enough for me, and I rode my bike along TWO different waterfronts this weekend.

Oh, I forgot to mention I saw “Zohan” this weekend? Three of us drove out to Valley View to check out “The Happening,” but it was SOLD OUT. Crap. Crap for the movie being sold out and CRAP (yes, all caps) for the new Adam Sandler movie. It was the most expensive half-nap I have ever taken. Before our show started, we went over to this local dive called Johnny K’s — everyone there was so friendly! We sat on the front porch and enjoyed a couple drinks in the humid air. But seriously, don’t mess with Zohan. It’s stupid. I think I laughed once and it was because somebody made a noise like a cat — “Meow, meow, meow!”

Sidenote: And in unrelated news, “The Notebook” was on TV Saturday night. It was the first time I watched the film with no tears. NO TEARS, people. I have sobbed like a baby every. single. time. that I watched it. Somewhere, my emotional wiring got all messed up.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.