Given the complete and utter craziness of 2020 there is definitely one thing to celebrate this weekend. Mia and I have been married for 16 years! Considering prior to meeting Mia my longest relationship was about two and half years, the longest I had the same job was about the same too. Being with Mia matured me to a certain degree. It sounds corny but it wasn’t about just me anymore. I had a reason to focus on my career and being with Mia made me think of other things besides myself. It was no longer about get up, go to work, ride bike, race on weekends. It’s weird how someone can make your priorities shift. 🙂
The candle in her hand is an homage to the classic wedding gift of 16 years…..wax…..believe it or not.
Our gift to each other was a new mattress. We’ve had our current one for 10 years and it’s pretty much time to replace it. We were lucky enough to refinance our mortgage on our Anniversary too. Dropping to a 2.87% interest rate knocked $186 a month off our payment and we don’t need to make our next payment until November first. We decided replace the October payment with a gift to ourselves of a Sleep Number mattress. Based on comments from friends and the test drive in the store I think we’re going to be plenty pleased with our choice.
Also spent a part of this weekend just tooling around town on my Salsa Timberjack. I had no planned route or objective in mind. I just wanted to get out and roll around for a bit.
There is a little trail behind the B Street Self Storage facility. It has a bunch of new “No Trespassing” signs along the backside of the property. More than likely because of the homeless people that had set up camp back there earlier this Spring. I saw a rolled up sleeping bag just lying in the middle of grass as you come into the new housing development off 19th Ave but it does appear that the camp may have been cleared out.
As Monday afternoon turns into evening there is a high wind warning in effect for the greater PDX metro area. Accompanying those winds is wildfire smoke from both Oregon and California fires. It has quickly turned into a hazy smoky mess out there and it definitely smells like a campfire is nearby.
Recipe-Strawberry Shortcakes
Finally getting back to a recipe this weekend. We’re trying to use up the last of the season’s strawberries and I found this recipe on White Lily’s website for shortcakes. I think I should have made mine a bit thicker before cutting them out when I compare to their website picture.
Also going to make the whipped cream from scratch even though I bought a reddi wip just in case.
Thanks for reading,
-Pete
ON & OFF RHODES 