I relaxed!

Dinner tonight - grape tomatoes all from our garden, with rosemary, thyme and basil, all from our garden, dressed with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper and served on a bed of whole wheat penne pasta. I would have added fresh mozzarella, but neither one of us wanted to go to the store. Michael added some grated asiago to his, but I had a VEGAN dinner tonight!

Michael's biggest souvenir from Japan.
After the races they do lots of trading and gifting.
A mechanic on one of the Japanese teams gave Michael his jumpsuit!
Notice his name tag in Japanese.

Sponsor and college name in English, however.

Michael actually wore this to school earlier this week.

You can't tell so much in these pictures, but it is definitely Japanese-sized.
When Michael sits down or lifts his arms you see lots of leg and wrist!

Well, fairly relaxed. I did take a few ten minute breaks to work on stuff on my list, but I watched a movie! The last time I watched a movie was August 5, when I watched "Doubt." Tonight I watched "Disfigured" on the "Play Now" feature of Netflix. It is a really great movie. I recommend it for anybody with body image issues, no matter what your weight or size. Friends of people with body image issues should also watch it.

I woke up today with a headache and it sucked. For some reason I didn't medicate, however. I fell back into my old, "I ought to be able to beat this" thing. Michael was supposed to pay cello at Fourth Street Festival and then immediately after him Sarah's Swing Set was scheduled. I wanted Sarah to hear Michael play, even though it was in ensemble, and I wanted Michael to hear Sarah sing AND her bassist is the one Ben thinks Michael should also play or study with. At the time, though, it was pouring down rain. They had no tent or awning for the performance space this year - so no string instruments. We just came on home.

Well we stopped at the paint store on the way. I bought my purple paint for my door and my shutters. Woo hoo! Washing the front door has been on my list several times, yet never completed. (See - I am NOT the bad "P" word!). Now that I have all the materials to complete it I will be EXTRA motivated. Perhaps I can finish the front porch beautification project tomorrow! I would be so happy. I still had the headache when we got home and by then I was feeling pukey too. I took some drugs finally and drank some really strong natural ginger ale. I slept for a couple of hours. When I woke up I was slightly disoriented and still alittle headachey. Before I knew what was happening I felt better and went out and cut wood for maybe an hour and pruned the mulberry tree more - so now there is even MORE wood to cut up. I hope it's nice weather tomorrow and I feel well. I am trying to drink a lot tonight to make sure I am hydrated to help fend off the headaches. I'd like to finish the front porch, weed and mow tomorrow. I don't know if I will work more on the wood or not. I might need to wait a couple of days in-between times on that. I know my arms are going to be sore tomorrow.

Tomorrow Michael is going up to Purdue to see their solar bike. I hope he is impressed with their program and decides he will apply to Purdue for a "fall-back" school. I am all for Swarthmore, much more than I was for Harvey Mudd, but I am afraid he won't get accepted. Don't tell him I said that. I think a lot of it will depend on how he does on the subject SAT tests in October. He is extremely gifted at math and physics, but he works very slowly and that can really take a toll on those test scores. I am encouraged that he got a 5 on the Calculus AP exam, so I hope he keeps on rolling...

Emily is working with the pictures from the family photo shoot for me. I think I have decided to make a collage from the best ones. I will probably try to send them out either instead of or with holiday letters this year. So if I can get my act together, maybe not too far in the future.

I can't remember if I posted the pictures of Michael's haircut on here. I will go back and look and if I didn't I will do it tomorrow. I got the hair all ready and addressed and it will be sent to Locks of Love on Tuesday.

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