The title pretty much sums up why I suck at blogging. I’ve been meaning to for days, but I just never got around to it. So let’s see… where did I leave off? Oh yes, the $1000 worth of oil changes, tire rotations, inspections and repairs that I had done on both vehicles in the last two weeks. Ugh.
Oh! Did I mention that on Wednesday I surprised Dan and the kids with a trip to a zoo? We usually go to the Philadelphia Zoo, but this time I picked something smaller, cheaper, and a bit closer — the Elmwood Park Zoo. This was Ryan’s first trip to such a big place — and without any type of “restraint”, since we left the backpack harness/leash at home and I donated the strollers a few months ago — so I was a little nervous. But he did great. Of course, going on a cooler day in the middle of the week helped. Plus the Elmwood Park Zoo is much smaller, so there weren’t nearly as many people as there would be at the Philly zoo. Also, this zoo is more like a huge park that was upgraded to include several unique playgrounds, some zoo animals (nothing too extravagant — bobcats, jaguars, bison, prairie dogs, a few other animals I’m forgetting, some birds, a reptile house, and a petting zoo), so things were much more spread out, and much more park-like.
Anyway, the kids had a fabulous time. Ryan really enjoyed playing on the playgrounds, petting the animals, riding a pony, and just having the freedom to roam around. Alyssa also had a great time, and both kids loved the fact that we stopped at Friendly’s afterward for ice cream.
We got home a little after 6 on Wednesday evening, and then Dan’s youngest brother’s girlfriend came over to visit. She’s six years younger than me, but honestly the age difference is barely noticeable. Ergh… “age difference”… that makes me sound old! But in any case, we had a great time munching on popcorn and talking, and then we headed out and biked around the neighborhood a few times.
I spent four hours at the car dealership on Thursday, and then I met up with Dan and the kids for lunched, stopped over at Target for bicycle helmets, and then went to Panera Bread to get in another two hours or so worth of work. Then I ran home, got the kids situated while Dan installed a bike rack (borrowed from my mom) on the back of our car, and once my mom came over he and I left to go bike riding! We went to a local park where we biked approximately five miles. About half of that was uphill, too. Ugh… it’s funny… I wasn’t out of breath exactly, just a little winded, but Oh. My. God. My thighs were burning, and once I got off the bike I was all wobbly for a bit. Heh. Then we picked up pizza and bread sticks and went over to Dan’s brothers’ apartment, where the six of us (Dan, me, his brothers, his youngest brother’s girlfriend and Jason) had a great time with food, snacks, video games, card games, an outdoor fireplace, and alcohol. The alcoholic version of pink lemonade is the shit. Tee-hee. I did three shots worth of it in half-shot increments over the course of four hours or so, and whooooooooo… only downside is that it actually BURNED when it hit my empty stomach pouch. That part wasn’t so pleasant!
Friday aka Hangover Day… managed to do a lot of work, run some necessary errands, I think I met up with my mom at some point (total memory lapse going on here)… that was about it.
And the weekend? Work! What else? LOL.
1000 dollars on repairs holy shnicky! good job bike riding that is awesome. I am so proud of you!
Sounds like a lot of stuff! I’m glad you are enjoying all the bike riding
I have been doing about 5 miles or so at least every weekday. I’m glad you got around to blogging though. I admittedly have become an addict and was bout to go through withdraw lol.
And you know I love the zoo! <3
Oh my goodness that’s a lot of money to spend on repairs! That stinks. Yay for the zoo, though! What a nice surprise!
thats an insane amount for repairs.
why dont you just do the oil changes yourself? it’s soo much cheaper that way.
ps…love the new design.
Oh my goodness that’s a lot of money to spend on repairs! That stinks. Yay for the zoo, though! What a nice surprise!
Bike riding? I’m totally envious! I haven’t been on a bike since I was a teenager! I’d probably look so silly trying to ride again!