Ever since the party …

my life has been pleasantly busy. It's kind of like the busy-ness of prepping for my mother-in-law's event, having my husband's son and family here, all the planning/list-making/shopping/cooking hasn't stopped, but the attendent stress has vanished. I'm doing something almost all the time, but there's no deadline.

Love it.

We had a great weekend here in the Middle of Nowhere. We got a call Saturday morning from friends who were traveling nearby, asking if we'd like to meet them for coffee mid-afternoon. Of course we would! And the number-one priority before we left was to get a workout in. I hopped on the elliptical while my husband did his errands, and then he worked out on the treadmill while I went to get milk at Elora's. By the time we did all that and took showers, it was time to hit the road.

The visit was lovely and much too short. Afterward, since my husband and I were more than halfway there, we went on to Sam's Club (I keep a running list of Things To Get At Sam's Club), and then to dinner. No cooking for me, happy early Valentine's day! Heh.

I took advantage of the slow cooker yesterday to roast a chicken for dinner, did laundry (and hung it out to dry – does anything smell as lovely as sun-dried linens?) and took a five-mile walk. In the sunshine. With my husband. He hasn't walked with me for months. He walked outdoors all summer while I was busy in the garden. When I started my walking plan again in October, he decided to go cut brush by our pond. I kind of missed listening to the latest audiobook (Cutting for Stone), but not too much. It was fun being outdoors in nice weather together.

(Aside: Cynthia suggested reading Born to Run, which I just finished, and Gingersnapper pointed to a blog post with tips on improving speed. Both sources recommend shortening your stride, which I've been doing. Not only am I moving more quickly, I'm less tired. Whether that's a result of the shortened stride or improved conditioning is hard to say, but at the end of a five-miler I feel like I could go farther.)

Seriously, though, yesterday was all about counting down the hours until the Grammys. Bob Dylan and Mick Jagger performed! And did I mention Bob Dylan? (If you don't already know this about me, I'm a huge Dylan fan, always have been. My first 45 rpm record was Rainy Day Women #12 & 35.)

I "watched" with my daughter – she and I were texting back-and-forth during the entire program, which was lots of fun. My granddaughter was astonished that Dylan is just 10 years older than I am. She said he looked at least 30 years older.

My husband watched some of it with me, but events like the Grammys bring out the age difference between us. He's eight years older than I am. I listen to and appreciate new tunes and performers; modern music just isn't his thing. He enjoyed the Dylan set (he sang Maggie's Farm with Mumford & Sons and the Avett Brothers), but left before Mick rocked the house.

The awards seemed incidental to the performances, many of which looked like Super Bowl halftime shows – lots of lights, pyrotechnics, Usher. Heh. Whenever someone came out to present a Grammy, I was like, 'Oh, yeah, this is an awards show.'

All in all, a great weekend. And the weather looks lovely for this week. Still below freezing at night a couple days, but we should actually see 60 degrees for the first time this year mid-week. Time to start thinking about starting seeds indoors.

I guess I should probably order some, eh?