It's The Weekend - Thinking Ahead and Planning

Today is Stage 8 of Le Tour de France. I hope some of you had the opportunity to see the end of Stage 7 yesterday. Cav came in second, and it was SO close! He's trying to set a record this year, and a single win will give it to him. But he's not great on the mountains, and we have a lot more mountains to come before the next good sprinter's stage. I feel for him - he's GOT to be so frustrated. So close!!! 

We're starting to cross France now, going from West 
to East. We'll be in the hilly central section of the 
country for the next two-three days. Not really a 
sprinter's paradise, but not the killer that the big 
mountains can be for the swift guys. 

So, today is Stage 8. It starts out flat, but has topography by the final third. It should be a pretty ride, and so far this race has been a fun one. Hopefully that fun will continue as we progress towards the Eastern wall of mountains - the Alps. 

This is Sunday's stage - hilly, with an uphill ending. Again, 
not a sprinter's paradise. Looking at the stage maps for 
the Tour in general, there really isn't a great stage for 
the Sprinters for a LONG time. Yesterday was Cav's 
best opportunity and he did his darnedest, but only managed 
to come in 2nd. GRRRR. 

Yesterday was pretty much as I had expected/wanted. I dd a bit of grocery shopping, went home and did two hours of beading, then I hit the kitchen. I baked six peaches (they're absolutely lovely, but I probably will parboil and skin them first, next time). The recipe said the skin wasn't an issue, and it really isn't, but I found that the skin was getting caught up in my braces, so for me it's probably best to pull it off for any future batches. 

I like the baked peaches I made yesterday, and 
don't mind the skin too much, but it's not the best 
thing for my braces, so I'll pull the skin off before 
making this one again (at least while I have a 
mouth full of metal junk). 

I made my Ogre Juice (veggie alkagizer) for the next week, and got those into the fridge, and I did sent off two sets of eyeglasses to my re-lensing place in Staten Island. When those get back to me, I'll send more frames their way. There are at least two more I'd like done, maybe three. I didn't sent the Craft Optic glasses off quite yet. I really need those for my beading project, and am reluctant to let them go for 1-2 weeks. 

I really need to get these re-lenses also, but while I'm working 
on my beading project, I'm loathe to let them go. I need that 
close vision assistance to make sure I'm not making errors that 
will cause a problem with the project. I might have to hold off 
on sending these for another 1-2 months!

I did settle down in the morning and did two panels of beadwork, and then in the late afternoon, it was such a lovely day - not too hot, not too cold - I brought my loom and beads out to the patio and beaded another two panels outside. That actually worked quite well - a bit better than I had hoped. If I get more nice weather days on days when I can bead, I'll do that again. 

We have two different brush recycling areas we can use, but 
one is extremely close to us. They open at 11:00 am on 
Sunday, and we hope to be there at 11 or shortly thereafter 
to get rid of some smaller trees we're cutting down. 

Tomorrow is a yard day - DH wants to bring a load of brush to the recycling collection point, and they open at 11:00 am. He'll be working in the yard all day today, trying to get as much done as he can so that his impact on my "day off" will be as minimal as possible. That would be VERY appreciated. 

I have no idea what the secretary desk will look like, and 
Chickie didn't have a photo of it when we looked 
through her phone on Thursday. So, it's a mystery. It 
might look like this one ... or not - LOL. 

I'm already mentally gearing up for Chickie's vacation at the end of the month. She'll be gone for a bit more than a week, and both DH and I will have to work every day she's out of town. She's attending a family reunion with her Mom, and they're hauling a trailer along with them to bring an antique Secretary Desk home with them. Apparently it was one that has been handed down in the family, but the current owner is moving to a new place where it simply won't fit in. So, Chickie will take it. Actually, it's her Mom who wants it, but Claire has no room in her part of the duplex, so it will go upstairs in Chickie's part of the house. 

So, I'm off. Have an excellent day and enjoy the Tour for the next two days. We're back into topography now, as you can tell from the stage maps I've provided, so it should be rather fun. I'll be back on Monday. Slava Ukraini.