Wednesday relaxing around the cabin

Wednesday dawned cloudy and wet, and by the time we had gathered ourselves at the Circle R Ranch horse barn, it was raining in earnest. After meeting the dogs, the kitten, and the horses, the owner recommended we reschedule--ultimately for Thursday afternoon. So we returned to the cabin, had smorgasbord-orgasbord-orgasbod for lunch, and then enjoyed down time napping, reading, and working on a new race car jigsaw puzzle from the Ace Hardware store. I even drove up the lake to visit with some colleagues from the children's hospital who happened to be vacationing at the same time. Once everyone was awake, we made microwave popcorn and finished watching The Wiz, which we had started the night before. Most of us had never seen it before and considered it required viewing before moving on to the main event: Wicked. We decided not to go out to an arts and music festival after all, since everything would be wet. It was definitely a good thing the rain forced us to slow down and rest in the middle of an action-packed vacation.

 

In the evening, we had a multi-celebrant party! My mother turned 70 years young this spring and Dear Husband and I reached 20 years of marriage last week. We also remembered an aunt whose birthday is this week in abstentia. Part of my Christmas gifts this year involved bringing back foodstuffs from Norway, namely reindeer, moose, and whale dried sausage plus some cloudberry jam. I hit up Aldi before we came for the other ingredients in my very first charcuterie: dill, sweet, and spicy whiskey pickles, chili lime cashews, a cranberry white cheddar and brie to go with a package of mixed crackers. On the tray (from Copenhagen) were carrots, grapes, dried mango, sausage (reindeer and whale were voted over the moose), bell peppers, and sweet dried dates. DH's mouth is full of candied nuts from Santorini (left), and my father contributed wine and champagne. After dinner we played Mexican train dominoes (an old family tradition) and Sky-Jo (quickly becoming a new family tradition).

N.B. The shape on the TV screen in the background is a young woman in a bathing suit on the beach; her pony tail is the only thing visible after the photo editing.

Thursday: lake + horses!