What Summer is All About!

 

This is what summer is all about for me! I love time in the backyard with Tommy and Frankie more than just about anything else.

        

Here are a few shots I grabbed while exploring around the areas beyond the hotel. While my sister had seminars to attend, I had walking and socializing to do! I met my college roommate for an hour long walk at noon (her lunch break). Later I decided to walk around, aiming to also check out a neighborhood a friend moved to back in 2014. We ran into each other in an alley! We walked up into the village and did some wine tasting and then headed to a bar for a wine and tappas dinner. I walked back home with her to see her delightful little house. I did also buy two bottles of Keuka Springs wine.

We made a stop in Ballston Spa in the way home to shop in Noah's Attic. It's one of my favorite thrift stores. The silver-plated utensils and napkin rings were four dollars. The clothing was $9.25. Tommy got a machine-washable silk shirt and blue Liberty of London bow tie (not shown), in navy blue. There were two and I brought two to the counter but only found one in my bag once at home. The swim suits were a dollar each. I couldn't try them on. Only one won't fit. It was worth the gamble, because I got some great swimwear for cheap. There were four shirts I picked for myself.

I had to go for an MRI for my shoulder this morning. On the way home, I picked up a Flashfood order because we were out of Frankie food. The turkey and broccoli slaw were for her. I checked Save-a-Lot and found a great deal on pork there and also picked up a sweet potato. My expense for this batch of food was about eleven dollars. Before I started the food, I did a load of laundry, which included all my thrift finds.

 

I used what I purchased today, along with end-of-life refrigerator stuff. There's four cups of water, the remains of a can of unsweetened coconut milk, chopped greens and celery in this batch. Once I cooked it all up and separated solids from liquids, added the calcium, and packed it up, I ended up with five pounds of food. On Farmer's dog, Frankie would need five dollars' worth of food daily.  That's around a half pound per day. Homemade is such a savings! Her oats are made with bone broth. Four cups cost me basically nothing, but it's $1.39 for two ounces in the store.

Here's the pizza I made using the mozzarella and pancetta cheese from today's Ff order. The dough was a Ff buy a few weeks ago, the tomatoes are from our garden, the pepper and onion just items to be used.

Before leaving on my trip, I made a delicious dinner from a Flashfood pork loin. We ate half, and Tommy used the rest for meals while I was away. I also got him more pistachios because the price was just so good, plus a loaf of sourdough so I wouldn't have to bake. And yes, I did buy eight rolls of aluminum foil. The price was too good to pass up, and I expect tariff related increases to cause foil to become more expensive. Each roll is 150 sqft. My screen shot shows that a roll one third of the size sells for $4.28 at Walmart. It was a real deal.

Apparently, our old portable AC unit wasn't willing to keep us cold. These are closed units, so you can't easily replace parts, plus refrigerants change. So, we bit the bullet and got a new one.  It is an extra unexpected expense. However, we are sleeping much better. And the prices on ACs are going up since they are all made in China.

My little get-away was nice, but I am so happy to be home!