on the bike ride home., originally uploaded by mintyfresh.

It’s finally summer here. So hot that you can break a sweat without thinking about it, and sunburns seem to be magnetic – not that I have a burn, of course…just a lovely shade of what most people might consider normal.

The weather has been good to us in more ways than one – our much more frequent trips to the sail club by bike (15K each way) have been paying off, and I’ve managed to shave almost ten minutes off my time (we’ve brought it down to a 41 minute commute from 51 minutes, or so says brett’s handy bike computer). Soon I will be one of those annoying pathway cyclists, except I will be smiling, not wearing ridiculous cycling shorts, and actually dinging my bell (unlike the *ahem* 30-km-an-hour commuters out there. Last Thursday, 4:30 pm, Island Park pathway? You know who you are.)

I mustered up the courage to join a running group – let’s just see if I can tame my sprint, stop, sprint, stop, sprint, stop soccer runs now! Admittedly, though, I’m terrified at the prospect of the “2-minute run, 1-minute walk” run that awaits me tomorrow. This will assuredly be the longest two minutes ever. Repeatedly.

We’ve been sailing a bunch, and this weekend managed to survive our motor falling off before we put up the sails (ha! a SO not funny moment), a giant fleet of lasers (little baby sailboats) descending on the harbour, and the appearance of an ever-so-menacing inflatable pirate ship full of teenagers in order to make it out on the water. They warned us that National Capital Regatta weekend would be wild, but pirates? Well, they were unexpected.

Angus continues to recover, and has sufficiently dismantled his bandages enough that I just got tired of fixing them again and again. So he is delightedly free, and doesn’t hesitate to tell me all about how great it is at every opportunity.

I am obsessed with finding the perfect gazpacho recipe. This one isn’t it. I’d also like to find the recipe for a cold strawberry soup I made more than four years ago, and I haven’t yet given up hope. It was on the internet somewhere….this might take a while.

appliance love., originally uploaded by mintyfresh.

The gist of it is, really, that it’s an impossibility when you live with two rambunctious, litter-tossing, toy-destroying five-month old kittens. You clean, they mess up. Rinse, lather, repeat, while adding an extra layer of destruction in there for good measure, like climbing the window screens, or hanging upside down from the (very tall) dining room chairs.

But with the kitties out of our hair (though we do miss them so), we are quickly ridding ourselves of the evidence of their furry little existence, built up in layer upon layer of reggie-fur, and a ridiculous amount of toys abandoned in odd nooks and crannies all over the three stories we call home.

left behind., originally uploaded by mintyfresh.

Our help? My adorable new vacuum, a little retro orange and grey hoover, complete with rolly wheels, that crazy cord that gets sucked back in when you push a button, and just enough power to deal with the mere hallway-and-stairs worth of carpet that adorns our house.

For a measly $70, I don’t expect much from it, but it does the job, and if we’re lucky, it’ll outlast the horrid forest green carpet that graces our hall. Forest green! House? Awesome. Carpet? Lacking.

Today’s tragedy? Shakey mouse, who, rather than going with Angus to the OHS as planned, had a lonely day, unfound, and unloved, trapped between the sofa cushions. He’s happily been reunited with the rest of his cat toy friends, anxiously awaiting our next round of troublemakers – as are we.