Of paint, snipe and free rein

Wow... It's only been a couple of days since I've even been on the computer, but it feels like weeks!

Basically we had a whirlwind weekend - did a lot of work and lot of play. It was partial home improvement time - took off all the molding/baseboards in the bedroom, sanded, scraped, etc., the walls and painted the base coat... Only people silly enough to get married outside in June in Tucson would be silly enough to move furniture and paint an upstairs bedroom in July in Tucson. Luckily(?) it was mostly cloudy/rainy so we weren't missing much outside, but there was still the humidity factor to deal with. After my workouts on Thursday & Friday morning, and adding heavy duty moving/painting to the mix, I was one sore puppy by Saturday night. We were totally pooped and asleep by 9:30-ish which meant no fireworks for us.

During the painting planning, the hubby & I had been talking about having a getaway as well this weekend. It was up in the air due to the weather and some cost issues, but we woke up on Sunday morning to a beautiful, clear blue sky and the hubby declared it perfect weather for a Snipe Hunt*!

Within a couple of hours, the car was loaded with camp gear, made a quick stop at the grocery store and headed up the mountain to a campground on Mt. Lemmon. The hubby had been needing some serious nature time and it was a fantastic time to escape the heat. We had a lovely time doing a bit of walking in the woods, hanging out by the lake, and just sitting around the camp fire doing nothing.

The fun of the weekend was added to and detracted from by the fact that it was an unofficial free rein fest in the eating and drinking area. It was nice because we kind of did as we wanted, and of course a camping requires the consumption of much "Snake Bite Repellent" - at least that's what my dad always told me... and there never were any snakes to be found when we went camping! It was nice to not really worry about the specifics - though I did keep with having some veggies/fruit during the day.

I did learn that I really can't 'graze' all day - I could never quite get my energy level/blood sugar level under control, and I never felt like I had eaten anything despite the nibbles here and there. By yesterday, I was seriously wanting for a 'real' meal and antsy to have my meals/snacks planned out and on my usual schedule.

But I have to say that the time away did wonders - being able to see the woodland creatures first hand instead of watching it on Animal Planet is fantastic. We had a couple of "camp" chipmunks, squirrels and a hummingbird that kept us company... stuff you can't get living in the city.

* en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snipe_hunt (We managed to catch a few but decided to release them back into the wild. Gotta preserve the population, ya know. ;)