Hike N' Shingles

Today was a blazingly hot day, but we had one objective: do our annual hike to the summit of Mt. Ascutney. I had some editing and two calls with China-based students in the morning, and we headed out after that. It was significantly cooler in the woods, and it was a lovely hike as always. Our plan to have ice cream from our favorite place for lunch was derailed when we found out the place is closed for the week, so we just went home and had ice cream from the freezer.

Andrew had a call with a former colleague this afternoon, so the girls and I went down to the pond. They had so much fun and were even swimming in the pond, not just on their floats--screaming bloody murder the whole time. There have been no turtle sightings this summer, though their pond time was punctuated by occasional screams of "I FELT SOMETHING!!!!"

A little while later, Andrew had an interview, and the girls read while I worked on an amigurumi wheel of brie. Then Andrew and the girls went for a cool, refreshing swim in our cousins' pool while I stayed home in my discomfort and contagiousness.

The meds continue to work on my shingles, and I trust they will speed up the healing. The deep, stabbing, nerve-level pain has significantly lessened. But the surfacy pain is worse right now, maybe because it's just so hot and humid inside and, you know, I have to actually wear a shirt. 

I made pasta with tomatoes and fresh mozzarella for dinner, then we sat around the fire. A lovely day, finally sunny. Note that the final picture shows Greta and Audrey giving me death-stares because I won't make another trip to Books-A-Million tomorrow.

Wildlife report: The dead snake Andrew found in the bushes yesterday appeared this morning at the bottom of the front stairs. Only half of the snake made that journey. Andrew doesn't remember seeing it when he took Farrah out this morning, and then he left Farrah out by herself for a little while, and now we're all wondering if our sweet, humanlike little doodle has eaten half a snake.