I went for a run early this morning, before it got too hot. Honestly, it was still too hot at 74 degrees.

After that I spent most of the day between the deck and the couch, reading hundreds of pages in a book I picked started yesterday. I was going to do other things, but instead I spent the afternoon reading. Which really, when you think about it, is a pretty relaxing way to spend Saturday.

Leki was extremely excited to see us when we arrived home last night. And this morning was no better. When I pulled out all of the wine I'd bought (a case in all, across 5 different wineries), he wouldn't leave anything alone.
The day was pretty relaxing. Lots of hanging out, reading, and some grilling. I tried cooking some Pillsbury dough on the grill, and it came out alright. It's nice being able to do that and avoid turning on the oven in this weather.

 
We started our slow meander back home by way of Leelanau Peninsula. The intent was to head up to the light house and state park at the tip and if we pass a winery or two on the way then maybe we'd stop.

Black Star Farms is right off the road going north, so we stopped there first. It was 10:30 in the morning, they'd just opened, and the guy hosting the tasting was pretty laid back. So laid back that I ended up trying 8 different wines with rather generous portions rather than the 5 I was supposed to get. It was totally worth stopping there. 
The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful and we were at the lighthouse in no time. The park was actually pretty busy for how far out you have to drive to actually get there. There were lots of children running around and young couples.We walked around for a bit and then headed back to find some lunch.
On our way back home we stopped at a few grocery stores. I really like Shelter Dairy's chocolate milk. Unfortunately every place we stopped was stocked just barely with white milk.

I'm sad I wasn't able to find the chocolate milk, but aside from that the day was a lot of fun.

We snagged a hotel room in Traverse City yesterday and then this morning got up early to catch a movie at the State Theatre. They were showing a matinee of Annie Hall, which Chris insisted for 25 cents was a good deal since I'd never seen it before.
Just seeing a Little Free Library in person (outside the State Theatre) was worth the trip. I've thought these were an awesome idea but this was the first time I'd actually run across one.
Once the movie was over (which wasn't bad, thought I really don't like Woody Allen in anything I've ever seen him in), we picked up lunch and then it was off to visit wineries on Old Mission Peninsula.

We stopped at my favorite location first - Peninsula Cellars. I really like their Hot Rod Cherry wine, but it's hard to find by us, so I picked up several bottles to take back home.
Chateau Chantal was next on our list of wineries. The whole thing is up on a hill, so you're able to look down at the vineyards, which is an awesome view.
We made a quick stop at Old Mission State Park, enjoyed the quiet beach, and hiked a trail.
Then it was time to head back into town for food. On our way back we hit 2 Lads Winery. I wasn't planning to stop at 2 Lads, but as we passed the sign I thought I should give it a try again. I'd only been there once before and I really didn't like it too much.

The whole feel of the winery still isn't my kind of thing (it's too modern), but the wine itself was just fine.
The last place we stopped at on our way back to town to get dinner was Hawthorne Vineyards, which I'd never been to before. I'm really glad we stopped there. The wines were nice and the tasting room had very large windows that let in a lot of light.

I have this week off from work and we had decided awhile back to visit Sleeping Bear Dunes. It's been a few years since we've been up to the area and the start of the visitor season seemed like a good time to visit.
The weather was much cooler at the dunes than back down near Grand Rapids, which was a nice break. It was also kind of neat to see fog on Lake Michigan.
Several of the trails we were going to hike were either closed, flooded, or under construction. So we finally ended up at the dune climb and decided to have a go at that instead. The last time I actually did the dune climb I was in high school and this time the area was much less crowded (and not as hot). So this was a nicer experience overall.

Today looked like it was going to be a warm one, so we headed out early to take a stroll around Millennium Park. There were already quite a few people around, enjoying the weather. Although the park wasn't nearly as packed as I thought it would have been.
Once it started to get warmer we hung out indoors, reading and relaxing. Leki spent a big chunk of the day insisting on being with us, no matter where went went.

It's a warm day. Much warmer than yesterday. And the heat makes me very sleepy...
There was some mid-afternoon napping on the couch with a certain rotund ginger I know. 

Women's dress pants have especially small pockets on them, and I do not carry a purse if I can help it.That meant when I upgraded to a new phone, I ended up with an issue. My old phone (Motorola Photon Q LTE) just barely fit in the pocket of my dress pants. My new Samsung phone is over half an inch taller, which means it doesn't fit at all in a few pairs of my pants.

I don't really want to walk around carrying the phone in my hand constantly. And I don't want to start carrying a purse if I don't have to. The only other solution I could think of was to enlarge my existing pockets. So that's what I did this afternoon.
I cut the pockets out of the pants I used for the mini-Indiana Jones satchel. Then I ripped out the bottom stitching in the existing pocket and attached the new pocket material.
I didn't end up with the prettiest stitching job, but since it's on the inside, you're not really going to see much. The most important part is that I can now put my phone in my pocket.

It's the start of a three day weekend and X-Men: Days of Future Past is out in theaters! Dave came by and as you can see, Leki was excited to see him. We ate some pizza...
...then we picked up Dan and headed out to the theater for some X-Men goodness!

Ok. Maybe it's not quite running when you're going as slow as I go. Still, I managed to do 20 minutes of straight jogging without having to stop, which is more than I've ever done in my life, even as a kid. My teenage years were spent reading, playing video games, and hanging out with friends, which is mostly what I still do as an adult.

Hooray for finishing the last day of week 5 on C25K. It wasn't as painful as the previous two sessions this week.

Now to go take a nap.

This month's crate was adventure-themed, which meant plenty of cute trinkets and an awesome Link t-shirt.

Because it's that time of year!

Comfort and Adam stayed overnight night so we could catch Godzilla Monday evening. Corinne joined us as well, which was cool. We don't see her very often and she's got an awesome sense of humor. Hooray for extra peoples!

Anyway, we headed to the mall to pick up an early dinner...
..then it was into the theater for some monster vs monster action!

Comfort and Adam stopped by late on Sunday to spend the night after Anime Central. Tomorrow - Godzilla!

Leki and I spent a lot of time hanging out together while I read. Eventually he moved onto the other couch for maximum stealth.
We took a nice long walk at a nearby park and I was pleasantly surprised to stumble across a few morels. I even ran into a mushroom hunter was super pumped that I was fine with him harvesting the few I found. I'll have to remember they grow around here the next time I'm in the mood for some in the spring.

You can barely seen the deer, but they're there. Running away after I interrupted their grazing.

Back to cloudy, rainy days. Cold, too.

Anime Central is this weekend, so Comfort and Adam stopped by on their way to Chicago. Dan came over and the 5 of us watched the season finales of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Arrow.

Its slowly getting cloudier, but it's not raining. I spent my lunch hour walking around downtown with some co-workers, taking advantage of decent weather.

I'm still plodding along the C25K program. I've completed 2 of the 3 runs for week 4, which is further than I made it the last time I tried running. There are 9 weeks total, so I still have a bit to go.

I am slowly building up endurance. I don't move very fast, but I am able to at least jog for 5 minutes at a stretch. The end of next week is a whole full 20 minutes of jogging, so that's going to be interesting.

My knee does still bother me, but I do a lot more stretching and never, ever sit on it and rarely cross my legs anymore. Those are my preferred ways to sit around, but it's certainly seemed to help and the pain is minimal now. Progress!

 We headed over to my parent's house for Mother's Day this year.
 The weather was beautiful. Dayzee even sunbathed a bit.
And we all spent some time in the backyard just enjoying the weather and hanging out (with smartphones, of course).

I was going to be productive today. I was just going to read a little bit and then go run, clean, and do other things.

Instead 4pm hit and I was still reading my book, almost done.

Finishing a book is productive, right? I thought so.

This is how I'd love to spend my Friday.

I walked around downtown Grand Rapids on my lunch with a co-worker and she showed me the fish ladder that she and a bunch of other work people check out. I had no idea this thing was downtown. It's awesome!

It's always nice to see the vibrant green coming up and covering all of the bleh from the winter.

I turned around for just a few minutes and the cat chewed through my favorite headphones. Nooooooo!

A random assortment of stickers I ordered from Woot! arrived today. Hooray!

We drove out to Lansing and met Comfort and Adam half way to watch the cheesy Spider-Man 2 movie. You know, it was a lot better than I thought it was going to be (still cheesy though).
After the movie we caught a bite to eat and talked about their recent convention, C2E2, and other randomness.

Huzzah!