Five Friday Things

Who would have thought it would be Labor Day already.  The weather around her certainly hasn't shown any evidence of cooling down. And around here, kids start school mid-august (crazy to this Virginia gal), so there's not a bunch of immediate changes in any direction this weekend. My goal is to hang around on the weekend enjoying the peace and quiet and hit a friend's barbecue Sunday:

1.  While I haven't done any money earning or cash back stuff to speak of this month, I have accumulated a bit of slush. My insurance carrier (Humana) gave me a fifty dollar gift card for having what they call a diabetic eye test (the one where you are either dilated or get the bright light computer version) and a twenty five dollar one for my most recent A1C blood test. I also have a fifty dollar gift card on the way for taking my Cologuard test, and a 25 dollar reward just for wearing my Fitbit and showing I exercised each month. Believe me, I will take it all. I also earned ten dollars from a survey app(I do surveys and questions on my phone sometimes when out on the swing with the dog) and forty dollars in gift cards for doing a one month trial of Hulu. This money will go in the travel/fun savings pile.

2. On Thursday my gals group went to a little wine bar for our happy hour. This little wine bar is actually in a house, and the back yard is a nice patio. We usually end up going to restaurants that have happy hour specials, because some of the gals make it their dinners and/or take the extras home to share with the other half. Wines, wine blends, a humus plate and a small cheese and cracker plate were enjoyed by all-and it's the first day in almost two months that was temperate enough for us to enjoy the patio! 

3. I didn't work out for two weeks while my recreation center was undergoing it's summer maintenance (didn't want to drive out to the others), so jumping in was a little slow this week. But I'm back in the groove and I did 1.9 miles on my cross trainer today-while watching and listening to a Great Courses Plus class on Food as Medicine.

4. I spent a half a day looking at various gift worth recipes including liqueurs and now have a plan to make raspberry, chocolate, cranberry and perhaps even salted caramel liqueurs for those family members who partake, because of course they have to steep and do their "thing" in jars for a couple months.  While fall does not inspire me to "cook" as such I do enjoy adding some baking and food gifts to my endeavours. And since I don't drink coffee, I may have to come up with a pumpkin spiced tea of some sort. 

5. Supposedly the Farmer's Almanac is talking about a polar vortex for everyone east of the Rockies. Since Denver is mainly temperate and goes between seventy degrees and thirty degrees I'm not concerned (although I have some post Christmas going south travel plans in the mix).  But we do get the winter darkness, more so than some folks more southern and as such I want to make sure I have plenty of stuff to read, craft and watch after a hard day of retirement socializing when the sun goes down at six or earlier. My watch list is 25 deep on both Amazon and Netflix including my courses and I will NEVER get to all of them, so not really concerned on that front. Since I've gone over to the dark side fully, all I have to do is download a book (free from the library or purchase) when I want to read it. So my primary stock ups include tea, hot chocolate and brandy-and enough craft items to get projects done in the winter and gifts. Although I tell you, it's hard to pick out bulky wool yarn for late fall and early winter when the average early fall temp right now is 94 for the next ten days.

Happy Labor Day, one and all!!