This is the Title of an Uncreative Violinist.:)

Since yesterday was my day off, I took advantage of the time to do what used to be my favorite thing to do: shopping!  The older I get, though, the crankier of a shopper I am.  Weird how I seemed to be a more avid shopper back when I was younger and more broke; I'm not swimming in cash or anything now, but definitely can shop if I want to.  But, somehow, it doesn't do it for me anymore. Anyway, I've been really wanting to spruce up my back patio for the longest time.  The last few summers I had bought small planters and various plants, only to neglect them or simply not realize that they wouldn't do well in the heat on their own, and watch them wither within a week or two.  So this spring, I pretty much did nothing.  My patio--besides the one tree and shrubs (that are now dying after several years of doing well)--is bare.  I go in there every so often to pull weeds, but that's about it. I was on the hunt for string lights are something to liven...

For someone whose last run was around 3 months ago, it was probably a tad ambitious of me to think I could crank out 6 + miles this morning...especially in this heat and humidity.  On top of which, my Garmin was being screwy--which made me mad, as I'm one of those people who simply can't enjoy a run without knowing exactly what her pace and mileage are-- and it just wasn't realistic of me to think I could do a long run on my first try in a long time.  So I did about 3 miles and called it quits.  I'm drenched. To beat the heat, I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and get up earlier (I am SO not a morning person) OR go for a night time run...which probably is not likely to happen.  Guess that just leaves getting up earlier! I've been behind on recipes, but here's what I made last night for dinner: Fresh Orange Pork Tenderloin Picture from the website...mine didn't look as vibrant, but still good! On Sunday, I didn't do much other tha...

I've been in a blogging rut as of late (what's new?) but still feel I should update a little: Coming back from vacation always sucks, but in our family there's always serious post-vacation blues for at least a good month or so.  That may explain my blogging 'blahs'. Since returning to teaching after my trip, I've had two students nearly faint during their lessons.  The first one I believe was just extremely stressed out; the second is a new student and I think she was scared during her lesson.  Uggghhh. Our yorkshire terrier, Zoe, scared us a little this week when she had a severe diarrhea spell for several days.  I actually had to take a day off and reschedule lessons in order to take her to the vet and be with her all day.  A huge pain...but she is alright now and all's well. We recently added a new member to our family: I haven't taken a picture of it yet, but this is exactly what it looks like. It's really Ryan's car.  I still driv...

Saturday morning, Ryan and I got up fairly early so we could go on our first hike up Mt. Snitkau near Breckenridge. Unfortunately, I had to miss my newly-married friend's farewell brunch in Boulder, but it's always a good idea to get an early start if you want to hike up a mountain! I brought a fleece to wear since it tends to get colder going up a mountain, but at some point, I peeled that thing off because I was working up a sweat!  We caught up with a pair of other hikers who had done the hike before, and we descended along their trail.  Saw a marmot (at this point, one of the only creatures I've seen in CO *sads*) but couldn't get a picture because it was too fast. Somewhere along the way down, I had to put my fleece on again because we had to cross patches of snow!  I slipped a few times, but each time I thought about whining over climbing down a mountain, I thought back to our climb on Mt. Elbert last summer, which is one of the highest mountains in Colorado....

I'm still in Colorado, but I thought I should try to write a recap of each day of our vacation while it's on my mind, so I don't forget any details (especially since the memory card on my camera was full and we could only get pictures of half the trip, unfortunately!).  If I can keep it up, I'll save each post for when I return and publish them one day at a time.  Since I've turned this blog private, the number of hits has gone down significantly, so I may be the only one reading (lol), but I still need this for my memory's sake. Last Thursday was when we arrived in Denver, CO for my college friend and roomate's wedding.  She had two separate ceremonies--the first in a Catholic church, the second in an outdoor setting at a farm--spread out over two days. Ryan and I both worked half days on Wednesday, the day before, because the only flight we could catch in time for the first ceremony Thursday afternoon was very early out of Indianapolis.  Fortunately, Ry...

Just checking in quickly from Aspen, CO!  We're on the tail end of our trip and will be checking out of our hotel tomorrow morning, probably walk around Aspen some more, and then fly out of here in the evening.  Back to reality--and to homely Columbus, OH--on Saturday. I'm currently writing recaps of each day and plan on publishing them sometime next week.  I started posting recaps of our trip on Facebook, but Ryan told me he thought it seemed obnoxious to post those details on FB.  I guess I know what he means...but seriously, what else would I post either here or on FB?  (No one wants to hear or read about the petty arguments we had on where to eat or what to do, or anything of that nature, right?)  So as a result, I only posted once or twice on our trip and I'll just summarize everything else on this blog. If it actually does seem obnoxious, my apologies!  I honestly don't know what else I'd write about, and truthfully, it really helps to record...