Muffins,Leaves, and Falls....the perfect day...

What a glorious day it was today! This past week was a typical work week, anxiously waiting for the weekend to come around again. Paul and I had no particular plans this weekend which we were both looking forward to as, the past few weekends we have had lots going on, which is nice as well, just sometimes you look forward to some downtime.

I woke up at the ass crack of daylight, which is my body's alarm clock now, since I start work at 7:30am, although during the week it's nearly impossible to get up, not today though! I was WIDE awake laying there listening to Paul snore. So I decided to get up and start the day with a nice early morning bike ride. Lola was running around the apartment like someone was chasing her, getting into everything and anything that could make a lot of noise at 7:45am, I swear she was trying to wake Paul and the neighbors up. I finally manage to get my bike out without creating much more commotion, and just rhode off into the brisk fall morning sunrise.

I ended up going a lot farther than I expected, towards Savoy, IL which is pretty far south of Champaign. There were very few people out at that hour of the morning. Then there like an old friend you haven't seen in a long time, was a coffee shop. It was no Starbucks but it would do in a pinch. I ducked in and got me a warm, Chocolatechip Pumkin Muffin and a water to counter balance. The water made me feel less guilty about squashing the benefits of my bike ride, and gave me much needed hydration. After that I made my way back home, only to find a note from my husband that he decided to go for a bike ride as well. It seems after I left about an hour later, Lola broke into the bedroom and started trying to wake him up, and he saw I was gone.

Once I got back home Paul decided we should bike to the grocery store to get a few things. As per usual we ended up buying more than we planned to. So I had my backpack loaded down, and another bag clipped in place on my shoulder, keep in mind it's about a 20 minute bike ride home, with a few mogul type areas. Paul's backpack was full, his crate on the back of bike was full, and he also had a back clipped to his shoulder. So we are unlocking our bikes and Paul was about to get on his bike which was too top heavy and it falls, then there is a lady who has the cool baskets I want for my bike, comes out and make a comment about how you really need to plan when you are taking your bike to the store, and says something how she always brings a backpack and her baskets when she knows she going to get a lot. You could hear the frustration in Paul's voice as he is trying to figure out how we are going to get home, and explains to her that I don't have the baskets yet. We made idol chit-chat, then she goes to ride off on her bike which is loaded down with groceries as well. Just as she is pulling away, her bike tips over, and her produce is rolling all over the place. She went down, fortunately not to hard, just hard enough to make me start laughing. I know it's terrible, but I can't help it! Whenever someone falls (including myself most of the time), I laugh, I was trying to hold it in, while I was trying to lift her bike off of her. Of course the more you hold it in the worse it is. By now Paul is giving me "the look", over his glasses, for laughing. We made sure she was alright collected all her stuff for her and she was fine.

Being the fall, the squirrels are in full force here, hoarding and collecting their harvest for the winter. They are everywhere! On our ride we saw a few casualties from cars, as they race across the street in front of you. Lola loves watching them scale the trees outside our windows. As we were on our ride they kept hiding behind car tires and then run out in front of you. So I started ringing my bell to scare them across before I get to close and can't do anything. Paul would laugh at me ringing my bell for squirrels, but I wasn't going to have one of those on my conscience or causing me to wreck. karma would have it, he was making fun and sure enough one darted right out in front of his bike, and they both just about got it! As you were saying?...lol. All in all it was a great day, riding through piles of leaves like we are five years old again.