Dog walking, a bit of tidying, and watching the Tour de France are about it for me today. Then Sinners later tonight downtown.

Which, by the way, if you want something engrossing, mostly very charming, and educational—and have ever had a passing interest in the Tour de France—definitely check out the Netflix series Unchained. Each season (season three just dropped) covers the prior year’s Tour with tons of clips and interviews with many of the leading riders, but also a lot of the underdogs, along with analysis of all the rivalries, triumphs, and defeats of the race. It’s so well done. You really get a good feel for who many of these guys are and their personalities and how that impacts the race. And watching the race is a whole different experience.

Definitely recommended as a palate cleanser from watching anything to do with [waves hands] all of that out there.

I did the dishes! Even the errant pots and pans and cutting boards.

Also, we cleaned the Guinea Pig cage, and by "we" I mean Matilda did 80% of the hard stuff and I took the soiled liners down to be washed. (Which is unpleasant enough - carrying armloads of urine soaked cloth down the back stairs etc.)

Also emptied the garbage can and put out the bins.

I need to vacuum and I have a stack of about four packages that need to get in the mail and I should start packing/addressing those so I can run to the P.O. tomorrow.

I've been trying to stick to a disciplined diet and no alcohol for a week or two after my birthday indulgences of cake and pizza and I've been good so far. Fortunately, Alembic has some great mocktails, including my current favorite which is Strawberry Shrub and ginger beer.

Food prep is done; it did not include tonight's dinner, so we're ordering Indian. Aloo saag for me and vegetable tandoori extravaganza (cauliflower, broccoli, potatoes, mushrooms, paneer) for Tim.

My (slightly more than) 2-week follow-up for my left-hand carpal tunnel surgery is tomorrow. I think I'm owed a refund because this hand doesn't seem very evil.

Well, now I'm going to make a tomato, corn and basil salad with a lemon vinaigrette.

I also made a tomato, basil topping for my sourdough bread using up the vinaigrette from earlier. Also yum.

I wasn't hungry, but now.

Well done with the super productive housework day, Hec.

I burned stuff for about 6 hours, and now I am cleaned up and ready to go next door for cocktails. I have purposely not purchased any wine in over a month, but have had a glass when eating out or with friends. Just not having the option at home makes a big difference.

I burned stuff for about 6 hours

That sounds so satisfying!

Dinner at my aunt's house with DH, cousin and her DH was lovely. A summer smorgasbord!

Last load of laundry is in dryer, but that one and the previous one I will fold and put away tomorrow; I'm done. Kitchen is all done, though!

Just finished the crossword, and now we're pretending like we're going to watch something but will both probably fall asleep during whatever it turns out to be. We watched The Bondsman with Kevin Bacon over the last week or so. Pretty entertaining.