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I just love three day weekends!  With that one extra day it feels like so much more can be accomplished, in addition to some much needed relaxation.  I’m so thankful I was able to have it off.  I sure hope you guys had a nice fourth of July no matter what you were up to, working or otherwise.  There was much to celebrate and be thankful for with great food, fun times with friends, and our country’s independence . . .  

Saturday started out early at 4:30am with a nice 29-mile bike ride to kick of the start of the Tour de France!!! Can you see the sun coming up in my glasses?

ahhhh! I just love watching it. It makes it so much more invigorating when you are a cyclist yourself.  I am nowhere near their caliber of course, but it is still amazing to watch.  Those guys are friggin’ incredible and I wish I could look 1/2 as cool as they do.  And those mondo ginormous quads!  It is estimated that they burn 130,000 kcals (37lbs) during the Tour, which has to require some solid sports nutrition strategy.  Oh how I would love to see what they are eating!! I can’t believe all the crazy crashes that have been going on.  Scary stuff.  I sure hope tomorrow and those crazy cobblestones won’t cause even more devastating crashes. Have you been watching the Tour??

I admit that I ditched my swimming lessons because Chris wasn’t able to go and Kristen invited me to come hang out at the Rio Hotel Pool.  How could I resist?  We hung out by the pool for most of the day, chatting and people watching.  It was a lot of fun! I brought along the new CookingLight magazine to drool over all the lovely recipes 🙂

I ordered a non-alcoholic frozen lemonade and it was refreshing in the heat!

Sunday I was able to get a butt-load of wash and cleaning done.  Yay!!  I love the feeling of a clean house.  I know I’m a big dork, but I do!  The day flew by and pretty soon it was time to get ready and head to Kristen’s 4th of July Party hosted by her parents.  Boy, there is always a ton of great food and fun at her mom’s parties!

I have to admit also that I had a little too much fun with the blender and alcoholic beverages 🙂  I made this awesome meloncello cocktail that was such a hit that I made 2 batches.  I’m definitely going to make this one again.

Meloncello Cocktail

Serves: 6

• 3.5 cups seedless watermelon, cubed
• 3/4 cups limoncello (Italian lemon-flavored liquor)
• 1/3 cup coconut rum (I’m sure you could use plain)
• juice from one lemon
• 2 tsp sugar
• 2 cups crushed ice
• sugar and lemon for dressing the glasses

Note:  Make sure all ingredients are nice and cold before mixing.

Rub a lemon slice along each glass rim and then place in sugar to coat.  Blend the rest of the ingredients in a blender and pour into each glass.  Voila!

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I had 2 glasses + a small chocolate cake shot.  I also made sure to drink lots of water and had 3 bottles throughout the night.

Aside from the lovely beverages, I promise I did eat dinner!  There was so much food and snacks to choose from.  I must have been too busy in the bar area because I didn’t manage to visit this first table 😉

I didn’t want to go over board and settled on a few selections for dinner:  BBQ ribs, grilled chicken, green beans, asparagus, broccoli salad, pasta salad, and a wee bit of mac and cheese.  It was all delish!

After dancing around and chatting it up before the fireworks, I decided to stop avoiding the dessert table and grabbed one of these beauties that Kristen’s sister made. It was a decadent chocolate cookie stuffed with peanut butter in the center and topped with chocolate ganache!  I’d just call it pure heaven.

Oh boy, and then later I had to have a sample of this wonderfully creamy ladyfinger dessert that Kristen’s mom made + another 1/2 cookie.

Ok, enough indulgence for one night!  I sure had a blast though.  I made it home safe and sound, but didn’t get to bed until 12am, yikes.

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This morning I was able to sleep in till 8am, woop!  Thank you for that extra day!  I also managed to join Kristen for body pump and have been getting caught up.

I am not having luck with electronics lately.  My laptop is still in the process of being fixed for the 3rd time and I am sad to report that something is wrong with my Canon SLR camera’s autofocus.  For some reason it won’t focus and isn’t able to take pictures?  It has been fine for a little over a year and I hope it’s not something major.  I don’t really have another good camera, so this should be interesting.  I do have some backlogged recipes that I need to share.  Thanks for bearing with me!

5am spin in the am for me . . . have a wonderful week!

What were you up to for the fourth?