Cheesecake and Lasagna

I woke Saturday morning sometime around 730am as if on queue. It seems, with few exceptions, that I always wake at just about 730 on Saturday’s. however, I had risen around 5am for long enough to take two Advil as more of a precautionary thing. Too, I had slept in my contacts as a result of being to lazy to take them out the night prior. Anyone who has ever left their contacts in overnight knows just how good it feels to sleep in those babies! I put some eye drops in before exercising to try and relieve some of the dryness and milky white film that seems to cover them. It worked only marginally. I went about my morning work out routine and then escaped outdoors for my morning prowl with Ykraps, and crap he did! The morning sky was again very beautiful. I took my camera along to get some different views of the remaining fall color. Ykraps insisted that I take a pic of him peeing on the fire hydrant (he was just posing – he wasn’t really peeing)! Once back home I couldn’t wait to taste my first cup of coffee. Nothing is quite as good as the first cup of coffee on a Saturday morning. It just reeks of relaxation! I spent the next hour or so puttering around the house before taking off on my run. As I recall, I hit the road sometime after 945am. I finally changed the music line-up in my MP3 player. I had the same 50 songs on their since I bought it last April. Needless to say, I ran with music in my ears. Once back home I had to decide which of several tasks I would try to complete before my princess arrived. There was simply no way I would be able to complete them all in the next hour. That would’ve required another two hours. I had three directions I could’ve gone. First, I could've gone to Home Depot and Kroger to pick-up a new mailbox, red leaf lettuce, and flowers, or stay home a prep the cheese cake I planned to make, or lastly, finish my household chores, like vacuuming, laundry, and scrubbing my shower. I opted for the household chores. Something told me that I’d feel less stressed knowing my chores were done. And besides, I already had one gift for Mindy (her new shirt!), and we could pick up the lettuce on our way home from our afternoon adventure. The cheesecake prep could be put off until dinner prep, and the mail box replacement until tomorrow. Mindy showed up somewhere between 1130 and 12noon. We spent just a little time looking at some pics from the night before and catching up. Too, I gave her the shirt I had bought for her. She loved it and decided to wear it that afternoon instead of what she had on. As expected, she filled it out nicely! By 1230pm, we were on our way. Our first stop was to Pleasant Cemetery where her dad is buried. It’s located in the small town of Era, which is just this side of Mt Sterling off of Rt 62. What a beautiful drive out Norton Rd, Rt 62 through Darbydale, Harrisburg, and Orient. I hadn’t driven out 62 in probably 15 or 20 years. We spent about 30 minutes at the cemetery. Many of her Mom and Dad’s family members are buried there. Mindy generally goes there alone. We took some tasteful pics of the tomb stones and then were off on the second leg of our journey. Our next stop was Battelle Darby Creek Park. We were excited about another opportunity to hike in nature together. I haven’t been to Darby Creek since my girls were very small. I used to take them out there to swing and play. We never did hike the trails. Are you kidding me? I would’ve been carrying Ashley for certain. One of her favorite lines was, “carry me”! Anyway, the weather was perfect for a hike. We were blessed with temps in the 60’s and partly sunny skies. Mindy reports coming here often and used to spend lots of her free time hiking the trails. We spent the next 2 hours hiking along Darby Creek. We took the trails that were less traveled, and very close to the creek's bank. We had a very nice time and shared lots of one on one conversation. It was very relaxing! We got back to our vehicle just in time for the Buckeye game kick-off. It was almost as if we had planned it that way. We didn’t but it was nice to hear the opening kick-off. On our way back to my house we stopped at the new Kroger on West Broad St. just west of New Rome, at the Alton Darby Road intersection. What a nice Kroger it is; one of the nicest in town. We picked up the Red Leaf lettuce we needed for salad and some chocolate buckeyes, a favorite of Mindy’s. We were back at my house by 420pm. I immediately began prepping the cheesecake I had planned to make for dessert. As soon as that was in the oven we began making the lasagna. We had kicked around the idea of heading to the gallery hop in the short north if we could finish dinner in time. But being the planner and organizer that I am, I knew that we stood little chance of being done anytime before 9pm. We weren’t. By the time we completely finished with dinner it was 9pm. We simply spent the rest of the evening enjoying each others company. http://www.metroparks.net/ParksBattelleDarbyCreek.aspx Stretched along more than 14 miles of the Big and Little Darby creeks, Battelle Darby Creek is the largest Metro Park with more than 6,000 acres of prairies, fields and forests. The Darby creeks are noted nationally for their tremendous diversity and abundance of both aquatic and terrestrial plants and animals. Designated state and national scenic rivers, Big and Little Darby Creek are home to 86 species of fish, five of which are endangered in Ohio. Forty-one species of freshwater mussels live in these waters, eight of which are on the Ohio endangered list. Metro Parks has restored about 200 acres of prairies using only seeds native to the Darby Plains. The entrance road to the Indian Ridge Picnic Area is a great place to enjoy the splendor of such beauties as purple coneflower, royal catchfly, prairie dock, big bluestem and other wildflowers and grasses. The park features more than 10 miles of trails and several scenic areas for picnicking.