7.1 Miles and 106 Degrees in Hotlanta!

I'm so sick of hearing about the heat here! I am tired of seeing Facebook posts of people's car dash thermometers. Yes, it is hot! Yes, it is summer!! That being said, it was 106 degrees outside today.

I spent my morning outside on a long walk with 2 of my co-workers. We ended up walking 7.1 miles before it got REALLY hot. We started at about 10:30 this morning and we walked from a parking lot up to Kennesaw Mountain and then on the trails that go up the mountain. We stopped and turned around at 4-ish miles. There were a LOT of hills, so I was glad that we weren't jogging. When I checked the stats after getting home today, we averaged an 18 minute mile. That's actually HORRIBLE, but I didn't think it was too bad considering over 2/3rds of it was uphill! We made sure to have water with us, of course. We also saw 2 baby deer and (we think) their mother!! They were so cute! (Of course, I didn't have my camera, so I didn't get any pictures...shame on me!) They were also not afraid of us, so they didn't scurry off when we stopped to gawk at them. We were sweaty messes when it was all over and it was starting to get quite warm outside. (It was a little after noon).

After changing shirts and wiping off a bit, we went to a yummy Chinese restaurant in the Marietta Square called House of Lu. I haven't eaten there since before Shane and I were married, so it was quite a treat! I think the waiter was a little unhappy with me because I started with a glass of sweet tea, but it was too sweet, so I switched to Diet Coke (bad girl) and then I needed 3 refills during the course of our meal! I was SO thirsty, though. (And yes, I know that Diet Coke is not really thirst quenching, but actually a diuretic, I needed some flavor!) Then, we stopped by work where we purchased some water (Yay!) and picked up something I forgot the day before. (It was also where I had parked my car to meet them)

I stopped at the grocery store on the way home to pick up a few things we were out of and was leaving to come home when Shane called to tell me we didn't have any power at home. Right after that, a fire/rescue truck passed me and I can only assume that there was an accident which knocked out the power. I noticed that a few businesses along the way were also out of power and other houses in our neighborhood seemed to be out. Shane and I took the liberty of filling up the kids' swimming pool so that they wouldn't be bored and hot. I think they had a lot of fun!

The power was out for about 3 hours and the kids managed to enjoy playing with their imaginations/toys, so I'll call that a win! About the time that I was going to start working on our "family binder", the electricity came back on. (bummer) I have still refused to turn the TV on. We are having a "TV-free evening." I'm making pizza for dinner and when the kids go to bed, I am planning to load some books onto Jessica's Kindle and maybe shower and go to bed early. I have a sneaking suspicion that I will sleep really well tonight!

I finished Under A Vampire Moon the night before last. I was a great read. It was a little lighter than most of the other Argeanue novels. I'm still trying to decide what my next read will be, but I'm sure I'll pick something soon enough!