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I think eating out everyday can be a bit much. I bet being with your family in Poland will be a nice change for many reasons. When DD was doing her semester abroad, some family friends living in London invited her to stay during one of her breaks. She remarked that it felt really nice to be in a house after so many months just in the dorm.

Yes time is a whole new concept retired. Weekends feel so different because I'm programmed to get all the things done quickly. No need now. Our season tickets for the Guthrie are Sunday evening. Last night, even though the parking ramp was backed up because one pay station was offline, no worries, no stress, no calculating what time we would get back, no deciding if I needed to pack my lunch for Monday before we left...

Speaking of theater, the production we saw of Cabaret just gutted me. It's always been a naughty romp, but also dark. They really leaned into the dark the 2nd half. The pain of the Jewish characters, the resignation of some of the Germans, the gleeful embrace of the Nazi movement by others... Most performances I've seen end with the reveal of the Emcee wearing a Star of David and a stripped prison suit. This one did too, but with the sound of doors slamming shut on cattle cars and shadowy people walking slowly in a line behind them. The Emcee, with shorn hair and prison suit in front trembling... Cabaret has shocked me, made me laugh, given me goose bumps , made me sad, but it's never made me cry before. These are troubling times. I'm still digesting what I saw.

Today we met a friend and her Mom at our coffee shop. Her Mom is 96 years old, and still so cognitively sharp. She grew up in the neighborhood, and told us about all of the things that used to be on that block, including the place she and her brothers would pull their wagon to to buy the ice block to go into their ice box. She was reminiscing about the street cars. One of the biggest civic tragedies of the Twin Cities. Up until the late 40s there was an extensive street car system that traversed the entire area. In Minneapolis, you could even transfer to a boat run by the street car system that would take you across Lake Minnetonka and you could hook up with the cars again on the other side. It all got ripped out for more modern transportation: busses. It's rumored the mob had connections for kick backs on the sale of busses, and they used their influence to help pu**** through. Now we're trying to rebuild light rail for billions of dollars, and the system is puny. So sad.

Today I got to talk to Social Security. I put in my application in March, and this week is when they had a question. My first check will come next month. I was surprised to learn they pay in arrears AND the week of your birthday is when you get your check. So even though I retired mid June, I earned more money the first part of the month than is allowed, so July had to be my retirement month, and will be paid in August. But not just August, the 4th Wednesday of August because my birthday is the last week of my birth month. So DH, who was born the first part of the month gets his check on the first Wednesday. It seems unfair. I will wait 2.5 months after retirement to get my first payment. DH worked until June 30, and got his first check the first week of August. So complicated. We're fine, but someone who lives paycheck to paycheck could really be slammed by this.

Tomorrow I get my haircut at 12. Since its an hour drive, I definitely won't get my workout in. My plan is to go do that now in about 30 minutes. Life is good.

124.1, exactly the same I was when we left for our weekend away. Glad to see no damage was done even with ice cream and more adult beverages than usual. My calories were pretty much kept in check. Going over only a little bit here and there. The biggest difference was my macros. Definitely more carbs and less protein. That should get back on track this week, even though DC and I made chocolate chip cookies today. The dough and a warm cookie are a draw for me but after that, they are a pretty easy pass.

DH and I had a nice walk this morning. 50 minutes at a 15:30 something pace. Felt good!

Costco run completed. Stocked up on meat for us and the dogs. They eat raw every morning - chicken, pork or beef. Pork is the cheapest but I try to vary it for them.

Grilling out burgers for dinner. I'm going to make the Big Mac salad for myself again! It was tasty!

Have fun in Poland Liz! Looking forward to more pictures!

Peps, I like the idea of taking Mondays as your rest day after a dog show weekend. Isn't sleeping in glorious? I stayed in bed until almost 8 today. Naps are awesome as well! Hope you have a nice visit with Dad and a good workout with the trainer!

Three hours of sleep last night. I was in bed for 8 hours but took 2 hours to fall asleep and I woke up 3 hours before it was time to get up. I got a lot of reading done...

SIL finally had a drain tube placed yesterday - they had to wait until the blood thinner had dropped in her blood. Hopefully that will help her improve. They said she needed to stay at least 3 days beyond the procedure.

The Sagrada Familia was beautiful yesterday. But we made the mistake of walking up to the Olympic Diving pool beforehand. It was all uphill and incredibly hot. I was sweating like crazy and we were on our feet from 11 am until 4 pm. That's a long time before sitting down. Dinner was at an Argentinian steak place last night. Decent food at a decent price. I had gotten a bit tired of Spanish tapas. Time to move onto Polish food LOL.

We leave mid-morning for the airport to fly to Warsaw, Poland. Eight more days of travel. I don't think I want to travel this long in the future unless we stay in one spot.

We will arrive in Poland in late afternoon and DH's DIL is picking us up. She is also apparently cooking dinner tonight. It will be nice not to go out.

Have a merry Monday!

I'm jealous that you can cook something at home. I know I complain about not liking to cook much but I'm ready to be home and making something. We had 2.5 weeks in Aruba eating out every night, then I was only home for 5 nights, then 3 weeks here in Europe eating out every night. It's a lot of eating out!

You always seem to a lot to do every day. Don't think you will ever be bored in retirement!

I didn't realize that travel insurance changed a lot after 75 (though I guess that makes sense from an actuarial standpoint) nor did I know some Advantage plans have foreign coverage (none I had looked at did). That's great that Minnesota is going to make it easier to switch. As you know deceased DH's Advantage plan ended up not being terribly advantageous when he was in his last couple of years and I couldn't switch him because of the dementia.

BTW, SIL DID buy travel insurance for this trip. Lucky her!