Blue Door

My two favorite things about England were the signs, which I shared here and here, and the blue doors. I kept saying that when I got home I was going to paint my door blue. Well, it took eleven months but I finally have my blue door. And I love it! What do you think? In the past two weeks our house has gone from a red roof, red shutters, and a red door to a charcoal roof, black shutters, and a blue door. It looks like a completely different house. Amazing what a few color changes can do.

In other news. I have been trying to get in shape this summer. Mostly I have been riding my bike on the Riverwalk. However, yesterday we tried something new. Paddle boarding! I was very nervous about falling into the river, especially since a body was just pulled out earlier in the week. Yuck! Everyone assured me that I wouldn't fall in. For me, paddle boarding was like running in a nightmare: working very hard and going about 3 inches. It took about 45 minutes to paddle from Ross's Landing up to Veteran's Bridge and then about 15 minutes to get back down again. Everyone else in the group (Eric, Madeleine, Caleb, and one of Madeleine's friends visiting for the weekend) went a lot faster than me. I was feeling pretty successful by the time I got back to Ross's Landing. Then I had to get out of the water. Oops! I knew I would fall in! Fortunately I didn't hit my head on the concrete landing or anything and I got back up on the board and somehow managed to flop onto dry land. All in all it was a good trip. I would like to do it more often to get my arms toned up. However, we had a freebie (as a "thank you" for carpooling the owner's son during rowing) and I can't afford to go all the time.