Monday. School week. Work week. It’s going to be tough to be original on weekdays. Even more so with daylight getting shorter and shorter.

Here’s today’s 365, a shot of Thing Two doing homework.

And today’s back update: I think I would have tried riding today if I didn’t have a full day of work. It was feeling good until just after lunchtime and then it started to get just a little tight.

Photo by H.

H spend the day at the Finger Lakes Fiber Arts and Crafts Festival. That’s in Hemlock, New York, in the Finger Lakes region.

Thing Two and I had a lazy day at home. She had Confirmation class. I sat on the couch, still nursing my back. I missed another beautiful day, a perfect day for a bike ride.

Typical Saturday: grocery shopping, quick trip to Lowes, nap on the couch, and new skis!

Thing Two still has a cold but is looking forward to going to her high school’s football game this evening.

My back is still sore but is improving, but not ready for a ride on this beautiful fall day (sunny, mid-60s).

Today’s photo by H.

The cats have their routines and we are settling into ours. Thing Two finished her second week of high school. She’s loving it; classes are going well and she’s planning on joining the cheerleading squad for the winter sports season.

H is still in a sort of training mode at work and not able to grab all the work she wants, whenever she wants. Hopefully soon tho.

My back is still sore and riding this weekend looks out of the question. Which is too bad because both days of the weekend are supposed to be nice.

Miles: 1397.2
Rides: 49

I am still hoping to get out a few more times and maybe even cracking the 1500 mile mark. With the sun setting earlier and earlier, after work rides might be out of the question, so I may have to hope for some nice weekends to do that.

Ands if the weather is bad, well, it’s apple pie season!

We used to keep the freezer well-stocked with peas for Thing One’s cross country and track and field seasons. When she left for St. Rose, we threw several bags in the garbage and kept just one. That one came in handy to ice a sore back, which got jarred last night when I slipped on one of the tiers in our backyard when I was grilling burgers. I could’ve used another bag, as the one didn’t cover much of the sore area.

Here in the northeast, you just never know when the last nice day for grilling will be. The days are getting shorter, temps are getting chilly at night, and any day the leaves will be noticably changing colors. Here I am keeping watch over the hamburgers, browsing the latest Nashbar catalog, and sipping a Saranac Adirondack Lager.

Thing One is doing a “365″ project on Flickr where she takes one portrait a day for 365 days. And she has to do a blog for a college course.

Niece G from Norwich is off to Spain for a semester in Europe. She’s blogging about it and posting pictures every so often.

So those two kiddos have inspired me to try to post more often here on BB&B. So I’m starting my own “365″ project, not on Flickr, but here. And I don’t intend to have all 365 pics be portraits, but just some picture to show what’s going on back on the home front to keep in touch with Thing One and all of the rest of the siblings, cuzzies, nieces, nephews, and friends.

Here’s my first 365 entry. Knitting work by H, hand modeling by Thing Two, and photography by yours truly.

And in keeping with one of the original themes of this blog, I baked a batch of Ma’s Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies this past weekend.

It’s not a lot for many bicyclists, but it is a rarity for me: I completed a 100 mile three-day weekend. And that’s my first time riding three days in a row this year.

The big ride was this 50 miler on Saturday morning. That afternoon, wife H, Thing Two, and I went to Ithaca to do a little shopping and to eat dinner at the Boatyard Grill on the shore of Cayuga Lake. Go there!

Also spent a very enjoyable day at Beaver Lake with parents and friends from Thing One and Thing Two’s gymnastics days.