August 11, 2007: This morning the cats woke me at 5:00 am. I slowly awoke over the next hour and was able to jump out of bed with the 6:00 alarm. This, despite having stayed up till midnight again the night before.

By 6:30 I has mixing and kneading the sourdough loaf, and I set it to rise.

We all had karate this morning, then returned around 11:30. For lunch we had tuna, goat cheese, Triscuits, grapes and carrots--delicious and simple. I divided the sourdough into two loaves and set them to rise.

I did some sewing, but spent most of the afternoon visiting with a new mom while her daughter played with Shannon.

By 4:30 Sean and I got ready and took some friends out to a wonderful meal at a nice restaurant. Afterwards Sean and I picked out our new bikes--our birthday gifts to each other this summer. After we got them home, we rode our bikes around the block in the dark a couple of times, then ended the evening watching a movie together.

The bread took a long time for this last rising, and as it's now ready to bake, I'm baking it at 11:40 pm.