Where we've been, what we've been doing

Naturally, work (Mr. M-mv), our studies (the Misses and I), music lessons and practice (Mr. M-mv and the Misses), and archery class and practice (the Misses and I) demand large swathes of our calendar, but we've had time for other things.

■  The Misses took Mr. M-mv to the Volo Auto Museum for Father's Day. (They planned the adventure for a weekday in August to avoid crowds.)

■  We scored decent seats for one of the three games when the Yankees come to town next week, our birthday gift to Mr. M-mv. Go, Yankees!

Our favorite baseball-related story. Ever.

■ We saw Regina Taylor's Crowns at the Goodman Theatre last weekend (review here) and have tickets to see Three Sisters at the Steppenwolf (review here).

■ We've been riding quite a bit. I have logged 635.8 miles to date and am hoping to hit 700 by Labor Day.

■ Mr. M-mv and I reconnected with a younger version of ourselves and introduced the Misses to antique shopping. It had been (GASP! Can it really be?) twenty-two years since we last spent the day culling through other people's old treasures. The verdict? We both still love it, Miss M-mv(ii) thinks it's pretty awesome, and Miss M-mv(i) is somewhat appalled by the "clutter" that passes for a shop. Heh, heh, heh.We plan to ply her with chocolate before hitting some of the other antique "hot spots" in this and the next county over.

■ We've been stargazing more since the heat wave broke. (If you don't have it, get the Star Walk app for your iPad or iPhone. Now. It's terrific.) While we love the Dobsonian, Miss M-mv(ii) easily convinced us of the wisdom of getting a more portable scope. We chose the Celestron SkyProdigy 70 and accessory kit. One word: Awesome.

■ Winter swim season begins a month earlier this year than in years past because the team has made the leap from recreational league to USA Swimming club, so practice resumes in just over two weeks. Where did summer go, eh?

■  Planning our theater, symphony, and opera adventures for the 2012/2013 season kept us happily occupied off and on throughout the early part of this month.

■ When we have downtime, it's a fact: Television can be fun. I watched Season 4 of "Damages," and the Misses and I have been keeping up with our two programs, "Dance Moms" and "Project Runway."

■ We've been reading, of course. I added the excellent Tell the Wolves I'm Home (Carla Rifka Brunt) to my list and am currently reading Three Sisters (Anton Chekhov; with the Misses) and The Year of Learning Dangerously (Quinn Cummings; related article here). Mr. M-mv listens to a book a week (or more) on his commute and added Frankenstein (Mary Shelley) and The Island of Doctor Moreau (H.G. Wells) to his lineup to coincide with our studies. (In fact, having completed reading and discussing the former, we have the 1931 classic film lined up for this weekend's family film night.)

■  Yard work has been taking me -- and my Number One Outdoor Assistant, Miss M-mv(ii) -- about 70 to 90 minutes a week. When spring arrived six weeks early this year, we assumed our lawn service would, too. They did not, although they had hoped to, planned to, really wanted to. Hmph and piiffle. At some point, I stomped my foot, cancelled the service, bought a cool lawn mower and some other spiffy tools, and gave the yards my best shot. It looked better when I did it, and everyone thought it looked pretty durned awesome before. Because of the drought -- and the lawn's consequent retreat into dormancy -- I had about three weeks off, so this little experiment in domesticity may not accurately demonstrate what's required to keep the place looking this good, so, yes, I have two other services lined up if it ends up not being my cuppa next year.

What else? I'm sure I'm forgetting something. Well, in any event, the above (to say nothing of my increasing ambivalence about most things virtual) explains the dearth of posts here.