5 on Friday

1. Love my new barbecue - we decided to go with a smaller one since it's usually just Vic and I at home. Last night's dinner of grilled asparagus, mushrooms, and steak was amazing.

Char-Broil Patio Bistro Infrared Gas Grill

2. Cleaning up my sidebar so I'm saying goodbye to a few badges - first, Blogging from A to Z April Challenge (2015) Survivor. Although I enjoyed the A to Z Challenge of posting everyday about my Washington theme, the challenge was overwhelming. There were over 1500+ bloggers participating and since not everyone followed the rule of posting their category (LI for Lifestyle was mine) along with their blog title, I found myself making the rounds to blogs in which I had absolutely no interest. I did, however, find a couple of bloggers whose blogs I enjoyed and I am thrilled to have gained a few new followers from the challenge. Will I participate again? I don't think so.

3. Secondly, Grow Your Blog 2015 - again, another rather large group of bloggers but they were separated into groups by number of followers which was nice because you could visit the lesser-followed blogs first to help them grow their readership. I also loved that our hostess, Vicki, asked everyone to "introduce yourself, tell us who you are and why your love to blog.  If your blog pertains to a specific interest or area - tell us all about that. In short - we would all like to know what drives you create your blog." Although I found that many of the blogs were crafty, I, as with the A to Z, found some blogs that I really enjoyed and a few found my blog interesting so it was a winner all around. Will I participate again? Maybe.

4. Graduations, Get Well, Sympathy, Happy Birthday - there's been a rash of occasions and events lately and I made a trip to Hallmark to restock my card supply. So nice to get a card in the mail when you're celebrating a special day, or need a cheery note when you're going through a tough time. Do you still send cards through the mail?

5. And finally, I'm saying goodbye to 5 on Friday. I noticed recently that the blog where I found the meme hasn't been updated since April so there's not much point in posting the badge with the link. I am having a hard time keeping 5 on Friday and Life Last Week separate and rather than keeping repeating myself and boring you all to tears, I'll just focus on Life Last Week.