You know what shouldn’t be allowed? Eighty degrees before 6am. Hell, eighty degrees before 9am. The only reason I’m getting up this early (5:15 today) is so I can run in the cooler temperatures before the sun comes up. Sure, 80 degrees is not as hot as our high of 102 yesterday, but I’d hardly call it cooler, especially not when I’ll be warming up while running anyway. Back in the AC I go.
I wore the dogs out today. We went for a two-mile walk around mid-morning and they came inside acting like I’d asked them to run a marathon, and this evening I brought them to the block party where John’s band was playing. Roxy laid down at the end of her leash and pretended we weren’t there, as usual, but Riley got a little nervous and spent the whole time trying to crawl into my lap. While drooling. He was mostly okay as long as I had my hands on him, but heaven forbid I let go so I could clap for the band (who did really well – John was awesome during “All Along the Watchtower”).
We’ve never really made a big deal out of the 4th of July. I think we’re too lazy. A couple or three years ago, we had some people over and played with sparklers, but that hardly took any effort. Last year, we tagged along with other people’s plans and spent the afternoon at the pool and watched the fireworks in Falls Church (really good fireworks). This year we had tentative plans to do that again, but then the band got a gig, and that ended up taking up pretty much the whole day.
Tomorrow will be all about trying to keep cool. It’s supposed to get ridiculously hot, but I don’t have to do anything that’ll keep me outside. I think I can safely skip running.
I thought something I had planned for July was actually happening in June, and I was getting John all annoyed about it because it would have happened tomorrow (Saturday), and I’d be gone for the whole day right after coming home for the first time in two weeks. And while we were talking about it (two days ago), I realized it might actually be scheduled for a Saturday in July, but I couldn’t be sure…. I checked, and yes, it’s not until July, and yes, I can’t tell one month from the next. But that means we can both sleep away the whole weekend, and that kind of rest is something we could both really use. John got in last Sunday night from Rhode Island and has worked almost nonstop since then. His mother and youngest sister stayed a couple of nights earlier in the week (college visits), so when he got home from the airport, he spent a few hours furiously cleaning the house from top to bottom. Several days later (now that I’m home to see it), it still looks good. Having your mother come to stay is a powerful motivator. I have the same reaction to visits from both sets of parents.
Anyway, we have deliberate plans to do nothing this weekend. I could see myself going for an early morning run, but only if I happen to wake up early enough (’cause it’s HOT here). We might try to get rid of some of the crap in the basement, but that might take too much effort. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.
For real. It was sunny all day long (I was able to run outside this morning), but I spent some time working in my hotel room after I got back from work today, and now that I’m ready to go out and explore, it’s raining again. Like pouring down rain. Lots of water is falling from the sky, really fast. So I’ve given up and ordered food to be delivered. It’s my last night, but I’m doing a repeat of my trip home from North Carolina and getting up at 3:30 in the morning so I can make it to the airport on time for my stupidly early flight home. So I’m okay with staying in.
I did get to see a little bit of Duluth. I found a jogging path that goes right along the lake, and I ran across Duluth’s aerial lift bridge (while it was down, of course).
So that was neat. I guess. I’m sorry. I have NO enthusiasm for this town and I’m going to stop apologizing for it. I don’t have to like every place I go. I do feel like I did my part in supporting local businesses, though. Today, anyway. I had breakfast at the New London Cafe, which was adorably cute. (Yes, you read that right. It wasn’t just adorable, not just cute, but adorably cute.) I wish I’d been able to get there for lunch, but I didn’t have enough time. I liked them so much that I just went to their website and sent them a message. ‘Cause I’m nice like that. On my way home from work, I stopped at this used bookstore I’d been driving by every day. I tried to resist, but I failed. And come on – how could I not check it out? It’s a pretty good little store with crazy-low prices, made even lower by the girl who rang me up. According to the signs, I should have been paying between $1 and $2 for each of the two books I was buying, but she said she’s allowed to do her own pricing and she was WAY too excited about that. She was clearly still in high school, very young, and she’s working there for free, and then she only charged me $1.08. For both books. She said it was accurate, so I didn’t complain. And then she said I had to go this bakery just down the street ’cause at the end of the day, they sell cookies and muffins and things at a major discount. She didn’t have to tell me twice. They had a poppy seed muffin, which is good enough for me, but it was filled with custard, and that makes it heavenly. 🙂 So I got one (and a cookie) for the jaw-droppingly low price of 93 cents. How do these places stay in business? Does it cost that little to live here? My breakfast (two eggs over easy on toast) was only $3.03. I think I may have overstated when I said I supported local businesses today.
I was so excited. I actually walked to dinner tonight. I guess technically I walked to dinner last night, too, but only to the lobby. Tonight, I walked four whole blocks. Outside! And I stayed dry! Seriously, though, a guy at work said they’ve only had two sunny days in the last two weeks, possibly more. Of course, the weather could be more like it is at home – dry (John says our lawn is dying), humid, and HOT. I can’t say I’m really looking forward to that weather. But I’ll be HOME.
Dinner was really good. Better than last night. I went to Va Bene. My waiter was great, and my table had the BEST view. I was right at the lakeside edge of their back deck. Still inside, but with an uninterrupted view of Lake Superior and all the sailboats. Really nice. If you ever find yourself in Duluth, I can recommend that restaurant. The forecast says it’s supposed to be sunny tomorrow (it said that about today, too, but I’m still hopeful), so tomorrow evening I may venture farther afield (further afield? They both look really weird to me right now.).
The early bedtime followed by early exercise worked for me last night and today, so that’s my plan for tonight and tomorrow, too. See ya!
I feel so much better today. For now. I went to bed early and set my alarm for 4:50. I slept mostly okay (weird dream that turned into a horrible nightmare (with people chasing me and trying to kill me) around 4am) and wasn’t too shocked when the alarm went off that early. I took my time getting up, reading a little to wake my eyes up, and then I got dressed to go for a run. I already knew I was heading to the fitness center (it was still dark out, and I’m not running in a strange place in the dark), but when I opened the door, I found out it was raining. Pretty steadily. I dashed across the courtyard area to get to the little fitness room. I don’t really like treadmills, but that’s what I had to work with, so I set it up to go for 30 minutes and I turned on the little TV that was attached to it. I had headphones, but I couldn’t find a jack on the stupid thing, so I watched TV (an episode of Married With Children) and tried to read lips for half an hour.
About halfway through my workout, the thunder and lightning started, and the rain switched from steady to POURING. Like the clouds were hurling all that rain down as hard as they could. I was soaked after my dash back to the room. Rain like that doesn’t usually stick around for long, but it was still raining as hard or harder when I splashed through the parking lot to my car to get to work. I have to park about a block away from the building (at work, not at the hotel), so I stopped at my friendly neighborhood Kroger and bought a tiny little red umbrella. You know what that means. By the time I parked in the lot downtown, the rain had slowed to a sprinkle and I hardly needed the umbrella. If I hadn’t bought it, though, it would have been pouring still.
My point, if I had one, is that despite the soaking wet hem of my pants, and despite knowing that I don’t get to go home until NEXT Friday, I feel a little better because I RAN this morning. (“SO much better” from the first paragraph has already been downgraded.) Also, I get to see Mom, Dad, and Gaby tonight. They’re stopping here to see me on their way back to KY. AND (see? lots of good things today) my first couple of hours at work this morning have already been a vast improvement over the rest of this week ’cause I’m sitting down and I’ve only had to talk to two people. Sitting down is crucial.
Make that five people. Still better than the rest of the week, and I have a built-in, supervisor-approved excuse so I don’t have to stay here all day. Yay!
I would still call DisneyWorld the happiest place on earth (me and fifteen trillion of my closest friends), but I think the Coke museum in Atlanta (now The World of Coca-Cola) is the happiest place in Georgia. (Ask me again after I go to the aquarium.) I love Coke. Me and Coke are buddies. We like to hang out.
My class got out a little earlier than expected, so I headed out of the windowless training room on the 9th floor (windowless, yes, but NOT in a basement – big improvement) hoping to go for a run. I got off the elevator to cloudy skies, but I was still hopeful. Cloudy just means it’ll be cooler without the sun beating down on me. Then I got outside. Raining. Hard. Annoyed. (Me, not the rain, although who knows?) Then I had a brilliant idea. I’m in Atlanta, it’s only 4pm, it’s raining, and I’m mere blocks away from a shrine to the only soft drink worthy of the name. So I went – by myself – and joined a tour group and spent a very enjoyable couple of hours looking at all the Coke stuff, watching the videos, watching a ton of Coke commercials, and tasting many (not nearly all) of the really disgusting Coke products they manage to sell around the world. On my way out (funneled, of course, through the gift shop, where I showed admirable restraint and did NOT buy myself a t-shirt), they handed me a Coke. 🙂
In sadder news, Roxy had a seizure this morning. John said it was a cluster seizure, and she was in the middle of it when he came back in from his morning run. Riley had done his holding her down thing, there was hair everywhere, and he’d slobbered all over her neck. (No blood.) John talked to our vet this afternoon, and she apparently jumped to the conclusion that the new medicine isn’t working and that Roxy needs an MRI (costs at least $1000 according to her (the vet, not Roxy)). I’m not sure why she (the vet) went there so quickly, though. Roxy’s only been on the new meds for a month and off the old meds for only three weeks, and in that time she’s had basically two episodes. That sounds pretty promising to me. So we’re going to ignore the vet for the time being. (That’s a strange phrase. Time being. I’m sure I’ve said it before, but I don’t think I’ve ever written it down. Looks too weird.)
It got late before I realized it, and I haven’t eaten dinner yet, so I’m out of here.
Updated to add Roxy’s second set of seizures for the day. Three this time. John may be leaving her with the vet for observation tomorrow, since he can’t stay home with her.
We’ve been watching the weather all day, looking forward to the thunderstorms, but the forecast kept pushing them later and later. It would have been nice to stay in while thunder boomed today. Now they’re not supposed to start until after ten. And since that’s past my bedtime, it looks like I’ll miss them.
All of a sudden, I’m nervous about tomorrow. I don’t know why; tomorrow shouldn’t be any different than the last two Mondays. I have everything I need, and in fact, most of it is already in the car, so I’m not even in danger of leaving anything crucial at home. I don’t like this sense of general anxiety. Makes me nervous. ( 🙂 ) I might try some sort of meditation to get to sleep.
(Na na na na na) I have been checking things off my list left and right. I ran (check), and while it wasn’t easy (since it was the first time since after work on Tuesday), it felt good to do it. It threatened to rain the whole time, but mostly held off until I got back. When I left the house, it was just starting, so I decided to only do two miles. After the first mile, it had slowed to just a couple of raindrops here and there, so I figured I could get away with four miles before the downpour started. At the end of the second mile, I had to the make the five-mile decision, and since the rain had stopped altogether by then, I decided to chance it. At the end of the next mile (the one that made my four-mile run a five-mile run), I looked to the west, decided that the low grey clouds didn’t look that threatening, and took a left to add the one additional mile that extended my run to six miles. As I came up the hill towards the house, those scattered raindrops began to band together, but within ten minutes, that fizzled out, too. Those clouds were all talk.
I did some light cleaning (check), went to the library (picked up a P.G. Wodehouse book to listen to) (check), went to the bank to deposit an expense check (check), went to the office for about 15 minutes (check), went to the pharmacy (not on my list, so no check), and made a quick stop at Wegman’s to pick up an easy dinner. The real grocery shopping can happen tomorrow. Oh, yeah, I’m doing laundry, too.
See how productive I can be?
By we, of course, I mean mostly John. After mowing the lawn (John), some light weeding (me), dog poop scooping (me), and then tying up a sagging bush (blame the three feet of snow that sat on top of it for a month) with neon yellow string (mostly John), John decided that today was the day to somehow attach these extra pieces of latticework (or trellis? not sure what you’d call it) to the corner of the deck. In the morning, we’ll have a little shade. I haven’t figured out what to do about late afternoon. I took pictures! I forgot to take a before picture, but here’s one when we were two-thirds of the way done.
Actually, here’s a before picture, no trellis yet, with John hard at work doing…something. On a ladder.
And here’s the finished product. From the yard…
…and from the deck.
Since I had my camera out, I figured I’d take some pictures of the yard when it’s at its best. And the dogs. So here’s most of the backyard, with my flower bed in need of mulching. Maybe next weekend.
Here’s the rose bush that’s trying to take over the deck.
Technically, that’s two rose bushes. Here are few pictures of the dogs taking advantage of the shade.
It’s breezy and the wind chimes are…chiming, I guess, and we could hear them clearly if the windows were open, but did you see how high the pollen count was today? My car is covered, and even though I was outside most of the day, there’s no way I’m letting clouds of pollen get into the house.
Most of the day got away from us, but all the chores are done (minus the grocery shopping) and John asked for two hours to himself so he can concentrate on his project for school before we settle in with dinner and maybe a movie. He’ll have to spend much of tomorrow on his project, too, but at least he’ll have done something today, and he won’t have to worry about the lawn and stuff. And tomorrow morning, we can catch up on the four hours of Lost we have saved on the DVR. Hopefully, the rest of my weekend will include nothing more taxing than a morning run tomorrow, catching up on TV, lots of Internet time (I have to get my fix in on the weekends, now that I know what my weeks at work look like), a trip to Wegman’s (hardly a chore), and some play time outside with the dogs. Maybe at the dog park.
For now, I need a shower. And comfy clothes. And I’m in for the night. Oh, one more thing for tomorrow – set up a couple of lunch dates with a couple of friends.
You know, I didn’t run 10 miles today, but I’m completely exhausted. Getting up at 5:20 on a Sunday morning is not natural. It’s evil. But it was a good day. Beautiful morning, once the sun came up. John did great, beating his time from the Army 10-miler by 4 minutes. Come back tomorrow for more about today, including pictures. Going to bed now.
This is getting to be a habit. The short posts on Saturdays, I mean. We had a nice leisurely morning. I ran six miles (takes me forever to do that) while John mowed the lawn. I got back in time to help him pull up dandelions in the front yard. Ate a quick breakfast, took a quick shower, and then we went to DC to pick up his race packet and have lunch. DC was mobbed, of course, since it’s the weekend of the Cherry Blossom Festival, but we got a good parking space on the south side of the Mall, right at 12th St. And then realized we had to walk to 4th and F to pick up the race packet. Not the best planning. Had lunch at Elephant and Castle (mobbed for lunch even though it was 2:30), and then headed home. It was much later than we planned, but I guess that’s how it goes. I went to Costco to pick up Roxy’s medicine and then bought new shoes from the Naturalizer outlet nearby. I might still check out Nordstrom’s tomorrow since they carry Dansko and Sofft. The Clarks outlet was disappointing.
A recap of my day is not the most exciting reading, but it’s all I can think of at the moment. I’m tired and we’re getting up at 5:20 tomorrow morning. I’m going to bed.
Oh, the cherry blossoms are all gone. Not out here (there are lots of cherry trees still blooming around here), but in DC, they’re all green now. I’m sure that’s a huge disappointment to the thousands of tourists in town this weekend. It was a beautiful day, though, and DC looks great in spring. The sky was almost a September blue.
This is a problem. But I need to get it out of my system. Feel free to skip this post. EVERYTHING SUCKS. That’s a little harsh. LOTS OF THINGS SUCK. I have to get up absurdly early (5am is absurdly early) to get to work, where I have to stand all day in dress shoes (I’m going shopping this weekend for better shoes), and the only time I have to run is in the evening, which sucks both because I ache from standing all day and because it’s been unseasonably warm these last few days, and running in the heat is NO FUN. The weather will cool off around Friday, so I have that to look forward to. But I didn’t get home until after 6, and I didn’t get back from my run until almost 8, so we only just finished dinner (it’s 8:45), and it’s basically time for me to go to bed (after I shower) so I can get up at 5am tomorrow and do it all over again. THIS SUCKS. And the alternative to the DC commute thing is to be out of town for weeks and weeks on end. NOT OKAY.
There is one thing I can do to try to make things better, and that particular thing will start happening over the weekend. And next week. Soon. I just don’t expect change to happen quickly. UGH!
Well. I feel better. Thanks!
Thanks to this post at Three Word Chant! (punctuation theirs), I think I’ve found my new favorite place to go for a chuckle. Check this one out.
I found that link because I’m in the middle of organizing my bookmarks. Again. (And that means I have to go to every single bookmarked site to see if I want to keep it.) When I organized them last time, I put all the blogs I read in one folder, in alphabetical order. When I have free time, I go through the list in order. But I’ve had so little free time lately that I haven’t been getting far down the list, and I’ve inadvertently been missing some of the sites I used to read daily just because their names start with letters in the second half of the alphabet. Then I feel bad for neglecting them because that reminds me of always being stuck at the back of the line (for lunch, for assemblies, for field trips) in the elementary school because my last name started with an S. Now my last name starts with a B, but that hardly matters ’cause no one asks us to line up in alphabetical order anymore. Anyway, I’m over that, but I don’t want to treat my favorite blogs the same way. So now, my favorites are in a Daily Blog folder, separate from the rest. Yes, I play favorites. And I need to update my blogroll, but that will have to happen on a day that’s not so beautiful. Because why am I inside? It’s gorgeous out there!
I have to shower (ran six miles this morning – go me!) and then go to the library. I need books on CD for my super-long commute (now that I’m not carpooling anymore).
Also, I am totally losing my mind. There was something else I planned to write about, but I have NO idea what it was.
It was a beautiful spring today, all budding green trees and cherry blossoms, but by the time I got outside to enjoy it (and run), I was one big ache from standing all day. I can handle the talking all day (not much of a stretch for me, plus I drink lots of water), but standing ALL DAY LONG in heels (even low ones) makes me ache all over. The only shoes I want to be wearing for that long, while standing, are my running shoes, and I think even that would get achy (ache-y?) after a while. So running this evening started out pretty rough.
The cops were out in force when I left work today. All the way down Constitution Ave, they were ticketing cars parking along the curb. (Parking there ends at 4pm for rush hour.) I saw one woman dash across six lanes of traffic, in the middle of a block, to plead with the officer writing her a ticket. For a second, I thought she had to be crazy to run across Constitution like that, with so many cars on the road, but then I realized rush hour is the best time to do it. We were all basically parked.
I spent a few minutes during my run this evening playing with a neighbor’s dogs. This neighbor lives at the opposite corner of the neighborhood from us, but I run by their house most days, and I’ve met their dogs a few times. Vader is the sweetest black lab. Adorably friendly, low energy, nice dog. Their other dog is an energetic yellow lab named Xena, who was the most adorable puppy. I know, they’re all adorable, but she really was. So when I went by, Vader met me at the top of the fence. He jumped up to reach me and licked every part of me he could reach (mostly my arms, but a few swipes of his tongue got my neck). Xena, though, proved herself to be the smartest dog I have ever met. She had a tennis ball in her mouth, and when she jumped up and put her paws on the fence, I reached for it so I could throw it for her. She pulled her head back and jumped on the fence, and then crouched down in the same spot, put the ball on the ground, and rolled it to me in between the slats in the picket fence. I picked it up, threw it, she fetched, and on her way back, she jumped on the fence again (kinda bounced off it) like she was marking the spot, dropped down, and rolled the ball out to me again. We did it over and over again until I decided I need to keep running. So smart!
And that reminded me of the little girls I met last week when I was running with the dogs. We were coming down the sidewalk towards a little girl and her dad, and when she saw Roxy and Riley, she ran behind a tree and told her dad she was scared. I slowed to a walk and reeled the dogs in, but as we got closer, she crept forward. I stopped and asked her if she wanted to meet them. She looked at her dad, who said it was okay, and she came over. She shied away from Riley (he’s way too big for little kids, even though he loves them (to EAT! (Except not really. The eating part. He does love them, and he’s pretty gentle.))) and went straight for Roxy. Now, Roxy doesn’t care about people as a rule, but she doesn’t mind being petted by kids, so she just stands there. Tolerating it. She’s the perfect size, though, so kids always want to pet her. It’s her destiny. Or her doom. Or, you know, just something she has to deal with.
I went outside today. For about 10 seconds. John is trying to figure out why the airbag light is coming on in his car, so I stepped out into the driveway to see how it was going. John said, “Um…” and pointed to the layer of pollen on the hood of the mustang. Point taken. I went back inside. I just finished the third Dresden Files book, and I’m probably going to pick up the 4th next. Mostly because I’m too lazy to put much thought into what I really want to read next. And because I don’t think I can concentrate very well on anything that isn’t brain candy. If I had another Dean Koontz novel, I’d probably read that, too. Instead. Whatever. I’m staying inside today, and maybe, if John loves me, he’ll bring me egg-drop soup.
It’s a beautiful warm wonderful spring day. And I’m afraid to go outside or open the window. The tree pollen count is high and I’m as congested as can be. My nose, my sinuses, my ears, my throat…can I get replacement, non-defective parts for every part of me above the shoulders? I’ve taken a steamy bath, I’ve tried a neti pot (which wasn’t so bad, but didn’t help), and I’m already taking my medicine. I’m trying Tylenol Cold on top of that.
I had plans today. I was going to run, walk the dogs, take them to the dog park…not happening. John is cleaning out the garage. I’m working on being a little less miserable.
Who likes to get to work early and then work late? I do! (Brown noser.) And my throat hurts. I’m pretty certain I can blame this on allergies and the change in the weather. But it SUCKS. So much. And even when the ibuprofen is working and my throat only hurts a tiny bit, it hurts a lot when I sneeze.
Enough of that. I spent about half of today reminding myself that it wasn’t Friday. I thought yesterday was Thursday, too. But tomorrow really IS Friday, and that’s nothing but good. John is running the error checking/scanning thing I couldn’t find the other day on my poor broken laptop, but it looks like it froze in the middle of it. So much for that.
(My throat hurts when I yawn. What’s up with that?)
I have nothing internet-y to share with you today. I’m sorry. What with getting to work early and then staying late (and actually working the whole time) and then making dinner and spending some quality TV time with John, I haven’t had time to play on the good old interwebs today. My plan for the next 12 hours is to take my medicine, go to bed with water and ibuprofen nearby, prop myself up on several pillows, and hopefully wake up tomorrow morning with a relatively clear head and non-scratchy throat so I can run. It’s been several days. Oh, the humidifier. Can’t forget to set up the humidifier.
Good news! Tomorrow’s pollen forecast is low. Hope it stays that way. I don’t want to have another of those springs.
The produce guy at Wegman’s praised my apple-choosing skills today. Good to know I have a fallback if my current job doesn’t work out. I’m not sure where, other than the produce section of a grocery store, I can market this new-found skill o’ mine. I also noticed that finally, as of yesterday, there is NO MORE SNOW in the front yard. It’s mid-March – if it snows again (this season), I’m moving south.
I finished Run today. Loved it. I think I’m going to head for something lighter next, like maybe the next book in The Dresden Files series. Mindy is using my book list (see Books and Movies in the sidebar) for inspiration so she can take a break from her school reading. That makes me very happy.
Daylight Saving Time started today, but it’ll probably be Tuesday before I’m used to it. It’s almost nine, and I should be thinking about getting ready for bed (I plan to get up early and run, if it’s not raining), but it doesn’t feel nearly that late and I’m not remotely tired. Those tiny insignificant issues aside, I’m thrilled about the time change. I need more hours of daylight.
It’s been raining off and on all day (mostly on), so during a break this afternoon, I let the dogs out to play. They were amusing themselves, sniffing around, eating dirt, and I went back to my book. A little later I realized I was hearing rain hit the windows pretty hard and I remembered the dogs were still outside. I rushed over to the sliding glass doors and found two soggy dogs huddled up against the door, trying to get under the overhang. Adorable. They’re in now, mostly dry, and being a little clingy.
I’ve already shelved my new books (I had to move about a shelf’s worth of books all over the house, one shelf at a time), and now I’m relaxing. I think John just gave up on his projects for the day, so we’re going to cuddle up and watch TV. And skip dinner. We had a big lunch with Jess and Chuck after the book sale.