I was out for 9 this morning. I had this odd encounter as I was finishing my second loop. This guy reverses direction and starts running around the lake clockwise, like me.
guy: So are you training for Grandma's?
me: [thinking do I totally bust him and say, you mean the marathon in June? but apparently, either my mom raised me right or I'm completely Minnesotan now so I say:] Uh, no, I'm doing this marathon in Wisconsin in October.
guy: This October?
me: Yeah.
guy: So you always run in the morning...?
me: Yeah.
guy: How much are you running?
me: Well, 9 this morning, but 55 miles this week.
guy: And you've been running all summer. Wow.
me: Yeah, uh I think I'm running 11s next week.
guy: So not like 15 miles or something like that.
me: No, not in the morning before work.
guy: Well, you certainly look like you know what you're doing.
me: I hope I do, I'd hate to crash and burn.
[we come up to the turn off to my street]
guy: You'll do fine, you must really like running.
me: Well, it's something to do.
guy: I've never thought of it like that before. So this is where you head home.
me: Yeah, have a good run.
guy: Good luck on your marathon.
So, I wasn't creeped out or anything; it was light by this time and there were other people around, and even after 9 miles I'm pretty sure I could have outrun him. But the way in which this guy said some things made it sound like he's been watching me, which does sort of creep me out. But maybe he was just a clueless newbie and I'm bound by running ethics to impart any knowledge I have, unless of course it slows me down. And I've got to say that I would be the worst eyewitness ever. What did the guy look like? I dunno. White guy, 35-45, taller than me, shorter than my boys, he had on a blue shirt. I think his hair was short. Good info.
It was weird for several reasons. The runners in my 'hood wave or say g'morning. That's the way we do it. No one has ever talked to me before on a run (except people I've actually planned to run with). Oh, I take that back. There was one guy on the Gateway one Saturday morning. We were both going the same direction and we chatted for about a mile until he turned off (which was good because he was a little too fast for me). Certainly no one's ever turned around and started running with me and attempted conversation. Weird.
In other running news, little boy had a cross country meet yesterday. He ran a 19:13 5K, which was a 17 second PR over the race he ran last week. The race was really exciting (for me) because at the halfway point turn around, little boy was leading the pack! He ended up finishing fifth. He was fast enough to qualify for varsity, so at his next meet, he'll be running with the big boys.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
And then there were three
Big Boy left yesterday for college. Yes, it was sort of sudden and unexpected and last minute. I'd been planning to drive him down over the long weekend with all of his stuff, but when he finally got around to figuring out when/how to register for classes, it turned out that the only time available was TODAY at 11:30am. He told me this yesterday at 10:35am. I checked the megabus website, of course they only have one bus a day and it'd already left. Then greyhound, which claimed it had a bus leaving at 11:15am and that was the only bus that would get him to Milwaukee in time.
Frantic racing around ensued (not by me, I was at work, all I could do was be pissed off and worry). He was not packed, although earlier he had claimed to be finished. I called my mom, who had to rearrange her work schedule in order to be able to pick up the Boy at 2:50pm. SO drove him to the bus station, bought him a ticket, and they find out contrary to the website, the bus actually leaves at 1:30pm. They drove back home and more crazy packing occurred (although he forgot all the stuff I told him specifically to take along). I called mom again and she rearranged things again to be able to pick him up at 8:30pm. SO got him to the bus and he traveled through thunderstorms and claimed to stop in every town from the Cities to Milwaukee.
I came home from work and went upstairs and watched tv. The vultures had already taken apart Big Boy's room and rearranged all kinds of furniture. There's now a craptastic old sofabed sitting in the middle of the dining room. I'm not in a very good mood. And I'm not hungry, either. I haven't eaten since lunch yesterday. And my stupid garmin made me think I was too slow and unable to do my speed workout this morning, so the whole thing was just crap. If I'd known that the first speedy mile was actually faster than I needed to run as opposed to 45 seconds too slow, then perhaps the three other speedy miles I had to run wouldn't have seemed completely impossible. The run just sucked.
Frantic racing around ensued (not by me, I was at work, all I could do was be pissed off and worry). He was not packed, although earlier he had claimed to be finished. I called my mom, who had to rearrange her work schedule in order to be able to pick up the Boy at 2:50pm. SO drove him to the bus station, bought him a ticket, and they find out contrary to the website, the bus actually leaves at 1:30pm. They drove back home and more crazy packing occurred (although he forgot all the stuff I told him specifically to take along). I called mom again and she rearranged things again to be able to pick him up at 8:30pm. SO got him to the bus and he traveled through thunderstorms and claimed to stop in every town from the Cities to Milwaukee.
I came home from work and went upstairs and watched tv. The vultures had already taken apart Big Boy's room and rearranged all kinds of furniture. There's now a craptastic old sofabed sitting in the middle of the dining room. I'm not in a very good mood. And I'm not hungry, either. I haven't eaten since lunch yesterday. And my stupid garmin made me think I was too slow and unable to do my speed workout this morning, so the whole thing was just crap. If I'd known that the first speedy mile was actually faster than I needed to run as opposed to 45 seconds too slow, then perhaps the three other speedy miles I had to run wouldn't have seemed completely impossible. The run just sucked.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Tomatoes... and running!
The dog. This is one of the few pictures I have of her where you can see that she's got one brown eye and one blue eye.
We have people coming over for food that I haven't yet made, so this will have to be quick. Tomato plants above. Yummy stuff. little boy finally got the dog to sit still and we snapped this picture of her.
I ran 16 miles yesterday - 13 easy and the last 3 at hoped-for marathon pace. The weather was good, 60s and not nearly as humid as it has been. I also had the mp3 player along, which I haven't been able to do in the mornings as it's quite dark at o'dark thirty and I have to be able to hear cars and crazies should I encounter them.
Splits for those who're interested:
1-9:37 9-9:01
2-9:00 10-9:26
3-9:08 11-8:49
4-9:35 12-9:09
5-10:03 13-9:09
6-9:07 14-8:39
7-9:23 15-8:35
8-9:16 16-8:34
Pace overall-9:09, fastest pace-7:22 (thundering through North St. Paul on my way back home, American Idiot came on. how can you not run fast to that??) It was a 53 mile week. Next week is 55 miles with a 20 mile long run. Woo-hoo!
Friday, August 24, 2007
Bloodvein Buccaneers
Pictures will do a better job than I will of explaining this.
Big Boy is second from the right. No, that's not a canoe they took along.
These five guys spent 26 days in Canada along with two canoes, 240 pounds of food, and one tent. I'll ask Big Boy if he'd like to guest-blog an entry to give details. If you look at the map, they canoed (and portaged) from Red Lake (eastern side of the map) to Lake Winnipeg on the Bloodvein River.
I got to drive up here to pick him up (and yes, I did manage to get up at 4am and run 9 miles). You can't actually get to camp by road. You have to go across the lake, and camp is on that sort of boot-shaped protrusion northeast of the green arrow. It was very fun and the kids are all great, which one can't always say about teenagers. I'm thinking about crashing the women's trip next summer. It's only a week, not a month! And how could you not like the scenery?
Morning, view off the point.
Late afternoon, behind the Engage cabin.
Sunset, from the hammock.
The Buccaneers on the dock.
Big Boy is second from the right. No, that's not a canoe they took along.
These five guys spent 26 days in Canada along with two canoes, 240 pounds of food, and one tent. I'll ask Big Boy if he'd like to guest-blog an entry to give details. If you look at the map, they canoed (and portaged) from Red Lake (eastern side of the map) to Lake Winnipeg on the Bloodvein River.
I got to drive up here to pick him up (and yes, I did manage to get up at 4am and run 9 miles). You can't actually get to camp by road. You have to go across the lake, and camp is on that sort of boot-shaped protrusion northeast of the green arrow. It was very fun and the kids are all great, which one can't always say about teenagers. I'm thinking about crashing the women's trip next summer. It's only a week, not a month! And how could you not like the scenery?
Morning, view off the point.
Late afternoon, behind the Engage cabin.
Sunset, from the hammock.
The Buccaneers on the dock.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Rain, rain
The only good part about it is that I don't have to water the garden. The grass is now growing and we have to mow. The basement, on the other hand, did not flood.
I ran into former co-worker Sue walking her cutie-pie pooch this morning. Her dog, like mine, is adorable and has issues. I like me a challenging dog. (Well, not too challenging. Not homicidal or anything like that.) I got a little gossip from Company, Inc. I can't believe that Poofy and the K-man are together again. And that they get salsa! Jerks. (it sounds like I'm crabby about it, but I'm not, and they would so totally get it)
I went over 1000 miles for the year last Friday. This is one of the monster weeks of running (9, 10, 9, 9, 16. total: 53). Longest tempo run of training was this morning. 1 mi warm, 8 mi at 8:33 pace, 1 mi cool. Yikes. I was a little intimidated by that staring at me from the schedule. Here's how it panned out:
1-9:23
2-8:17
3-8:28
4-8:06
5-8:36
6-8:12
7-9:07 (ran into Sue!)
8-8:20
9-8:34
10-9:39
Average tempo pace - 8:27/mile. Despite it being scary, I did it. I still don't know how I'd keep that pace up for 26.2. Or even an 8:45 pace, for that matter. But I'm remembering how easy it was to keep a speedier pace after all that time I took off in June. Maybe taper will fix things.
little boy had an audition for MYS tonight. We'll find out in awhile where he's placed and then decide whether he'll stick with GTCYS or switch to MYS. He needed new dress pants. Huh. Well, growing half a foot a year will do that, I guess. (he didn't really grow that much over the past year, but he added a couple of inches, anyway) We found some, luckily. They don't seem to have too many 29/34s in dress pants, at least not at Sears. The good thing that we did find out, however, is that his bones have grown enough and he's put on enough muscle that he can wear 30/34 Levis 505s. The bad thing, though, is that this probably means he's going to keep growing taller. He's probably a hair under 6' and goes about 130#. On a heavy day.
I drive to the Gunflint Trail tomorrow to fetch Big Boy from camp. We'll see how that goes, as I have 9 miles on the schedule. I guess that means getting up at 4am so I can be on the road before 6. Fun!
I ran into former co-worker Sue walking her cutie-pie pooch this morning. Her dog, like mine, is adorable and has issues. I like me a challenging dog. (Well, not too challenging. Not homicidal or anything like that.) I got a little gossip from Company, Inc. I can't believe that Poofy and the K-man are together again. And that they get salsa! Jerks. (it sounds like I'm crabby about it, but I'm not, and they would so totally get it)
I went over 1000 miles for the year last Friday. This is one of the monster weeks of running (9, 10, 9, 9, 16. total: 53). Longest tempo run of training was this morning. 1 mi warm, 8 mi at 8:33 pace, 1 mi cool. Yikes. I was a little intimidated by that staring at me from the schedule. Here's how it panned out:
1-9:23
2-8:17
3-8:28
4-8:06
5-8:36
6-8:12
7-9:07 (ran into Sue!)
8-8:20
9-8:34
10-9:39
Average tempo pace - 8:27/mile. Despite it being scary, I did it. I still don't know how I'd keep that pace up for 26.2. Or even an 8:45 pace, for that matter. But I'm remembering how easy it was to keep a speedier pace after all that time I took off in June. Maybe taper will fix things.
little boy had an audition for MYS tonight. We'll find out in awhile where he's placed and then decide whether he'll stick with GTCYS or switch to MYS. He needed new dress pants. Huh. Well, growing half a foot a year will do that, I guess. (he didn't really grow that much over the past year, but he added a couple of inches, anyway) We found some, luckily. They don't seem to have too many 29/34s in dress pants, at least not at Sears. The good thing that we did find out, however, is that his bones have grown enough and he's put on enough muscle that he can wear 30/34 Levis 505s. The bad thing, though, is that this probably means he's going to keep growing taller. He's probably a hair under 6' and goes about 130#. On a heavy day.
I drive to the Gunflint Trail tomorrow to fetch Big Boy from camp. We'll see how that goes, as I have 9 miles on the schedule. I guess that means getting up at 4am so I can be on the road before 6. Fun!
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Ok, then
20 miles is a really long way. To be precise, 20.46 miles in 3 hours, 20 minutes and 55 seconds, for an overall pace of 9:49. It was hot (high 70s, dewpoint 68). The first 12 miles were pretty much a good time, then I started slowing down. Mile 13 and onward, nothing was under 10:00 mpm.
That little orange line is the route I ran today. In the first half mile, there was a large tree down, but it went down in a good spot, i.e., it didn't hit the house or any cars. That was some crazy thunderstorm we had early this morning. Maybe it's been too long since we've had one, but that seemed to be the craziest, fiercest storm that I can remember since moving up here in 1999. Wheelock Parkway was completely blocked eastbound by several downed trees. The trail was actually in better shape than the roads seemed to be, which was amazing, since the trail is lined on both sides by trees! I ran past a couple of guys on bicycles just past White Bear Avenue who had a hand saw and were working on a tree blocking the trail. They were successful; the tree had been moved to the side by the time I made it back there.
My feet are a little hurty and my knees are a little stunned at what I've done to them, but no major damage to the corpus. Since I've been home, I've had pistachios, chocolate soy milk, iced coffee, an everything bagel with eggs and cheese, and some Greek yogurt with frozen blueberries. Oh, and I scrubbed the downstairs shower, cuz something scary was growing there.
I've got another Mad Lib! The inimitable mandaroo has contributed a list of words. Here we go!
When I arrived at work, I turned on my graham cracker to listen to the morning tomatoes being broadcast. While digging my coffee, I unfolded my tight newspaper and caught up with the day's current feets. Then I booted up my napkin and read my e-pillows. Hank stopped by my cube and we discussed last night's episode of Photograph and Order in smooth detail. When he left, I realized I was late for lunch with roo at the Bistro Leaves. She taught me how to play Coffee Hold'em on her laptop while we waited for our blankets to be served. This solved my baaad problem-what to do at the office for the rest of the afternoon. I won almost every owie toe I played! Too bad my boss is back tomorrow.
Now I think I have to take a nap. I'm headed for the hammock in the backyard. There may yet be mass quantities of food. After all, little boy checked out the triathlon bike course this afternoon.
That little orange line is the route I ran today. In the first half mile, there was a large tree down, but it went down in a good spot, i.e., it didn't hit the house or any cars. That was some crazy thunderstorm we had early this morning. Maybe it's been too long since we've had one, but that seemed to be the craziest, fiercest storm that I can remember since moving up here in 1999. Wheelock Parkway was completely blocked eastbound by several downed trees. The trail was actually in better shape than the roads seemed to be, which was amazing, since the trail is lined on both sides by trees! I ran past a couple of guys on bicycles just past White Bear Avenue who had a hand saw and were working on a tree blocking the trail. They were successful; the tree had been moved to the side by the time I made it back there.
My feet are a little hurty and my knees are a little stunned at what I've done to them, but no major damage to the corpus. Since I've been home, I've had pistachios, chocolate soy milk, iced coffee, an everything bagel with eggs and cheese, and some Greek yogurt with frozen blueberries. Oh, and I scrubbed the downstairs shower, cuz something scary was growing there.
I've got another Mad Lib! The inimitable mandaroo has contributed a list of words. Here we go!
When I arrived at work, I turned on my graham cracker to listen to the morning tomatoes being broadcast. While digging my coffee, I unfolded my tight newspaper and caught up with the day's current feets. Then I booted up my napkin and read my e-pillows. Hank stopped by my cube and we discussed last night's episode of Photograph and Order in smooth detail. When he left, I realized I was late for lunch with roo at the Bistro Leaves. She taught me how to play Coffee Hold'em on her laptop while we waited for our blankets to be served. This solved my baaad problem-what to do at the office for the rest of the afternoon. I won almost every owie toe I played! Too bad my boss is back tomorrow.
Now I think I have to take a nap. I'm headed for the hammock in the backyard. There may yet be mass quantities of food. After all, little boy checked out the triathlon bike course this afternoon.
Thursday, August 9, 2007
The Mad Libs continue!
[I should have credited this particular mad lib to co-worker Kerstin!]
When I arrived at work, I turned on my tofu to listen to the morning skis being broadcast. While running my coffee, I unfolded my delicious newspaper and caught up with the day's current eggplants. Then I booted up my zoo and read my e-lawyers. The mean ex-cello teacher stopped by my cube and we discussed last night's episode of Water and Order in succulent detail. When he left, I realized I was late for lunch with Hot Tattoo Mom at the Bistro Puzzle. She taught me how to play Dive Bar Hold'em on her laptop while we waited for our beers to be served. This solved my fairweather problem-what to do at the office for the rest of the afternoon. I won almost every lower back I played! Too bad my boss is back tomorrow.
Alright, I cannot stand the scary burger king king-guy. Creepy. But, this site is pretty fun: simpsonizeme.com. Here's me:
This is way more fun than it should be.
When I arrived at work, I turned on my tofu to listen to the morning skis being broadcast. While running my coffee, I unfolded my delicious newspaper and caught up with the day's current eggplants. Then I booted up my zoo and read my e-lawyers. The mean ex-cello teacher stopped by my cube and we discussed last night's episode of Water and Order in succulent detail. When he left, I realized I was late for lunch with Hot Tattoo Mom at the Bistro Puzzle. She taught me how to play Dive Bar Hold'em on her laptop while we waited for our beers to be served. This solved my fairweather problem-what to do at the office for the rest of the afternoon. I won almost every lower back I played! Too bad my boss is back tomorrow.
Alright, I cannot stand the scary burger king king-guy. Creepy. But, this site is pretty fun: simpsonizeme.com. Here's me:
This is way more fun than it should be.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
What I did at work today: Mad Lib version
When I arrived at work, I turned on my corn to listen to the morning clouds being broadcast. While sleeping my coffee, I unfolded my fuzzy newspaper and caught up with the day's current tablecloths. Then I booted up my ink and read my e-octopi. Rob stopped by my cube and we discussed last night's episode of Table and Order in expensive detail. When he left, I realized I was late for lunch with Penny at the Bistro Flower. She taught me how to play Cowboy Hat Hold'em on her laptop while we waited for our leaves to be served. This solved my sticky problem-what to do at the office for the rest of the afternoon. I won almost every eyebrow I played! Too bad my boss is back tomorrow.
(Thanks for playing, Maureen! Penny sure is one talented puppy!)
It's review time at work and because I don't actually do what I was hired to do, my boss had to rewrite my position description. You gotta love a job where you don't do what you're supposed to and instead of getting canned your boss rewrites your job description for you. My co-worker and I are both happy that my position description includes the following phrase: "While performing the duties of this position, the employee rarely/never smells at work except faintly."
Oh! Another picture from down by the river:
(Thanks for playing, Maureen! Penny sure is one talented puppy!)
It's review time at work and because I don't actually do what I was hired to do, my boss had to rewrite my position description. You gotta love a job where you don't do what you're supposed to and instead of getting canned your boss rewrites your job description for you. My co-worker and I are both happy that my position description includes the following phrase: "While performing the duties of this position, the employee rarely/never smells at work except faintly."
Oh! Another picture from down by the river:
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Mad Libs
I loved these things in high school. My friend Katy and I even kept sending them to each other once we'd left for college. I use "left for college" in a metaphorical sense, I guess, cuz I lived at home. Anyway. I know there are at least three people who read this blog. Gimme some words, people!
1. noun
2. plural noun
3. gerund (the mad lib sheet says: verb ending in "ing." o.k.)
4. adjective
5. plural noun
6. noun
7. plural noun
8. person in room (male)
9. noun
10. adjective
11. person in room (female)
12. noun
13. noun
14. plural noun
15. adjective
16. part of the body
Tomorrow we'll play fill in the mad lib. It'll be fun, I promise!
Yes, I know, I know. Russia pictures. I still have tons. I have not been resizing and cropping and posting snarky comments to the best of my ability. I plead crappy sleep and other blog-inhibiting circumstances. But I did save $400 a year on my car insurance. (Not Geico) For anyone not already bored to a crisp with my marathon training, I got in 50 miles last week with a long run of 16. This week it's 51 miles and my first 20 mile long run. I have yet to sucker someone in to biking along with me. SO and little boy are uninterested in crewing for me.
1. noun
2. plural noun
3. gerund (the mad lib sheet says: verb ending in "ing." o.k.)
4. adjective
5. plural noun
6. noun
7. plural noun
8. person in room (male)
9. noun
10. adjective
11. person in room (female)
12. noun
13. noun
14. plural noun
15. adjective
16. part of the body
Tomorrow we'll play fill in the mad lib. It'll be fun, I promise!
Yes, I know, I know. Russia pictures. I still have tons. I have not been resizing and cropping and posting snarky comments to the best of my ability. I plead crappy sleep and other blog-inhibiting circumstances. But I did save $400 a year on my car insurance. (Not Geico) For anyone not already bored to a crisp with my marathon training, I got in 50 miles last week with a long run of 16. This week it's 51 miles and my first 20 mile long run. I have yet to sucker someone in to biking along with me. SO and little boy are uninterested in crewing for me.
Friday, August 3, 2007
90something
Degrees, that is, this past weekend. My uncle was in town, visiting from Palo Alto, California, where it apparently doesn't get that hot. Ever. In an effort to cope with the heat, we took a riverboat ride down the Mississippi from Harriet Island to Fort Snelling. Here are some of the things we saw:
After the boat ride, we decided to try and actually get down to the river. We ended up in Mill Ruins Park, which is just up river from the 35W bridge.
We still couldn't get near the actual river itself, so we took off down West River Road, crossed the river at Lake Street (or Marshall Avenue, if you're from St. Paul) and tried the east bank of the river. We were then able to climb down to the river and this is a little of what we saw:
After the boat ride, we decided to try and actually get down to the river. We ended up in Mill Ruins Park, which is just up river from the 35W bridge.
We still couldn't get near the actual river itself, so we took off down West River Road, crossed the river at Lake Street (or Marshall Avenue, if you're from St. Paul) and tried the east bank of the river. We were then able to climb down to the river and this is a little of what we saw:
Thursday, August 2, 2007
We're all ok
Big Boy is in the Canadian wilderness somewhere (and it's his birthday today - Happy 18 baby!), little boy is up at camp, and SO & I were safely at home when the bridge collapse occurred.
More blogging later... with pictures of the weekend... because we were just right there on Saturday with my uncle.
More blogging later... with pictures of the weekend... because we were just right there on Saturday with my uncle.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Paved with good intentions
I keep meaning to blog, it's not like I don't have anything to say or don't have a significant stash of Russia pix still to post, but other things keep intervening.
My uncle was in town for the weekend and in the course of seeing if the Bay Area Man would melt in the Minnesota heat (almost) we did some touristy things (and took lots of pictures; I have to post those, too). little boy was also back for a quick stop at home in between weeks working up at camp.
August seems to be the month of birthdays. Today is my running buddy cranegirl's b-day. Tomorrow is Big Boy's. My grandma's was on the 13th, and she was always happy that her first great-grandchild was born in August, too. She did make a comment once about how I should have waited until her actual birthday to have Big Boy, but he was right on time and there wasn't any way I was going to wait another two weeks! I've got a lot of cool Leos in my life now. But darn, I miss my gma.
Marathon training is getting hard, but not like you'd think. The running part is actually going ok. The being tired part isn't thrilling me a whole lot. Well, last Saturday's 18 miles was kind of un-fun during the last couple of miles. It was H O T and sunny and I only had a liter of water with me, which probably wasn't enough. Then Monday & Tuesday I had to run 9 miles both days, which means I have to plan for an hour and a half of running before work. An hour for running seems to be no problem, but an hour and a half just messes up my timing no end.
Yesterday I just felt like crap, but that wasn't running related. It was food related. Hmph, I told SO, if eating all healthy is going to make me feel bad, I'm going to start eating more junk. So, Boca burgers & popcorn & ice cream for dinner. I felt well enough to go for this morning's 7 miles with 3x1 mile @ 7:48... which ended up being 1 mile at 7:17 and the next two at 7:40. By the time I was half a mile from home, I was running at 10:15mpm!
little boy's cello teacher broke up with him via email today. "[deprecating remarks about the musical skills of a pretty sweet teenage kid here] ...I do not realistically have the patience and interest to focus on... [blah blah blah]." What a jackass. That dude was seriously too full of himself for his own level of talent anyway. Whoo. I am pissed. And yet, I'll be saving $235 a month. But I'm still pissed.
And my kid is not just sweet, but he actually can play the cello pretty well, no thanks to Mr. Ex-Cello-Teacher (with whom he only studied for a year). little boy has advanced to the next higher orchestra each year he's auditioned for GTCYS. There are some comments I could make about the gender balance of Mr. Ex-Cell0-Teacher's other students, but perhaps I should only think them really loud and y'all can draw your own conclusions. That cowardly email is probably a good thing.
But I'm still pissed.
My uncle was in town for the weekend and in the course of seeing if the Bay Area Man would melt in the Minnesota heat (almost) we did some touristy things (and took lots of pictures; I have to post those, too). little boy was also back for a quick stop at home in between weeks working up at camp.
August seems to be the month of birthdays. Today is my running buddy cranegirl's b-day. Tomorrow is Big Boy's. My grandma's was on the 13th, and she was always happy that her first great-grandchild was born in August, too. She did make a comment once about how I should have waited until her actual birthday to have Big Boy, but he was right on time and there wasn't any way I was going to wait another two weeks! I've got a lot of cool Leos in my life now. But darn, I miss my gma.
Marathon training is getting hard, but not like you'd think. The running part is actually going ok. The being tired part isn't thrilling me a whole lot. Well, last Saturday's 18 miles was kind of un-fun during the last couple of miles. It was H O T and sunny and I only had a liter of water with me, which probably wasn't enough. Then Monday & Tuesday I had to run 9 miles both days, which means I have to plan for an hour and a half of running before work. An hour for running seems to be no problem, but an hour and a half just messes up my timing no end.
Yesterday I just felt like crap, but that wasn't running related. It was food related. Hmph, I told SO, if eating all healthy is going to make me feel bad, I'm going to start eating more junk. So, Boca burgers & popcorn & ice cream for dinner. I felt well enough to go for this morning's 7 miles with 3x1 mile @ 7:48... which ended up being 1 mile at 7:17 and the next two at 7:40. By the time I was half a mile from home, I was running at 10:15mpm!
little boy's cello teacher broke up with him via email today. "[deprecating remarks about the musical skills of a pretty sweet teenage kid here] ...I do not realistically have the patience and interest to focus on... [blah blah blah]." What a jackass. That dude was seriously too full of himself for his own level of talent anyway. Whoo. I am pissed. And yet, I'll be saving $235 a month. But I'm still pissed.
And my kid is not just sweet, but he actually can play the cello pretty well, no thanks to Mr. Ex-Cello-Teacher (with whom he only studied for a year). little boy has advanced to the next higher orchestra each year he's auditioned for GTCYS. There are some comments I could make about the gender balance of Mr. Ex-Cell0-Teacher's other students, but perhaps I should only think them really loud and y'all can draw your own conclusions. That cowardly email is probably a good thing.
But I'm still pissed.
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