Soaking up as much sunshine as possible

I left the office at lunch today convinced that I would get some errands done. I have two bags of clothes and purses I am taking to Bon Marche over in Clive. If you've never shopped there, you should. Don't be fooled by my taking my clothes there. I only take nice things there, like the labels I won't buy retail that I got there last year.

I either get bored or they don't fit, so I take them back. It's my contribution to clothes recycling, I guess.

I got to the interstate overpass and instead of going straight, I got in the left-hand turning lane. At the very last moment I decided to go home and get outside. I have been feeling sort of down lately and I do really enjoy activity and sunshine.

I felt like it was best to combine the two today. I've been doing that for a couple weeks - going home at lunch and running. I only have a short period of time, so I do that couch to 5K thing I've mentioned. Today's was to walk briskly for 5 minutes and then run 25 minutes. In the back of my mind a little voice said, "Just walk whenever you want, don't worry about it."

You see, I have never run for very long with the exception of 5k events. But today? Today I did it anyway and walked/ran for a total of 2.76 miles while raising my eyes to the sunshine, willing it to wash my soul.
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I got back in the pool this weekend as well. It was about time. I had been telling myself that I was too worn out to go or that the pool would be crowded and there would be no room for me. I showed up yesterday, jumped in and spent 30 minutes smiling and wondering what in the world was wrong with me for getting out of routine.
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I spent most of the day on Friday at Junior Achievement's BizTown with a group of fifth graders I really enjoy. That was a lot of fun. I was invited by Aaron, whose teacher said I was welcome. They had already trained their volunteers, but I could hang out and help the kids get their tasks done.

I walked in the door and they fell on me. A mother had had to cancel due to illness! Could I take over the technology business! Well sure and I had a blast doing it.

A heck of a way to spend a day off, huh?
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I also realized I didn't post about the 5k results. The Fairgrounds have some incredible hills and I think we climbed all of them. It was ugly, but I managed. I had to walk a bit to compensate for a minor breathing issue (minor until you start running!) and even so I crossed the finish line in 30:44.

I was very pleased with my time! I got home and later that afternoon I put my bib in the collection and wrote my time on it. Then I flipped through my other bibs and do you know what I saw?

Saturday's run time was my best 5k time ever. How about that?

Fairgrounds 5k

The Fairgrounds 5k starts at 10 this morning, which is nice because if it were cold today things could warm up. But we are having a tremendous day today in the weather department. I want to stop by a bake sale, a flea market and the K-State/KU Sunflower Showdown football game party for all of the alumni here in town. GO K-STATE!!!

My Maggie got a bite on the butt

This is Maggie about a week ago: much better days for little Maggie. She is a small cat, but she is a full-grown pygmy adult cat. She can be a snuggly sweetheart and an evil terrorist. Something bad happened to her yesterday. We put two and two together pretty quickly around here. We're into cats around here.

Last night Maggie didn't eat and she seemed like she was in a bad mood. OK, that's not entirely out of the ordinary. But this morning, she was nowhere to be seen and wouldn't come when called. When I found her, it was evident she wasn't well. We've been down this road before and quickly diagnosed the problem. Read on, dear reader:


This photo is my girl's booty. Very sad. She got a bite from another cat. It had to have happened when we were at work. She was bitten last November, too. I hope this isn't a trend in the making. It's an expensive trend. And I can't look at her without cringing and wincing and feeling my tummy flop.

She has a long drainage tube sutured into her haunch. OUCH AND OUCH. That will help it drain and to keep her from chewing on it and pulling it out, she's in a cone. Poor, poor Maggie. She just can't make it work. She walks straight into a wall and just stands there.

It's funny, but it's sad. See those big eyes?

Nature Notes Thursday and Signs of the Season

Visit Michelle at the finger-snapping Nature Notes Thursday Meme for incredible photos of the season and a tale about a baby turtle.


Today I bring to you my Fireworks Tree Update and my hotel for small, snowy birds.

Well, that was my plan. It is now too dark to take a photo of the hotel for small, snowy birds. You'll just have to come back! :)

I took this photo on the way to work. It's my fourth snap of this house. [shifty eyes] I think the tree has figured things out. It cleaned itself up, too. Do you see how tidy the yard is?

I hopped out, snapped the shot and took off like a criminal! I didn't think that maybe the photo wouldn't turn out so well. But I laughed and thought that I will do it again if we get a heavy snow or an ice storm this winter!

Grace in Small Things
1. I am grateful for bright sunshine
2. I am grateful for the full moon's light
3. I am grateful for crunchy leaves underfoot
4. I am grateful for colorful leaves hanging on

Christmas music defined by moi

My Nature Notes post will be a little late today since I wasn't able to get online this morning to post the Fireworks Tree Update and my hotel for small, snowy birds.

Now you know what to look forward to.

Right now, I am in either a bad mood, a melancholy mood or a sad mood. I'm not sure which, but I do think a huge tankard of beer would help adjust things and set me straight. No, that isn't really true. Beer never helps with any mood adjustment for me. See, last night I thought I would be nice and go to choir practice at church, but it turned into a nightmare and I wish I hadn't gone and I can't sing and I'm not good at it and I feel stupid.

To tell the truth, I need to go for a long walk in all of this sunshine.

And then drink a beer.

Making matters either 1. better or 2. worse, I have been on Amazon browsing through songs to add to my iPod Christmas playlist. I'm looking for some good Perry Como Christmas material. I know there's one song I want and I just listened to a snippet of it, but I can't remember the name of it and I will probably never find it again.

Just kidding. I hope I can find it again because I want to download at home and I am at work right now. I found out Alan Jackson and George Strait both have Christmas albums. That's good to download.

I am very excited to discover that Harry Connick Jr released a third Christmas album recently (last year maybe?) and I have to buy that because I have all of his holiday music. Nothing beats the first one, When My Heart Finds Christmas, but even so the collection must be complete.

I may download the green album by Andy Williams. I was too cheap last year and only got the red album because the red album is Christmas music defined for me.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Probably going to be a random post

I have thought of several different blog topics in the past 24 hours. But I have been so busy at work, I forget as quickly as I brainstorm. So here is my random list of stuff to talk about in which I display my utter lack of storytelling skill, bore you senseless and hope for some sort of unity of topic.

unity of topic. heh. I just made that up.

I ran on the treadmill this morning and then came home at lunch and ran. I am still doing the couch to 5k program. I'm having some trouble breathing and hoo boy does it affect me during my run. When I got back to the house at lunch I really sounded like I was in danger. I wasn't. I just sound awful and it is a bit labored. It's a problem I have had before. The doctor checked me out and sent me to specialists and at the end of it all, they decided it was stress. Go figure. I never see a relationship between my breathing issue and stress. It seems random to me. Whatever. I'm good. It's been going on since I moved to Des Moines.

I am running in the Fairgrounds 5k this Saturday morning. There's a huge hill. I ran long, slow inclines today at lunch and have the sore booty to prove it. We will have to wait to see if I run the hill or walk the hill. I don't have the feeling that the hill is a goal for me. I feel pretty ambivalent about the hill. I'm going with that. It's just for fun. I am more concerned about wanting to whine about the cold and not having anyone there to listen to me whine about it.

Not that the cold will stop me.

OK, I have nothing else. Amazing. How can I be so full of ideas and not have anything come back to me? Doesn't anybody have any ideas for me to blog about??

It just dawned on me that I did achieve unity of topic. Woot!

I went for a walk

I went out on Beggars' Night with my 6-year-0ld niece. She was a cowgirl. Here in Des Moines, the children tell jokes or riddles when they get their candy. At six, she is a little shy about it, so I told the first part of her joke and she finished it.

Me: Why did the football coach go to the bank?

Her: So he could get his money back.

Me: What kind of money?

Her: A quarter.

OK, about half of the time she got it right. She's such a sweetheart. It was very cold and raining that night and when we left the house we were headed to the grocery store for candy. No fun. We got outside and into the car and I drove around the corner. Right in our neighborhood were several clusters of houses that were all lit up, so we ditched the grocery store (although very generous of them!) and we walked up and down a lot of driveways.

Everyone is always so disappointed there aren't more children out. It was a blast to interact with everyone - so happy to have trick or treaters! I had never taken anyone out before. I had a really good time.

Then today I went for another walk. I walked/ran 7 miles in 90 minutes. The weather was perfect. I felt great and might have been able to go longer, but I needed to get home and get ready to take a friend of mine to dinner. She turned 77 this weekend!