Phoebe

My feet hurt, my knees hurt, my back hurts, my head hurts. Yowzers, as I like to say when things hurt. Why is it that last weekend I ran 13 miles and felt lovely and today ran 10 and feel like I should maybe visit a hospital later on after I am able to pull myself up on my feet again? Why?????? It doesn't make sense.

Today's run was uneventful except that I finished it. Last week, however, my sis and I had a couple hilarious moments. The best was when we rounded the corner to see that up ahead was a radar detector speed thingy, the kind that shows how fast you are going. As we approached, it was flashing, 5, 6, 5, 6, in other words saying SLOW SLOW SLOW. So, I threw my arms in the air and did a little dance in the street in front of it and lo and behold it shot up to 14, 15, 16. So, then my sis did the same and got the same result. It was kind of like Phoebe running from Friends, remember? That's how you make yourself go "faster" according to the speed detector at least. I'm sure that if anyone was in their house looking out and witnessed this it led to a laugh or ten. Quite a running highlight though, don't you think?

Just one more 6-miler next weekend then it's half marathon time. Hooray!

Cookie Wagon

WHY did this not exist when I was at USC???


http://www.insomniacookies.com/

PhD: Post Hole Digger

There's a guy at my work who likes to give me a hard time about working on my PhD. Every so often I see him and he says, "Hey there post hole digger!" And I play along and say, "huh?" and act like I don't know what he's talking about. Then he says, "PhD, post hole digger. Get it?" "Ohhhh!" I say, and we laugh and move on with our days. Well, this post is all about digging some holes. No pun intended.

There are a few ways to dig a hole, technically speaking. You can use a shovel, a post hole digger, or an auger. There may be more ways, but I don't know what they are. Well, you could just use your hands I guess.

Will chose the auger. It's more fun, louder, and possibly will cause injury because it appears to kind of beat up the operator. We now have a bigger space and holes for the supports (I guess that's what they are called.) Will and Jason had a fun day playing with giant power tools. One step closer!

Dear Facebook Users,

What is UP with the stupid stupid stupid status updates about how wonderful your children, husbands, wives, parents, grandmothers, dogs, and great aunt Irma's truly are??? OF COURSE you think they are all wonderful. You either married them, birthed them, they birthed you or your parents, or were your parents' siblings, so umm, yes, they are wonderful. I mean do you feel guilty when you see the phrase, "if your (fill in the blank) are as wonderful, post this as your status?" I want some originality back in status updating! Tell me about the new flavor of soup you're eating, the restaurant where you are currently waiting for a table, the funny thing your kid just said, the test you just took, how tired you are, or even that you are now going to bed-goodnight facebook!

And then...there's this post which has me slightly unnerved and annoyed:

BLANKIN' IDIOT said "saw on the internet that Haiti is without a government. To help out, I am donating one Obama, one Pelosi, one Reid, one Frank, one Coakley and two Clintons! They may keep them permanently! I'd give them a constitution; but I can't find mine right now! ~~~ Status borrowed from a friend of a friend of a friend, keep it going"

I need a break from the stupidity. Really. The people of Haiti are struggling, have suffered unbelievable tragedy, and not ONE of us can understand this type of experience, but people are really brave enough to post stupid insults about the president and our governmental leaders by using the Haitian people and their situation? I mean, really?? Really?? You must be kidding me. 

Ohmygoodness................


Breathe.

And in other news stupid news...Cagney & Lacy will be having a reunion show. For this, I am excited.

Progress

Today, Will and Jason worked hard to make some progress on the deck project. No more rubble, no more jackhammers. Just shovels, a tarp covered in a pile of dirt as a temporary home for the rose bushes, and a wheelbarrow of pansies. Still a lot to go...but progress! Way to go boys!

 

 

 

Some things I love

1. Fresh Market's pumpkin pancake mix. I've now eaten pancakes two days in a row. I usually eat a piece of bread in the morning...so we'll consider this an upgrade. Thankfully, I'm going back to work tomorrow and will not have time for pancakes. My waistline is happy about this fact.

2. This book: It Sucked and Then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown, and a Much Needed Margarita by Heather Armstrong. She is the creator of dooce.com. Just want to give this book a shout out because I'm terrified of having a baby. Not the baby-new family member in my house part, just the actually birth of a baby. OMG. She was terrified of having a baby but did it and tells a fabulous story that cracks me up and makes it seem more okay than it was before. You should check it out if you're terrified too. :) Btw, no babies any time soon...so no worries. 


3. Godiva French Vanilla coffee. It's pretty amazing too. 


4. When restaurants figure out that their quality is taking a nose dive, and then they actually do something about it. Will and I used to eat at Miyo's weekly...seriously weekly. Then, it began to suck. My theory is that I had a Miyo's toxicity level that was so high I felt like I'd been run over by a truck every time we ate there. So, we didn't eat there for a couple years. Went last night...back to normal or maybe 5% better. (I think about food a lot...hmmm.)



5. New running shoes. Especially when they are last years model bought for $30 cheaper. I heart Mizuno.

news reporter fashion

Here's my question...

Why do news reporters always wear khaki colored button down shirts, pants, vests, and hats? I feel like if I was a news reporter in another country I would want some smart wool or an under armour shirt for the hot or cold, maybe a fleece, but definitely not khaki long sleeve button down.

Hey, do you guys want to play Adam & Eve?

Last night, I was in Barnes & Noble. I needed a gift for a baby shower so I was in the children's section. There was a little girl, maybe 3?, with her mom and what looked to be a couple of her mom's friends or maybe an aunt/uncle? Not sure. The little girl was playing on the little stage thingy with the fake trees/bushes that's supposed to look like a little forest. This is what I overheard:

Little girl:  "Hey, you want to play Adam and Eve?" (She's talking to her mom's friends or aunt/uncle duo)

Friend/Aunt: "Sure. How do you play Adam and Eve?"

Little girl: "Well, you hide from God behind this bush." (Thank goodness there are also fake bushes in the forest so that there are appropriate props for this game.)

Friend/Aunt: "Oh, okay. Who should I be?"

Little girl: "You be God. I'm Adam and Eve." (Little girl goes and hides behind fake bush; friend/aunt hides behind fake tree.) I really like that the little girl is BOTH Adam and Eve.

Friend/Aunt: "Adam, Eve, where are you???" (Friend/Aunt is peering around the fake tree.)

Little girl squats behind bush giggling.

At this point, the whole game fell apart a little. That was pretty much it. Then the mom and friends or aunt/uncle launch into a discussion with the little girl about how God is everywhere and we can't hide from him. They even added that sometimes people try to hide from God but they can't. At this point in the conversation I looked around for how the little girl was responding because I'm always curious about how people--little girl or grown up girl--respond to these types of conversations. She was looking at the books again, twirling those spinning racks.

haiku

Winter break is over. Today was day one back to work...it was a little painful. Just the waking up at 5.30 part. Here's how it went down:

7.30: Cafeteria duty...I have to herd children, make them sit down (one person per chair!!!), and then dismiss them by row. See, this seems doable, easy even. Really, though, it's not. I'm actually supposed to have duty in the hallway, but every week that I'm scheduled for duty there is either rain for 5 days straight or freezing cold temperatures. Therefore, no kids can go outside so we hold them hostage in the cafeteria. Therefore, my hallway duty which consists of me standing and saying good morning to kids changes to the herding children thing. It's PAINFUL. I can't quite express it. A few months ago, I had all the kids sitting, amazingly, and then it was time to go to class so I just told them to go. Another teacher blew a whistle at me. BLEW a whistle at me. I laughed, threw my hands up, and said some stuff out loud that I probably shouldn't. I mean, a whistle? Really? Why didn't I know to release them by rows??? Because I have hallway duty on a regular basis, not cafeteria! Sheesh! So yea, a week of cafeteria duty because it feels like Alaska rather than South Carolina outside...so I hope I survive until Friday.

8:00: 6th grade: Interesting morning. The kids swear they've never heard the word "haiku" and laughed and laughed when I said it. They kept saying, "Say that word again!" like little kids but they're 11, right? Haiku, haiku, haiku. Weird. Then we brainstormed topics for poetry, and I told them to let the ideas marinate for a couple days, which led to a serious discussion of how to prepare the perfect BBQ. Never heard of a haiku, but know all about how to prepare meat for grilling.

Haikus are so fun.
Fun like eating barbeque.
Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum.

9:30-end of day: survival. 

Jackhammer

This morning, I went for a run with my sister. We are training for a little half marathon. Today was an 11 mile run. The whole run we chatted about silly things, mainly focusing on what we were doing the rest of the day (sleeping!) and what kinds of amazing food we were going to eat since we ran 11 miles. We're relatively slow so this venture took 2 hours which is fine and dandy with us. In my neighborhood, it's really hard to find 11 miles that aren't up and down the steepest hills ever. So we choose to repeat quite a few loops that have moderate hills. This makes us run by my house multiple times during the run (which is really hard because all I ever want to do is flop down the driveway and fall onto the couch). Here's where the story turns to jackhammers. 

Yesterday Will tells me that he wants to dig a hole in the backyard to make a pond. This is because he's also getting a bee hive in April, and these bees need a source of water. Mmmhmmm. I'm trying to be very quiet and very supportive of this bee idea. It would be lovely to have honey from the backyard, right? Right. So we talked about this pond yesterday, and he was telling me what it would look like. In my head I'm picturing a kidney bean shaped hole in the ground, kind of just out there in the middle of the yard. I'm picturing the dogs falling in, me falling in, sticks falling, etc. Oh, and I remember being a kid and trying to dig a hole in my backyard to make a pool. Granted Will is smarter than I was at age 7 but still... At this point though, I'm still in the whatever-you-want mode but start to (strategically) think out loud about how we could make the patio (which is just this slab surrounded by brick) bigger and have it extend out so that the pond is almost a part of this nice patio/deck off the back of the house. This immediately makes the gears start turning in his head and I secretly high five myself for having such a fabulous idea. So on to the jackhammer. 

Mid run this morning we pass by the house and I hear this whirring sound like a saw and I tell my sis, "Hey, hear that? That's Will tearing up the patio!" (Originally, his plan was to get some kind of saw that would hack through the cement.)When we ran by we saw the table and chairs out in the yard, and I high fived myself again. Then what felt like a gazillion miles later we came back to my house and Will and his saw were not there. The dogs seemed in a panic so I'm imagining that he had a stomping scene back to Home Depot with a faulty saw or something. Moments later I hear him return and with him, a jackhammer. Apparently the saw (no idea what kind) wasn't working so now we have this:

 

and a whole lot of noise. One of the things I talked with my sis about while running was how I was going to come home and get back in the bed and try to forget the running torture. Well, let's just say I've had to come up with a new plan for the day. There's no sleeping here or probably in the entire neighborhood. Quote of the day from Will, "Cement's hard!" and then he asked me to make him a sandwich. Lovely!