Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my mom's birthday. So in celebration I took her out to Fogo de Chao for dinner. She became interested in it after I told her about my last trip, and since dad got a nice dinner on his birthday, it was only fair. So dad, mom and I along with another friend of mine who my mom is fond of as well, went to dinner. Lots of meat was eaten by all and for dessert mom, much to the chagrin of the rest of us, chose fresh fruit...it was good though.

Yesterday was a busy day, after a night of too much drinking on Friday...darn shots!! I chatted with a few people, got a number of a boy that was way too young, and then crashed but didn't get enough sleep. Saturday morning mom and I had run to a friend of mines place to get back the items she had been holding for me while I attempted to sell my condo...since I opted to buy appliances and stay a while longer, since I can't sell anyway. My cousin stopped in to install my microwave, but we discovered, as all things in this place are, it wasn't going to fit without some modifications so dad has to do some more work to make it fit. Anyway, then dinner and a drink and I crashed for the night. Oh, and earlier in the evening I got a little love from Max (he was freaked, dad had been using power tools at my sister's place and he's scared of them).

Today was a run, planned 10 miles, for a total of 40 again for the week, this time with only 5 days of running (last week was 6) but two days of double workouts. Things are a little tight, I need to see the chiro this week, but it was still OK. Finished 10 in 9:01 pace, would've been faster but I had a 10 minute and 10:30 minute mile in there when I was texting and then chatting with a friend (he's in basic traing and just finally had his cell back today, first time in over a month) so it slowed me down a bit. Still felt pretty good.

Roses and Puppies

I’ve been trying all week to do an update and now almost a week has gone by and none of the great things I’ve been wanting to write about have managed to hit my blog. Sigh…work has been hectic, which is a good thing. I like my job and I like being busy and having lots of things to work on and being able to go new places and try new things and I have all these other things I want to do eventually with this position…it’s a position I control. I can make it go where I want it to because it’s a new position. I’m the first one in it…it’s kind of cool…but also keeps things busy!! (Roses from my balcony)

I got my race number this week. Yep, that’s right, I’m running a 25K on Sunday that I’m really not ready for. Can I go the distance? Of course. Even though I only ran 8 miles total last week (yeah, think I took taper a bit far!), but I did run a 17 miler 2 weeks ago, so yes, 15.5 is nothing. I’ll probably shoot for a 1.5 mile warm up before the race and get an even 17 for the day too. Seems to be the way I’ve been going. A longer run of 15-17 miles about every other week and I guess that’s fine. I might do a 10 mile race with some college friends that I haven’t seen in forever the end of October, unless I end up visiting friends in Idaho…I’m still looking for tickets to see them.

The weekend was nice. I like long weekends. It gives time to relax. And with L out of town (whom I do miss, didn’t expect to miss him quite this much, but thankfully he’s been able to call me the last couple of days and he does get home Monday and I’ll see him Tuesday) it gave me plenty of time to focus on stuff I need to get done. I cleaned the house Saturday, and I got it nice and clean. I found two skirts that had been lost in my closet, made things sparkly, thoroughly cleaned my bathroom and kitchen, even started in my garage, although that needs more work. I managed to study some for that test and have this weekend yet to cram, and I went to visit friends I hadn’t seen in a while on Monday. All in all a nicely relaxed weekend. Sunday I made a fantastic dinner of grilled chicken breast (bone in with skin) on the grill with rosemary stuffed in the skin (fresh rosemary I have growing on my patio) that came out so excellent…nice and golden brown, so juicy and good and the leftovers will make a fantastic chicken salad tonight. I also made some parmesan oregano and parmesan basil potato wedges…both so yummy. Yes, I’m proud of my food from Sunday night! I also had a glass of good wine with them, that turned into 2, and then I was watching Marie Antoinette and suddenly the bottle was gone…ooops…not something I do often so that’s OK. I have wine that has been in my house for 2 years almost that I haven’t drank so obviously I’m not that bad that often! Was having a dream that night that I had a headache though and then Max barked at a someone walking their dog (at 4 am!) and woke me up (but he's just so cute) and lo and behold I had a headache…oh well…the screaming, squealing 1 year old outside my windows at at 7:30 am didn’t make me too happy either, but I survived…

My week…not much for running. So far 4 on Tuesday, a 2.5 mile walk last night will shoot for 6 tonight if it’s not too terribly hot for Max and then tomorrow off, Saturday an easy one and the race on Sunday…other than that, I’m studying. That’s it. I get home and put in 2-3 hours going over stuff. Tonight I’m taking a practice test (computer one) then I have one more paper and one more computer one to do over the weekend and test is Monday afternoon…hopefully it goes well.

(Max at Lake Calhoun getting a drink, he's not dainty about it)

Dogsitting

So mom and dad went out of town, they are on their way across Montana and other areas, getting to see one of my best friends on the trip too and it makes me jealous, but oh well, hopefully soon I'll be able to go see her myself. Anyway, Max is not a good traveler. He gets homesick. He would have to stay a lot in the truck (which honestly, he doesn't mind, he'll spend all day in that truck just waiting for it to go somewhere). But because it's kind of a pain, mom and dad asked me to watch him. I hemmed and hawed about it, wanted to have options to go out of town this weekend (I've had him a week actually already) but then realized well, L is out of town this weekend anyway, so I might as well have Max keep me company. This is how much of a helper he is. On Wednesday night I studied for the GMAT, took a break and watched an episode of Friends (I'm working my way through all 10 seasons which I purchased in May) then decided to review a bit more before going to sleep, while in bed...and this is how Max helped. He wouldn't even let me pull back the covers!

Last weekend he got to spend time with me at L's place downtown...he had a busy weekend. We went over and hung track lighting while drinking beer (L got a beermeister and had it filled with a yummy winter ale from a buddy of his that brews beer for distribution). Then Sunday we primered the walls in the area where he is doing construction...then ordered pizza and watched a movie. All this work tired Max out. It's hard to watch I'm sure.

I also have a pic of L with Max, but probably better not publish that without L's permission, since he does read this blog...Max told me it was OK to include him. He knows he's cute.