Welcome to Monday all! A BIG TIME congrats to all our awesome racers this weekend! I'll get caught up with you all at some point! You all are my heros! Vista- it's always good to have you start us off. YOu said you DROVE between dinners? 1/4 mile? Come on! Have a great starry run tonight. Holly- Moving day! You sure know how to recover from marathons! Sheesh. Congrats and good luck, watch your back carrying those boxes! That was some story about what happened at the Pig! CNY- I'm amazed that you actually took time out of your drive to stop and stretch. How's that for dedication? perch- I'll bet the legs were just a bit wobbly for your run. hopeful4ever- sorry to hear about your back. Have you tried ice or heat on it, and some gentle stretching? I hope all is AOK for this weekend for you. stumpy- I need some of those awesome muffins of yours to aid in my recovery. PeterNC- summer already? WHat happened to spring? Good running today! Roy- sounds like you're hanging in there Roy! Continued good vibes heading your way that the body hold together. Rochrunner- Like with Roy, it sounds like you are hanging in there as well, making steady progress. Keep doing what you're doing! dg- I was hoping your run would go ok, and it sounds like it did. Please be careful. Your drive home sounded pretty cool! You painted a good enough picture with your words. Twocat- It's good to see you posting about runs again. what airline did you book to Missoula? Tallrunner- Life sounds good for you! SueT- treadmill? Yuk! Why? Are those peepers outside too noisy for you in the AM? tomwhite- keep at it. This crosstraining will pay off when it comes time to run again. lyndenrunner- forget the diet, just run more! Mariposai- I need to get to your race report still! Can't wait! How about a nice easy walk, instead of doing nothing? Just to get some blood moving? Thank you for that history lesson as well. Ribs- Congrats on the 10 miler! That's fantastic! How come your recovery wasn't the usual 3.3 miles? Aamos- funny about going to colorado to escape the snow! So what were you doing there anyway? Spill it! TomS- I'm glad the knee and hamstring held up. Usually it's your hip that bothers you. Is this new? Jeanne- You'd better be sorry for that one! Teresa- you're becoming quite the celebrity! Evanflein- good thing Holly didn't mess up Boston for us all! And who in their right mind would pass up an opportunity to run with you? Roger is a lucky guy. Tammy- wear your sore legs proudly! Those were 13.1 hard earned miles in many ways! anachrotech- Keep those joints moving. It's good for them and for the head. MrWhite- I'm glad you had a good run. Although I'm longing for more details. What made it so beautiful? Thanks everyone for the well wishes. You have all once again left me watery eyed. I'm back at work, and have to keep shooing everyone away from my desk because they want to see my ankle. My whole lower leg has that ugly yellowish tinge from the betadine or whatever it is they smear on you. Other than that there's nothing to see other than some bandages with some stuff oozing through them. Things went well. It was actually a very fun experience. I met some really nice people. In pre-op, I was in the room with this huge, burly, deep gravely voiced, snake and dragon tatooed guy. I asked him what he was in for. He was having carpal tunnel surgery and said he was nervous. Turns out his doctor was the one that did my knee, so I reassured him that he was in good hands. Then I got his life story about how he has always worked since he was 15 years old, and now 30 years later he has been without work for a year and feels like such a failure. The guy broke down on me. He was just a big kitten in disguise. You sure can't judge a book by it's cover. The hospital staff were all excellent and friendly. When I finally got wheeled down to the O/R, while parked in the hallway on my gurney, the doctor who did my knee surgery came out to say hi. He said he saw my name on the list and wanted to come see what was up. So we played catchup there. His son is an awesome XTerra triathlete, so I got the lowdown on him. Then when in the O/R, one of the technicians says "I know you. You graduated high school in the class of '80. I'm from the class of '82." Then she proceeded to introduce me to the other two technicians who were also graduates from the same high school as me, just one year apart in either direction. So we spent the entire surgery time playing catchup from the past 25 or so years. That was a lot of fun! It sure helped to pass the time. The surgery itself went ok, although it was a little more complicated than the surgeon thought it would be. There was a hard, gel-like sac in there, he called it a cyst like lump, that he took out. But it was surrounded by a lot of hard fibrous tissues, so that made it a little more tricky. That stuff had to be carefully picked out, since it was right on my tendon. At one point, he cut into something that somehow the antithesia missed. HOO-BOY, that sent sparks flying. On discharge, I was told to use pain as a common sense guide as to how much to do. That's trouble! Common sense doesn't usually exist in too many runners. He said to be safe, refrain from doing too much for the next 3-4 days at least. Define "too much". I'll be good, I promise. Thank you again, everyone... I really do appreciate you all. Enjoy the rest of your Monday!

Btb, glad to hear the surgery went so well. Promise you'll take it easy for a few days, as directed! (Why are runners so stubborn and so pain-tolerant?) And why are you back at work after surgery? Holly, good luck tomorrow with the big move! Moving sucks, but being in a new house is so exciting at the same time. Twocat, Missoula is beautiful. Glad that you decided to go for it, and book plane tickets! Denise, so glad to hear you're back to running a little. Speedy recovery. I've been enjoying all the race reports - seems like racing season has really started now! It's too hot for lunchtime runs, so I'm planning to leave early and do a trail run in the state park near home, in the nice coooool mountains! On the layoff front, I got some good news today. I had been offered 6 weeks severance pay, but I met with a lawyer and she suggested I ask for more. I've been with the company for 18 years, so I asked for 18 weeks. I didn't really expect they would go for it, but they upped the offer to 9 weeks. Just goes to show, it never hurts to ask.

btb... so glad it went well. "Now (in a stern voice) NO running for a bit!"

I am glad to hear that your surgery went well btb. You must live in a small town where people still knows each other fairly well and can still meet up 25 years later. Now, please REST (hey, you can even get one butterfly hug per day of rest). Thanks for the summary, I sure miss it when it does not happen (no presure here

No run for me today but I had to stop in and see how Bob was. Sounds like you went to a party or something. Take it easy and do as your told and hopefully you will be better than ever. Good luck Larry

BOB?????? why are you at work????????

Well, that's what I was wondering, too! Listen to nurse Denise and behave yourself! Honestly though, you would be the one to find a party everywhere you go, even to the O.R! Rest up and get better soon. Oh, and thanks so much for posting that Amy update a couple days ago. She is such a darling, I really hope things turn out well for her. Geez, good to know Spareribs isn't the least bit anal or anything, ya know? Carolyn, congratulations on the increased offer! Women frequently get the short end on a lot of these things (pay, severance, perks, etc) because they take what's offered and don't ask for more. Thanks for letting us know that it really does work! Getting ready to go watch the first soccer game of the season, finally! Then the boys and I are on our own for the rest of the week cuz DH is heading to Denver for meetings. We have a friend coming up from Anchorage to stay with us Friday and Saturday when she's here for board meetings, so will have some more house cleaning to do. But it'll be fun to see her and her 6 month old baby who will be coming up too! Haven't had a baby in the house for oh.... over 12 years!

This reminds me of an old Steven Wright joke: I got into an argument at the roulette table over what I consider to be an odd number. Happy even running Spareribs!

You just have the best sense of humor. It's why we miss you when you don't post. My wife and I love Steven Wright. One of my favorites was: "I have a huge collection of seashells, which I keep on beaches all over the world." Spareribs