Today is a big birthday day here. My DS#1 and DIL were born on January 13th, two years apart. He's 36 today (I know, I know, how could I possibly have a child that old ), and his DW is 34. DS#1 is a lucky guy - he should never forget her birthday! Grandpa and I are taking Will and Ben for the evening so they can go out for a relaxing dinner. This ought to be interesting!

 

The storm passed through, now it's blustery and cold. Did 4 miles on the eliptical and 3 miles on the bike, then some weights and stability ball/bosu work.The Cellcom training run is tomorrow morning, halfers scheduled for 5 miles. The temps aren't supposed to be that bad (probably around 15° when we take off), but I'm really nervous about slipping and/or falling running outside. The doc told me I was tempting fate trying to train for this thing anyway, but if my form is off because I'm tense and not running like I normally would, I worry I'm going to screw up everything I've accomplished since last May. Any advice?

 

Sorry you're stuck in the airport PBJ. It sounds like the East Coast is going to get the storm that just left here so maybe it's a good thing you're getting home.

 

Glad your run went well Enke.

 

Nice snow dog picture Mary.

 

Steve - any job news?

 

Off to bake a birthday cake for the kids...

Wish I could read and comment on everything, but I've been very busy at work, and now I am drinking beer (and can't focus on the details.)

 

I ran 4 at lunch. 

 

It has been a wild ride since about 3:00pm on Wednesday.  I was either working, thinking about work, or dreaming about work while asleep.  But everything is done that had to be done, by the time it had to be done.  With another person quitting this week and only giving 4 days notice, it added to an already overly full load.

 

I just have to prioritize and do what I can.

 

We are in the process of hiring about 6 more programmers.  It will take a few months to get people hired and trained, but there is light at the end of the tunnel, and for once, it isn't an oncoming train.    

 

Have a wonderful weekend.  (I know I will.)

The running Gods did smile down upon me today.     6.22 miles of hillz.

No major aches.

New shoes.

Sunshine.

Frost.

A honk from a trucker.

 

Life is Good.

 

I love runs like that!

 

Happy birthday to Mrs. Jay - sounds like a nice way to celebrate.

Rosie, glad your brain is happy.   That's always a good thing, and doesn't happen as often as it should.

PBJ- sorry about the travel woes.  But I'm sure Canada is a lovely place to visit in January!

 

Sounds like a lot of you got snow recently, or it's coming.  I think it's snowed quite a bit at home since we've been away - we all have snow boots and parkas in the car we left at the airport, in case we have to hike down the driveway because it's not plowed.  Won't that be a great way to end a vacation?

 

We went to Arenal National Park to hike today - it was a bit disappointing, because it cost $10 per person and there were less than 5 miles of trails. We hiked them all and were home by 1 pm.  So I took a nap, then went for an 8 mile run. A bit cooler today  but just as humid.

 

We've been talking about changing our lifestyle, to get out of the rat race. I think we talk about this every year when we're on vacation.  But we're thinking about the possibility of investment property and/or 2nd home in a place like Costa Rica, and we also want to move to a lower altitude in  Colorado.  I might even think about retiring after DD graduates. Good stuff to ponder.

wild, keep the vacation pictures coming. Jay, happy birthday to your wife. lame, I hope your daughter is recovering well from her wisdom tooth adventure. jlynne, happy birthday to your son and his wife on their jont birthday.

Nice long runs for Mike and mari. Good job on the speedwork for lame.

No run today but I got my second day's work in. It's been real busy but a lot of fun spending all day with runners and talking about shoes. They've got a real good system set up so the temporary help doesn't have to know much. They have racks of probably thousands of right shoes on display. When a customer finds one they like or want to consider, we go in the back room and find the matched left shoe. There are also requests for a size that 's not displayed or a model they can't find. We're off to the back room again. When there are questions we can't answer, we look up a full time employee on the floor or talk to the shoe expert in the back room. Yesterday, I don't think I ever had more than a minute or two without a customer. Today was a little slower. There were several times when I had five minutes without a customer. Yesterday, the bosses said they were expecting to sell 8-9 thousand pairs of shoes over the course of the sale. This morning, they said they had a record yesterday for sales. I sort of expect tomorrow witll be busy since people will have the weekend off. With a good sysetm at the store, good resource people, and lots of BS and conversation on my part, things have gone well. That said, it will be nice to be home tomorrow night and then get back into my normal routine.

A good day and good runs for all.

TomS

....

 

SteveP - my DH and I were so broke when we got married that we went to the judge downtown, then had a cook-out at my SM's backyard...the $2000 we had managed to save up needed to go to a car more than we needed a wedding.....

 

 The kids and I are leaning that way. DW, the bio dad and the future in laws are not. BTW, your DH is a damn lucky guy.

 

 

Lucky DW Jay!! Love it! Sadly, I got her the same thing as last year.

 

Love the B'Nellie picture 

 

Happy brains are kewl Buehrle. There's a couple of people I'd like you to experiment on.

 

Thanks for sharing that Roch.

 

HI Stumpy!! Missed ya man. (Brotherly hug...no butt grab)

 

Whoot whoot Enke!

 

Crud PBJ. Thanks for the info about the air cast. I was going to take my air guitar on my next trip.

 

Actually Nancy, if I taped my hands to the bathroom mirror, that should help me not to eat.

 

Yeah for Will & Ben!! It will be about a week before there is any news on the job. Thanks for asking.

 

Good News about the new hires Dave59.

 

Did you guys just build a place WildChild? Enjoy the sun.

 

That's great TomS. It sounds like fun.

 

Snow snow snow! After work, Tag bugged the sh** out of me until I got the running gear out. By that time it was pretty dark. So we went and got Honey and we ran the trails for nearly 40 min. Too bad the camera on the phone doesn't have a flash. Breath taking. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hey!  I'm, finally, getting a chance to get caught up with you all.  I've had a pretty busy day, actually.  Between running kids and grandkids around, writing three short stories (700 to 1000 words), taking the car to have it's oil changed, and working out, I'm pretty tuckered out.  My run was just a 4 mile treadmill run in 30:40. 

 

Good luck to everybody racing this weekend!

 

Saturday--MilkTruck - Smuttynose Indoor Half Marathon, Milford, NH

Sunday--Henrun & Marj - Naples Half Marathon, Naples, Fl

Sunday--bruger1 - Naples Half Marathon, Naples, FL

Sunday--hermosaboy - Houston Marathon, TX

Sunday--Ileneforward - 13.1 marathon, Los Angeles CA

 

Okay--that's it from me!  See ya!