Five foggy cycling miles into a dissipating mist clearing the way

to the first temperatures into the sixties since last October.

Morning, Everyone ~~

Four slow miles this a.m. under a cloudless predawn sky chock full of stars, but no moon.  It was chillier than I expected (consider we hit 72 here yesterday!!), but didn't take me long to warm up.  I worked on breathing strictly through my nose, which kept me at the slower pace.

Yesterday The Hub had to have a tooth extracted and he is on a "liquid"/puree diet until Thursday, when he can start a soft food diet until his next appointment sometime next week.  They grafted cadaver bone to his jawbone (?), to which they'll eventually attach an implant.  He wasn't allowed to brush his teeth until today, so between all the bleeding in his mouth yesterday and just your regular morning breath - HOLY HALITOSIS!!   My face partially melted when he breathed on me this morning.     And he looks like he has mumps on the right side of his face.  His one saving grace in all this??? He gets to each ice cream as a main dish!

Okay - I gotta get to work.  Enjoy your day ~~

Wow, this is like the West Coast Forum today!

Leslie, I'll be having that done next month! Can't wait...   Was his a molar? Those seem to be the most involved and require more restrictions on what you can do/eat. My perio said I could run after a day of downtime, but soft diet for a week after.

So it would seem I have an owie. Some tenderness and swelling in my lower inner ankle. I'm thinking all the rough snow slogging played a part in this. Did not bring my running stuff with me to work so no run today, at least outside. It's a shame to waste such a clear sunny day!

Yikes, Leslie!  Take good care of Shorty, okay?  That sounds rough.

It's gorgeous weather here!  50 degrees and sunny!  I ran with a group of women ultra runners, a subset of the Front Range Ultra Runners called the Dirt Divas. We've started a Tuesday morning running group, and this was our second outing.   6 of us showed up to run 10 miles of part mud and part very runnable packed snow, on North Table Mountain in Golden.  Fun group!  I don't normally care for all-women groups  because I never feel like I have much in common with many of them, but women ultra runners are a cool bunch!

There has been talk of an RA gathering at this year's Portland Marathon.  I checked the site, and entry for the Half Marathon becomes by charity only in February?  What ever happened to the 10 miler?  Is that gone?

The Portland Marathon, more than any other I have signed up for, really puts a gun to your head.  Even Boston was less expensive.  Plus the sign up process pissed me off.  First they ask for the most I have ever paid for a marathon.  This, after telling me that the price will go up, but they won't say when and by how much.  THEN, after paying the exorbitant early-bird price, they have the audacity to ask me, like 7 times over, do I want to donate extra money toward this charity or that charity.  NO!!  I have already paid your ridiculous over-price!  Now you want MORE!  And MORE!  Seriously?  This process, in and of itself, would likely have made me say, "No thanks" and pick a different Oregon marathon to run.  HOWEVER, the Portland Marathon is not about the race for me, but for the gathering of friends who will be there.  SO, ENKE, maybe you can email the race director...explain you have many out-of-state friends that you have enticed to come and run their race, pumping money into the Portland economy, and lo-and-behold, when you yourself go to sign up, after all this magnificent marketing, they are locking you out?

No run for me today, but about 25 minutes on the bike trainer.

Leslie - I went out tonight and bought a heating pad and a package of frozen peas....

Not 70 here, but that's a good thing!  10 total for me split between am and pm runs.  Sunday's marathon was rugged, so being prudent.  This political junky is glued to the primary returns.  O yeah!

Holly, too bad to hear about how pricey Portland is. Also too bad we didn't plan better to do a group run for Newport, OR. That was a great race, you would've loved it, and it wasn't that expensive at all as I recall.

Hang in there, Laurie.

I sat on my butt all day at work listening to legislative hearings and meetings, and reading piles of papers on my desk. So, I couldn't resist an easy run on the treadmill tonight. My ankle actually felt better afterwards. All that sitting today left both ankles a bit puffy. 4.3 miles is all.

I hope Shorty heals quickly.

I had a teeth cleaning/check up today. I suggested that the hygienist occasionally say, "Oh my gosh" during a cleaning. Then assure the client, "It's nothing" quickly followed by another "Oh my gosh!" and a call for the Dr. ...

I got snowshoe runs on three consecutive days. Good times. At work, two other people have been tasked with the data entry stuff. YaHooo! If a mistake has gotten past me twice, what's to ensure that I catch it on the third and final check? Maybe, for a few months, I can keep the hours close to 40ish. During my "free time", I've found displays that came in just about the time I was laid off in 2007 as well as special order returns dating back to 2009.  When I came back to the company, nearly half of the facility was used to store customers' mistakes and screw ups sales people tried to save for another project.  Now it's less than 10%. Two large accounts, (one does not pay their bills on time and the other usually swears he never ordered most of his mistakes), I've told them that I drive past their warehouses twice a day and they have more room than we do. What they've not hauled out, I've donated to Habitat for Humanity's resale shop and have the receipts in my office if our clients would like. One customer astounded me. His items came in September of 2011. In late 2015, I sold all but two items. Now he wants them back. The company manager said we are only liable for them for 90 days. The profit margins on all three accounts are painfully low because of a promise of volume. A minor mistake negates most of the profit. A good customer (Whether you like them or not) is one who pays there bills on time and you can make a fair profit on.

So far, this week, we've delivered two large orders that came in over two years ago. We've returned older materials to the manufacturer at a higher restock fee. One of them bought back a display that arrived in 2009 and was never un-crated.

Of the things I've moved to clearance, our manager surprised me. I asked if the salespeople could get a boost on commission fro selling dead inventory. He agreed. In addition, a non commission employee who sells out of clearance gets 50% of the sale.

So, my dentist asked what I do now. I said, I'm not sure, but I do a lot of it. A week and a half to Gasparilla. I better get my butt in gear.