You all have heard of Barefoot Rick.......last week he ran 10 miles in 6* F. Yep, barefoot! Today he ran 6.5 miles in one inch of freshly fallen snow. Yep, barefoot! He's crazy........... Arla, Re: The gym.......New Year/New Plans.........hit the gym 3x's a week, alternating workouts to include, legs, back, arms,abs and just overall core stuff. I've even ventured over into the free weight area where all the sweaty, grunting and powerful looking men are. One area of the gym is nothing but mirrors with jumpropes, those big balls, steps, mats, lighter free weights and other gadgets so I'm really playing around witha little bit of everything. I've never sweated so much with a dang jumprope with just 10 min. of jumping. I really hope my running starts shaping up. I got in 4 miles yesterday with no knee pain so that is a plus. Going for 5 or 6 tomorrow. I have also been eating healthier and watching my portions and I have lost 5lbs. since the new year! Woot, woot! O.K., more info that you asked for but........I'm excited about making some changes this year! I am not giving up my beer though. Dang it, that's the only bad habit I've got and we are all aloud to have one bad habit. Jewels

Signing your name isn't an annoyance on this forum, or many others for that matter. Heck, many forums have a whole "signature" field you can pre-populate. This one does. What *is* an annoyance, though, is people who put 100 lines of text in their sig. Signing "-Arla" or "-Bocephus" or "Queen of Lemon Chicken" be cool. Here. Things are different in different places. Anyway, I'm far more annoying than you'll ever be and I never sign my name. (or do I?) --El Kabong

Hey Folks - I'm back, and right where I started. - still with no answers, after spending 4 hours in the ER, having MORE blood work done, as well as a CT scan of my head. Guess the fact that I progressively felt better with no food in my stomach didn't count for much. They did the scan because I just can't get rid of this damn headache. It's almost constant and, until I eat, stays at a low level. Both the blood work and scan came back fine. Finally got out of there around 8:00, got home and ate some chicken noodle soup. Ended up with slight nausea and, of course, the headache came back. So I'm scheduled for the hydascan for Wednesday. If that doesn't show anything, they want to do another endoscopy. It seems to me they're discounting the gall bladder because I don't have pain in the upper right side and I'm not vomiting. The pain, nausea, headaches, flu-like feelings, constipation - they seem confused by them. And when I say "they," I mean any medical person I talked to. The ER doc talked with Dr. Loncar (who I saw on Wed), who was on call last night, and he's the one who said to tell me to get the hydascan and then we'll talk. So it was a waste of time and a HUGE waste of money. I'm getting an ulcer just thinking about the cost of all this. And I'm frustrated as hell. Arla - Good luck on the running barefoot! Tet, on the daily, runs barefoot all the time. I've seen those Five Fingers. Let us know how they work for you. Jewels - Good for you on the resolve with the new workout plan. Sweaty, grunting guys at the gym - sometimes that's motivation all in itself. Joe - Oil on the Budster's foot pads? Interesting. Kelly - Glad you didn't get hurt any worse with your slip. Watch that footing out there. Jack - Are you lurking??? Jim - Have fun with your cross country skiing. Well, I need to get a shower so I can go get my prescrip for nausea filled. Unfortunately, it makes you sleepy, so basically during the day it will be worthless.

Hey 40's! Wow, I don't check up on you guys and one of us winds up in the ER. Leslie I sure hope you get some answers. This is why it's called "practicing" medicine. Far more mysteries not solved about our bods than solved. Jewels, your run sounds perfect! Your're getting your mojo back . I did 6.6 miles this morning and another 1ish walking before and after. Ran w/ my 1/2 marathon compatriot, and our last 3 miles were faster than the first 3, and progressively at that, so it was a feel good run. But remember that "speed" is a relative term . More importantly we have decided we are going to get t-shirts for the race. Now we just have to decide what to put on them. Any ideas? That puts me at 22 miles for the week, and I had targeted 20, so far so good. Work from home accounting job...s'posed to be part time....averaged 55 hours the last couple of weeks. Had to run just to stay sane...mostly Finally a weekend off, yay! Take care and enjoy the ride, friends. Hope to get back to being able to post and keep up more here soon.

HEEEEYY!!! {{{waves & hugs all around!}}} finally have my hands on my own computer...& wouldn'tcha know it!? havfta spend most of that time doing "home office" type work!! Busy, busy bunch in here....reading what I can, when I can....glad to see you all getting along so well! this kinda clowning around could only be better in person! ......lets just say that MY life continues in much the same fashion as last I'd chatted w/you all.... without writing a book on all the sordid details (not sure it would be all that entertaining....) the condensed version would look like: a continual house full of people till this past Sunday when we culminated w/a large group birthday party for 3 (3 birthdays, not 3 people attending!) , then drove round trip back to Hastings, NE to drop off the family of 4 + one extra grandchild riding along! ~ via Sidney, NE for the birthday party, so 20+ hr day! Running was almost completely off-line these past 3-4 wks due to going to bed waaay too late nearly every night, then getting up early w/the extra in-house grandbabies (letting mom get some much needed rest through the holiday visit), trying to keep a household of 7 maintained (man! there's lotsa dishes & laundry!!), extra "while in town" shopping + after Christmas deals to be scrounged, while running back & forth to Breckenridge in 3-4 day chunks (workload picked up a bit through the holidays, but has since eased off a bit), eldest son's truck & contents got stolen by some modern day Bonnie & Clyde couple just before New Years, recovered two days ago w/arrests...police are still sorting that out, (a hard reminder to NOT use your car as a mobile locker!!) Towards the end of this whole event/time frame(?) some type of crud/cold/not-quite-the-flu-thingy descended on the household - the least of those hit was me! whew! Mairead & I have escaped for a few (not nearly enough!) mental health type short/easy jogs....weather ranging from 4* F to 58* F (typical Colorado Winter weather!! ) no idea of pace/distance/time because all were undertaken sans Garmin!! some were done in jeans! (how's that for impromptu!?!) (btw Leslie - I've had the 305 for almost a year now....still don't know what all it can do....technologically challenged as I am... ) & some of it shoulda been snowshoeing! & most of it shoulda included a camera! Ciao! Cindy

{{{{{CINDY!!!}}}}} Once again, I was exhausted by your post! We miss you around here, little lady. Arla - Sometimes ya gotta be careless and run just for the sake of running. The crud has hit our household. The Hub's spent most of the evening on the toilet, poor guy. Keeping my fingers crossed it stays away from me. Just wanted to pop in here, and am glad I did 'cause Cindy came back! Now it's bedtime. Nitey nite!

Ev - what's "the DL"? For the football fans: http://www.largiader.com/macpack/temp/bring_it.html I don't really care that much, but I lived in Philly for 3 years and it was sad to see their teams always *almost* become champs. I think the low point was standing outside in the rain watching Smarty Jones on big screen not get that triple crown. Figures I leave town and the Phillies take it all. Kinda like I left San Diego and the Chargers started to resemble a professional team Leslie - maybe you want to leave town for a couple days and stay away from that crud! Arla

Ev.......are you walking around on your heels with your butt up in the air like a duck as Leslie suggested a while back? That's what a thought........now get to it mister! Bought an addidas warmup jacket and pants at the mall yesterday. $32 pants for $7.99 (black w/pink stripe down the sides) and the matching jacket $45 for 12.99 (pink w/black stripes down the sleeves). Super cute......They are super lightweight and perfect for leisurely weekends. Now that's a deal......or should I say steal? Hope you are feeling better today Leslie...... Super nice to hear from Cindy, as usual, you are one busy woman. Way to go Carol and Arla on your runs! Shoutout to Kelly, Jim, Joe, SR and Salty...... Jewels