Hey Guys!  I had a great time hanging with Leslie and the hub!  No worries about staying too long-I always stay up way too late when I have to get up early. 

Good job at your race Jim!  nice pics!  Looks like everyone else is doing well.  I'm nursing an achilles/solues issue so me and the elyptical or walking are getting to know each other real well.  Just some microtears that need to heal and running won't help.  Joe, this could be your year to beat me in miles!  I'm fine with that and done racing too.  I had signed up for another 50m but with this little set back, I'm not going to push it and have a bigger year next year.  I actually entered the Western States lottery (did I tell you that already?) and am contemplating two 100 milers next year.

I hear the elyptical calling my name-see you all later!

Kelly

Hey there 40's +!

Looks like you guys have all the season's covered.  Cindy's got winter.  Jim, Leslie & Kelly have fall.  Arla's got summer covered.  And I guess today we have spring since it's been a slow steady rain all day.

Loving all the pictures!  Jim, you and Joe look like real runners.  Oh, that's right...you are!!!  Leslie and Kelly look like long time friends, and lovely as well. 

Ev -- how's the truck?  Funny, I was thinking we would all rather have our vehicles break down than to have an injury that keeps us from running.

Leslie - did you get that 13 miler in?  Nice scenery to run in?  Glad you're having a good time on your trip.

Cindy - let me get this straight.  You're going from wearing a ski boot around the house to running a 10K?  Glad it's feeling better, but do be careful.  Those are the only "wheels" you've got!

Jim - garmin chewing?? BAD dog!!!

Hey to everyone else!

Had a good swim today, did 3 time trials of our race distance, and seem to be in the not fast but respectable category based on last year's times.  Starting to think logistics now (like how to find our bikes in the transition), and absorbing the reality that this actually involves wearing our bathing suits in front of a bunch of people.  Probably mostly very fit people who look like they actually belong in bathing suits.  Why is that just now hitting me?  Anyways, we're still looking forward to it, and the weather looks like it's going to cooperate.  

Carol - I'm sooo excited for you!

Leslie - hope you're having a fun trip - how's the leaf-peeping?

Kelly - sorry to hear you have to hit the elliptical. Yuck, I hate those things.

Cindy - ewwwwww...snow.....

Boy how this week is flyin' by....not much to say, gonna do the Komen 5K this weekend, always a nice event.

Arla

Snow day here, most everything is closed, same 6 in of heavy wet snow Cindy got. Thankfully no wind with the snow to take the corn down tho it broke most of the tops out on fields close to the house .We lost power for a few hours this morn as the REA lines unloaded their ice load. It is just as well things are slow, feeling a tad under the weather (no pun intended) anyway. Hopefully its not either of the flu bugs. I will probably bag the run tonite or move it to tommorow 'pending on how I feel.

Carol hopefully its just some tight muscles, you have done so well in your training.

Kelly and Leslie looks like you guys had a great time.

Leslie spose your getting to see some great fall color and get some scenic runs in?

Kelly hope you get in on Western States. My sympathies with the eliptical, I had a bout with the soleus and achilles last year, good going to get it healed up. I let mine get too bad and it took a long time to get right.

Joe you've been doing some whopper weeks and racing too, hoping the nor'easter misses ya. I am thinking some very fast times are gonna happen when you race on fresh legs after your taper!

Ev what did ya find out on your pickup?  Is that your personal vehicle or do you get one for work?

Arla have fun at Komen, and ya I'm a Body Glide Believer.

Cindy good deal on the Garmin. I wonder if I could trade mine off, maybe if I threw the dog in with it....... No bad idea then they would charge me double. LOL, I know puppies will be puppies and its all part of it.

Lotsa grumpy ol farmers here, can't get their wheat planted and soybeans, dry beans, millet and corn out. I finally got that pivot planted to wheat monday morn, so at least thats out of the way. We have about 95% of our corn left to do about the same as most everyone else here and across the nation as far as that goes. Usually we are well past 50% by now.  Hopefully once it decides to dry out things will progress fast, I have good equipment and good help ready to roll.

Carol- rest up and hopefully it's a minor strain.How's it feeling today? Just remember that these races are for fun, not for stressing.

Arla- Have a good time in your 5k.

Jim-Hope you're feeling better. Good luck with your crops.Sounds like the saying we used to have in the Navy, "hurry up and wait". Waiting for the weather then get out and bust hump as fast as you can.

Ev- I hope your son heals up ok.I remember when you were contemplating whether or not he should get into that sport and your trepidations about it. You're probably thinking along the lines of "I told you so" but knowing you, probably not saying it. Well, these kids sometimes have to learn for themselves. We were the same way.

Finally Friday Folks!

Well, I take it back, Jim & Lynda don't have fall covered...sounds more like winter.  Sending you some virtual chicken soup in hopes that you are NOT getting the flu.

Ev, sorry that bull scored on Evryotherday, but glad he's mostly OK.  Good for him for pursuing his dreams....no regrets there.  Hope you and Mrs. Day are recovering as well.

Joe, are you getting any better running weather?  After last weekend's run, you deserve some.  My friend's son recently joined the Navy.  He's had a difficult time, and his Navy training plans were altered due to concerns about depression.  Guess I had that movie version of "shape up or ship out" in my mind, but I am so impressed by how the Navy has stuck with him.  He's now back on his original training track. 

Cindy, glad Maired had a good run, and that you came out of yours without too many ill effects.  The oatmeal sounds yummy.  LOL on the office supplies!  My doggies want to eat my paper supplies.

As for this installment of  "as the butt turns", things have really settled down nicely.  Alleve, Ice, and a bit of the suggested Merlot therapy yesterday helped considerably (I recommend that for all pains in the butt).  Cindy, because you asked, it's in the center toward the right side, and I think was likely just a spasm since it came on so suddenly, and seems to have settled down quickly.  It's a little more to the outside than a tennis ball will reach, but I'm thinking the hot tub at the gym and some gentle stretching might help.  Not planning to do much 'till Sunday so that nothing else breaks down.   

evryothrday and I had just returned from Tulsa.....went to a bullriding school......when the truck began to not start.  Oh, yeh, evryothrday broke his collar bone.  The second bull he rode at the school.

Doggonit re the broken collar bone, but as my uncle (a former bullrider) would probably say to him - Welcome to bullriding!!   Seriously tho - hope it he heals fast.

Nice to see you all have been staying busy.  Carol - Your tri is today, right??  Go, Carol!!!!

Jim - Hope you're feeling better.  I've been washing my hands like crazy on this trip to try and not catch anything . . . as well as trying to refrain from picking my nose.

Cindy - Between going to conferences, running events, and the occasional time away with The Hub, it does seem like I'm always "on vacation."  In thinking back over the past year and through December, the only months I won't have gone somewhere are January and June.

The sightseeing has been wonderful, and I will post a few pics once I get home. 

Dang, it's been hard to find internet access!  Actually, the places we've been staying - if I wanted to sit in the lobby, I could get online, but that would have taken too much effort, ie, I would've had to drag my sorry butt off my hotel bed.

We've been having a great time.  Have put over 1300 miles on the ole rental car.  A couple of days ago, we spent the night in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, and I put in 5 road miles.  Quaint, beautiful - I'm sure freezing cold in the winter.  Night before last, we stayed in Gloucester, ME (remember "The Perfect Storm"?), and went out to Rockport, which is a really pretty little town.  Lots of galleries as it is an artists' colony.  A co-worker of The Hub used to live in Gloucester, so we went and found the area where she grew up.  On the way out of the area, we went by a candy store called "Nichols" and bought her some chocolates.  The place has been there for over 77 years, and she used to go there when she was a little girl.

Right now we're in Danvers, MA, outside of Salem.  Couldn't even come close to finding a place in Salem (unless we wanted to spend $300 for a smoking room - NOT!), but will take the hotel's shuttle service back there this evening and check out the pre-Halloween nightlife.  Should be interesting.  Tomorrow we head to Boston to chill for a day, then fly home.

So now that I've told you a bunch of stuff you probably don't particularly care about - -    Later!