Howdy folks.

Wildchild - love the card!

Milktruck, if you are reading this - has the snow cleared out for you yet?

Rainy day here, so I did about 35 minutes of weights and core.

2.1 sloooow ones yesterday. Wow am I out of shape to run. My weight training, which I did lots of while my foot hurt, is going great. I think my muscle fibers are more suited to lifting; I was really strong as a teen and young adult and that seems to be returning in the gym, much better than my aerobic fitness.

1/2 day at school with students, but that means an even longer afternoon of meetings. Retirement is starting to look better.

Thanks for the start, Holly.

Retirement at 65?  My goal is part time at 65 and retire at 67.  Fingers crossed!

Strength training day.  And thanks, Moe, for the exercises.  I did the floor heel digs and left it at that for the a.m. since things were fairly irritated yesterday and I'll be seeing my physio this afternoon.  Things aren't as flared today, but sitting isn't comfortable.  Definitely thankful for my sit/stand desk.  Reminds me of pre-diagnosis of hamstring tear-fix.  Ah, the memories!  

I've warned my friends that I most likely won't be going to WS training camp at the end of May.  Right now the idea of a 6-hr car ride (one way) sends the wrong kind of shivers up my spine.  And I need to be ready and able to go to WS at the end of June.  So here we go again, throwing $$ out the window since I've already paid for the camp (non-refundable) and my share of the lodging for the 4 days. Feels the like last couple of years of my life and paying for races I couldn't run due to injury. 

We've decided on a contractor for our roof.  The price is comparable to 2 other estimates, better than one of the estimates, and they can get it done in 6-8 months (maybe faster depending on the weather) as opposed to 1 to 1.5 years because they can bring crews in from out of the area.  And the guy who pulls together their estimates spent 20+ minutes on the phone with me discussing the details.

 When we told her the story, my working class mother got a kick out of the idea that her cooking was being served up in some fancy-pants Quebec restaurant.

Of course, you told her that HER cooking was by far superior, right?  

On that note:  When I have the big breakfast fry-ups for the kids and their SOs, I always make a cinnamon crumb cake.  I make it from a box mix (hey, it is a GOOD box mix) and my DD's BF loves it.  When we had the kids over at Easter, I heard him telling her how good it was, and DD responded that she had made EXACTLY the same box mix and he was less than excited about it.  He came back with, "Yes, but somehow when your mother makes it, it is the best!"  I had to laugh.  When I sent him home with a big section of cake, he whispered, "Shhh, this is like a felony in my house."     

My attorney Kristie is SO BUSY right now - we have gotten a TON of new cases, both private and court-appointed.  Our DR paralegal quit in January, and I thought I was just going to be holding down the fort, as it were, until they hired a new paralegal to replace her.  I did NOT think I was going to be doing the job of TWO fulltime paralegals, and in 2 areas of practice (criminal and civil litigation) that I have no experience in and another (domestic relations) that I have not done in 15 years. I am starting to get in the weeds, and I shared that with the attorney yesterday.  She said they had an ad out, so hopefully they will get someone in her at least part time....

So at our department meeting our young attorney who is taking over the Est Dept told us he has been diagnosed with bone cancer in his leg.  A short while after I went to his office to see if there was anything he needed me to do for him, and he asked me to sit down.  Ends up he has to have his leg amputated at least above the knee.  The story behind this is long and he just had his 5th (?) surgery in 8 or 9 years to remove nodules from that leg, but up until now all the nodules have been benign.  Right now they don't know if the cancer has spread to any other part of his body.  He heads to UCSF tomorrow to get a starting point for all this.

Jeff and I have been here for the same length of time and have been through the trenches together.  Battled head to head and each other, but have a lot of respect for one another.  We talked for probably 20 minutes, and I'm happy to say I kept my composure 'cause I could tell the last thing he needed or wanted was someone losing it.  The recovery will be long.  A month in the hospital after surgery, then 6 months of rehab while he gets fitted for a prosthetic and learns to walk again.

I asked him if he had a punching bag at home and he does.  Told him to use it, not keep things bottled up inside.  He also said he needed to find a therapist for him and his wife.  He doesn't really want to, but I told him it'll be well worth it.  The right therapist is worth their weight in gold.

He's young, he's strong, and he's determined, but he still needs all the prayers and positive energy that can be sent his way.

Bio/Holly - a main problem with retirement that I never thought about is, compared to working all those decades when all you had to do was get up, shower, breakfast for you or all, go to work and come home afterwards, I have to face every morning wondering if I should go to the Hillside Park, Lakeside Park, Lakewide Overlook Park, Art Museum Park where I have pictures crawling on the grass from 1942, Cityside Park, Arboretum Trails, Chinatown or whatever plus should I walk down or over or, at the nearby bus stop, should just get on the first one that goes somewhere instead of all the pressure of having to decide on my own.

I thought twokittying my morning exercise by vowing to use the top floor excercies room whenever it's raining hard enough to need poncho, etc. in the morning but, with March (to say nothing of the prevous ten months too) being the warmest thermometer recorded history, I only got up there once so far since junking the walker and crutches at the end of February.

Though I usually switch stations when they launch into their five-or-six minutes of commercials, traffic reports, etc. the word "Cooperize" caught my attention this morning when I got back as I'd done a Dr. Kenneth Cooper triathlon in Japan in 1985 and think that KSA knows him.  Not sure what they were advertizing but, still excercising at age 93, he promotes BMI's between 18 and 25.  However, don't look behind you.  We know someone who's catching up. 

ps Leslie - problem is that therapists costs gold

but friends like you are worth their weight in gold.

He's sure been through a lot but let's pray this

takes care of it and he'll be fine on the new leg.

ps Holly - that's malpractice if an attorney does it.  

I did NOT think I was going to be doing the job of TWO fulltime paralegals, and in 2 areas of practice (criminal and civil litigation) that I have no experience in and another (domestic relations) that I have not done in 15 years. 

Yes, I know Dr. Cooper well!  He sort of looks the same!  I remember him saying "Walk the dog- even if you don't have one!"

Holly- ugh.  That's a lot of work!

Greeting, all!!

I made my first batch of cookies this last week.  Of course I used a bag mix for the start (chocolate chocolate chip), but it was GOOD!  DW agreed.  And I took a dozen in to my Speech Therapy student.  I did not realize that students can be THAT vocal about home made cookies--2 or 3  of them told me how good they were