I guess it's a little late for good morning, so hello! I finally got a decent long run in today, 17 miles. It was the one sunny day of the week, temperatures in the upper 40s, ahhhhh. I'm hoping to get a 20 miler in sometime early next week, than will start tapering. Didn't get nearly as much mileage in as I wanted thanks to the stupid cold/flu, but I'll just have to adjust my goals. Today is normally Riley's daycare day, but after all the rain yesterday I knew he'd come home a muddy mess, so since DH is working from home AGAIN today, I figured I could just leave him home and go run long. Switched daycare to tomorrow, and DH is actually going to the office, so I should be able to get some good cleaning and defurring in then.

I need a haircut and I may need to buy a hair dryer. And a new dress. DH RSVP'd us for a wedding the day after my marathon (apparently sometimes people get married on Sunday?). It's the daughter of a good friend of his. I can't remember the last time I put on makeup. And after I agreed to go, I realized it was the day after the marathon, and I have a friend from Virginia coming to run the marathon and staying here. So then I was feeling like an idiot, until she mentioned she has another friend down here and was planning on seeing her on Sunday and possibly even staying there Sunday night. Awkward hosting situation averted!

Lisa, I hope your travel goes well! I see a bunch of cancelled flights in/out of Chicago the next few days. Congrats to Kaite on the deans list!

Liz, I find that when I do a bump up of miles it doesn't seem to matter much that I'm eating more, I lose a little weight. Then I get used to it though and if I drop mileage, I have to be really careful or the weight comes back and the next time I up the miles it's less likely to come off. See, this is how you end up running 50 miles a week when you're not training for anything!

Susan, glad the back is starting to feel better. Fun on Mardi Gras. I did the New Orleans thing when I was much much younger, now I think the crowds would freak me out.

Sandy, nice run, and nice plan to maybe run in Bis! Laughing at your first marathon. My first half (also my first race) I wore yoga pants, a turtleneck and a fleece vest. It was sleeting, probably low to mid 30s. I don't think I got too hot (although these days I'd probably do shorts, a singlet and arm warmers for those temps) but I wasn't going very fast, and was doing a lot of walking towards the end. As for smelly guy, if you can do it, I say tell him. Ten-years-ago me would not be able to do it, but I think 50-year-old me would just tell him it's getting bad and people are commenting and he needs to wash his damn clothes. Nicely of course....

Diane, I think your idea of learning the various departments is a really good one. Maybe not a convenient one, but a really good one.

Ginny, nice 3, and enjoy the BB this weekend.

Cathy, yikes, that's scary! I bet that really got your heart rate soaring. So glad you weren't a couple seconds later - there would have been nothing you could have done. Also glad it wasn't icy so you could slam on the brakes.

Kathryn, glad they got the prescription fixed. And that you caught it so quickly and had a couple days left of the right stuff.

Damaris, hope your travel was uneventful. Nice job getting all your workouts in while on travel. And yay for Bugsy!!!

Elina, welcome back! Running and two floor ball games coming up, sounds like you are starting to get your motivation back.

Looks for an exciting Friday for me in Chicago/Detroit.  Opted to have Hilton move our reservation from downtown Chicago to Evanston since that is where the job fair is tomorrow. Hopefully it doesn't get cancelled and even more hopefully O'Hare doesn't get shut down making me rent a car to drive home through the snow which has shut down the airports. My recruiter flies out of Detroit Saturday afternoon for a Valentine's Day getaway in Vegas so we must get back. Argh.

Will hit the hotel gym in the morning. Hit Happy Hour at a Mexican place to the tune of 2 margaritas each tonight.

Sue-you clean your house too much.. maybe that is the problem maker with your back! Lisa has spoken.

Judy-you have dark roots? we have this thing all backwards.. my roots are too light for the color I want it to be (does white equal light?) and yours are too dark. Clearly we have opposite problems. LOL

Sandy-"wasn't horrible" "mostly clear" LOL The bar is set quite low for horrible, isn't it? Hope Fargo helps resolve your frigidness.. but I doubt it. You can do it! You CAN resist beer and lunch.. you can have that anytime. HOW often do you get to run 9 circles to equal a mile? For your own safety, I hope the answer is "not very often". I love my condo! Mainly because when I put something somewhere it stays there. First time since 1985 that this phenomenon has occurred. Ick on the smelly coworker. The "HR approach" would be to say something about having noticed the smell and being concerned for their health. That you along with others have noticed it and are worried. Be prepared for the possibility that they don't have access to a shower or deodorant or that something may be going on health wise. If you have an HR dept, they really should be the ones to have "the talk" (we refer to it as such in HR, really). Approach it with them from the angle of something may not be right with coworker and that is why I'm bringing it up, it's so bad that this can't be normal and it is interfering with my ability to do my job.

Lizzie-OMG on the BO smelling contractor. That stench takes a long time to get out of your nostrils. Hope you had something to offset it. I tend to retain fluids after long runs. I feel (unscientifically, I might add) that my body is holding onto the fluids that I have sweated out because, you know, I might do something lacking critical thinking skills like that soon again. DD is majoring in Marketing so if anyone knows of a summer internship...

Diane-we all lack critical thinking skills when looking at a state to add to our collection or race swag or a cool sounding race name like Prairie Spirit or marathon maniac stars.

Ginny-so have you signed up for Brazos Bend yet? Huh? Huh? All the cool kids are doing it and you'll have those 100 milers out there and rates into Houston aren't too bad since there are two airports to pick from and.. we all lack some critical thinking skills but do have the power to flip some tires!  You go girl!

Cathy-left right left is what my mom taught me when turning right. Good thing you were able to stop! Hey! What's that dig about HR people? We neither confirm nor deny but we don't lie. LOL The recommendation was in house, but I do tend to get pretty honest references when I call on them. Then again, I never call the HR dept for them. hmmmm....

Kathryn-that is scary on the med mixup... glad you figured it out! Katie's fingers get fat too but that has to do with sodium/electrolyte dumping. We will be prancing at Antelope Canyon.. probably from the wrong shoe decision.. what the heck are we supposed to wear? road or trail???

Damaris-unless I take melatonin, I can't sleep more than an hour at a time. It is horrible. I don't worry about oversleeping though since it's not like it's made up on that end of the night cycle.

Elina-think of the days off as... well, days off. Eh.. we do what we can and enjoy it. Rule to live by. And, I hate to say it, but I guess I hadn't realized you were gone... then again, I was too so that could be why. LOL

Karen-yeah for the good run! LOL on not remembering when you last work make-up. My flight is still "on time!"

HCK2-LOL on your definition of a "good run" ... refer to Elina's "rule to live by" for today as posted by me above.