Man, wish I was that lucky person in CA that won 522 MILLION last night!

Lizzie - I bet your Mom is loving the wedding planning with you!  I loved it with my DD’s. Nice job on the run!  I don’t know how you get up so early and get it done, but good for you!

Well, I’m back after an amazing trip to Alaska!  Long story short, we had one booked for a year, then had to cancel because of FIL, after he died and MIL was doing good we had a deal come up we couldn’t pass!  Seriously saved us a couple thousand!  We had a 7 day cruise & 7 days on the land.  AMAZING is all I can say.  We had a great time!  I did run on the ship, DM a couple times, and around the deck.  Also at a couple of lodges I ran outside. Coming home was a biotch tho...24 hours of traveling UGH.  But, now I’m back and getting back in the swing of things!

I have have been trying to sporadically keep up!  Just going to say Hi to all now, and will catch personals later!

Carol

Tessa – I always say I want to come back as a cat!  I mean, what a life.  I think the napping in the sunshine would be my favorite.  It’s always funny to see what they do during the day.  Fun to run in a new location!  OMG that’s a lot of newspapers to read.  No wonder you do not have TV.

Damaris – you were cracking me up yesterday.  You are more funny when you are pissed!  The poison gas falls at 3pm hahahaha.  But at my house, he sleeps when I’m at work and then is awake when I get home so I can tend to his petting needs.  Ugh sorry about the high BP.

HCK – OMG those tacos sound amazing!!!

Elina – whew what a whirlwind of a day you had yesterday!!  I honestly do not know how you go out and run after a day like that.  I would be exhausted!!

Lizzie – I can’t WAIT to see your fancy rat tail in Oct hahaha  Oh, and I hate to break it to you  but TODAY IS NOT THURSDAY!  LOL.  Good lord on your run – you freakin amaze me, Chica.  I think you need to eat 2 cheeseburgers tonight.  Maybe 3!  Laughing at “guests”.  It always reminds me of “breasts” hahahaha  I thought you would appreciate that.  Fun you are meeting with the florists already.  Wow, that is crazy that some photographers are already booked.  Hope work goes fast!  You get to sleep in tomorrow!  Woot!

Karen – oh wow on your heat index.  And you ran in it.  Whew!!  You are going to be FLYING this fall in the cooler temps.  Awesome you are still growing your running group and super awesome about the bike trainer!  Who needs OTF when you have all the toys at home?  How did all the rearranging go?  Sounds like it would be some serious cross-training.  Yeah yeah, I would LOVE to go to OTF at 9:30 or 10:45 – rub it in LOL  I agree, running with slow RB that likes the walk breaks is AWESOME for once a week recovery days.  It’s just that she’s been hitting me up more and more and it’s stressing me ou!  Haha

Judy – ahhh Menards.  AKA “the man store” haha  Enjoy your dinner out!

Hi Carol!  Your Alaska trip sounds AMAZING!  Weren’t you afraid of running into bears when you ran outside?  Did you carry a bell?

5.5 mi for me.  Pretty sweaty but not horrible.  Rain on it’s way and then tomorrow is going to be close to chilly.  In a “Lizzie is going to hate me for my weather” kinda chilly haha.

So, my Jeep.  Ugh.  They called yesterday and said they can’t find the part.  It’s not made anymore.  But they found a place out of state that will custom make it.  Gonna cost me around $800.  I was all stressed out about it.  Not sure I can trust an old mechanic to navigate the Internet to find a part.  So I called a couple places and no luck.  I called a salvage yard and they basically laughed at me and said they don’t have anything that old.  It’s a 2001 – WTF.  I don’t think that is THAT old??  I’m just pissed that a couple weeks ago two different places sorta blew me off and now it’s an emergency.  I really am stuck since I can’t drive it.  I’m also pissed that no one ever told me this was happening.  I mean, I do not make a habit of crawling underneath but I get my oil changed regularly and I had brakes put in early spring.  Why didn’t anyone say anything?  Okay, sorry.  Done ranting.  I don’t anticipate getting it back until Mon or Tues.  Got  a ride to work today and will bus it home.  Same for tomorrow.  But, I’m so out of food I’ll probably end up doing grocery delivery.  Though my RB did give me what looks to be two servings of her leftovers from last night since her family didn’t like it.  LOL  Happy WEDNESDAY!!

Lizzie, just as Sandy mentioned, it isn't Thurs, yet...  That is crazy that things for weddings are booked out over a year away.  Guess it was wise to start planning already!!  MMMM, cheeseburger...  I had one for dinner at a drive thru last night.  Do others have Culver's??  Pretty good I must say, and their cheese curds.

Carol, what a lovely sounding trip.  Though in general I don't like cruises, I have heard that is the best way to see Alaska, one day I will do it!!

Judy, have a great dinner.

Sandy, what a bummer and PITA about the jeep.  Hope they are able to fix it soon...  Grocery delivery...  Have you done it before?  Nice of your RB with the food.  Hope it is good after her family not liking it.

HCK, those Korean tacos sounded simply fabulous.  You had me just about drooling.

Just got back from a tolerable walk.  Only 80 out.  We have been at or over 100 for forever and I am just plain tired of it.  I need to get a move on it for Woodstock.  I signed up for the half and would like to be able to keep up with Ginny.

Picked up a shift for Saturday, nice to have a few extra bucks coming in, I will take whatever I can get.  Looks like I will routinely not work Thursdays as they are given to another doctor who is super nice and lives near there.  Oh well.  I am doing OK money wise, for now at least.  September and October are gonna be kinda grim.

Tomorrow off, gonna make a red wine roast in the slow cooker.  Yummy sounding.

Work was decent last night - people wanting to do things.  Those are nice days.

Have a great day all.

K

10 miles this morning. Much cooler than yesterday - only 75 and the dew point low 70s. Got hot once the sun came up, but still so much nicer than yesterday. Going to try for double digits again tomorrow, then long run on Sunday. I've finally got my weekly mileage over 50, now to get my long runs longer. I wrote my 100 mile goal on the whiteboard, dammit, so I need to get serious about training!

I did get everything moved around upstairs. DH worked from home yesterday so he moved some of the bike stuff and a table for me. The TM is nice - it's heavy, but the bottom folds up and when it does it's on four wheels, so I was able to move that over by myself. It actually looks better this way, since the TM is much bigger than the bike trainers, having it over by the wall instead of the middle of the room makes the room more open. We will see if it helps structurally. At the very least, now it's only positioned over my car - before if I fell through the roof Id probably wreck both cars.

HCK, you are lucky none of us live close by, sounds like I'm not the only one that was drooling over your tacos. Those sounded amazing and I think several of us would have stopped by to eat if we could.

Damaris, that is a good point - I could do most of the OTF workouts at home. Sometimes when I look at them I have to google half the floor exercises though! Hope the BP medicine doesn't mess you up. DH actually said he felt better on the bike last night for the first time since he's been on the prednisone and BP meds.

Liz, yes, make those wedding arrangements now. I still remember my mom telling me we had plenty of time (my dad booked the church and reception as soon as I told them the date even though my mom said that), but there were like 7 weddings that day in my small town and we were scraping the bottom of the barrel in some areas. Why yes, we did use the floral department of the grocery store for flowers. And we had to go out of town to find a photographer. No, I'm not at all bitter and holding a grudge TWENTY-FOUR years later.....hahaha. We went to St. Thomas for our honeymoon. Took a chance with hurricane weather (September) but it worked out.

Tessa, sounds like once you get out of the immediate traffic area, there are a lot of nice places to run in DD's area. Glad that you're getting some decent running in, and that you can work remotely. Kinda sucks that you can't just take the time off completely, though I understand.

Elina, crazy yet awesome day for you! I'm guessing you do best when you have just a little bit more than should be possible to get done to do. Balancing that with too much and freaking out is the key.

Carol, that trip sounds amazing. Between you and my friend in Iceland right now, I'm having horrible travel jealousy. Will you be posting pictures?

Judy, I have never been in a Menards. My parents love that place though, as does my brother. Hope this time they get the water thing fixed.

Sandy, I would be so so so annoyed on the car. Seriously, no one noticed the problem until now? And it bugs me that society in general doesn't seem interested in keeping cars around and running for more than 5-10 years it seems. Anyway, it is really cool that you can survive a week without a car.....couldn't do that here!

Kathryn, I liked hearing the other day that you and your mom were emailing/getting along more. This heat is killer. I've found that if I can get out before the sun gets too high, it's not too awful. Problem is I'm not a morning person, so getting out that early is hard.

Happy Wednesday/Thursday?    It's my Monday since I was off the last couple of days.    8 miles easy for me this morning, one of those nice effortless runs.  Full disclosure, it was supposed to be an 81 minute run and I ran 81 minutes and 7 seconds because I could not stop at 7.99 miles.     Though interestingly, I was also using my Nike app since I was listening to a guided run, and that had me at 8.25 miles.  Shows how far off the phone GPS can be!  Hey, those are Wisconsin companies that you ladies are talking about today, Menards and Culver's!  Menards is headquartered in Eau Claire and Culver's near Sauk City.

Lizzie, awesome speedwork!  That is pretty warm to be wearing calf sleeves.     It was 88 when I took the kids to tennis yesterday afternoon, but it wasn't humid.  It was really nice in the shade!  Enjoy the cheeseburger!  Do you have wedding colors picked out?  Flowers are expensive!  We did the minimum, just the handheld bouquets and boutonnieres, and a few flowers for the cake table.  Yeah, the good photographers will book very early!  Yes, that was my first double digit run in awhile.  The foot was sore afterwards but the rest day fixed it.  I have a blister that I always get on the left side of my left foot and that was bugging me.  I taped it this morning!  Interestingly, with the plan I am following, this coming weekend's long run will be the longest that I do.  Then the long run pretty much holds.  I have one more week in the aerobic base phase, then on to the hill training phase!  The food I eat usually doesn't affect me when I run.  Who knows?    I ate dinner at about 5:00 last night, my run this morning was a little later, about 6:15, and I was getting hungry!    Yeah, the 24 hour run is the local one.

Carol, welcome back!  Glad you had a great trip.  Alaska would be amazing.

Sandy, DD was talking about how great it would be to be a dog or cat.     Is it supposed to get cool?  I haven't checked.    Oh, yeah, high of 72 on Friday.  Though temps seem to turn out to be a bit higher than what the apps say here.  But I won't complain about mid 70's!  Oh, that sucks about your Jeep!  2001 is not that old for a vehicle.  Isn't that what the salvage yards are for?  I didn't have much planned for yesterday, older DD had a doctor appt in between writing camp and tennis.  So it was a lot of driving around!

Kat, I had a Culver's cheeseburger last Thursday, we were rushing to see DH's nephew play soccer.  Nice picnic in the park.    Those temps are awful!  Glad you got out.

Damaris, push hubby off the TM.     Sorry about needing the BP meds.  It's also hereditary in my family, my sister always had low BP but it's gone up.  Wondering if I will be next!  Glad the lab tests came out well.  I have to do mine next Monday!

Elina, wow, sounds like a hectic day at work!  Great that you love your job.  

Tessa, nice that you could work remotely while visiting DD.  I noticed the Free Library box by the tennis courts was pretty empty, we will need to bring some things with us this week!  The Milwaukee newspaper (which we subscribe to) still does paper versions daily.  We used to have two Milwaukee newspapers but they consolidated to one.  Our smaller local city paper also still does a paper version.

Karen, you are going to have a nice setup to workout indoors!  I would imagine that the TM would be loud.  We have ours in the basement.  Our basement is unfinished, so it's not a nice place to run.  Makes me run outdoors more.    Ha, I hope it doesn't fall through the floor. Glad you got cooler weather today!

Ginny, since I started running again I have noticed that my shoes seem tighter!  I do know that my feet have gotten bigger, at least a half size in the past couple of years.

Cathy

Did 5 on the TM last night.  Went to the gym at lunch and did 30 min (5 miles) on the bike then did 2 sets of 15 on the rower and ab machine.  Was going to do 3 sets but someone jumped on the rower just as I was getting off the ab machine so I decided I'd just use the rowing machine tonight at home.  Will do 2 miles on TM first and try for 10 min on rowing machine.

I think I found my 3rd qtr race for next year.  Something called the Lhotse 200 in Owasso, OK.  It's on a track but has 72, 48 and 24 hours and 100 miles and 50 miles.  I think I'll sign up for the 24 hours and see how far I get in prep for the JJ 100k in Oct.  I don't want to do much more than 50 miles.  I'll have to see how BB's 50 miles treat me before getting all excited for longer distances.

Lizzie for my first marriage I worked in the floral dept. of a Kroger so did my own flowers with what the shop had.  I did the "veil" wreath with dried flowers so it was a keepsake.  Current marriage...as low key as I could get without it being a justice of the peace. No church, no flowers, my own dress, DD and friend there.  Dinner after at the haunted hotel where we stayed.  It was SO much better.  Course this is your first and you are still young