I walked Down the Primrose Path

Riding into Hills on New Year's Eve day.

Sooo, I've been told I have this thing called a blog? And that I might want to actually write in it again? Yeah. That. Anyway, here goes:

Archie helping us play Twister on New Year's Eve.

New Year's weekend was all so very nice. On Friday we went to a friend's house. They were planning on watching the Hawkeye bowl game. We came for the food, basically and played frisbee golf on his Playstation 3. I'm better at real frisbee golf - which still isn't saying anything.

Us ringing in the Irish new year at 6.

On Saturday we woke up and lounged around the house. We met some friends for a New Year's Eve bike ride at noon. It was 50 degrees but ridiculously windy. Luckily, we had a tail wind on the way home.

The Guy and some friends showing off their steppin'-out shoes.

We came back from the ride, took a quick nap, and then headed out again for the Irish New Year. It was packed at the Dublin, but I got to see a mess of people and had one drink and then we scurried back to make the fondue and other food.

Fondue'ing and fondon't'ing.

We ended up with about 10 guests and played Pictionary, Twister and Battleship. I had a migraine for most of the day and evening and shortly after midnight, I finally had to go to bed. The Guy stayed up with the few guests who lived within stumbling distance from their homes and therefore stayed until around 2. A good time seemed to be had by all.

The cats vying for the best birdwatching spot on the couch.

I woke up on the first day of the New Year with a lingering headache. The Guy was wonderful and did all the cleaning-up from the party. I did manage to make a delicious breakfast and then spent the rest of the day reading. I finished Swamplandia! and started Truth and Beauty a Friendship, by Ann Patchett. We also watched the movie Cowboys and Aliens. My friend Toby had a small part in it and I got t see him get dragged away by horses. The movie was much better than I thought it would be.

I hope all of your New Year's were just as wonderful as mine, but migraine free.

And the Feeling Coming From My Bones Says Find a Home

This pic of us was in our local paper's website in their report about RAGBRAI.

On Friday of RAGBRAI, we went from Grinnell to Coralville. Coralville is kind of like a suburb of Iowa City, so we actually got to sleep in our own beds and do laundry and torture our cats before the last day. Awesome, I know.

Our friend works for the state archaeologist and so we stopped at their booth.

We left our group and rode early to meet our friend. The Guy had to get to town pretty early so he could go to work and put a cast on one of his cousins. We rode pretty much straight through, without a lot of stopping or lolly gagging - which we never do with our normal group.


The kids in Coadster's Summer program getting ready to perform in their School of Rock style band.

It worked out well for me, as i had a lovely migraine all day. When we finally stopped at the Archaeology booth, I had to lie down and then took my meds. My meds make it harder for me to ride very fast, but I wasn't going to be able to ride at all, if I couldn't get my headache under control. The rest of the ride was just fine. I was exhausted, so when we got into town around two, The Guy took a shower and went to work and I took a shower and went to bed.

The kids performing at the Java House on Friday night. Very cool.

I woke up, just as The Guy was getting home. I had promised Coadster that I would come watch her show at a local coffee shop, She and the other guys she works with, got the kids to form a band. They could play whatever instrument they wanted, or sing and if they weren't comfortable getting up in front of a crowd, they could be screaming fans.

Coadster supervised the singers and changed the lyrics to a White Stripes and Lady Gaga song to make them suitable for children and at 7 on Friday night, all those little kids rocked our faces off. It was great. The parents went crazy taking pictures and video.

I got home around 8 and The Guy and I ate pizza and relaxed and got ready for our final day of RAGBRAI.

Hey, Babe. Let's Go Out Tonight.

Archie resting for those of us who are too stupid to do that on the weekends.

I had another glorious weekend. I got off early on Friday. I ran an errand or two and then took my bike to West Branch to ride the course I'm going to race this Wednesday. It was in the 90's and ridiculously windy. The Guy was great and printed out a map, because I am lousy about directions. I did the route, but it definitely kicked my ass. It's okay, though. Getting my ass kicked will only make me stronger, right?

After I got home, The Guy drove up just as Stinky and I were going to the store to get things for dinner. He asked me if I didn't think it would be better, if we sat in an air conditioned restaurant and let someone bring us food and cold beverages and if I would let him take me out to dinner. Um, yes I did and yes, I would. So, he took me out for tapas at Devotay, and it was lovely. We got home and sat on the porch, talking with Coadster, until we finally went to bed.

On Saturday I woke up to a migraine. The Guy was great and went and got us bagels and then drove me to the pharmacy the minute it opened so I could get my meds. In the past I would have done all of that myself, and it would have sucked, so it's nice to actually have help.

By 11, my migraine had calmed down and The Guy and I met some friends for a 50 mile bike ride. It was another windy warm day...Just not as bad as the day before.

We got home around 6'ish and watched a couple of Andy Griffith's. ate pizza and then watched The Awful Truth starring Cary Grant and Irene Dunne. it was great.

On Sunday, my head was all better. I got up and did some gardening and then we went on another bike ride. It was my third long ride in three days, but I felt pretty good for it. Only two days until my first bike race. I hope all this riding helps with that.

I Know This Much is True

Here is something that appeared under our back staircase at work yesterday. It's still there today. I'm curious to see how long it "sticks" around.

So, last night turned out very, very well. I stopped at the Co-op on my way home and then got home and went running. The Guy did a little hanging out on the back porch with the cats, then he came in and tidied up the kitchen and cleaned the bathroom.

I started cooking when I got home from running. I made spicy peanut noodles, and roasted garlic and Miso soup and The Guy made salad and we had sour dough bread from the Co-op. G. and our friend Sara came over and we laughed our asses off and flipped each other shit for a few hours before we remembered it was a school night and had to go to bed.


We have a cubicle at work that we made our "happy place". We can go there when we need a time-out. We put up a tropical beach scene poster and one of the students brought in this dancing hula girl. Nice.

Tonight, I'm supposed to meet my friend E. to run. I'm a little on the migrainey side, so we'll see how that goes. I just took my meds and I'm waiting for them to kick-in. I haven't had a bad mirgraine in quite some time, so I've been happy about that. Apparently, I can't go forever, though.

But I Know Our Filthy Hands Can Wash One Another's

Me scaring one of the guests with a loaded Archie.

Oh, but this weekend was a busy one. On Friday, the guy and I had a nice dinner and watched True Grit. It was a DVD someone I knew copied off the internet, so the sound was off and the quality wasn't great, but I still liked it a lot.

The Guy peppering the conversation.

On Saturday we woke up fairly early and ate some French toast and veggie (fake) sausage, then set to work cleaning the place up before The Guy's mom came over for the first time. She loved seeing Heidi again, and of course, like most sociopaths, Archie was very charming while she was over. We took Stinky and The Guy's mom out for lunch and it was so very nice.

Then The Guy went to ride his bike and I went to run. We met back at the house a bit later and ran some errands. We made a trip to Menards to pick up a few things and then came back home and ate meal of bread, leftover shrimp, salmon pate', cream cheese and smoked trout. Yum.

We headed over to a friend's pre ST Patty's Day party where I may have had a little wine and could possibly become a little louder than I should've, but people should assume that's what will happen when I show up, right? Anyway, it was a fun party and The Guy and I stayed out past 10 o'clock. Crazy, I know.

Yea! Coadster is back for a few days.

Today was okay. I had another bad migraine, but I guess I should be used to those by now. The Guy got up early and took care of a bunch of things and that was so very nice. Then he went on a long bike ride with his friend Bry and Coadster and her boyfriend got here and took Stinky to the mall with them. I tried to get a few things done, but the brain pain made that kind of tough.

Everyone got home about the same time, I took Stinky to work and then we had a a couple of friends over for dinner. I made cheese tortellini with pesto sauce, linguine with Alfredo and sauteed chicken and The Guy made an excellent salad. The Guy and his friend Bry went off to play pool and my friend G. stayed for a while and we had some good girl talk.

All in all, a pretty damn nice weekend. I'd say.

That Ain't Working. That's the Way You Do It

Coadster with her guy.

So, kids...It was a busy weekend and then I had a migraine on Sunday night and therefore, no blogging was done. Alack and alas.

Today though. Today was just fine. I spent most of the day helping Coadster do her financial aid through texting. I know. It was weird and annoying. She just wanted me to do it for her, but my orphan issues make me make her do it herself. I told her much of her life will include filling out papers (online, whatever) and the sooner she learns to deal with it and not put it off until the last minute, the better. Still not what she wanted to hear, but she did sit down and do it and thinks she'll get about $3000 in grants. Not bad for a few hours of work.

Anyway. I guess she doesn't have to like it now, but hopefully she'll appreciate me not just doing everything for her, so she can do stuff for herself when she's older. I'll guess we'll see....Maybe I better start saving for her therapy bills now.

Say Oh Christ, Oh Jesus Christ. My head's Gonna Crack Like a Bank

Sorry about the lack of posting last night. I was struck down with the worst migraine of my life. I took my meds, but it didn't go away until I woke up this morning.

I plan on being better about the blogging this week. Wish me luck.

Runnin' Down the Avenue, See How the Sun Shines Brightly in the City

Discs.

So, my weekend has turned out differently than I thought it would. It's not bad...It just didn't really care about the plans I had for it.

Friday was a good day. I ran and drove Stinky and her babysittee to the pool. Then I went with some friends to play disc golf for the first time. I really liked it...And I got much better at it with every hole. Of course, I didn't even get halfway through before Stinky called me to pick her and her charge up at the pool. It was fine. At least I tried it, I know I like it, and I can play it again whenever I want.

Friday night was a very mellow affair, I had to run that race the next morning, so I hung out by myself, cleaned my kitchen and watched some more first season of Weeds episodes. I tried to go to bed at a decent hour, but couldn't fall asleep and then kept waking up to weird dreams. I finally woke up for good around 5:30 to a thunderstorm.

My friend H. smoking a ciggie before her first foray into disc golf.

Storms blew through on Saturday up until a half hour before my first 10K. I was prepared to run in the rain, but they held the race another 15 minutes and then I didn't have to. I started out pretty slowly, and had way too much kick at the end, but it was a really great experience. I started raining again, right as I saw the finish line, which probably helped my time. I just checked the results and I placed 2nd in my age group for women. That really isn't saying much, because its a smaller race, but I'll take it. My final time was 54.02. Which meant I ran about 8.42 minute miles. I didn't exactly tear up the streets, but I'm still happy with it.

The rest of the day, I spent trying to fall asleep with almost no success. I finally got up around 4'ish and got ready to go to a BBQ at a friend's house. It was very nice. I ate great food, had a couple glasses of wine, had a fun talk and got to play with Eggo's adorable baby boy. I went home around 8:30 and was suddenly hit by a blinding migraine. Who knew that no sleep and a couple of glasses of wine would cause that? Uh, I did. Duh. I took meds, but it took a while for them to kick in. G. called to see if I was going to meet them for the bachelor party, but I had to bow out. I fell asleep in my clothes with all the lights on, until almost 2 am, when I woke up and got ready to sleep for the night.

Look how green it is here. That's because it rains every damn day.

Today was pretty mellow too. It stormed most of the morning and early afternoon. I've tried to do something new every day of my vacation, and today's new thing was to sit on my screened-in-porch during a thunderstorm and read a book. It was very nice and I'm sure I could easily make a habit of that. The skies finally cleared and I was able to mow the lawn and get some things done in the yard. Then I made a turkey dinner and brownies for dessert. G. came over and ate and we went on the back porch to talk.

Stinky asked if her best friend could come over, which somehow turned into half the kids in her class. I started a fire for them in the backyard, and the kids devoured brownies, and split their time between the outside fire and the NBA game on in the living room. They're good kids and respectful, so if they want to deplete my house of lemonade and brownies, I'm okay with that. I think we all know, with teens, it could be soooo much worse.

But I Thought, This Wouldn't Hurt a Lot. Guess Not.

Some lilacs that are just about to open.

Well, kids. I think I FINALLY shook my stupid migraine at about 10:00 today. I thought I was going to cry every time I hit a bump while riding my bike to work this morning. I feel so much better now that I can function. Weird, that.

I was good, though. I did give plasma after work and that went well too. I got one of the good workers and no hematomas this time. I didn't run afterward, even though I really, really wanted to. Actually, I didn't really do much tonight. I just tried to make myself rest.

Here are lots and lots of lilacs that are starting to open up smell amazingly good.

Tomorrow I get to go running again after work. I'm also planning on either doing a little yard work or kitchen cabinet work (No, I haven't finished that project yet) but I promise to just do a little bit of either and not burn myself out. I swear, I'll learn to practice restraint if it kills me.

We Put Faith In Our Concerns

My girls right before prom. Their dresses were very representative of them.

Oh, kids. I'm here to tell ya. You definitely want to listen to your body. Because if it's, oh, say telling you that it's tired and you don't listen to the hints it gives you, it will stop being so subtle. For instance, my body gave me a 4 day migraine. I tried to ignore it, by taking migraine meds and still doing too much when the meds started working. Then my body decided it was going to stop reacting positively to the meds to get me to slow down and then my body grabbed the hot end of a curling iron and burned the crap out of my hand right before prom pictures, so that I wouldn't be able to pick up a tool or ride my bike for a couple of days. So, yeah. I guess I'll be finding things I can cut from my busy life, so it doesn't do anything worse, like giving me Stigmata or something.

Stinky and her date. I really liked both the girls' prom dates.

Friday was pretty mellow. I had that migraine, so I took a nap the minute I got home from work on my half day. I ran when I woke up, but realized during my run that I needed to take a break. I had run around 50 miles in 7 days, and even I can see how ridiculous that is. I decided to take the rest of the weekend off of running, but I was going to try to go on a long bike ride on Sunday.

Friday night the girls both went out with some friends and I stayed home and watched the most recent James Bond movie. It was pretty standard fare. But sometimes you just want to watch pretty people race boats and cars and planes and see a lot of shit blow-up in exotic locales. You know?

Stinky trying hard to pin on the boutonniere. She finally gave up and let her sister do it.

Saturday was insane. There was just a lot of running around and getting things at the last minute and running to the mall because Coadster never got any shoes for her dress. Wow. She really is my daughter. I never think about the shoes either. I dropped Coadster off at her hair appointment at 2 and Stinky and I went to Menards to get an axe. I have all this wood to cut up from the tree I trimmed and I can't afford a chain saw. So, I got some of the bigger branches cut up, before the prom primping began in earnest.

Coadster's date's mom is a hairstylist and did Coadster's hair for free...Including a touch-up during the pics. Awesome!

I tried to help the girls get ready for the prom until I burnt the hell out of my hand. Then we went to Stinky's friend's house for her groups pictures. I took plenty of photos and then Coadster and I had to run to the other side of town for her groups pics. By 7 or so, my job was finally done and I left the girls to their evening.

Coadster pinning on her date's boutonniere.

G. wanted me to go out with her, but as I've said, I'm taking a little break from socializing lately. It's not like I'll never go out again, but it can sometimes just get too much. My friends all point out that I need to speak to adults, and they're right, but I can get so overwhelmed by socializing out at bars, so I don't think a break will hurt me. I'm very fond of people coming to my house and sitting by the fire instead. Anyway, I stayed in and G. gave me the play by play of the evening the next day, all from a safe distance. I did finally finish reading Marilynne Robinson's Home and started Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart.

Coadster getting her corsage. It was so pretty and so different. Perfect for her.

Today I woke up to another migraine or the same one. Whatever. The girls got in bed with me and told me all about their nights. Then I took some more meds and took a nap. The meds started working again, and I was smart this time and still took it easy. I got groceries and ran a few errands, but I didn't ride my bike or do yard work. So, I'll be working on slowing things down for the next couple of weeks and see how that goes.

Me and Coads. She looks so sleek and I look so...Not sleek in my Meat Puppets t-shirt.

Don't You Feel You're Growing Up Undone?

Some guys in the vacant lot across from me filming something.

Oh, kids. I tried so hard to keep an even pace this weekend. On Friday I made myself calm down. It was raining when I got off work, so I ran a few errands, put a cheese pizza in the oven, ate, dropped Stinky off at a movie and came home where Coadster and I watched the movie, An Education. I really liked it. I thought the acting was great and all high school girls should be made to watch it. After it was over, Coadster said, "I'm so glad I was born in a time where girls have more options." And I totally agreed.

10 yard waste bags full. At least 10 more to go.

On Saturday I woke up feeling great. The sun was out, I was well rested and I had a list of projects to complete. I did a bunch of cleaning first, then ran some errands with Stinky, then ran my 6 mile route then raked up 10 bags of leaves and cut up some branches with a hack saw and danced around my house in between every project. Needless to say, by the time 5 o'clock rolled around I was beat.

Stinky stayed the night with the same friend she did last week. I kicked around the idea of just staying home, but it might be the last night in a while that I get to go out and talk to grown-ups, so I figured I should. I picked G. up and we headed downtown. The Dublin can be unpredictable. Sometimes I go down there and all kinds of great fun people are hanging out and I have a wonderful time. Other nights there's hardly anyone I know down there and the ones I do know drive me a little crazy. Saturday was more like the latter. Most people in town seemed to be at all the Mission Creek Music Festival events. Greg Brown was playing at the Englert and one of the guys from Husker Du was playing at Gabes and there was something else going on at the Blue Moose (what used to be The Que or The Copper Dollar depending on how long ago you lived here).

Anyway, I decided to leave around 11. G. emailed me the next day and told me it never got any better and that I didn't miss anything. I guess a positive way to look at it, is that now I won't feel bad when I can't go out for a while, right?

Today I got a text from a friend early in the morning. She had a family emergency and needed one of the girls to babysit for her. The first thing I realized when I woke up, was that I had a migraine. I wasn't all that surprised. I knew I overdid it a little the day before, and that's usually my body's way of forcing me to slow down. Uncle, uncle. I got the message, took some migraine meds and slowed my roll waaaaay down. I actually even sat on the couch in the middle of the day and watched a movie. I know. I never do that when there's light out. I got groceries and did some paperwork and a little cleaning, but other than that, I made myself rest. I hope your Easter (or whatever you celebrate) was restful as well.

And I Thought I Was Mistaken And I Thought I Heard You Speak

Here is a pic of whoopee cushion love.

Wow. Three whole days. It's never enough, though, is it? Friday was a really productive day for me. The snow and cold held off until much later in the day, so I got a nice run in and then I did a ton of outside work. I did some organizational crap that is never very blogworthy, and then I raked the leaf mulch off my two raised beds. Since I moved in November, I have no idea what's planted anywhere. Right now, it looks like I have a rose bush, some mint, Echinacea, and some Irises. I also planted some basil and tomato seedlings in my house. I love watching them sprout and grow into adorable, little organic plants.

Saturday I woke up with a migraine. I should've known. I was kind of low energy on Friday evening and that can sometimes mean I'm on the road to brain pain. My meds take a few hours to work, but then my headache was gone. It just sucks to lose those couple of hours. Saturday night was really nice. I stopped by a friend's house to drop off a few things and ended up staying and having a beer and a really nice talk. G. called me to pick her and our friend J. up. I wasn't really in the frame of mind to go out, but I had already promised, so I figured I'd go and have a beer and make a quick exit.

Here's me distracting pool players...Again.

Then when we got down to the bar, I saw a lot of great people I hadn't had a chance to hang out with in forever. It was so much fun. I was still pretty wiped out from my migraine, so I lasted until about 11:30 before I had to go home. Between both parts of it, I'd call that almost a perfect Saturday night.

Sunday was a day of running kids around. I ended up doing all the errands I wasn't able to do with the funky vision I get with my migraines on Saturday. So, for three days, I didn't get as much done as I wanted, but I doubt I ever will. The good thing is, that Summer's coming and then I'll have about 4 weeks of vacation to burn. Yeee Haaaaw!

Everybody's Coming Home for Lunch These Days

This is a guy wearing fake corn on his head...Apparently, he's proud of his Iowa roots.

Well, this weekend wasn't as productive as I'd planned. So, it goes. I'll just have to try to get more done during the week.

Friday night I stayed home with Coadster. You know how I said I had fulfilled my quota on Hitler assassination plot movies? Well, on Friday we watched Defiance. So, yes. It was about the Holocaust and I'm sure if they could have assassinated Hitler, they would have, but it wasn't really about that. We both liked it, though. I always appreciate it when they show good people who are shot full of flaws. It makes a movie so much more believable.

Saturday was pretty mellow. Coadster was at her show choir dealie and Stinky went to the Fieldhouse to work-out and then to her high school to watch the speech team tournament. she had never been to one before and thought it was pretty interesting. The left me to hang out by myself. I ran in the rain (which felt really weird in January) and sorted through a bunch of crap I've been putting off. My moving in and fixing things up process has been me moving all the stuff I didn't want to deal with into the kitchen after I did each room. So, yesterday I finally tackled all of that. I still have a ton of papers on my kitchen table to sort through, but the bulk is done. Finally.

Here's me at Soldier Field for the Bears/Saints game almost exactly 2 years ago. I'm a Bears fan first and foremost and sorry to all my readers who are Vikings fans...But, GO SAINTS!

Saturday night was fun. It just ended earlier than I had hoped. As I said, my girl crush was in town with her husband. I picked G. up and headed down to the Dublin. A bunch of our friends were there, but the girl crush was at the Yacht Club seeing a band. She got down around a quarter til 11. Of course, 15 minutes later, I got a text from the people Stinky was babysitting for saying they were coming home and I could pick up Stinky. So, that was that. Quick, but not nearly dirty enough. Hopefully, next time they come, it will work for me to stay out later.

On Sunday, I woke up with a migraine. Shit. I haven't had a bad one in a long, long time, so I guess I was due. Even with my migraine meds, it knocked me out for most of the day. I get the weird vision thing that makes me feel like I'm going to puke with them and that's super fun too. Somehow, I managed to get a run in today. I actually took the second half of my pill this evening, so I think it's finally sufficiently snuffed out. Of course, that just means that I have my work doubly cut-out for me this week.

I hope you all had a much more or less productive weekend than I had...Depending on what you were shooting for.

Who Needs to Think When Your Feet Just Go?

You probably won't notice the difference, but I did some tree trimming work on Saturday. It opens the house up a lot, but mostly accentuates how much the tree is leaning toward my house.

So, it's very late. I went out tonight for the first time since 2009. I'm going to try not to ramble, but I'm not promising anything.

My weekend started out so productively. Friday night was very mellow and I woke up on Saturday rarin' to go on my projects. I worked on the kitchen and did laundry, and cleaned up the ice on my sidewalks and tried to figure out why my garage door won't work (it must be this week's broken thing) and limbed up my favorite tree in the front yard. It had a few issues after the ice storm and it also had some unruly branches growing in the wrong directions, so I did some sawing and some pruning and some dragging of brush to the backyard. I'm one of those freaks who loves yard work, so all of this made me very happy. I celebrated the completion of all the projects with a really nice run. Then Stinky and I made a Menards run to find some new cupboard knobs and hinges.

This was the first thing I saw when I got downtown. I have no idea what was going on. I just snapped this and kept moving.

I got a text from G. a little after midnight saying that they were back from Belize. I was glad to know they were home safely, and I was also happy I got to stay home both Friday and Saturday nights this weekend. I really needed some mellow time.

My friends and I were all wearing jeans. Since we usually wear dresses or skirts, we figured we should document it.

I originally planned on getting as much done on Sunday, but my migraine had other ideas. I spent most of the earlier part of the day resting while I waited for my migraine meds to work. Later in the day, they finally kicked in and I was able to function better.

Stinky and I went to a friend's open house. She and her husband flip houses and they did a really cool job on their most recent house. It was fun to check out, plus she wants Stinky to watch her kids next weekend, so I thought it would be a great chance to meet them. Stinky thought they were adorable and is excited to babysit.

My new friend up to some shenanigans, while G. tries to set him straight.

G. asked me if I would please go out tonight. She said she was having some post-vacation let down and really needed to laugh. I talked with the girls and they had their own stuff going on, so I was up for the challenge.

Consider his chalky hands wiped-off.

The bar was pretty darn slow, except for some of G.'s younger friends. I haven't really had a chance to meet those guys before. We always called them the surly punk rock boys, and I just figured they were those kind of guys in their early twenties, who were too cool for school. After tonight, I have a TOTALLY different opinion.

A guy named S., especially was even dorkier than I am...Okay. At least as dorky as I am anyway. he was dancing around and doing anything he could think of, to distract G. from any shots she tried to make and making me laugh harder than I have all year. In other words, he was tons of fun. I guess that's what I get for stereotyping.

The best thing about tonight, is that I don't have to work tomorrow, so I might be able to make up for the things I wasn't able to get done on Sunday.

But This Will be the Year That We Won't Forget

It's still really cold here, so I decided to fantasize about the beach.

Sooo, I had a good day off. I didn't get as much done as I wanted, but I still got a lot done. I stayed off blogs for the most part, to keep myself a little better focused.

Stinky and I went Christmas shopping. Even on a Wednesday afternoon, the mall was still crazy. I'm glad we weren't stupid enough to attempt it on a Saturday. The good news is that I got everything except two gifts. The bad news is that I didn't get my room completely painted and put back together. It's all primed and taped and the outlet covers are off, so all I have to do is actually paint it - which is the fun part, as far as I'm concerned. I just can't wait for the day when my house isn't in a constant state of constructions.

Okay. I developed a lovely little migraine, so I'm going to try to sleep it off. Night, night.

I Don't Know Where I'm Running Now, I'm Just Running On

Here I am next to a gigantic foam finger. It's part of a promo we're doing to get students involved in campus activities. I'm not sure who thought seeing a guy walking around campus dressed like this would be motivating, just know it wasn't me.

So, kids. This weekend turned out differently than I had planned. Coadster babysat for Mr Creekside Review and his wife on Friday night. Their son is adorable and sweet and Coadster loves hanging out with him. She said he was quoting Kung Fu Panda all night and that just happens to be one of her favorite movies too. It sounds like she had a great night.

Stinky asked if I'd take her Homecoming dress shopping, so I did. She didn't find anything she really liked, and I was too tired to keep going, so we went home and started watching Quarantine. As I've said before, I do like a good zombie movie. Too bad Quarantine wasn't one of them. I hate it when the plot is driven by people being stupid. I couldn't even finish it, I was so annoyed with it. Stinky had already seen it, was exhausted and had to get up early the next morning, so we were both fine with turning it off.

Saturday was a very active day for me. I went for a long bike ride on Saturday morning and my 6 mile run in the afternoon. I swear, if I didn't have to work an office job, I'd start every morning off with an hour or two long bike ride. It felt so great.

Around 7:30, my friend D. called me to say that she and our friend E. had just been hanging out at the Magic Bus during the game, were heading down to the Dublin and wanted to know if I would join them. Ah, what the hell. I waited for Stinky to get off work, and then dropped her off at her friend's house and headed down. I'm glad I did, since there were a lot of people I knew there. Of course, by the time I got there, E. was already heading home with her husband, but D. was there for the duration. A little before midnight, I got a call from a friend of mine asking me where I was. She was having boy troubles and wanted to know if she could come down and talk to me about it.

I really don't think I'm the best person to talk to about that, since I haven't been in any kind of relationship in forever. It just seems like in most of those situations, people really need to vent, and I'm good at lending a supportive ear. At one point, she asked me what I thought she should do. Basically, I just told her to be honest and open about how she felt and what she wanted and let him know what was bugging her, without making him feel like he was being attacked. That's about all the advice I have. Wouldn't it be great if everyone was just open and honest and let people know what they wanted as diplomatically as possible? How refreshing would that be? (and I'm not just talking about relationships. It would be really great at work too) I suppose the tough part with that is everyone figuring out what they want and not changing their minds.

Where was I again? Oh yeah. Saturday night. Anyway, I tried to help as much as possible, but I was really tired. Luckily, that particular friend only lives a block away from me, so we were able to continue our conversation while we walked home together.

I woke up early on Sunday and felt okay. I had a migraine on and off since Friday afternoon. So, I thought I might finally be in the clear. A friend suggested I check out the local triathlon to see how it all worked. I headed over there and he was so right. It was really cool to see it in action. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so you don't get to see the guy who competed in a kilt or the other unregistered guy who snuck in to run the 5 k in jean cut-offs. Sorry. (or maybe I should say, you're welcome) Before I left, my migraine had come back full force, so I wasn't able to swim laps today. Darn.

Tri training this week:

32 miles run.

22 miles biked.

0 laps swum. (is that right? swum? swam?)

I realize that I still haven't done any swiming yet. I'm planning on working that in more when the weather is bad and I can't run or bike outside as easily.

Sit On Your Hands On a Bus Of Survivors

Here is the back of a boat house.

I thought I'd do another quaint writing exercise this week on the nature of pain. What was last week's again? Oh yeah. I talked about touching a dead body when I was kid. One of these days, I'll surprise the hell out of all y'all and write about rainbows and unicorns. Of course, rainbows are just illusions and unicorns creep me out, so I doubt my take will be very sweet. If you only know me from my blog, I swear to god that in real life I'm fun and happy and hopeful.. It just seems like writing brings up the dark sludge in me. Here it is:

You are quite familiar with physical pain. It used to be part of your job. When you would assess patients with pain complaints, you knew just what to ask them. Was it sharp and stabbing, radiating or crushing? On a scale of one to ten where 10 is the worst pain imaginable and one is normal, how would you rank your pain? (just another reason to hate math and numbers)

You've felt it yourself. Mostly through your migraines. That sharp stabbing pain in your sinus cavity so intense it makes you throw up and pass-out, getting dragged underneath a buggy and losing layers of skin on your left leg, and 36 hours of labor. On a scale from one to ten where ten is the worst pain imaginable, you'd give those a 20.

The crazy thing about physical pain, is that once it's gone, it's hard to remember what it felt like exactly. Which is probably the only reason women have more than one child. You know it hurt, you know it was unpleasant, but you can't make yourself really feel it again even minutes after it's gone.

Emotional pain is a different beast altogether. Years and years after you've experienced it, you feel it exactly like you did the first time - sharp and stabbing in your stomach, crushing your chest and radiating throughout your body.


And now for something completely different...I'm going to take a weekly count for training purposes: This week I ran 41 miles, rode only 10 miles on my bike and sacrificed my lap swim to a Stinky girl's stomach flu. My iPod played a few songs I hadn't heard in a while tonight too:

1. "Mirror in the Bathroom" - The English Beat.

2. "Jump in the Line" - Harry Belafonte.

3. "Love and Destroy" - Franz Ferdinand.

4. "Bombs Over Baghdad" - Outkast.

5. "Somewhere Only We Know" - Keane.

'Cause What You See You Might Not Get

Coadster giving herself bunny ears for some reason.

Well, I did get the pain with that migraine after all. Luckily, my migraine meds took care of it after a while, but I'm still all different kinds of wonky, so you get another random post. Come on, you know you all love bullet points....Or how about numbers instead?

1.) I'm on this new kick where I want to try and get a little more serious about doing actual writing on here. I know I go through this a couple of times a year, and then I lose it and then I find it again. So, if I start posting weird shit that doesn't seem like it's at all about my mundane daily activities, just remember you've been warned.

2.) Somebody found my blog by Googling, "shoveling shit in Iowa" and now I'm thinking I should change the name of my blog to that. It would be way more accurate than Churlish Figure.

3.) I recently started reading W. Somerset Maugham's The Razor's Edge at a friend's suggestion and I'm really enjoying it. I don't know how I missed it in my younger years, but I'm so glad I'm reading it now.

4.) I ran into a woman friend last week and she was telling me about how she's been in a really bad relationship. She said she knew the guy was a jerk and treating her badly, but she couldn't get over him. She decided to talk to her therapist about it, who just happens to be originally from England. After she told her the whole story, her therapist said, "He sounds like a total fucking wanker. Why are you shagging him?!" My friend said once her therapist put it that way, she had to wonder the same thing. I guess some vernaculars are more powerful than others...

5.) This is my first full work week in I don't know how long. I forgot how fast time flew when I don't have the luxury of vacation time. How the hell do I get everything done when I'm at work five days a week again? Yeah, I know. Wah, fucking wah.

Don't Be Shocked by the Tone of My Voice

If you look closely, you can see people kayaking off in the distance. Pretty.

Okay, kids. I started feeling a little dizzy walking home from work today. I ran, and it was fine, if not uncomfortably humid. Then when I got home, I got super tired and stooooopid. That along with the dizziness can sometimes mean I'm getting a migraine. I never actually got the pain part of it, but every once in a while I get all the other symptoms without the actual headache.

So, I guess this is all an elaborate excuse not to write a real post tonight. Trust me, you'll all thank me for not trying to write another one of my famous, bullshit, bullshit, bullshit posts. I think we'll all be better served by me trying to sleep off my phantom migraine and come back tomorrow and try it again. Night, night.

Hello, Yeah, It's Been a While

Here I am with my favorite bartender S. in black and white. Black and white keeps us from looking too...Everything. Don't you think?

Oh, kids. I thought I was so damn clever. If I could only just ignore my cold, then maybe it would go away. It was like when I was being silly in school and my teachers asked the other kids not to pay attention and encourage me. I thought it would work like that with my cold too, and I was wrong. Dead wrong. Well, not quite dead, but it felt like I might be better off that way a few times.

I felt a little better on Thursday, so I ran my four mile route and went out for a couple of hours for exactly two beers. Bad idea. Every part of it.

An Irish Wolfhound named Dashell at the Dewey Street block party. He and I were pair on the 4th of July.

I woke up on Friday all out of sorts, but still willing to plug away. I was up at 8 and had some time with Stinky, before she went to Wisconsin with her friend's family. And when I say time, I mean, she basically draped herself over me while we were lying on my bed and she prattled on about stuff. Half of it I caught. The other half probably didn't matter all that much. I think it was about her friends not liking some of her other friends and one girl who always hit on every guy Stinky had a crush on... Or something thereabouts.

I ran my 6 mile route and it felt okay. After I got home, I was still a little out of it. Coadster wanted a girl date with me after Stinky left. She had just received her first full paycheck and needed a dress to wear to a wedding. We wandered around downtown and found just what she wanted. Then went to The Atlas for extravagant salads.

By Friday night, Coadster had left for the Quad Cities and I was so beat and sick that all I could do was lie around and play video games.

Here is a band that played at one of my Fourth of July celebrations.

By Saturday morning, there was no more ignoring my cold. It was stubborn and it wasn't going anywhere. I could barely hear and I think I was a bit feverish. That was just fine, because it was raining outside, so all the signs were pointing to me staying home and finally resting up. I didn't run. Instead I cleaned and putzed all day. I'd work on a room and then lie down, then go back to work on that room, then get on the computer for a sec and move onto the next room for most of the day.

Here is the muddy, muddy end of Dane road where we went to our other 4th of July party.

By 5 o'clock or so, things were clearing up outside, and I figured I might try to actually venture outside and end my quarantine.

I made it to the Dewey Street block party by 6'ish and basically just did a sweep through the place. I saw a bunch of freaks I used to work with at the Mill in the 80's and some other freaks I go to metal shows with now. Then I moved on to the next thing.

The next thing was the 20th anniversary of the Rock and Roll or Radillac farm's anniversary party. The weather put a damper on it, so the crowd was pretty sparse. Which was just fine with me. I went with my friends G. and D. and we did another cameo appearance.

We finally made it downtown to watch the fireworks and stop at the Dublin. There were tons of people out for Jazz Fest and fireworks. By the end of the night, I had caught my first wind and my friend G. and I did our best to distract pool players from making shots. At least we thought we were funny.

Since I wasn't listening to my cold, my body struck back by giving me a migraine while I was sleeping on saturday night, when I couldn't take anything to tame it in time. Stupid, mean body. I was sufficiently laid-out by the pain for most of the day. Luckily, I had my good migraine meds and they put up a fight and finally won it over by around 10 or 11 last night.

Okay, lesson learned. Uncle, uncle. I give. I will listen to my body from now on, and when I start to get sick, I will refrain from running and socializing for at least a couple of days. Even when that illness falls on a holiday when both my girls are out of town and I have the time and freedom to whoop it up. Amen.