Sometimes 30 is not fabulous

They’re gonna clean up your looks
With all the lies in the books
To make a citizen out of you
Because they sleep with a gun
And keep an eye on you, son
So they can watch all the things you do

What's up peoples!!!!! Congrats (I guess) to everyone who made it through whatever part of the Chicago marathon they made it through today. What an absolute clusterf$#$%#$. I don't get race officials, it sounds just like the craptastic Atlanta marathon I did back in March - super hot, race crew unprepared although they KNEW it would be hot, no support for the REAL people, the mid and backpackers. Maybe the USATF should focus more on properly supporting runners and not being the ipod police, ya think??? Anyway, I wasn't there so I can't REALLY judge, but it sounded pitiful. At least we got to hear from Barb and Mouse today, so that always makes a day a little more exciting!! Just to recap - I turned 30 this week and so did the Chicago Marathon. I guess I am winning in the battle for fabulousness after 30. Point - Rachel, No points - Chicago Marathon. Maybe marathons are like dogs and the race is really 240 years old. The more races I do, the more I enjoy the small ones, they honestly take better care of the runners. Anywho.....

What I did NOT do this weekend is workout. Yay for a weekend free of runs, swims, and rides! Sometimes I just need that, ya know. Friday we did shopping errands for our dinner party and ALL day yesterday was spent cleaning and cooking, and then partying! With the exception of a few food crisis' everything went pretty well food-wise. For some reason my pork tenderloin turned out totally different than the test one we did, my sweet potatoes took forever, and I could not find a very integral piece of my fondue pot - the electric cord. So, the fondue was a little lumpy from the sauce pot but who really cares. It was a fun night of people just hanging out on our insanely warm deck eating food and talking about absolutely everything. A nice adult party where no one peed in the yard (yeah....that happened at a party we went to earlier this year - I'm in TN, remember????). Our neighbors blended with our coworkers blended with our artist friends. Good times. And a lot of dishes. =)

Today we could've worked out, but I wanted to do "real" stuff, so real stuff we did. We made homemade chicken noodle soup while tracking Chicago runners and talking to our friends "out on the field". And most importantly - our house is decked for Halloween, the best holiday of the year. As my neighbor says "Oh lawrdy, you've got your boo lights up." (Translation: lawrdy = lordy, he's very "Southern"). Our white picket fence is bejeweled in pumpkin garland and purple and orange lights, cobwebs and spider lights are hanging on our porch, ghosts are in one tree and a skeleton is in the other, our bushes are decked in Halloween lights and we've used stencils to do Halloween chalk art all up and down our deck. Bring on the goblins!! The inside is decked in pumpkins and garlands and stuffed black cats and skeleton heads everyone, including one on our nice large cutting board that I think is nothing short of CLEVER. The candy is in the process of being bought - last year we had 250!!!! trick or treaters before we ran out of candy, so this year I am buying a few bags a week to stock up.

It nearly killed us putting it all up this afternoon, it's just stupid wicked hot. Sweat was pouring off both of us as it's still over 90 every freaking day. Pippin stretched out in the shade panting like it was mid-summer, not mid-fall. I honestly felt like I was decorating for the wrong holiday, is it still July or something?? Should I be hanging little Independence day flags on the fence instead???? (I did try to talk Brent into painting the pickets alternating in orange, then black but he didn't go for it. How cool would THAT be??) Hopefully all the kids will enjoy as they walk to school tomorrow (we're across from a K-2 school). Brent did skeleton heads in the crosswalk, so hopefully they'll like it!

This upcoming weekend is the Oktoberfest 5K. It's one of my fave races each year, and it's usually very cool that morning, but who knows this year!! Normally it's the first race where I consider wearing sleeves/long pants, but it doesn't seem like that's going to happen this year!

That's it from here, time to do some final relaxing before the work week begins all over again!

Rae