Saturday in the South.....

Wow, what a Saturday! It's going to take a while to get all the pics we've taken today into a post, but congrats to everyone who ran Music City today!!! It started out rainy but then got massively warm and sunny!! We left around 6:30 this morning and got rained on pretty steadily until about 20 or 30 minutes into the race and had a pretty chilly morning cheering. I had a light pair of shorts on over my bike shorts, and a windbreaker over my bike jersey and arm warmers but really wish I had more! Anyway, we cheered runners we knew and didn't know right past the start, at the 15K mark, the finish and then on around 21/25 as well as at various spots we biked along the way. I have new found respect for Brent and all the cheering he does for me because it can get a little dull, chilly and wet!! All in all we were out there for around 5-5.5 hours before we headed home and got to see most of the people we were looking for, and a few surprise friends. I'll have more pics and what-not in the next few days when I find a few minutes.

And then tonight is was the Grand Ole Opry. So.stinking.fun. Why have we never been in the 9 years we've lived here??? It was a blast, and I have lots of fun pics of the evening. Between the long day of cheering and yelling/hoop n'hollering tonight, along with the sinus infection I think I'm getting me and my voice are BEAT! I don't look like I have a set of lungs on me, but if you're heading past me and I know your name I use all I've got! Whew.

So, here's just a couple to tide you over!

The overall marathon top finisher, so fast!!













My cheering garb, complete with the tambourine I acquired when a kid left it in the bushes. SCORE!













Me and Trace Adkins:










I seriously would've bought this hat if I had any clue how cute I was in it:

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On the Mark....

Wow, someone has flipped a switch and the GMA-ers in town from earlier this week have been turned into a bunch of skinny runners pretty much overnight! Tomorrow is going to be weird in lot of ways since I'm not doing CMM this year. But, my pockets will be bouncier with that extra $90 in it and I've never actually gotten to see the race (or any race this large) so it's going to be a fun experience in its own right. The plan is still to bike around various points, so everyone collectively do an anti-rain dance otherwise we'll just be stuck driving to various points which is nowhere near as fun or calorie burning. I've got to get all my bike stuff laid out tonight and hopefully find a few noisemakers. I'd love a cowbell, but I'm not sure where to buy one??? I went to the expo today and got a few things. I'd be lying if I said it didn't just tear at me a little to not be leaving with one of those white runner bags, but I really think this twinge is going to help with the other twinge of massive running/house/life burnout I have. So good luck to everyone, and Lana has a THOROUGH list of everyone running!!! I'm pretty sure I've already honked at every last one of them, too. I took me stinking 25 minutes to go 1.5 miles this afternoon since there was no way for me to get home except to go through them. Blah.

Overall this has been a really, really crappy week for us. I'm not going into details but I am going into a bubble bath instead. The absolute least of the week being one roofing company basically flat out refusing to even quote our roof as it was "just too difficult" and most of the companies won't even return our calls once they come out. (We've literally called 16 companies now and have 2 actual quotes.) We knew it would be expensive because of the pitch and the many layers of roof already on to be removed, but this is getting nuts. We do have one solid company we've moved on to the "second round" and we'll probably just go with them. On the plus side we did get a new home security alarm this week that is PIMP. It doesn't require a phone line, it all works cellularly making it tougher for criminals since they can't just cut the phone wires. It has every bell and whistle so Pippin can now enjoy an early retirement and rest easy. It's just pimp, really. And on the plus side I have the **best** husband ever who surprised me by bringing home my fave dinner yesterday along with flowers and some yummy dessert, to make me feel better about the crap of the week. AND, we're going to the Grand Ole Opry tomorrow night to see my new favorite singer. I am going to get so badonkey-donked.

So, I guess even the crappiest week ever isn't so crappy when you add in a pimp new security system, the best husband ever, and Trace Adkins.

Good luck runners, it's time for this country-boy loving lady to soak this week away for a long, long time with a copy of Runners World. Or This Old House. Maybe both.

4-a-day

Woo hoo! I got my first 4-a-day workout in today! Sweet!

I did my usual lunch time workout, today I ran from the Y (thank God it's open again and there's no more changing in the work bathroom) and headed towards Centennial Park. I pretty much have 35 minutes to workout at lunch, so I made it right to the park before I needed to turn around. I hit several lights and had to wait, which is pretty irritating, but I really need some good acclimation to heat and hills so I certainly achieved that today! I think our high was around 80 today, and I ended up pouring sweat and with a beet red face by the time I was finished. And I had a homeless guy tell me I was doing great and to keep it up, so what else do you need??

While the Y was closed for the asbestos removal a coworker and I started walking a mile in the afternoons at work as part of a "non-smoking" break. Even now that the gym is back open we've kept it up. We usually spend that same amount time on a gossip break every day anyway, so we might as well be moving. Our office is very workout friendly. Besides being next door to the gym and offering great discounts, our "complex" has a map on several walls showing you various paths to take to walk a mile, and how many laps you would need to do. Tons of office ladies don their sneaks every morning & afternoon and burn a few calories. So, workout #2.

After dinner we've started taking Pippin for at least a mile walk. And he's come to expect it. The whining, crying, and looking at the door once our forks are down pretty much has clued us in that he's onto us. And he deserves to get out every day, too. Tonight we walked over to Shelby Park and did a loop of the tennis courts and enjoyed the gorgeous spring night. Workout #3.

Brent got his bike all dusted off last weekend while I did my 5.5 miler, and I've had bike jealousy ever since. We intended to ride Sunday but got too busy in the yard. And our plan is to bike around the CMM course this Saturday cheering for the runners and our friends, so Brent told me he wasn't about to let me "relearn" riding on race day, so once we got back from Pippin's walk we went for a bike ride. (We're early work birds - Brent leaves for work around 6:45 and I leave at 7, I'm home at 5 and he's home around 5:30.....tonight I made a quick dinner of spinach and artichoke ravioli, so we were ready to hit the streets at 6:15. I love short commutes. I love not working long hours.) Once I got my gears all straightened back out I totally remembered why I love riding!! So.much.easier.than.running. I just love to coast and feel the breeze. We rode around for about 20 minutes before it started to get dark. I can't wait to ride more!!!!

And that, my friends, is how you fit in 8 hours of work and 4 workouts into one day. With time to spare. Happy Earth Day!!

Spring Fever

Hey everyone! No time to post, just a quick hello to say......"hello!". You know your weekend is starting with a buzz when you're awoken at 4:30 in the morning to an earthquake! What a strange feeling, but from growing up in Memphis I was pretty aware of what it was - although also pretty asleep! Pippin on the other hand, was not so happy and jumped up out of his bed barking, thinking his bed was somehow revolting against him!! Brent....well, he slept through the whole thing entirely!

Anyway, we had a great weekend of gardening, house stuff, park stuff, running stuff, dinner stuff and dog stuff. It rained, it was sunny, I got sunburned. Of course. I got all of my backyard gardens planted, and have a few flowers I need to get into the front yard this week. We also got most of the baseboards for several rooms cut, and I got them all painted Sunday afternoon (thus causing the sunburn). It took Brent a lot longer to cut them because we bought very wide baseboard - too wide for the saw, so it took a lot of manual work. They're gonna look gorgeous....

Saturday morning I ran a gorgeous 5.5 miler downtown. The sun felt so nice, and Brent rode behind me on his bike. Yum. My plan was 4 miles but as I am geography challenged I ended up with 5.5, which was just fine. The race I'm contemplating is 10 miles, so it's nice to be already more than halfway there with nearly 2 months to spare. The plan for this weekend is 5, but I'll prob up that to 6-6.5 instead.

We also met Tom, Nicole and Scooter for Earth Day, which sucked. (Earth Day, not T,N & S.) I don't know if they just had crap vendors or bands or the rainy weather Saturday kept all the fun away but it just plain sucked. But they did get to witness the insaneness of how "personal" Pippin likes to get with the other dogs at the dog park......Speaking of, we're going to see a veterinary ophthalmologist in a couple of weeks. Seriously, there's one in the city and our vet referred us to him since the ointment didn't do any good. There's really nothing we think the doc can do for him, but he can 100% diagnosis it which will be reassuring. The spot doesn't bother Pippin and the main thing we have to do is just an eye on it, but it will be nice to have a second opinion.

One day Pippin is going to get Tom back for this one......and most likely via a direct lick to the mouth.












We also went to a dinner party at our neighbor's house where he pretty much served us hamburger tartare. It was pretty much....gross. I don't like my burger to be a brick, but I'm not so fond of it moo-ing either. Needless to say a lot of burgers were in the trash last night and thankfully we didn't get sick!

Anyway, that's the short version. Time to relax on the couch with the boys although it will be so hard to tear myself away from the nice breeze coming through our open back door. I.love.spring.

It's a bird, It's a plane.....

Last night as we took Pippin for a walk we saw something more than a little.....unusual.

We're just walking along, enjoying the beautiful evening and hear the normal yapping of a dog in our very pet oriented neighborhood. So we scan around looking to see if we're about to be attacked, and then we realize that the sound is coming from above. For the first time ever, a dog was barking at us from on the roof. We don't have a CLUE how he got up there, and I really don't want to know how he got down. (You may have to click on the photo to see the dog. The stairs lead to the side apartment, he'd have to take a pretty big jump to get from their to the roof. He prob got there via one of the windows.)

Anyway, it's been a busy week and we're wiped out. The tornado service Wed night was great and we got on every news station here! They were all there filming the ceremony, so no matter what channel of local news you watched Wed night you could see the back of both of our heads! It was really a special night. The mayor spoke, a high-up from Vandy spoke, another local council person, several neighbors spoke very movingly of their experience, and then the Vandy chamber orchestra performed a piece that they had written just for this occasion. Afterwards various photos and video were on display in the church basement. Then it got weird - as we left a guy was outside SELLING T-SHIRTS that said "I survived the 1998 tornado". How weird, and completely inappropriate. And they were 100% ugly and redneck.

Here's some of the news crews in the back of the church:









The mayor is in a gray suit:










I hope you all have a great Friday and an even better weekend!

Mayoral Poop

Hey everyone! How's it going??? I can't believe the week is already half over!

We had a great weekend here in TN! When we got home Friday the weather was nice and since we knew the cold weather was coming we loaded up the Pippers and headed for the park. By some freak of nature Brent forgot his camera, which sucks because it was crazy how high the lake and river were, and in a lot of places on the greenway water was running right over. Very different from last summer when the lake was so low due to the drought. After nearly being eaten by a ferocious chow in a muzzle and an evil Jack Russel with fangs for teeth we headed home where I had a message from Nicole on my phone. We met them for dinner at MadDonna's and had good times. We had been to MadDonna's a couple of weeks after they opened and were less than impressed - there was mass confusion and annoying patio heater issues and a girl melted part of the tent before nearly turning the whole heater over on me....but this time went much better. Their shrimp and grits had been horrible, this time I tried the sweet potato enchiladas which were GREAT although their black beans were about the dullest thing I've ever tasted. We had a great time hearing all about T & N's first few days here in Nashville and catching up with all their moving excitement!

And as life is one massive roller coaster.....when we got home we discovered that our entire network had been fried in Friday's storms. We had some very strong storms on Friday (during which I brilliantly walked to the library and back at lunch with tornado sirens a-blazing) and I guess we had a big power surge. Clue #1 was our garage door not opening when we got home, which seems to happen when we have a surge. All we have to do is unplug it and it resets, no biggie. When I got in I noticed our network was done, but that's pretty normal after a storm so I just surfed off a neighbor. Once we got in from dinner Brent went to reset it....except there was nothing to reset. All the brilliant flashing lights in our top secret computer closet were gone.....never to return. So that knocked out our cable modem, router and wireless access point. I told Brent "Merry Christmas" and gave him free reign to build the network of his dreams....with power surge protectors. We've been replacing pieces as they break, but he'd been looking at upgrading for a while. Saturday am we had to abandon our plans and head out to buy some electronics. We also did some shopping and took a tour of a neighborhood I'd rather not return to.....

In the afternoon I enjoyed the sunshine and got my garden dug. We've already mapped out our "dream landscaping" for the back yard and all my little seedling are starting to be really gangly and need to be in the real dirt. So I got the whole thing dug this past weekend and hopefully can plant this weekend.

Sat night we had plans with our friends Steph and Nathan to go to an art opening over here and have some weenies from the local weenie place. But, weenies close at 6 and they got here around then SO plans changed for the better. After enjoying the show and an antique shop where some hussy bought an owl I really wanted (I was coming back for it.....GRRRR!) we headed to the Gerst Haus. We seriously always forget about it, even though we pass it every stinking day. BUT OMG, it was so fun! It's a German restaurant and on Fri and Sat nights they have live German music. It was so awesome!! Nathan got so into it he was like a kid at Christmas and we had a blast. And I got the best kielbasa I have ever stinking had. I am drooling now just thinking about it!!!! Their food was so insanely good that we plan on actually remembering it more often!

Sunday we were mostly lazy but we did take Pippin for a very chilly walk. The cold front moved in late Saturday and Sunday was overcast and crappy and too chilly. We got out for our walk and we've started just taking random turns and exploring new parts of the neighborhood. We were walking up Stratton and enjoying the beautiful houses when we notice Pippin arched up pooping, in the former mayor's yard. I guess Pippin was telling him what he thinks of him not being in office anymore...So Brent got the pleasure of picking up poo from the former mayor's yard! Nothing's better than that..... =)

Anyway, it was stinking cold yesterday too!! It's just wrong to wear long sleeves with so many things in bloom and a yard that need cutting for the third time already! But, in GREAT news the Y reopened yesterday. I swear I nearly cried walking back in there. All of the ceilings are gone, and a lot of things are boarded up and rearranged for the current phase of construction. It's very odd! They had a red carpet rolled out for everyone yesterday, a DJ, free food all day and even today they were walking around handing out free bottled waters while you worked out. Aaaah, it's so good to be back. I think my joy spurred me to a great run yesterday, 4 miles at 8:49 pace which includes mile 1 at 9:30 pace warmup.

Tomorrow marks an important day in our neighborhood. It's been TEN years since a tornado tore through East Nashville and the revitalization began. Crack houses returned to beautiful historic home and property value skyrocketed. We were finishing up college in West TN then, just a few months away from graduating, getting married and moving here. On the 1 yr anniversary I was working for a wretched public accounting firm downtown and it was crazy to hear the stories of my coworkers huddling in the stairwells of the skyscraper I worked in and about all the glass broken downtown. It's very rare for a tornado to come through a downtown area.....There's a service in the neighborhood tomorrow night we're planning to go to, it's going to be so crazy to see all the pictures and hear about everyone's experiences. There's a church that rebuilt that I pass every morning on my way to work at Woodland and 5th that has a concrete memorial that says "God was not in the tornado but in the response" and that just says so much.

So, happy Tax Day, merry Wednesday, and "happy" 10th anniversary to East Nashville. I like to think we're doing our own part (as Brent sands away in the front room) to keep that response going.

Lipids and Corneal Degeneration

W'sup!!! What a gorgeous day today leading into storms tonight..... Today was a huge day as in the first airing of The Office is AGES and thanks to our wonderful and volatile weather the last FOUR MINUTES of The Office were cut off because of tornadoes approaching our western "viewing area". Really, who cares about them??? Most of their audience is here in the 'Ville and WE WANT THE OFFICE!!! So frustrating....Brent's car thermometer read 84 degrees this afternoon on the way to the vet, that's prob a little high but our forecast was for 78. It's insane to think it was nearly 90 today! =)

So, Pippin's visit. We had a 5 pm appointment at the vet and as always we were seen right away. I love that we don't spend all day there like we did at our vet in the suburbs. We saw a different vet than our normal lady, but normally we go on Saturdays but I really didn't want to wait until the weekend on this one. And....I really don't know how to say this nicely.....but their was something wrong with her eyes. Like one of them she kept pretty much closed, and then all of a sudden it would be open, and then closed again....and then the other one would be sort of crazy.....and it was just so ironic since we were there for Pippin's eye problem. But she was very nice and everything, it was just....a little odd. And she scored major points by saying how great Bostons are since they are always friendly and never bite - and if anyone knows which breed is friendly it's going to be a vet!

Pippin couldn't have cared less and didn't have a clue why we were there, he was just glad to be licking some people. They did a dye test on his eye to rule out any scratches or abrasions and then looked at his eye with a light thing. I think that also tests for cataracts. She thinks it's corneal degeneration aka cholesterol/lipid deposits of the eye. Here's a link and another link. It seems to be common in Bostons, and other breeds with the larger, protruding eyes. It doesn't seem to be painful or really impair their vision. It can be caused by genetics, or thyroid issues, or cholesterol issues. In some cases I've read online they've had blood tests done and it's shown high cholesterol in the animals. (On a side note, Pippin has lost nearly a pound since his last visit for his annual exam a couple of months ago! Yay!! I thought he was losing, but it's so nice to have confirmation!) We've been thinking about changing his diet to organic foods, so this may be a very good time to do that and cut the fat back more.

On the down side, it seems in some cases it can form painful ulcers, possibly require surgery and lead to blindness. It's just one of those unpredictable things. She gave us some ointment to try, we have to (somehow) put it on his eyes 3 times a day for the next week and we have a return visit for next Thurs afternoon.

So, for now I guess I'm ok with this, it's not like I have a choice. I love the Woof board, I read a lot of forums where people came with the same issue and others commented about how their Boston has had it for a long time with no issues, so that's reassuring. I should have looked there earlier, they were great when Pippin was about to have surgery on his luxating patella (which is totally great now - you'd be AMAZED how many hits I get for people looking for advice on it. At his exam in January the doc couldn't even tell which leg he had the surgery on by feeling his legs and looking at them - she actually guessed the WRONG leg!! You wouldn't know he ever had any problems....if you came here debating whether or not to get the surgery GET IT!). So we'll lube up his eye over the next week, see what happens, prob get his blood tested for cholesterol & change his diet and then take the vet's advice about seeing a doggie ophthalmologist. Because if anything is interesting dinner party conversation I'm sure the price of visiting a canine eye doctor specialist has got to be way up there and I've been feeling like Pippin needs a whole new level of spoiled lately. =)

That's all for now!!! We're hoping for some hail in these storms tonight, you know, anything to help us with getting a new roof! From the sound of porch swing slamming against our front window over and over in this wind we may get that wish tonight.... Happy weekend!

There's no such thing as the simple life....

Happy Wednesday! Or just plain Wednesday! to those of you having blee blah weeks like we are.

There's so many ups and downs right now, I feel like a massive stress bomb just waiting to unload on some unsuspecting soul. Monday was a gorgeous day here in the Mid Tenn. I took my stuff to change in the bathroom at work for an outdoor run and WOW! it was so warm!! I think it was 71 or so and I was really glad I brought my hand-held. I rambled around downtown, did a lot of hills, ran down to check out the overflowing Cumberland River and then headed back to work. As soon as I got home I mowed our insanely tall and green yard before we settled in to watch "the game". Yeah, the ending sucked but it was a great game. I can't say anything bad about them because they are far more talented than I am, but I really hope they spend a LOT of time working on their free throws this summer. At every commercial break we were up washing dishes, getting laundry in and out, etc. I think we felt as ragged as the players by the end!

While we were stretched out on our lawn chairs Monday night post-mow I noticed a strange spot on one of Pippin's eyes. It's this white/gray/clearish dot about the size of a pen tip on one of his pupils. It doesn't seem to bother him, but it's very strange. I made the mistake of Googling it while we were watching the game and it could be anything from a little minor eye infection that needs some drops to a pigment flaw that's harmless to a rapidly progressing eye disease that causes blindness and is very common in Boston Terriers from the ages of 5 to 12. I should never, ever Google things like this. So of course I'm worried sick and we have a vet appointment tomorrow afternoon at 5. It's just not FAIR. He had his whole deal with the luxating patella and knee surgery last year, shouldn't he be clear of any additional problems forever?? And I know I'm blowing something out of proportion that could truly be nothing, but I'm going to be a basketcase until tomorrow afternoon.

Throw on top of that our continuing roof saga. I am going to declare that there are no longer any roofers in Nashville. We may have to import a roofer from some other state, because no one here wants to give quotes or actually work. At this point we don't care if they're an illegal alien, purple with blue spots or if they are a man who thinks he's pregnant, if they can work and have some initiative they'd have the job. Seriously, frustrated. And then, heaven help our insurance adjuster. The man came out Tues morning at 8 to see if we have enough hail damage to get us some $$. He was hoping he could see it all from the ground (??) and then when he did get up on the roof he was up there so long we thought maybe he fell asleep or passed out. Seriously, he was there an hour and a half. He didn't make it sound very optimistic for us, and then about 15 mins after I finally got to work he called and said he had left his notebook on top of his car and could I go outside and see if it's somewhere in the road. Um, yeah. So I told him we were both already at work and he said "oh, it's ok. There was nothing important in there." Yeah, so an hour and a half of walking around on our roof and there's NOTHING IMPORTANT in there??? Could our lives be more odd???

Today another idiot contractor (who won't get our business for SURE) canceled an appointment with Brent for the THIRD (and now final) time and I've pretty much cooked a sucky dinner for two days in a row. Thank goodness there's a fresh tub of ice cream in the fridge for us to chow on in a minute. But it's gorgeous outside and we've been taking Pippin on nice long walks and everything is all green and bloomy. And it could be worse, we could be homeless and have to sleep under the interstate overpass where it smells like pee. And where I hit a pigeon yesterday with my car. Watch out animals, I am having an off week. I'd just like a cup of simple, please.

So anyway, ramble and whine over. It's time to give Pippin a bath. I have an odd thing where when we have a vet appointment I like him to be super clean. OH, and congrats to the Lady Vols for their win!! We caught the last few minutes of it last night after I finished paying the last of our business taxes for the year (yay for that being done!!!). Have a great Thursday everyone!!!

Tigerlicious

Sometimes I stumble just because of my size
But hey y'all that's alright
That's the way God made me
I am what I am
And I can't do nothing bout that
It's hard to get around in a six foot town
When you're ten feet tall everything is so small
I'm always bumping my head

What's up?!?!?!?!?!?

How about them Tigers?????

After Brent slept for 13 hours he was feeling better, we did some chores around the house and then headed south to Brent's parent's house. We watched THE game, cheered for Memphis, and then watched part of the Kansas-NC game. I can't believe Memphis made it to the Final 2!!! I have been "playing it cool" because I am a firm believer in the jinx!! On our way back to Nashville today we stopped in wretched Cool Springs to try to find some Memphis gear. I have at least a good half dozen Memphis pom-poms packed in a box somewhere, but good luck with finding that one.....I totally struck out at about 3 shops before I stumbled into a Foot Locker (Brent and Pippin were waiting outside in the car) where they had Final 4 shirts, hats and gear. I struck out trying to get a big flag to fly in our flagpole, I need to just go ahead and order that stuff now and have it for next year. Two of the three girls working in Foot Locker were originally from Memphis (no one here is actually from Nashville) so we bonded over the team. I've got a Memphis cake (birthday cake that will be carved into the M) in the oven right now and we're planning a yum game-themed dinner for tomorrow night, and I'll probably use a whole bottle of blue food coloring dying everything blue. GO TIGERS!!!!!! It's too bad my parents have retired away from Memphis because I bet the city is going crazy!!! It was always so fun when I was little and they would do well in the tournament. It seems like ages since they've had a great team, but my fam has been fans in the good years and the bad, so hopefully this will be the year!

Anyway, the weekend went way too fast. Today was a special 90th anniversary of the church Brent grew up in so his parents wanted us there for a big homecoming. We saw a lot of people we haven't seen in ages, and one guy our age told us about another couple we went to college with that are going through a divorce. It's so crazy, they seemed 100% perfect for each other, and she's the first person I ever told I was going to marry Brent. She and this guy (A) (who was from Brent's hometown) started dating pretty much when we did, and right after our first date we were out together going for a walk and she asked me how it was going with Brent and I remember looking at her and saying "I'm going to marry this one" and she said she knew she was going to marry A as well. It's so strange to think of them not together. This world can be pretty screwed up.

I hope you all had a great weekend and are cheering for the BLUE AND WHITE tomorrow NIGHT!!!! All I know is a tiger is a helluva lot more ferocious than a brightly colored bird. And if anyone knows how to scrap.....it's Memphis.

Galoshes Would Make it Better

Mama, why am I so alone?
I can't go outside
I'm scared I might not make it home
I'm alive but I'm sinking in
If there's anyone at home at your place
Why don't you invite me in
Don't try to bleed me
I've been there before and I deserve a little more

I belong in the service of the Queen
I belong anywhere but in between
She's been lying
I've been sinking
And I am the Rain King

For the love of God is it ever going to stop raining? I really don't think it is, the last week has just been a mass of rain and thunder and lightning, pretty much the last thing you want when you're trying to get a new roof. It literally has been raining since before I woke up today. No one can come and quote on the roof when all it does is poor down constantly, and so I'm sure all these roofers are getting further and further behind. It's just a massive disaster and my hair has been a total wreck for a week now. Our yard is about a foot tall now and really needs a cutting but it's way too wet for it. Everyone at work seems totally sluggish due to a lack of sunlight and Pippin's cabin fever resulted in him "sampling" a mostly empty bucket of drywall (that we were using to capture the leakage from our crappy skylight) while we were at work today. He had quite the fun time and got it all over himself, stuck to his nose, slathered on his collar and of course all over his feet and we can pretty much tell which furniture he hung out on the rest of today...... There have been a few nights where the break has been large enough (or the drizzle light enough) that we've gotten to take him for walks, and I can't complain about the temps, just the massive quantities of rain.

Workouts have been decent this week. Mon and Tues I had a decent and then a great run. Wed was the first day the gym was closed, so I ventured the half mile walk to the other downtown Y with a coworker. Um yeah, tiny was an understatement. It's the top floor (the 30th) of the 5th Third bank building at the corner of Church and 5th, but WOW is it small. Since I had run Mon and Tues, Wed was a cross train day (which normally would be a swim day, but this Y is pool-less) and that's a good thing because the only machine open was the ski machine. I did my ski-thing for 20 mins and then headed back. So, 20 mins of ski plus a one mile walk. Not too bad. Thursdays I always have another obligation, and today it was raining so badly that there was just no way I could walk a mile to the gym in the massive hurricane going down outside. So, some ladies and I followed the indoor walking "trail" posted on the office walls. First we climbed the stairs all the way to the top - a total of 12 stories - to the top of our largest building from where we are in the "dungeon". Then we did the "trail" which is just a large loop between a couple of building utilizing our skywalks. 7 laps equal a mile so we did that. We're actually going to start doing that in the morning and the afternoon, if we're going to have some gossip time we might as well be productive! Any extra exercise is better than nothing. And when I got home I did one hour of toning DVDs to make up for not hitting the gym today. Good stuff....

And from 7:30 on tonight I've been on my own. Brent made some AWESOME brownies last night. Seriously, they were some of the best brownies EVER. But it gave him a headache last night, which we thought was a weird coincidence, until this morning when he had one for breakfast (um yeah) and has had a bad headache ever since. We turned down a dinner invite and stayed home, and I made a yummy chicken stew that I THOUGHT would make him feel better, but he pretty much said he felt like he was going to puke after dinner and went to bed. So, note to self: chicken stew is not a good comfort food for Brent. So Brent's been asleep in the bed, Pippin's been asleep in my lap and I've been catching up on the things I TiVo that Brent refuses to watch. Just.One.Wild.Night. Hopefully this is not the start to a crap weekend!

And Good Luck to the University of Memphis Tigers tomorrow!!! WOOOOOOO!!!!!! I am so excited they are in the Final 4!!!! I'm gonna be wearing my ancient Memphis shirt tomorrow and cheering for my homies!!! Holllaaaaaa! Happy Friday everyone!

Frizz Alert

The last few days have not been good hair days in Nashville!!! Ever since last Friday it's been gloomy and rainy.

We're in the process of bidding out a new roof on our house, and one of our prospects came out Saturday and walked around on the roof with Brent. He was really great, so hopefully when we get his quote he will be in the neighborhood. Other than that we spent a relaxing day Saturday NOT WORKING ON ANYTHING!! We ran to the library, picked up a pizza and watched some TV. We ran some errands and picked up the fabric for our curtains and even stopped at Publix. Any week we don't have to shop at Ghetto Kroger is a good week.


Sunday was an AWESOME day! We had "cheap seat" tickets to see Rent and it was great!! The guy who played Roger (who was some sort of South African Idol winner) could REALLY sing. They had a very strict "no camera" policy and Hitler himself was patroling our area, so no pics of the show, boo!












While we were at the show Pippin managed to amuse himself by somehow getting a pizza box off our kitchen island (we think he somehow managed to catapoult himself to grab it by using the stool....somehow) and absolutely shredding it. Niiiiice.












Sunday evening we went out to our fave Indian restaurant with friends S & her hubby N. We used to work together and still keep in touch daily with email, but we don't get the chance to see each other as often as we'd like to. They'd never had Indian before so we ordered tons of stuff and shared it all and had a GREAT time.

So now it's back to work and it's been pretty rainy all week. Yesterday afternoon was nice and sunny though so we took Pippin for a nice long walk and then did it all over again today.

So, one thing we've really been thinking about lately is eating more organic. So what do you do??? We've started buying more organic products, and I've requested several books from the library to read up on it. We've swapped over to organic eggs, and I'm telling you they are SO much more flavorful and fluffy. And we've also changed over to organic chicken and it's been so much more tender and flavorful. The tough thing about it has been the price - it's pretty rough to pay $2 more per gallon of milk when milk has already gotten more expensive. But on the flip side, if it's so much better for you what's more important than your health and that of your family? Anyway....any thoughts and suggestions you have on organic versus not would be greatly appreciated!

Today was a big day - the last day the gym will be open for a week and a half - UGH! I feel like one of the Biggest Loser teams being kicked out of the gym and being told to completely refigure their whole routine! Lunchtime workouts have really saved me the past year when home has been so full of projects. Tomorrow I think I'll check out Uptown Y and see how crazy it is, or if the weather is great I'll just head out for a run from work and change in the bathroom.

Have a great night!