Running Cold

When we headed out to run in the half marathon the other morning the temperature was in the low 40's.  The three of us rode there with out seat warmers on and upon our arrival we donned gloves, arm warmers, hats, long pants and jackets.  We knew we'd get warm, but running only heats you up so much.

Someone told me to dress for twenty degrees warmer than you're running in and when you run, your body will be comfortable.  That was good advice.  Shortly after we started running I didn't need my ear warmer head band.  My arms became quite warm shortly later so I took off my arm warmers and stuffed them into the only spot I could think of, the back of my pants.  The bump in my rump must have been attractive to those running behind me.

The gloves I took off later, but overall, I was comfortable and warm the whole way.  It was cold, I knew that.  But I wasn't cold.  The three of us marveled at the runners we saw in shorts and tank tops.  We enjoyed looking at the people in fun clothes, such as the man all in black with the red tutu and the woman dressed as Wonder Woman.   There were people in wigs and people with great sayings on the backs of their shirts.   Uncle Jonathan commented that my neighbor and I seemed to be a little too focused on the fashion aspect of the run and that maybe we could look into jobs as commentators.

When we crossed the finish line we saw people wearing those silver warming reflective sheets.   They look so cool.  I've never had one.  I didn't really need one because I was warm from the run, but my neighbor said her girls would probably love them. I went and asked if I could have three, but I didn't use them.  I just held them on my arm for later for the children.

We visited the food tent and I shoved a lot of calories into my mouth as fast as I could.  There was a beer tent, but we weren't into beer at 9:30 in the morning so we decided to head home.  And then it hit us.  The cold.

IT WAS COLD.  IT WAS SUDDENLY SO TERRIBLY COLD.  What were we doing outside in such arctic conditions. I wondered.  When did the icy wind start and what happened to that nice, cool weather we had just minutes ago.  You know, right?  The weather hadn't changed, our heart rates had slowed down and all the hot sweat was now cold and making us colder.

We walked as quickly as we could to the car.  I thought my fingers were going to fail me and not work enough to drive.  Then, back into the car finally and the warmth of the seat warmers on again and we remembered what it was like to be warm again.

The Big Boy Update:  Dinner and the splash.  Potty training is having some good results.  He hates going to the potty, or rather I mean being interrupted from anything, at all, to take a potty break.  But once there, he never wants to leave.  He spends a lot of time around the house in training pants.  He's going less-frequently, but more volume once he does go.  But there are "incidents."  For example, last night at dinner he was sitting in his high chair, happily eating some hot dog slices when I say to myself, "What is that noise?  It sounds like something is splashing."  Something was.  There was lots of splashing going on underneath his high chair.  It didn't slow down his eating one bit.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  A better second day at school.  Her teacher and I decided to bring her in earlier today to see if tiredness was an issue.  She was at school for an hour and did well, didn't do much crying but did need a little bit of cereal encouragement at one point.  Tomorrow we're going to try for another hour and see how it goes.  She still naps in the mornings and the mental work of being at school is draining to her growing body and mind.  It may take a bit longer to get her to full half days than it did her brother, who was much older when he started.

Fitness Update:  5:30am.  We found a time to run.  We call it, "even earlier."  We'd gotten so accustomed to running in the dark that we decided who needs light.  Five miles and we both got back in time to get a shower and the kids to school on time.  This morning I was picking up my daughter after her first hour at school when I looked at the clock and it was only 9:30am.  I thought, "It seems much later than that," and then I realized I'd been up for 4.5 hours already.  Strange time shift feeling followed.

Someone Once Said:   Easier to get people to hate than to get them to love.

Dumb and Dumber

My neighbor and I run in the mornings.  We run in the dark.  We aren't sure if we're cool or if we're stupid for running in such interesting circumstances.

On the one hand, we're so cool because we're making an effort to get up early, before the birds and the roosters (that's a bird, right?) and run around the neighborhood.  Or wait, are we nuts because we're so desperate to exercise that we're willing to run in the dark, in black sweat pants and black hats, looking like burglars on the run?  We don't know.  But we're not stopping.

At the half marathon, we ran and we chatted.  We talked about a lot of things, but it became apparent that we didn't have the freedom of discussion we normally have.  There were people all around us.  We didn't want to talk about the political idiots who were voting for so-and-so or the preparations we'd made with tissue in a baggy in case we needed to take a potty break mid-run. 

We were verbally constrained.  But we had fun.  Last night we texted back and forth, trying to come up with a time and day we could run again.  It looks like it might be this weekend with everything going on, but we're not giving up.

And daylight!  We can run in daylight again.  With the daylight savings time change, we can run in light once more.  It's going to be nice to see what the park looks like with the fall leaves on the ground.

Hopefully my cold running clothes are warm enough for the upcoming winter weather.

The Big Boy Update:  Tissue, tissue.  Daddy went up in the middle of the night to a wailing child.  My son wasn't completely awake, but he was asking for, "tissue tissue" very clearly.  After my husband brought him a tissue and he blew his nose, he went right back to sleep.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Unexpected crying.  First day of school.  She looked happy, she wanted to go into the classroom.  An hour later I picked her up to find out she cried 95% of the time and the teacher had to hold her and sing constant renditions of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" to keep her calm.  She also had to administer cereal.  The other students were swarming around her, looking for cereal handouts that only my daughter was getting.  Tomorrow, we're going in an hour early and hopefully a less-tired baby will be a happier classroom student.  She came home today exhausted, sleeping more soundly than I've seen her sleep in a while.

Fitness Update:  Dinky knee muscle.  I had a dinky knee muscle, or tendon, or ligament try and talk me out of the half marathon the other day.  It was cramping or complaining or doing something painful for a lot of the race.  It would wax and wane, making me fairly confident it was a spasm kind of thing.  After the race it's been sore, but after all that complaining, I'm not surprised.  Today, it' s much better.

Someone Once Said:  Memory is not tied to entropy increase. Death might be preferable to amnesia combined with prophetic knowledge. Uncertainty may be the factor that makes life tolerable. Hope is what keeps us going.

Half Marathon in Memories

Prior to the race, I'd looked at the route for the half marathon and I was interested to see where the course went.  So many of the roads went through places that had significance in my life as I grew up up.

During the run, my neighbor asked from time to time where we were.  She was interested in the scenery or buildings or locations, but she really didn't know anything about the area.  She relocated to this area after accepting a position here and her work has always taken her to areas other than where we were running.  There were so many memories from my life as we ran through the streets that I didn't mention them all, or even a few of them, but afterwards I got to thinking about them and thought I'd see if I could remember them here.

We started at the bell tower of the college I spent lots of time at all through my life.  I didn't get a degree from the school, but I took classes there and was all over the campus from the time I was a small child.  We ran past the park with the train and carousel we took my son to not long ago.  I rode that train and carousel from such a young age and it still looks just the same today.

We headed downtown and I thought about the ballroom dance instructor I dated for a while as we went past the house he lived at.  Next we passed what was at one point the Planned Parenthood building I visited throughout college.  As we went to downtown proper, we passed by the building my father worked in before he retired, a beautiful shiny marble building.  After that, we turned around and passed the original building he worked in prior to that.  The original building wasn't shiny, but it was old and it brought back memories of an excitingly cluttered office filled with science materials.

We left downtown via one of the main roads in town and I mentally waved to the art supply store that got me hooked on artisan papers from around the world for the origami I love to do.  We turned onto the next road and I saw the psychologist I'd seen years back still has her office in the same spot.  I got hungry as we ran past the Pizza Hut I ate at probably four days a week my senior year in high school when we were allowed to go off campus for lunch.  And then we ran by my high school.

My neighbor commented that it was a pretty building, and I agree, it is pretty.  It's old and stately and rocky and she mentioned that people could get married in front of it.  That was a strange thought, getting married in front of your high school.  We ran on past the parking spot I parked in for a year straight and then up the hill past the first shopping mall in the city where the 10K ended and loud music was playing.

As we continued, we ran past the Rose Garden that was such a serene break in the city landscape, hidden so no one would know it was there unless you knew.  My neighbor asked about the houses here, just as we ran one block away from the first rental property my parents ever bought, and still own today.

We then turned down the next road and I remembered being in my first collision, on the way home with my boyfriend and best friend in high school.  They let out class too late as it had already iced over and my boyfriend's car slid into a parked car in slow motion.  We had to knock on the door of the people's car we'd just hit and ask if we could use their phone to call the police.  Strange to think of now because my first thought is, "No one had a cell phone?"  But this was the eighties.

We turned and headed down several more roads and at the next water station we passed the church I went to when the first person from my high school had died after we all graduated.  It was a sad reunion of our class.

Then we came up to my college.  How great to be running along side the edge of the school.  There is a much nice fence now and the trees are significantly larger and a whole field is now a parking lot, but the buildings are just the same and it looks as I remember it in so many ways.

We turned around and went past the Applebee's that always reminds me of the local franchise's marketing director I dated for several years and makes me wonder what he's doing now.  We turned around at the "belt line" that's been the hub of transportation all over the city ever since I was born and then we went started making our way back to the start, at the bell tower.

From a memory standpoint, it was a great experience.  I saw so many areas of town I'd only experienced while in a car.  It was a fun run yesterday.  The time flew by.

The Big Boy Update:  Slot machine.  He loves the slot machine in the basement.  My husband taught him how to use it when he was younger.  Now, if he wants to play my husband will pull a chair up, unlock it and turn it on.  He can then walk away and my son will happily play with it by himself.  Sort of.  My son forgets what comes next.  But not to worry, daddy can hear the sounds from across the room and without looking, let him know what to do next.  I came downstairs to hear daddy say, "black knob" following which my son looked at the machine and pulled the black knob to start the reels spinning.  A few minutes later I hear, "red buttons" and I see my son look and then hit in order the three "skill stop" red buttons that make the reels lock into a selection.  At one point I heard, "you won, you don't need to put in more money."  When my son was done he told me, "finished" and asked that I turn it "off" and watched while I unlocked the machine, pressed the power switch and then closed the door.  Satisfied I'd done a complete job, he headed off to find other toys.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Free standing up.  She is taking being vertical very seriously.  Yesterday she figured out how to stand up without pulling up on something.  She practiced it all day long.  Today, she's up and going without thinking about it.  This was something my son didn't figure out for a long time, although he had his own strategies when it came to walking.

Fitness Update: Not too shabby.  All the training paid off.  And the running in the hilly park didn't hurt.  I'm not particularly tired today and I'm not sore.  The race yesterday seemed fairly easy after the fifteen miles in the park I'd worked up to.  I was even surprised we beat the pacers for the half marathon for a time less than 2:15.  But yesterday, I was tired.  I was asleep at 8:30.

Someone Once Said:  Anybody can clap and cheer—but applause worthwhile can be found in a pile of soft, green folding money.

Whistle

I was a wee thing when I learned how to whistle.  I remember it being a magical thing, putting your mouth in just the right position so that when you blow air out, a whistling sound is made.  My father whistled from time to time and I must have asked him or my mother how it was done.   It's not easy to explain how to whistle.  You can demonstrate what you do with the outside of your mouth, shaping your lips, and you can explain how you position your tongue inside your mouth.  But for the most part, it's experimentation until you figure out what to do.

I was determined to whistle.  I think I tried all possible configurations of lips, teeth and tongue and still nothing.  Air whiffing.  Breezy silence.  And then one morning I hit on the right position.  It must have been o-dark-o'clock when I went in to demonstrate to my parents because for some reason, they weren't all that excited.  They seemed practically sleepy.

They were excited for me though, once they woke up.  It took a few more days but I mastered not only making a whistling sound, but controlling the tone so I could whistle tunes.  And I've never stopped.

I'm not sure how many people whistle regularly, but I do.  I need to pay attention for a few weeks and see if I notice anyone whistling around me.  I know I whistle all the time.  I whistle to songs in the car, I whistle the tune that's in my head—and they're always a tune in my head—and I whistle here and there and I am guessing I could probably catch myself whistling a handful of times each day.   I love to whistle.

Maybe I'll notice other people whistling, but I think it's not as common an occurrence in many people's lives as it is in mine.

The Big Boy Update:  Rolling the red lid.  He took the red lid off a toy and realized it could roll if he pushed it while it was on his side.  It was interesting to watch him trying to keep the lid balanced enough and push it just enough to get it to roll and not fall down.  He's thinking about objects in different ways lately and doing more experimentation.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  On and off the ottoman.  She pushed a little truck up to the ottoman the other day and figured out she could use it to climb on top of the ottoman.  She would sit on top and look very happy and momma would look worried that she was going to fall backwards off and knock her noggin.  But she would scoot backwards off the ottoman and then repeat the process.  She never fell. 

Fitness Update:  Half marathon race day.  My neighbor and I were signed up for the half marathon and Uncle Jonathan was doing the 10K.  He ran with us through the 10K and then kept going.  All the way to the half marathon finish line, beating us by two seconds and more than doubling his longest run ever.  I beat my half marathon best time by seven minutes, but the congratulations of the day go to Uncle Jonathan. 

Someone Once Said:  Anything free costs twice as much in the long run or turns out worthless. Not philosophy, fact. One way or other, what you get, you pay for.

The Santa Claus Consideration

We're at a critical time with our children.  They're not old enough to have traditions they remember or expect.  We can set a precedence for drinking soda, or having candy at the end of a meal, or how many birthday presents they'll get each year and if we're good parents and we stick to our decisions and don't give in, we stand a good chance of not letting our children's expectations run a meal or holiday or family event situation.

I attended a school discussion on Purposeful Gift Giving in which we discussed how gifts shouldn't be expected or demanded by a child.  The theme, and the advice from the experienced parents was that less is always more.  A child with seventeen gifts isn't seventeen times more appreciative than a child with one gift.  In fact, the child who is lavished with too many presents can become less-appreciative and sometimes even become ungrateful.

I remember being a child and getting to an age where I expected more and more from Christmas presents.  It's an embarrassing thing to remember as an adult, but I was a kid, and Christmas was all about me at that age.  But how do we do an appropriate job of placing presents, the holidays and Santa Claus in the lives of our children without going overboard?

We talked with one family who does not have Santa Claus at all in their holiday celebration.  We talked to another mother who celebrates Santa Claus with her two young boys, but has Santa in a more diminished capacity than he is in many households.  My husband and I had been talking along those lines the days before, so it was nice to hear how that worked in her household.

She said the focus in their house was on decorating.  Her children love to decorate.  Every day after Thanksgiving they put out a few more decorations.  Her boys love to rearrange the decorations.  They also go on Holiday lights drives.  They go and get hot chocolate at the coffee store and drive around town looking at holiday lights.  She said if you ask her boys what they love most about Christmas, they'll say driving around to see the lights and drinking hot chocolate.

We've also been considering the power of Santa Clause.  You can maintain a list of things you want all year and when Christmas time draws close, you can decide which things on your list you want to ask Santa for.  It's a great way to defer gratification for a child and help them understand waiting.

Santa is someone who expects good behavior.  And Santa is wonderful in his ability to arrive while you're asleep and deliver gifts to your house for the morning when you wake up.  So don't make Santa disappointed in you, you don't want to miss his presents.  Santa is a great system moms and dads can use.  But how much of Christmas should be Santa, and how much should be sharing and giving with family?

My husband and I both agreed we remember the excitement of Santa from our childhoods.  But we also agreed we don't want Santa to be the main force of gifts during the holidays.   I think we're going to try and have Santa bring one or maybe two gifts and fill stockings while keeping the focus of the holidays on gift giving between family members.

And on the front of purposeful gift giving, we're going to try and keep the amount of presents down to a reasonable roar.  We know it's fun to give a child a gift and watch them light up and smile and laugh.  I am, without a doubt, the worst offender of this.  But I am going to make an effort to not buy too much and give too much for the holidays.  I'm hoping we can share this message with our family members and they'll like the idea too.  They're always supportive, I'm sure they wouldn't mind going the "less is more" route.  Last year my in-laws asked that gifts to them be donations to a good cause and my parents are always saying they want to keep Christmas small. 

The Big Boy Update:  Differentiating "this" and "that."  He says, "this this this" a lot to indicate he wants something.  "This" is an all-purpose noun for him.  It's interesting to note that "this" means something that is right here, in close proximity, while "that" means something over there, out of reach.  I've been trying to help him understand when something is a "this" and when it's a "that."  It's impressive to watch a child under two comprehend and incorporate abstract concepts into their vocabulary.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Soft shoes.  She needs "slippers" or soft shoes to wear at school when she's inside.  It's a Montessori thing.  We've only had one pair of shoes for her so far, and she delights in taking them off.  Constantly.  So I had little hope for the Roobies I got used at the used clothing store.  But she loves them.  They're soft and leathery and she doesn't even try to take them off.  She's walking better in them it seems to me, but then again, she's walking better every day this week because she's decided it's time to walk above all other baby activities.  Her single mindedness is paying off.

Fitness Update:  Scheduling snafu.  We decided to go out to a very nice, expensive, gourmet dinner with good friends tonight.  We had the reservation, the plans and then I remembered, whups, it's the night before the half marathon.  And it's the night of daylight savings time.  Out late for dinner, missing an hour in the middle of the night and arrival time, dressed and ready downtown at six am and I'm concerned I'm not going to get more than five hours sleep.  On the up side, I can eat as much as I want and every single bit of my food because I'll need the calories for tomorrow morning's run.  On the downside, I'm not drinking any alcohol.  On the reverse side though, I'll make an excellent designated driver.

Someone Once Said:  Natural laws have no pity.

Random Thoughs In Paragraph Form

It's catch-up time again.  Too many thoughts, not enough time at the computer.

Water drinkers aren't just cheap:  I've known many people who only order water at restaurants.  I thought for a long time that they wanted to save the money on an expensive soda.  I never really liked drinking water.  Why drink water when you can have a soda or tea or lemonade?  When my husband and I went on our diet we decided to drink more water.  Specifically, I moved from unsweetened ice tea to water any time we're out at a restaurant.  Now I understand, it's not always about the money.  Some people just prefer water.  Now, iced tea or soda doesn't sound appetizing to me.  Although beer wine still sounds delicious.

Breaking down the bubble gum:  I was chewing on a piece of bubble gum yesterday and I had a flash back to my childhood when you could chew on a piece for long enough and it would eventually break down into a gritty mess.  At some point, the formula for gum was updated and you can't "kill" a piece of gum these days like you could when I was young.

Sausage Balls:  It wasn't even November yet when I started craving sausage balls.  I'm not sure what's come over me, but I love those little balls of cheese, sausage and Bisquick.  I made some for a school party but we left before the party was over and left the extras.  I think I'm going to have to make them again for Practice Thanksgiving.  I don't think I've had them in several years.  Maybe my sausage ball internal timer is up.

That tears it:  Remember the great fingernails I finally had after forty years of chewing, tearing, picking at and general weak nails?  Some of the nail strength I had was from the pregnancies.  Those nails are long gone.  It's been frustrating to hit my nail on something and have it tear down on the side, weeks below the quick line.  I'm putting strengthening polish on them, but it's frustrating.  I Don't think I'm going to get pregnant again for great nails, just in case you were wondering.

Finding all the toys in a set:  Toys can have lots of parts.  The grocery car has things to put into the cart on the front, a scanner and a pretend cell phone, for example.  Those parts get all over the house for various reasons.  And the car is one of about fifty toys with parts that can get separated.  Now, I'm pretty good at keeping things together, but I'm not the only one moving parts and pieces around.  Whenever I get everything back together after a long separation, it's always a nice feeling.  Perhaps that's a sign of some sort of tidy disorder I have...

The Big Boy Update:  "Fries, sauce, fries, eat, pet-sel, food"  When he's hungry, say going home from school in the car, he will throw all his food words at you.  He's really getting good at communicating.  And cooking, he likes to cook.   Daddy named him a French Chef the other day because he kept wanting to add butter to everything.   I also noticed something interesting on our rides to school in the morning; he is learning that when you sing, you do so together instead of taking turns like you do when talking.  Singing isn't communication as much as it's a shared experience that happens at the same time.  For weeks, I'd sing and when I'd stop, he'd start.  Now, he's getting that we sing at the same time.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  School!  I am so excited.  She's been accepted to school.   I suppose accepted isn't the best word, as she was accepted as a future student some time ago.  It's more of a readiness situation.  We had her evaluated by her future teacher, Angie, who they call the "Toddler Whisper" for reasons that are apparent from the moment you meet her.  I was expecting Angie to suggest we start her at fourteen months.  Instead, she said we should bring her starting on Tuesday.  She won't be a year until the following week.  But I am so thrilled.  The value my son has gotten from being in an educational and social environment has been dramatic.  I know she's going to love school.

Fitness Update:  I'm getting excited about the half marathon.  My neighbor and I are going to run it like any normal run we do, which means a lot of chatting and more running instead of racing.  For a shorter race, I'm at the point where I'd like to see if I can beat my prior record, but I don't trust myself to use up too much energy at the start of the race.   I want to finish running the whole way.  Distraction by talking is one of the best ways for me to do this.

Someone Once Said:  A univer$ity always $tand$ $taunchly by it$ $olvent a$$ociate$; that’$ the ba$ic $ecret of $chola$tic $ucce$$.

The First Halloween

Yesterday was my children's first Halloween.  Well, perhaps not the first, but the first that they experienced.  Last year, my daughter was eleven days away from being born and mommy was uncomfortable so her brother wore a, "Will trade sister for candy" t-shirt.  He took his first steps that Halloween night.  He didn't know what candy was, and had he known, my guess is he would have disliked getting out in a stroller in a terrible downpour to walk two blocks to the nearest house, just in the hopes people were there giving out candy.  So not much Halloween happened here last year.

This year, we had a child who could walk around, was willing to hold on to an unwieldy orange plastic pumpkin and didn't mind the cold much given he was wearing a furry tiger costume that kept him warm in the chilly weather.  My daughter looked cute in an elephant costume that matched her friend, Genevieve's, who was born only two days after her.  Costumed up, now we just have to figure out where to go.

Our neighborhood has lots of houses, but most of them are under construction.  There are some families who have lived here for some time, but with the downturn in the economy, our neighborhood of close to one hundred lots has sat largely empty for several years.  The distance between potential trick-or-treat friendly houses was fairly long.  We took our neighbors up on their offer to go to a neighborhood down the road in which her niece and family lived.

Six children including two babies, four parents and two grandparents and we took a while to get moving, but we eventually made it to our minivans and got to our candy-filled, friendly neighborhood full of happy, scary, spooky houses.  And boy, was this a good neighborhood.  There were strobe lights, haunting music, cobwebs, pretend fire in cauldrons bubbling with added witches brew smells wafting around.  As adults, we were all impressed.  I don't think my children noticed.

After meeting my neighbor's niece and her family we finally made it to our prime objective: candy collection.  Okay, that was mommy's objective.  My son doesn't know those little crinkly packages contain candy, but nonetheless, he was very interested in them and putting them in his pumpkin.

We headed to our first house and as the pack of kids were swarming in front of him, I explained he needed to say, "trick or treat" when he got to the door.  He tried to repeat after me and then he headed up to the man at the door ... and walked right past him into his house.

The man and I both laughed.  I explained this was my son's first house on his first time trick-or-treating.  The man, who had three little boys inside, said he understood.  After I fetched him and we moved along I realized why he went inside.  At the start of the night, we first went to our neighbors house.  We met there, went inside, met everyone, talked about costumes and then moved on.  When we got to her niece's house and we repeated the same process of going in and meeting everyone.  To my son, it must have made sense to keep up the current plan for house number three of the night.

The rest of the trick-or-treating was lots of fun.  He got the hang of it and was both polite and outgoing.  After about six houses, he would let go of my hand and walk up to the door by himself.  One time, after coming down the steps and back to the driveway, he turned around and decided he wanted to go again.  I don't know if he got more candy, but he came back a few minutes later.

The Big Boy Update:  Holding on to the pumpkin.  Not only did he do well with the whole trick-or-treating process, he also did an amazing job with his pumpkin.  We asked him to hold on to the pumpkin at the start.  He put it in the crook of his arm and never dropped it.  When he got to houses, he would accept or select candy and put it into his bucket all by himself.  After fifteen houses, we not only had he not put the bucket down, he wouldn't let you take it from him.   I think he learned this from school.  He is expected to carry in a purple bag every day to and from school.  It is his responsibility to carry it.  The first day of school you have to help, but by now, he doesn't want you to take his purple bag because it's his job.  The pumpkin must have been his job too.  He did eventually get tired though.  He used one of his new words, "kare," which means "carry."  When he started in on that, we knew the night of candy-collection fun had come to a close.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  The un-cycler.  Toys are everywhere, but where does the baby want to be?  Under my feet, at my desk, right when I'm writing a blog post.  Okay, anytime I'm at the desk.  She likes to press buttons on the UPS and turn it off.  She's even gotten to the power button for the computer before I could stop her.  One of her best tricks though is un-cycling.  There's a little trashcan beside me that we put paper recycling in.  She will sit at that trash can and make a complete mess of the recycling.  I love it.  Un-cycling keeps my computer safe from power button-happy fingers.  Unfortunately, trash is only fun for so long.

Fitness Update:  Five miles and my last run before the half marathon on Sunday.  I may do some other exercising tonight though with Uncle Jonathan as he has a new fitness game for the Xbox we're going to try.

Someone Once Said:  If heredity were not overwhelmingly more important than environment, you could teach calculus to a horse.