One Of The Best Days Ever

My two favorite guys and I spent yesterday making cookies and decorating my Christmas tree. Austin did most of the measuring and mixing. Andrew read the recipe for the icing and was our sous chef.

We'd get some cookies in the oven and then put some ornaments on the tree.

He's 16. If you asked him he'd deny that he had any fun.

Manda came home for a while and hung out with us. She's one of Andrew's favorite people. Mine too.

Andrew always has a plan for what goes where.

The Gingerbread guys were fun to decorate.

And they're cute, too.

But the iced cutouts are my favorite...not to look at but to eat.

We ended the day with a exciting game of Uno. Austin won.

Thankful

I am thankful for my family.

I am thankful for my friends.

I am thankful for my dogs.

I am even thankful for those rotten cats.

I am thankful for my health.

I am thankful for my job.

I am thankful for the wine I am drinking.

I am thankful that I have a safe, warm home. That the bank and I own.

I am thankful for my rowing kids.

I am thankful for the turkey and leftovers in my fridge.

I am thankful for my God.

I am thankful.

Because I'm Doing It Just For Me

This time I got in shape mostly by accident.

Most of you know that I LOVE to cycle. I began riding to work last April because it was something I could do and it was green. Saving the planet and all...

Riding to work was marvelous. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed the cool, quiet mornings and getting to work feeling that I'd already had my workout for the day and saved gas and money in the process.

And all of a sudden I realized. I was as fit as I'd been in several years. And it wasn't hard or painful to get here. I began doing something I loved and it turned out that it was good for me.

A minor injury took me off my bike in August and I searched for inspiration to maintain the level of fitness I had stumbled (or peddaled) into. And so it began.

Workouts were consistantly erratic. Just moving. Several times a week. No plan.

I remember being in the pool on a Fall afternoon, doing my time, stroke, stroke, stroke, gasp for air, stroke, stroke, stroke, gasp for air...you get the idea. I was about to stop short of my day's goal.

I was tired. It was hard. Wasn't it enough?

And then I remembered, from way back when, something I tell the kids.

Improvement is uncomfortable.

If you want to get better at something you have to push a little, work hard, keep going when you want to stop. So I did.

And it worked.

So now I have some goals. I'm seeing improvements. I'm enjoying the work.

I'm doing this for me. It feels different this time. This...attempt to be an athlete again. I'm swimming, I'm running (gasp!), I'm trying not to die during spin class.

I'm doing this because I love the way I feel when I finish. When I swim 1500 meters for the first time. When I add the fourth mile to a (very slow) run. When I don't die during spin class.

See...in this post there are a lot of 'I's.

Because I'm doing this just for me.

Thursday Thoughts

Thursday Thirteen

1. When you smell poop...chances are there's poop. Especially at 4am...god bless their little old doggie hearts.

2. Spin class is 'oh my god!' hard. I mean lay down on the floor after, hard.

3. For $10 an hour you too can spend an evening with your 16 year old nephew. The Firefighter's Ball is tomorrow. Austin will be working with some other young fellows selling pop and ice.

4. Nothing beats a nap in the sun from a window on a cold November day.

5. Why do I always think I'm going to have all this free time when the season ends...it's almost Thanksgiving and all I've done is clean out my underware drawer. My list of January to do's just gets longer and longer.

6. When I get talked into taking Andrew to movie night at school I need to remember 3 things, a chair, snacks and the fact that he never stays for a whole movie so the outing will be short.

7. Did you know that the Tooth Fairy takes Wednesdays off? Go ask Kim...

Cupcake Man

We had a great afternoon followed by movie night at school...today, I'm hanging out with some grownups.

How To Answer Questions About Your Life

Spending time with cousins with whom you shared your childhood will answer questions you didn't even know you had.

Spending time with your grandmother will remind you how very, very lucky you are.

Long car trips will make you self conscious about weird speech patterns and wary of Sonic parking lots. ( and ending sentences with 'is'...see next)

Returning home to a gathering of your rowers will solidify how incredibly important the coaching is.

Petting the skinny, perfectly healthy cat you just spent $158 dollars on evokes the undeniable urge to drop kick him across the room. (kidding of course but I am irritated)

Sleeping through the night at the station will make you realize how happy you are to work at the little station on the edge of town.

Looking forward to math lab, making cupcakes, playing Uno and spending the afternoon with your favorite 1st grader will make your day.

Good But Confusing News

All of Gooses tests were perfectly normal!
So basically I have an anorexic cat!
Great....I mean...Great!....but....great, so now we try to get the little weirdo to eat.

The Big 3 And A Note About Gus

First things first - Gus has lost a lot of weight in the last two weeks. Enough that I was really beginning to worry. So we went to see Randy (our wonderful vet). He examined Goose, asked me some questions, took some blood and checked his blood sugar.

The exam was normal other than the protruding hip bones...not a good look for a long haired cat...heart and lungs were good, teeth are fine, blood sugar is fine.

Randy said that most of the time in situations like this it's either diabetes or thyroid disease. Both treatable. It's not diabetes so cross your fingers for thyroid. I should know by mid morning tomorrow.

Alright...so there is all this talk about a bail out for the auto industry. Now I'm sure I don't understand all of the little pieces and parts but it seems to me that one of the reasons that they are in the mess they are in....is because they've (and by 'they' I mean the companies AND the unions) been doing the wrong things.

Making the wrong cars, making too many of them, not making enough of them, selling them for too much, wanting too much pay...etc, etc, etc.

So we are going to give them a shit pile of money so they can continue to do the same things??

I really don't get this. I know that the larger industry supports all the smaller ones and that a failure at the top causes a cascade of failures which would be catastrophic. BUT...we can't keep making the same mistakes that got us here.

Who will pay the price? It's got to be paid eventually by someone.

My Gus

If you are the praying kind please say a little prayer for my boy Gus. He's a little under the weather and has a vet appt this afternoon. I don't have a good feeling about it...

Thursday Thoughts...Cont.

Okay...I don't usually answer comments but here goes...

Donna - I can add 'Smoke', 'Pike', 'Plug' and 'Chief'

Kathy - 3 dogs, 4 cats and a Guinna pig....now that's crazy...you make us look normal!

Cindy - Mama Flame is pretty isn't she...wouldn't it be nice to take her AND a puppy...

Mud - We will take a lot of pictures and post them here and no...the girls would NOT enjoy a puppy...just something I know about them.

Additions to my Thursday Thoughts:

6. I found a dress at...of all the places...Walmart! $25, it fits me well and it's comfortable...works for me!

7. If you swim...say at the pool at the gym...please don't put on aftershave prior to coming to the pool...and PLEASE don't put on a A LOT of aftershave.

8. Manda ate fish and brussels sprouts for dinner...wonders never cease!

Thursday Thoughts

Hey...maybe this can be a regular thing...

anywho

1. If you are going to work the drive through window it's sort of important that you be able to speak English and understand English. If you have to go get someone else to speak for you it really slows down the process.

2. When did a 'large' soda become like...64 oz? I think of a large soda being 32 oz. Anything larger does not fit in my cup holder. If the large at your establishment is ginormous, noting such on the menu board would be helpful. If not...don't get pissy with me when I don't want it.

3. Have you noticed the empty store fronts? Even in nice shopping areas. That scares me as much as anything.

4. I am NOT getting a puppy. (although if I was I'd get the cute little tricolor boy) I have two elderly girls and it would not be fair to them. They will live the remainder of their days (many, I hope) in the quiet predictability of their home. No puppies. Dang.

5. When did stores stop carrying dresses? And when did the dresses they do have get so darn short....showing my age a bit, huh. I need a dress and and I need a bit more fabric.

Have a great Thursday!

Good Thing I wasn't There

Because I'd have her and all 11 puppies living at my already critter filled house. Introducing "Flame"

She and her puppies can be found at the following link.
http://www.safeharborprisondogs.com/main.asp?page=detail&dogId=200811018

You can find the puppies here http://www.safeharborprisondogs.com/main.asp?page=dogs

The puppies start at dog 6 I think.

Cute....

Happy Veteran's Day...and Puppies.

Happy Veteran's Day

Thanks for serving our country and keeping us safe.

...and just a side note. Apparently a dog got into our station yesterday escaping the cold and rain. She went unnoticed into the bunk room...where she had 11 puppies under the captain's bed.

The guys called around and found a shelter that would take her and the puppies.

A good shampoo of the old carpet and all is well.

Weird.

A Beautiful Day For A Flight

Well...actually is was darn cold...but the flying was fun.

My friend Glenn and his dad Dick invited me to go flying with them.

Dick owns two planes. This small Grumman Tiger and a larger plane. We took the Tiger.

There is a Hotel in Beaumont, KS. It's been there since the 1800's and in the 1950's they added a small airstrip. They host a pilots breakfast on the second Saturday of each month. Pilots fly in from Oklahoma, Missouri and Kansas.

It's a pretty small town.

The planes land on the small grass airstrip and then taxi down a regular street to the plane parking.

yep...plane parking.

It's really something to see these little planes.

Parked like cars.

They are so colorful.

After a nice lunch (we were too late for breakfast) we loaded back up and one by one the little planes took off...headed for home.

We waited our turn.

I sat up front on the flight down and in back on the way home. Dick is a great guide. He explains everything.

He's been flying since he was in his 20's...claims he can fly anything in any conditions. I'm inclined to believe him.

As we returned to Lawrence I snapped this photo of the "Phog"...cause you know...it is basketball season.

FYI

The fish are not biting...