(There's No Place) Like Home for the Holidays

December brought a slew of non-stop busy-ness.  It's been party, party, party... sort of.  I can't remember the last time Hubs and I were invited to a grown up party together until this year.  After Las Vegas, we had four holiday parties last week, plus our wedding anniversary of 29 years on December 11th.  This week was a little calmer but busy with baking and trying to remember what we did with certain Christmas decorations.  I went old school this year and used most of the Christmas decorations from the years when my kids were in grade school.   We also put up the tree in the living room this year. 

The dining room where the tree usually goes is, uh, having issues...  

Like last year, the Kiddo was my decorating buddy and helped me with the majority of the decorating.  Hubs put one ornament on, and and my son put a few up high were I couldn't reach, and my daughter was oblivious to other life around her while busy with studying for finals.  

Living room fireplace.  

I would so love to have a warm fire, but this fireplace needs to be repaired or torn down and rebuilt.  I put candles in it but there's no damper, and the air coming in through the top blows out my candles. *sigh*    The kiddo pointed out that since we can't burn anything in this fireplace that Santa won't get burned when he comes down our chimney.

The Kiddo

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas because I got this surprise delivered today:

Nothing says Merry Christmas more than socks, holiday peppermint Gu's, and Stingers from  blogger Tara - Colorado Runner!   Yay! 

The packages were shipped from REI.  When UPS delivered the boxes I was wracking my head trying to remember what I had ordered from REI.  Then it clicked that these were from my Secret Santa from the Bloggie Gift Exchange.  One box contained the great pair of Smartwool running socks, and the other box contained the Gu's and Stingers.  The timing is perfect because I'm out of any type of gel/goo electrolyte and I just might have to save a couple for the Carlsbad half marathon next month.  The socks are on my feet right now:

Warm and cushy!  I can't wait to run in these! Thanks so much, Tara!

On the running front, not a lot of running has been happening.  Somewhere between the parties and work, I caught a cold.  It's not a bad cold, but just enough to mess up the flow of day-to-day life.   I know I had the cold before I had to deal with the bratty snot-nosed kid patient and his clueless mother.* Gross. I hope to do a slow, longish run this Saturday morning, which happens to be Christmas Eve.

In other news, for the first time in YEARS (2000?) I received a cash bonus at work.  I honestly wasn't expecting much of anything, maybe a box of candy, but since I'm part-time right now I felt the bonus was rather generous.  I had plans for new Ugg boots and have change left over for an outfit, BUT one of my cats became rather ill yesterday and my bonus went towards paying the vet bill. Merry Christmas to my vet. Oh well.   At least I had that cash to help lessen the blow of that hefty vet bill, and for that I am grateful.    FYI, it was my little girl cat, Luna, the little bitty 8 pound cat who can beat up our 75 pound dog.  The vet thinks it's a thyroid issue.  She's doing much better now and will be on meds for a week.  Good times.

This year we didn't send out Christmas cards.  I suppose we could have, we just didn't.  I'm thinking of New Year's cards.   Just in case, consider this picture of the Kiddo and me your Christmas card from me:

Wishing you all lots of Christmas cheer!

Song from Thursday, December 8, 2011:  

Good Intentions - Toad the Wet Sprocket

 PEACE

*On the scale of one to ten in snotty-nosed grossness, this kid was a 10, plus he sneezed all over everything.  It was so gross that I felt the need to wipe everything down with rubbing alcohol when he and his mother left the building.  I'm not a germophobe, but felt gross dealing with this obnoxious kid.  I just don't understand parents who let their kids run a muck in a medical office, or any professional office.  Sheesh.

I Don't Want To Miss A Thing

In case you haven't heard Meb Keflezighi, representing the USA, won the New York City Marathon. I understand that he resides in San Diego. He also came back from a hip fracture, which took him two years to bounce back from. Hmmmm.

I didn't post earlier about my craptastic run on Halloween morning. It was a 12 miler. The good thing about it is that I ran with one of my RU friends for the first 3 miles, then she ran a different route. I did an out and back from the Jetty at South Mission Beach to La Jolla near Wind and Sea beach and back. It's a scenic route and normally quite doable, mostly flat with a few hills in La Jolla, but nothing treacherous. The out was OK and at talking pace. The back was just crappy. Even my husband said I was leaning to the right when he saw me come in at the end. My legs felt heavy and my back was feeling pressure. It felt like I ran way more than the 12.12 miles I actually did run. I suppose I can't get away with skipping a run on vacation. I could have put in at least a 3 miler on the hotel gym treadmill, which was brand new, but I didn't. Hindsight...

Yesterday at RU Bryan had me do a series of exercises that had nothing to do with running, pylometrics or jumping, but it helps all of those activities. It was all about stretching and doing slow exercises that get my legs, hips and joints back in gear. It really helped.

Today I redeemed myself and ran intervals on the gym treadmill, and was quite pleased with my overall performance.

Should I be concerned that my 80 year old father has a Facebook account? I'm not sure how Facebook savvy my dad is, and I'm sure he'd be calling me up all the time asking about things I post... I'm not even Facebook "friends" with my own kids, and that's on purpose.

My daughter just assumed that we didn't need the leftover Halloween candy - all chocolate and all my favorites (on purpose - I never want to be left with candy we dislike), so she gave it ALL to her stick figure boyfriend. I had a fit. Of course we need chocolate. I could not survive PMS without it. To get over myself I made a batch of brownies with semi-sweet chocolate chips and walnuts.

I heard this quote today from LL Cool J, a guest on the Bonnie Hunt show, when refering to doing what you are passionate about:
"What you do speaks so loudly I can't hear what you're saying."

I'm finally coming over to the other side. I ordered a Garmin 405CX through RU. They managed to get a good deal on a large order. Even with tax, it came out way less expensive than if I were to buy it from Road Runner Sports with my track club and VIP discounts! Sweet! I should receive it in a couple of weeks, after the entire order is placed.



I've been selected for Jury Duty, again. I think it has been less than two years since I've served on a jury. Still, I probably won't be able to get out of it. (Yeah I know all about civic duty, but I've been through the process several times already. Give someone else the opportunity!)

My sister brought this to my attention:


I must go finish off the last brownie.

Friday's song:
Hay Amores - Shakira - Barbie2be

PEACE

Special

Because I don't feel special enough already, last night I banged my left small toe into the corner of a door threshold. One of my cats was coughing up a fur ball while on my bed (ugh) and I was trying to get her off my bed and at least to a floor area with a wipe-able surface. In my haste, I caught my foot on the corner of the door threshold. I said a whole bunch of special words upon impact. Last night I thought I might have broken it, but this morning it wasn't so bad, but still sore. It looks weird.



I'm sorry if feet/toes gross you out. Yes, I know, I need a pedicure, which is why I didn't show the entire foot.

Because of this little pain in the pinky toe, I didn't run with the track club today, so I stayed behind to take pictures of the runners and the surrounding area.

Here's my husband:

I also came upon people who were feeding the feral cats. This morning the cats were feasting on Tilapia and Salmon. The people feeding the cats are trying get them adopted out, but many of these cats are not adoptable. The cats are all "identified" by the people feeding them, and they all have names. I must say it was a strange sight to see the cats hanging out at the bay. At first glance, in the distance, I thought they were seagulls.


Best wishes to all of my friends who are running at Carlsbad tomorrow morning!


Yesterday's song:
I'm On My Way - The Proclaimers - Barbie2be


PEACE