Little Room

I'm cautiously optimistic that my computer won't bug out on me again. I was able to read some blogs, catch up on Facebook and sort through e-mails on my iPhone, but I'm not much for posting from my phone, unless it's super short. Yes, I know people who could probably compose entire novels on their cell phones, but I am not one of them.

The last time I posted was around the time we celebrated my mother-n-law's 90th birthday. The amazing thing is that she is still rather all together, considering her years. She still likes to boss everyone around and be the matriarch of the family. I think I once mentioned that she didn't want to use a cane to aid with her walking because (she said) it would make her look old. For the first time in years, the entire family was together. No one was away at college, those who were living out of state flew in for the occasion, and everyone who lives locally made the effort to show up. It was pretty incredible that no one thought to take a picture of all of us together.

The track club's half marathon training program is in full swing. I've been making the effort to attend the Tuesday night workout at Balboa Park, as well as the Saturday long runs, provided I'm not scheduled to work. The Tuesday night workouts are killer. I always end up feeling so beat up by the time the hour is over. The hills of the back trails of the park are on the schedule. It's not the hills that concern me, it's the dust mixed in with the warm weather that gets my asthma going. I may have to figure out how to work around that, like wearing a mask (NOT!), resign myself to the VERY back of the pack, or run someplace else.

I was looking forward to my long 4th of July weekend, but I ended up coming down with a cold, which took up my entire three day weekend. Figures. Hubs had come down with the cold earlier in the week and passed it along to me. This is the first year we opted out of running in any Independence Day 5ks. As much as I needed to sleep in that morning, I just couldn't. My head was too stuffy to remain laying down. Sheesh. A cold, no 5k and no sleeping in. Yeah, it sucked. Once I got up and downed a couple of Sudafed, and chased those with some coffee, I decorated cookies, because that's what you do when you're amped up on Sudafed and coffee.

Well... that's what I do when I'm amped up...  I get all artsy-craftsy. Notice the lack of attention to detail.  I am not a professional and do try this at home.  Results may vary and may be better because you won't be amped up on coffee and Sudafed.  Just sayin'.

While I decorated cookies, Hubs textured and painted the small bathroom. He also braved Home Depot to buy stuff to re-attach the toilet. I'd say this weekend bathroom project (that has taken about four months to work on) is about 85% finished. He still needs to cut floor tile for the trim, replace the old medicine cabinet, attach the back-splash behind the sink, and maybe add some sort of window treatment.

Before

During

After

FYI, those blue tiles on the wall were aluminum. Needless to say, those tiles did not age well, however, the ceramic blue tiles in the shower are fine. Back in 1947, my Grandpa had to cut costs somewhere, and using aluminum tiles were more cost effective.

When working on the small bathroom was over for the day, we had friends over for a barbecue.  Once again, no one thought to take pictures, but we barbecued and ate way too much food, roasted marshmallows for s'mores later on, then watched fireworks from the roof and backyard. 

Now that I'm somewhat on the rebound from my cold,  I started back at RU with a killer workout. Even though they knew I was rebounding, they still believed that I can handle a bunch of weighted lunges, pylometric exercises and pseudo kettlebell-esque exercises, THEN run right after.  Good times. It was all finished off by some assisted stretches that were extra special. (Yeouch...)  It's all within the realm of getting me running just as well as I did for Rock 'n' Roll in June.

I need to get a little more serious about training for the AFC half marathon which is just next month.  Getting a cold sort of threw me off a little, but I need to put some distance and hills back into my long runs, especially since I can't attend some of the Saturday morning group runs. Dollars to doughnuts, it will be warm and humid on the day of the AFC half marathon and I need to be ready.

Song from last Thursday:
Low Tech Lady - Ana Laan

PEACE

Snow (Hey Oh)

My husband and Son decided to finally to do a day trip to Big Bear for skiing and snowboarding. My son received a snowboard and the accessories for Christmas, and my husband just needed an excuse to get away for the day. I did my part by waking up just before 5 am to make the coffee and get the guys up, just so they could be ready and on their way around 6 am. The one and only thing they had to do for me was to remove a toilet from the front porch. Remember, several posts ago, we had the bathroom retiled. We also replaced the toilet, but the tile guys placed the old toilet on the front porch AND NEVER MOVED IT FROM THAT SPOT. That stupid toilet was my holiday decor for my front porch. I think I had asked them EVERY DAY since it was placed on the front porch to please remove it. Right before leaving for Big Bear, my son and husband lugged the heavy toilet down to the far end of the back yard, which is somewhat downhill. When they were almost all the way down, my husband lost his footing, fell backwards, and the toilet fell on him. My husband is OK, but did get a couple of bruises on the backs of his legs, and a pretty good scrape on his shin, requiring a few bandages and making his socks a little blood stained. I didn't know any of this happened until after they came home later on that day. He said he briefly thought about not going skiing that day, but he was just scraped up and felt good enough to to. Our son did all the driving, so that wasn't an issue. Oh, and, by the way, the toilet didn't suffer ANY damage. Not a chip, scrape or crack. The reason why we're getting rid of it is because it's hard to find parts for that particular model/brand. It's not a typical fixture. My husband went back to work the next day and shared what he did over his winter vacation... Now the entire office is teasing him about fighting a toilet and losing. As for the ski/snowboaring, my two guys had a great time.

Yesterday's song:

Wash - Pearl Jam

PEACE